The Body

For this part of the brief we have to photograph a stranger either being staff or student from the uni or someone that lives and works in medway.

I am going to photograph a student from the uni.

Initial ideas are to find someone from one of the fashion departments because fashion photography is an area that interests me the most and I have the greatest pleasure in shooting.

I have been looking at quite a few photographers for inspiration and these are the ones that have stood out. This shot has to be a black and white analogue shot, so the photographs that I have as reference are all black and white. This is where I will have to start thinking about the ways colours change into tones on black and white film.

Irving Penn

Penn has a great use of chiaroscuro (Light-Dark), his images are very dramatic due to the contrast between the highlights and shadows. This is due to the way he lights his images, sometimes using just one harsh light on the subject creating a quick gradation (barely any tones). The camera position and angle are very different looking at these images, the first one is very close and looks to be about eye level. This draws you in to the personal space of this person and creates a connection, whereas the bottom image is shot further away with the camera looking down at the subject ever so slightly. There is still a connection to this person because of the stare into the camera but it makes you feel differently when viewing it.

Richard Avedon

The poses and movements of the models in the images below appear to create a world in which there is less gravity than in our own world. Basically these images create a place that has a different time and space to ours, this is something that many photographers do by using mythical elements from the world. The more you look at these images the more you expect the model to move due to the way they are posed but obviously because it is a photograph the movement has been frozen.

Albert Watson

Again it is clear that this is a studio set up, which lets the photographer have full control over the lighting and what is to be seen by the viewer e.g. if there are any props, distractions from the subject or other people. Which sometimes cannot be controlled when out on location, due to public places and colour within the scene. The movement or pose of the models in these images suggests that by wearing these clothes it makes you feel alive and able to express yourself with ease. The clothes also help to suggest this idea as they are flowing and also very expressive in their own way.

And of course Lara Jade

These images are very engaging due to the way they have been composed, you find the models eyes at a level where you would normally look while talking to someone. The camera position is close and involved in the model, you start to feel like you are invading the personal space. Despite the first image being black and white, the styling of the clothes makes it appear colourful. Both of these images have quite a great depth of field, this allows the viewer to see everything as the photographer has made the decision that the whole image is important to view. The lighting in both the images is also very similar, possibly both set up as 'butterfly' lighting as you can see the shadow under the nose. The difference is that the bottom image is more contrasty, it is likely that a bowl has been used to create a harsh light whereas the top image is softer so a softbox could have been used.

Tim Walker

The reason I want to look at a few Tim Walker images is because he has some of the easiest pieces of work to show the use of mythological elements. He uses a lot of fictitious characters and scenes that would normally be found within a fairytale. His work is very much about leaving this time and space and entering another world that is still similar enough that we are able to identify with it. He uses many ginormous props, which certainly would not be found normally but we do not disagree with it for being in the image.

Mert and Marcus

This pair of photographers have a similar take on fashion photography to Tim Walker, they have quite extravagant sets, but generally their work can be related closer to our own time and space rather than finding yourself falling down the rabbit hole. I have found that looking through their work they vary from black and white images to very colourful images, not just in the clothes but also the sets they are in and the use of gels on the lights.

The reason for choosing to show the two images below is because they are both quite simple in their composition and lighting. The first image has the model stood directly centre of the frame with maybe only one or two lights. The grey background is dark enough for the clothes that the model is wearing to really stand out and cause the viewer to study them. The pose is also important as it creates lines for the viewer to follow. 

Quentin Arnaud

It is rather interesting to view this series of work as he has decided to take away the faces from his models. Normally when we engage with someone we look at their eyes and facial expressions to better understand how they are feeling and connect with them. Due to the lighting in this series all of that is missing and we are left looking at this black void that becomes alien like. In my portrait I think that it will be important to make the eyes the main focus of the image to better understand how my model feels about the course she is on. 

I think that it is a good idea to understand how the colours will change into tones when shooting black and white film. For instance if you want the model to stand out from the background then not only is the lighting important but also how the model is dressed. It would not be a good idea to use a blue-violet background and have the model dressed in orange as these tones in black and white are quite similar.

