Walker Evans was a photographer best known for capturing photos of the great depression who was known for using 8×10-inch view camera. his photos above are from his American Photographs collection which capture real life and shows emotion of how people were feeling during the great depression from 1929-1939.
All photos were shot in Black and White using a 8×10- inch view camera. In addition, all the photos include either a rural or industrial background.
These two photos below prove and show how some people were better off than others during this economic crisis, this is shown through the woman in the bottom photo wearing a fur coat, looking ‘put together’, where as, the children in the photo just above it are wearing unclean dirty clothes standing in front of a wrecked shack.
Furthermore, the contrast between these two photos lures the viewers in, to know why they might be in this position leading them to research and learn about the Great Depression. It also creates meaning and emotion for the photos.
Darren Harvey-Regan
Darren Harvey-Regan is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. His work has appeared in exhibitions and publications internationally. Darrens photography stands on the line of both photography and sculpture and focuses on the changes of meaning and definition between a subject.
The photos of the rocks above are sculptures he made himself of chalk collected from the south of England which adds texture, and form to the image.
There are seven basic elements of photographic art: line, shape, form, texture, colour, size, and depth.
Formalism is the Design, Composition and Lighting are dominant over Subject Matter. The photographer becomes a visual designer whenever a frame is captured.
Lines
Whenever people look at an image, our eyes are naturally drawn to the lines present within it. We instinctively follow these lines to see where they go—these lines are leading our gaze towards a particular subject.
Leading lines in photography are existing lines within the frame of a photograph which the photographer has deliberately aligned/arranged (prior to taking the photo) by adjusting their composition either shifting their body or camera. It should result in lines which “lead” to the subject, increasing the focus of the viewer, allowing for a more enjoyable viewing experience.
Shape
Shape is generally considered two-dimensional, while Form is three-dimensional. In photography, how we light an object can determine whether it’s perceived as a shape (if the lighting is flat or silhouetted) or a form (if the lighting has accentuated shadows & highlights to create depth).
A shape is two-dimensional. Yes, a photograph itself is two-dimensional. But a shape in a photograph doesn’t have any depth.
You can use lighting or perspective to give a two-dimensional shape depth. But once a sense of depth has been applied, a shape becomes a three-dimensional form.
For instance, if you look at an image of a ball, you’ll find its shape as a circle. Likewise, if you look at a picture of a cube-shaped suitcase, you’ll find its shape like a square.
Form
Objects with the appearance of depth are three-dimensional forms rather than shapes. So, despite being part of a two-dimensional image, the viewer can detect depth beyond the object’s front surface.
Light and shadows give forms their depth. Or a change of perspective reveals the form’s angles and edges, rather than having a head-on view.
Depth is created in this image above by using a wide camera angle.
Depth is created in these two images by using repetition.
Texture
Texture creates a sense of depth in a two-dimensional image. Texture in photography can also be accentuated by light and shadow.
In black and white photography, texture add interest to your photos by providing tonal variance and detail densely concentrated in certain areas of the frame.
Having an emphasis on texture in your photos can help you make the overall photo stronger. Being able to see surface details enables the viewer to get a better feel for your subject and location.
It adds character and atmosphere to your composition. Texture evokes the viewer’s tactile sense.
ANALYS.
This photo is of a street in America, in black and white, with dark tones. the image also includes a ‘frame within a frame’ due to the dark buildings acting as a frame for the lighter building, this can also be seen as a tunnel looking photo too, due to the lines from windows, pavements street poles, and floor painting.
This image also gives a 3D affect as the road also looks as it it is getting more narrow the further away it is.
This is a urban photo of children playing in the street, there is no colour in this photo which further suggests hat they are in a urban city. there is a trashed floor that the children seem to be playing with that implies that they are in a poor area. within the photo there is two boys holding something which looks like a photo or door frame which creates a ‘frame within a frame’ image. this also draws the attention of the viewers eye straight to the boy on the bike.
What is photography? The word Photography literally means ‘drawing with light’, which derives from the Greek photo, meaning light and graph, meaning to draw. Photography is the process of recording an image on light sensitive film or, in the case of digital photography, via a digital electronic memory.
However, “photos are often thought as ways to hold things still.” they allow us to hold a memory, and also can be seen as a source of knowledgment.
“PHOTOGRAPHS CONFUSE AS MUCH AS FACINTAE, CONCEAL AS MUCH AS REVEAL, DISTRACT AS MUCH AS COMPEL. THEY ARE UNPREDICTABLE COMMUNICATORS”
This quote suggests that there is a deeper meaning and background to a photo than what you first originally see.
“Conceal as much as reveal”. Suggests that the photo or image may be hiding, or not showing the whole truth and what is expected. This creates a sense of mystery, David Campany does this by using a black and white filter over most of his photos in his book. On one of his pages in his book he writes about Helena Almeida’s ‘Inhabited Painting’ photo, where it is a black and white photo of a woman holding a paintbrush, contrasted with blue paint smudges across the photo. this creates mystery as it does not show the whole picture and you are left guessing what is happening behind it.
