A photographic typology involves examining different “types” through a series of images. Instead of focusing on individual photos, it emphasizes the idea of “collecting” images together. This approach to photography is impactful and can change how we view the world around us.
Examples
Artist analysis
Bernd and Hilla Becher
Who are they ?
Bernhard “Bernd” Becher (August 20, 1931 – June 22, 2007) and Hilla Becher, born Wobeser (September 2, 1934 – October 10, 2015), were a pair of German conceptual artists and photographers who collaborated closely. They gained recognition for their vast collection of photographs, known as typologies, which depict industrial buildings and structures, typically arranged in grid patterns. As the pioneers of what is referred to as the ‘Becher school’ or the Düsseldorf School of Photography, they left a lasting impact on many documentary photographers and artists both in Germany and internationally. Their work earned them prestigious honours, including the Erasmus Prize and the Hasselblad Award.
Examples of their work
Photo analysis
Technical – The lighting in these photos was most likely natural, this is due to all the buildings being outside, moreover the lighting is relatively soft because of the cloudy sky in the background. The aperture for this photo was most likely a high number, something like f/32, this is because everything is in focus, the ISO was probably 100 or maybe 200 because of the lack of sun and the shutter speed was probably something lower like 1/125 as to not bleach out the sky.
Visual – This is a really well thought out photo, this is because each building is different however they are all within the same kind of design style, furthermore they are all taken from a deadpan, straight on view which keeps it repetitive but still interesting. Each building is composed in the middle of the frame. The background of each photo is the same in each photo which places an emphasis on the uniformity of the images but also the simplicity due to the lack of background noise.
Contextual/Conceptual – Bernd and Hilla Becher (German, active 1959-2007) Bernd Becher (German, 1931-2007) Hilla Becher (German, 1934-2015) Comparative Juxtaposition, Nine Objects, Each with a Different Function 1961-1972 Gelatin silver prints Estate Bernd & Hilla Becher, represented by Max Becher
Recently me and my class did a whole class photo walk around Harve Depas, I collected a total of 391 images, this included photos to use for a panorama, landscapes but also some urban landscapes.
Artist analysis
Frank Gohlke
Frank Gohlke, born on April 3, 1942, is a prominent American landscape photographer. He has received two Guggenheim fellowships, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a Fulbright Scholar Grant. His photography is part of many prestigious collections, including those at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Gohlke was among ten photographers chosen for the influential 1975 exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape,” held at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, which is now known as the George Eastman Museum. Over his nearly fifty-year career, Gohlke has captured images of grain elevators in the American Midwest, the destruction caused by a tornado in his hometown of Wichita Falls, Texas, the transformation of the landscape around Mount St. Helens after its 1980 eruption, agricultural scenes in central France, and the wild apple forests in Kazakhstan.
Some of his photos
Photo analysis
Technical – The lighting in this image is most likely natural light, its gloomy dark and cold setting, there isn’t any shadows due to the cloudy sky. The aperture was most likely a high number, something like f/32, I can tell this because everything is in focus while still being a wide angle shot.
Visual – In the foreground of this photo there is some silos, they reflect nicely off the wet road they sit on. Moreover the powerlines make good leading lines towards the vanishing point of the image which is down the end of the road, this is also where the viewers eyes are drawn to.
Contextual/ Conceptual – Grain Elevator and Lightning Flash, Lamesa, Texas, 1975.
Contact sheet
Selection process
Panoramas
I took a range of photos which I merged into one to create a panorama
New topographics is a term created by William Jenkins in 1975 to refer to a collection of American photographers, including Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz. Their work shared a common, ordinary style, characterized by formal, predominantly black and white images of urban environments.
Key features
Their photos captured the constructed surroundings, suburban expansion, industrial buildings, and the ordinary details of everyday life occurring in the American landscape after World War II, all presented with a sense of objectivity and a nearly scientific distance.
What was the new topographics a reaction to ?
The striking, well-printed images of this ordinary yet strangely captivating landscape served as both a mirror of the growing suburban environment surrounding them and a response to the oppressive nature of idealized landscape photography that glorified the natural world and its basic elements.
Robert Adams
Robert Adams, born in 1937, is a renowned American photographer known for capturing the evolving scenery of the American West. He gained recognition in the mid-1970s with his book “The New West,” published in 1974, and by being part of the 1975 exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” Throughout his career, he has been honoured with two Guggenheim Fellowships, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, and the Hasselblad Award.