Another thing to look at would be the way different materials react to light as I will not be using a general backdrop. So the first image is a kind of similar material to the backdrop I have, it will be more reflective than this corduroy as the threading is much finer. The colour of the backdrop is slightly lighter than this jacket so tonal wise it should be yellow to yellow-orange.

In fact it may react in a very similar way to velvet, very reflective and seems to shimmer.

Below is the lighting set up that I would like to use for my shoot, single light from above and using a reflector to bounce some light onto the front of the model as I do not want the light to drop off completely. (Lighting reference: Albert Watson images above).

Side view of above:

Because I have chosen a Fashion Textiles student I would like to create an image that shows how they get from an idea to the finished item so props will be valuable to use like sketchbooks, offcuts of materials and of course some finished work. Generally when seeing fashion students around the uni they are also dressed quite well albeit a bit weird sometimes, so this is another thing to think about as I would like a balance at what is important to look at within the image. 

Interim review

The Object

Our first brief being 'The object', where we had to make a still life image within the studio. This had to be shot using a large format camera and colour film.

When walking around Chatham I saw a lot of people smoking and drinking and wanted to try and represent this visually somehow. The more I looked for this and how to represent it the more I started noticing that a lot of these people were pregnant women, so I decided to look into the effects these two things would have on an unborn child.

I wanted to create an image that had to be viewed rather than just glanced at, like Keith Arnatts 'Pictures from a Rubbish Tip'. These were images of rubbish that looked very beautiful in the way they were shot yet they were created from discarded items.

In my final image I wanted to get across the idea of a poor defenceless child stripped of its innocence due to the parents alcoholism. The image shows a doll left in a room alone with the door slightly ajar. The effects of the Foetal Alcohol Syndrome are a small head, smaller eyes, underdeveloped jaw and flat midface. I couldn't transform the doll to this extent as it was not very malleable, so instead I cut away some of its head and created an explosion of cans to show the damage this syndrome causes. I chose to photograph the doll on a play mat rather than a plain white backdrop as it puts the doll in a normal environment causing it to look more sinister with the alcohol cans.

I also decided that I only wanted to show the effects of the alcohol instead of doing the smoking as well. This is because the effects of smoking on an unborn child are more internal than the alcohol effects.

Overall I am quite pleased with the image, even though it is not a literal representation I think it still gets the point across that alcohol is very damaging to unborn children.


The Environment

For the Environment project we had to choose an image to pastiche and then also make work based on our personal conceptual approach to representing the landscape.

 I chose to pastiche Robert Adams 'On Signal Hill'. I managed to find a single tree upon a hill on an overcast day. My pastiche is quite similar and although I am pleased with it as a first attempt, I would like to explore a bit further along from where I was to find two trees together and also capture the image when the light is more on the landscape in the distance, similar to how it is on the town in the original.

My own work was about looking at a metaphorical journey of life, so I looked at photographers such as Nicholas Hughes and Paul Hill. I tried to combine the two influences together to form a comprehensive yet sublime series of images. The main thing that I feel I have learnt from looking into Nicholas Hughes is that Landscape photography can be pushed and doesn't have to be a crisp clear image.

When making this series I kept thinking about my own route through life over the last four or five years as I was stuck in a crappy job heading nowhere which is why the first image is very dark with the path disappearing into the woods, then I was introduced into photography which basically lit up my path, the last image has several different crossroads which is where I felt I was about six months ago at the end of college.

I spent some time in the darkroom experimenting with grades and times to make these images but feel that if I had planned my time better I would have been able to experiment a lot more and would have had some different images to show.

The Object

Edward Weston

Nautilus - 1927

This was the year that Weston made a series of "monumental close-ups" using items such as peppers, shells and halved cabbages. When looking at the photographs in this series, I am really reminded of the human body, this is because of the shapes of the shells and peppers. For example the photo on the left at a quick glance looks like a woman kneeling down (from above). The more you look at it the easier it is to see that it isn't human due to the smoothness and markings of the shell but it still has a likeness to our form. After making that connection it is very difficult to remove it.

