Mood Board

what is environmental portrait?

Environmental Portrait photography is the art of taking pictures that will be used to tell a persons story via its connection to a certain place. In this type of photography the person should be in their natural environment like their work, house, city,… this is a way of telling the persons story without words. In environmental portrait the person is posing to the photo surrounded by their natural environment.

analysis- key features

The lighting in the picture is natural , from the side the picture is taken indoors. The environment is her house especially her living room, she looks like a typical lower-middle class person, in the picture her personal items are used like pens, cards her jewellery… The framing in the picture is half-body and deadpan. Her pose is neutral and has a natural face expression. She is making eye contact with the camera and engaging with the camera. Standard lens were used , the depth of field is narrow. I think the aperture used was f/22 because the background is clear. The ISO used was probably 100 because it was taken at in the day with lots of light coming in.

“August Sander was a German photographer whose work documented the society he lived in. Lauded as one the most-important portrait photographers of the early 20th century, Sander focused his gaze on bricklayers, farmers, bakers, and other members of the community. Born in Herdorf, Germany on November 17, 1876, Sanders learned photography during his military service in the city of Trier. By 1910, he had moved to a suburb of Cologne, spending his days biking along the roads to find people to photograph. By the time the Nazi regime rose to power in the 1930s, Sander was considered an authority on photography and recognized for his book Face of Our Time (1929).  Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, among others”^. Information taken from art net.

August Sander photographed people from diverse nationalities, genders, classes and professions in his ” people of the 20th century” project, He collected this pictures with the goal ‘ to provide a true phycology of our time and of our people’. His plan was to produce between 500 and 600 pictures. In my opinion his photography really transmits what the people feel without any words, In some pictures the people are with a straight face and in some they are smiling, I think that maybe he wanted to show how the people felt in their environment and how they like it or dislike it, how wealthy or poor, how tired, they are or feel.

Analysis

I think the light is natural coming from maybe a window ( soft light) and coming from the side . The environment is most likely her house or the place she works at. Shows social class with the chosen clothes and the broom. The framing is half body, dead pan her pose is formal and her face expression is neutral. She is making eye contact with the camera. I think the lens used was standard lens. The depth of field is narrow. I think the aperture used was f/22 because the background is clear. The ISO used was probably 100 because it was taken at in the day with lots of light coming in.

typology

Typology is a set or images made with a common subject or idea, then repeated through the set. This can include every thing for example different doors in different places, different cars,… The term ” Typology” was first used to Describe the style of photography when Bernard and Hilla Becher began documenting old German industrial architecture in 1959. Typology is a powerful method of photography that can be used to change the way we see the world around us. Typology has roots of August

Photoshoot plan

I would like to photograph people either at work/school or their houses because that’s the 2 places where a person spends more time in. Also I think it would be a good idea to photograph my friends when we are out I think that would be fun too. I mostly like these type of pictures in black and white. I would also ask the person that I am photographing to show on their face how they feel when they are in that environment so for example if they like being in that environment I would ask them to smile, if they don’t like it I would ask them to keep a straight face.

First step: find people who would like to participate, like friends and family, people in town working.

second step: ask them about what they do and speak about my ideas and about their story. e.i where they work, what are their hobbies, what they do that makes them happy,…

third step: Find a time and a day that we are are free and have time. Maybe the weekend because that’s when most people are off if photographing friends and family, for people working I would do during the week because thetas when most businesses are slower.

forth step: Photograph, I would like to use natural light in my pictures because I think it feels more natural, depending on where I’m photographing I would take some pictures half-body and some full- body. I will also use the persons personal items or items they make and work with.

first photoshoot at school

these were the pictures that I took at school I asked staff to take pictures of them and at look at the camera.

I started by labelling them either red, yellow or green.

From all the pictures I took at school these were the ones that I think are the best, also like how every person is doing a different pose, some are looking directly at the camera and some are actually focusing on something else.

editing my favourite pictures:

home photography

I took picture of my brother and my dad I photographed my dad in our garden and photographer my brother while playing video games.

these were my 2 favourite images edited.

this is my favourite picture I think the quality is really good and how I took the picture, I decided to edit the picture in black and white because I think the picture looks better in the terms of quality and ambiance.

from this photoshoot I only got one which was good since my friend was a bit award in front of the camera, however the picture that I choose I think its really good because it was taken in her house and it really shows her personality.

I edited the image making it warmer because since I photographed her at her house I wanted to bring the comfort of her house to the picture and I decided to do that through editing , I edited most on the tone and moving them around until I liked how it looked.

I took 2 pictures of a women that was working at a donut stand, when there weren’t many people around so she wouldn’t get uncomfortable or shy while being photographed.

this was my favourite between the two because the other image there is her co-worker behind her also this one is more closed up which I like she also looks happy and positive and the colour are very vibrant with makes the viewer focus on her rather than the background.

Editing

I kept the photographed in colour and I tried making the image more vibrant

I used photoshop to edit the donuts from the other picture into this one that I like more.