Bart Koetsier’s work, particularly his street photography, maintains a strong sense of drama, that often feels straight out of a film. His photographs depict various scenes around Paris, from picturesque compositions of people and their dogs, to grittier, morbid imagery of people passed out on the streets late at night. The common theme throughout all of his photographs is that Koetsier remains the observer, simply providing the angle for the audience to look through.

In the above image, a couple is pictured facing each other, having a conversation sat on a railing, against a backdrop of a vast city scene. Compositionally, the use of the rule of thirds is well executed, centring the woman’s whole body in the photograph, whilst the man is off to the right-hand side, although his positioning is mirrored by the tree to the left. The railing and cityscape fills the bottom third of the image, whilst the horizon and sky occupies parts of the central and upper thirds. The photo is shot from a 90 degree angle, displaying the side profile of both people as they face each other. The colour palette is monochrome, with dark, dramatic greys and blacks dominating the lower half of the composition, and softer lighter tones in the upper. The couple, in conversation, both use very open body language, although the man appears more relaxed, and face each other head on, interested in what the other has to say. The woman wears a lighter outfit, whilst the man appears to wear a darker outfit. Whilst it can simply be assumed that the composition portrays a couple, the juxtaposition of their clothing could relate to many different ideologies and conflicts, such as good vs. evil, and potential religious ideals. The piece also develops a healthy contrast between nature and manmade structures, the two people potentially representing how humans build over natural environments.

In my own work, I enjoy creating dramatic pieces that involve people, such as in my street photography from the St. Malo trip, but I think that it’s still something that I can improve on with this project.

For my first photoshoot, I produced 442 images.

Some of my favourites:

With these photographs I have layered other mages on top to get a double exposed look in inspiration from Tamara Lichtenstein I have done this by using photoshop and creating layers and then turning down the opacity to make the top later opaque.

Selection for Editing

green- will edit, yellow- might decide to edit (if more edits are needed), red- won’t edit

Editing in Lightroom

I made every picture black and white, lowered the temperature and exposure, creating a gloomier mood. I enhanced the contrast of the images by changing the contrast, highlights and shadows as well as increasing the texture and clarity of the photographs.

Final Edits

I think the editing was very effective, since it improved the quality of the images as well as made them much more similar to my inspiration, Francesca Woodman. The increasing of the contrast made the details stand out even more which caused the pictures to gain more grain and texture.

I only ended up with three images from this camera that I felt were good enough to be used in my photobook. I want to make sure I have the best image selection, so I will use most of my images from my digital camera. However I like these images, and the depth they have, as well as the look it gives, relating to my archives. They aren’t the highest quality either, but I don’t think this matters too much because I am attempting to make a nostalgic book, that tells a story and seeks into my grandparents relationship.

For this photoshoot I used my Papershoot camera, which is a digital camera that replicates a film cameras. I used 3 of the different colour settings: black and white, orange tint and blue tint. I wanted to experiment with it so I can create photos that look old, linking with the archived. It is difficult to know the exposures and light because the camera is basic, so there is no way of controlling shutter or aperture. I found some of my images were over-exposed so I adjusted the lighting manually in the room. The viewfinder is closer than the lens, so I had difficulty working out the composition.

Example of over exposure

I pulled the curtains to try and control this but it was still top bright – in my next shoot with this camera I will close the curtains fully

Contact sheet

Selected images – flagging

From my selection:

GREEN – best images

YELLOW – I could use but they aren’t the best compared to my digital images

Best images:

Marsel van

Marsal van is a Dutch photographer who specialises in nature and wildlife photography. He started his career in advertising. As an art director at various renowned agencies and has won numerous awards for his captivating work. Van made a Dutch nature conservation organisation which is representative of both his creative and emotional approach to communication as well as his love for the natural world and his concern for the environment. After a trip to Tanzania and Van’s close encounters with animals really sparked his love for wildlife and drew a deeper passion for photography. Now van’s lives in South Africa when he is not traveling and runs specialised nature photography tours for people to destinations worldwide. Van’s has been rewarded “Travel photographer of the year” and the overall winner of “Wildlife photographer of the year”

Image analysis

This captivating image by Marsel vanis really stuck out to me Due to my project being about the contrast of technology and nature this image brings the both worlds together. The dystopian effect of the monkey in the natural lake while holding a manmade item helps portray the theme of addiction towards technology. I also feel that the use of the closest species to man is significant in the evolution in animals but still how they conflict with humans due to this image looking unnatural. I admire the way that the lighting in this image is natural with the innate tones of the money and the bold focal point of the mobile phone.

Where: St Helier, Jersey

When: 28th of March, around noon

What/who: The people in the town and their activities

How: DSLR, auto focus to ensure all images are in focus.

Inspired by: Alec Soth and Nan Goldin

Selected images – flagging

From my selection:

GREEN – best images

YELLOW – middle

RED – not the best/ won’t use

Best images:

These images were taken in the centre of York and picture the streets and York Minster in the early morning. I unfortunately did not get many pictures at all and due to the time at which they were taken, I feel that a lot of them aren’t as exciting as they could be. Arguably, however, this may offer an interesting contrast to my other city images where there is more life.