04.10.13 - America in Photography
Throughout todays lecture we talked about and looked at many different photographers who's work played vital roles within the notable key moments of American History.
Matthew.B.Brady and Alexander Gardner - These two photographers are best known for their photographs of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and the execution of the conspirators to Lincoln's assassination on the 7th July in 1863.
The images above are just two of the photographs that Brady and Gardner took on the day of the execution. The images are both very powerful because of the way they have been captured but also because of the story they are telling.
The next photographs we looked at are all linked together in the way of Wilderness Landscape Photography.
Carlton.E.Watkins - was a noted 19th-century California photographer. He is notable for his series of conservation photographs of the Yosemite Valley in the 1860s. Also by looking at his work we can see that his work greatly influenced the work of Ansel Adams.
Ansel Adams - American photographer and environmentalist. His black and white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park.
From looking at Watkins images and then looking at Adams image we can see how they are closely related and how one was greatly influenced by another. Both their work is very well done, all parts, foreground and background are pin sharp.
Paul Strand - American photographer and filmmaker who helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century. Strand is regarded as a modernist photographer, we can see this by the landscape images that he produced.
Next we moved on from looking at photographers who did Landscape Photography and onto Documentary Photographers.
Walker Evans - American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration, documenting the effects of the Great Depression.
Dorothea Lange - Like Evans Lange too was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. Lange's photographs humanized the consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.
These images from Evans and Walker are so simple yet so effective, they show exactly what Evans was trying to put across about how sad the Great Depression time was.
Lewis Hine - American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform, social change. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States.
One of the reasons as to why I think and feel that these documentary photographs are so powerful is because all the photographers have photographed people and photographed them front on so we can see all of their facial expressions and how they really feel.
Annie Leibovitz - we have added Leibovitz into this mix of documentary photographers because some of her work was profoundly influenced by Hine in her Olympic Portraits.
We can see that there is a resemblance in these two photographers work by the way the people in the images are stood and looking at the camera but always by the way the photographers have constructed the images.
From looking at photographers who photographed landscapes we moved by looking at the "New Topographic's", this is an exhibition of Man - Altered Landscapes that was presented in 1975 in the ICP gallery in New York. This exhibition included photographers like -
- Lewis Baltz - His work is focused on searching for beauty in desolation and destruction. Baltz images describe the architecture of the human landscape, offices, factories, and parking lots. His pictures are the reflection of control, power, and influenced by and over human beings.
- Robert Adams - is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. His work first came to prominence in the mid-1970s through the book The New West (1974).
- Bernd and Hilla Becher - were German artists working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images, or typologies, of industrial buildings and structures.
Bernd and Hilla Becher works relates a lot to Pop Art work that Andy Warhol produced. This is because of the way they presented their work in the box/grid formation.
- Stephen Shore - is an American photographer known for his images of banal scenes and objects in the United States, and for his pioneering use of colour in art photography.
Next we went on to looking at Post - War American Photography. Here are the following photographers whose work we looked at.
- Robert Frank - is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 book titled "The Americans", was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and nuanced outsider's view of American society.
- Lee Friedlander - is an American photographer and artist. In the 1960s and 70s, working primarily with 35mm cameras and black and white film, Friedlander evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of his photographs including fragments of store-front reflections, structures framed by fences, posters and street signs.
- Gary Winogrand - was a street photographer known for his portrayal of the United States in the mid-20th century.
This image is a very clever image because of the framing of the image, without that framing and allowing more people and buildings to be in the image, it would say and mean something completely different to the viewers.
Next we looked at Duane Michals - His work concentrated upon photographing social themes. He combined writings, images and humour to help create his work and comment on the social themes.
I like these images because of the cleaver way he put his work together. The story board way of showing his images is very cleaver because we get to see the whole story in an easy way and the way that he intended.
Another photographer whose worked we looked at was a photographer named Ogle Winston Link - He is best known for his black and white photography and sound recordings of the last days of locomotive railroading.
I really love this work of Ogle Winston Link's. Its very impressive by the amount of work that went into his photographs. He only had a limited time scape to photograph each screen and it made it that little bit more harder to photograph because he lift all of his images with flash.
Next we looked into the work of Gregory Crewdson - Crewdson was an American photographer who was well known for his elaborate constructed home scene photographs.
Crewdson's images are so good because they "Compressed Narratives" We as the viewers get to create these different stories within our minds just by looking at the images that he creates so well.