Laura Letinsky

This image, shot in 2002, has been taken from a series called 'Hardly More Than Ever'. The series of photographs show the remnants of an event that had happened during that day, a meal or social  gathering. All of the images in this series are well lit with a main focus, in this image it is the table at the bottom of the frame. There are no distractions apart from what is on the table which I suppose would give you the narrative of the piece. The sundae glass (empty) with two spoons either side potentially left from the night before, but then there look like there are stains around the back of the table which at the moment are confusing and maybe don't fit with my first thoughts of a romantic evening and now make this quite an eery image. 

Keith Arnatt

Pictures from a Rubbish Tip, 1988-1989

Images of decomposing food which have been photographed in a way where the qualities are transformed to make them delicate and make them look as if they have been painted. It is quite an odd piece to deconstruct because the camera position is quite close, this takes it out of context as you haven't any idea of where it is or what is going on around it.






Just a bit of initial research, I am going to look into Vanitas paintings some more as I started looking at them for our summer project, have already started looking at some other photographers which I will be writing about soon.

As well as researching into the above, to help me further my idea I will be researching into the Medway area. I want to look at the people of Medway eg the drunks, lovers, sinners and saints (couldn't help squeezing an Alexisonfire song in there). But seriously I want to look at the drunks/jobless, young mums and the small amount of people that work in the area and make a still life to portray this.

I might just take one of these to portray.

Still undecided.

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I have found a bit of a connection with Keith Arnatt's work 'Pictures from a Rubbish Tip' and have a better idea of what I would like to construct as my still life. The other day walking through Chatham I couldn't help but notice that there were an awful lot of young women that were either pregnant or already had several children. One pregnant woman that we passed was pushing her toddler in a pram smoking away as if her life depended on it.
I felt that this underpinned my idea of the downfall of the medway area along with the drunks that gather in the car park opposite my flat.

So basically I want to take this

along with this 

to create my still life with the inspiration of works by Keith Arnatt

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Today my group had our tutorial for 'The object', I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get my idea across so this morning I wrote as much down as I could to make things easier.

(You may not be able to read my writing)

I was able to get my idea across, but it was quickly pointed out that I had several ideas that I wanted to put into one image. So I was looking at alcoholism, youth pregnancy and the effects that substance abuse has on unborn children. All of these things I have seen while walking around chatham.

I made some notes during the tutorial, which are about just one of the three things I initially looked at.

The basic gist of the notes above is to research into the effects alcohol and smoking has on unborn children, research pregnancy statistics for Medway, look more into Todd Mclellan's Disassembly series as a way of setting out my still life.

Todd Mclellan - Disassembly

This is possibly a bit to bright and 'clean cut' for what I want to portray but then again looking back at Keith Arnatt's work we see rubbish that looks like a painting. This is also another thing we talked about in the tutorial, transforming something horrid and displeasing into something that pleases the eye until really looking at it and figuring out its not as it seems.


I was also led to 'Things Organised Neatly' which is a curation of pictures.

I find it interesting that some people will organise things so neatly, where it seems no one has the time to do anything these days. Looking at this blog has given me a few more ideas of how to compose my still life.

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In my search for information on the effects alcohol and smoking has on unborn children, I came across this http://ehealthmd.com/content/how-do-smoking-and-drinking-affect-pregnancy the next piece of information is from that site:

Cigarette smoke and alcohol can damage the health of unborn babies.

Smoking by pregnant women is associated with low birthweight and premature birth, as well as higher rates of illness (colds, bronchitis, ear infections, etc.), breathing problems, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in their babies. Birth defects of the heart, brain, and face are also more common among babies born to smokers. Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy tend to be physically smaller than children of non-smokers, and may continue to have higher rates of respiratory illness, such as asthma, for many years.

The effects of drinking alcohol during pregnancy are also alarming. In fact, the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy is the leading cause of birth defects. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is a collection of defects that may include any combination of reduced growth (before or after birth), facial deformities, a small head (likely related to reduction of brain size), and abnormal behavioral development.

FAS is by far the most common non-hereditary cause of mental retardation. In addition, pregnant women who drink are more likely to miscarry. Children of mothers who drank during pregnancy are more likely to have severe behavioral problems and attention deficit disorders, even if they have no obvious physical defects.

