My four chosen final images reflect how the current UK lockdown guidelines has affected the pub trade in my local area. Since the 20th March, all pubs and restaurants have been shut down in order to reduce the threat of Covid-19 spreading. Living in a small country village where the local pub is the community hotspot, it has been incredibly eerie, usually being packed with locals all through the week, they have now been left desolate, boarded up and doors locked as if in a zombie apocalypse film. The likelihood of reopening this year is also fairly slim, with them being realistically the last places to reopen to the public, it is interesting to see a once buzzing location now idle, just brick and mortar without purpose. I wanted to capture this in some way as even though the decision to close pubs/clubs/restaurants was in just, it is still thought-provoking to consider if they can survive the lockdown period.
I shot in straight documentary style as I didn’t want to take away from the subject by creating sequences, double exposures etc and believed that singular straight on images would be the most effective way to infer the message which I intended. Taking the four images straight on of the objects which I wanted to capture without any unnecessary frame space or content meant I could portray the objects as they are without trying to include them in a wider scene, therefor not distracting the viewer from the key focus point in the image. My favourite image of the four is of the pubs sign which displays ‘Good Beer, Good Food, Great Atmosphere’ and then the frame presents the actual situation of an empty beer garden, completely missing customers. The image has a sense of dark satire which I thought when taking the photo and although the situation which is happening currently is obviously terrible, the image finds some sort of humour within the dark times.
Due to not being able to shoot in my usual style and without my usual cameras, I had to use my phone camera to capture the images for the project; I would have preferred to use actual cameras to get better image quality but I think for the kind of work I was doing, my phone held up well as I didn’t need to edit my images past putting them in black and white so I think the lower image quality was/is bearable. Although this isn’t the kind of work I usually create, I think due to the testing conditions I am pleased with the images I was able to create during the lockdown. Although, if I was to replicate the project outside of the lockdown, I would spend much longer on creating each image as I wouldn’t be constraint to trying to work during one exercise hour per day.
While considering my previous idea of using flags which residents of the town which I live have put up to show their endurance during the lockdown, I have decided that it is fairly limited in both what I can do with the idea and the chances of finding more people which put flags up in windows, poles etc is relatively slim. Due to this I have decided to change my theme for the images and focus on how the multiple pubs/bars which are a hotspot in my community are coping/functioning during the lockdown and also the government regulations which means they can only work as a takeaway service. I think this is an interesting topic to focus on as the local pubs are quite old fashioned in my area as they still seem to be the centre of the community, with many residents going there as their main form of socialising, but obviously can’t now. With this idea in mind, I want to document how the public houses of my village look like during what would have been their busiest time of year, for example on a Saturday they would usually be packed with people but are now left derelict. One of the main which I will be conveying this is photographing the chalk boards on each pub which usually displayed the upcoming events each pub had, while now they are left empty. Another idea I had was to focus on the letters the pubs put up on their doors for the locals which explained why the customers are not allowed in. While shooting some images around this idea, I also found the pub gardens (which would have been thriving if we didn’t have Covid) interesting as they now look desolate and bare.
This is the three pages from my now finish website – my last step for my website build was creating my info/contact/social media page. I knew that I wanted to keep this page as simple as possible, displaying just the key information in a straightforward way, meaning the viewer can get my bio and contact details instantly without searching for it. To match the minimalist style from the home and portfolio pages, I decided to make the page clear with just the relevant information to the centre of the screen the same height as the menu and in the same Helvetica Light font. For my bio I gave a brief summarised sentence of what I believe the themes of my work to be and the styles of photography, eg portraiture and documentary, I mostly shoot. The bio then proceeds to display a photography email address and also my Instagram tag. Finally, I also included a section for exhibitions which I have had in the past and also gives me a space to add more for exhibitions which I do in the future. I decided to add a hyperlink to my instagram account embedded in the menu (which once clicked, opens up the link in a separate window) named ‘Instagram’ as it gives the viewer a quick way to visit my social media without having to manually enter in my account name.
I am quite pleased with the completed website as I think I was able to achieve the desired aesthetic which I imagined for it at the start of the project, which was to have a minimalistic, clear and professional layout displaying the most relevant information and images which I believe is most important to my photographic style. I knew when beginning the website that I didn’t want any distracting popups or complicated menus as I have seen on other photography websites which I have personally found didn’t contribute anything positive to the work which was trying to be presented. I kept my website as laidback as possible allowing my images to be the main focus point for the viewer. Another benefit of having this kind of straightforward design is, if in the future I want to add more images, text or pages, the website has page space for more content and I won’t have to change the layout/design to facilitate more content. In the future I might include more pages to the menu, dedicated to specific projects etc but for now I quite like how the four options look within the page layout.
Martin Parr’s website is a great example of how the use of design on a photography website can perfectly reflect the style of work which is presented. Martin Parr’s style is renowned for its quirkiness as well as many other characteristics such as making fun of the situations which he is capturing. His official site reflects his love for satire by keeping the aesthetic light-hearted through the use of menu headers, as well as the large images which has chosen to be presented on the home page, which is the first thing the viewer sees, instantly portraying Parr’s infamous style. The selected images on the home page are a range of Parr’s lifetime work but all reflect his signature comedic style, whether that is a sunbather sleeping/leaning upright on a concrete wall or a LGBTQ activist protesting behind a judge/barrister/lawyer etc. The menu for the website is playful, using mini illustrations to represent the pages they represent, such as a drawing of Parr for the Intro page, a camera for the Recent page, a stack of Martin Parr photo books for the Book page, an old style box TV for the Film page, a double page spread of a travel journal for the Blog page, filling cabinet for the Archive page, a vintage cash register for the Shop page, a stack of paper for the CV page, a standard question mark for the Frequently Asked Questions page and a world globe for the Contact page. The choice of menu instantly makes the website refreshing compared to other photography websites which I have researched in the past, making the viewer want to browse the options and therefor the other pages. The ‘Martin Parr’ title at the top left of each page also shares a similar style of design as the menu, appearing as if it was drawn onto the page with a red marker or crayon
I researched Parr’s website as I wanted some inspiration for my info page but unsurprisingly, he has a lot more information which he can present on the page (awards, exhibitions, magazines etc) than what I would be able to put it was still beneficial to see how the page was laid out and how I can keep it interesting while still displaying the important details. I personally want to my info page to be of a similar style but obviously I’ll have less to display due to just beginning recently as a photographer. Although I like how Parr’s page places the text on the left with a light, simple typeface and then a singular image to the right which still makes the page interesting.
Before creating my portfolio page, I knew that I wanted a page dedicated to some of my favourite photos from past projects showing the themes and styles which my work has. I began looking at other photographers’ websites and how they organise their work and my favourite layout which seemed most appealing to me was a simple set of images set on the page, without any slideshows, galleries etc, which allows the viewer to scroll down the page to view more and also translates well to phone screens as there isn’t any laptop screen specific tools being used, e.g. if I had used one of the gallery options on Wix, it would have made phone use more tedious. As for the images chosen, I wanted a limited selection of what I think is my best work from various projects and organised in a way that also looks visually pleasing. I chose a range of portraits and detail photographs to show diversity and the detail shots also worked well to break up the portraits which otherwise could be overwhelming/boring if all placed next to each other. I placed some work which were not related and also different styles (such as portrait/fashion with a documentary image) to create a diversity but I also found that it could be useful to show how my personal styles are applied within different genres of photography. I think this worked well on the page as I think it gave the portraits a narrative and gives the portrait more significance and depth. As for actually laying out the images on the page, I chose a two-column grid with the images running down the page as I thought it worked well with how the home page was designed and also worked to create the minimalistic aesthetic. I’m really pleased with the outcome of the page and the images I have chosen which I believe summarise my work as a whole.
While browsing through the Eggleston website, one thing that I particularly liked was the use of layout for the images. The website uses a tile-style design to show a select few photos from the photographer’s work. I think this looks really good especially when trying to create a minimal look to a website. When it comes to creating my portfolio page, I think I will use a similar design as seen here – using a select few images, shot throughout my work so far, and lay them out in a aesthetically clean and simple way. I like the aspect of using multiple photo ratios on the page (square and 2:3) which makes the page more visually exciting which I will probably include on my portfolio page as I have used various ratios in my work, such as 1:1, 2:3, and 4:3 which I want to display on my website. Looking at Eggleston’s site has resolved any questions/reservations which I had about my portfolio page.
After spending more time working on my website, I decided that having two images on the home page was too much as it made the screen cluttered and wasn’t worth having in. I think having one singular image on the page looks much better and more professional, keeping the whole theme minimal and clean.I chose this image for the home page as it is one of my favourites from my recent work and I think it also reflects the kind of themes which I try to incorporate in most of my work. I think having this image on its own makes the viewer want to see more – then moving to the portfolio page.
Starting off my website creating a home page, I took inspiration from the photographers’ websites which I have researched so within the project. I think the inspiration from mine compared to theirs is quite obvious, such as the white background and simplistic layout. When it came to design and creating my home page, I wanted it to be as simple as possible while still retaining professionalism. My decisions for the page were:
Traditional, professional font throughout the website. I chose Helvetic as I have used the typeface previously and think it suits the style I am going for.
My name as the title, in slightly larger text than on the menu below, I think the title was 24pt and the menu being 18pt (mostly to make my main more prominent on the page.
Headings/pages in menu kept strict – wanted maximum three to four pages for my site, just to make everything as simple as possible and let my images to be the main focus point, rather than unnecessary pop-ups, text columns, etc.
When the viewer enters my website, I wanted there to be one or two key images to be presented on the home page, demonstrating my style of photography straightaway. I chose one portrait from my Image Making project which is in colour and shot on digital and another portrait from my Identity project which is in b&w as well as being shot on film. I wanted the two contrasting images to show the diversity of my work as well as not being bound to using one medium, genre, etc. I think the two images work well alongside each other as they still reflect my style, whether that’s British-ness, nostalgia or 60s/70s influences. I also chose two horizontal/landscape images as I wanted the images to fill up most of the page without making the viewer scroll down to see the rest of the image. The decision to place the colour image as the top image was purely a stylistic choice, due to the top-left corner being relatively dark and matching the title and menu.
I’m really pleased with the style of the home page; for the rest of the website I’m planning to use a similar layout when it comes to showing my other work and info.
