Getting influenced by books

For one of our assignments we had to read Chapter 2 - once upon a time from the book 'the photograph as contemporary art'.
I found this very interesting to read and i have almost seen a different side to Tableau photography. I like the way Jeff Wall in particular stages his photographs to look as though they havn't been thought about, as though the scenes have really happened and they are real life situations. For example 'insomnia', this could be a situation where a man has either collapsed from exhaustion or many he could have been taking drugs from the open cupboard which could maybe suggest thats where he got the drugs from. From the titile 'insomnia' the first example of collapsion from exhaustion this could be what Jeff Wall was trying to put over to the audience. He has staged the scene very well, with the position of the chair on the left, the table and door and cupboard where they are almost directing our eyes to the man on the floor. This is when compostion of the scene comes into play. 'The layout of the interior acts as a set of clues to the events that could have led up to this moment', I like this quote as it almost explains the photo and yet doesn't give away the meaning of it or what has actually happened. The lack of homely possesions and the cold colours that have been chosen for this photograph almost tell us the charatcer of the man layed on the floor. It's as though we are watching a play and yet have missed out the start and ending of it, we are just surrounded and almost possessed by this moment. We begin to have feelings and emotions towards the photo and the man now in his insomniac state. We want to know what has happened to him and what will happen to him after this freeze frame of the 'play'.

Moving on from Jeff Wall you begin to understand the ideas and the time that these photographer's have to make such a realistic and meaningful scene and photo in which we can relate to and have emotions for because these scene are everyday living of a normal down-to-earth person. Thats what I love about Tableau photography.

Christopher Stewart

Thomas Demand

Eventhough I liked Tableau Photography, I didn't really like Thomas Demand's photographs as I find them very unpleasing as I like the idea of the staged photographs to look as though they have been taken on the off chance and so they give you a story behind them, like that of documentry photographs, whereas Thomas Demand changes the whole idea of scened photography in how he makes them very obvious that they have been staged, for example, in the photo above he has left the toilet roll present within the photo in which shows people thatthe photo has been staged. In my opinion Tableau Photography should look as though the photos are documentry photographs. I don't like the way in which he works as I find it makes scened photography unworthy as he shows people how Tableau photography is made to look like documentry photos.

Lights! Camera! Action! - making film posters

For this task I decided to create a film poster from the 'gothic' genre. I looked at many different film posters that had been used in the past, in the 20th century. Here are 3 examples of which influenced the design of my poster:

I wanted to create a sort of possessed but yet haunted scene within my poster, which I thought would be a great effect. I did initially want to add faded sort of candles or dripping candle wax down the side of the bridge but when I actually attempted this in photoshop it looked quite unrealistic, so I decided to stick to the simple, yet spooky design of my original poster.

Following in William Eggleston's footsteps

William Eggleston is an American photographer who is known with making colour photography a recognised artistic way of expressionism in which people can relate to. His early photographic efforts were inspired by the work of Robert Frank, and Henri Cartier-Bresson's, 'The decicive moment'.

William Eggleston's work is characterized by its ordinary expression and how it's been saturated just past maximum to make his photos have that Retro feeling to them. He has a unique ability to find beauty, and masses amounts of color, in ordinary surroundings, for example, a row of country mailboxes or a convenience store - all of these ordinary scenes give impact to the photos in which people love and can relate to by the rich expression of colours and realism of his photographs. He sees the beauty and uniqueness of the everday world.

I like William Eggleston's work as I can see these ordinary scenes in which you may go by everyday as unqiue and expressive artworks. Each photos gives impact of a different situation of everyday life and each give a bit of individuality. I like how he pushes the saturation just past boiling point so that you get the faded, sort of retro colours within the photos, I have tried to create this same feel within my photographs as well as William Egglestons uniqueness and American feel.

Here are some of my photographs inspired by William Eggleston's work:

This series of photographs has been my best so far as I really liked this task and was able to respond to it much better than that of the others previous as this is the style of which I usually represnt my work within. I like the style of William Eggleston as its very playful and has that retro appeal to it.

By increasing the saturation of the photographs above I have been able to replicate the style and deep yet almost bright colours that William Eggleston uses within his work.

The way I have been able to capture the two girls jumping, above, is a great element to the photograph and really brings it alive and creates a realistic feel to it. The various colours within the photograph gives depth to it and it's a great response to William Eggleston's work. He has been a great inspiration to me.

Experimenting with photographer's styles

As a response to my timeline of the photograph, I wanted to experiment with a few photographers styles and so for my first experiment I was influenced by Yokomizo and her 'Stranger' series of photographs;

This is where Yokomizo selected the subjects' addresses and then wrote an anonymous letter asking if the recipiant would stand at a particular window, alone, with the room lights on, at a specific time of night so that she could photograph them from the street. If they did not want to participate then they simply shut the curtains. I took this influence and used car windows instead of house windows as i wanted to make the photos my own and not just copy another photographer's work.
Here are some photos which I took:

Eventhough I experimented with Yokomizo's style, with my photos you can also link them with a man called Oscar Fernandez Gomez who had his own photography exhibition in Brighton due to Martin Parr who saw his work and immediately saw something special within it. Oscar Fernandez Gomez's photos were mainly what he had taken while out and about in his taxi. His photography was just a hobbie in which has now became quite famous. These photos, above, link very well with his work as he takes photos from inside his taxi out onto the street whereas mine was taken on the street looking into people's cars but both have the shape of the window panel within them.

