The film roll was the key element for the first Kodak camera, which was originally called the “roll holder breast camera.” The name Kodak was created by Eastman himself and first appeared in December 1887. With the KODAK Camera, Eastman laid the groundwork for making photography accessible to everyone. The Brownie was a simple box camera featuring a single lens. It utilized roll film, another breakthrough from Eastman Kodak. Customers would get the pre-loaded camera, snap their pictures, and send it back to Kodak. Kodak would then develop the film, print the photos, reload the camera with fresh film, and send it back to the customer.
Cyanotypes
Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins (16 March 1799 – 9 June 1871) was a pioneering English botanist and photographer. She is frequently recognized as the first individual to release a book that featured photographic illustrations. Additionally, some references claim she was the first woman to produce a photograph. In the 1850s, Atkins worked together with Anne Dixon (1799–1864), who was very close to her, almost like a sister, to create at least three presentation albums featuring cyanotype photograms.
Anna Atkins.
My Cyanotype
This is a Cyanotype that I produced myself, a Cyanotype is a type of photographic printing process that reacts slowly and is cost-effective. It is sensitive to a specific range of near ultraviolet and blue light.
Intro: What are the formal elements in photography?
There are several design elements, known as ‘formal elements’, that all photographers should be aware of when thinking about their image compositions. This is what separates good pictures and bad pictures that have been taken of the same subject.
Some of the formal elements include (there are others and you don’t have to be limited to this list )
Line – Are there objects in the photograph that act as lines? Are they straight, curvy, thin, thick? Do the lines create direction in the photograph? Do they outline? Do the lines show movement or energy?
Shape – Do you see geometric (straight edged) or organic (curvy) shapes?
Tone –Is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest value? Where is the lightest?
Repetition / pattern: Are there any objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a pattern?
Texture -If you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel?
Space – Is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates this appearance? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces? Is there depth created by spatial illusions i.e. perspective?
Your task:
Use a PowerPoint (or similar) to record your summer task. You should include….
Research a photographer who will inspire your work….. (see photographers to choose from below)
Photography: Take photographs that link to each of the formal elements above. (You will likely end up with more than one formal element in each photo). There are some tips on what you could photograph at the bottom of this PowerPoint.
Edit: Edit the images (on your phone, or using your preferred editing software)…. crop and enhance the colour / change to black and white to show you have considered how to achieve the best result. Example photos can be seen below.
Present: You can then select how you which to present the images. You should present your final images on your ppt but you may also want to print them out and present them manually. For example, you may wish to present each one in a grid. If you are able to, you may even wish to print the images out and present them in a concertina book.
Deadline: Please complete your summer task before you start Hautlieu in September. It can be saved to a USB or email it to yourself so you can log in from school and download the attachment (if emailing to yourself, use a personal email as your school email may not yet be set up).
1. Research: – Choose one photographer to analyse:
Harry Callahan is able to capture patterns, textures and repetition through his photography. His images have just enough information. He knows just where to place the edges, to leave out unnecessary details, so that we are able to focus on the main idea. He has a fantastic sense of design.
Haas pioneered colour photography and is also famous for his images of movement using long shutter speeds. He photographed water throughout his career, fascinated by its ability to reflect light and its dynamic movement. He crops the subject to increase the sense of abstraction.
Siskind was interested in surfaces and textures, both from the natural world but also the urban environment. He gets in close to his subjects and fills the frame with detail. There is always a strong sense of design and all over interest for the viewer.
These images explore the idea of repetition, rhythm, line, shape, texture and pattern. They are all created with everyday objects which are transformed through careful arrangement and photography. The edge to edge compositions help concentrate our eyes on the formal properties of the objects. Contrast is important. Sometimes we need to consult the title before we’re sure about exactly what we are looking at.
2. Take your Photos linking to the formal elements.
Below are just a few examples of things you can photography for each formal element… but the options are endless!
Line –
Leading lines / roads / train tracks / perspective
Railings
Stairways
Scaffolding
Boat Masts
Tone:
Shadows / highlights
Silhouettes
Street photos with strong / low sunlight
Any photo that has both strong highlights and shadows will usually show a strong depth of tone. Editing in black and which and increasing contrast can also enhance this effect.
Texture:
Fabric
Rope
Sand
Gravel
Silk
Rust
Errosion
Shape – (pretty much anything)
Pebbles (organic)
Ripples in water (organic)
Petals and leaves (organic)
Architecture / constructions (usually geometric)
Man made objects – building bricks – kids toys (usually geometric)
What type of image is this (photo, painting, illustration, poster, etc.)?
What do you notice first? Describe what else you see.
What’s happening in the image?
What people and objects are shown? How are they arranged? How do they relate to each other?
What is the physical setting? Is place important?
What, if any, words do you see?
Are there details that suggest the time period this image relates to? Is the creation date listed in the bibliographic record? If the creation date is listed, was this image created at or around the same time period the image relates to?
What other details can you see?
REFLECT: Generate and test hypotheses
What tools might have been used to create this image?
Why do you think this image was made? What might have been the creator’s purpose? What evidence supports your theory?
Why do you think the creator chose to include these particular details? What might have been left out of the frame?
Who do you think was the audience for this image?
What do you think the creator might have wanted the audience to think or feel? Does the arrangement or presentation (lighting, angle, etc.) of the details affect how the audience might think or feel? How?
What do you feel when looking at this image?
Does this image show clear bias? If so, towards what or whom? What evidence supports your conclusion?
What was happening during the time period this image represents? If someone made this image today, what would be different/the same?
What did you learn from examining this image? Does any new information you learned contradict or support your prior knowledge about the topic or theme of this image?
Once you have been instructed on how to use the lighting studio safely and respectfully, you will be able to use the studio during lesson times or in study periods. You must book the facility in advance via one of your teachers JAC / MM / MVT / LJS
You must always leave the studio in a clean and tidy, safe manner. All equipment must be switched off and packed away. Any damage must be reported and logged.
Typical studio set up with infinity screen back-drop
Types of lighting available
Continous lighting (spot / flood)
Flash head
Soft box
Reflectors and coloured gels
Chiarascuro effects and single point lighting
Still Life Photography and using the product table / copy stand
Product table set-up, with back light and infinity screen
Still-life Studio Shoot:
You can choose to photograph each object individually or group together several objects for a more complex still life arrangements.
Technical stuff
Continuous Lights – photograph objects three dimensionally
Camera setting: Manual Mode ISO: 100 White Balance: Daylight Aperture: F/16 Shutter: 0.5 sec to 0.8 sec (depending on reflection of each object) Lights in room must be switched off to avoid reflections
Continuous Lights – portrait
Camera setting: Manual Mode ISO: 100 White Balance: Daylight Shutter Speed 1/125 sec Aperture f/16
Camera setting: Manual Mode ISO: 100 White Balance: Daylight Aperture: F/16 Shutter: 1/125-1/200 (depending on reflection of each object) Flash heads set to power output: 2.0 Use pilot light for focusing
PORTRAITS
Camera settings (flash lighting) Tripod: optional Use transmitter on hotshoe White balance: daylight (5000K) ISO: 100 Exposure: Manual 1/125 shutter-speed > f/16 aperture – check settings before shooting Focal lenght: 105mm portrait lens
Camera settings (continuous lighting) Tripod: recommended to avoid camera shake Manual exposure mode White balance: tungsten light (3200K) ISO: 400-1600 – depending on how many light sources Exposure: Manual 1/60-1/125 shutter-speed > f/4-f/8 aperture – check settings before shooting Focal length: 50mm portrait lens
Masculinity is set behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors considered masculine are influenced by both cultural factors and biological factors. It is distinct from the definition of the biological male sex,[5][6] as anyone can exhibit masculine traits.[7] Standards of masculinity vary across different cultures and historical periods.