His photos
Photo Analysis
Technical – The image depicts a gas station located at the border, likely taken during the evening or night since the main source of light comes from the artificial lamps that can be seen. The details in the foreground are sharp and well-defined, suggesting that a high aperture setting and a deep depth of field were utilized. Additionally, there is very little visual noise, indicating that the ISO was kept low, probably around 100.
Visual – The image is entirely in black and white, which enhances its somber mood, as the gas station seems to dominate the landscape. There’s a strong contrast between light and dark, with the gas station in the front featuring lighter shades, while the mountains in the back remain shadowy and unlit. The way the station is positioned adds a sense of depth and three-dimensionality, contributing to the overall dramatic effect.
Contextual/Conceptual – Adams was a member of The New Topographics, a movement that examined how human-made structures impact natural environments. This is evident in the image, where the gas station draws attention away from the distant mountains, highlighting the tension between artificial and natural landscapes.
Examples in Jersey
Recycling plant in St Helier
Car parks
Piers
Stephen Shore
CASE STUDY: Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print
Analysis and discussion… starting points and key features of The New Topographics
Foreground vs background | Dominant features
Composition | low horizon line | Square format
Perspective and detail / cluttering
Wide depth of field | Large Format Camera
Colour | impact and relevance
Nationalism vs mobility vs isolation
Social commentary | The American Dream ?
An appreciation of the formal elements : line, shape, form, texture, pattern, tone etc
Technical – The lighting in this image is natural harsh but warm light, most likely a late morning or middle of day light. This type of lighting causes hard edged shadows. A large format camera with a high aperture was used to take this photo, this is how all the small details where captured within the image.
Visual – This image mostly follows the rule of thirds with a lot of horizontal and vertical lines, the horizon is in the bottom third of the image, this causes the image to seem somewhat compressed. The leading lines in the image all point towards the mountains and back to nature.
Contextual/ Conceptual – The images focal point draws the viewer towards the mountains in the background, it hints at freedom and how you can get in your car and drive anywhere, however it comes at a cost of the environment. Furthermore the red, white and and blue colours hint at the American flag.
Panoramic photography is a type of photography, using special equipment or software, that captures images with horizontally elongated fields of view. It is sometimes known as wide format photography. The term has also been applied to a photograph that is cropped to a relatively wide aspect ratio, like the familiar letterbox format in wide-screen video.
Examples
David Hockney and Joiner photos
What are Joiner photos ?
David Hockney, a seminal figure in the Pop Art movement, revolutionised visual art with his inventive technique of creating joiners. This method, which involves piecing together a mosaic of photographs to form a cohesive image, challenges and transcends traditional perspectives in both photography and painting.
Examples
David Hockney
Who is he ?
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Examples of his photos
His most famous photo
This photo was made by 700 individual photos which where stitched together, each image captures close up detail and has been placed next to each other to create a bigger, detailed image.
Ansel Easton Adams, born on February 20, 1902, and passing away on April 22, 1984, was a prominent American photographer and environmentalist celebrated for his stunning black-and-white photographs of the American West. He played a key role in establishing Group f/64, a collective of photographers who promoted “pure” photography, emphasizing sharp focus and a full range of tones in their work. Along with Fred Archer, he created the Zone System, a technique that helps photographers achieve their desired final print by understanding how exposure, negative development, and printing choices affect the tonal range of an image.
Adams early life
Adams was born in the Fillmore District of San Francisco as the only child of Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray. He got his name from his uncle, Ansel Easton. His mom’s family originally came from Baltimore, where his grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but lost a lot of money in failed mining and real estate investments in Nevada. The Adams family has roots in New England, having moved from northern Ireland in the early 1800s. His grandfather started a very successful lumber business that his dad later took over. However, as he grew older, Adams criticized the lumber industry for its role in destroying many of the redwood forests.
What inspired him?
Adams made his first trip to Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He described his initial sight of the valley as an overwhelming experience, saying, “the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it was glorious…. One wonder after another descended upon us…. There was light everywhere…. A new era began for me.” During this visit, his father gifted him his first camera, an Eastman Kodak Brownie box camera, and he eagerly took his first photos with great excitement. The following year, he returned to Yosemite alone, equipped with better cameras and a tripod. In the winters of 1917 and 1918, he honed his darkroom skills while working part-time for a photography finishing company in San Francisco.