The Richard Avedon Foundation website is the official website for the notorious American fashion photographer, Richard Avedon. Like the rest of the websites I have researched so far for this project, Avedon’s using the standard clear, white background with a select few images from his lifetime’s work. Although, browsing through the pages of the sight has a slightly different aesthetic/design/style than what the photographers’ sites had. I think this may be due to Avedon’s fashion photography style, but his website seems much more editorial than the others and something that would be more suited within a fashion magazine such as Vogue, possibly due to the light typeface, only using portraits for the home page and having one single font for the whole website – which I particularly liked. I also enjoyed how the three images chosen for the home page are all portraits but show a diverse range of styles, reflective of Avedon’s artistic/photographic ability. Sequencing a candid black and white portrait of a beekeeper next to an editorial style fashion colour image shows the diversity of Avedon’s style. The website also has more headings within its menu than I have seen with the rest of photographers I have researched: The Work, The Archive, Publications, Exhibitions, About and Social Media. The decision to have. Multiple pages with extensive amount of work is also reflective of the fashion editorial aesthetic, which is probably why it suits Avedon’s work.
The EgglestonArtFoundation website is the official site of infamous American photographer William Eggleston, known for his expert use of colour and American culture most notably through the 60s and 70s. Similar to the other websites I have researched so far for this project, EgglestonArtFoundation also uses a simplistic design/layout, with only one page presenting the photographers work. The reasoning behind just using one page is to keep the site as simple as possible, leaving the work to have the centre stage for the viewer. I personally probably won’t choose to do this for my site but I can understand why it might be desirable. Out of the three websites I have researched so far, Eggleston’s use of a white background is the most effective alongside his images, making his bright, saturated work pop out to the viewer. Another great style choice for the site is matching the ‘EgglestonArtFoundation’ title in the same shade of green as the car in the below picture – it’s a small detail but helps pull the design together. Thinking more about the title, the use of three shades of green on a bold typeface completely corelates well with Eggleston’s bright imagery and Americana style. I also like how the website contrasts the cool winter-feeling image on the left with the warm summer aesthetic photograph on the right. The viewer is presented with more of the photographer’s work when scrolling further down the page and is given a small piece of text about the photographer’s life and also any upcoming projects, although it is not extensive leaving the viewer to search for more.
Due to COVID-19 and the lockdown, ideas for the kind of photographs I can create is rather limited. I have the options of either shooting within the home or outside while on my days exercise. Im trying to experiment on what I could do from indoors but I am unsure of anything that would be coherent to the style of work I created before Covid-19 and I’m not sure if it would be very interesting anyway. This leads me to the shoot while I’m out if the house for an hour a day. Within nearly all of my work, I have incorporated some aspect of British nationality as well as nostalgia, so for this project I want to carry on with these themes. One positive outcome of what is going on at the moment is the sense of community within British culture, such as being more considerate of the elderly, clapping for the NHS, rainbows on windows, etc. This could be a good starting point for what I could focus my images on.
One idea I have had was based around how a country can stay positive during such difficult times and what symbols people use to represent this, such as flags, rainbows etc. While on my exercise of the day, I have been using the same route each day as it is fairly secluded so isn’t much threat to myself or others. Recently I have noticed that someone has erected a large Union Jack flag on a flagpole for most of the households on the street to notice which I thought was a really interesting way to show that the community was strong and will get through these difficult times. I thought this could be a very interesting topic to use within my project but am not sure how to present it. Due to the lack of time, equipment available etc I will have to shoot the images on my phone and possibly create a collage/sequence of some sort as the camera quality probably isn’t great compared to the cameras which I could have used if we were still at UCA. Im thinking it could be interesting to take a photo of the flag for everyday since the lockdown started or to use a picture for everyone which have sadly passed due to corona. Im not sure on what I want to say or create but I think this is a good starting point.
To gather inspiration for my website, I decided to find the website of David Bailey due to him being one of my favourite photographers and also taking inspiration from his work in my past project. While trying to find his website, and then coming to the conclusion that he doesn’t have one, I found a lesser known photographer also named David Bailey from the US. Thinking his work was very good, I also enjoyed the layout of his website as well as the straightforward way he presented his portfolio of work. When first clicking on the site, you are presented with one large documentary style portrait below the photographer’s name and menu. I’ve decided after seeing this on both Bailey’s and Brandt’s websites, I am sure that it is a great way to present the viewer with a key image which represents your work as a whole, whether that is a documentary street photograph or a portrait. I think landscape is a more effective choice over portrait orientation as it works much better on a computer screen – I think of my crime series photographs could work well in this style. Like Brandt’s website, Bailey’s also has a limited number of headings, resulting in the viewer not being overwhelmed with unnecessary information or images.
Bill Brandt’s official website is a key example of the kind of website I anticipate to create for my portfolio. With a clean, uncomplicated aesthetic, Brandt’s website delivers the photographer’s lifetime work in a straightforward manner. The website is basically everything which I wrote what I wanted mine to look like – such as one key image on the home page, white background and simple black text/font. I also like how the website has a page dedicated to ‘News’ mostly filled up with any current or future exhibitions/book reissues. It’s a small feature but something which could make the website more engaging while browsing through. One design choice of Brandt’s website which I probably wouldn’t have chosen to do would be using one font for the ‘Bill Brandt Archive’ title and another for the rest of the text on the page. I could see why this would be done, mostly to separate the title from the rest of the page, but I think for mine I want to use a single font for most of the website if possible. Although the title at least is using a traditional typeface which suits the style of photography which is on the page. The overall style/aesthetic of each page is similar to a newspaper style of arranging titles and having a neat layout etc. I think this style works well as Brandt isn’t a contemporary photographer and it is contextually appropriate to match his style of work.
Creating a rough idea/plan of the kind of website I want to create, I have decided on some basic aesthetic choices for the layout, content etc. Some being:
Clean, black, white background so the viewers sole attention is on my chosen images.
portfolio – A strict chosen selection of images from my past work – using images which may have similar style, eg my portraits and documentary portraits from Image Making which all have some sort of nostalgic feeling to them
One main chosen image presented on the home page
Contact page – displaying email etc
info page – minimal with relevant information
Category for Individual project work
Possibly another category for my documentary work
link to social media – probably somewhere in the info page
At the beginning of my book designing stages, I first anticipated that I would create a traveller’s journal style booklet with a leather-bound cover, leather strap which would tie around the book and beige coloured pages. My original interpretation of what the books could have been included crocodile or snakeskin leather bounded cover, reflecting the 1970s aesthetic which my images had. Although, after weighing up the options I had, the cost, ability to obtain the supplies/item/tools and the overall expected time it would take to actually make the journal, I decided that the idea wasn’t feasible. I began drafting out various other ideas, finally deciding on the method which I made both my completed books: I decided that a more time and cost effective way to get a leather cover would be to find some vintage books from old books stores, remove the text blocks and insert my pages inside. This worked out to be a much quicker option and I’m actually pleased with how the result I achieved. My overall concept for this idea was that if the books were kept on a bookshelf, the criminal contents within them would be hidden, reflecting how the actual crime within the book would have also been hidden.
Cover
While gathering relevant books within old bookstores, my main guidelines was to purchase booms which had similar coloured covers and also have similar ratios which would mean less editing to my text block in the future. I decided on two burgundy coloured leather-styled books which although where different in size, had the same ratio and also similar in thickness, meaning I wouldn’t have to use different paper gsm for each book. Stripping the text block wasn’t difficult as the books were quite old so the thread and glue used to keep the block to the cover only needed slight persuasion to separate. Deciding on ways to edit the cover in a way that the book could still be recognisable to the viewer, I decided to laser cut / engrave my series’ name ‘Daylight Robbery’ onto the front cover. Using a laser to engrave the name meant I could get an extremely neat carving into the covers’ material and also meaning I didn’t have to use any wet material, such as ink or paint.
Binding
Sticking the pages together and also to the book was fairly straightforward. I opted to using a standard Japanese book binding stitch along the spine of the book, leaving the pages tightly compressed against each other, without any possible separation or unevenness. I used standard white clothing thread for my book as the pages were of normal thickness and didn’t want to cause and tearing which could have been created if I had used actual book binding thread, which is usually quite thick. Instead of using an awl to create the holes within each page, which would take quite a long time and in my experience it never actually turns out neat, I chose to use a drill with a tinny drill bit and then just create a five separate holes straight through the text block, which resulted in neat holes exactly in the same place within each page. To then stick the text block to the cover, I used glue (glue stick rather than any wet glue as the glue stick didn’t cause any unexpected creases or tears on the paper) on the first and last blank pages and then placed them in the same place where the original books’ text block was, and then compressed the two books under a heavy weight for several days.
Pages from my book ‘Daylight Robbery, made in InDesign. Due to making two different sized books and with both having a ratio slightly different to 2:3, I spent a large amount of time experimenting with layouts and finding the best way to feature my images within the book without needing excessive cropping. For my small book, the dimensions were 152mm x 95mm, with a 155mm x 100mm cover and my larger book was 120mm x 184mm with a cover of 130mm x 191mm. Due to shooting in portrait and landscape, I was unsure on the best way to include the landscape shots within the book as the ratio didn’t fit with the images’. I worked around this by not cropping any on the landscape images and just included an area of border all around them, with a slightly larger section on the bottom. The portrait/vertical images were much easier to use as only a slight crop was needed and I was able to use an equal border around the whole image. I wanted to include two images which would feature at the start and end of the book, feeling up the whole spread, demonstrating their importance within the story. For the beginning image, I chose to use the heist map as I wanted to give the image as much space as possible within the page as I wanted as much detail as possible within the frame to be seen, such as the getaway route etc. For the ending image, I chose a portrait of the bald character as I wanted to leave the viewer with an interpretation of what the ending could have been. The image was shot from within the getaway car’s boot with the character looking towards the viewer; I wanted to create a narrative of the character looking at the contents of heist or possibly he had killed the crime boss character which appeared towards the end of the book and put him in the boot, just a few possible interpretations which could be created by the viewer.
Beginning my Image Making project, I began constructing various ideas based around a similar British / vintage aesthetic, similar to the work created in my Identity project. I first decided that I wanted to use documentary fiction rather than documentary reality as I wanted to create work in a director style role, creating the scenes, choosing objects/models and a narrative which would be visually interesting. After creating photos in a sixties style in my last project, I decided to follow a similar theme and shoot images in a seventies aesthetic for this project, mostly due to my interest in the decade’s culture and fashion, as well as it’s cinema. Inspired by my own interests in film / cinema, I decided to use classic crime drama as my genre as I have watched many films set in the 70s which has used crime as their chosen theme. Inspired by films such as The Italian Job, The Godfather and The Bank Job, I had a foundation knowledge of what kind of cameraangles, lighting, colour grading and models which would suit planned images. I began researching further, watching other films which use similar themes such as Get Carter, Snatch, Lock, and Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels, each one taking various inspiration which would be used later within my photoshoots. Alongside researching cinema, I also researched photographers who shoot in a cinematic style: Gregory Crewdson, Matt Henry and Jeff Wall. Taking key elements from each of these photographers work for my own images: Crewdson’s use of lighting, Henry’s use of specific style and Wall’s ability to create a narrative within his model(s) / subject(s).