Here below is short video of Gregory Crewdson talking about his work, the way he makes pictures and why he makes pictures.
When looking at Crewdson's work and the pictures he produced we saw similarities with his work to that of scenes out the film "Vertigo". Here below is a scene from that film and a scene that we can see very strong influences to Crewdson's work.
And lastly the last photographer we looked at is Alex Soth. Soth is an American photographer from Minnesota. His work is classed as contemporary and very modern. His photography has a cinematic feel with elements of folklore that hint at a story behind the image.
11.10.13 - Professional Practise
Throughout todays lecture we looked mainly at 3 different photographers work. Their different came under 3 headings, they are : -
- Documenrty
- Pure Art/Still Cinema
- Experimental
The 3 different photographers that we looked were Simon Roberts, Gregory Crewdson and Fabian Oefiner.
Simon Roberts (Documentary) - Simon Roberts is a British photographer based in Brighton, UK. He originally studied a BA Hons Degree in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield, a subject which has informed his subsequent photographic practice. After gaining a diploma from the National Council for the Training of Journalists and a period working as a magazine photographer, Roberts has spent the past decade dedicated to long-term self-generated projects. Often employing expansive landscape photographs, his approach is one of creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which communicate on important social, economic and political issues.
Roberts is a Documentary photographer who shot all of his images on a large format camera, which all images were shot from on top of a camper-van which Roberts drove all over to capture his images.
The projects of Robert's that we looked at within the lecture were "Election Project" and "We English". First was "Election Project" - In 2010 Simon Roberts was selected as the official British Election Artist, an appointment made by the UK Parliament Committee on Works of Art, to create an historic record of the 2010 General Election. Traversing the length and breadth of the country in a motorhome during the official 24 days of electioneering, Roberts aimed to capture as many political parties, in as wide a variety of constituencies as possible. In the spirit of We English he continued to use a tripod-mounted, large format plate camera, often shooting from the top of his vehicle. This allowed him a wide field of view, far removed from the up close and personal shots that are familiar from news media. Here below are just a selection of photographs to represent this work -
The second project of Simon Robert's was "We English" - Photographing ordinary people engaged in diverse pastimes, Roberts aims to show a populace with a profound attachment to its local environment and homeland. He explores the notion that nationhood – that what it means to be English – is to be found on the surface of contemporary life, encapsulated by banal pastimes and everyday leisure activities. The resulting images are an intentionally lyrical rendering of a pastoral England, where Roberts finds beauty in the mundane and in the exploration of the relationship between people and place, and of our connections to the landscapes around us. Again below are some photographs to represent this body of work.
Gregory Crewdson (Pure Art/Still Cinema) - is an American Photographer who is best known for elaborately staged scenes of American homes and neighbourhoods. When asked "what is the process of making your images?" Crewdson gave the answer of " There are 2 distinct ways of working in terms of the way i make pictures. One is on location. So on location, we are dealing the actuality, we are dealing with real neighbourhoods or townships,or nature. Then, the other way working is on the soundstage, which is essentially the beginning from nothing and building up the entire world of the picture."
Crewdson also says "the final step in all this, for the soundstage and location photographs, is Post - Production. In fact, I joke that i divide my life into three distinct sections - Pre - production, Production and Post - Production. In Pre- Production, its like everything is possible. It all exists in the imagination, so theres a great sense of expectation and hope and possibility.
Here are some images to show his work -
Fabian Oefner (Experimental) - Oefner is a curious investigator, photographer and artist, whose work moves between the fields of art and science. His images capture in unique and imaginative ways natural phenomena that appears in our daily lives, such as sound waves, centripetal forces, iridescence, or the unique properties of magnetise ferroliquids. His exploration of the unseen and poetic facets of the natural world is an invitation, as he says, "to stop for a moment and appreciate the magic that constantly surrounds us".
After looking and talking about his work, we watched a TED talk video of him demonstrating how he produces some of his work.Here below is the video we watched -
After looking at these different photographers and the work the create, how they create them and what equipment they use to create them, we looked at a list of things we as photographers should use as a sort of "tick list" for when we are creating our images out of shoots.
Technical Talking Points -
Shoot Planning
Weather, location analysis, shadows and highlights, studio preparation, assistants and helpers, transport, prop management, models, hair and make-up, equipment prep, materials, weather protection, permissions, legality, ethics, sundry items.
