Landscape and Environment.
Photo invasion. As a development piece from the camera photos I decided to try to add a sense of comedy to the pictures, as I feel those are the ones that worked out best in the previous set therefore my friend and I attempted to jump into people's pictures. There are several things that I think work well with these pictures taken, a few being the continuous person throughout (I think her hat also adds to this), the reaction of some of the public and the general typical london background. However I almost feel that to my eye they look funny as I know the aims and desired outcome for the shoot but to someone at first glance may not understand unless I present them on post cards to push the idea further. That being said I do feel the pictures worked out well, my chose of black and white simply follows the previous pictures and I feel it makes them slightly more casual, and almost as if the subject is looking back onto a past holiday. Below are all the pictures I took, and to the side are my favorite ones from the set. These are my favorites as they truly show the idea of an "invasion" on a photo opportunity. I still like the surroundings for my pictures as I feel its a typical london landmark and many people are taking photos constantly. If I had more time on this coursework I would attempt to capture different landmarks over london. However I do feel theses work well as a possible final outcome so far. |
Development towards a final outcome.
With the final deadline in sight I feel that I need to wrap up my strands into a final piece idea. I particularly like my attempt at street photography and feel that something similar would work well as a set with one main theme stringing them together. My pictures so far have been successful as they all follow a theme of taking pictures, yet I feel there are several other ideas I can explore in a urban environment. These ideas for possible sets could include: photo taking, cigarette breaks, jumping into other photographs and people looking down at their mobile phones while moving.
With the final deadline in sight I feel that I need to wrap up my strands into a final piece idea. I particularly like my attempt at street photography and feel that something similar would work well as a set with one main theme stringing them together. My pictures so far have been successful as they all follow a theme of taking pictures, yet I feel there are several other ideas I can explore in a urban environment. These ideas for possible sets could include: photo taking, cigarette breaks, jumping into other photographs and people looking down at their mobile phones while moving.
Street Photography Experiment II.
Street Photography Experiment I.
I really took an interest to the theme of street photography therefore decided to go into town with my camera and see what I could find. I didn't really set off with any real intentions, yet when I was in trafalgar square noticed a lot of people taking pictures of the landmark therefore I decided to photograph them for a kind of photo within a photo theme and feel that all the pictures would look better if they all followed the theme of the cameras. When I went It was a rainy and grey day which worked out well with the glossy effect floor. I think the ones that worked out the best are the ones where the main person is in the middle of the picture which several others around them. I also like the ones where the photographer and their subject are both in the frame, however my favourite one by far is the very top one with the three people in the centre looking down at their cameras and everything around them is slightly blurred as this really highlights the subject matters, the fountain in the back ground also has a great effect on the picture. Finally I think few that I shot of people with funny expressions on their faces work well to add a bit of humour to the set, such as the man with his baby in the pram or the person pointing his camera towards my camera. When editing, I thought that they worked better in black and white as it really brought out the dull, grey colours of the concrete surroundings.
David Hockney Exhibition. I went to the David Hockney exhibition held at the royal academy for research into other possible landscape strands. Even though his work is mostly paintings, with the exception of some photomontages. His paintings consist of the use of a lot of bright colours, paired with the usual earthy tones of the subject he is painting, yorkshire countryside. I used this idea as possible inspiration for a strand, by shooting the dales far back, trying to capture as much sky and texture as possible, as this is featured in a lot of the paintings, I then used photoshop to play around the the hue and saturation of each picture. Hockney similarly uses technology to create these paintings of the landscapes, using an Ipad, Hockney creates digital images using a lot of detail and different brush sizes and textures. From a far, these images could pass for his other hand painted ones. My pictures below are a start for a possible strand on artificial looking landscapes featuring a lot of bright colours, an idea I am quite keen on due to the contrast with the other street strand. To improve this further, I could take different sections of the picture and use different colours for different strands of grass or trees, for example. |
Intro to street art."Street photography is like gambling. You get lucky or you get nothing..." Markus Hartel. "Above all, street photography communicates empathy. It shows the elegance, and the occasional absurdities, which inhabit the lives of ordinary people". David Gibson. "To see the complexity of life on the street is for me a kind of meditation". Siegfried Hansen. "My pictures are not necessarily pretty, but they do show beautiful moments of the urban jungle". Markus Hartel. "Street photographers never switch off. You have to be constantly on the lookout for the unreal moment in the everyday". Jesse Marlow. |
Alexey Titarenko.
