An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.

Arnold Newman

Arnold Abner Newman was an American photographer, noted for his environmental portraits of artists and politicians. He was also known for his carefully composed abstract still life images. In 2006, he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. He also won the Lucie award in 2004.

Alfred Krupp

Alfred Krupp was a German steel manufacturer and inventor; the largest arms supplier of his era, which earned him the nickname “The Cannon King”. Krupp’s wartime employment of slave labour resulted in the “Krupp Trial” of 1947–1948, following which he served three years in prison.

Arnold Newman and Alfred Krupp photo Analysis

Alfred Krupp was a Nazi war criminal who was known for using slave labour in his factories, this can be seen in the background of this image if you look closely. Krupp contacted the famous photographer Newman for a portrait in 1963. After finding out that Newman was a Jew, Krupp refused to let him take the photograph.

Newman didn’t give up he kept asking Krupp to have a look at his portfolio before making a final decision, after seeing Newman’s portfolio Krupp finally gave in and accepted. So on July 6, 1963, Newman and some others went into a derelict factory in Essen which belonged to Krupp, This was where the photo was taken. After Krupp’s history Newman decided to make him look as evil as possible under the eerie demonic lighting of the factory.

This portrait was taken using a wide angle lens, there is a bigger sense of perspective, the lighting is eerie and demonic with the green tint which makes the subject appear very sinister. Krupp is presented as smug and almost proud of his actions, this is seen through his positioning in the photo where his hands are being placed together, his smile is clearly shown. His position in the photo taking up the whole bottom half being above and in front of the factory also is trying to suggest that he is being smug or sly .

Artist reference 2

August Sander

August Sander was a German photographer whose work documented the society he lived in. He was one the most important portrait photographers of the early 20th century.

Bio

The son of a mining carpenter, Sander apprenticed as a miner in 1889. Acquiring his first camera in 1892, he took up photography as a hobby and, after military service, pursued it professionally, working in a series of photographic firms and studios in Germany.

By 1904 he had his own studio in Linz, and, after his army service in World War I, he settled permanently in Cologne, where in the 1920s his circle of friends included photographers and painters dedicated to what was called Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity.

About his photographs

After photographing local farmers near Cologne, Sander was inspired to produce a series of portraits of German people from all strata of society. He was committed to telling the truth. His portraits were usually stark, photographed straight on in natural light, with facts of the sitters’ class and profession alluded to through clothing, gesture, and backdrop. At the Cologne Art Society exhibition in 1927, Sander showed 60 photographs of “Man in the Twentieth Century,” and two years later he published Antlitz der Zeit which translates to Face of Our Time, the first of what was projected to be a series offering a sociological, pictorial survey of the class structure of Germany.

Brendan Austin

My Response:

This was my first photo but I don’t think it matched his style enough so I took a few more at different angles.

These photos were better as they matched his style more and looked like a terrain sort of thing.

Editing:

Final Photo:

Francis Bruguiere

Bio

Born the youngest of four sons into a wealthy San Francisco family, Francis Bruguière was interested in painting, poetry, and music, and became an accomplished pianist. Upon his return from Europe, where he studied painting, he met Alfred Stieglitz at the 291 Gallery in New York and soon took up photography. While studying with Frank Eugene (Smith), Bruguière joined the Photo-Secession. Although he returned to San Francisco, Stieglitz published one of Bruguière’s photographs in Camera Work and included several in the ground breaking 1910 Photo-Secessionist exhibition at the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York.

Around 1912 Bruguière began to experiment with multiple exposures. In 1918 he published a book of Pictorialist views of his hometown, titled San Francisco. Soon thereafter, he returned to New York, where he opened a new studio, and began his famous series of cut-paper abstractions. In 1928 he moved to London where he designed stage sets and photographic murals. The later years of his life were spent mostly in New York, where his attention turned increasingly to painting and sculpture.

image 1 image 2

Overview of the photos

I like these photos because of there abstractness. The cuts in the paper are so random and the cropping she has done to the photos are so effective in hiding what the photos actually are.

Light

With the use of light, which travels through the cuts and folds of the paper, Bruguière has managed to create two alluring abstract photos and it is difficult to formulate what the image is. In both the photos, it’s the light catching the paper that creates patterns and textures that travel across the photo in the form of light and shadows.

Colour / Value & Tone

The monotone prints remove any distractions of colour and draw your attention to the tonal values created by the light and shadows.

Balance / composition

Within the first image, you can see the darkest shadows through out the frame. The random shapes in the photo creates diss balance to the image and draws your attention to the mess of textures and tones in the centre. The sharp, cuts and decorative detail of the paper sits largely in the centre of the frame, with softer light travelling to the top right and bottom left corners of the frame.

