OBSERVE, SEEK AND CHALLENGE

“The human desire to seek and explore the unknown has driven artists to look for fresh inspiration throughout the centuries” – The idea that people are looking out for something more than what they know has driven them to become very curious, they search for deeper meanings and never stick to the original meanings. This helps photographers to capture the best image possible. The aim for this personal study is to have a deeper understanding of my chosen topic, be able to compare its positives and negatives and produce my own set of images. Looking through my previous work that I have produced I have come to conclusion that a form of street photography has caught me in interest, the ideas of doing urban photography or fashion photography has made me wonder which one is best suited for me. Fashion street photography could be slightly harder than urban photography as you need to get the right people to wear the right clothing and capture the best image possible, whereas urban photography is more like taking pictures of the streets. The term street photography refers to Street photography being a type of photography that is conducted for art or inquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places, usually with the aim of capturing images at a decisive or poignant moment by careful framing and timing. Although fashion photography may be harder to accomplish it would be a good idea to try to organize the right way to complete it in easier ways, for example making the photos staged could be an idea as it’s not always obvious that certain photos are staged. Having a model by your side is a good advantage as you are in control of what actions they may do in each photograph, and you could change the way they are dressed to make the image seem less staged or precisely just a perfect moment captured. 

Other previous work like ‘windows and mirrors’ could help influence my decision on this personal project to get a better understanding on where my strengths and weaknesses are, as I do prefer to look at windows more than mirrors as the windows theory of identifying a photo is context based. I would rather not make the images too personal to myself but more personal to other people around me in general. The photos that will be produced will show a sense of reality or even fiction but not a personal story of myself. The windows and mirrors concept will guide me to understand what photos need to be taken. I like the idea of taking anonymous photos where people aren’t aware that there photo is taken meaning they aren’t posed, although when creating my own photos I do think making my images staged could help me get an overall understanding on what type of photography I like whether it is staged or taken at a ‘decisive moment’, a good artist I could look at would be Henri Cartier Bresson, he came up with the decisive moment being a method in photography where the thrill of waiting for the next person to walk by will make the perfect image. 

William Klein:

“William Klein was an American-born French photographer and filmmaker noted for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography”. William Klein has quite a good range of images that I could look at and work on, his work is quite inspiring although a lot of them look staged as the model is over dressed in some of the images, certain models are posing and doing different things that seem quite unusual, things you wouldn’t see on a daily basis. I do like the mixture of the photos being black and white as it makes them different but doesn’t necessarily make each photo more important than other photos. I do like how each photo is focused on one person in specific almost as if it’s trying to tell a story about the model, but the viewers must work it out. 

Martin Elkort:

“Martin Edward Elkort was an American photographer, illustrator and writer known primarily for his street photography. Prints of his work are held and displayed by several prominent art museums in the United States. His photographs have regularly appeared in galleries and major publications”. All these photos are in black and white which makes the images quite modern and sophisticated, these images captured are taken out of the blue, the people didn’t stop to pose for the camera, they kept normal as they were aware and sometimes it how’s everyone how the world I today and how it has changed throughout the generations and the way people dress has changed massive due to different ages which is good to capture and acknowledge. One thing that would be more difficult for me is that these images seem to be old fashioned and a lot of things have changed since this photographer has taken these images, which helps to make the images more personal to me and also make me experiment how things have changed throughout the years and what has changed, e.g. clothes, props (prams), transport and even buildings have changed.  

Overall, this is a topic I have a great interest in and feel as though it would be quite entertaining and challenging to do but will help me understand why each photo looks and feels different due to it being staged or just a good, timed image also referred as a ‘decisive moment’. The idea that the images I want to recreate are mainly based on the streets whether they are urban photography or fashion photography which could be more difficult if the image aren’t quite staged. I do like the idea of taking images of a big city and a crowded place but I would have to do the opposite due to living on a small island, though that will make images feel more personal to me as this island is my home and a place I feel safe in and I have experienced most of my childhood in. 