“Dirstact as much as compel”. This sentence gives the impression that photography can be someones source of escapism. for example, not having to focus on their own life and being able to focus on what they are taking a picture of, or what is happening in someone else’s photograph. By taking photos, you are able to capture moments “over time, across cultures and between contexts”. “If a photograph compels, if it holds our attention, it will be for more than one reason. The reasons may be unexpected, and even contradictory. When we are drawn to look at a photograph again and again, it is likely that our second or third response will not be quite the same as the first.” Furthermore, taking into consideration different views on a photograph upon viewing it more than once.
helen sear
“Confuse as much as fascinate”. This sentence implies that as much as a photo can confuse you, it is the confusion which draws you in to view it, and try to decode the thought process and meaning behind why it was taken. When not understanding something, you automatically want to learn about it to try understand it. this is what broadens your attention span.
What is photography class discussion.
How important is the readers intention?
I believe it is very important to know what the photographers intention is as in this photo ‘the day nobody died’ it has a story behind it of how two photographers travelled to Afghanistan to photograph the war but ended up exposing the film to sunlight. the story behind this image adds meaning and emotion to it.
This photo uses David Campany’s quote “photographs confuse as much as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel.” This is an interesting photo, as you question why this photo was taken and how it was taken.
The story behind how this photo was taken is found by researching it.
Studio lights are any form of lighting equipment used by photographers, often when working in a photography studio, to enhance their photography. Most professional photographers have different light kits they use depending on the situation they find themselves shooting in.
Continuous lighting
Continuous lighting setups allow you to keep your subjects pre-lit using the same light levels as when you take the photograph, these lights will stay on the whole time. Other lights, like traditional flashes or strobe lights, produce light only in momentary flashes, making it harder to adjust the lighting before shooting.
Because the lights are on all the time, you can position your model and change the light stand to have the light fall precisely the way you want it. You can instantly see where the shadows fall, adjust the highlights and/or double check that the catch lights hit the eye just by raising or lowering the light or moving the stand around.
Continuous lighting will allow you to photograph simultaneously without interfering with each other’s lighting.
With continuous lighting, you don’t need to worry about external lighting components like triggers. That means you can get your shoot set up quickly and easily regardless of how many cameras you intend to use.
This photo was taken using continuous lighting.
Where as Flash Lighting is when it illuminates the area with light. When you’re taking a photo in low light conditions, you might need a flash.
Flash lighting
Like flashes of lightning in nature, not all strobes have the same flash duration. Having a short flash duration is the key to freezing fast action. Some strobe lights do not have their flash duration speeds published but, in general, increased power means the flash will not only be brighter, but the flash duration will also be longer.
Still-life photography stems from still-life art, which is one of the fundamental genres of Western art. The English term ‘still life’ is derived from the Dutch word stilleven. A still-life painting is a rendering of a group of objects which are still or inanimate, designed to express an allegorical meaning.
still life photography examples^
still life painting example
Chronological timeline of still life photography
Still-life art has existed from the 17th century until the modern-day, but in the 19th century, artists adopted photography as a new medium for still life art, to express their concepts in a novel format, and thus the still-life photo was born.
Baron Adolf de Meyer was known for his highly artistic approach to photography, as he employed darkroom techniques and used soft-focus lenses to create photographs that looked like drawings.
Baron Adolf de Meyer still life photograph
Emil Otto Hoppé is an esteemed British photographer who is known primarily for his portrait photography and travel photography, but he also produced wonderful still-life photography in the 1920s, with a handcrafted style, comparable to Baron Adolf de Meyer’s.
Early photography required long exposure times, and still life provided an ideal subject. Photographers embraced the genre, arranging objects and traditional motifs to create visually pleasing arrangements. These provided an opportunity to test the possibilities of photography through experiments with composition, framing and light; producing photographs that have an enduring influence on contemporary work.
What is meant by Vanitas?
Vanitas paintings communicated a moral or religious message. They particularly emphasised the shortness of life and the inevitability of decline and death. Many objects had complex allegorical or symbolic meanings. These were found in common motifs such as falling petals, decaying fruit, skulls, timepieces, and burning candles.
What is Memento Mori?
Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’. A basic memento mori painting would be a portrait with a skull but other symbols commonly found are hour glasses or clocks, extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers.
What kind of metaphors and symbols are used in still life and why?
Still life photographs and paintings tend to use symbols to create a deeper meaning for example, fruit is a symbol of life in still life as in Christianity, apples signify temptation and knowledge in reference to the Old Testament account of Eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Grapes symbolize the themes of pleasure and lust associated with bacchus, the Roman god of wine. Pomegranates are associated with persephone, the Greek goddess of spring and queen of the underworld.
Where as, skulls are the symbol of The Certainty Of Mortality as it is a reminder of the certainty of death. Such a symbol is called a Memento Mori, a Latin phrase meaning “Remember that you will die.”
To select the images that I wanted, I pressed the keys “shift” and “x” to hide the images that I didn’t want to use and “shift” “p” to pick the photos I wanted.
I then turned the filter to flagged to then get only the photos I selected.
You can compare two images using the compare view (xy). You can also zoom in on details by moving the mouse.