Personally, Alexey Titarenko's set of steet photography is one of the most interesting group I've seen so far. Each picture really highlights the nonstop insanity of a city. Alexey Ttarenko, a Russian artist and photographer, was born in 1962 in St. Petersburg. At first glance, the picture's are quite obvioulsy showing the business and fast moving pase of a city. After researching further, I found the set was taken after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and was produced to show the human condition of the people of Russia at the time and throughout the twentith centary. Titarenko uses a long exposure on his pictures to create the powerful metaphor of the change fom the past into the present. This effect also creates a ghoastly effect that is almost quite haunting to look at which gives the title of the set "City of Shadows" a relevant meaning. |
City of Shadows.The "shadows" effect and blured faces adds to the sufferning and injustice the Russian people recieved. The long exposure creates the effect of hundreds of people in one place, this again highlights just how many people took effect and how large the city is. I also feel the long exposure resembles a type of fog or grime amongst the city, which like most street photography does, singles out the dusk and dirt of the city we may not notice in our everyday lives.
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Jeff Mermelstein.
American photographer, Jeff Mermelstein, began his career taking everyday pictures of his personal life and of this that mostly intrestested him. It wasn't till he began combining these photographs with assisments he was set for major new york magasines that his work really took an exciting turn earning him many awards and titles. Since then Mermelstein has gone on to photograph countless publications and advertisments such as Samsung, Red Stripe and Clark shoes. Jeff Mermelstein's street based work is a perfect set of pictures that show the husle and busle of everyday city life, in this case New York. Even though Mermelstein's portfolio features many glossy fashion shots, he captures the grim and rawness of industrial enviroments perfectly. The photo to the left is one half of two shots called Run and catches the charcater in the action exactly, meaning he most proberly used a high shutterspeed allowing there to be no blur around the subject matter (the man). The mans dress, props and background suggest he is a businessman possibly late for a meeting or appointment and the natural day light used in the picture works well at capturing the raw enviroment and hints at the time of day, putter the subject matter into persepective. Unlike other street photos, this one does not give us a sense of lonliness or distance. This may be partly down to the busy background and the use of colour (instead of the traditional black and white used frequently that distances the audiance from the photograph). Instead of the isolated feeling, we get a sense of the real manic streets of New York city which is not just shown by the cars in the background but also by the movement of the man. Colours in photographs play a very large role in altering our feels towards the image, in this case the greys and earthy tones simple highlight the raw, dirty city. On the otherhand unlike a lot of street photos the green almost creates a warmth and natural effect, brighting the picture up. Unless we look into the facts and figures of a picture, It can be very hard to idealise when and where a pictures is taken, however in our case there are a few prompts that tells us its a modern say picture. Firstly the "FedEx" truck in the background hints at timing, the traditional New York yellow cab in the background tells us where its taken and the man in the foreground's dress suggests the picture having western origins. We already understand the picture shows a busy place but there may be deeper ideas we can think about. The running aspect of the picture could possible suggest one mans passion for his work, his everyday rush and events and that he is just one man in millions doing this on a day to day bases. If this is the case, we are then taken back to our original idea of the lonliness that life in the city can bring.