Masculinity is seen to be the trait which emphasizes ambition, acquisition of wealth, and differentiated gender roles. Femininity is seen to be the trait which stress caring and nurturing behaviours, sexuality equality, environmental awareness, and more fluid gender roles.
What is the true definition of masculinity?
Masculinity = social expectations of being a man: The term ‘masculinity’ refers to the roles, behaviors and attributes that are considered appropriate for boys and men in a given society. Masculinity is constructed and defined socially, historically and politically, rather than being biologically driven.
What is the real definition of femininity?
: the quality or nature of the female sex : the quality, state, or degree of being feminine or womanly. challenging traditional notions about femininity and masculinity.
There is also a thing called binary opposite’s..
Particular aspects of identity derived from places we belong to arise because places have figures and images that have meaning and are significant to us. Places represent personal and social memories because they are positioned in the socio- historical matrix of intergroup relations.
Such as..
Gender socialization occurs through four major agents: family, education, peer groups, and mass media. Each agent reinforces gender roles by creating and maintaining normative expectations for gender-specific behaviour.
Social and environmental cues direct individuals to pay attention to external messages—beliefs, values, symbols, and affects—that are deemed self-referent.
What is the difference between masculine and feminine posing?
A closed or clenched hand tends to be more masculine while a relaxed or lightly curved hand has a feminine inference. Unlike feminine poses, masculine poses avoid softening the pose with rounded shoulders or exaggerated shoulders, hips, and legs.
What makes a pose masculine?
Stereotypical male model poses all involve making the man look fierce. Anything that can be done to convey power and dominance should be included in the pose. While females are always looking for ways to emphasize curves, men are looking for hard angles and straight lines.
Create Curves-They’re what make most women feel feminine. Highlighting a female model’s curves also has the added benefit of making the waist look more defined. In standing poses this can be achieved by having the model put her weight on her back foot. Add in a knee bend away from the camera and boom.
Controlled Conditions : Jan Mon 22nd, Tues 23rd, Wed 24th
Mon 22 12 C JAC in photography Room
Tues 23 12 A LJS in Photo / Media
Wed 24 12 D MVT in Photography Room
Print Folder Deadline Wed 24th Jan
We have included a mini-unit to help you explore creative opportunities with self portraiture in photography based around themes of femininity and masculinity. We will spend time looking closely at this and discussing ideas for you to produce a number of potential outcomes that will be the culmination of your module on portraiture. We are expecting that you will continue to develop your portraiture skills and use lighting creatively both in the studio and on location outside or inside relevant to your ideas.
Binary opposition
The themes of ‘FEMININITY and MASCULINITY’ are a binary opposite – a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning.
Binary opposition originated in Saussurean structuralist theory in Linquistics (scientific study of language) According to Ferdinand de Saussure, binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical opposites are strictly defined and set off against one another. Using binary opposites can often be very helpful in generating ideas for a photographic project as it provides a framework – a set of boundaries to work within.
Watch this film and discuss the way in which artists tackle identity…
Blog Posts to make :
THEORY/ CONTEXT: Make a blog post and write 300-500 words expressing your view on identity politics and culture wars. How does it impact society? Describe some of the positive aspects of groups harnessing their shared identity and political views as well some of the dangers of tribalism dividing communities. Provide examples both for and against, reference sources used and include images. Try and frame the debate both within a global and local perspective.
THEMES: Define “femininity” and “masculinity” and explain how identity can be influenced by “place”, or belonging, your environment or upbringing with reference to gender identity / cultural identity / social identity / geographical identity / political identity / lack of / loss of identity / stereotypes / prejudices etc.
MINDMAP/ MOODBOARD: Add a mindmap and moodboard of ideas and trigger points.
ARTISTS REFERENCES: Choose a range of photographers that you feel explore themes of femininity, masculinity in relation to gender, identity or ‘self’ and create at least two ARTISTS CASE STUDIES (detailed analysis and interpretation) that must include Claude Cahun and then compare Cahun to your chosen artist reference (that will have an influence on your final outcomes re : MOCK EXAM)
PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 1: Clare Rae inspired SHOOT (OPTIONAL)
PHOTO-SHOOTS: focused photoshoots exploring your ideas
EXPERIMENTATION: development of a number of final ideas
THEORY > CONTEXT
IDENTITY POLITICS is a term that describes a political approach wherein people of a particular religion, race, social background, class or other identifying factor form exclusive socio-political alliances, moving away from broad-based, coalitional politics to support and follow political movements that share a particular identifying quality with them. Its aim is to support and center the concerns, agendas, and projects of particular groups, in accord with specific social and political changes.
The term was coined by the Combahee River Collective in 1977. It took on widespread usage in the early 1980s, and in the ensuing decades has been employed in myriad cases with radically different connotations dependent upon the term’s context. It has gained currency with the emergence of social activism, manifesting in various dialogues within the feminist, American civil rights, and LGBT movements, disabled groups, as well as multiple nationalist and postcolonial organizations, for example: Black Lives Matter movement.
CI Pride 2019 in St Helier
CULTURE WARS are cultural conflicts between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal values is seen.
Grayson Perry’s: Big American Road Trip. Artist and social commentator Grayson Perry crosses the US, exploring its biggest fault lines, from race to class and identity, making art as he goes along. Click here to watch Episode 3 where he travels to the Midwest and finds folk bitterly divided over identity politics and hot issues like abortion and vaccination. What causes such ‘culture wars’ and how can they be overcome?
Grayson Perry. The American Dream. 2019
This map of the US reflects a battle-torn landscape where nuance, compromise and empathy are casualties in the culture war
Read article here in the Financial Times, that uses the recent debate around the removal of Winston Churchill’s statue in Parliament Square as an example of wider discussion on Britain’s colonial past and the current government’s handling of racial inequality.
The issues above should also be viewed within a much broader historical frame work on racism and colonialism.
Claude Cahun
CASE STUDY: Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known for her self-portraits in which she assumes a variety of personas, including dandy, weight lifter, aviator, and doll. The Jersey Heritage Trust collection represents the largest repository of the artistic work of Cahun who moved to the Jersey in 1937 with her stepsister and lover Marcel Moore. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1944 for activities in the resistance during the Occupation. However, Cahun survived and she was almost forgotten until the late 1980s, and much of her and Moore’s work was destroyed by the Nazis, who requisitioned their home. CaHun died in 1954 of ill health (some contribute this to her time in German captivity) and Moore killed herself in 1972. They are both buried together in St Brelade’s churchyard.
In this image, Cahun has shaved her head and is dressed in men’s clothing. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”1 (Claude Cahun, Disavowals, London 2007, p.183)
Cahun was friends with many Surrealist artists and writers; André Breton once called her “one of the most curious spirits of our time.”
While many male Surrealists depicted women as objects of male desire, Cahun staged images of herself that challenge the idea of the politics of gender. Cahun was championing the idea of gender fluidity way before the hashtags of today. She was exploring her identity, not defining it. Her self-portraits often interrogates space, such as domestic interiors and Jersey landscapes using rock crevasses and granite gate
READ articles here in The Guardian and the BBC to learn more and use these texts for your essay. Link to Jersey Heritage which houses the largest collection of her work and an article written by Louise Downie in response to an exhibition in 2005, Acting Out: Claude Cahun and Marvel Moore at Jersey Museum.
In 2017 the National Portrait Gallery in London staged a major exhibition Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask showing their work together for the first time. Slipping between genders and personae in their photographic self-images, Wearing and Cahun become others while inventing themselves. “We were born in different times, we have different concerns, and we come from different backgrounds. She didn’t know me, yet I know her,” Wearing says, paying homage to Cahun and acknowledging her presence. The bigger question the exhibition might ask is less how we construct identities for ourselves than what is this thing called presence?