Shooting my images incorporated the researched which I conducted before hand as well as the narrative which I was trying to create. For my series, I wanted to create a crime series which depicted two criminals while they plan and prepare for an upcoming heist. I created two characters which contrasts between each other: one being a ‘top of the chain’ criminal who is visibly wealthy and is immersed within the crime culture, and another which is a lower down, petty criminal who would be carrying out the actual crime. The use of a getaway car was also a big factor within my series which I wanted to focus on as it would be one of the main ways to set the vintage 70s look. Luckily, I knew someone who owned multiple classic cars from the 70s which meant I could easily gather cars which I needed. The main getaway car within my shots was a cream Jaguar Mark II; this was incredibly fitting for my project as Mark II’s are known for being extensively used in the 60s and 70s as getaway cars during robberies. For the lower down criminal, I decided to shoot the images within the classic car garage as it was fittingly old fashioned and I chose my model as he fitted my brief effectively, as well as choosing an outfit that was similar to relaxed British 70s attire. For my crime boss character, I wanted the idea of wealth to be obvious within the frame, meaning dressing up the model in a smart suit and wearing extensive gold jewellery, as well as prop guns.
For my book (before hand-in went digital) I first planned to bound a Japanese stitched booklet in natural leather to match the vintage theme but after waying up the price and time left I decided it would not be an effective option. Instead I chose to buy two old books from a classic bookstore, both made in the early 20thcentury, stripping the text pages which left me with the leather covers. I decided on using old book covers as I thought it could look as if the criminal content of my series could be hidden within an old bookshelf, reflecting on the secret nature of the series. After stripping down the books, I laser cut / engraved my series name ‘Daylight Robbery’ on the cover, created the books’ content and then hand-stitched the pages together, sticking the ‘text block’ into the covers.
I am very pleased with how the project progressed and the images which I obtained, as I believed the series captures the creative vision which I envisioned at the start of the Image Making project. Through the use of camera angles, lenses used, props, classic cars, models and clothing, I believe I achieved the vintage 70s aesthetic I was planning for. If I had more time for the series, I would consider creating more characters, locations and just generally adding more detail and depth to the storyline.
For my second shoot, I needed to introduce another character to the series as well as establish the getaway vehicle for the characters. For the character, I wanted to create someone similar to the character of Terry in the Bank Job – a lower end criminal who carries out the orders from the crime bosses. The characteristics of this sort of character includes bald, fairly slim but built stature, stubble, wearing an overcoat with dark clothing, possibly with jeans. Actually, finding a person to match this description was fairly straightforward as coincidently I knew a quantity of men who fit the description and I could use for the project. As for the clothing, I wanted to match the outfit to the previous subject within my last shoot, which led me to choosing a classic looking blue overcoat, black turtleneck, bootcut jeans and vintage boots. For the getaway vehicles which would be used within the series, I wanted to use historically accurate getaway cars which were used in British bank heists during the 60s and 70s, which led me to use a cream Jaguar Mark 2 1969 and a Ford Escort from 1973. For the location, I wanted to use a similar environment as Terry’s car dealership in the Bank Job, so I used a large garage which had car lifts (which were useful for creating more detail / depth of field within the frame), roller shutter which could be used as a backdrop for subject/car and also random objects laying around the room which I could incorporate within the shits.
I started the shoot with establishing the kind of detail shots I wanted to take; I focused on capturing the interiors of the classic cars, subject’s hands and other details within the garage. I particularly liked the shots of the red leather within the vintage Jaguar as it worked well with the luxury/extravagant 70s style; for instance, the photo of the gear stick gives enough detail while allowing the viewer to create their own narrative of what’s occurring at that particular moment during the storyline. I then began including the subject within the scenes, shooting both direct portraits and action shots. I decided to both use 50mm f/1.4 and 24-105 f/4 lenses as the 50mm gave me a wide aperture for if I encountered low light or wanted a shallower depth of field for my portraits. The zoom lens gave me more flexibility in well-lit situations, meaning a could use a range of focal lengths to my advantage, for instance shooting at 70mm for a portrait or using 24mm to get as much of the scene within the frame. Using 24mm was most useful for when I wanted deliberate distortion such as making the wheel larger than the subject or for capturing the car interiors without too much difficulty. For the direct portraits, I wanted to create as much emotion from the subject as possible without directing them to appear a certain way. I didn’t want them to purposely look tough or aggressive as I wanted the shots to be as authentic as I could get them. This led to portraits which portray the subject as being traditionally masculine but also being reserved with deeper emotion.
I’m very pleased with the photos from the shoot as I think they correlate well with the previous photos which I shot and also resembled some of the films which I researched during the project. My favourite photos from the shoot include the environment shot which I shot from a high angle and also the shots taken from within the car, such as the shotgun cartridges hanging from the mirror and the photo of the rear seat which was shot to look like the character is looking over the shoulder to see behind the car. My favourite portrait from the shoot focuses of the character but also has the car lifted in the air behind him, producing a gritty, vintage aesthetic.
During test shoot one, I found that the subject had a traditional wooden desk in their home which I thought would be a really good prop within the shots. Desks infer power and possibly extravagance which I thought would suit the crime theme which I was trying to deliver within the series. Desks appear to be a prime location during classic crime films, the most prominent being Scarface and The Godfather, the desk in each signifying the extravagance of the men behind them. For my shot, I decided to use the gold on the subject’s jewellery and match it with the gold drawer handle and the gold paged book, giving the rich aesthetic for the viewer, working with the subject’s attire.
For my first test shoot of the documentary fiction unit, I used my research into British criminal to create a Godfather style detailed stills and portraits. I wanted to shoot a set of images to depict the person in charge of the whole crime storyline, like a traditional crime boss. I decided the best way to represent this would be to use an older looking man wearing smart attire, such as a tailored suit and hints of gold. I wanted to shoot a wide range of detailed shots which would be used in various moments in my book without showing the man’s personality and then one full portrait towards the end of the book. For my detail shots, I decided to incorporate the man’s hands with various objects (such as guns, books, phones etc) leaving the viewer to create their own narrative of what is happening. To establish the subject’s power/wealth, I wanted gold to be a prominent colour within the frame, achieved via the use of watches, rings, belt buckles etc. My favourite shot displaying these focuses on the subject opening a drawer which has a golden knob and with a vintage phone on the desk, inferring a storyline to the viewer. Another shot which I particularly like focuses on the subject’s hand holding a black book with their gold ring matching gold initials on the book. For the portraits, I decided to shoot with a 24mm wide angle lens as I wanted to incorporate the characters home as much as possible; I particularly like the neon sign behind the subject producing a vintage 70s aesthetic as well as producing an interesting lighting within the final shots. I’m really pleased with the final photographs which I chose out of 400 shots taken during the shoot. I believe the images match a similar style as Snatch and produces the 70’s style which I was planning for. For my other shoots, I need to create another character which will be actually doing the crime; I’m thinking of creating a character which is visibly less wealthy than the first and particularly is working or driving a getaway vehicle. As for clothing, I want the next character to look less professional and wear more stereotypical British style 70s clothes, such as big coats or duller colours. I want the two characters to be drastically different, showing the chain between the upper and lower criminals within the storyline.
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, 1998, is, like Snatch, a British comedy-crime film which is directed by Guy Ritchie and is often referred to as the introduction to Snatch due to the cast, director and storyline holding similar traits between the two films. The film depicts a heist implemented my petty criminals and carried out on a fellow gang operating in the flat next door and initiated due to a failed card game, resulting in a loss of half a million pounds. I find Snatch to be a more polished version of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels due to the actors and director which are in both films getting more experience between the two years between each other. Although I much prefer Snatch as a film, I do think Lock, Stock is defiantly comparable due to its filming techniques for one instance; the use of angles, lighting and colour are used effectively to add to the gritty, criminal underworld aesthetic present in the storyline. Like in Snatch, a wide range of lenses are used within the filming process; my favourite is probably the use of wide angle and then shooting close to the scene/subject, for example the scene which depicts Vinnie Jones with two shotguns closeup, draws the viewer closer into the action which is occurring during each moment. The colour grading is where the two films contrast, Snatch strong has a green hue colour cast, especially during the night scenes, while on the other hand Lock, Stock uses more warm, red tones which can bring the viewer closer to each scene, and further away during Snatch.
Like Snatch, I think Lock, Stock is relevant to my British, crime, classic themes during my own work as although the film was contemporary when it was released it still holds values inspired by older classic crime films from the 60s and 70s. One technique which I have found interesting within the film is the closeness which is present when there is a group of characters together, making the viewer ‘one of the gang’. This is also present when the film wants the viewer to focus primarily on one individual, which the cinematographers achieved with straight filming on the characters’ face.
Snatch, 2002 is a British comedy/crime film, directed by Guy Ritchie, and depicts the lives of multiple London criminals from crime lords to low ranking petty thief’s, and how they are all simultaneously connected with each other. The film. Uses a range of technical filming methods to intertwine the viewer into the scenes; for instance, wide angle lenses alongside close up compositions within certain dramatic scenes to weave the viewer further into the suspenseful storyline. Another interesting camera angle used within the film is high angle shots, similar CCTV footage, which causes the viewer to retract themselves to what the characters are doing and also create a God-like perspective on the negative actions of which each man is doing. Another key attribute which I found interesting while watching the film is the wardrobe decisions. Nearly all of the cast is wearing some form of professional looking clothing, such as suits and old style hats, while gypsy characters Mickey O’Neil who is continuously dressed in a scruffy attire which shows further depth to the difference and separation of cultures between himself and the wealthy crime lord characters within the film.
Although Snatch was released in 2000 and contemporary for its time, I feel it is relevant to the 1970’s theme which I have been working with as it has similar themes to the crime genres present in the other films which I have researched and the wardrobe is quite classic even for its time, especially the long coats and colour choices. The colour grading of the film is also reminiscent of gritty crime dramas from the 70’s/80s mostly due to the dark nature with strong green and red tones, which I like. I think the film is a good example of how a scene can be both intense and playful, which could be useful within my own images. I also like how in Snatch, the imagery is perfectly constructed which means the film can be paused at any moment and the still could be effectively used as a photograph. This is the kind of effect I am planning to achieve in my work as I want my images to seem like they have been pulled from a film/storyline.