Camera techniques

The aperture of the camera allows for a sense of depth through the image, particularly in the photograph. Your eyes are drawn to the sharp folds of paper in the foreground, in contrast to the soft multi tonal background 

My Response:

Strongest Photo Selection:

I took the image into Lightroom and did some editing and this is how it came out.

Further Editing

I then cut and cropped my favourite 8 photographs and edited them this is the sheet of them.

This is the images separately:

I used art steps to see my photos in a gallery in real life this was a final step to presenting my photos.

Photoshoot 2

Aaron Siskind

This one of his photos helped inspire me to take similar photos with paper the amazing textures of the rotting wood make the photo really amazing. The photo is taken with a dead pan angle which makes it look unreal, you cant tell what the photo is. The fact its in black and white also pulls out the dark and light tones.

Aaron Siskind was an American photographer whose work focuses on the details of things, presented as flat surfaces to create a new image independent of the original subject.

These are my best 6 photos:

Here is them separately:

line

Lines are a great starting point when thinking about formal elements, as they are almost everywhere.

Start by looking for lines in your composition that can guide the viewer through your shot or to a specific focal point. These are known as leading lines. Your lines don’t necessarily need to be straight, horizontal or vertical; they can be curved, angular, or random too. Angular lines that converge into a central point, commonly known as a vanishing point, will add perspective to your image. Think of how a straight road or railway line naturally disappears to a central point on the horizon – this is a classic example of a vanishing point.

Shape

Regarding shape in photography, this usually means a 2D subject outline. In contrast, form refers to a shape with a more 3D appearance. We’ve put these two together for this video as one formal element.

Effectively representing shape and form in your compositions can turn objects, landscapes and figures into defined, striking focal points. Using various lighting techniques, such as backlighting, silhouettes, and paying attention to shadows, will help elevate the shapes and forms in your shot.

Space

Building space into your compositions creates a sense of scale and brings added depth to your shot. It can also provide breathing room for your image’s main subject, allowing the viewer to focus on the scene’s primary features.

Adding space to your compositions is particularly useful with outdoor photography, where you may want to emphasise the scale of geographical features – such as mountains and bodies of water. However, you can add space effectively when shooting almost any photographic subject.

Repetition

Repetition in photography refers to the technique of integrating recurring elements, patterns, or themes in a composition to produce a sense of rhythm and balance in an image.

Pattern and repetition in photography hold the viewer’s attention by using strong repetitive elements. The patterns can keep the eye anchored or move it around an image using line

Texture

Texture in your composition can bring your image to life by giving the viewer a tangible connection with it, and is particularly popular in macro photography. You can draw textures out of all kinds of surfaces and environments. And to do this, you can use a wide range of lighting setups and shoot with a variety of depth-of-field.

Textures are ideal for experimenting – try different setups and see what you like. You can use flat light with the camera head-on to bring out the surfaces of a weathered wall. Or, use backlighting for ripples in dunes, shallow depth-of-field for intricate materials, and long-exposure to get the silky-smooth look of flowing water.

Colour

A prominent colour in your image whether it’s a concrete colour block or a set of similar colours that form a palette can make a bold statement in your shot.

Colours can also convey a mood to your image that will be emotive to the viewer. And you could also single out one particular colour to make a striking statement and have it ‘pop out’ of your shot.

Tone

Focusing on tone in your image means using variables of contrast and light and dark areas to bring depth to your image.

The tone is fundamental in black-and-white photography, where it should be used to guide the viewer through your image where there is no colour present to focus their attention.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to tone, and we recommend trying different lighting scenarios and contrast levels for your preferred aesthetic.

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Camera Obscura

The camera obscura is about 200 years old. The name comes from the Latin words for ‘dark’ (obscura) and ‘room’ (camera). With a camera obscura, you can perfectly capture the world around you by projecting what’s on the outside down into a darkened space on the inside you don’t even need a power source. it’s not magic it is just some really useful science. ​

it is a rather theatrical-looking curtain that surrounds the darkened chamber, there’s a large lens mounted in a wooden panel. That lens focuses the light from the scene outside down onto a mirror which is held at a 45-degree angle behind it on the inside. The mirror reflects the rays of light onto a piece of paper or canvas laid out flat on the base inside the wooden box. To see the image, you need to cover yourself with a piece of black cloth to stop any other surrounding light from getting into the box. You’d then trace the outlines of the scene you can see projected onto the paper inside. And because this camera obscura uses a lens, which creates a relatively large aperture, you get a sharp, colourful image on the paper like a mini video feed of the outside world. ​

Nicephore Niepce​

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce was a French inventor and one of the earliest pioneers of photography. Niépce developed heliography, a technique he used to create the world’s oldest surviving products of a photographic process.