You can also lable your images by using star and colour ratings.
you can dit photos by contrast, exposure ect.
in this photo I cropped, lowered the saturation and raised the highlights in order to receive the image on the right hand side. I also used reference view to compare the two images together to see if I like the changes I have made.
These two images above show how to save photos with a pixilation of 1000 to be able to post onto the blog. where as the image below shows me saving with a pixelation of 4000 to save as a print as it is larger and more clear.
in this screen shot i have edited the image and added vignetting to add some shadows into the corners.
Aperture is the adjustable lens opening that controls the amount of light allowed into the camera. the smaller the aperture the greater the depth of field. Whereas, a wide aperture gives you a shallow depth of field which leads to only the foreground is sharp. A narrow aperture gives you a deep depth of field which means everything is sharp.
depth of field
depth of field is the distance between the nearest and further objects in a scene that appear to be sharp/ clear in the image.
The top image is taken with a smaller aperture meaning that the background of the image is blurred. Whereas the image on the bottom is taken with a larger aperture meaning that it is allowing more light in.
STUDIO SHOOT
this image was taken with a white background which contrasts against the beige two toned lower background. this was taken with a wide aperture as everything in the image is in focus.
This photo was taken with a slightly bigger aperture than the photo below as has a smaller depth of field due to only the rocks and reflection being in focus and the background being blurred. Furthermore, this photo was taken on an infinity screen which gives the illusion that there is an infinite white background.
this was taken with a small aperture meaning that is has a large/ long depth of field. you can tell this as everything in the photo is in focus.
Shutter speed is the speed at which the shutter of the camera closes. A fast shutter speed creates a shorter exposure — the amount of light the camera takes in — anda slow shutter speed gives the photographer a longer exposure. The faster the shutter speed, the sharper the image will be. Therefore, the slower the shutter speed, the more blurred the image is.
What do you use shutter speed for?
Shutter speed works in units of time, fractions of a second or several seconds. A higher/faster shutter speed allows less light to hit the camera sensor or film strip. Conversely, a lower/slower shutter speed allows more light to pass into your camera
PHOTO GAME.
We tested the use of shutter speed by moving at different speeds at the camera.
This photo had a fast shutter speed as this photo was taken whilst moving however the image is clear.This photo had a slow shutter speed as it was slightly blurred due to Finn movingslow shutter speed.
These two images were taken at roughly 1/15 of a second, as the photo is slightly blurred however, mainly in focus.
John Baldessari’s ‘throwing three balls in the air to get a straight line’. This image was taken at a very fast shutter speed to capture the three balls near each other in a clear shot.
JOHN BALDESSARI
John Anthony Baldessari was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images.
3 BALLS IN A LINE.
In 1973, Baldessari came up with the idea to throw three balls in the air at the same time to attempt to get a photo of them in a straight line. whist he was throwing the three balls, his wife was capturing the image. he attempted this shoot thirty six times.
20sec A study of an artwork A depiction in art A style or category of art A creative process in art
Q7: What do we mean by the genre of still-life?
20sec In image where a person is sitting still and not moving. An arrangement of flowers. A picture of food. An image that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world.
Q8: What was the main purpose of the Pictorialist movement?
20sec To capture moving objects To record reality To affirm photography as an art form To be scientific
Q9: How do we describe the term documentary photography?
30sec Capture images that truthfully portray people, places and events. Staging images for maximum effect. Provide in-depth information about a subject over a long period time. An interpretation of reality as witnessed by the photographer.
Q10: What is exposure in photography?
20sec To expose hidden elements in our society. To record fast moving objects. To capture bright light. The amount of light that reaches your camera’s sensor.
Q11: What controls exposure on your camera?
30sec Depth of field, composition, distance to subject. Aperture, focal length, ISO. Aperture, shutter speed, ISO. Shutter speed, distance to subject, depth of field.
Q12: What control on our camera records moving objects?
20sec Aperture White balance Shutter ISO
Q13: How do we explain depth of field?
20sec How much of your image is in focus. To photograph from a high vantage point. A view across a field. A deadpan approach to image making.
Q14: What factors affect Depth of Field?
30sec Shutter speed, distance from camera to subject, and sensitivity to light. Lens aperture, distance from camera to subject, and lens focal length. Lens focal length shutter speed and lens aperture. Sensitivity to light, shutter speed and lens focal length.
Q15: What is composition in photography?
20sec Capturing the quality of light. A piece of music with different instruments. Staging a portrait with props. The arrangement of visual elements within the frame.
Q16: What is your understanding of aesthetics in art?
30sec Concerned with the nature of beauty and taste. It is subjective and in the eye of the beholder. Aesthetic qualities refer to the way and artwork looks and feels. Making a critical judgement based on observation and understanding.
Q17: What are contextual studies in photography?
30sec To provide historial, cultural and theoterical understanding of images. Consider factors outside of the image, as well as inside the frame. To give an opinion without any research. To seek a definite answer.
Q18: How many images are captured on average every day worldwide?
20sec 1.5 billion 4.7 billion 800 million 6.9 billion
Q19: Which portrait is the most reproduced in the world?
Mona Lisa Lady Gaga Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara The Queen (Elizabeth II)
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