The Sierra club
The Sierra Club is a U.S.-based environmental group that has branches in every state, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. Established in 1892 in San Francisco by conservationist John Muir, it emerged from the progressive movement and became one of the earliest major organizations focused on environmental preservation globally. The club advocates for sustainable energy policies and works to combat global warming, while also opposing coal, hydropower, and nuclear energy. In elections, it typically supports liberal and progressive candidates.
1927
In 1927, Adams teamed up with Albert M. Bender, a wealthy insurance executive and supporter of the arts from San Francisco. Bender played a crucial role in helping Adams create his first portfolio in a new artistic style, titled Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. This collection featured his iconic photograph Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, captured using his Korona view camera with glass plates and a dark red filter to enhance the tonal contrasts. During that trip, Adams had only one plate remaining, and he imagined the effect of a darkened sky before using his last shot. He later reflected, “I was able to capture an image that represented not just how the subject looked, but how it felt to me and how it would appear in the final print.” One biographer describes Monolith as Adams’s most important photograph, noting that its “extreme manipulation of tonal values” marked a significant shift from earlier photography. Adams’s idea of visualization, which he first articulated in writing in 1934, became a fundamental aspect of his photographic approach.
Other work
Between 1929 and 1942, Adams’s artistic style evolved significantly, and he gained recognition in the art world. The 1930s were especially innovative and fruitful for him. He broadened the techniques he used, focusing on intricate close-ups as well as grand landscapes, ranging from mountains to industrial sites. Bender introduced Adams to Taos, New Mexico, where he formed friendships with notable figures like poet Robinson Jeffers, artists John Marin and Georgia O’Keeffe, and photographer Paul Strand. His lively personality and impressive piano skills made him a favourite among his fellow artists. In 1930, he published his first book, Taos Pueblo, which featured text by writer Mary Hunter Austin.
Kings Canyon
Ansel Adams is recognized as one of the most important conservationists in America. While his stunning photographs played a key role in persuading people to safeguard the country’s natural wonders, he didn’t just rely on his images to make an impact. Adams actively campaigned for conservation initiatives. One of his greatest achievements was helping to establish Kings Canyon National Park. Kings Canyon, shaped by glaciers in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, is located right next to the famous Sequoia National Park, which was created in the 1890s to protect the massive redwoods from being cut down. Despite its breath-taking scenery and close location to Sequoia, Kings Canyon was still unprotected until the 1930s. By 1936, the future of this natural marvel was at risk.
Cloud and Mountain, Marion Lake by Ansel Adams
His presidential medal
He eventually got a contract with the United States Department of the Interior to take pictures of national parks. Because of his efforts and dedication to promoting these parks, which contributed to the growth of the National Park system, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.
Visualisation in photography
Visualization is all about imagining a scene and figuring out the best shot before actually taking the picture. As Ansel Adams often mentioned, it happens in what he called the ‘mind’s eye.’ This process means looking at a subject and instinctively picking out the key features that you want to focus on and showcase in your photo.
visualisation versus vision
The zone system
The Zone System uses numbers from 0 to 10 to represent different levels of brightness. In this system, 0 stands for black, 5 is middle grey, and 10 is pure white. These brightness levels are referred to as zones. To help people easily tell these zones apart from other numbers, Adams and Archer chose to use Roman numerals instead of regular Arabic ones.
Image Analysis
Technical – The lighting in this photo is natural daylight with no artificial light. The aperture was high, something like f/22 as its a landscape photo with almost everything in focus. The shutter speed was likely to be something like 5 seconds, this is to counteract the high f stop. The ISO was likely 100 or 200 to keep the amount of noise down.
Visual – There is a lot of tone within this photo, especially the background with the snow, and likely all the numbers on the zone system have been used in this photograph. The mountains in the background create a sense of depth and add some texture to the image, especially with the snow on them. The mountains also create a good, almost symmetrical pattern as they run all the way across the image.
Contextual – “This is one of his most critically acclaimed works, exemplifying Adams’ ability to capture the rich nuance of the environment around him,” Mackay says. The picture was captured for the national parks project, started by the Department of the Interior.