Jeff Wall is a Canadian phototopographer who like Crewdson and Henry, is known for his large scale, large production photographs and highly constructed scenes. Like the other two photographers, Wall uses his photographic practices in a cinematic style and produces scenes which looks like they could have been pulled out of a full-length film, while still expressing a certain feel or emotion just within one image to the viewer. His decision to produce large scale prints for exhibitions comes from a similar decision made by Crewdson; the essence of the enormous prints engulfs the viewer into the scene and also on a practical level, allows the viewer to examine all the intricately placed details within the composed scenes. Jeff wall’s work is fundamentally the definition of documentary fiction: using compositions and subject matters which would usually be used in traditional documentary reality but actually using models and sets to create the planned image. I appreciate Wall’s ambition to capture an image, even if it is not actually a real scene, using various means necessary to create the print which he envisions. With this in mind, Wall plays with the notion of what is documentary photography and how far the genre can be widened. It is noted that he works primarily with non-professional models as subjects which retracts the stereotypical model characteristics/attitudes which I personally find very obvious in the final image within other genres of photography such as fashion. The choice of using real people as subjects (even though they are being instructed) gives his constructed scenes a more authentic atmosphere; one of the most obvious examples to me of this is Wall’s ‘Boxing’ 2011 (Figure 1) which depicts two young men boxing which looks like their living room. The candid aesthetic of this shot seems completely authentic. Wall’s use of composition seems the most important factor to my opinion; by positioning the camera by the right side of the wall and using a wide angle lens makes the image appear as if it was taken by a parent who had just walked into their living room, found their sons boxing and took a snapshot of the scene for the family album. Of course other steps had to be taken by Wall for the photograph due to it eventually being printed on a large scale and hung in a gallery, so other measures such as added lighting and props for the room would have been planned, as well as camera positioning and composition.
Out of the three photographers I have researched so far, Jeff Wall’s work is probably my favourite due to many factors. I particularly like his use of colour within his final photographs; comparing to Crewdson and Henry, Wall’s use of colour is much less exaggerated, this may be due to the two other two using a 1950s-1980s Americana aesthetic, but Wall’s images are a lot more realistic and I feel like I can connect to them much more than the other two’s work. Another attribute which singles out Wall from Henry and Crewdson is his decision to make his scenes less American-focused. Crewdson and Henry both create work which explores the notion of what American culture was/is, but I personally feel this is much less present in Wall’s work. His photographs seem much less specific to one specific country and can be sympathised with by a range of different people from many different cultures. For example, in Matt Henry’s work, I feel a certain novelty factor which may be due to not being American and not understanding some references, but researching Wall’s images, I feel much more connected to what the storyline could be or what kind of emotion which is being represented.
Researching Wall has been greatly beneficial in my own planning process. His work has given me some stylistic inspiration on what kind of compositions and lighting I could use within my own work, especially when I want the viewer to feel sympathetic or connected to what they are doing. I’ve found that the images which feels much more intimate to me within Wall’s work is usually when a subject is being photographed indoors, whether indoors or in their homes, which could be a usually idea for when I start shooting my images.
The Italian Job, directed by Peter Collinson,is a British crime film following a criminal gang as they complete an Italian gold heist. The film begins with Charlie Croker being released from prison and the viewer follows with Croker as he designs and carries out a robbery of a large amount of gold, and escaping with multiple Mini cars, with the film ending in a literal cliff hanger. Although the film was released in 1969, it has significant following in modern day cinema as most British people citing the film as a ‘classic’. Like Get Carter, The Italian Job holds the classic British suave aesthetic which was used in most British cinema during the 60s and 70s, and also the kind of feel I want in my photo series. The sense of ‘Britishness’ is used in all of the three films researched already and seems to have the same effect as the use of ‘Americanism’ as seen in Henry’s and Crewdson’s work. It seems that due to Michael Caine’s association with this genre of cinema, he is an icon or ‘Modfather’ of the classic British crime thrillers, and also the embodiment of a criminal who is also a gentleman, supposedly. Alongside Caine, there is a range of other actors within the cast, some being Noel Coward, Benny Hill and Raf Vallone, but as Caine is the leading actor, and therefor the films protagonist, the viewer feels closer to Caine and his ambitions during the developing stages of the heist. This could be an important factor which I could include within my series. The wardrobe choices, as seen in The Italian Job, is a decisive attribute to achieving the classic late 60s/ 70s aesthetic. I often enjoy using specific clothing styles within my other photographic work so I think after researching various 1970s films and photographers in the past so I have some understanding of what time-accurate outfits to use.
Get Carter is a 1970’s British crime drama starring Michael Caine as lead and directed by Mike Hodges. Filmed in 1970/71, the viewer accompanies London gangster/criminal Jack Carter as he seeks reason and revenge for his brother’s death. Get Carter produces a gritty aesthetic for the viewer, delivering a more realistic portrayal of British life and criminal attitude during the 1970’s, with Caine influenced by his real-life criminal acquaintances. The film, in essence, is the definition of the classic crime genre, with a protagonist hunting for answers and using any means necessary to get their way. Like The Bank Job, Get Carter combines its content matter with classic cinematic compositions to make the cast seem powerful, especially in the two films when a character is wilding a weapon. Although it can be argued that in Get Carter, Mike Hodges produced even more graphic tensions between the cast and doesn’t have the novelty effect present in The Bank Job.
Get Carter is an available aid for my upcoming project, both in actual composition importation and also gives me ideas on what kind of storyline I am going to produce within my images.In most scenes during the film, Carter is seen as a dominant, alpha male personality due to the camera angles and compositions often making him the biggest person within the frame creating a powerful presence during the scenes. The colour pallet within the film is also a valuable representation of what I want my upcoming images to be like, which contributes to the vintage 70s aesthetic. At the moment and influenced by both films, I plan to create a narrative around a build up to a crime or heist, following a set of men while they prepare for the day of the crime. In Get Carter, there is both closeups and shots of the cast from an outsider perspective, which causes the viewer to feel connected and simultaneously disconnected during the film. This could be beneficial during my shoots as I want the viewer while looking through the book to feel intimate to what the men are doing but also distance themselves from their actions.
The Bank Job 2009, directed by Roger Donaldson, is a British crime drama/thriller set in 1970’s London and follows a group of lower-end criminals before and after executing a large-scale bank robbery, alongside other political and social frictions happening during the timeline. The production of the film is engaging via the use of time-relevant vehicles, fashion and several other cultural significant events during 1971, most notably the original heist’s link to princess Margaret. The director and production team created realistic settings/environments within the film by using both real and constructed locations; most of the road locations within the film were real locations but also a few scenes around the bank were constructed within a studio to get a realistic 1970’s look. One of my favourite scenes from the film involves a fight scene between Terry and gangster Lew Vogel which was shot in Chatham Dockyard which is useful for my upcoming work as it can be a possible location for some shots as it is only ten minutes away from me.
The Bank Job was a key inspiration for my idea and why I wanted to shoot a series of 1970’s British influenced images. I appreciate the grittiness but also smoothness of the film and also the range of filming techniques such as angles. The use of colour grading and wardrobe produces the 70’s gritty look which I plan to have within my shots, as it works well alongside the crime storyline. The character wardrobe is also effective as it doesn’t overplay the cringe-worthy 70s style clothing which is present in other films; the use of coats specifically seems to be the thing that captured my eye the most out of all the clothing choices. The film also uses some of the cars which I have available for my shoot, most specifically a Jaguar Mark 2 and Ford Escort both from the same years which the film is set in and also is linked to getaway vehicles actually used by robbers in the 70’s.
Matt Henry is a British photographer who is most known for his cinematic Americana themed work. Henry’s theme reminds me of photographers William Eggleston and Gregory Crewdson due to their focus on similar ideas: for instance, Eggleston’s work showcases the United States during the 50s -70s and Crewdson’s use of location within his work correlates with Henry’s. Henry’s work is a key example of the kind of documentary fiction which I plan to shoot during this unit; his 60s and 70s influences help create ambiguous and deep-rooted meanings, creating nostalgia for American viewers and novelty for British/non-American viewers simultaneously. Henry’s images seem flawlessly crafted, whether it is a scene of Elvis performing on tv or a woman looking out of a window while on the phone, each adding a sense of mystery during the scene, leading the viewer to create their own interpretation of what they are viewing. Particularly being British and not knowing much on American culture, I interpret Henry’s work more conceptually rather than taking it for face value, therefor distancing from maybe the metaphorical/original meaning. This point makes Henry’s choice of subject matter even more interesting; it is noted that he was influenced by classic American films from his youth which may be why his depiction of American culture can be seen as being polished/exaggerated. Henry’s use of colour is also representative of his subject matter, the use of highly vibrant, saturated colours glorifies the American culture of excessiveness and the browns, greens and reds within the frame pulls the scene back to the vintage context. Like Crewdson, Henry’s use of documentary fiction goes as far as using models, external lighting and props to produce a narrative full of characteristics and an intentional mood. Adding to this, Henry’s constructed scenes seems to hold a certain hidden agenda or backstory which could appear as an inside joke to the subjects present within the frame.
Henry’s work, like Crewdson, further inspires ideas within my documentary fiction theme. My favourite shots by Henry are the scenes which focus on a small section of a room or an object which holds a particular significance. For instance, the image which focuses on Elvis performing live on an old-style colour tv expresses clear American-ness just through the use of subject. Elvis is an American symbol within himself and alongside that large amount of wood present on both the table and room walls, the subject is pulled back to the 60s/70s theme. Thinking of the image as a frame within a film/series, the viewer is left to decided what the significance of the scene is; why is Henry specifically showing Elvis on the screen and what kind of mood is it setting? This style of imagery and choice of subject matter will be an important tool for when I produce my images for the series. I plan to shoot similar images of small details which holds a deeper contextual meaning when paired alongside the loaded cinematic shots within the series. I’m planning on producing images to achieve a similar effect, such as a map illustrating the location and getaway of the crime or the backseat of the getaway car. I also want to use similar colour saturation as Henry’s work but with more of a 70’s British influence, such as a grittier landscape and duller tones.
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who is infamous for his documentary-fiction themed style, producing images of mysterious scenes which appears to be stills from Hollywood drama/sci-fi/crime movies. Crewdson’s work produces a scene which seems poetic and loaded with deep contextual meanings, which Crewdson allows the viewer to create for themselves. Taking surrealist landscapes of small American towns gives the viewer a sense of familiarity, possibly nostalgia for American viewers, but with the use of cinematic compositions, angles, focus points and lighting produces the scenes in a fashion which can make a viewer feel uneasy or confused. The use of American scenes/aesthetic can also distance a non-American viewer, creating further walls between the photograph and the viewer, adding to the surrealist style which the images hold. Crewdson’s photographic style seems to be inspired by surrealist cinema, such as Hitchcock’s Vertigo or Rear Window which produces a similar illusion of there being a secret or hidden context behind the obvious scene. Crewdson’s aesthetic reminds me of an art/indie film but which has been inflated with a bigger budget, meaning better lighting, clothing, locations and/or props can be used depending on his needs. Crewdson has the reputation and means to warrant a large set consisting of various assistance, runners and builders all working together to capture an image. Crewdson leaves behind the notion of one man-one camera, with hiring a large number of people to help him achieve the scene which he plans to create, even builders developing non-existent structures, such as houses built true to scale just for one singular image. Often using an extensive number of external lights and even cranes to position the camera in the perfect, his use of photographic equipment is also diverse; either using 10 x 8 large format stationary cameras or going completely the other end and tethering with a digital camera, Crewdson’s use of cameras emulates and reflects the slow paced style and preparation which is present during the making of his; as well as giving Crewdson the ability to print gigantic prints, sometimes 4 x 7 feet which engulfs the viewer further into the scene and on a practical level, allows the viewer to see all the detail within the whole image. On a more conceptual view, the work can also reflect the over-the-top style which America is so renowned for.
