Edward Hopper

I came across the work of Edward Hopper by complete chance while looking through another artsits blog. Hopper was an American painter in the 19th and 20th centuries, working mainly with watercolours. There is a clear resemblance to the work of Vermeer, especially in the sense of lighting as we see similar features used both of their works.

Okay, so the scene within the frame is reversed, but the light being cast in from the window or doorway is so impressive, and in the second painting really illuminates the face of the woman much like how Vermeer used to work, and if we look at the painting below by him we see the similarities.

Lighting the sublime...

I couldn't go through this brief without looking at Gregory Crewdson and his Vermeer inspired images.





The two images above in particular have Vermeer like qualities. The light is being directed from left to right, illuminating something, much like the light from the window in the paintings. The images themselves have an almost paint like quality to them in the way that they look so surreal.



What i'm most interested in however, is the way that the images show a sublime moment in time, which is illuminated by the constructed light source. They are so fascinating and beautiful in the way they appear, and within them there is so much happening, so much detail and narrative. This is a quality that I want to experiment with my photographs, and try to contstruct a scene, right down to the last detail, which depicts a dramatic and open ended narrative scene, by use of composition and objects within the frame.



This is what the work of Crewdson acheives, but still maintains the illuminating light of Vermeer's paintings.

Interim critique

As part of the current 302 brief, one of the assesment criteria was to have 3 portfolio ready images on the metal wall by the 24th October for an Interim Critique.

In all honesty I felt that my current assesed work was not up to scrath for this and so I only used one image from the current Vermeer assignement and two from a personal side project I have been working on entitled 'Desolation'.




Obviously this is my latest image from the Vermeer assignment which I feel would work well in my portfolio. However I should have spent more time of the editing of this pohotograph, and certainly more time on the printing so as to get the best outcome.





The two images above arwe part of my personal series 'Desolation' which is about a feeling of lonliness within an a photograph. During the critique, there was generally an average liking towards the work, however I was greatly criticized for the quality of my prints, an honesty which I feel is very valuable to my work, as now I know where I need to improve upon.

Playing with lighting

This contact sheet of images is from a shoot I did the other night, as a way to primarily experiment.


As you can see with the photos above, I tried a variety of different angles and positions of model within the frame, however when looking at them post production I could see that they simply lacked the quality I wanted, and so I decided to look to ones I shot on film.

Before the shoot, I really had no idea what it was that I wanted to do, and so to begin with playing around with one of the lighting kits was my first step. I knew that I wanted a light source shining out from a hidden place, lighting up my model, and so after trying a few locations I finally decided to use my bathroom doorway. I wanted the whole feel of the image to come across as strange, so having my model stood looking lost and about to enter the bathroom was a way to create an almost open ended narrative, and therefore leaving it up to the viewer to decide what was going on. To add more question to the image, I chose to leave the other door slightly open, with a light coming in from there too, simply as another way to evoke mystery.

So these images are the ones that I shot on 6x7 film on the RB.

Main ideas

I think it;s safe to say that i'm really interested in this idea of capturing a sublime moment in time. I really want to create a dramatic (and fictitious) scene wherein the audience is audience is left guessing what is going on and the narrative is open for them.

To do this I'm going to have to set up a scene, and in it everything is going to have to be carefully thought out, the mise-en-scene will be very important with the location, model and props really thought out.

And as the assignment is to take inspiration from Vermeer, I will use dramatic lighting to help create this drama within an image. The light will be a key element in my image making, and certainly a lot is too be taken from the works of Crewdson also.

I've sketched out a couple of rough ideas for shoots above; basically to have a bright, intriguing light coming from an unseen location, and a person being drawn to or responding to it in some way.

Modern classics

Paul Plews created this series of work entitled 'Modern Classics' in 2003, as a way of reinventing classical portraiture for the digital age.

I've come up across this body of work in previous years, however I've never looked at it in such detail as now.  The images look fantastic, and Plews has clearly achieved what he set out to do in creating photographs that look like paintings.

The work really lends itself to what I'm doing in the assignment, as there are clear links to the works of Vermeer and also Rembrandt.  Again I'm really drawn to the little details within the images, such as the various objects placed within the various frames.  Apparently Plews wanted the objects to signify such things as greed, pride and dignity etc.  And for me this adds so much more to the photographs, giving the audience a much wider context in which to view them.


 

As a series they work really well; the models are always facing the same way, the light and colours are always the same and the similar features appear in each image.  I think this is something valuable to take from these, as with the Vermeer work we are being asked to produce our own series of works in response.

Moments in time...

Considering the idea that Vermeer's paintings simply capture a moment in time, showing the beauty of it, I feel the work of fashion photographer Tim Walker really compliments this idea.




"His images capture a sublime moment in time"
How true that is, the images are beautiful and really have a sense of epic drama to them, they simply exist just to show that.

