Works in progress (302)

D and AD conclusion

2008-12-03T18:21:00.000-08:00

This has been another really interesting brief due to the fact that it is a live one. It has made shooting for it slightly more exciting in the respect that I can enter my images into the competition, so I've had to do well.

Not as long of a brief compared to the Vermeer one, still it was just as tight in time. I'm really pleased with my images and especially pleased that I managed to get them all almost on the first shoot. Of course, yes I could have shot more, thus giving me a larger selection to edit down from to fill my series of five, however I don't feel I needed to and the ones I have are as good as I would have shot.

The brief itself went quite smoothly when I actually got into it, and even my printing (which is usually my downfall) went well, and I've achieved my square images of a good quality. Now all the assignments for unit 302 are complete and it's good to say that I'm pleased with all of my outcomes.

Just on a side note; I'm going to be entering this series as a series in the AOP student awards.

Final D and AD image series

2008-12-03T16:24:00.001-08:00

These are the shots I produced and the final series for the D and AD competition.

They go in order from top to bottom.

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

I'm really pleased with how these images have turned out, better than I expected in fact. The first three images are first attempts and I felt I didn't need to go back and shoot them again, and the final two are re-shoots, and they worked on the second time. It is really odd that I've only tried one idea for this competition, but with time tight and the fact that I'm so pleased with them first time round, I see no point in trying to do more.

I felt that as a series they fit together very well also. I kept in mind whilst shooting various different things, such as the framing and keeping only a fragmented part of the bodies in shot. I also wanted to make sure that the hand positions were similar in every shot, so as to have something to link the images together. Another way I did that was in the post production work I did to them; I attempted to get similar colours in each image by de-saturating them all slightly and giving them all a similar feel and I just think that this was more aesthetically pleasing in the photographs.

When actually sequencing the five images it was important for me to get them in the right order and right positions. Image 1 and 3 are both similar colours so I chose to have them apart and separated by a darker image. I also chose to flip a couple of them horizontally so as not to have all the bodies in the same positions across the series. Although this goes against what I said previously about having identical positioning in an image, I feel that the variation in these holds them together better.

I've also chosen to use images 1, 2 and 3 as portfolio prints alongside the three vermeer ones to make my total of 6.

Failed attempts

2008-11-30T17:00:00.000-08:00

Developing from my ideas, I've managed to shoot what my intentions were, although along the way there were a few mishaps and mistakes, so I thought it necessary to show these.

The are a number of problems with the two images above; the fact that I have got my angle wrong and his neck is partly in the frame which is quite distracting, also he has his hands out too far and so the rest of his body is out of focus (which I didn't want), and finally his hand position is not what I wanted and not revealing enough of what is in his hands. These things are my fault and I should have directed him better...something that I will have to do better when I re-shoot.

There is nothing wrong in particular with this image, just that I tried the shot with the model having gloves on, and when I looked at them all together this one stood out, so I'm not using it.

And I think it's plain to see what went wrong here (haha), the only one that I shot indoors and as a result I took my light reading wrong and exposed the wrong things.

The shoot

2008-11-30T16:56:00.000-08:00

These are the images I shot the other day for my idea on hands and objects.

My favorite from the shoot are the two below. I particularly like the one of the man in the camo jacket and think it works really with the location in the backdrop of it.

I'm pleased to say that the shoot went really well apart from a couple of mishaps. I shot two frames of each image and I've decided to put up the best one of the two here. I was struggling for a while to think of a final object to be placed in the hands, but in the end I decided to go with a hip flask. I've chosen this so as not to show wealth or poverty but to show show signs of an alcoholic; a way to say that this could be either wealth or poverty, and it effects both sides.

Compiling a series

2008-11-30T16:55:00.000-08:00

The other week we were given a Seminar by Stuart Whipps on sequencing and making a series of photographs. It was really useful and perhaps essential for us now in third year as we are about to leave and we will be attempting to make money from our photographs.

Although a lot of what he told us obvious things, it was actually some things that I have tended to overlook in the past. I've decided to think about it again and look at his images due to the current competition brief, as they go hand in hand.