Claude CahunGillian Wearing
In Behind The Mask, Wearing is being Cahun. Previously she has re-enacted photographs of Andy Warhol in drag, the young Diane Arbus with a camera, Robert Mapplethorpe with a skull-topped cane, hard-bitten New York crime photographer Weegee wreathed in cigar-smoke. Among these doubles, you know Wearing is in the frame somewhere, under the silicon mask and the prosthetics, the wigs and makeup and the lighting. Going through her own family albums, she has become her own mother and her father. It is a surprise she has never got lost in this hall of time-slipping mirrors, among her own self-images and the faces she has adopted. Wearing has got others to play her game, too – substituting their own adult voices with those of a child, putting on disguises while confessing their secrets on video.
Read articles in relation to exhibition here
Read articles here in Aperture and The Guardian in relation to the exhibition. Cahun has been described as a Cindy Sherman before her time. Wearing’s art undoubtedly owes something to Sherman – just as Sherman herself is indebted to artist Suzy Lake. Looking back at Cahun, Wearing is both tracing artistic influence, and paying homage to it, teasing out threads in a web of relationships crossing generations.
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman, A selection of images from her film stills
Cindy Sherman works play with female stereotypes. Masquerading as a myriad of characters, Cindy Sherman (American, born 1954) invents personas and tableaus that examine the construction of identity, the nature of representation, and the artifice of photography. To create her images, she assumes the multiple roles of photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser, and stylist. Whether portraying a career girl, a blond bombshell, a fashion victim, a clown, or a society lady of a certain age, for over thirty-five years this relentlessly adventurous artist has created an eloquent and provocative body of work that resonates deeply in our visual culture.
Cindy Sherman reveals how dressing up in character began as a kind of performance and evolved into her earliest photographic series such as “Bus Riders” (1976), “Untitled Film Stills” (1977-1980), and the untitled rear screen projections (1980).
For an overview of Sherman’s incredible oeuvre see Museum Of Modern Art’s dedicated site made at a major survey exhibition of her work in 2012…
This exhibition surveys Sherman’s career, from her early experiments as a student in Buffalo in the mid-1970s to a recent large-scale photographic mural, presented here for the first time in the United States. Included are some of the artist’s groundbreaking works—the complete “Untitled Film Stills” (1977–80) and centerfolds (1981), plus the celebrated history portraits (1988–90)—and examples from her most important series, from her fashion work of the early 1980s to the break-through sex pictures of 1992 to her monumental 2008 society portraits.
Some of her latest images using digital montages
Sherman works in series, and each of her bodies of work is self-contained and internally coherent; yet there are themes that have recurred throughout her career. The exhibition showcases the artist’s individual series and also presents works grouped thematically around such common threads as cinema and performance; horror and the grotesque; myth, carnival, and fairy tales; and gender and class identity.
Sherman’s ground-breaking photographs have interrogated themes around representation and identity in contemporary media for over four decades. Since the early 2000s, Sherman has constructed personae with digital manipulation, capturing the fractured sense of self in modern society—a concern the artist has uniquely encapsulated from the outset of her career. As critic and curator Gabriele Schor writes on her process, ‘Sherman’s complex analysis of her face and her subtle employment of expression indicates that the working method of making up and costuming the self enables two processes: an intuitive and fluid process motivated by curiosity, and an intended process whose stimulus is conceptual and which has a ‘subject matter’.’
See and read about Cindy Sherman’s latest work here
1910’s – The Suffragette1920’s – The Flapper1930’s – The Wall Street Wife1940’s – The Riveter1950’s – The Movie Star1960’s – The Super Model1970’s – The Hippie1980’s – The Business Woman1990’s – The New Wave Feminist
Here is link to Shannon’s blog showing all her research, analysis, recordings, experimentation and evaluations
Here is link to Shannon’s blog showing all her research, analysis, recordings, experimentation and evaluations.
Since her A-level studies Shannon has continued her passion for photography and has recently completed her BA (Hons) degree in Documentary Photography at University of South Wales. During her 3-year degree she developed a number of projects based around gender identities and constructions. Shannon will deliver a presentation about her practice on Wed 14 Oct, but beforehand you need to do some research about her work so you can engage with her talk and ask some relevant questions. You will need to have an in-depth knowledge of her work as you are are required to write a comparetive essay between Claude Cahun and Shannon O’donnell.
Here is a link to her website, a short biography below and examples of key works:
I am an artist born in Jersey, Channel Islands. Currently based in Cardiff, Wales my practice explores themes around the gendered experience with a focus on femininity and masculinity as gendered traits. Through deep research and a sociological approach my work explores the self and identity.
My fascination lies with questioning society and challenging traditional views of gender through my work. My work is informed by my personal experience and through interviewing specific demographics to help gage a sociological understanding of how gender is viewed or challenged within mainstream society.
That’s Not The Way The River Flows Gender is being re-conceptualised. Our experience of gender is changing, transforming from being solely male and female, opening to a multitude of subcategories including; gender queer, non-binary, transgender and gender fluid. As we unpick the complicated narrative of gender and the generalisations that it encapsulates, we are forced to re-imagine what it is that makes us who we are and what we want or can identify as. The beginning of change starts with the self.
That’s Not The Way The River Flows (2019) is a photographic series that playfully explores masculinity and femininity through self-portraits. The work comes from stills taken from moving image of the photographer performing scenes in front of the camera. This project aims to show the inner conflicts that the photographer has with identity and the gendered experience. It reveals the pressures, stereotypes and difficulties faced with growing up in a heavily, yet subtly, gendered society and how that has impacted the acceptance and exploration of the self.
A Short Film: That’s Not The Way The River Flows A visual poem with word by me surrounding the claustrophobia of gender identity, while visuals poke fun at ideas of masculinity and femininity (2019).
Here They Stood “Remember the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take courage, join hands, stand beside us, fight with us.” – Christabel Pankhurst
The Cat And Mouse Act, formally known as the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, 1913 was formed in British Law specifically aimed at militant Suffragettes who went on hunger strike while imprisoned. The Act, passed on 25th April 1913, afforded prison guards to temporarily discharge individuals whose health was at major risk. Once in better health prisoners were informed to report back to carry out the rest of their sentence, many of whom did not conform.
The Cat And The Mice (2018) project, name derived from the Act of 1913, follows the path of Suffragettes and Suffragists alike around Cardiff in the early 1900s. It encapsulates historically significant places, now forgotten in modern city life. The project also aims to show how the efforts of those Welsh women within the Suffrage movement have allowed for contemporary women of Cardiff, specifically Riverside, the freedom to have a voice, to set up local peaceful organisations for change in the community, as well as a leading example to contemporary activists of today.
Susan’s Sleep (2018) is a short film that, when creating, became a form of therapy for me. It helped me to understand that I had a lot of unresolved trauma and for that reason and for my family I will not release the full short film but instead leave you with a trailer.
This body of work explores the traumatic experience that my family and I went through beginning on the 25th December 2016 and well into the new year. My mother was ill and on Christmas day was taken in an ambulance to the hospital as she could no longer breathe for herself. On the 27th December she was put into a medically induced coma after fighting with the NIV (Non Invasive Ventilation System). Here we spent our days by my mothers bedside in an isolated room on ICU (Intensive Care Unit). This short film is about that time in limbo, waiting each day for bad news, or any news.
By Your Bedside (2018) is a series of images that I created to compliment my short film, Susan’s Sleep. The images are quite, to reflect my own experience during the time my mother was in a coma. I went mute during this time, isolated myself and kept my emotions inside. The only time that I felt able to express myself was when I was sat by my mother’s bedside. These images convey the surreal movie-like experience I felt while waiting for my mum to wake up.
