The Environment Task 2

For the second part of this brief we are looking at the urban space. We have to pastiche another image from below and submit a set of images based upon our own conceptual approach to representing 'urban space'.

Brassai, 'Paris after dark, No.27, 1933

Lee Friedlander, 'Albuquerque, New Mexico', 1972

Thomas Struth, 'Bukseo Dong, Pyongyang, North Korea', 2007

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The City

For this part of the brief I want to focus on the people within the city rather than the city itself. 

Harry Callahan - Chicago, 1950

This isn't quite the image you would expect to see when researching for an Environment project, but instead of just looking at the city I am interested in looking at what keeps the city alive. This is a very invasive shot by Callahan, when looking at it I feel that I am extremely close to this person and that I am walking against the flow of the people within the street. 

Martin Parr

Philip-Lorca DiCorcia - Heads

Similar to Callahan's work, DiCorcia with a flash set up on scaffolding photographs people unawares at a distance. This means that he is able to capture people when they are deep within thought, or within their own space.

Thomas Struth

This is an image from the series 'Museum Photographs' where Struth traveled to many different museums taking pictures of people looking at artwork. This shows how busy certain places can get with tourists and using a slow shutter speed shows some movement from the people trying to get across the room. 

Walker Evans

This is a very interesting series because Evans hid a 35mm camera under his jacket with a wired release up his sleeve. This meant that he was able to photograph people on the subway without being noticed. Due to these people being photographed unnoticed meant that they would be captured in their own space, thinking about their day to day lives or like the picture above deep in conversation. The candid style of shooting allows you (the viewer) access into a world that you normally would only have for a few seconds until the person that you are looking at notices you looking at them.

Over 60,000 businesses can be found in London

 but as little as 10,000 tourist destinations (according to Google).

This would suggest that there are more business people within London, but they are rarely seen, obviously because they are working during the day. Generally in the morning and evening the only time they will be still is when waiting for the train or tube. Tourists will spend quite an amount of time taking pictures and slowly walking around so they do not miss anything.

There are a few things that I would like to stay away from when photographing for this project, things such as street fashion photography and posed shots. I want to be able to capture the depth of the people not just what they want us to see when they are smiling down the lens. I am aiming to create a candid documentary I suppose, in the way that I don't want any of the people I am photographing to notice the camera but I will be documenting the stereotypes e.g. people in suits and people with cameras and maps.

Below are the types of images that I do not want to create, they are far too posed though still fall into documentary imagery because they are documenting what is being worn.

The use of the wall in the image above really helps to place where you are when viewing this image, this is something that I will be constantly thinking about when I go to shoot my own work because this series is about the urban space.

I had a go at shooting some candid type shots of some people that I felt were interesting to look at:

35mm scans

The shot above is very busy with people but this creates more of a narrative with the focus on the lone woman who appears to be waiting for someone, everyone else seems to be moving around and on their way to a destination. So even though we are at an observing distance from this woman there is still a connection, which is what I would like to get from the rest of the work from this series. This image is a bit too busy for my liking, it doesn't hit the tourism feel that I am after as no one can be seen taking photos of anything. But from this I have a better idea of the places that I want to go within London.

This image is almost verging on street fashion photography, which is not the way I want to take this series. I just think that this was good practice at photographing people without them noticing. 

I am quite interested at looking into the way that tourists and business people differ, the way that tourists take the time to look around (stop and stare) and business people rush around. There are a few aspects that I would like to use from the references above, like the way Struth has used a slow shutter speed, but instead of photographing tourists I will use this to photograph business people. This will hopefully emphasis my idea that they rush around and do not take the time to see what is around them. I am also drawn to Martin Parr's work, it will be interesting to be able to photograph tourists taking pictures of the attractions or even taking pictures of their friends.