In 1826, Niépce used his heliography process to capture the first photograph, but his pioneering work was soon to be overshadowed by the invention of the daguerreotype.​

Henry Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries.

William Henry Fox Talbot was credited as the British inventor of photography. In 1834 he discovered how to make and fix images through the action of light and chemistry on paper. These ‘negatives’ could be used to make multiple prints and this process revolutionised image making.

​Louis Daguerre – The Daguerreotype

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography.

The daguerreotype is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. The process required great care. The silver-plated copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked like a mirror.

Richard Maddox

Richard Leach Maddox was an English photographer and physician. Because of him, photography was given an early impetus to become a disseminator of medical knowledge. His interest in the camera, combined with his poor health and his medical training, enabled him to invent the gelatin bromide negative that is the backbone of today’s photographic film.

George Eastman

George Eastman was an American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. He changed the world through his entrepreneurial spirit, bold leadership, and extraordinary vision.

Kodak Brownie

The Brownie was a series of camera models made by Eastman Kodak and first released in 1900.

It introduced the snapshot to the masses by addressing the cost factor which had meant that amateur photography remained beyond the means of many people; the Pocket Kodak, for example, would cost most families in Britain nearly a whole month’s wages.

The Brownie was a basic cardboard box camera with a simple convex-concave lens that took 2+¹⁄₄-inch square pictures on No. 117 roll film. It was conceived and marketed for sales of Kodak roll films. Because of its simple controls and initial price of US$1 (equivalent to $37 in 2023) along with the low price of Kodak roll film and processing, the Brownie camera surpassed its marketing goal

Digital Photography

Digital photography is a process that uses an electronic device called a digital camera to capture an image. Instead of film, it uses an electronic digital sensor to translate light into electrical signals. In the camera, the signals are stored as tiny bits of data in bitmaps, tiny bits of data that form the image.

What is ISO and How does it affect your camera?

ISO controls the amount of light your camera lets in, and therefore how dark or light your photos will be. Here are some top tips to help calculate correct exposure: Low values, such as ISO 100, are best for a sunny outdoor shoot. For shooting at night — or indoors with dim lighting — use an ISO of 1600 or higher.

Higher and Lower ISO

Higher ISO numbers increase sensitivity, making images brighter, but also introduce noise or grain. Lower ISO settings result in darker, cleaner images with less grain.

Higher

High ISO is generally well suited to low-light situations, especially when a fast shutter speed or a narrow lens aperture is essential to achieving a creative goal. For example, using a higher ISO setting for hand-held street photography at night allows one to use fast shutter speeds to create bright, sharp images.

Lower

When you are taking pictures in good lighting conditions, you should use low ISO to avoid noise in the image. This will give you the best quality picture. That’s because a high ISO can lead to noise in your photos, which can be especially visible in dark or low-light situations.

My photos using High ISO

I used a high ISO for this photo you can clearly see this as in the photo below I zoomed in and the photo is grainy

I imported loads of photos into Lightroom (172). I then made a subfolder or collection as its called in the app of all my favourite photos (32) which I then rated out of 5 stars, this app was really useful to help arrange my photos into groups and get them all sorted.

What is Lightroom used for?

Adobe Lightroom is a photo editing and storage application available through the Adobe Creative Cloud. This program allows users to quickly and easily edit their photographs with tools to alter contrast, balance colour, and change brightness on mobile devices immediately after taking the picture.

This is my contact sheet

In the top left I selected the photos I wanted and then pressed print

I then selected this template for my photos to go in

Where its saved

Eadweard Muybridge is remembered today for his pioneering photographic studies of motion, which ultimately led to the development of cinema. He was hired to photograph a horse’s movement to prove that a horse’s hooves are clear of the ground at a trot.

The above images are taken with fast shutter speed. Fast shutter speeds of 1/500th are used for capturing rapidly moving objects, such as freezing a race car hitting its top speed. The slower the shutter speed, the more motion blur your camera will capture when shooting fast-moving subjects.

Slow shutter speeds include 1/15 – which is an excellent shutter speed for panning moving subjects. 1/8 – This shutter speed will blur fast-moving objects. 1/4 – Will blur people when walking. 1/2 – You will be able to get slow-moving water with a blur.

Francesca Woodman’s family spent their summers at her parents’ farmhouse in the countryside near Florence in Italy and many of her photographs were taken there. European culture and art had a significant impact on her artistic development. The influence of surrealist art, particularly the photographs of Man Ray and Claude Cahun can be seen in the themes and style of her work. She developed her ideas and skills as a student at Rhode Island School of Design. Her importance as an innovator is significant, particularly in the context of the 1970s when the status of photography was still regarded as less important than painting and sculpture. She led the way for later American artists who used photography to explore themes relating to identity such as Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin.