I chose to research Crewdson as his work really interests me in both the content but also how it is made. My favourite aspect of Crewdson’s images is the notion of taking an otherwise ordinary scene but giving it a certain twist, which produces a surrealist effect, but without actually explaining why the scene is the surreal. The use of lighting and casting is incredibly cinematic, the use of models is just as important to the final image as the location and the lighting gives the images further depth. Crewdson’s work has gave me a few ideas on the style of compositions I could use during the project and also what kind of sub jects to use within the shots.
For this unit, I’m planning to shoot a set of images and create a photobook in the style of documentary fiction. This is mostly due to document anting reality in the Environment and Identity and I think this unit will be a good opportunity to shoot in a style which I haven’t before. Thinking of ideas for the unit I first began thinking about shooting street-scene location shots similar to my Berwick St market photos but I felt like that was too tame and want to branch out further. During this project, I want to create images which look like stills from a film. There are already a few photographers who do this, but I want to specify all the images around one-story line which would look coherent within a photobook. Following on from the 1960s inspired portraits which I shot in the last project, I want to create a similar aesthetic but maybe in a 1970’s British theme. As for the narrative/storyline, I want to produce a set of stills which looks like it has been pulled out from a vintage London crime drama such as ‘The Bank Job’ or ‘Get Carter’. One idea which I was thinking of pursuing is showing the build-up to a robbery or another crime through the different members involved. I want to show the preparation for the crime as I still want the photos to be mysterious and not deliver the obvious to the viewer. From what I can picture at the moment for potential shots include a middle-aged bald man in a vintage 70s car ready for the getaway and also a fake map showing the location of the robbery, inspired by maps in heist films.
At the start of the Identity unit, I first planned ideas based around a range of themes such as nationality, culture, age and social class, which was the general themes which I wanted to follow in the unit. I first began researching infamous 60’s photographers such as David Bailey and Terence Donovan who captured the swinging sixties culture within their studio work. David Bailey’s style of portraiture was a key inspiration to me during the project as from the start I wanted to capture similar results as some of his most iconic photographs, such as the portraits of Mick Jagger or Jean Shrimpton. Alongside researching Bailey, I began to experiment within studio lighting and how I could use backdrops in a similar 1960’s style. Shooting in the studio gave me a basic understanding of equipment and lighting positioning (e.g. butterfly, Rembrandt etc) which even though I didn’t use at the end of the project, I would like to revisit in the future to get a better understanding. I began to take inspiration from Donovan’s portraits which were shot in urban environments but still captured the slick aesthetic as seen in Baileys portraits, which led me to shoot my second set of images focusing on a subject dressed in vintage 60s style clothing with a union jack as a backdrop (inspired by early photographs of The Who). The shoot led me to develop on the idea of identity through nationality and also how to capture British-ness in a portrait without any explicit giveaways. With the idea of British nationality, I researched Gavin Watson who created candid snapshot portraits of his skinhead friends during the 1970s and Platon a British photographer who created a series based on his family’s Greek heritage. Watson’s work gave me the template to which I wanted to create my work in a relaxed, unprofessional manner but still deliver a story effectively. I shot more images in this style within a friend’s bedroom without any artificial setup to the scene but after comparing the images to the shots before I decided to go back to my original style and create more tradition/clean portraits. Following with the theme of Britishness/60s I looked into Robert Clayton, John Bulmer and Vanley Burke who focused their work on a specific area and time within England during the 60s, 70s and 90’s. Planning my final set of images for hand-in, I decided to follow the same likeness as test shoot three but also focus more on the location which the model was in. I used David again as a model as his natural ‘look’ fitted the project well, as well as most of his clothes being vintage/retro. I chose to shoot a roll of HP5 400 (pushed to 800 for more contrast / being able to shoot it comfortably indoors) with David in a traditional pie & mash shop as the interior was classic and the essence of a pie and mash shop is completely British. As for the final four prints, I decided to work parallel with the vintage aesthetic and print the images in the darkroom which I was incredibly pleased with the outcome as I wasn’t pleased with the scans which I previously got from the negatives (I found the scans to be have too much grain and blown out highlights within David’s shirt while in the darkroom prints I was able to split grade the print to achieve more dynamic range, as well as getting better grain structure than the scans). At the start of the Identity project I found it incredibly difficult to come up with a theme/idea which actually interested me enough to create work over. I think the idea of identity is so broad that I didn’t want to create work which seemed meaningless or overdone. This is probably the main issue I faced during the project, but I soon overcame it by purely researching photographers which I have taken inspiration from before and creating images purely on what I wanted to do on the day. Towards the end of the project was when I started to enjoy the work I was creating as I liked experimenting with the notion of being and also the visible differences between culture within the 60s/70s and now.
For my fourth test shoot, I decided to go back to the original style of portraits which I shot in test shoot two as well as using David again as a model as I feel his look looks reminiscent of 60s/70s. Planning a shoot, I decided to get some inspiration from photographers / fashion campaigns which used location and clothing to create a vintage aesthetic. First I looked back on research which I did focusing on Gavin Watson who focused on his skinhead friends during the 70’s which was exactly the same style of candid portraits which I wanted to create within my own shoot. Alongside researching Watson’s images, I decided to take inspiration from Burberry’s Christmas 2018 campaign which focused on Matt Smith within an old-style café. The Burberry campaign was a crucial influence within my shoot as it gave me some idea of where I wanted some of my images to be located. Wanting a relaxed, natural feeling within the portraits as seen in Watson’s work was another reason to use David as a model as we are comfortable with each other meaning we could work efficiently, and he knew what results I wanted to achieve. I decided to base my shoot in a traditional pie & mash shops which would work well alongside David’s clothing to create an old-fashioned effect. I specifically waned to include the tiles on the wall within the frame as I particularly liked the reflections within the tiles behind David.
As for camera used (film or digital etc) I decided to use my Nikon F2 35mm slr as I didn’t want to be noticed taking photos within the shop so the waist level viewfinder on the camera (similar to the ones found on 120 film cameras such as the Bronica SQ-B or Mamiya RZ67) meant I could shoot the images I needed without it seem obvious that I was taking photos. As I was wary of whether or not I was allowed to shoot in there I found the waist level viewfinder a great advantage over using other cameras. Another advantage of using 35mm film cameras over digital or medium/large format film cameras is that in my experience people usually are less suspicious of what you are doing, they are more compact than medium format meaning you can be more discreet while shooting and often the shutter sound is quitter than I have found on digital cameras. Alongside my F2, I decided to use a 50mm f/1.4 lens as I wanted the flexibility which the large aperture gives in lowlight situations such as in the shop. As for film, I chose to use Ilford HP5 as I am familiar with the film and the kind of results, I would be able to achieve, specifically with the large grain working well with the vintage theme. However, HP5 is a 400 speed film and the shop was fairly low lit meaning I had to push the film to 800 ISO so I would be able to shoot a shutter speed faster than 1/60s reducing shutter shake. Pushing the film wasn’t too difficult, I only had to compensate the underexposure on the film by over developing by 13 minutes rather than 6.30 minutes in Ilfosol 3. Ilfosol 3 isn’t the recommended film to use when pushing HP5 as it can exaggerate the grain and developing time but in my case I wasn’t to concerned with either of these factors but in future I would probably use a developer which is specialised at pushing such as Ilford DD-X or XTOL.
After developing and scanning the film, I was pleased with most of the shots on the roll, most specifically the shots within the pie & mash shop, which I thought I would while taking the shots. I was cautious with how the pushed HP5 would perform but I it seems to have held up quite well; there is some grain in the frame which lacks detail, but I am not too concerned with this. One thing I have noticed after scanning was that when zoomed in the scans would be slightly pixelated even at a high-resolution scan. I researched into this and according to a few photography forums, flatbed scanners can sometimes perform poorly with HP5 due to the grain structure. As of this, I’m probably going to print the final photos in the darkroom as I am fine with grain but don’t want any unwanted pixilation when looked closely at the final print. I am pleased with the relaxed portraits from the shoot, most notably the portrait of David in the mirror shot in a vintage store which reminded me of the style of photography from mid 20th century, such as Andre Kertesz or Bill Brandt.
After test shoot three which I focused on producing a set of straight-forward portraits which incorporated the union jack within the frame to draw the theme of nationality within the final images. For test shoot three, I originally planned to produce another set of portraits in a similar theme as the ones before but when I arrived at the subjects house, we went to his bedroom to decide on what clothes to use for the shots but I was instantly attracted to how messy his room was. There was guitar leads and endless amounts of jackets/trainers on the bed and floor which I wanted to use in the frame. I wanted to capture the mood/feeling within his room rather than a constructed scene which was present within test shoot three. I wanted to capture the scene before the shoot, the environment that my friend actually lived in rather than one which I created for him. Through the images, I wanted to the viewer to feel as if they are intimate with the scene, actually viewing experiencing how the subject lives and how their environment effects their identity. I wanted to use the notion of how the bedroom’s state can reflect the subject and also the feeling which I felt within the room. After developing and scanning the film, I appreciated my choice in focusing the shoot on my friend’s bedroom rather than my original plan to use the union jack backdrop again, as the use of location greatly reflects the subject’s personality and also his laid-back approach to life in general. Subconsciously, I think the decision to create snapshot style portraits came from looking through Gavin Watson’s work and also other photography books which used a lowkey photography approach.
For this shoot, I chose to use a medium format film camera as I wanted more detail than 35mm and I also wanted the slowed down approach which 120 has. I chose to use a Bronica SQ-B rather than another medium format camera such as the Mamiya 7 or Mamiya RZ67 as I have used the Bronica many times in previous work and also confident with how to operate the camera. As for lens, as I wanted to get as much of the bedroom scene within the frame, I decided to use a 40mm wide angle lens which would roughly work out as a 20mm lens on a 35mm frame camera. I’ve used the lens in the past and I really like how it captures an image as lens distortion us limited. I chose to use Ilford FP4 as my film due to the low ISO meaning I could achieve minimal grain within the areas which lacked detail and the film also has a clean, subtle contrast which I personally like over other films such as Ilford HP5. As for camera settings, the low ISO meant that I would be using slow shutter speeds around lower apertures such as f/4 and f/5.6. I chose to use a slower shutter speed than necessary as I wanted to use a smaller aperture to get as much in the scene as possible without the subject creating unwanted blur in the frame. For most of the shots, I decided to shoot at f/5.6 at 1/8th of a second which worked well for the scene I was photographing. Towards the end of the roll, I decided to use a slow shutter speed, such as one or two seconds, to create intentional blur within the subject, created a link to the chaotic environment which he was laying in.