I really like this series of work of his titled 'Aladdin Houses', which are photos about houses built cheap and quickly for workers in Austin Village.

They are obviously a series simply from the way that they look. The framing is identical in all of them, keeping the roofs of the houses the same distance from the top of the frame in every image, making them sit in the same place every time. This is useful as it leads the viewer from image to image nice and easily and coherently. The colours are also very similar in each shot, which allows a viewer to identify that the image belongs to a particular series.

To have had that seminar and to look at these images has been very useful and in doubt will help me to shoot for my series in the D and AD competition. I just need to remember while shooting what I want from the image and what I need to keep the same about them all.

Shoot ideas

2008-11-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

After looking at a lot of wealth and poverty images, I've really become fascinated with the images of hands and cropped frames that I found. I've decided I really want to experiment with this and shoot my images based on it.

I want to produce a series in answer to the brief where within the frame all the audience see is a cropped mid section of a body with the person's hands outstretched with various objects in them. I want to focus on the hands and what is in then primarily which will then lead back through the image to the clothes the person is wearing and then finally to the out of focus backdrop; a progression through the image which will reveal more things.

My idea is to have objects placed in the hands which would be found in the person's pockets. These things would be object that they carry round with them, are important to them, and in some cases define them. I want the various objects to represent aspects of wealth and poverty through connotations associated with them. The use of clothing on the model and backdrop will also represent this idea.

As I need 5 images for the series I've sketched out 4 ideas (I'll have to think more about the last one) for shot locations with ideas for the objects in mind also.

For shoot 1: A person in a smart suit with wealthy objects such as a watch of jewelry in their hands.

2: A person stood with keys and a wallet in their hands and in the backdrop out of focus as an expensive car.

3: A person sat on a street, all ragged and dirtied up with nothing in their hands, to say they own nothing.

4: A person on a run down street with cigarettes and a few pennies to his name.

These ideas are not set in stone and could be changed when it comes to shooting them.

Also another important thing is that my shots will be se set up and my models told what to do, so that I have more control over what I'm shooting. And I'm going to be shooting on square format on the hasselblad, as I feel a square image will lend itself more to the images I want.

Hands

2008-11-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

After looking at the various images of wealth and poverty I think I'm on my way to formulating an idea to shoot. I particularly liked the image where the hand was holding the coin and the image where the man was sat on the street (the cropped image).

I think it could be interesting to look at hands, and what they contain, perhaps various possesions of their owners. Also with use of cropping and taking only an abstract part of the image, it could allow more focus to be on what is being shown.

After looking around, I've managed to come across a few cropped shots using hands as the forepoint.

(Paul Bordice)

I particularly like this image above of the person holding their hands behind. In reality it is just a simple shot, as in not much happening, however the use of angle and framing here works really well. I like how much the image is different compared to how it would have been as a full body shot.

(Ron Koeberer)

Again a similar sort of image of the cropped section with the hands. I like this idea more though; the idea of a frontal shot with an object in the hands.

(Katya Evdokimova)

(Keith Goldstein)

The two above are again examples of objects in the hands but this time I prefer them much more. It works really well that the hands are open and are blatently showing off what is in them. They work well with their backdrops also, and although taken by different photographers they would work well as a series.

The brief

2008-11-30T15:59:00.000-08:00

The brief itself is set by D and AD, and we are asked to produce a series of exactly 5 images to tell a photo story to change people's perceptions on wealth and poverty.

I think with it being exactly 5 images, it could make working difficult as there is no room for leeway, and I need to show exactly what I want to show in no more than 5 images!

We are asked to challenge viewers thoughts on the subjects, and so the imagery I produce must be clear and hard hitting. This could be interesting.

Millennium images of Poverty

2008-11-30T15:52:00.002-08:00

So searching still on Millennium images, I look for work concerned with 'Poverty' and to be honest I feel the range of photo results were much better.

(Tim Kavanagh)

(Wieteke Tepema)

(Nadia Attura)

I found many images relating to the homeless like the ones above, and although they are effective in showing aspects of poverty, I feel that they are almost a little too obvious. However the image in the middle does something different by cropping it, which gives it a whole new feel. It really makes the image impersonal, and is focusing solely on the fact that a person is sat, begging on the street. Playing with cropping and framing could be interesting to experiment with.