Casa Susanna: A series of polaroid portraits found at a jumble sale about 20 years after the images were originally taken in the 1960s. This was a place where men who enjoyed female dress and transgender women were able to fully be themselves without judgement. It was a kind of holiday place but with an extremely strong community that cared for one another surrounding it. Lissa Rivera. In Beautiful Boy (a chaptered series) the photographer makes images of her effeminate male partner, they have an interesting story on how he had felt so free during his time in college to dress and act as he felt confident but in the greater outside world he has reverted to sticking to the status quo and blending in as felt that he wouldn’t be accepted otherwise. Walter Pfeiffer – Carlo Joh. A collaboration between photographer and the subject where the subject brought in their own props and was involved in the creative process of how they wanted to be represented..
Clare Rae
Clare Rae, an artist from Melbourne, Australia who produces photographs and moving image works that interrogate representations of the female body via an exploration of the physical environment. Rae visited Jersey as part of the Archisle international artist-in-residence programme in 2017. She was researching the Claude Cahun archive, shooting new photography and film in Jersey, as well as running workshops.
From her research she produced a new body of work, Entre Nous: Claude Cahun and Clare Rae that was exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Australia 22 March – 6 May 2018, and subsequently at CCA Galleries in Jersey, UK, 7–28 September 2018.
In her series, Never standing on two feet, Rae considers Cahun’s engagement with the physical and cultural landscapes of Jersey, an aspect of her work that has received little analysis to date. Rae writes:
Like Cahun’s, my photographs depict my body in relation to place; in these instances sites of coastal geography and Jersey’s Neolithic ritual monuments. I enact a visual dialogue between the body and these environments, and test how their photographic histories impact upon contemporary engagements. Cahun used self-portraiture to subvert the dominance of the male gaze in photographic depictions of the female body in the landscape. My practice is invested in the feminist act of self-representation and I draw parallels between my performances of an expanding vocabulary of gesture and Cahun’s overtly performative images of the body expressing a multiplicity of identity. In this series, I tease out the interpretations inherent in landscape photography. I utilise gesture and the performing body to contrast and unsettle traditional representations of the female figure in the landscape.
See this blog post Photography, Performance and the Body for more details and context of the above artists work
Clare gave a artist talk contextualising her practice, covering recent projects that have engaged with notions of architecture and the body, and the role of performative photography in her work. Clare will discuss her research on these areas, specifically her interest in artists such as Claude Cahun, Francesca Woodman and Australian performance artist Jill Orr. Clare also discussed her photographic methodologies and practices, providing an analysis of her image making techniques, and final outcomes.
PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 1: Homework
Here is the task that Clare Rae asked participants to respond to in a workshop she delivered while in Jersey in 2017.
1. Produce a self-portrait, in any style you like. Consider the history of self-portraiture, and try to create an image that alludes to, (or evades?) your identity.
2. Produce a performative photograph, considering the ideas presented on liveness, performance documentation and Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment. ‘Captured’ vs. pre-meditated?
3. Produce a photograph that engages the body with the physical environment. Think of architecture, light, texture, and composition to create your image..
Francesca Woodman
Another site of influence to Clare Rae is Francesca Woodman. At the age of thirteen Francesca Woodman took her first self-portrait. From then, up until her untimely death in 1981, aged just 22, she produced an extraordinary body of work. Comprising some 800 photographs, Woodman’s oeuvre is acclaimed for its singularity of style and range of innovative techniques. From the beginning, her body was both the subject and object in her work.
The very first photograph taken by Woodman, Self-portrait at Thirteen, 1972, shows the artist sitting at the end of a sofa in an un-indentified space, wearing an oversized jumper and jeans, arm loosely hanging on the armrest, her face obscured by a curtain of hair and the foreground blurred by sudden movement, one hand holding a cable linked to the camera. In this first image the main characteristics at the core of Woodman’s short career are clearly visible, her focus on the relationship with her body as both the object of the gaze and the acting subject behind the camera.
Woodman tested the boundaries of bodily experience in her work and her work often suggests a sense of self-displacement. Often nude except for individual body parts covered with props, sometimes wearing vintage clothing, the artist is typically sited in empty or sparsely furnished, dilapidated rooms, characterised by rough surfaces, shattered mirrors and old furniture. In some images Woodman quite literally becomes one with her surroundings, with the contours of her form blurred by movement, or blending into the background, wallpaper or floor, revealing the lack of distinction of both – between figure and ground, self and world. In others she uses her physical body literally as a framework in which to create and alter her material identity. For instance, holding a sheet of glass against her flesh, squeezing her body parts against the glass and smashing her face, breasts, hips, buttocks and stomach onto the surface from various angles, Woodman distorts her physical features making them appear grotesque.
Through fragmenting her body by hiding behind furniture, using reflective surfaces such as mirrors to conceal herself, or by simply cropping the image, she dissects the human figure emphasising isolated body parts. In her photographs Woodman reveals the body simultaneously as insistently there, yet somehow absent. This game of presence and absence argues for a kind of work that values disappearance as its very condition.
Since 1986, Woodman’s work has been exhibited widely and has been the subject of extensive critical study in the United States and Europe. Woodman is often situated alongside her contemporaries of the late 1970s such as Ana Mendieta and Hannah Wilke, yet her work also foreshadows artists such as Cindy Sherman, Sarah Lucas, Nan Goldin and Karen Finley in their subsequent dialogues with the self and reinterpretations of the female body.
MASCULINITIES: LIBERATION THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY Through the medium of film and photography, this major exhibition considers how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructed from the 1960s to the present day. Examining depictions of masculinity from behind the lens, the exhibition brings together over 300 works by over 50 pioneering international artists, photographers and filmmakers such as Richard Avedon, Peter Hujar, Isaac Julien, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Robert Mapplethorpe, Annette Messager and Catherine Opie to show how photography and film have been central to the way masculinities are imagined and understood in contemporary culture. The show also highlightslesser-known and younger artists – some of whom have never exhibited in the UK – including Cassils, Sam Contis, George Dureau, Elle Pérez, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Hank Willis Thomas, Karlheinz Weinberger and Marianne Wex amongst many others. Masculinities: Liberation through Photography is part of the Barbican’s 2020 season, Inside Out, which explores the relationship between our inner lives and creativity.
In the wake of #MeToo the image of masculinity has come into sharper focus, with ideas of toxic and fragile masculinity permeating today’s society. This exhibition charts the often complex and sometimes contradictory representations of masculinities, and how they have developed and evolved over time. Touching on themes including power, patriarchy, queer identity, female perceptions of men, hypermasculine stereotypes, tenderness and the family, the exhibition shows how central photography and film have been to the way masculinities are imagined and understood in contemporary culture.
Here is a downloadable teaching resource that includes information, activities and tasks that will help you develop ideas.
Key Focus Areas and questions in relation to the exhibition and the concept: MASCULINITIES
1. What does it mean to be male?
2. What overarching themes do you associate with the words masculine, masculinities or male? What would you classify as hegemonic (ruling) masculine values or traits, particularly historically – e.g. power, leadership, strength, dominance?
3. What would you say are the assumed norms of masculinity today? Think of examples of what breaks or subverts these norms and find examples in the exhibition.
4. Compare expectations and perceptions of masculinity through time, society and place – where are we now and where have we come from? Look at the variety of masculine identities encompassed, often complex or even contradictory, shaped by culture and society. In addition, you could consider the word femininities in just the same way and compare commonalities or differences.
5. How much are we conditioned by the society or culture in which we live, in terms of our gender identities? Consider gender expectations from birth onwards – what messages do we receive about who we are or are supposed to be and accompanying notions of equality? Do you feel there is still pressure put on young boys to be a certain way or to conform to some perceived gender norm?
6. Consider too, the word liberation in the context of the title – how and if photography is a liberating force for the subjects of the camera’s gaze
7. Do you think photography such as that seen in the exhibition can help to pave the way for new attitudes and choices? Discuss using examples you find in the exhibition.