These photographs are clearly set up and fictitious, but they are done so to great effect, and although in some respects they are over dramatic I really like that. What makes the images interesting for me is the context surrounding them, what is actually going on there? All we as an audience get is a singe frame of a scene, a single frame of some amazing and dramatic going on, and that I think makes a superb image.



It could be really interesting to experiment with this idea of 'capturing a moment in time', perhaps a sublime moment. I could set up a scene and leave the narrative open for the viewer to decipher.

Girl with a pearl earring

Watching the film Girl with a pearl earring was a very useful insight into the life and work of Vermeer. I'm not sure exactly how much of it was true (especially relating to the painting Girl with a pearl earring), but it must have been based on some amount of fact, and the information regarding where he lived and his studio must have been accurate.

What i got from it was that Vermeer was a very quiet and private man, someone who lived all his life in Delft and painted not as much as other famous artists of the past, but when he did it was quite a spectacle.



Undoubtedly his most famous work, not necessarily his best work in my opinion. However the light cast on the face of the woman is superb, as if there is a light source being shone onto one side, while the other side is enveloped in shadow.

I've read about this image a good amount, and what everyone comments on is the secrecy and uncertainty of it. For example, who was the woman in the painting? Why is there a turban used on her head? And did Vermeer even sell this painting in his lifetime? I like the questions that this work poses, as it is something that appeals to me in my image making.

Why should everything in a photograph be so obvious and understood?

The two paintings

As we have been asked to focus mainly on these two paintings by Vermeer, I have decided to initially look at them in some detail.



Woman with a Lute (1664)

I think it's very important to firstly see the quality of these paintings, as it is staggering, as is the realism they create in depicting a scene. The colours in Woman with a Lute are really dark, yet look very realistic and accurate to what they would have been. The light cast on the woman's face is very well done, and must have been particularly difficult to do, but what I'm really drawn to within the image is the composition and arrangement of objects. I think that everything must have been arranged for a reason and thought out so as to have meaning.




Girl reading a letter at an open window (1657)

For me, this is by far the superior painting of the two, and there is much more in it that I like. The reflection of the girls face on the window looks amazing! It must have been incredibly difficult to capture with paint and a brush. What's interesting within the painting is the fact that Vermeer has almost created a second frame; a frame within the frame, which is made up by the curtain and the overhead rail. I'm not sure what that is intended for, nor am I sure what he is trying to convey with his paintings. Could it be just capturing a stillness? Or perhaps just a meaningless moment in time?
I'm not sure, so looking at more of his work should be something I need to do, so as to grasp a more clear understanding.

Johannes Vermeer/Assignment brief

So now that personal space is finished with, I can get my teeth into the second assignment of 302, which i'm looking forward to. The brief is much longer and spans from week three to week twelve at the end of term, and will be much more engaging and interesting than the first i feel.

We are asked to study the work of 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer, trying to interpret the meanings behind the paintings, and produce a series of work in response. And the two paintings we are asked to look at in particular are:
Woman with a Lute
Girl with a letter at an open window

We are asked for a body of work which contains at least four final images.

The brief itself seems really unlike anything we've had before, and I'm quite eager to get going with it, and get to grips in detail with the work of Vermeer. Also the brief is set not only by Sarah, but by contemporary photographer Dinu Li whose input and ideas could be very interesting for my work.

A short conclusion

I'll keep this one short as the brief itself was only a two week one.

I've found it pretty hard to get back into the swing of things after the summer break, especially having a two week deadline, but it's been good in a way to have the pressure. I think my ideas and answers to the brief set were good, and the way I approached it was quite original however my images could have been better.

Don't get me wrong, I do like what I've shot and they are alright images, it's just that I don't think the situations I photographed were as good as they could have been; not personal or intruding enough. I do disagree with what people said about the use of black card to create a peephole, as I think it worked quite well, and if I had used a keyhole it could have perhaps looked almost comical in a way.

It is a cliche, but nevertheless true that if the brief had been longer and I'd have had more time perhaps I could have developed and improved my images to work better.

Final images

The image above is the one that i selected from my second shoot. I really like how the reflection in the mirror makes it seem even more that someone is watching in and the expression on her face is one that suggests she is totally unaware of her watcher. This is probably my favorite image out of the three due to the fact i think it really is right in someones personal space, and is an intrusion of it.





I like how in every shot the peephole is not quite the same shape or in the same place within the frame. I think i have succeeded in what i wanted to achieve, and created a voyeuristic view upon these people's personal and private spaces.

Peephole images 2

So after the group crit i decided to shoot again, and this time look for something that was quite a personal space. I thought that someone in their underwear in their room, just being themselves would be a good idea for this. So i got my model to just go about her daily routine, and photographing around that here my results are above.

I think that a lot of the images work well, and i am particularly pleased with my outcomes and the voyeuristic feel they have to them. Now i just need to edit them down and pick one to go with my other two favorite images.