(Ian Godfrey)

I really like this image of the boys playing football in the street documentary style. I think the tones and colours work really well, and with the location being in what appears to a council estate/council flats, you really get the impression that it is run down and infact the opposite of wealthy.

(Victoria Dean)

(Tessa Bunney)

This is quite comical in appearence, and the way they are sat posing and smiling suggests they are proud of their home and life, which could almost be contradictory to the idea of poverty.

(Jenny Nordquist)

(Richard Rowland)

I quite like the look of these two last photographs; they are dead on and flat. I think that in doing this they give a clear perspective of what is being shown. They are however a little boring for my taste, and I would much prefer to have people within my own images, simply as a way to make them more striking.

Millennium images of Wealth

2008-11-30T15:48:00.000-08:00

As a reasonable starting point to the brief, I decided simply to type in the words 'Wealth' and 'Poverty' into the Millennium images online database. I want to see other people's reactions and images in association with these words.

These are the 'Wealth' images...

(Martin Child)

(Stuart Brill)

I got in total about 96 results for the word, and unfortunately the majority of those were these awful images of expensive cars as seen above. I suppose this is showing wealth, however not in the sense that the brief would ask for, or the way that I would choose to show it.

(Justin Nicholson)

I then came across this photograph of hands holding two pound coins. I'm not sure that I particularly like the image, however I think that's it's doing something a little different and focusing on such a small thing in the large context of wealth.

(Kristina Hruska)

The image with the woman with the earring (ironically in the style of Vermeer) is quite well done and in my opinion represents the idea of wealth quite well. I like the subtlety of it; the way there is not much within the frame, yet we can tell that the lady is of some stature. I particularly like the crop of it.

Competition brief

2008-11-30T14:28:00.000-08:00

(All of my entries have been uploaded today from another loacation, so as to avoid confusion)

Assignment four (the final assignment) in unit 302 is a competition brief, of which we have been given a choice of three competitions to enter.

These are live competitions and they are as follows:
D and AD - Tell a story through a photo-essay that changes people's perceptions of wealth and poverty.
Fujifilm Student Awards - Penguin books are looking for a new image to feature on the cover of Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring'.
Vice Magazine Photography Competition - Create a piece of photography which explores the issue of gender, power and poverty.

To start with I don't even want to look at the Fujifilm brief, as to be honest I'm still sick of the one from in second year. The problem with the Vice photography brief is that the deadline is too close and I would like to actually enter. That leaves me with the D and AD competition (which sounds quite interesting anyway) and the challenge of producing exactly five images in a photo-essay about wealth and poverty.

Final Vermeer images/Conclusion

2008-11-29T02:13:00.000-08:00

So these are my final four images for the Vermeer assignment...

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

After lots of editing on them and test prints, I have finally got my four final images, three of which will be used as part of the six needed for portfolio quality images (numbers 1,2 and 4), and these ones simply because they look better than the other one. I've always been pleased with images 1 and 4, and I'm really glad that image 2 came out well and I think that is does in fact work well within the series, despite being slightly different.

Overall with the assignment i'm pleased with how it has turned out, and i'm particularly glad that it's finished with! Not to say that it hasn't been worthwhile, because I've really liked (as I told Dinu) working on something a little different and something I am quite intersted in. I feel I've pushed myself hard and it has been tough throughout, but I feel I've worked well to the deadlines and acheived what I wanted to acheive.

Another shoot

2008-11-28T05:14:00.000-08:00

Trying to keep things a little more simple with this shoot I really took some inspiration from the work of Phillip Lorca Dicorcia. I really like how he uses natural light and makes an image look so powerful and have so much mood to it simply through the lighting and situation of model.

The location that I used was the side kitchen inside my house and to get enough light I had to use the windows and also I opened up a door, this as a way to fill a dark space with natural light which also created some interesting shadows. I wanted to have my model sat, looking towards the light, looking to something that the audience couldn't see. I tried a multitude of angles, and I feel the ones from afar didn't work well, however the close up ones look really good but don't really suit the style I have been shooting thus far. The best ones are where she is sat in the room and the angle is looking in upon her, and so I want to edit these down in the future to pick the best one out of the four.