My plan is to go out and try to capture images of people who have quite an unusual and unique style that is different to the rest. Or I could get a few of my friends to dress up in their own styles to show how different people are and the effects of the world, how other people influence us to dress the same, why we feel to dress a certain way and why aren’t comfortable to wear certain clothes. Another thing that I could try and do would be trying to get my models to dress like a certain individual, a specific character from a tv show or possible a significant influencer to recreate their image and try and get a perspective of their life through what the images they put online. I would also like to get landscape photos of town/ somewhere busy to get the model to stand in, so that the background of the image is quite noisy. The slight problem I could have with that would be that the image might have too many details and make the photo look tacky and not as elegant as I would aim for. The best texture I’m looking for in the image would be a smooth texture but not too much to the point that it looks too boring and there is no details, I do like the idea of having a rough texture somewhere in the image, possibly the main event happing in the image as it will draw the eyes towards the main focus point. 

Photography is a way of seeking out what normally goes unnoticed, that can be seen as seeking for a photograph. Another way to look at photography is as a challenge, as usually they create the most interesting photos. Observing things, e.g. the ‘male gaze’ is another important feature to create be a good photographer.

Observe – “To notice or perceive (something) and register it as being significant.”

Seek – “Seek is the attempt or desire to obtain or achieve something.”

Challenge – “A challenge is something new and difficult which requires great effort and determination.”

I will be using these 3 definitions to form my ideas. Here is a little mind map to collect my ideas on what these definitions could me for photography.

I then created a mood board to gather my ideas together, allowing me to pick the best general ideas:

I like the idea of landscape photography, showing the beauty of nature. I also think I could do something with basketball as its been my biggest passion for many years, allowing me to get more creative with it.

Another Idea I have had is to show manhood and the hidden difficulties of it. I might, later on, find a way to relate this to basketball, giving it a more personal response. Here is a article about masculinity that I enjoyed reading and will likely use to help me with this project here. I might also be able to bring some old photos of my dad to show how manhood has changed.

REVIEW

Throughout my time looking at photography and trying to recreate images I have learnt many things. I have don’t photography for quite a while now and realise how creative you have to be to come up wit your own set of images. While learning all about certain rules like, depth of field, rule of thirds, composition, leading lines and many more, it has helped me to understand how to capture a proper image and I can do next time to make the image better. when studying photography I started to think that images had to be planned to be captured at the right time and be a good image, but when studying Henri Cartier Bresson I learnt that he came up with the decisive moment and that your images don’t have to be perfect to everyone else but yourself. Your the creator of the images therefore you decide what you want to take and where it should be taken. I also learnt that there were different view points to look at, for example. birds eye view, women’s eye view, high view and the Dutch angle that are all very different and help to make each image different and unique from the rest.

What is photography? The actual definition of photography is known as drawing with light, but if I were to define photography I would day its a way of capturing precious moments and keeping memories. it is the communication and the recording of ephemeral moments in time, meaning it captures images in that moment and once that moment is gone there is no going back.

REFLECT

Sublime:

Overall, looking through all my blog posts, I discovered that I had forgotten that I had done. These blog posts could help me find an inspiration to see what my independent project will be. Through my first year of photography, I learnt some key skills that will help me when taking photos, I was able to take pictures and add different colours and shades to the lens of the camera to make the image look colourful. The photoshoot I did was to investigate the idea of an image being good or evil. The images that are darker based tend to be evil due to the lack of lighting, the fact that most of the models facial features aren’t visible makes the image look mysterious and dangerous and the ‘good’ images would have lighter lighting on the models face to see their facial feature to make the image look less unexpected and more comforting . One topic I am quite interested in would be romanticism and the sublime effect, the picture being a disaster but still showing some kind of beauty. The idea of sublime is ‘a self-forgetfulness where personal fear is replaced by a sense of well-being and security when confronted with an object exhibiting superior might’. I feel that a photoshoot to do with sublime could be quite successful and interesting to investigate. Especially if I already have loads of notes based on it to help direct me to the right places to take the images. Another effective experiment that we looked at was technical headshots that helped me understand the different lighting techniques, for example soft and hard lighting. Soft lighting is known to be a portrait lit with soft light and is generally lit with a large light source whereas hard lighting has the characteristics of showing edgy features like a sharp jawline or muscular definition. I feel like I was able to recreate that quite well as my final outcomes look quite successful. I’ve noticed that using a dark background will make the light on the models face look brighter and define the models features with a sharper tone, whilst using a lighter/ baby pink background the lighting doesn’t necessarily make the models face brighten up, it adds the perfect amount of light to snatch the models features without making them look sharp. We also experimented with butterfly lighting, basic lighting and Rembrandt Lighting which could be useful to use in future photoshoots. These techniques will help especially if I do a photoshoot of people’s portraits as I can perfect my skills. One thing that i have noticed throughout my work was that i have used many of Henri Cartier Bresson’s images in my work, which gives me the idea that I would like to explore his work in more depth. 

