What– The objects I will photograph are swampy areas therefore I couldn’t help to capture water in these swamps, with leaves, algae, water plants etc.
Who- My main goal is to capture frogs, therefore although I might include pictures of the surrounding habitat as well as documenting the trip, I plan to produce images mostly of frogs.
Where– Near Wayne, there are natural ponds, where I have been honoured to join on a documentary trip, with my friends dad who needs to look after them as they are endangered.
When– We would have to go when it gets quite dark to see them better but to also skip the crowd. in the dark, when using a torch it is easier to see underneath the water, and that is what we will need to do.
How– using the digital camera I will have to use flash as it will be very dark and except from a camera flash we have a limited amounts of torches.
Why– It will be a great adventure and will get me out of my comfort zone, as I never had to do something like this before, I also think that the outcomes will be quite discovery photographs, which link to my main idea of adventure and travel.
I didn’t like this image cropped or the blue in the background. I filled the space by selecting areas, clicking delete, then OK. This fills the space to create more of the area around it.
I also experimented with AI generative fill, and it created a more realistic look.
I still don’t know if I am going to use more black and white or colour, so I have edited some with both options
I have also experimented cropping this image because I feel like there is too much in one image, however I will see once it is laid out with all the other images.
Colour vs black and white
This is the image I attempted to create, replicating Alec Soth’s. It was difficult to make sure the reflection was in the right place, and not get myself in the frame. I can’t decide if I prefer colour, or black and white.
I have experimented with AI generative fill in photoshop again with this image because I didn’t like the background and wanted to see if it could create a better composition.
Overall, I am happy with my editing for this first shoot. I will take more photos and retake others after learning where I went wrong. Editing these has also inspired me to take photos outside the house, where my grandfather loved, as well as possibly remaking old family photos.
Overall very happy with these images, I think they capture the best perspectives of buildings and people, combined with the multiple colours and patterns in the evening sky. The edited ones are even better with exaggerated colours and vibrancy. Some of these photoshoots came out a little too dark or a little too bright, so I had to be careful in choosing and editing them to have just the right lighting, which I think I managed very well at doing. These all hit the boxes for me and most turned out just the way I wanted.
For my first photoshoot I was inspired by Andreas Varro, This is due to his use of artificial lighting and dystopian feel that his images produce
For this photoshoot I decided to do it after the sun went down, I did this to eliminate all natural lighting that could intrude into my pictures, I did this photoshoot in a bedroom at my house to create a natural setting. I used my 2 models including a male and a female and took various images of them including them together and them individually. For my first set of images I decided to take photos of them together laying in a bed while ignoring each others presence while all of there attention is on their mobile phones.
For my next set of images I took single images of the male model on his laptop working on his trading business with the artifical light from the laptop highlighting his facial features to create the feel of him being oblivious to the outside world and all of his attention in on the pixilated screen.
For my final set of images I took pictures of the Female model on her phone listening to music though a wireless Bluetooth earbud, Again only having her attention on her mobile phone while the light from her phone illuminates her face.
In conclusion I feel that this photoshoot really portrays the dystopian reality of todays consumption of technology from an outside point of view. I am very happy with how the images turned out.
all of these where up there with my best images taken in an office mainly, some in a car park, petrol garage, and a church, which all have an essence of familiarity but isn’t noticed by many people because it is used in every day life, and mostly during the day, never commonly used in the night.
To choose my final images, I flagged all of the images I liked to put them into one place. I then colour coded the images to grade the to highlight my best images. Green being my favourite/best, and yellow being close to the best.
FINAL IMAGES:
IMAGE COMPARISON:
(left) Nancy Honey- Apple of my eye 1991 (right) My own interpretation
(left) Nancy Honey- Daisy 1980-2010 (right) my own interpretation
(left) Nancy Honey- Daisy 1980-2010 (right) my own interpretation
EVALUATION:
I believe that my photoshoots have gone well. However, I could have benefited from taking more images which would allow me to have a larger variety of images. I think that I have stuck with the theme as well as my artist reference Nancy Honey. My next photoshoots will be more focused on my other artist which I have studied Cindy Sherman.