In 2018 the Barbican staged another ground breaking exhibition; ANOTHER KIND OF LIFE: PHOTOGRAPHY ON THE MARGINS. Touching on themes of countercultures, subcultures and minorities of all kinds, the show featured 20 photographers from the 1950s to present day, reflecting a more diverse complex view of the world.
Another Kind of Life followed the lives of individuals & communities on the fringes of society from America to India, Chile to Nigeria. Driven by personal and political motivations, many of the photographers sought to provide an authentic representation of the disenfranchised communities with whom they spent months, years or even decades with, often conspiring with them to construct their own identity through the camera lens.
Featuring communities of sexual experimenters, romantic rebels, outlaws, survivalists, the economically dispossessed and those who openly flout social convention, the works present the outsider as an agent of change. From street photography to portraiture, vernacular albums to documentary reportage, the show includes the Casa Susanna Collection, Paz Errazuriz, Pieter Hugo, Mary Ellen Mark, Dayanita Singh, Teresa Margolles, Katy Grannan, Phillipe Chancel, Daido Moriyama, Seiji Kurata, Igor Palmin and many others.
Narrative photography, also referred to as Tableaux photography often have an element of performing for the camera. See artists such as, Duane Michaels, Tom Hunter, Anna Gaskell, Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Philip- Lorca diCorcia, Sam Taylor Johnson (former Sam Taylor-Wood), Hannah Starkey, Tracy Moffatt, Vibeke Tandberg. Read also page 26 in exam booklet that lists other artists, Sandy Skoglund, Carrie Mae Weems, Deana Lawson and Laurie Simmons who are using photography to create complex narratives using staged events and artificial set ups. The historical context of this type of photography is Pictorialism – make sure you reference this in your research and provide examples from this period of photographic history and experimentation.
Duane Michaels: photo-stories eg. The Bogeyman, The Spirit Leaves the Body. A self-taught photographer, Duane Michals broke away from established traditions of the medium during the 1960s. His messages and poems inscribed on the photographs, and his visual stories created through multiple images, defied the principles of the reigning practitioners of the form. Indeed, Michals considers himself as much a storyteller as a photographer.
Tom Hunter: Headlines, Life and Death in Hackney Since 1997, Tom Hunter has turned his camera on his surrounding neighbourhood of Hackney, showing empathy without being polemic. He is known for a remarkable blend of political commentary, history of art and the technicalities of photography. Working to create photographs that are the result of an exaggerated link between newspaper headlines, paintings from The National Gallery’s permanent collection and Hackney lifestyle, Hunter often seems to ask more questions than he can answer visually.
Read more here about Tom Hunter’s work in The Guardian
Anna Gaskell crafts foreboding photographic tableaux of preadolescent girls that reference children’s games, literature, and psychology. She is interested in isolating dramatic moments from larger plots such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, visible in two series: Wonder (1996–97) and Override (1997). In Gaskell’s style of “narrative photography,” of which Cindy Sherman is a pioneer, the image is carefully planned and staged; the scene presented is “artificial” in that it exists only to be photographed. While this may be similar to the process of filmmaking, there is an important difference. Gaskell’s photographs are not tied together by a linear thread; it is as though their events all take place simultaneously, in an ever-present. Each image’s “before” and “after” are lost, allowing possible interpretations to multiply. In untitled #9of the wonder series, a wet bar of soap has been dragged along a wooden floor. In untitled #17 it appears again, forced into a girl’s mouth, with no explanation of how or why. This suspension of time and causality lends Gaskell’s images a remarkable ambiguity that she uses to evoke a vivid and dreamlike world.
Anna Gaskell
Jeff Wall
Gregory Crewdson
Philip-Lorca diCorcia
Sam Taylor-Johnson
Tracy Moffat
Untitled – May 1997 1997 Hannah Starkey born 1971
Vibeke Tandberg
PHOTO-ASSIGNMENT 2: Selfie Experiments
Choose 3-5 of these ideas below to explore and produce a range of outcomes. Remember to create blog posts that clearly show your process and where the ideas come from…
Other possibilities
Luis Cobelo
Hans Peter Feldmann – identity, status and gender
John Coplans Self Portraits 1984
Alicja Brodowicz
Hassan Hajjaj -culture clash- Moroccan Pop ArtKensuke Koike – reconstituting found portraits to create new / possible identities
Shooting through materials
Dino Kuznik shares how he shoots through household materials like grease and broken glass...See what transparent materials or objects you have lying around and see if you can use them to throw light and create a visually compelling creative self-portrait.
Dino Kuznik
Always explore, describe and explain :
who (is in the photo / took the photo)
what (is the photo about?)
why (has the image been made / displayed / connected to other images or text)
where (was the photo taken)
how was the photo taken (technical attributes)
when (was the photo taken)
LINKS to high scoring A GRADE exemplar EXAM PROJECTS
The daily grind can be a test of endurance. In Tokyo Compression, Michael Wolf recorded the extreme discomfort of Japanese commuters pressed up against windows dripping with condensation on their journeys to and from work.
In Harlem Trolley Bus, Robert Frank showed the divisions within American society in the mid-20th century. Dryden Goodwin took pictures of exhausted travellers on London night buses and wove a protective cocoon of blood capillaries around them.
Connections with film making…
The idea for this project comes from Luke Fowler‘s series of half-frame photographs recently published in the book ‘Two-Frame Films‘. The project is intended to encourage students to concentrate on the editorial aspect of photography, the selection and juxtaposition of photographic images and how this might affect the ways in which a viewer engages with the work. Fowler is better known for his work in film but has used a half-frame camera as part of his practice. This work explores the relationship between two juxtaposed images. A half frame camera exposes two shots on each 35mm frame. A roll of 36 exposures therefore produces 72 images in pairs. The resulting diptychs are still images but reference the theory of montage, first articulated by Russian film makers in the 1920s, specifically Sergei Eisenstein
An example of two frames from Sergei Eisenstein’s film ‘Battleship Potemkin’, 1925
Thinking sculpturally / 3-D options
Sculptural images – using print-outs – student example
MOCK EXAM PREPARATION: Final prints by Jan 24th 3.30pm
We expect see a selection of final outcomes from various portrait tasks and assignments. Ensure that your final images are a direct response to your chosen photographer(s) and show a clear visual link
1-2 environmental portraits
3-4 studio portraits showing different lighting techniques etc.
1-2 self-portraits from Masculinity/ Femininity
Add your images to the print folder here:
M:RadioDepartmentsPhotographyStudentsImage TransferY12 Portrait Prints Jan 2024
CONTROLLED CONDITIONS : Essentials
You will have one full day = 5 hours to complete this unit so make sure you use it productively
Complete and publish relevant blog posts as per Checklist above/ Go4School Tracking sheet and comments from teacher. BLOG SIZE images = 1000 pixels on SHORT EDGE
Produce mock versions of your final prints and describe how you wish to present them
later on…
Complete mounting all final prints and include label and velcro
Produce a virtual gallery and write an evaluation, comment on:
– How successful was your final outcomes? – Did you realise your intentions? – What references did you make to artists references – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual? – Is there anything you would do differently/ change etc?
PREPARE AND SAVE IMAGES FOR PRINTING:
File Handling and printing...