Exposure
Metered or camera determined. Bracketing, checked on site or tethered if digital. Pre-shoot, or film clipping if film. Histogram reading. Storage media safety and back up.
Lens selection
Prime or zoom, wide, normal or telephoto perspective. Aperture suitability for scene and subject depth. Hyperfocal distance. Filter or hood needs
Camera
Temperature and humidity, ISO selection, card formatting, White Balance or Kelvin. File format, exposure mode (MASP), stabilisation on or off, focussing auto or manual, Tripod, release, what’s in the bag?
Post –production
Workflow, back-up, sifting, storage, sharpening, pre-sets, post- production data recording.
Output and presentation
Portfolio, protection, print storage
Next we had a session that student led based - here we discussed photographers and their work that we have come across ourselves. we looked at 2 different photographers called Andrew Brooks and Tim Tadder.
Andrew Brooks -
Even on sunny days, a rarity in Manchester, England, photographer, digital artist and film-maker Andrew Brooks spends hours in a darkened studio striving to show us the bigger picture.
Weeks, months, sometimes years pass by as he re-touches picture after picture, to create the perfect moment for us, the viewer, to fall headlong into.
In recent years his vision has flourished and evolved into large panoramic scenes of nature and forensically detailed cityscapes.
This gives his work a timeless and fantastical appeal capturing the imagination of the public and landing high-profile international projects such as the Hidden City Series and commissions by the BBC.
In his work with the Hidden projects he explores the unseen sides of cities to create images that make citizens, city planners, councils, captains of industry and magazine editors see their home with fresh eyes.
In recent years his vision has flourished and evolved into large panoramic scenes of nature and forensically detailed cityscapes.
This gives his work a timeless and fantastical appeal capturing the imagination of the public and landing high-profile international projects such as the Hidden City Series and commissions by the BBC.
In his work with the Hidden projects he explores the unseen sides of cities to create images that make citizens, city planners, councils, captains of industry and magazine editors see their home with fresh eyes.
Here are some of his images that he created for one of his projects called "Secret Cities".
Tim Tadder - Tim worked for newspapers in Baltimore, Colorado, and San Diego as a photojournalist, before turning his sights on commercial and editorial photography in 2005. Since then he has been commissioned to make heroic portraits some of the world's most interesting humans, for example George W Bush, (liberal Tim did want to have a Beer with him....) and Bill Gates (he cringed at the sight of his iPhone and mac book pro) Personal highlights include working with Michael Phelps, Kid Rock, Ice Cube, and Tom Brady (Tim's wife keeps a copy of the photo in her wallet, is that weird?).Best known for his powerful portraits and high action intense sports imagery Tim has enjoyed the privilege of working with great creatives creating award winning campaigns (Communications Arts Photo Annuals, Graphis Golds, Kelly Awards, Archive Showcases, Addy's etc) for global brands like, Adidas, Budwieser, McDonalds, Under Armour, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Gatorade, Powerade, Sears, Craftsman, Mercedes Benz, Bud Light, Microsoft, Sony, Gillette and many more.
The work of Tim Tadder's that we looked at in our lecture was the work he produced called "Water Wigs". Here are some of the images -
19.10.13 - British Photography Links
In past lectures we looked at American Photography and Photographers but this week we looked at the other side of this and started to look at British Photography and Photographers.
In some of our research looking into American Photography we looked at video clips and how they influenced some photographers work. So to start off this lecture we looked at British Cinema.
We looked at 3 different film clips -
- Billy Liar
- Saturday Nights and Sunday Morning
- The Ladykillers
After looking at these British Cinema clips and the difference that there is between British and American Film, we moved on to looking at British Photographers. First we looked at the work of Martin Parr. Instead of looking at his photography work - his still images, we looked at his film work he created. The films we watched were Weymouth, Blackpool, Whitchurch and Wonky Wipers. Here below are the links for these films.
I really enjoyed these films because they are so true to life and real. We all know and can relate to people in to his films. The are truly are BRITISH!
Next we moved on to looking at Simon Roberts. we have looked at his images before but we looked at them again because he plays a key part as a British photographer.
Throughout looking at the work of these British Photographers we wrote on the bored some of the thoughts we had that relate to British Photography - here are points we came up with -
- Class (social)
- Gender
- Responsibility (social)
- Eccentricity
- Social Cohesion
- Resilience
- Zenophobia
- Humour (`Ironic, Sarcastic)
Next we looked at Tony Ray Jones. Jones died when he was still quite young, but still made an impact on photography with the work he produced with Martin Parr. They both produced an exhibition called "Englishness Celebrated".