Cindy Sherman- Femininity

I quite enjoyed exploring femininity inspired by Cindy Sherman, her images are meant to portray ‘women’s lives’ and how women are treated or seen to be treated, her main idea was that women were objectified and she wanted to recreate images to show how women would be objectified, the idea that women were in charge of cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children, she would create images of her cleaning her house, she also had images of her in the mirror trying to put make up on as its considered to make women more “beautiful”. I really enjoyed this topic as I was able to get a good set of images and explore what it is like to be a women, another reason I quite like this topic was because I was able to link it with good vs evil and boy vs girl photoshoots, this lead to me expanding my research from femininity to masculinity as well and explore the differences between them. While exploring femininity and masculinity I found out how different the two genders are, the idea that men are seen as strong and dominant, they hold all the power and sometimes it shows in photos, the way they stand to show their strength. Women tend to try and look good in images and pose for the camera which shows that they are more ambitious, asserting and caring. However, when photographs of women are taken, they tend to be objectified, they tend have the male gaze on them and most of the time women feel as though they need to objectify themselves to get men’s attention. 

Environmental portraits:

This photoshoot was quite limiting as I captured all these images in school, going round all the different departments, the first 3 photos were captured in the science department, where we asked the staff to show us around and capture some images of them at work, this helped me understand how everyone’s jobs are different. I also went to the canteen to get pictures of some of the staff there, in the canteen the mixture of students and staff made me realise that we all have different lives and different things going on. These images were put in black and white, which tends to help with distracting the eye from any unusual colours but more from what is in the surroundings of the image. This wouldn’t be my favourite photoshoot I’ve done as it’s quite boring to take pictures of people without any context but with some of the images you can tell a story and try and put meanings together and understand what is going on in the image. Another reason I wasn’t big fan of this photoshoot was because I didn’t manage to get man y good quality photos and struggled a little bit finding areas to take pictures. 

Photoshoot in the studio:

This photoshoot was to help me edit on photoshop and get an idea on how to edit each photo and what worked best for each image. I was given a few props to work with and placed them down on the table, I captured a few different shots and n photoshop I was able to control the tones of the images, I changed the tones to warm and cold, which gave a different effect to each photo, I prefer the warmer tones in the image as I feel as it fits best. This photoshoot was only an experiment, but I feel as though it helped me understand the composition of the image. This photoshoot was just a small one and was quite useful and fun to do and helped me decide that landscape photography is more for me. 

St Malo:

This would be my favourite photoshoot as I prefer taking pictures of buildings and street photography, I feel as though street photography is a theme that is so broad that it’s good to focus on every little detail at a time to understand how this image was put together. Street photography can also be based on the “decisive moment” by Henri Cartier Bresson, the whole idea that there is a perfect moment to capture an image. I really enjoyed taking images in St Malo as it’s so different from jersey and a lot bigger. The people seem to be out a lot longer in France which sets out a different mood to the picture, the way the French dress very different too, so it helps me get a different perspective to street photography, one thing I would have liked to have done better is focus on a certain amount of people and sort of follow their journey round the town. Street photography is quite different to the previous photoshoots I’ve done as most of the photoshoots done were in the studio. That’s what makes these images different, also the people in the photos don’t have a personal relationship with me, they are just strangers on the streets, this makes the images look more mysterious as we don’t know what each person may be feeling, whether it’s shown on their face or not. 