Remember when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to 1000 pixels on the Short edge for “blog-friendly” images (JPEGS)
BUT…for editing and printing when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to Short edge for “high resolution” images (JPEGS) like this…
A5 Short Edge = 14.8 cm
A4 Short Edge = 21.0 cm
A3 Short Edge =29.7 cm
This will ensure you have the correct ASPECT RATIO
Ensure you label and save your file in you M :Drive and then copy across to the PRINT FOLDER / IMAGE TRANSFER
M:RadioDepartmentsPhotographyStudentsImage TransferY12 Portrait Prints Jan 2024
For a combination of images, or square format images you use the ADOBE PHOTOSHOP > NEW DOCUMENT + PRINT PRESETS on to help arrange images on the correct size page (A3, A4, A5)
You can do this using Photoshop, Set up the page sizes as templates and import images into each template, then you can see for themselves how well they fit… but remember to add an extra 6mm for bleed (3mm on each side of the page) to the original templates. i.e. A4 = 297mm x 210 but the template size for this would be 303mm x 216mm.
Making a Virtual Gallery in Photoshop
Download an empty gallery file…then insert your images and palce them on the walls. Adjust the persepctive, size and shape using CTRL T (free transform) You can also add things like a drop shadow to make the image look more realistic…
For the 5 x weeks leading up to the Year 12 PHOTOGRAPHYCONTROLLED CONDITIONS you will need to refer to this resource pack for ideas and inspiration… “SELF -PORTRAIT and IDENTITY JAC PDF” (to find it just copy and paste the link below into the top bar of the folder icon on your screen) M:DepartmentsPhotographyStudentsResourcesPortraitureTO DO
Follow the 10 Step Process and create multiple blog posts for each unit to ensure you tackle all Assessment Objectives thoroughly :
Mood-board, definition and introduction (AO1)
Mind-map of ideas (AO1)
Artist References / Case Studies (must include image analysis) (AO1)
Photo-shoot Action Plan (AO3)
Multiple Photoshoots + contact sheets (AO3)
Image Selection, sub selection, review and refine ideas (AO2)
Studio Portraits Moodboard (include various lighting methods)
What is studio lighting and why do we use studio lighting?
Add diagrams / images of lighting set-ups too
What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide / solve
What is Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting, Chiarascuro ? Show examples
What is fill lighting?
Include your own studio portrait experiments showing a variety of lighting techniques and outcomes.
Present a series of final images in virtual gallery
Your photos….
You must complete a range of studio lighting experiments and present your strongest ideas on a separate blog post
Remember to select only the most successful images
You should be aiming to produce portraits that show clarity, focus and a clear understanding of a range of lighting techniques
Editing should be minimal at this point…we are looking for your camera skills here
But…be creative and experimental with your approach “in camera”…extremes, uniqueness and possibly thought provoking imagery that will improve your ideas and outcomes.
To get you started we are going to learn some more studio methods…using a variety of simple lighting techniques.
In most cases we can make use of natural or available / ambient light…but we must be aware of different kinds of natural light and learn how to exploit it thoughtfully and creatively…
intensity of the light
direction of the light
temperature of the light (and white balance on the camera)
Rembrandt lighting is a technique for portrait photography named after Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, the great Dutch painter. It refers to a way of lighting a face so that an upside-down light triangle appears under the eyes of the subject.
In Hollywood in the early 20th century, the legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille introduced spotlights to create more realistic effects of light and shadows into the ‘plain’ studio lighting setup that was generally in use. Rembrandt lighting is one effect that was created by this, and it became widely used in promotional photographs of film stars showing them in a dramatic and eye-catching way.
Marilyn MonroeKeanu Revees
Why use Rembrandt Lighting?
By using Rembrandt lighting you instantly create shadows and contrast – and of course, the characteristic ‘triangle of light’ beneath the subject’s eye
Rembrandt lighting adds an element of drama and psychological depth to the character of your sitter.
It’s effective, not just because it gives an individual ‘look’ to your portrait photography, but also because it acts as a photographic device to draw the eye.
You can do this in so many ways in photography – leading lines, depth of field and negative space are all methods of drawing the viewer’s eye to the focal point/subject of the image.
In portraiture, the eyes of your subject are nearly always the main point of focus. The triangle of light, placed just below the eye on the shadow side of the face, will increase the emphasis and the viewer really will be ‘drawn in’ to your image.
So, use Rembrandt lighting to create not just dramatic portrait photography, but also portrait photography that grabs the viewer’s attention and draws their eye to your subject. After all, this is the aim of portraiture – it’s all about your subject – adding in creative lighting helps to enhance the impact of the photograph.
Light set-up using one key light to the right
How to Create a Rembrandt Lighting Setup
Light: Lighting styles are determined by the positioning of your light source. Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.
Lens: Use a 35mm or 50mm if space is at a premium – or if you’re looking at including more of the subject than just the head and shoulders. A 50mm works really nicely for portraits and will give a nice depth of field if you’re shooting at a shallow aperture. But a 35mm will give you a wider point of view and is great to fit more of the body in of your subject.
Camera settings (flash lighting) Tripod: optional Use transmitter on hotshoe White balance: daylight (5000K) ISO: 100 Exposure: Manual 1/125 shutter-speed > f/16 aperture – check settings before shooting Focal lenght: 105mm portrait lens
Camera settings (continuous lighting) Tripod: recommended to avoid camera shake Manual exposure mode White balance: tungsten light (3200K) ISO: 400-1600 – depending on how many light sources Exposure: Manual 1/60-1/125 shutter-speed > f/4-f/8 aperture – check settings before shooting Focal lenght: 50mm portrait lens
Rembrandt lighting using hard light
Rembrandt lighting using soft light
BUTTERFLY LIGHTING
Butterfly lighting is a type of portrait lighting technique used primarily in a studio setting. Its name comes from the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms under the nose because the light comes from above the camera. You may also hear it called ‘paramount lighting’ or ‘glamour lighting’.
What is butterfly lighting used for?
Butterfly lighting is used for portraits. It’s a light pattern that flatters almost everybody, making it one of the most common lighting setups.
Butterfly lighting was used to photograph some of the most famous stars from classic Hollywood, and that’s why it’s also called Paramount lighting.
With it, you can highlight cheekbones and create shadows under them as well as under the neck – which makes the model look thinner.
Lighting: Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuos, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speedlights, LEDs or even the sun.
A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup and not to the quality of light – it can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want.
If you want to create a soft light, you’ll need to use modifiers. A beauty dish is perfect for glamour photography as it distributes the light evenly and smooths the skin. You can also use a softbox or an umbrella.
Instead, if you want to have hard light, you can leave the light source as it is. Alternatively, you can use grid spots to direct it and create different effects – check out MagMod gels for some creative options and examples of what hard light is used for.
Experimentation: Once you have the key light set up, it’s time to fill the shadows. You can use a reflector to bounce the light back up and soften the shadow under the chin and the one from under the nose.
To do so, position the reflector under the subject’s face. Start at waist level and see how it looks. If the shadows are still strong, move it closer to the face and so on.
Experiment with different positions to achieve different effects. You can also change the colour of the reflector. A white one will give you a neutral tone, while a golden one gives a warming overcast.
Once you’re happy with your butterfly lighting, direct the model to have a striking fashion pose or whatever the desired pose or expression you’re looking for.
Just keep in mind that the subject’s face needs to be towards the light in order to have the butterfly shadow under the nose.
CHIARUSCURO
A visual element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a bold contrast between light and dark). A certain amount of chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting where 3-dimensional volume is suggested by highlights and shadows. It first appeared in 15th century painting in Italy and Flanders (Holland), but true chiaroscuro developed during the 16th century, in Mannerism and in Baroque art.
Dark subjects were dramatically lighted by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source was a compositional device seen in the paintings of old masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
Johannes Vermeer, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, 1665—-chiaruscuro as employed by the Dutch Masters
Chiaruscuro in film: Film noir (French for “black film”), is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood’s classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.
Chiaroscuro in photography: Chiaroscuro using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.