Conceptual – The department had to pull back on funding when the US joined World War Two. However, Adams was motivated by the stunning beauty of the parks and a strong wish to raise awareness about their protection. In 1946 and 1948, he managed to secure two Guggenheim Foundation grants, which allowed him to keep photographing national parks all over the country.
Photoshoot plan
Where – Jersey- around the coast and sea.
What – The cliffs or sea near the lighthouse.
Who – There will be no one in my photos.
When – Late afternoon to sunset.
Contact sheet
Selection process
My best photos
Basic editing
I have done some general edits to improve my images
My best photos edited
Black and white
I edited my photos into black and white to closer relate them to Ansel Adams.
Composition Experiments
My favourite
Art steps
My second photoshoot
Selection process
My favourite photos
Basic edits
Edited photos
Black and white
Creative editing
I used the HDR setting in Lightroom and played around with the ‘Preview for SDR display’ setting to further bring out detail within the image.
Finally, I added some Vignette to draw the views eyes towards the centre point of the image.
Exposure compensation is a feature that allows you to adjust the automatic exposure settings of your camera. This is especially useful in tricky lighting situations, like when there’s uneven light, when using filters, or when your photos are too dark or too bright. With exposure compensation, you can manually change the brightness of your images by either boosting or reducing the exposure.
Exposure bracketing
Exposure bracketing lets you snap three photos with varying exposure levels, ensuring that at least one of them will perfectly capture the light just right.
HDR photos
Dynamic range refers to the difference between the lightest and darkest areas in a picture. HDR, which stands for high dynamic range, is a term used for cameras or methods that allow you to capture a wider range of light than what standard dynamic range (SDR) cameras can pick up.
My attempt
0
-1
+1
HDR merged
Some more AEB photos:
HDR Merged
HDR Merged
Further experimentation
Using the “preview for SDR display mode” I experimented with editing and even adding some vignette.
This was the product but I then used the pre-set mode to add a “storm clouds” pre-set.
Landscape photography, often called landscape photos, captures the different areas of our world. These can be huge and endless or tiny and detailed. While landscape photos usually highlight the beauty of nature, they can also showcase human-made structures or changes in the environment.
When did landscape emerge as a genre in western culture?
After the Roman Empire collapsed, the practice of showing untouched landscapes faded away. Instead, landscapes were mostly used as backgrounds for religious and human figures. This way of thinking lasted until the 16th century, when artists started to appreciate landscapes as important subjects on their own.
When did classical landscapes emerge as a genre?
In the 17th century, the classical landscape emerged. These landscapes drew inspiration from ancient times and aimed to depict an idealized version of nature, reminiscent of Arcadia, a mythical region in ancient Greece famous for its serene and beautiful countryside.
What prompted the rise of Landscape Art during the late 18th / 19th century?
Religious painting saw a drop in popularity across Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. This decline, along with the rise of Romanticism, which focused on feelings, personal expression, and celebrating nature helped landscapes become a favourite subject in art, a trend that remains strong today.
When did landscape photography originate?
The first known landscape photograph dates back to between 1826 and 1827. The photo was an urban scene captured by a French inventor named Nicephore Niepce.
The photograph in question
John Constable
John Constable RA (June 11, 1776 – March 31, 1837) was a famous English landscape painter who was part of the Romantic movement. He was born in Suffolk and is best recognized for changing the way landscape painting was done. His works often depicted Dedham Vale, the region around his home, which is now referred to as “Constable Country.” He had a deep love for this area. In a letter to his friend John Fisher in 1821, he expressed, “I should paint my own places best,” emphasizing that painting is really about expressing feelings.
The Hay Wain was voted Britain’s second greatest masterpiece in 2021, its bicentennial year
Romanticism was first recognized as a style in literary criticism around 1800, but it really took off as an artistic movement in France and Britain during the early 1800s and continued to thrive until about the middle of the century. This movement focused on imagination and feelings, arising as a reaction to the disappointment with Enlightenment ideals of reason and structure that followed the French Revolution in 1789.
Romanticism examples
Fact file about romanticism
Romanticism is difficult to define in words.
Romanticism introduced the Idea of drama.
Romanticism was pro-nature.
Romanticism is not the same as romance.
Romanticism gave rise to the importance of plain air painting.
Romanticism focused on capturing emotion rather than a realistic portrayal of the model.