Some artists I may reference are:

• Joanna Piotrowska
• Astrid Reischwitz
• Alicja Brodwicz
• Tine Guns
• Hannah Altman
• Marna Clarke
• Lera Zilbershtein
• Shari Yantra Marcacci
• Chino Otsuka
• Larry Sultan
• Joel Sternfelf
• Annette Khun
• Bill Brandt
• John Coplans
• Brit Moore-Shirley

Justine Kurland

Kurland was born in Warsaw, New York. At 15, Kurland ran away to Manhattan and concentrated on becoming an artist. Her photos are representations of both childhood adventures and current experiences., She now spends much of her time on the road, scouting locations for photographs and recruiting models.

She is heavily influenced by her Yale instructors Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, and is known for her elaborate staging of photographs. Kurland has used staged tableaux to explore the social landscape of girlhood, life on communes, and life in the wilderness.

Kurland’s main project was called ‘Kurland’s main project was called ‘Girl Pictures’. Kurland started this project in 1997 when she was a graduate student at Yale. She first photographed a fifteen year old girl called Alyssum who was the daughter of Kurland’s partner at the time. The two bonded overtime and put their imaginations together to plot a narrative teenage runaway story. So many of the images in Girl Pictures were taken outside in locations that feel desolate or easy to overlook. They are often staged under bridges or beyond fences or on the sides of highways; places that feel synonymous with warnings

The lighting in this image is natural and seems to be at either sunrise or sunset. The lighting sets a feeling of calmness to the viewer as it looks tranquil and relaxing. The warming tone also contributes to the idea of tranquillity. In this image, Kurland is photographing Alyssum. This image shows Alyssum in the centre of the image holding onto a tree.

The way she is holding onto he tree creates a sense of fear as she seems to be clinging onto it and not wanting to let go. Her being in the centre of the image I think works really well to create a deeper meaning of the image. the water next to her seems to be travelling one way on the left of the image whereas the direction of the headlights of the cars suggest the road travel the opposite way. as well as that, there’s a pathway on the grass which is also creating a direction. Alyssum’s body faces the road whereas she’s looking over her shoulder at the water which creates the idea that she doesn’t know what direction to go in or what path to take and seems to be lost.

Mind map & Mood board

Observe

Definition: To observe is to carefully watch with attention to detail or behaviour for its significance.

Synonyms: Notice, see, perceive, remark, detect, discover, behold, discover, spectator, bystander.

Antonyms: Overlook, disregard, ignore.

Ideas and Artists: Street photography and Henri Cartier Bresson.

Seek

Definition: Seeking is an attempt to find someone or something.

Synonyms: Search, pursue, strive, request, explore, follow, inquire, chase.

Antonyms: conceal, hide, neglect, ignore, idle.

Ideas and Artists: Archives and history.

Challenge

Definition: A Challenge is something new and difficult which requires great effort and determination. Also means proving or justifying through a contest.

Synonyms: Dare, opposition, ultimatum, confront, dispute, objection, protest.

Antonyms: Compliance, acceptance, approval, believe, support, fear.

Ideas and Artists: Cindy Sherman, propaganda posters.

Ideas

I like how Rogan brown uses textures to create the appearance and a mixture of colours/ monochrome to create artwork resembling living forms such as bacteria.

An additional idea I have came from the word ‘observe’ and ideas from Anthropocene as well as looking at work from Rogan Brown. I would start by observing people as they are and what they wear acting as a window to comment on trends, waste and materials. Once I’ve gained a better idea I would take images in a studio to reflect the mirror approach to ‘challenge’ . These images be made to resemble that from a fashion magazine with unnecessary accessories, fast fleeting trends and excessive waste with lots of animal patterns and textures.

