These specific five images that i picked out from Sherman’s work are the ones i have re created as shown above. Overall i would say i have successfully attempted to play with Cindy Sherman’s style after going by a specific plan and focusing on the mis en scene and clothing. The only major difference would be that Sherman’s images have a more vintage black and white tint on them.
CONTACT SHEET:
SELECTING MY BEST IMAGES:
I carefully went through and edited any images i liked into black and white (to match Cindy Sherman’s theme) and rated them with stars.
For this first photoshoot I will be creating a set of images in response to Cindy Sherman, I will attempt to re create them as much as I can.
HOW?
I will use specific props and clothing items such as suitcases, handbags and long flowy dresses to match the aesthetic that the woman in Cindy’s pictures create.
WHEN?
As these pictures will be in black and white it doesn’t limit me as to what time of day i should take the pictures however a few will be taken outside therefore i will be taking those specific images in daylight. I do plan on taking all the pictures in the day anyway.
WHO?
Using my friend which i will provide with outlifts, probs and makeup.
I WILL RE CREATE THIS IMAGES:
Photoshoot 1
My first shoot will be taking inspiration from bill Brandt and his images of peoples body parts at the beach.
I went up to an abandoned hotel in Bouley Bay, where I took photos of the exterior as I walked around, finding an open entrance that brought me up and around to a deck that sat above the second floor, where there was another entryway for me to go inside. I explored most of the building, including the basement, and several rooms that were either mostly furnished, or full of waste and knee-deep in random litter, shooting photographs as I went.
I ended up with a collection of images ready to edit, making sure to weed out the compositions I didn’t like, anything unfocused, or anything that felt too uninteresting.
After playing with the basic adjustments, I did some colour grading on each image, experimenting with different combinations of tones and intensities to achieve a more dramatic, but not too fantastical overall image.
I intensified the primary colours too, adjusting both the hues and saturation to develop deeper, richer colours in each composition.
Using the tone curve tools, I again increased the output of each photograph to around 25 on the point curve, to create a more faded look on the image and lowering the contrast, which I feel makes it easier to have more freedom with my pieces to achieve a specific look.
To finish off each image, I used linear gradients to adjust exposures and other small basic adjustments to establish a stronger sense of lighting and shadow.
From this shoot, I was left with these 6 photographs as my best and final images. I was aiming for a softer colour palette in most of these, as I wanted to create a sense of nostalgia about the memories of the building and the people who spent time there.
William Klein
What makes Klein so different to my other chosen artist, Henri Cartier-Bresson, is that his approach to his subjects is far more up-close-and-personal. He doesn’t shy away or hide his camera, choosing to remain unseen by his subjects, but instead he shoots from directly in their faces, often causing a visible display of outrage from some, and a deliberate playing up to the camera from others.
William Klein was born in 1926 in New York City. He served in World War II, first in Germany and later in France, where he chose to settle after being discharged. He then studied painting with Fernand Léger at the Sorbonne in Paris, before moving on to his photographic career, beginning in fashion with Vogue. He won the Prix Nadar in 1957 for New York, a book of photos of his hometown, despite his lack of formal training in photography. He was also ranked 25th on Professional Photographer‘s list of 100 most influential photographers.
This article by Laird Borrelli-Persson from June 2022 explores Klein’s fashion career from the perspective of Vogue itself.
As well as producing over 250 television advertisements, he directed his first feature film in 1966, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, which was a satire mockumentary on the world of fashion….
… followed by numerous documentaries, including Grands soirs et petits matins (1978)…
… and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest (1969).
– William Klein, on his photography in the early 1950s (https://photoquotes.com/quote/i-was-very-consciously-trying-to-do-the-opposite-o)
“…It’s fake violence, a parody. I asked the boy to point the gun at me and then look tough. He did, and then we both laughed. [I see it] as a double self-portrait. I was both the street kid trying to look tough, and the timid good little boy on the right.”
– William Klein, when recounting the moment the image was taken. (https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/photographs/william-klein-1928-2022-65/163335)
Criticism
Overall, after searching thoroughly, I could not find any real criticism of William Klein’s work. There was a lot of criticism at the time of its publication, however, as it broke all the rules of photography. Nowadays, this kind of disobeying the rules has had an amelioration. It now symbolises a pioneering and revolutionising spirit; someone who wasn’t afraid to change people’s minds. This is, of course, a worthy interpretation, as it is what Klein achieved. However, it does lead to a lack of diversity in interpretations as people are now afraid to criticise this work because they fear being attacked or (worse still, in the rather precocious areas of the photographic community) seen as if they ‘do not understand’ his work and are merely amateurs. I find that, as ‘Sebastian’ (the author of the article I read as criticism of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work) stated, there is often an unspoken rule that famous and admired photographers such as Klein and Cartier-Bresson cannot be criticised. Those who would criticise are seen as ‘amateur’ and so their opinion is not worthy. This is not true, of course, as anyone who views an image is a consumer and therefore their opinion matters, so to only worship and praise the work of these photographers is to create a stifling culture of non-criticism and non-discussion. Discussion and debate is, after all, what stimulates society and to be without it is to lack individual intelligence and thought.