How did the industrial revolution have an impact on Romanticism
The Industrial Revolution greatly influenced the Romantic movement, affecting its themes, worries, and artistic styles. The disconnection from nature, the isolating effects of city life, and the criticism of industrial capitalism all played a significant role in the creations of Romantic poets and artists.
The Sublime
The term sublime refers to art/photography that has the capability to terrify or overwhelm the viewer. Edmund Burke asserts that the feelings of the sublime are triggered by extremes – vastness, extreme height, difficulty, darkness or excessive light.
“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.”
The Sublime examples
JMW Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
John Constable
John Constable (11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home – now known as “Constable Country” – which he invested with an intensity of affection. “I should paint my own places best”, he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, “painting is but another word for feeling”.
Constable’s most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park (1816), Dedham Vale (1828) and The Hay Wain (1821). Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, he was never financially successful. He was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more than in his native England and inspired the Barbizon school.
Masculinity is often viewed as a characteristic that highlights ambition, the pursuit of wealth, and distinct roles for different genders. On the other hand, femininity is associated with traits that focus on caring and nurturing, promoting equality in sexuality, being aware of environmental issues, and having more flexible gender roles.
Artist Analysis
Noemia Prada
“My Story
My name is Noémia Prada. I am a mother of two amazing children, they are the love of my life. I am an artist. I write, I paint, I take photos and I also like to be photographed. I’m a self-taught Painter/Photographer. My academic background is journalism and advertisement. I am a private person who loves to be at home. I like solitude but not loneliness. Another passion of mine is music. I need music to create, to remember, to laugh and to cry. My life has been a bit erratic. For the last 20 years, I have lived in five different countries: Poland, Croatia, Portugal, United States and Angola. Where did I feel the happiest? In Africa. I have the identity of an expat. That’s who am. I don’t get too attached to people or places. Everything is temporary and ephemeral, unfortunately, or not. There’s a positive side of it. I know different places, cultural backgrounds and languages. My art, my creation portrays what I feel at a certain moment and at a certain place. My style is who I am: diverse, multifaceted and eclectic.”
Some of her photos
Image Analysis
Technical – I’m certain that the lighting in this photo is almost all artificial lighting, there is most likely no natural lighting and it was probably taken in a studio. The aperture is most likely shallow, f/1.2 or f/1.4 and I think it would have been taken of a macro lens.. Moreover the shutter speed is probably fast, something 250 or above, this is because all the hands are in focus and there is no motion blur. The ISO would be something low, maybe 100, I think this because there is no visible noise in the images.
Visual – The colours in this photo are fairly monochrome, with just blacks, greys and whites and moreover a clash of dark and light tones. The textures are both rough and smooth, this is because the upper hand is more rough, likely an older, more worn and weathered person, and the lower hand is is a younger, more innocent person. The rule of thirds is closely followed in this photo, this is because there is negative space in the outer three squares each side and the subject is in the centre three.
Conceptual – The concept behind this image is too show how time effects a person and further more how weathering and how primary or secondary sector work can wear someone’s skin.
Photoshoot plan
Who – I’m going to photograph multiple family members, including my little brother, parents and grandparents.
What – I’m going to take close up, almost macro like, photos of their hands and contrast young and old hands.
Where – I’m going to use an inside, studio like setting, most likely my kitchen and ill turn all the lights off and only use a small, direct light.
When – I’m going to take all my photos over the Christmas school break, and ill be ready to edit and manipulate my photos when I come back in January.
Contact Sheet
Selection Process
My chosen photos
I picked these four photos because they are sharp and in focus while showing an interesting contrast between between young, male, innocent hands and older, woman’s, worn hands.
Editing
Photo 1
Further editing
Photo 2
Further editing
Photo 3
Further editing
Photo 4
Further editing
Final Edited photos
Final further edited photos
I decided to edit my photos like this because it more closely links to Noemia Prada’s style of photos.
Black and white
The black and white links my photos closely back to my artist references photos.
More Photos
I decided to go back to a similar setting, however instead of having young and old hands, I substituted the young hands for objects. By doing this it shows the persons identity more clearly and what hobbies they are into.
Editing
I edited my photos to have a black and white background while keeping the subject in colour to isolate the subject and allow it to stand out more.