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These types of posters were created to challenge ideals and act as propaganda. They use collages of images, striking colours and symbols to create a clear message. Formed an influential wave of art called the The Russian avant-garde.

I’ve had some ideas relating to propaganda and how hyperbolic they are are in imagery. To comment on both the subtlety and pompous approaches I could make some work which demonstrates how extreme and ridiculous some points that are made. While propaganda is commonly associated with war and recruitment as this was the most blatant and obvious however it is everywhere especially when the current political landscape is filled with ridiculous radical views that I could pick apart.

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Collages can be traced back to Picasso who’s work was much more subjective and abstract.

This experimental style created unique pieces which challenge ideals and innovated aesthetics of the time. Collages like these remind me more of posters which for challenging especially when confronting and protesting. Some ideas I’ve had has been combining history and modern images to showcase how places/people are products of both current influences and moments through the past. For example a building that has fallen into disarray in recent years might be infested with birds but quite a few years ago was extremely well used and had an extension added. I would combine images from archives of the building, images of past holders, images of bird nests and even images of the landscape to create a full picture of the ‘personality’ of the building. This would carry over ideas from landscapes and environmental portraits and resemble a piece more like Picassos collages then the propaganda. I worry this idea would require too much time on one collage and I would only have one fully fledged outcome by the end. I could create a small zine of each part of the collage to better show the makeup of this final image however I don’t want to limit myself to one building through this whole project. If the building was something larger like fort regent which has changed massively throughout the years, then there would be too much to combine into one piece however something smaller like one well used house might be too small.

An additional approach could be to combine a larger area such as flats/town/listed buildings and create a collage more like Beomsik Won’s which combine all the buildings into one larger body. This reminds me of ideas explored in Anthropocene which I would like to explore further.

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When reading through the exam booklet one line stood out to me: “For example, swifts outmanoeuvring insects on the wing…
birds and caterpillars stripping plants down to their stalks.” Insects are something that I and many other people have mixed feelings of as they are both essential for our ecosystems while also being really freaky. Arachnophobia is one of the most common fears. Insects when photographed are photographed in a way that resembles flowers in my opinion. I will be portraying bugs in the opposite way as something unnerving. Additionally the lines: “search parties, seances, ghosts, graveyards, churches, mosques, stone circles, universities.” gave me the idea of horror. I would like to make tiny insects large and formidable with shadows and themes. Additionally “Douglas Gordon created a film lasting 24 hours by slowing down Hitchcock’s Psycho, with
the intention of making us more aware of the nature of film itself.” also inspired this idea as instead of creating a film I would showcase these themes through still images. Psycho is a classic which has continued to inspire films not just in the horror genre still to this day.

Cindy Sherman also used film stills which I explored previously. I enjoyed this topic and I think this approach could work well as these images will act as mirrors.

I aim to use lighting techniques I learned from both still life and portraiture as well as natural lighting when outside from street photography as shadows are heavily associated with horror.

What you want to explore?

I want to explore the theme of misogyny, feminism, how men expect us to act and want us to act. How women are objectified and men are passive, women are active. John Berger said “Men act women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” This quote means so much more than what it says. He is trying to say that women are self-conscious because of men and have to act a certain way or will be looked down on. Men can make women feel uncomfortable, with things that happen daily such as cat calling, sexual harassment and all these things relate to the quote as women have to put up with the horrors from these men even in the 20th century. This could be raising awareness for women and could help them as its focussing on the points that need to change. Cindy Sherman explored the theme of stereotype and how women are portrayed in the 1970s which is why I also will speak about her and be referencing her in my project.

Why does it matter to you?

This area matters to me because its about raising awareness about women that have been going through this for centuries. Women are sexualised, objectified and treated like nothing. There is domestic abuse ,rape, violence, misogyny, a patriarchal society and so much more. However speaking about these issues can bring a light to these issues and could get some women to speak up in case they’re scared or maybe could change society bit by bit. I like speaking about issues especially when it could make change and make women feel comfortable enough to speak up about it.

How you wish to develop your project?