I really like how these photographs have come out and also how simple the shoot was to set up. I feel that I've achieved what I set out to do in taking influence from Dicorcia and created good light with interesting shadows and situation.

Fifth shoot

2008-11-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with the idea of capturing a sublime moment in time, last week I proceeded with my fifth shoot, where I set up in an empty room, a table with two chairs and from a doorway a sudden bright light was shining. I chose to have a model (as with all my images in the series) as the main focal point in the photograph, and also to have them being drawn to the light by looking towards to the doorway. I once again wanted to create this sense of a strange moment in time, wherein the audience don't know what is going on, gone on or is about to happen.

I did have a model in mind for the shoot, however whilst setting up during the day, the light being cast in from the window looked really good and so I used my housemates as stand-ins/tests to see what the outcome would be. These are the ones that look really bright and with really strange colours, and to be honest didn't work out possibly due to the conditions, however probably due to my exposures.

I do like how the light in the doorway has turned out, as I really feel it illuminates the images and is genuinely something to be drawn towards for both the model and the audience. Something I don't like about the images are my choice of model; I think he works okay, but he seems to stiff and aware he is in a photograph (something that seems to be difficult to avoid).

The reason that some images are the opposite to others is due to my scanning of them, and so far I've not actually decided which way round to have them; which way round will suit them best.

When shooting I used a bracket of exposures so as to have a good range of images to choose from post production. As you can see, some of my outcomes are too light and some too dark but there are certainly things that I can use.

I think that the images are adequate, just not as good as some of my previous shots, so I'll just have to see how they look within a series.

Steel wall critique

2008-11-26T02:59:00.000-08:00

Today we had the group critique of the steel wall images from the group. Because of the fact I saw Dinu the other day in a one to one we didn't actually touch upon my work. However the thing that was really useful, was the book he gave me which related to my ideas and work.

The book was on photographer Phillip-Lorca Dicorcia titled Contemporaries.

I can't actually believe I've never come across his work before, but I'm glad I have now because it looks fantastic.
It really lends itself to what I'm trying to do in capturing a sublime moment in time, however it does it in a different way to what I have looked at and shot myself. He uses daylight much more to an advantage in his photographs making them look really striking and slightly odd. The colours in the above images look amazing and really natural, and really help to give a dramatic feel to them.

Even though my images so far have consisted of me using studio lighting , I still think that an image like Dicorcia's would fit with them. I want to experiment with using natural lighting, and to see if it will fit in with the series.

I just wanted to put this photo in as it looks great.

Dinu Li/Tutorial

2008-11-24T13:19:00.001-08:00

When the Vermeer assignment was set, we were told that it was done so by not only Sarah but also professional practitioner Dinu Li, who would at some point be coming in to talk to us about his work and to critique our work to date.

He showed us a variety of his works and projects, but the one that mostly caught my eye, and was relevant to the brief was his series: Secret Shadows

The work was an attempt to show the lives and homes of Chinese immigrants living in Britain.

As a series I think they work fairly well, however not the most impressive work I've seen but there is clearly the Vermeer inspiration which I like, especially in the sense of lighting and shadow.

I really like this image of his, and I especially like the way in which it mimics a lot of Vermeer's paintings. As a viewer I am able to appreciate greatly the compositional elements to this photograph; if we look at the positioning of the woman on the screen, and then that in relation to the window, we see that she is looking out into the outside world, much alike the image of Vermeer's below. It is quite a subtle reference to Vermeer, but I think it works particularly well.

Just a quick thought on my tutorial with Dinu...

We only had about twenty minutes to talk together, but I feel it was very valuable to my work. We discussed my images that I've shot so far and the images that I was putting forward for the steel wall critique (as seen below). He told me that he liked these images, and my idea, however he was far more interested in my latest work; 'concerning negative space'. What he particularly liked was the negative space in the image, and the general composition within the frame.