Mood board
About
Jan Roald is a Norwegian photographer who lives in Elvemyrkroken in Norway. He offers his photography services for hire, allowing people to contact him for photo assignments.
His typical style is contrasted black and white images, though he photographs a range of styles such as landscape, portrait, still life etc. He does, however, take some images in colour if the client requests it.
Roald’s work relates to the themes of observe, seek and challenge due to his photographs always observing something or someone through the lens. He also links to seek as he aims to find interesting layouts and compositions for his images. also linking to challenge as he challenges himself to take the best photo he can.
Why I chose the artist
I chose to use Roald as an artist reference due to his album ‘is the life also a chess play’ which he created in June 2019. His album includes photographs of chess pieces in an almost castle like setting where he uses his surroundings to create interesting looking still life images.
I would like to create this using different game pieces. I plan to do this by visiting one of the castles in Jersey and taking the board game pieces with me. From there, I would use the different aspects of the castle, such as the cobble floor or castle walls, to create interesting still life images.
I would also like to create interesting images by creating different effects with the pieces, using different elements in order to imply different meanings behind the images.
I chose this image in particular due to the potential meanings behind the images as well as the effective composition of the photo.
To begin with, we are able to see a snake on the board which helps to highlight the size of the chess pieces. The snake could be a symbolism since throughout history snakes have been used to represent themes such as death, wisdom and health. However, now days when referencing snakes we picture stealth and deceitful, so when applying this to games it could be used to symbolize cheating. The connection between the snake and the game becomes stronger when you take into account the colours, the opposing side being black which is the same as the snake.
If we turn our attention to the photo as a whole, there is a lot to it that can catch our eyes. For example, the shadows of the pieces and the black pieces in the background all help to set the scene of the image making it more enjoyable for the viewer to look at.
Links
From my review and reflection of Bill Brant and Barbra Kruger i have decided to take the word ‘observe’ and use it to observe the human body. After looking at Brants images of hands, arms and legs on the beach I want to take similar pictures. To further develop my project I will include some work similar to Kruger, by taking inspiration from her it will link back to the idea of the female gaze as a lot of her work is on tackling the everyday assumptions of females in contemporary society.My take on her work will be a modern day approach. The female gaze is a feminist theory term referring to the gaze of the female spectator, character or director of an artistic work, but more than the gender it is an issue of representing women as subjects having agency. Kruger’s work shows aspects of the female gaze in her work, such as images of women with quotes like ‘your body is a battleground’. I also look to take images of things other than the body such a weird shaped fruit and vegetables. By photographing this it may resemble the body it also allows me to break up my project from just being about the human body.
My images will mainly be staged so that i get the outcome that I want. Once i have got all of my images i want to create a photobook presenting all my best images from shoots.
I have photographed some of the archived photos I might want to use for my photobook. I made sure to use the ones that I will present a change in, and am able to recreate or link with my new images.
Black and Whites
Coloured
France
More coloured (early 2000s)
I want to focus my photobook on the change in my grandmother and grandfathers relationship over time, and how time affects it. These images are around the time my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer, passing away in 2005. Showing the different time periods in the archives presents the change, and how death and time affects people and their image.
Overall, I am not going to use all of these images, however a few of them will work with the images I take, and link.
Bill Brandt
An English photographer of German birth, Bill Brandt travelled to Vienna in 1927 to see a lung specialist and then decided to stay and find work in a photography studio. There, in 1928, he met and made a successful portrait of the poet Ezra Pound, who subsequently introduced Brandt to the American-born, Paris-based photographer Man Ray. Brandt arrived in Paris to begin three months of study as an apprentice at the Man Ray Studio in 1929, at the height of the era’s enthusiasm for photographic exhibitions and publications; his work from this time shows the influence of André Kertész and Eugène Atget, as well as Man Ray and the Surrealists.
“I believe this power of seeing
the world as fresh and strange
lies hidden in every human being.”
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger has produced a proactive body of work, cracking open her appropriated images with her invented texts, hoisting the everyday assumptions of contemporary society on its own petards. She has done this creatively critical work at every scale, from matchbook covers to giant billboards, and across many media, from simple photomontages to complex screen and audio installations. Always alert to questions of audience and address, Kruger forever seeks new ways to push her practice into the public realm, drawing political debate into art and vice versa.
From her work in trying to present different messages of the everyday assumptions of contemporary society to the population, I will take inspiration from this and create a modern day version of her work. By focusing on the female gaze and interpreting her work into it at the same time it will create a strong message. In the modern day females still have struggles and standards we are expected to meet, which is similar to when Kruger was creating her work. Many girls my age struggle with body image and feeling they are not the stereotypical perfect image.