I will develop my project by exploring the complex and deeply interconnected themes of misogyny, rape culture, and feminism through the lens of visual storytelling. I aim to use photography as a view to see harmful stereotypes and raise awareness about the lived experiences of women. I plan to experiment with various photographic techniques, such as portraiture, landscape photography, and symbolic imagery, to create emotional and psychical work that sparks conversation. My goal is not only to highlight the core of these horrific issues but also to empower individuals to engage with them and try to speak up. This could change social justice and equality as women have go through a lot which I don’t like and I think its not fair.

Here is some of the images that I am inspired by and want to do similarly to this.

When and where do you intent to begin your study?

I plan to do this by investing women’s beauty and misogyny etc, How do beauty standards shape women’s identities?.. Looking at artists like Cindy Sherman because her work will help you understand the relationship between women, identity, and representation. afterwards I would develop a question to explore, such as: “How can photography challenge conventional beauty ideals?” or “What does true female beauty look like beyond societal standards?” This could be done at home, friends home, beach, town centre, harbour, in a car, public, in bathroom with the shower running (with steam). These places are places I’m thinking of and hopefully will inspire women by starting off in a home, reflecting women I will choose settings that feel personal or empowering. I would use the tecqinues: portraiture and self-portraiture to explore both personal and societal views of women. Experiment with lighting and composition to create different moods, emphasizing various aspects of female identity. Focus on authentic representation by capturing real moments. In my images I would need to use symbolism like mirrors, clothing, or makeup, to comment on the construction of beauty. Include women of different ages, body types, and ethnicities. This is to either to highlight or challenge beauty norms. For these images I would be using a range of different editing tools, suck as photoshop Lightroom and I would be using various colours such as black and white or colour choices to enhance the emotional tone of your work. Subtle edits, like adding textures or layers. However by doing all of this I would still need to make sure and consider how it questions societal norms and contributes to the conversation about female representation to be able to try and make a change.

I would like to produce photographs that represent the lives of girls nowadays, and how social media and the internet has impacted our lives. I feel like as we have grown up, girls have decided to rather ‘fit in’ than ‘stand out’. To a certain extent, this means changing their personalities. Some examples may be the change from a colourful childhood, to colourless teenage years.

Here, I found a collection of archives from when I was younger. Clearly, there was a lot of vibrant colours, which conveys this idea around happiness, and liveliness. I would like to use these sort of images as a comparison to my life now.

Here are a few examples of the type of photography I will be taking, but also challenging. As you can see, most of the images are colourful and lively, but I would like to challenge this idea by looking into the reality of teenage girls, and not just the fun side of it.

For this project im thinking of familiarising myself with the themes of family, ageing, home and love/relationships. Some photoshoots may include resemblance looking at archival images and reflecting my my family and what feels like “home” and sentimental connections which can link to the questions of Where is home? Why is this important to me? How can I sum this up?

Other questions I could ask myself could be:

• What does this photograph say about the relationships within the family?
• How does this photograph reflect the atmosphere or feeling of the home?
• What objects in the photo represent home and family?
• How have the spaces in the photo evolved or changed over time?
• Who is missing from this photo?
• What do the backgrounds or settings of these photos tell us about the family’s history and identity?
• How does aging manifest in the subjects of these photographs?
• What emotions are evoked by looking at old, worn, or faded photographs?
• How do family members interact with old photographs?
• What stories or memories are attached to this photograph?
• How do old photos influence a sense of family continuity?
• What role do old photos play in memorializing loved ones or preserving family traditions?
• What types of photos are considered most valuable or meaningful to preserve in a family’s archive?
• How does the format of the photograph (e.g., digital vs. print) affect its emotional value or the way it is viewed?

In terms of my moodboard we tried to explore different ideas and branch of various thoughts/words that link to the theme of Observe, Seek and Challenge.

I think that the words and themes branching out about “Realistic” approaches and “Challenge” in terms of documenting and manipulating (linking to Windows and Mirrors) link more to my personal project and idea that I would like to lean more towards.