I’m pleased with the results which I got from this shoot; the contrast between the contrasted aspects of test shoot two and the free approach to test shoot three meant I enjoyed the unpredictability of the shoot. I’ve found through doing the shoot that I want to further use the contrast between shooting constructed scenes and snapshot style within my Identity project. I have also thought about what kind of images I want to use as my final four / six and how I want to present them. I quite like the idea of using both straight forward portraits and behind-the-scenes shots alongside each other.
After spending some time researching a wide range of photographers, I realised that one key theme within each photographer’s work was the notion of nationality and also belonging. For instance, Vanley Burke focused on the Birmingham community which he grew up in, Gavin Watson on his childhood skinhead friends and Platon’s depiction of his home country Greece through his ‘Going Home: Greece’ series. I began planning on what direction to take my Identity project in, first thinking about a way in which I could portray myself by photographing others, as seen in Watsons work. This idea led to thinking about my own nationality and what being British meant to me, which linked well with the political situation which the UK is in at the moment with the recent general election and also Brexit. During the general election, I discovered that most of my friends held completely different political views from my own, which I found interesting as I presumed that they would hold a similar view. I wanted to interpret this within my project, which led me to plan two shoots each one focusing on one person and how they believe perceive the political climate which we are currently in and also how important being British is to them.
Linking the test shoots back to the research I conducted on David Bailey and Terence Donovan, I wanted to create a 1960’s aesthetic within the shots. I began looking back through iconic swinging sixties portraits by Bailey, Donovan and Duffy which led me to the idea to use a union jack as a backdrop which would be a straightforward way to create the link between the subject and their nationality. For the shoot with David, I decided to plan a more constructed set of photographs which would allow me to spend more time considering compositions and lighting. When I turned up for the shoot, David was already dressed in mod-style clothing which I thought looked great and would work well with the 60s aesthetic. Throughout the shoot little was changed apart from David changing various shirts and jackets. For the second part of the shoot I used my mate Dan as the main subject and to delve into the notion of how the subject’s local area could influence their political views, I photographed Dan around his local area.
For the two shoots I used 35mm Ilford XP2 film shot using an 80mm lens. I chose to shoot 35mm film (rather than 120 or digital) during the shoots as I wanted there to be grain within the frame, adding to the vintage aesthetic. Adding to this, I also wanted to have the ability to print in the darkroom if I wanted to. After developing the XP2 film I realised that the roll was expired by two years and I was unaware of how the film was stored; this meant I wasn’t sure on what kinds of effects the scanned film would have. After scanning, I realised that the film had a large amount of grain caused by the roll not being in date which I’m not sure has caused too much grain. In future shoots I’m going to check that the film using is in date and if not, compensate for any sensitivity which may have been lost. The 80mm lens was useful in preventing distortions within the subjects’ faces and also prevented any unwanted space within the frame. These scans were used with an Epson v700 flatbed scanner which is fine for online and small prints but to get better results I am going to scan some of my favourite photos with a drum scanner to get as much information from the 35mm negative as possible.
Vanley Burke a Jamaican social documentary photographer most known for his iconic images depicting black culture within Birmingham during the 1970s and also recently. Burke’s work from the 1960s and 1970s capture the real black Windrush Generation which was gradually migrating from his home country over to Birmingham and other parts of the UK. Not satisfied with how black migrants where being presented in mainstream media, Burke decided to document what the authentic African-Caribbean community and culture were like within Birmingham, worlds away from the common misconceptions and underlining racism of the Native British. Burkes photographs all hold a political sensitivity, underlying questions which the viewer is forced to decide.
While browsing through Burkes archive, one photograph stood out amongst the rest: a street portrait of a young boy holding his bike, with a Union Jack flag flying from the handlebars (Figure 1). The theme of identity within this image is evident; the boy is of African-Caribbean heritage but feels connected with the country which their family emigrated to. This at first can be interpreted as a young boy embracing the new society which they are living within but once you start to analyse further, the viewer can portray the scene in a much darker way. In the present, the Union Jack creates a great sense of pride and patriotism to British people but only a hundred years ago the flag was feared by many countries who associated it with colonisation and oppression. Jamaica was colonised by Britain in the 18th century and only became independent in 1962, meaning the boy riding with the flag within Burke’s community may have evoked some negative connotations. When questioned on this portrait, Burke explained ‘To have this young man with this flag, it poses a lot of questions’ (BBC, 2017) and later elaborated on the theme of identity with philosophical questions within his community such as ‘Who we are, where we are and who we are likely to be’ (BBC, 2017). The portrait also explores the notion of what nationality may mean to the young boy; he grew up in a community full of African-Caribbean and therefor their traditions, but he may also feel connected to British life for which he became a part of. The idea of a flag being taken away from its history then used and associated in different ways is a different take on what it means to belong to a certain geographical place. For instance, the boy associates the Union Jack with his community which happens to be held in the UK, while a woman living in the Scottish Highlands may view the flag in a different way. This idea can also be applied to the way people may interpret the English Flag: UK citizens living in rural communities feel pride when seeing the St George’s Cross while a quarter of British people associate it with racism (Copping, 2012).
Like many other photographers I have researched during the Identity unit, Vanley Burke’s work clearly depicts a period of time which was personal to himself and as well as his community. By being a member of the community which he was photographing, Burke was able to capture the people how they really were and not how the photographer wanted to portray them. Burke held the same values and political ideology as the people within the photographs, meaning he understood them completely. You can recognise the connection Burke created between him and the subject, they trusted him to portray their community in the right way to the rest of the UK, unlike how they felt other photographers were presenting them.
BBC Britain In Focus (2017). [Online Video] Available at:
John Bulmer is a documentary photographer most known for his extensive projects since the early 1960’s focusing on social life within the north of Britain. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Bill Brandt and Larry Burrows, Bulmer went against the grain within 1960’s photojournalism by using colour film as his main choice, which was looked down upon during the early to mid 20th century by professional photographers due to its association with holiday snapshots. Like William Eggleston, colour photography stood out to Bulmer who used the medium to his advantage, whether it was to capture a child’s bright red jumper against the grey stone roads native to the Midlands (Figure 1) or a mother’s radiant ginger hair in front of a soot-covered brick Victorian home (Figure Two). Like Robert Clayton’s Estate, Bulmer’s photography produces an insight into a period of time for which the viewer can look upon like an historian. As well as working as a factual representation of northern England during the mid 1960s, Bulmer’s work also has the ability to produce an emotional feeling: the notion of community, identity and belong comes to mind, before a time when people become indulged with mobile phones and their online presence. Bulmer held the ability to capture the decisive moment; he felt the mundane was worthy of documenting, for instance a woman placing bed sheets on a washing line (Figure 3) becomes a scene which is worthy of being presented on a gallery wall. Like Clayton, Bulmer’s work is quintessentially English, it is instantly recognisable especially to people in the north. This theme could also be looked at the other way – to the English Bulmer’s scenes seem familiar but to a non-British viewer the suburban landscapes could appear other-worldly. Like Estate by Clayton, Black Country series gives me a sense of familiarity. Through recording the British people, Bulmer was simultaneously recording his own identity, what it means to him to be British, more specifically northern. Another similarity between the two series would be the notion of people creating the atmosphere; in Estate produces a sense of light-heartedness through the use of the local people around Lion Farm Estate and the same with Bulmer where he documented the local people in daily routines but with the skill of making the final image interesting, for example two women walking to work while still having rollers in their hair.
Robert Clayton is a British documentary and portrait photographer, most known for his series ‘Estate’ which focused on Lion Farm estate in Oldbury, West Midlands during the 1990’s. Clayton’s main theme within his photography is the ever-changing landscape within Britain, with three major projects focusing on council estates throughout 20 years. Clayton’s series focusing on the Lion Farm estate presents the viewer with gritty urban landscapes, often juxtaposed with a vibrant/saturated object within the frame, such as a red mini or green grass surrounding colourless brick and mortar. Estate dabbles with the notion of what real, daily life is like for locals living within forty floor high buildings which often seem bleak and unwelcoming, contrasting with the original 1960’s idea of council estates bringing a sense of post-war luxury to the still run-down Britain. Estate forces the viewer to recognise that the scenes in which Clayton is presenting is not stills from a constructed film set, but rather reallocations which the residents call home. But in the stale environment, Estate also gives us a sense of playfulness: shopkeepers standing outside their corner store in eighties sitcom stances or an adolescent lad drifting around the estate on a motorbike while dressed in his school attire.
In a surprising way, Clayton’s work was instantly alluring to me when I found it while researching photographers; I usually am more interested with images which are black & white as I find colour often takes away from composition and form when it is used for not explicit reason. I didn’t find this within Estate. The use of colour, especially in the boy in on the motorbike photograph, produces a much more light hearted effect for the final images than if they were in b&w. I enjoy Clayton use of angle and lenses within the series as in each photo he truly captures each scene perfectly. Again with the schoolboy’s portrait, Clayton captured the shot from a lower angle, making the boy nearly the same size as the block of flats behind him, working alongside the bike to make the viewer understand how the boy probably acts much older than his age. Adding to this, I presume that Clayton used a wide-angle lens, meaning he would have been able to get as much content within the frame as possible
After researching Estate, I’m very interested in the idea of how a subject can belong to their surroundings and also how the same environment can greatly influence them. I’m also intrigued with the idea of how ‘Britishness’ can be portrayed and interpreted within a photograph as in Clayton’s work, where the subjects are quintessentially northern British. Another interesting idea could be how a sense of Britishness seems to be more important to some than others, especially between different ages and social classes, and even more relevant in the present with the recent general election and Brexit, with some viewing the situation as a way for Britain to be ‘British again’ by leaving the EU.
Platon is a British/Greek portrait and documentary photography based primarily in New York who is renowned for his portraits of celebrities and world leaders, some being: Obama, Putin and Boris Johnson. Born in Greece but raised mostly in England, Platon first worked for British Vogue in his early photography career, then invited to work for the political magazine George and also become an assistant for photographer John Kennedy Jr. Also working extensively for a range of other magazines, Platon has produced an overwhelming number of front-cover portraits, mostly depicting the world’s most notable figure. Platon’s portraits remind me of a modern-day Bailey portrait; with a clear white background and a subject filling the frame, producing a powerful effect. Similar to Bailey, Platon uses a similar Hasselblad 120 film camera with strong high-key lighting, produced by one main flash positioned directly in front of the sitter. One key difference within Platon’s portraits is his use of lens; using a wide-angle lens within a proximity of the sitter, creating a dynamic photograph which distorts forms and adds a feeling of surrealism to the frame. One of my favourite examples of this is his portrait of Christian Bale which uses a wide-angle lens on a Hasselblad 500c camera, positioned from below his legs, making Bale appear to seem gigantic and godlike to the viewer. Another key example of this style is the Jim Carrey portrait which creates a 90s rap music video style via the use of Carrey’s pointing hand making up a large chunk of the frame with only his head popping in towards the top right.