Back light / rim light
Chiarascuro used to illuminate features
Have a look at the work of Oliver Doran a studio portrait photographer in St Helier, Jersey
Using Flash
Bouncing the flash to soften its effects
Above : An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” area…try this wherever there are white walls/ ceilings
Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios that you could explore such as…
flash “bouncing”
fill-in flash
TTL / speedlight flash
remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting)
fast + slow synch flash
light painting c/w slow shutter speeds
Evidence of Your Learning
During this unit we would expect all students to complete 2-3 blog posts detailing how you are experimenting with various lighting techniques eg REMBRANDT LIGHTING/ BUTTERFLY LIGHTING / CHIARUSCURO + SPliT LIGHTING
Rembrandt Lighting
Add information / links showing how Chiarascuro has been used since the Renaissance in painting…but also how it used now in photography and film
You must describe and explain your process with each technique…add your images to your blog as you progress, print off your successful images and evaluate your process using technical vocab and analysis skills. Think carefully about the presentation of your ideas and outcomes…compare your work to relevant portrait photographers as you develop your studio portraiture – see below
INSPIRATIONS: PORTRAITURE
Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Rankin, Nadav Kandar, Richard Avedon, Yousef Karsh, David Bailey, Mario Testino, Steve McCurry, Jill Greenberg, Nick Knight, Tim Walker, Corrine Day, Jane Bown, Rineke Djikstra, Thomas Ruff et al…
Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses.
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn’s career included work at Vogue magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique.
Salvadore Dali
John Rankin Waddell, known as Rankin, is a British photographer and director who has photographed Kate Moss, Madonna, David Bowie and The Queen. The London Evening Standard described Rankin’s fashion and portrait photography style as high-gloss, highly sexed and hyper-perfect.
Watch film where Rankin photograph a group of GCSE students and talk to them about his career and beauty in photography
Nadav Kander is a London-based photographer, artist and director, known for his portraiture and landscapes. Kander has produced a number of books and had his work exhibited widely.
As Molesworth notes, “Each of these artists has engaged portraiture—a genre of image-making as old as modernity itself—as a means of connecting themselves to other artists. The results are three bodies of work that play with the historical conventions of the genre while nibbling away at its edges.”
Aneesa Dawoojee – Gloves off: The Fighting Spirit of South London A diverse London based community bonded by strength, hardships and determination. With an underlying theme of life’s struggle and overcoming it. The journey of real Londoners bonded by a sport that sees no colour. Each person stripped away from their environment and placed against a fine art backdrop in order to take away judgements and let them speak as one voice. Compassionate visual stories that offer hope.
Portrait of Britain vol. 5 Portrait of Britain returns this year with images that define contemporary life in Britain. Alongside the many events that have shaped 2022 – the outbreak of war, record-high inflation, soaring temperatures, and the death of the Queen, to name a few. This year’s winners provide a snapshot of a frenzied year through 99 compelling portraits. Designed to illustrate the diversity of life in modern Britain, the award invites us to reflect on the multiplicity of voices and stories across the country, forming a precious historical record of British life.
Published by Hoxton Mini Press – Explore more here
Expected Final Outcomes
A Case Study and Practical Responses to a photographer who employs a range of lighting techniques
1 x Final Portrait using natural light + analysis and evaluation
1 x Final Portrait using 1 point lighting + analysis and evaluation
1 x Final Portrait using 2 point lighting + analysis and evaluation
Show you can provide evidence of head shots, cropped head shots, half body, three-quarter length and full length portraits.
Show that you can employ interesting angles and viewpoints…
Make sure you ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN YOUR BLOG
Why do we use studio lighting?
What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide / solve
What is fill lighting?
What is Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting, Chiarascuro ? Show examples + your own experiments
Consider Composition
The Triangle
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds in photography is a guideline that places the subject in the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two thirds more open.
ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS usually depict people in their…
working environments
environments that they are associated with…
“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. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography”
Paul Heartfield
2 Week Plan
Research and develop ideas
Analyse and interpret key artist examples
Plan and execute a range of photoshoots outside of school (HW)
Select and edit final images
Present and evaluate final ideas
We will be studying the history, theory and concept of environmental portraits…their purpose and role in our day to day lives too.
What to include in your Blog Post:
Introduction to Environmental Portraiture: – Create a blog post titled ‘Environmental Portraits’ – Add a Mood board: Create a mood board: Choose a range of environmental portrait photos to put into a grid of images (minimum of 9) to show your understanding of what an environmental portrait can be… You must include a range of approaches in your mood-board… – Introduction:Give an introduction to ‘Environmental Portraiture’ – define what an environmental portrait actually is. Think about the ways in which we use these portraits, and what they can say about us / reveal / conceal
Research and Analysis: – Research one photographer (Chosen by your teacher) and then pick one of their photos to analyse in depth. – Extension- research August Sander and Typologies…include specific examples of their work and show that you can analyse and interpret their image(s). –Click Here for a strong example of an artist analysis of August Sander – Click here for notes on analysing Arnold Newman’s photo of Alfred Krupp
Photoshoot Plan: – Design a mind-map / spider-gram / flowchart of your environmental portrait ideas / possibilities. – After your mind-map, create an Action Plan – Think about the ways in which we use these portraits, and what they can say about us / reveal / conceal – Think about who you could photograph – perhaps people in their home environment, work environment, hobby environment etc… – Think about how you will set up the environment so that the frame captures a narrative. -It’s also important to consider the pose, position and composition – remember that Typologies are presented as ‘Types’ and often have similar compositional elements. – Click here to see an example photoshoot plan
Photoshoots: – Conduct your photoshoots outside of school. – Upload your Contact sheet: Add your contact sheet to your blog – Selection Process: Show your selection process (use colour coding in lightroom) – Give overview of your best photos
Editing: Show your editing process to enhance the images: Cropping / Brightness & Contrast / B&W or Colour / Sepia etc
Final Images: Add your Final images and Evaluation Present your final images: in ArtSteps (at least 3 strong images, but ideally about 6-9 so you can present like a typology).
August Sander – The Face of Our Time
One of the first photographic typological studies was by the German photographer August Sander, whose epic project ‘People of the 20th Century‘ (40,000 negatives were destroyed during WWII and in a fire) produced volume of portraits entitled ‘The Face of Our Time’ in 1929. Sander categorised his portraits according to their profession and social class.
The art of Photographic Typologies has its roots in August Sander’s 1929 series of portraits entitled ‘Face of Our Time’, a collection of works documenting German society between the two World Wars. Sander sought to create a record of social types, classes and the relationships between them, and recognised that the display of his portraits as a collection revealed so much more than the individual images would alone. So powerful was this record, the photographic plates were destroyed and the book was banned soon after the Nazis came into power four years later.
Typology: A photographic typology is a study of “types”. That is, a photographic series that prioritizes “collecting” rather than stand-alone images. It’s a powerful method of photography that can be used to reshape the way we perceive the world around us.
The term ‘Typology’ was first used to describe a style of photography when Bernd and Hilla Becher began documenting dilapidated German industrial architecture in 1959. The couple described their subjects as ‘buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style’. Stoic and detached, each photograph was taken from the same angle, at approximately the same distance from the buildings. Their aim was to capture a record of a landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyes so once again, Typologies not only recorded a moment in time, they prompted the viewer to consider the subject’s place in the world.
The Becher’s influence as lecturers at the Dusseldorf School of Photography passed Typologies onto the next generation of photographers. Key photographic typologists such as Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Demand and Gillian Wearing lead to a resurgence of these documentary-style reflections on a variety of subject matter from Ruff’s giant ‘passport’ photos to Demand’s desolate, empty cities.
Typologies has enjoyed renewed interest in recent years, thanks partly to recognition from galleries including the Tate Modern who hosted a Typologies retrospective in London in 2011. With it’s emphasis on comparison, analysis and introspection, the movement has come to be recognised as arguably one of the most important social contributions of the 20th century.