American photographer, Jeff Mermelstein, began his career taking everyday pictures of his personal life and of this that mostly intrestested him. It wasn't till he began combining these photographs with assisments he was set for major new york magasines that his work really took an exciting turn earning him many awards and titles. Since then Mermelstein has gone on to photograph countless publications and advertisments such as Samsung, Red Stripe and Clark shoes. Jeff Mermelstein's street based work is a perfect set of pictures that show the husle and busle of everyday city life, in this case New York. Even though Mermelstein's portfolio features many glossy fashion shots, he captures the grim and rawness of industrial enviroments perfectly. The photo to the left is one half of two shots called Run and catches the charcater in the action exactly, meaning he most proberly used a high shutterspeed allowing there to be no blur around the subject matter (the man). The mans dress, props and background suggest he is a businessman possibly late for a meeting or appointment and the natural day light used in the picture works well at capturing the raw enviroment and hints at the time of day, putter the subject matter into persepective. Unlike other street photos, this one does not give us a sense of lonliness or distance. This may be partly down to the busy background and the use of colour (instead of the traditional black and white used frequently that distances the audiance from the photograph). Instead of the isolated feeling, we get a sense of the real manic streets of New York city which is not just shown by the cars in the background but also by the movement of the man. Colours in photographs play a very large role in altering our feels towards the image, in this case the greys and earthy tones simple highlight the raw, dirty city. On the otherhand unlike a lot of street photos the green almost creates a warmth and natural effect, brighting the picture up. Unless we look into the facts and figures of a picture, It can be very hard to idealise when and where a pictures is taken, however in our case there are a few prompts that tells us its a modern say picture. Firstly the "FedEx" truck in the background hints at timing, the traditional New York yellow cab in the background tells us where its taken and the man in the foreground's dress suggests the picture having western origins. We already understand the picture shows a busy place but there may be deeper ideas we can think about. The running aspect of the picture could possible suggest one mans passion for his work, his everyday rush and events and that he is just one man in millions doing this on a day to day bases. If this is the case, we are then taken back to our original idea of the lonliness that life in the city can bring.
Bruce Gilden.
"If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, then it’s a street photograph".
Bruce Gilden is a an American street photographer born in 1946, he is known for his famous set of pictures taken on the streets of New York. He captures gangsters, prostitutes and everyday New Yorkers passing by. Like a lot of street photographers, Gilden plays around with humour and interesting figures to create unique street shots. In almost all of his pictures, there is a real sense of character to the streets that is built up purely on the facial expressions and clothing/looks of the passers by. Gilden talks of his use of flash in many pictures for revealing feelings of the city, the energy and the stress you find in the big cities. The fact the pictures are black and white really plays a large role in the atmosphere of the photos, creating almost a loneliness and distance of the city which I think black and white effect does nicely.
Gallery Visit- Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.
For inspiration on the project I made a trip to the national portrait gallery's annual exhibition, the portraiture prize. I visited a portraiture exhibition as through previous research i have been a lot more drawn into people in landscapes and environment rather than the traditional, nature landscapes. The gallery featured loads of thought provoking photographs contrasted by humorous ones too. The pictures below are my favourites from the exhibition and the ones that mix portraiture with environment. The first picture, Friends mourn Negus McClean by Antonio Olmos, is one of the thought provoking ones. Featuring twelve young adults in a urban environment gathered around bouquets of flowers all pilled up around a street lamp. The picture speaks a lot for itself and perfectly sends the main message across without too many distractions. At a closer look, several of the teens are in fact on their mobile phones significant to the situation as they are clearly mourning. This could show several things, mainly being the idea of the "youth today", showing emotions through technology or maybe even not showing emotions at all as they're so inwrapped in technology. The bright colours of the flowers really make the picture interesting by contrasting the dull colours of the street and their dark clothing, this could be a posible strand of street photography. This along with the rest of the pictures below really follow a theme of people in their natural environments, mixing landscape/environment with portraiture. Two predominately contrasting pictures are the girls in the school dinner hall and the Van Der Borch family portrait. The two photos differ by the purpose of the picture, the photographer is clearly observing a natural, uncontrolled setting whereas the family portrait is very posed and superficial, the photo was taken due to vanity reasons as their environment is glamourous along with their clothing. I especially like the last photograph below again due to the natural environment. David Stewart captured a typical student situation, taken in a dorm room, unposed and with natural lighting. This gives the idea of student life a very raw, unpolished image. This is further pushed by the boys poses behind, their clothes and their facial expressions. This way Stewart captured a very traditional human action/idea without glamourising it like family portrait.