My other photoshoots
Contact Sheet
Selection Process
My best photos
Editing
Black and white
Further experimentation
I have decided to further edit my photos like this because it allows them to link back to my first photoshoot further edits.
Composition Experiments
My final outcomes
Art Steps
Evaluation
I believe that this project went really well and was overall successful. My intentions where to create effective portraits and hand pictures to put together to form a final outcome, to some extent I did achieve this but went off course slightly when creating the grid of 6 photos, however I think they are still effective.
Sherman tends to stay away from theoretical discussions, but people often categorize her work as feminist. A key focus of her art is challenging common stereotypes about women. By taking photos of herself in different scenarios, she highlights how women are often objectified.
Initially, while studying at art school and influenced by the wave of American Feminism, Sherman focused on super-realistic painting. However, by the late 1970s, she shifted her attention to photography to delve into various typical female social roles and identities.
Cindy Sherman is known for her unique approach to art, where she uses self-portraits to invent fictional characters. Through her work, she dives into important topics like identity, how people are represented, and what femininity really means.
Cindy Sherman explores some pretty intense themes in her self-portraits, like sexual desire and the idea of control, along with how we create our identities through deception. Her art really reflects the overwhelming consumer culture and the explosion of images that defined the late 20th century.
While she was in college, she found her love for photography and started trying out self-portraits, which would eventually shape her career. By dressing up, posing, and taking pictures of herself in various situations, Sherman skilfully comments on how women are represented in mainstream media.
Cindy Sherman
Some of her photos
Image Analysis
Untitled Film Still #3
Visual – In this photo the character is Cindy Sherman, she is possibly portraying a housewife. she is on the right third of this image, she appears trapped or cramped in the small apartment kitchen. She is looking over her shoulder as if something is taking her attention. Her left arm is fully extended onto the counter, furthermore her right arm is across her stomach as if she’s on guard. In the image is dishes and other kitchen appliances which take up more space in the image than she does which could show that they are more important than her and it could hint at the stereotype of women at the time.
Technical – The aperture is likely wide aperture and a shallow depth of field as the foreground is blurred. The shutter speed is to be faster due to the subject being fully in focus with a balanced exposure. The angle was taken from roughly waist height which makes her seem taller, it also makes the view seem like they are part of the setting and up close with her.-
Contextual – Historically women where seen as house wife’s or kitchen maids, this is shown by the image. Sherman casts herself in various stereotypical female roles inspired by 1950s and 1960s films. They represent clichés or feminine types.
Conceptual – Overall, Cindy is using selfies to show she can deceive everyone and can be who she’s wants to be. Furthermore challenging mass media. This also relates to the current culture of phones and media.
Second Artist Analysis
Claude Cahun
Who is she?
Claude Cahun, originally named Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, was a French artist born on October 25, 1894, and she passed away on December 8, 1954. She was known for her work as a surrealist photographer, sculptor, and writer. In 1914, she chose the name Claude Cahun as her pseudonym. Cahun gained recognition for her writing and her unique self-portraits, where she often took on different performative identities.
Some of her photos
Image Analysis
Technical – The lighting in this image is likely to be natural lighting, this is because the setting is quite dark and there isn’t any obvious artificial light sources. The aperture is likely to be low, something like f/1.8 or f/2 with a shallow depth of field, I think this because the background seems to be out of focus and the subject seems to be the only thing in focus. Moreover the shutter speed is probably fast, something 200 or above, I think this because the subject is in focus and the image is rather dark which could be caused by a fast shutter speed. Finally the ISO is likely to be quite high, something 800 or above, this is because I can see visual noise within the image.
Visual – There is little colour in this image, it is all black and white which creates a nice contrast between the subject and the background. there id little outstanding or obvious texture in this image, The subjects skin is pretty smooth with only some texture apparent on the back of the head. There is a decent amount of negative space which probably equals nearly half the image, however it does not take the focus away from the subject.
Contextual – This image was taken in the early 1930s and was in Western Europe. In this image she shaved her head due to the fact that she was trans gender and identified as a man, furthermore it also alludes to the war how the Nazis as she was Jewish.
Conceptual – She could be alluding to the concentration camps with the shaved head, furthermore her back turned could means she’s trying to make it harder for the view to distinguish if its a woman or a man. Finally the tank top she’s wearing is typically men’s clothing, meaning she is further trying to resemble a man.
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