This was surprising for me as I felt this work was the weakest that I've shot so far, and so it shows how valuable an outside opinion can be. Still though I've decided I don't want to follow this route of negative space images, mainly due to the fact that I've done it time and time again in the past.

The steel wall images...

Imacon scans

2008-11-19T11:07:00.000-08:00

I wanted to scan my two favorite images from the shoot using the Imacon and they happened not to turn out as well as the epson ones.
They have a green tint over them, which I couldn't seem to correct when scanning, but this is how they came out.

As far as I know i'm not planning on using these images as they are, however if I were to re-shoot them better that might change. They don't really fit as well with the other ones in the series so far.

Concerning negative space

2008-11-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

So recently I've really been trying to shoot as much as I can concerned with the Vermeer assignment, and really trying to give myself lots of options for the ever looming deadline.

I wanted now to continue still with capturing this sublime moment, however really experiment with the style of Crewdson. I set up a light that was out of shot and which shone onto my model directly so as to illuminate him. I also chose to shoot from outside of the room in which this was happening so as to appear as if I was looking in and observing.

It just so happened that when I was setting up, I discovered that I could use negative to space to good effect and so composed the image so that the majority of it was in dark shadow.

I first tried out the shots with the model above, trying a variety of different positions with him, however the larger image above seemed to work the best.

With the rest of the shoot I used another model, who was a lot more confident with posing etc, but I feel this worked as a disadvantage to me, as it seems almost that he is acting too much and far too aware of the camera.
Still, here they are...

I think one of the main problems with the shoot was the actual narrative going on within the scene. I knew that to make it interesting and somewhat strange, I would to set up something out of the ordinary, so I chose to have the room full of boxes with coat hangers spilling out onto the floor. However I feel this didn't work to well, and if I were to re-shoot this, a better narrative would have to be created.

This image is my favorite from the ones with the second model. I really like the positioning he is in and the expression upon his face, however I think that my first choice of model worked better.

All in all I think these images work well to some extent, but if I were to use them they would need re-shooting with a better mise-en-scene. The enveloping darkness used as negative space works very well and is the best feature within the image.

Further edits

2008-11-12T08:17:00.001-08:00

The idea for this image was to show a sublime moment in time, and so I wanted to have my character looking off, somewhere behind the camera thus leaving the audience in confusion and uncertainty, and ultimately creating an open ended narrative to the scene in which the audience could decipher.

The image above works well with him looking off and out of the frame, however i feel the cigar in his mouth lets the image down.

This photograph, with the two different versions is certainly my favorite from the shoot. The above one was scanned on the epson 4990 and has come out a little too grey, with the quality lacking slightly.

However, below is the same negative scanned in on the Imacon, and it looks a lot better. The colours are much warmer which helps create a dark shadow on one half of the mans face, and gives more of a feel that I wanted for an outcome.

A set up...

2008-11-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

Following on along the lines of creating a moment in time I shot these....

I chose to completely set up a fictitious scene once again (as is my usual style), and control all the elements such as model and lighting. I wanted to create a scene in which a man, sat down was drawn to something happening off camera and out of frame. I wanted my image to look extravagant and over the top (so as to add to the sublime), and I did this by creating an old fashioned, stately home scene, wherein the man was sat with his cigar and cognac by his side. The props I was using were essential to my shot, and so I wanted to get everything right and everything looking like they belonged together.

I'm pleased with how they came out, and above is an initial edit of six of the frames.

Progression of ideas

2008-11-11T09:12:00.001-08:00

I'm pleased with how in my previous shoot I managed to create a light coming from a location out of frame, however next I want to take it a little further.

It would be good to do that again, however this time create more within the frame; a much more interesting scene. The above sketch is exactly what I want to set up for my next shoot. It could be difficult, but I already have most of the props needed and so I think it will be possible to accomplish.

Second shoot

2008-11-11T09:11:00.001-08:00

The main thing with this shoot was to experiment with 6x6 film, and see how square format would suit my images. In actual fact, I had never used 6x6 before this shoot and so it was all new to me, and I had to get to grips with the hassleblad.