The next British Photographer we looked at was Paul Graham. Graham is an English fine - art photographer whose work has been exhibited, published and collected internationally. The work we looked at that Graham produced was the work of people waiting in the waiting rooms of dole offices in the recession.
Graham when working would chose a subject that he was deeply intrested in and then would submerge himself into it. He would also use a film camera and colour film, this is so he could capture the sharpness of every colour. Another body of work that he created was called the "The Great North Road" - when looking at this work we can tell that he was a British Photographer but was greatly influenced by American Photography and Photographers.
Another Photographer we looked at was Chris Killip. Killip is well known for his gritty black and white images of people and place. In 1977 he became a founder, exhibition curator, and advisor at the Side Gallery, Newcastle, and worked as its director for 18 months. He produced a body of work from his photographs in the northeast of England, published in 1988 as In Flagrante. These black and white images, mostly made on 4×5 film, are now recognised as among the most important visual records of living in 1980s Britain.
And lastly to finish off the lecture we looked at the work of Tom Wood. Wood is a street photographer working in England, particularly Merseyside (1978–2001). He has had solo shows, and his work has been collected in five books.
Within todays session, we discussed what each of us were doing for the final outcome of out Professional Practise module.
For my Professional Practise I will be linking my idea into the "Sign of the Times" module that Andy set us in the first week.
My images will be of my Grandad. The images will show him as person, his house, his belongings and the different hobbies he has.
Here below is a mind map of the different ideas I have come up that I could take a picture of, for the final images of this module.
I have chosen this theme for a module because it is personal to me. With photography and Photographs I like and enjoy photographs more if i can relate to them on a personal level. Photographs with people in them inspire me more as a photographer, and so by photographing my Grandad, I thought that it would make for a good theme and that many people can relate to because everybody has Grandparents.
Research -
While researching my topic of "My Grandad", the research that I used that was most beneficial to me with this specific theme, was that of Martin Parr.
I used Martin Parr's work for my research because he has done work in the past that would relate to my chosen theme, The body of work of Martin Parr's that relates to mine is his "Sign of the Times".
"Signs of the Times" is a photographic project about personal taste in the British home. 50 households were chosen featuring a range of age, gender, racial background, social class, region and type of personality.
Here below are some of the photographs of Martin Parr's from this body of work.
I used these images as research because they have the same look and feel that I wanted my final images to have. They have a minimalist feel to them, not much is happening within the image but just by looking at them you can create a whole story what may have happened within those rooms and what type of people could occupy them.
For my final images I want this same feel, I want to be able to photograph the furniture fittings within my Grandad's room, and for the viewer to be able to create a story within their mind about the who my Grandad is and what type of person he is.
As another side and to add another dynamic to my final images, instead of just photographing my Grandad's rooms I also wanted to photograph him. I Want to be able to photograph him in an honest, truthful and relaxed way, no fake or unrealistic way of posing for the camera. I wanted to show him in his true light, doing the everyday things which he usually does.
Here are some of the images that I took of my Grandad and his personal belongings.
As another part of this Professional Practise module we had to, while taking our images, use a different or new technique that we hadn't used before.
As a professional photographer when I have finished at university I would like to concentrate on Family Portrait images. Family portraits when it comes to editing images is a very time consuming process and the software I usually use is Photoshop but to use a new technique and be fitting with the brief, I have decided to use Light room as my new technique. Using Light room as my new technique will be much easier and beneficial to me in producing images in the future.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a digital asset management and digital image processing app developed by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X, designed to assist users in managing large quantities of digital images and doing post production work. Lightroom combines photo management and editing in one interface.
It is not a file browser like Adobe Bridge, but rather an image management application database which helps in viewing, editing, and managing digital photos.
Here below are some screen shot images that show the Light Room layout and the different steps I took to edit my final images. The steps I took were "Import", "Film Strip", "Histogram", "Basic" and "Navigator".
While editing my final images, I only used the "Basic tools", these are thing like White Balance, Temperature, Tint, Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation.
I only used these basic tools because I wanted my images to look real and simple, not over edited so to look unreal and fake. I didn't want to make any drastic changes to them. I wanted the edit changes to still be in keeping with the theme.Here below are my 8 final Images.
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