Group critique and thoughts...

At the Thursday group crit we went through everyone's work so far for the brief and discussed the good points and ways in which it could be improved. When talking about my work, i initially told everyone about my first ideas and shoot and how it was unsuccessful, before moving on to my images shot for peephole.

There was a mixed reaction to the images i feel, as some people said they liked the dark shadow around the image, whereas others disagreed saying it took up too much of the image. The general opinion was that a couple of my images worked well, however the rest were too impersonal, and did not capture this private/personal space in a voyeuristic way in which i set out to do.

As i still have a couple of days left before the deadline, and also that i only need Canon prints, there is still time for me to re-shoot. I need to think of ways in which i can really invade a private space, and i need to think where these personal spaces really are.

Peephole images

So above is a contact sheet of the images that came out fairly well in my peephole shoot. Some are better than others, but overall i feel that the shoot went quite well, and I've managed to obtain some interesting images. I have included my three favorite shots separate from the contact sheet below.




One of the main problems i had while shooting was exposure. It was difficult because the only light i had was coming in through a tiny hole in the middle of my card, however with use of a tripod i managed to rectify this. Another problem was getting my models to ignore me and go about their personal lives, which was hard and so in some cases there wasn't any real sense of authenticity within my photographs.

With the image above I don't think it worked particularly well in relation to my initial idea of watching someone looking at the internet who thought they were alone.




This image here is certainly one of the best from the shoot as i feel it worked very well in capturing the idea of voyeurism and viewing someone in their personal and private space.




With this image it has much more of a feel of realism about it, as when shooting it i was just playing around with the camera in the room where someone was in and out of sleep, and so he was unexpectant of the photo.

Drawings

I've decided to experiment and shoot images to do with peephole and voyeurism. I want to intrude on people's personal and private spaces, looking in on them at time when they think they're alone. Of course this will be set up and fictional, but I want to try and make it as realistic as possible, by having my camera at all times to shoot when people are least expecting it.

It is important that I plan my shoots for the brief so that I know exactly what I'm doing when the time comes. These are just the drawings for my ideas that I have uploaded, and they show how I've thought about using an actual keyhole for my peephole, but then decided that it would be too tricky and I couldn't get to all the places I wanted due to keyholes being on doors!



The drawings above show a couple of ideas that I've got for shots; someone lying is bed and a couple kissing. I want to use a piece of black card around the camera lens to create the effect of a peephole.

Intrusion/Voyeurism

After briefly touching on the idea of an intrusion of personal space, i wanted to look at this in more detail, and perhaps look at the idea of voyeurism.

Voyeur - 'A person who derives sexual gratification from observing the naked bodies or sexual acts of others, especially from a secret vantage point.'

I came across this series of images called Peephole, by photographer Jorge Vera...



The photographer has used a fish eye lens as to create the impression of a peephole.








Personally, i think that creating a peephole in this fashion has not been very effective as it blatantly looks like a fish eye lens. However, i do like some of the outcomes he has produced especially the bottom two here. Despite the fact that the people in the shots are aware of the photographer, i still think they work well as an intrusion on privacy and their personal spaces.

These are very useful to my research, and experimenting with peephole photography could be interesting. It could be interesting to take a more voyeuristic approach to it, so as to really view a personal space.

Francesca Woodman

I've never looked at the work of Francesca Woodman previously, but i feel it lends itself to the idea of a personal space. What, in the above two images has forced these people to hide away like that? They have curled up into their own tight, private spaces to hide perhaps? The composition in the two images is fantastic and really works well with the idea that the people are hiding away in their own intimate bodily space.




The image at the bottom here looks amazing! The whole composition of it and arrangement of things within the frame works really well. There is something particularly striking about the chair in the foreground, and it really adds something to the surrealism of the image.

I almost feel like with these photographs I'm intruding on the personal space of the people in them.

1st shoot

 Unfortunately the images for this shoot were accidently deleted and because I wouldn't have used them for any finals, shooting them again was not a priority.   

They depicted a person stood in a corn field, with the whole image being taken up by the corn and in a small part was the person.  I used negative space to make them seem tiny and in their personal space when compared to the emptiness of the rest of the image.

I've decided not to follow on  down this route.

Some inspiration

I recently watched the film 'blow', which is a really good, and in one of the final scenes it pictures Johnny Depp stood alone (virtually) in a prison yard. It just seemed so relevant to what I'm currently in the process of shooting; a person alone, in a vast empty space. This is a really good shot.

Thinking back...

...to last year, I've already shot along the lines of Personal Space in two of the week long briefs we did at the end of term.



I shot a lot more for the brief but this was the main image. I don't really want to shoot anything similar to this, along the lines of trapped personal spaces.



There are certainly aspects of this image that i shot which i can use for my current ideas. The small amount of space that the person takes up in comparison to the surrounding area within the frame really puts him out of place, but also defines his personal space.