Here is one of his photographs:

Looking back at the photograph's history

The two pictures above, were made in photoshop, which are to show how the photograph has changed and developed overtime with photographers using different materials, styles of camera and adding their own personal techniques to the photos to make them their own and unique. It's almost a timeline of the photographs life so far, how it has developed and been processed differently overtime in order to end up where the photograph is today within technology.

Showing myself through photographs

The three wise Giraffes - Marwell zoo

Giraffe's face - Marwell zoo

Snow leopard - Marwell zoo

Stained glass window in Beaulieu Abbey

The photographs above are what I have taken overtime when out and about with my camera. I decided to to add these photos to my blog as they fit in with the 'animal' theme in which connects with my previous post, 'what's personal to me?'.

The photograph of the close up of the Giraffe above is really intricate in detail in which I really like about it as you can even see the hairs sprouting out of the Giraffe's nose. It is also a quirky and clear response while on my visit to Marwell Zoo.

What's personal to me?

 Space, Texture, Line, Colour (left to right)

Pattern, Shape, Form, Tone (left to right)

These pictures are a duplicate project to 'Elements of a photograph', but instead of using random photos that show the different elements, I have used photos that express myself within them, for example, I used a sunflower for colour as sunflowers are my favourite flower e.t.c. Within these 8 photographs you can see a lot about myself, I had to choose from many photographs to narrow them down to 8 as I have alot of things I like. These 8 photographs include my favourite animal, objects, natural loves and memories from my past that remind me of home. As you can see I have also placed the photographs into patterns and colours of which are similar, for example, in the 'pattern, shape, form and tone' set of photographs I have kept the bronse colour throughout the photos as well as the giraffe print. I wanted to do this theme in these photos as I find that it is more pleasing to the eye than adding all different colours and themes together as you wouldn't know where to look.

Elements of a photograph

Space, Texture, Line, Colour (left to right)

Pattern, Shape, Form, Tone (left to right)

To learn all the elements of a photograph I decided to create a 'visual brainstorm' in which I took a picture of what each element represents. For example, 'form' is a photograph that shows tone around a 3D object, e.g. the swan above.

I think that this experiment went quite well as I can tell quite clearly which photograph represents each element.

Looking back at old memories

Above is a Famous artwork by Mimo Rotella. I was very much inspired by this picture as it reminded me of a narative of someones life as you have two generations within the picture.

 To create his artworks, he would go out at night armed with a penknife in which he would rip posters and billboards but also pieces of the metal framing to make that ripped feel within his art. Later on in his career he bagan gluing advertisements of magazines together and then begin ripping through the pages, this was a much smaller canvas than what he began with in his earlier career of ripping billboards.

Once looking at the picture above, I decided to create my own artwork inspired by Mimo rotella but instead I used my own picture of my memories. To create this collage I used photoshop to layer 20 photos on top of each other and then by using the 'lasso' tool I started to generate this ripped effect throughout the collage, just like Mimo Rotella would rip through billboards. This task was to experiment with using photoshop and getting used to how it works with layers, selecting, adjustments, resolution, e.t.c. I found that this experiment helped me alot, eventhough I have used photoshop before I learnt alot about it and I now feel much more comfortable when using it.

Calling out for my Grandad

This is a picture of my nan and grandad. They were only 20 at the time of the photo. They could be anyone's nan and grandad, but they symbolise happiness and joy, both of which you can see in their faces. But this picture, together with the picture below tell a big story within my life. This picture was taken just a few years after they were married, so about 48 years ago. They would just be starting their life together, full of future adventures and experiences. To me this photo is a part of my history and is very sacred to my nan as well.

Here is another picture, my nan on her own. This photo is my response to the previous photo. I wanted to express my emotion to the previous photo. Unlike other children I never got to see my grandad and he never got to see me, and so to take a this photo, I feel that I have expressed my own feelings towards this part of my history. To capture this photograph, I went back to the same place, which was my great nans house, with my nan. Here you can see that the window in the background is the same in both pictures. I have also attempted to capture my shadow within the image which connects myself to the person, of whom I don not know, was taking the photograph of my Grandad and Nan.

Competing for the Guardian

As a starter, to get me into the photography spirit, I decided to take part in the Guardian's weekly competition, of which you get given a topic and then have to send your response to the Guardian's home office. However I didn't win any of the competitions that I entered but I think that for my first experimental task, I completed it quite well as the photographs fit within each of the topics, in which show my personal style within them as well as a quirky response.

British Summer

'A close up shot of a sunflower, showing only its petals and the clouds in the sky'.

The composition of this photograph is very aesthetically pleasing, drawing your eye to the left of the photograph and then to the blue sky in the background. The brightness of the photograph makes it have that summery feeling to it.

Angles

'A spiral staircase descending from where I was standing. I thought that it was very appropriate for 'Angles'.

The photograph above is quite interesting as it draws the eyedown the stairway and is also visually appealing eventhough all of the tones are different vectors of grey.

Pairs

'I went to monkey world and thought what a great opportunity to take a 'pairs' photograph. Here is two gorillas which looks as though the picture is a mirror image.'

I like the way this photograph acts like symmetry, as though the Gorilla is looking in the mirror. The green background gives a good contrast to the blackness of the Gorilla.

Teenagers

'Two teenagers having fun at Bournemouth beach while enjoying the hot sun'.

This photograph reminds me of children and how they splash each other at the beach, but these two teenagers are just having fun and reminding themselves of their youth in the sun. I also like the compostition of the photo and how the two people within it are equally balanced. They are each the same distance from the edge of the photograph.