The piece of information from http://www.usask.ca/medicine/prevent/fas.html goes into a bit more detail about FAS than above.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, or FAS, is a pattern of mental and physical defects that may occur in some individuals whose mothers drank a lot of alcohol during pregnancy.  FAS is a life-long condition -- a child with FAS becomes an adult with FAS. 
Characteristics of People with FAS
There are three groups of characteristics present in an individual born with FAS:
1. Growth Deficiency
Babies born with FAS are noticeably smaller than other babies. Their growth does not usually catch up" to that of other children. They remain small throughout their lives.
 
2. Central Nervous System Dysfunction
 Poor growth of the central nervous system may result in intellectual and developmental disabilities, short attention span, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, poor muscle tone and poor coordination.  The brain also fails to grow, staying smaller than that of other individuals of the same age.
3. Facial Abnormalities
 The face of a baby with FAS does not form in the usual manner. The result may include small eye openings; drooping eyelids; flat, wide nose bridge; thin upper lip; flat groove between the nose and the upper lip.
In addition to these three groups of problems, individuals with FAS often have other health concerns. Abnormalities of the skeleton, cleft lip and palate, heart defects and other internal organ problems are common in individuals with FAS.
All of these characteristics can be present in people who do not have FAS.

Found an image that shows what FAS looks like in a child

So, I have my shoot for this still life tomorrow. I have quite a good idea how I want to compose the piece and want to focus on this 


Fetal Alcohol syndrome


2. Central Nervous System Dysfunction

 Poor growth of the central nervous system may result in intellectual and developmental disabilities, short attention span, learning disabilities, hyperactivity, poor muscle tone and poor coordination.  The brain also fails to grow, staying smaller than that of other individuals of the same age.

I have a doll that is quite small and another doll which is slightly larger so this would show one has FAS and the other one doesn't. I am going to cut into the head and fill it with parts of alcohol cans to try and portray the intellectual and developmental disabilities. To show the short attention span I will have the doll holding something but looking away at something else and the rest of the scene will be a play area, nice and bright, colourful, but littered with empty cans and bottles.

I would also like to try and tie in the effects of smoking on babies but I think that there may be a bit too much going on within the image to get both messages across clearly, so will just shoot the FAS idea.


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So last week I shot my still life, within the shoot I played about with the lighting and composition. At first I wanted to make my still life look like a bright toddlers play area so I bought a couple of dolls and a colourful foam play mat to give this effect. I also took with me lots of beer cans and wine bottles etc to try and portray the FAS. 


My first composition (Clearly these haven't been scanned in yet, and have not been colour corrected properly)

Laid out rather simply, with soft bright lighting as I wanted it to have that welcoming play school feel but then when really looking at it you begin to realise there is more going on than you first thought. This has quite a shallow depth of field as I want the main focus to be on the dolls and the close surrounding area. I think the set up works, but to have pulled this off completely I should have thought about a backdrop, lots of kids drawings or posters that you would find in a play school or nursery. The reason for having the letters showing was so that the viewers would question what it meant and keep thinking about it until it bugged them so much that they had to research in to it. This shot didn't really turn out the way that I wanted it to, but that is apart of photography, I tried a composition that didn't work for me and moved on.


Before I shot the next composition I had a discussion with my tutor, we spoke of a few ideas and the fact that the doll I had cut some of the head off of was quite interesting. And by having it on its own it made it a better focal point. I decided that I wanted something darker, more provoking. So by moving my set on to the floor and changing the lighting (and also changing the lens of the large format camera) I have hopefully achieved this. I placed the doll in an almost religious way with the arms spread out, I then wanted the cans of alcohol etc to look as though they had exploded out of this dolls head, spraying across the room. For the lighting I made it look like some light was leaking into a room through a door that was slightly ajar. This gives the effect that the baby has been left there by the parent and because its eyes are closed suggests that its innocence is being taken away without it knowing.

I was a bit concerned when I looked at this negative because I wanted the shadow area to be much darker, as if this doll was surrounded by dark. so in the dark room after doing my step wedges I started to experiment with dodging and burning to create the image that I wanted.

This picture does't really do the print justice, but you can see that the composition and lighting make this image a darker story than the first composition. A poor defenceless 'child' stripped of its innocence due to its mothers alcoholism.