Slinkachu.Slinkachu is a 28 year old male artist from the UK, who's mostly known for his ongoing project "little people" which started in 2006. He says that this project is the product of street art combined with photography, where in which he uses little train set figurines and places them on the street in humorous situations. Slinkachu has also been said to leave them there once he has captured the moment. This is down to the fact that Slinkachu wants he work to show the scale of the huge city in comparison to the figures, and along with the humor, shows that they are lost and lonely in our giant world. I find Slinkachu's work fascinating as it shows that street art doesn't just have to consist of drawing on walls. My favorite one of his set so far is the man facing the cash point (Ground Zero). The photo was most likely taken with macro in order to capture all the sharp details on the figure as well as the letters of the cash point and as the picture is a still life, a high shutter speed would not be necessary here. The colours in the picture are all very grey, earthly and dull colours, further highlighting the street theme. The shapes created also do this as there are artificial shapes created except for the figures place, therefore it all looks very natural around the figure, as it he is supposed to be there. This idea is pushed further by the stone texture of the wall in front of him, making it a perfect natural backdrop for the picture's theme. The subject matter in the picture is the little man getting cash out at the Natwest cash point, we can tell this by the use of negative space around him, highlighting the main focal point. At first glances, we can see a picture of a man getting money out, but when we look closer into the themes and ideas behind it we can address some key topics on city life. The man is wearing a suit, suggesting that his is a business man. His size compared to the world around him could tell us, as Slinkachu suggests, the lonelyness of the big city. I think this is further tested by his clothing as we can really imagine this man commuting to work everyday back and fourth and the loneliness he may feel. However if we read more into the picture, we could possible understand a message the artist may be trying to put across. The photo is called ground zero. Does this suggest that this scene may be set in New York? If so, the picture has a whole new side to it, maybe suggesting that this man may have been a victim of 9/11 commuting to work that day, maybe suggesting that his stop for money could have possibly saved his life? Or maybe Slinkachu is going back to his original idea of the little person in the big world relating to the hundreds of people that lost there lives on 9/11 so to the world this one man is tiny.
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"I want people to be able to empathise with the tiny people in my works." |
Firework photography, long exposure experiments.
Andreas Gursky.
Andreas Gursky is a German photographer known for his detailed landscape visual art and having one of his photos as the most expensive ever sold. He takes his pictures mostly from unconventional angles such as birds eye view. The photo on the right is call 99 cent II Diptychon, taken in two parts in 1999 of a supermarket. Gursky's aim was to alter the perspective of the isles and capture the amount of colours. The photo relates to the theme of commercialism as there is so much focus on the amount of product in the supermarket, and how appealing it all looks, which also has part to do with the bright contrasting colours all placed next to each other which also in a way creates a lot of artificial straight lines within. The photo is presented and mounted of acrylic glass and has a size of around 200 by 300cm. The picture is visually stimulating and does not create an uncomfortable feel when looked at.I also feel that the subject doesn't look real, almost like a scene of toys or even inside of a computer chip. As the picture is very bright, the shutter speed was probably quite slow and taken on a tripod, too make sure a sharp picture is captured. I think the mood of the picture is very busy due to all individual items placed together, plus the bright colours also create a positive/happy feel. |
Gursky Response.
I attempted a few experiments in the style of Andreas Gursky and focused on a crowd of people at a football stadium, trying to get them as detailed as possible. Overall I am happy with now my pictures turned out as a first response yet feel that I can improve them in several areas. Firstly I think that the photos are too small as I had to crop them in order to get the Gursky effect, however while doing so blurring the subjects and reducing the quality of the pictures. In a way the last picture works quite well with the blur as it makes the colours more effective. In photoshop I used the posterize tool which created an almost cartoon effect too the people, on the other hand the picture also wouldn't work well as a large picture because of the quality. To resolve this problem I could use a lense with more of a zoom so the subjects will be more in focused and thus reducing the amount of cropping I'd have to do afterwards. I will also have to focus on the lighting of the crowd too as if its too dark it becomes harder for the subjects to be able to stand out. Lastly I could also consider shooting other subject matters in large quantities such as food or other objects, however I do think people work well as there a subject usually photographed in full sized, now made to look small like in Slinkachu's set.