It didn't take me long to understand the camera, and so I proceeded to set up for an idea that I had thought of quickly the day before. I simply wanted to shoot in the style of Vermeer in this one, but really make the image appear soft and dreamlike. I chose to have my model naked as to add to this affect and to keep with the neutral colours that the daylight provided.

Above is a contact print of the twelve frames that I shot on the film. The first thing to notice is that about half of them are really dark and half really light, this due to different light readings I took whilst shooting. I wanted to test what the light would look like when a reading was taken from the camera looking towards the model and one from the model towards the camera.

I think it's clear to see that the lighter ones look much better.

The image below is slightly better than the others that I shot, and I wanted to look at it larger so as to show why I wont be using it as a final image.

I do like the lighting and the softness that the photograph has, however there are issues with my framing here, as I didn't get in right and part of the foot is cut off. I simply don't think that a square image works, and I'd much rather stick to 6x7 and the general style and lighting of the image from my previous shoot.

Edward Hopper

2008-10-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-29T08:02:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-29T07:21:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-26T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-25T08:43:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-21T07:36:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T04:41:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-14T04:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T04:39:00.003-07:00

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...

2008-10-14T04:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T13:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-12T06:22:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-12T06:12:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-10-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

...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.

Tina Barney

2008-10-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about how I had been struggling to create ideas recently, when i read over this quote;

'Look at your own life. Read about art, go and see art.' Tina Barney

I know it's obvious, but sometimes I think too hard about ideas when they could be right in front of me, and when we looked at the work of my some of my favorite photographers the other day, ideas began to come.

Thursday tutorial

2008-10-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

I spoke with Sarah in a tutorial the other day, and to be honest it was very productive and worthwhile for me. I mentioned to her that i had been struggling to come up with ideas and that nothing was flowing. She asked me what photographers i liked and after viewing some of their images, we began to talk of some possible directions for my work to go in.

Linus Ricard:

There is a clear monotone running through this image, and it looks amazing, but what I'm interested in here is the space that she fills, and the space that surrounds her. She has her own personal space within the location, however the space is not very personal at all.

The same is too be said with these two images of his also. It could be good to experiment with putting a model in a vast, open and empty space, and looking at that space which surrounds them, that possibly makes them vulnerable.

Gregory Crewdson:

These images by Crewdson again are examples of a vast open space with the subject tiny within the frame. Yes they are more about the stories behind the people and situations, however i can take the compositional and location elements as a starting point.

Personal Space

2008-10-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

So the brief, which runs for only two weeks is titled 'Personal Space', and we are asked to produce three images in total for a group crit at the end. I am being asked to intepret this in any way i wish, and perhaps use Edward T. Hall as a starting point.

The four bodily spaces are:
Intimate (0-18inches) - for embracing, touching or whispering.
Personal/Casual (1.5-4 feet) - for interactions among good friends.
Social (4-10 feet) - for interactions among acquaintances.
Public (10 feet and beyond) - used for public speaking.

Useful as a starting point, however this seems all a bit too formal for me to base my images on.

Where are my ideas?

2008-10-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Currently it has been hard to formulate any ideas for images. Since we got our first assignment for third year last week entitled 'Personal Spaces', i have been having a blank. I begin to think of something good, but then it becomes hard for me to communicate it into a strong idea or image.

Perhaps the summer break has left me somewhat out of practice. I didn't shoot much, and what i did was more a documentation on things i did.

Just something i was messing around on a night out with my camera. I really like the light it provides, possibly a location for the future.

I like these, not much use for anything, but i like the sky in particular.

Interesting!

2008-10-08T10:15:00.000-07:00

What advice would you give to a budding photographer?

'My biggest advice would be to take the pictures you want to take. Don't think about the marketplace, what sells, or what an editor might say. And don't think about style. It's all bullshit and surface stuff. Style happens.' David Lachapelle

To me, this looks like the work of a photographer that is making the images he wants to make, so unique. The 'Death by Hamburger' image is fantastic!

From traditional to digital...

2008-10-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

The seminar given by Sarah yesterday was helpful (something we should all have been given in 1st year perhaps). I think that i was wasting my time with actual logbooks, spending too much money on printing and i never could engage with them, so here is something new; my blogbook.