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory. Hiroshi Sugimoto is best known for black and white photographs of particular subjects that he has explored in depth over many years: images of natural-history dioramas, wax-figure installations, sublime seascapes, and ornate movie theatre interiors.

plan for tomorrow: come in grab a camera go outside use slow shutter speed to get a clear shot of a bike then use fast shutter speed to capture a moving bike these two photos demonstrate the differences in shutter speed.

Here are some of my photos and our class photoshoot

We successfully experimented with slow and fast shutter speed to achieve these brilliant photos

Aperture – Control the amount of blur or sharpness around your subject.

In this image there is a wide Depth of Field giving a smaller lens opening. This means that the area of focus will be wider.

Settings

Shutter speed: 1/3

Aperture: 22

ISO setting: 400

In this image there is a narrow depth of field which will isolate your subject from the background.

Settings

Shutter speed: 1/180

Aperture: 2.8

ISO setting: 400

In this image the depth of field is short or narrow. Notice how the subject is sharper than the background.

Settings

Shutter speed: 1/30

Aperture: 6.7

ISO setting: 400

Focal length is the distance measured in millimetres between the point of convergence of your lens and the sensor or film recording the image.

depth of field is how much of your image is in focus. A wide depth of field would have the whole shot clear in camera however a shallow depth of field would focus in on one point and blur the background.

The Complexities of Identity Politics: Navigating the Culture Wars

Identity politics refers to the political approach that emphasizes the importance of individual or group identities, typically based on shared characteristics such as race, gender, religion, sexuality, or ethnicity. It centres on the idea that people who share similar identities often face common social, political, or economic challenges. As such, identity politics advocates for these groups to organize, mobilize, and push for policies and representation that address their unique experiences and needs. The rise of identity politics has become a defining feature of contemporary political discourse, especially within the framework of the broader culture wars.

The culture wars, which often manifest as polarizing debates about social values, moral issues, and national identity, are a direct consequence of the heightened visibility of identity politics. These wars have pitted various groups against each other, from debates over LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice to the controversies surrounding immigration and religious freedoms. On one hand, the empowerment of marginalized groups—whether it be racial minorities, women, or LGBTQ+ individuals—has led to significant victories in civil rights, representation, and societal acceptance. On the other hand, the growing emphasis on identity can create deep societal divides, fostering a sense of “us vs. them” and heightening tensions between different cultural, racial, and ideological factions.

One of the positive aspects of identity politics is its potential to amplify the voices of marginalized groups. By coming together around shared experiences of discrimination or inequality, these groups can advocate for policies that address their specific needs, whether it’s in the form of affirmative action, anti-discrimination laws, or gender equality initiatives. For example, movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo have brought attention to issues of police brutality and sexual harassment, respectively, creating a global conversation that has led to important reforms and a shift in societal attitudes. The solidarity within these movements can foster a sense of community, strength, and collective agency, empowering people to stand up for their rights and challenge systemic oppression.

However, the flip side of identity politics is its potential to lead to tribalism, where communities become more focused on their differences than on shared values or common humanity. This can deepen social fractures, perpetuating a cycle of division. As groups prioritize their own interests, the broader concept of universal human rights may become obscured, and dialogue between opposing groups becomes more difficult. Tribalism can also foster resentment and alienation, as individuals may feel excluded or demonized based on their identity or political stance. In some extreme cases, identity politics can lead to the rise of echo chambers where only like-minded individuals engage with each other, shutting out diverse perspectives and eroding social cohesion.

The debate over identity politics is ongoing, and examples of both positive and negative outcomes can be found at both local and global levels. On the local front, identity politics has been crucial in advocating for minority rights and local cultural preservation. For instance, Indigenous rights movements across the world—from North America to Australia—have successfully drawn attention to the historical and ongoing marginalization of native peoples. These movements are not just about securing land rights, but about preserving cultural heritage and identity. On the global stage, however, the proliferation of identity politics has sometimes led to increased polarization, as seen in the growing nationalism and populist movements across Europe, the U.S., and beyond. These movements often exploit identity politics to create a sense of fear and “otherness,” painting marginalized groups as threats to national cohesion.

In conclusion, identity politics is a powerful force that has both positive and negative aspects. It has given voice to marginalized groups and driven important social change, but it can also contribute to the fragmentation of society when it prioritizes difference over unity. The challenge lies in finding a balance—acknowledging the importance of group identities while fostering dialogue, empathy, and a sense of shared responsibility across all communities. To move forward, it is crucial to focus on the commonalities that unite us, even as we celebrate the diversity of our individual identities.