What to include in your Artist Analysis:
Short Bio
Overview of the photographer’s techniques / subject. (In August Sander’s Case, include details around: Who he photographs, how he photographs them, typologies, documenting & truth telling, add a quote from August Sander
Analyse 2 pieces of August Sander’s photography: Who is in the photo? how are they posed? how are they framed? what is their gaze?
August Sander – Master Mason – 1926Arnold Newman – Leonard Bernstein-1968Igor Stravinsky, composer. New York, 1946.Credit…Arnold Newman/Courtesy of Howard Greenberg Gallery
Mary-Ellen Mark – Circus Performer – 1970
Karen Knorr produced a series of portraits, Belgravia and Gentlement of the wealthy upper classes in London
Jon Tonks, from his celebrated book, Empire – a journey across the South Atlantic exploring life on four remote islands, British Overseas Territories, intertwined through history as relics of the once formidable British Empire.Alec SothAlec Soth
Listen to Alec Soth talk about the story behind the portrait of Charles.
Vanessa Winship is a British photographer who works on long term projects of portrait, landscape, reportage and documentary photography. These personal projects have predominantly been in Eastern Europe but also the USA.
Vanessa Winship: In her series Sweet Nothings she has been taking photographs of schoolgirls from the borderlands of Eastern Anatolia. She continues to take all photographs in the same way; frontal and with enough distance to capture them from head to toe and still include the surroundings.Michelle Sank: from her series Insula – a six month residency in Jersey
Michelle Sank: Maurice from Sank’s series My.SelfSian Davey and her project Martha capturing her teenage daughter’s life on camera
Read about Siân Davey on the ways psychotherapy has informed her photography here
Sian Davey’s first book Looking for Alice explore all the tensions, joys, ups and downs that go with the territory of being in a family—and finding love for a child born with Down syndrome.
Laura Pannack is a British social documentary and portrait photographer, based in London. Pannack’s work is often of children and teenagers. Explore more of her work here
callum on the lawns – 2The Cracker – Laura Pannack
Read Laura Pannack’s best photograph: four teenagers on a Black Country wasteland here
Alys Tomlinson is an editorial and fine art documentary photographer based in London. See more of her work here
Lost Summer: These images were taken between June and August 2020. With school proms cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I photographed local teenagers dressed in outfits they would have worn to prom. Instead of being in the usual settings of school halls or hotel function rooms, I captured them in their gardens, backyards and local parks.
Class Task: Analyse and Interpret – Alfred Krupp
Use marker pens to create a poster that artculates iyour knowledge and understanding of the image below.
You will use the PhotoLiteracy Matrix to discuss technical, visual, conceptual and contextual aspects of the image…
Arnold Newman 1963.
Then add your poster and a summary to your blog
>>You can find resources here<<
M:DepartmentsPhotographyStudentsResourcesPortraitureTO DO
and here : M:DepartmentsPhotographyStudentsPlanners Y12 JACUnit 2 Portrait Photography
Look at these influential photographers for more ideas and information…
August Sander (1876 – 1964)
Paul Strand (1890 – 1976)
Arnold Newman (1918 – 2006)
Daniel Mordzinski (1960 – )
Annie Leibovitz (1949 – )
Mary Ellen Mark (1940 – 2015)
Jimmy Nelson (1967 – )
Sara Facio (1932 – )
Alec Soth
Vanessa Winship
Karen Knorr (Gentlemen, Belgravia)
Rob Hornstra
Michelle Sank
David Goldblatt
Sian Davey
Laura Pannack
Alys Tomlinson
Deanne Lawson
Thilde Jensen
Jon Tonk
Bert Teunissen
Key features to consider with formal / environmental portraits…
formal (posed)
head-shot / half body / three quarter length / full length body shot
high angle / low angle / canted angle
colour or black and white
high key (light and airy) vs low key (high contrast / chiarascuro)
Technical > Composition / exposure / lens / light
Visual > eye contact / engagement with the camera / neutral pose and facial expression / angle / viewpoint
Conceptual > what are you intending to present? eg : social documentary / class / authority / gender role / lifestyle
Contextual >add info and detail regarding the back ground / story / detail / information about the character(s) / connection to the photographer eg family / insider / outsider
Classroom activity: Environmental portrait of a student
Photo-Shoot 1– homework –due date = Mon 11th November
Take 100-200 photographs showing your understanding of ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS
Remember…your subject (person) must be engaging with the camera!…you must communicate with them clearly and direct the kind of image that you want to produce!!!
Outdoor environment
Indoor environment
two or more people
Then select your best 5-10 images and create a blog post that clearly shows your process of taking and making your final outcomes
Remember not to over -edit your images. Adjust the cropping, exposure, contrast etc…nothing more!
Remember to show your Photo-Shoot Planning and clearly explain :
who you are photographing
what you are photographing
when you are conducting the shoot
where you are working/ location
why you are designing the shoot in this way
how you are going to produce the images (lighting / equipment etc)
More Examples
Environmental portraits mean portraits of people taken in a situation that they live in, work in, rest in or play in. Environmental portraits give you context to the subject you are photographing. They give you an insight into the personality and lifestyle of your subject.
Portrait 1: This particular image was photographed by Jane Bown of Quentin Crisp at home in Chelsea in 1978. Quentin Crisp was an English writer, famous for supernatural fiction and was a gay icon in the 1970s. This image was taken in his “filthy” flat as Bown describes. In the back ground we can see piles of books on top of the fireplace shelf which represents his career as a writer and a journalist. It looks as though he is boiling water on the stove which looks out of place because the room looks as if it is in the living room. As you would not normally place a stove in your lounge. He was living as a “Bed-Sitter” which means he had inadequate of storage space, this explains why his belongings were cramped in one room.
Portrait 2: This image was captured by Arnold Newman. He is also known for his “environmental portraiture” of artists and politicians, capturing the essence of his subjects by showing them in their natural surroundings. Here is a portrait of Igor Stravinsky who was a Russian pianist, composer and musician. In this photograph, the piano outweighs the subject which is him and depicts the fact that music was a massive part of him and his life. His body language looks as if he is imitating the way the piano lid is being held up, he is using his hand as a head rest. Another element in the photograph, is that the shape of the piano looks like a musical note which again symbolises his love of music.
Portrait 3: This photograph was also taken by Arnold Newman of John F. Kennedy, an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States of America. This pictures was taken on a balcony at the White house. Mr. Kennedy isn’t directly looking into the camera, he is looking at the view outside which suggests his role as a president because at the time he was one of the most powerful man in the world. He is looking at the scenery, people and his surroundings. The image was taken at a low angle to depict the huge building and the strong lines symbolise power, dynamism and control.
Ideas for your environmental photo shoot
Who
Barber/Hairdresser
Dentist/Doctor
Postman
Market trader
Florist
Tattooist
Musician
Barista
Fishmonger
Butcher
Baker
Farmer
Cleaner
Chef/Cook
Stonemason
Blacksmith
Fisherman
Builder/Carpenter
Sportsman/Coach
Taxi driver
Where
Central Market
Fish Market
St Helier Shops
Hair salons/barbers
Coffee shop
Farms
Building Sites
Harbour
Sport centres/fields
Taxi Ranks
Offices
WHEN
You will have to think ahead and use your photo shoot plan. You may have to contact people in advance, by phone, or arrange a convenient time. (Ask if you can return later in the day).
Remember to be polite and explain what your are doing and why!
It may surprise you that most people will be proud of what they do as it is their passion and profession and will be happy to show it off!
Don’t be scared. Be brave. Be bold. Be ambitious!!!
10 Step process (this is a general list of things you should include in all projects).
Mood-board, mind-map of ideas. Definition and introduction to environmental portraits (AO1)
Statement of intent / Proposal of your own ideas
Artist References / Case Study (must include image analysis) (AO1) Arnold Newman, August Sander + one of your choice…