Platon has been one of my favourite photographers for as long as a can remember. His striking black and white portraits has also stuck out to me but his episode in the Netflix original series Abstract: The Art of Designin 2017 which documents his process of capturing portraits inside and outside the studio, has been a strong inspiration to me. Although appreciating Platon’s studio work, I wanted to research into his other work which was taken outside of a controlled environment, similar to the work of Gavin Watson’s. I watched the Abstract episode again while researching artists for the Identity unit and I was especially drawn to some of his photojournalistic style portraits which he shot while in Greece. These portraits where for his personal project ‘Going Home: Greece’ which was released after the episode was aired. The Greece based side project of Platon’s documents his homeland and the people which his heritage connects him too. Platon’s use of camera during the shoot is a Leica M6 rangefinder camera which he shot 35mm black and white film through. The use of a rangefinder is a great choice for the style of portraits which he was taking: the small, quite camera allowed him to not make too much of a scene and also meant he could engage with the subjects more without constantly checking the back of the camera to check the shot. The use of 35mm is also clear in the final photographs due to the prominent grain within the frame. The use of black and white correlates well with the white stone villages which most of the project was based around. Platon describes the Greek people of which he photographed as being ‘real’, lacking any kind of body modification which is evidently present within the celebrity culture of which Platon is ingulfed in, completely contrasting with the Greek’s ability to grow old gracefully without shame. While creating the project, Platon focused primarily on the quiet, non-tourist Greek towns which he was born and on the older residents within their natural environments. One of my favourite aspects of the series is Platon’s decision to focus just as closely on the Greek village environment as on the people within the frame. The most powerful shot to me is the portrait of the old women cleaning the stone pavement. Although not showing the women’s face, the viewer doesn’t necessarily need to see it as it isn’t very important within the frame; for instance, the viewer can see the women is of old age and also the Greek terrain which she lives within. The photograph is an unconventional portrait, but it is just as powerful. I find this series so intriguing because through taking portraits of others, Platon has also portrayed himself. Taking photos of the Greek people, he was also expressing his heritage which is so different form his New York style of living.
Taking inspiration from this project, I am interested in following the theme of using the subject’s environment within the frame to further enrich the final shot. Like the man within the Greek bar or the women washing the stone street, it could be an interesting way of capturing more personality than just placing a sitter in front of a white backdrop. The notion of expressing one’s self within the frame is also another theme which could be interesting to look into, especially incorporating my environment within the photographs.
After researching into the work of David Bailey and Terence Donovan, I decided that I wanted to divert my attention from studio portraiture and focus on photographers who shoot on location. I felt that with Bailey and Donovan their prime was during the sixties, so I wanted to focus my attention on another decade/subculture which led me to look for a photographer who focuses solely on a certain British subculture. I found Gavin Watson’s work on a Fred Perry collection which used a series of his skinhead portraits on a set of polos. Watson is a portrait / subculture photographer who, during the 1970’s, shot an extensive amount of work on Skinheads and in the 1990’s on ravers. Watson started his photography career in London during his youth, taking photographs of his younger brother from ages ten to twenty and his skinhead friends from fourteen to twenty-three, shadowing them on the streets, nights out and in their homes. Smeared in modern day by white supremist association which is ironic considering the movement was heavily influenced by Jamaican culture; the original skinhead values include listening to reggae and ska music, wearing Dr Martens and having headstrong attitudes. Watson unknowingly created some of the subcultures most powerful photographs, expressing the skinhead philosophy through scenes of youths within their gritty urban environments. Watson’s portraits to me express a period of time during each person’s life when they were full of life and a part of a team. Most of his work appears to be shot of 35mm due to the grain present. I personally think that the grain works really well alongside the photo’s content as it gives a snapshot aesthetic and also corresponds with the rough street landscapes of which most of the photos were taken. On the other hand, some of his work also seems to be timeless; the portrait of the boy with a cassette player appears like it could be taken today and the group photo of the lads jumping off a roof represents the same lad culture which is also present amongst boys today. Watson’s photographs don’t need a caption, everything within the frame is expressed fully to the viewer just by glancing on. For example, one of my favourite shots by Watson is a young skinhead smoking a cigarette in the London Underground. The composition within the frame draws me into the scene; the young lad in the left side first grabs the viewers attention, then the eye is brought to the man posited behind, appearing tired and resting on the handrails, there for contrasting with the youthful energy which the boy radiates. The use of b&w film is also effective in drawing more attention to the skinhead theme within this shot due to most of the tube interior being much darker than the boys head. I enjoy looking into Watson’s work as it seems fully authentic, no stylists or location scout, just a group of childhood friends expressing themselves through a particular subculture. I’m currently deciding on what direction I want to take my identity project; starting with studio portraits, I found them to be a good way in understanding lighting for portraits quickly which I have enjoyed but I would also like to carry on with the style of photography which I shot during the Environment unit, which used street photography within Soho, London. Currently planning ideas, I’m interested in following a similar ‘English / British’ theme as Watson, which I could use London as a location to contribute to the theme. I’m also interested in the current political position which we are in at the moment, with such a wide range of Brexit opinions being held by the British public, causing some people to feel more British just because we are leaving the EU and also the general election causing divides between people. I’m planning on doing a shoot inspired by Watson but with mod inspired clothing. I also liked the use of a union jack within one of Watson’s shots which could be used as an interesting backdrop.
Terence Donovan was a photographer and film director, who like David Bailey, was one of the most famous celebrity portrait photographers during the ‘swinging 60s’. Having a very similar start to life as Bailey, Donovan was raised in East London, completed two year national service and was also a photography assistant to fashion photographer John French. In 1959, Donovan left French and set up his own studio in Knightsbridge and had his first British Vogue commission in 1963, which focused on a classic 60’s hairstyle by Vidal Sassoon on Nancy Kwan (Figure 1). David Bailey, Brian Duffy and Terence Donovan formed the ‘Black Trinity’ which captured the essence of 1960s London, through their use of celebrity subjects and also the way they styled their fashion photography shots. The trio were the first photographers to become ingulfed in celebrity culture, socialising with singers, actors and notable royalty. Donovan’s style holds some key similarities to Bailey’s but still has other strong characteristics which makes Donovan renowned in his own right. Like Bailey, Donovan’s work is still known today for its ability to ‘capture the nuance and gesture of the time’ (Quick, 2012), in essence the same way a time capsule would, just in the form of a photographic print. Donovan’s work was established in the late 1950’s for its sleek, elegant style focusing on menswear against gritty landscapes; most notably his spy themed shoot (Figure 2) which predated the Bond films by three years, where Donovan juxtaposed smart menswear with east end slum locations, such as gasometers and shattered builders still not renovated from the Blitz. This style revolutionised the way men’s fashion would be perceived by the British public. Taking the understanding of men’s fashion as being mostly for practical use to bringing a new ideology of using menswear to make oneself feel suave or spy-like, resulting in how men’s fashion is advertised today. Vogue soon started commissioning Donovan for front cover portraits with a more elegant, feminine take; originally shooting on location in the elements, Donovan’s ability to shoot within a fixed studio environment was just as strong, producing straight portraits with one sitter. Donovan had the ability to knock down any walls the subject had and bring out their true personalities, most famously the Jack Nicolson and Ronnie Wood portraits. In my opinion, I prefer Donovan’s late 60’s work as it used a similar style as Baileys early 60’s photographs; using a clean, white background, one main subject and multiple flashes. After looking at a few of Donovan’s studio portraits, his process seems to be fairly straight forward: from photos I have seen of Donovan in the studio, he used a Pentax medium format 120 camera and nearly always a white background. As for the use of flash, it appears that he would place multiple soft boxes around the sitter which would light the whole of the face, while in some portraits, such as the Nicholson shot, he seemed to use short lighting which would light the right of the famous, leaving the left much darker, similar to Bailey’s George Michael portrait. Donovan also seemed to photograph men and women in different ways in my opinion; for example, in most of his portraits focusing on women, the composition seem to be delicate and feminine with the subject being under sheets or under dressed, while on the other hand his male portraits are much more bold, with the sitter looking into the camera, filling up most of the frame. This could be a result of the man / women stereotypes during the era but could also suggest what styles Donovan believed would be successful to the viewer. As a result of this, I mostly enjoy looking through his male portraits as they appear to deliver much more raw emotion to the viewer.
After researching into David Bailey’s 1960s work, I decided to practise lighting within the studio to become more comfortable with how to successfully light within studio portraits. To create a Bailey style, I chose to use a white backdrop for the images, which causes the effect of the subject appearing stuck on within the final photo. As for the lighting setup, I chose to keep it simple at first and then gradually through more test shoots make the lighting more intricate. I booked out two flashes and a Canon 5D MKIII as I wanted to see straight away what my results would be rather than shooting with film. While setting up the studio lighting, I placed a 50cm x 50cm soft box on each flash unit which created a short lighting effect, while still being broader than using the flash directly without a soft box.
I placed one flash unit behind the sitter, shooting towards the white backdrop which would act as a means of making the background completely white behind the sitter. I placed the other flash in front of the sitter, slightly higher than their face to create a Rembrandt effect within their faces. I set the camera settings to iso 100, shutter speed 1/125s, aperture f/8 and setting the flash to 6 in power. The low iso meant I could reduce any possible noise in the final image, the 1/125 shutter speed is to sync with the flash and the aperture was used to get the right exposure. Through the shoot, I gradually moved the flash in front of the sitter to achieve various lighting on their face. I found my favourite lighting was considered ‘short’ due to only one part of the subject’s face being lit while the other is dark.
During the Butterfly Lighting, Clam Shell, Short Lighting, Broad Lighting workshop with John on Thursday, I practised various studio lighting techniques to capture the face of a subject in various ways. To achieve a fully white, blank background, two soft boxes were positioned far behind the subject and shot directly on the backdrop which meant that when the flash was fired, the backdrop was completely white within the frame. For a darker background, such as grey or pure black, the flashes could be turned down to a low setting or completely off meaning less light is captured by the camera behind the sitter, I particularly liked the grey tone which could be achieved in this way as it complimented the sitter very well. As for creating various lighting on the subject, more spotlights were used to illuminate the face and body. In most of the lighting techniques, one flash with a soft box was used and often was positioned in front of the subject at a slightly taller angle than their head. This creates a strong depth to the subject’s face with a wide range of light and dark tones. When using the Clam Shell technique, the soft box is positioned downwards on the subject and then a reflective surface is positioned underneath the subject’s face. One of my favourites from the workshop was Short Lighting which focuses on only lighting a certain part of the sitter’s face, and leaves the rest unexposed, opposite to broad lighting which focuses on lighting the whole face. I find that Short Lighting is very good at creating a moody image while broad is good for more cooperate portraits which would be used in advertisements.