Overall, I like most of these photos. The darkness however on most of them had a static-blurry effect on them which essentially ruined the overall photograph. They didn’t sit right with me so I had to withdraw a lot of them from the final presentation. With what I had left though I thought were great and came out very nice, especially the slow-shutter road images with the lights from the cars casting streaks of light through the road. Happy I finally managed to do some of those as I didn’t do any in year 12.
Maurice Van Es was born in 1984 in the Netherlands. He is a visual artist that works with photographs. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts in Hague using his graduation project “Now will not be with us forever”. It was a book cassette which contained seven different books. This work was published by Lodret Vandret and was exhibited in New York, Paris and Amsterdam.
In this book he deals with photography’s intrinsic dimension: seizing a moment that will not return. He does this by focusing on his close surrounding environment, his family and what he is familiar with. This would be done through images of his younger brother leaving for school each morning, or his grandfather putting on a pullover and other physical objects like a car or a blanket.
I came across this book in class and it immediately stroke my attention due to the unique layout of the book, or a collection of zines. It was unusual for me but it interested me at the same time.
Van Es captures detailed photos in his work “Textures of Childhood” (2012), zooming in on items from old family photos, such as his parents’ bedsheet and the couch. He adds dates to show when these things were used, giving them a sense of life that objects don’t usually have. The “book” is a set of eight booklets in a case, each with a different coloured cover and paper inside, ranging from shiny to soft. They’re like a beautiful plate of desserts, carefully made to be enjoyable.
The project as a whole is imbued with an exploration of the passage of time. In “New life” (2012–14), van Es captures the evolving dynamics with his younger brother, who, upon reaching sixteen, refuses to be photographed. Van Es responds by documenting his brother’s attempts to evade the camera, resulting in a series of candid images reflecting adolescent frustration. In contrast, “To me you are a work of art” (2011) presents a touching homage to their mother. Described as “Unintentional installations made by my mother,” the booklet departs from the typical format, featuring a pocketed folio containing five posters depicting everyday domestic scenes. The book “Now will not be with us forever” acts as a big self-portrait, showing what’s important to van Es in his life. While most of the book focuses on his relationships with others, the thickest booklets, “Putting on 2012” (2012) and “The past is a strange place” (2010–present), are all about him. “Putting on 2012” lists every piece of clothing he wore in 2012, while “The past is a strange place” has photos of his daily life. These photos reveal how van Es notices small and interesting things in ordinary life. He uses a bright light in his photos to make the details stand out and sometimes makes things look weird or abstract.
Since it was the layout that captivated me more than the subject of the photographs themselves. not because the photographs were unsuccessful, but instead because the subject of them doesn’t link to what I wish to explore. I wanted to focus in more detail about the layout of them.
What I like the most about his outcomes is the layout, as it is unusual, compared to traditional methods of displaying images, such as a standard photobook. One of the many things about his layout is how he is not afraid to combine various techniques, like how in the compilation of the zines there is a folder containing photographs which unfold to an A3 paper size. To me this layout enhances the message of the collections itself. Through this layout he can mix different photoshoots by putting them in groups, a zine for each photoshoot. Like when he grouped textiles from childhood, into a zine consisting of only zoomed in photographs of different fabrics. When thinking about how I plan to present my final outcomes if I follow Murices’ methods that he used for this book, I will be able to communicate the message of my selected theme the best. as my idea consists of many different approaches to the subject, my outcomes are also going to vary from each other, therefore by grouping them together, zine per photoshoot, I am able to show them in a better way than in a photobook. I also want to experiment with the different ways of the image display, like the foldable images in the folder.
Shoot six was again the abandoned hotel but with more areas which closely relate to a presence of people but also liminality how the space has been left to thrive in decay.