Test Shoot

I was lucky enough to be asked by two 2nd year fashion promotion students to do a test shoot for one of their projects, it went very well and we had a great laugh. I will be shooting for their actual editorial shoot next week too.
Here are a few images from the test shoot:

Between Frontier and the Back-Garden

Deconstructing an Environmental Photographer

I have decided to select Simon Norfolk and three of his images to deconstruct.

The images have been taken in Afghanistan where Norfolk has done a vast amount of work documenting the scenes in context of the ongoing conflict.

A home, made of shipping containers outside of Kabul.

A Government building close to the former Presidential palace at Darulaman, destroyed in the early 1990's.

A former teahouse in the Shah Shahid district of Kabul.

So the first image being of the containers has either been shot early in the morning or at dusk as there are no shadows and the image feels awfully cold due to the colours. The composition of this piece leads you from the containers on the right down 'the street' of other potential homes. Obviously all of these shots are set up as a documentation but they are also an outsiders observation, what I mean is that the camera isn't too involved into the subjects, it has taken a step back to view what is going on around it.

The abandoned ravaged Government building has a deadpan look to it because it has been shot straight on with nothing really around it and a blank sky, the vignetting does give it a sinister and uneasy look. The focus is solely on this building because Norfolk wants you to delve into it and evoke some emotions. I think this would have been shot quite late afternoon because looking at the shadows they are quite long and the sun is still very bright and hot.

The last image is rather dramatic due to the cloudy sky and almost desolate area apart from these ruins of a teahouse and balloon salesman. The fact that this man is in the shot kind of signifies a gain of hope within the country, under the Taliban balloons were illegal. But now there are many balloon sellers that sell there balloons to the kids which hopefully brings some joy in to there lives. 

We watched a video on Norfolk in a lecture earlier today where he said that he wanted to show the areas of Afghanistan as a disappointment because billions of U.S dollars have been spent on it but it still looks like squalor. He has, I think, achieved this within the first and last photo above due to the the cold colours in the first and the way he has captured the armageddon look of the sky and lone wandering balloon man. Both of these images make me feel pretty sympathetic towards the people that have to live in these places, which again is what Norfolk wants the viewers to feel. He is making a statement through his camera, which is similar to what Burke was doing in the late 19th Century but Norfolk is able to take a free rein and put across his own feelings and beliefs on the subject.

The middle image to me, is the one that stands out the most, this is because it doesn't have that same cold feeling to it or the sense of armageddon that the others do. Instead it almost looks as if it is a tourist attraction, shot to look like an appealing place to go (for a brochure) and then you look a bit closer and see all the bullet holes and destruction. It makes you think of the terror and hurt that most likely took place there.

Inductions

For the past few weeks we have been having inductions to the studios, lighting equipment and cameras.

We started using medium format cameras, black and white film and continuous tungsten lighting. We learnt how to put a small set together using various studio equipment like stands, backdrops and poly boards.

Standard contact sheet.

Followed by a light density step wedge, the first one was too bright so I dropped the aperture down a stop to let in more light. Then the last part was seeing the effect of using a different grade (changing the contrast)

The first print I did, I may have forgotten to check the borders and the frame wasn't quite in so there are black lines. 

So after going back into the darkroom and checking everything was how I wanted it I printed the two images below. The top image was set at grade 2 and the one below it set to grade 5. You can clearly see the difference in contrast between the two.

I then chose another negative to enlarge and also changed the border as to get used to using the easel.
The second picture of the hammer has been split graded, if you look closely you can see the slight difference in contrast.

I have used medium format cameras in the studio and on location and also printed quite a lot in the darkroom so it wasn't really anything new, but seeing as I haven't done any printing since the beginning of this year it was great to have a refresher and get to know how everything works at the Uni.

I was more interested in what was to come next, the large format induction! I enjoy shooting film so it is really good that this semester is based on film.
I have used large format once before but nowhere near as in depth as we have been going with it. It is not as daunting as you think but it does take a lot of patience as it is a long process. There are rather a few things to check to make sure you get an exposure, like making sure the lens is closed, making sure the darkslide is in or out depending what stage you are at and so on.

So firstly, black and white 5x4, we used this as a proofing method and to get used to all the dials on the camera. We looked at keystoning which is where the straight lines of buildings (or books) bow due to lens distortion or because the film isn't straight on to the subject. This did take a while to fiddle around with and make sure it was right, definitely something to be practised.

Moving onto colour, same principal as black and white, get the correct exposure etc. With this one though we were looking at perspective by using different lenses. This one was shot with a 180mm lens, creating depth between the two objects.

Colour printing! This was awesome. Enjoyed this so much and can't wait to print some more.
It is obviously quite similar to black and white printing where you take a neg shine light through it and make step wedges. There is one difference that you have to make and that is colour balance, if the image is too red then you have to add yellow and magenta to compensate the negative. This is what I had to do to get the correct colour balance, which can be seen in the last test strip.

Half way through my step wedges I printed this:

This happened because I was using older paper that already had some test strips in and one had been exposed to a little bit of light. So even though the colour looks good and balanced I had to do another because of uncertainty.

But eventually got to the full print stage and printed this:

It was great to see all the fine detail of the cows hair and the bright colours of the car printed on this paper from the 5x4 negative shot a few days before.

I made another print at the same exposure as the previous one but added another five seconds while waving my hand around to create some vignetting.

Have a lighting workshop tomorrow, should be fun.

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.

Starting to become ill from constantly going from a hot photographer pit to the cold English weather outside! No doubt has something to do with the lack of sleep and food as well.

I am having fun though and it has been a brilliant first season. Been to some really great shows and seen a lot of celebrities, managed to pap Dannii Minogue earlier!

So glad that the people on the door held me back, or I would not have got this. Though paparazzi is not something I find enjoyable nor like, but that's all I am going to say on that.

Here is a shot from the last show I did tonight:

This is from the designer Giles, put on a very good show and it was held in such a great venue too (The Justice Courts on the Strand).

Just one more shot for tonight, will put others up tomorrow:

Thought that I would be a bit experimental in this show as it was one that I did not have to cover.

Another day draws to a close....

Had a pretty good day at LFW, managed to blag my way into a couple of shows that I wasn't meant to be in which makes up for not getting into Vivienne Westwood yesterday!!

This was shot at the Matthew Williamson show I was lucky enough to get into:

This was a really great show to go to, set in the turbine hall at the Tate modern. Really great vibe to it as well.

Havent really had time to properly look at images to put up, hence the one photo above. But images from  friday and possibly yesterday can be found here: http://www.fiascoplus.com/?p=1743

and also here: http://www.fashioncapital.co.uk/News.html
which is who I am actually shooting for.

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First day of LFW is nearly over for me, just 2 more shows....phew!

Definitely need to buy some deodorant that actually works before tomorrow, though people give me space in the pit so shouldn't complain.

Took a few pics using my phone: ( think I'll upload some actual photos Sunday)