The image below was created by lighting the right side of the face with a 50cm x 50cm soft box which was placed below the face so the eyes and eyebrows were lit and then a large reflector held on the left to expose the left side of the face, but still keeping it darker than the right. From here, I instructed the sitter to face towards the soft box but have him looking towards the camera so I could create a dramatic effect of the subject looking at the viewer. Taking the image first in Lightroom, I added contrast, increased the whites and lowered the blacks to create more dramatic changes from light to dark within the image. I followed by bringing the image into Photoshop and then slightly added more detail within the skin and hair with the High Pass layer.
Alec Soth is an American documentary photographer, who focuses on long term projects which involves creating meaningful, story-like scenes to the viewer. Soth focuses his work on individuals and what can make them interesting to the viewer; for instance, most of his portraits focus on the identity of the subject and how their surrounding space can add to the story which the photograph is telling. Soth will also sometimes use probs when necessary to add a further dynamic within his frame. In the case of his portrait of the ice skater, the viewer first notices the girl in the lower centre of the frame, wearing white ice skates with neon prink blade covers, contrasting with the earthy tones which surround the skater’s blades. Looking upwards, her rolled up sleeves alludes to her being accustomed to the cold weather, while her pose seems to be obviously unnatural, with her torso leaning towards the right of the frame and her head leaning to the left. This could be a result of the skater waiting for Soth to set up his tedious 10×8 large format camera or it could be an intentional pose which mimics the same stance as the trees in the background. The location within the frame also gives the viewer an insight into the skater’s life. The quantity of snow implies she lives in a cold climate or could suggest that maybe she ice skates on frozen roads such as the one in the foreground.
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American portrait photographer whose main style of portraits focused on close-ups of celebrities and everyday American people with a clean, white background, similar to the likes of David Bailey and Platon. Avedon’s use of background results in the subject being the centre of attention and the viewer is instantly pulled into the way in white the subject is presenting themselves. Avedon’s portrait of president Gerald Ford is a strong example of Avedon’s ability to use a stripped back background but still give the viewer some context of who they are looking at. In Ford’s portrait, the background only includes a hint of an American flag placed on the left of Ford, which could be reflective of the president’s reputation of being a left-wing politician during his time in office. Ford’s pose seems stiff, possibly giving the impression of importance, power or seriousness, while his expression implies that he could be cunning. Usually presidential portraits include the Oval Office so to take Ford away from his desk and place him in front of a backdrop could be Avedon’s means of stripping away his president role and capturing his true personality.
Rembrandt lighting is a Portrait Lighting technique which is used to add depth into the subject face. The use of Rembrandt lighting creates a triangle on the subjects face on the less lit side. This is often used by using one key spot light to about 45 degrees infant of the subject. To bring this style of lighting within Rembrandt’s paintings into a modern day portrait, a set which consisted of a large black backdrop, one spot light, one reflector to light the underneath of the face and positioning the camera directly infant of the model. The lighting setup is very simple, starting off with using the modelling light on the spotlight to achieve a triangle under the eye, in my case it meant placing the light higher than the face with it shooting downwards and about 2/3 metres away from the subject. Using the lighting in this way meant that the background was left fully unlit and one side of the face was completely lit while the other was not.
I found the setup during the workshop was incredibly stripped back but the images which were achieved seem to be very interesting. I like the way in which the one spotlight gave the images more depth and a sense of mystery to the subject. The lighting is still used extensively in contemporary photography, with David Bailey using it more currently in his more modern work. If I was going to use this style of studio lighting in my own project, I would probably increase the power of the spotlight or bring it more centre of the subjects face to bring up the exposure on the other side of the face. I would like to use Rembrandt lighting with a light backdrop instead next time in the studio as I think that the juxtaposition between the clear white background a the dark side of the subjects face would create a strong dynamic within the frame.
Looking through more of Bailey’s work in the Library, it was obvious that nearly all of his work is studio based, with only a handful of assignments shot on location. Bailey’s photographic style seems to revolve around the ability to have complete control over the lighting within the shots, often with the use of multiple places within his studio space. As seen in these two photographs of Kate Moss, the background within both images are identical which forces the viewer to focus primarily on the subject, as well as lighting and composition. Another interesting notion within these two images next to each other is the cameras ability to capture a moment in time, from when the first Moss image was shot in the 90’s and the second which was shot in more recent times. This causes you to look at the two photographs which could have been shot at the same time due to the identical studio portrait style, while infant they are actually twenty years apart. Shooting with a clean white backdrop and good lighting can take away a subject from a particular story or context and leaves the viewer to analyse the model/subject solely by how they present/portray themselves to the camera.
In Bailey’s earlier work from the 50s/60s, he used side lighting in most of his portraits, focusing on getting texture and strong contrast in the subjects. In more modern times, as seen in these two images, Bailey seems to focus more on using multiple spot lights in multiple positions around the subject to get a more rounded lighting. From what I can tell from both of these, Bailey would have used spot lights focusing around Moss, while probably not using reflectors as the jawline is less exposed. This could be caused with a flash which was positioned higher up and shooting on a downwards angle onto Moss. In the second Kate Moss photo, it seems that Bailey positioned the lighting from the left of the frame, causing the right side of Moss, most notably on the side of her arm, to become underexposed, creating depth and texture within the frame. It’s also possible that Bailey uses another external flash behind the model to get the background completely white. This would also eliminate any shadow created by a flash positioned infant of the subject.
I think Bailey’s deceasing to shoot mostly film within his work adds another characteristic to his portraits which I like. His use of 35mm and 120 film gives the subject texture via the way the emulsion exposes to certain light and also the way the grain occurs within the subjects skin. This is most prominent in the second photo of Moss where a drawing like texture is creating on her arm. I really like the use of film within studio photographs (also seen in the photographer Platon’s work who also shoots on a Hasselblad medium format film camera) due to the way that the grain within the film is able to make the subject feel much more real or touchable through the print, rather than shooting on digital which creates a completely smooth look to peoples skin.
David Bailey is a in infamous portrait and fashion photographer who is most known for his successful studio based and location work, which he has been creating since the late 1950s. Starting his photography career in 1959 assisting photographer John French, Bailey became interested in studio based photography, mostly focused on clothing and other various brands as subjects, which led him to work as a fashion photographer for British Vogue. Bailey became one of the first photographers who became a part of celebrity culture in the swinging sixties due to his strong links to pop icons such as Mick Jagger, The Beatles and the Krays. Bailey’s personality within the studio was notorious for being energetic and assertive, which led to Blowup a pop culture successful film being strongly based on him. Shooting an outstanding eight hundred pages for Vogue in just one year, Bailey is known within the photography community as one of the most important photographers and celebrities within 1960’s London.
Baileys focus started primarily on editorial fashion but with a modern twist; traditionally fashion photography had a model in a conventual pose with the product displayed as the main subject within the frame. Bailey decided that the model and his or her poses was just as substantial in the final print as the clothes. This created confrontation with the editors of Vogue and other magazines during the time, due to Bailey placing his models in offbeat positions, taking the viewers’ attention towards the individual and away from the clothes. On the other hand, his work was received as a breath of fresh air from the public who were ready for a change from 1950’s style of fashion magazines. Baileys work is still inspirational in current times due to the ‘Informalism and the deliberately anti-glamour poses (creating) a strong contempered resonance’ (Harrison, 1999). Bailey also had the ability to connect with his models, often leading to relationships, and made the model, as well as himself a member of celebrity culture. In the early sixties, he chose to use model Jean Shrimpton as his muse which meant that the viewer could recognise a relationship between the photographer and the sitter.
Baileys use of equipment was another stray from the norm of his time. Starting off with a Rolleiflex TLR, he chose to be mobile while shooting so didn’t use the traditional 5×4 large format cameras which the likes of Vogue were used to. He also began to be endorsed by Olympus and used a OM-1 for his field work, often ‘using a enlarger to shoot the 35mm negative onto a 5×4 negative, therefor tricking the magazine editors into thinking he was shooting on large format (The Real Blow Up: Fashion, Fame and Photography in the ’60s, 2002). His use of smaller, more portable cameras allowed Bailey to move more freely around the studio capturing candid shots of the subject.
David Bailey is one of my favourite photographers due to his focus of strong, black and white portraits, his ability to create classic photographs without a substantial amount of context and he also fits within the theme of identity. All of his studio work uses a clear, white backdrop with one or two subjects filling up around 70% of the frame. Using multiple external studio lights, the photos have a high contrast and deep blacks, while still keeping a large amount of detail.
My two favourite portraits of Bailey’s are ‘Jean Shrimpton, 1965’ and ‘Mick Jagger, 1965″. Both photos use a similar lighting setup (with the Mick Jagger photo having slightly more contrast) and also have the sitter filling up the top and bottom of the frame. These two images are the style of photos which I want to create within the Identity unit as I think they portray who the individuals are really clearly with the stripped-back approach.
Harrison, M. (1999). David Bailey. London: Thames et Hudson, p.37.
The Real Blow Up: Fashion, Fame and Photography in the ’60s. (2002). (video) Directed by M. Hall. BBC.
At the start of the Environment unit, I planned to focus a project around everyday people within their everyday environment; I also wanted to capture a sense of ‘Englishness’ within my upcoming work. With this in mind, I deciding to look into Simon Roberts’ work who focuses mainly on the relationship between people and their local areas. His England focused project ‘We English’ focuses on the English people’s connection to their homeland, linked with themes of belonging, identity and the notion of what it is like to be English. After researching ‘We English’, I was inspired to think more about how I could represent my local environment within my photographs, first thinking about using Rochester as a location. I then decided to investigate how I could use an exaggerated version of Roberts’ use of perspective, which led me to conduct a series of test shoots from a height which allowed me to look down onto people walking by. I found the work of Mark Power during a contextual studies lecture. His worked reminded me of Roberts’ and I liked how it had a more negative look on how people effect their local environment. I then looked into the work on American photographer Joe Deal who also focused on how human life effects nature and landscapes. Deal also used a higher perspective in his work which I found intriguing. I found the work of Andre Kertesz a few years ago and have always remembered one of his photographs which was shot from the Eiffel tower, shooting downwards, which caused me to look deeper into his work and specifically on the photos which he took from higher perspectives. His work have me the idea to shoot more street focused images and also with a classic black and white look. I found my favourite images from high perspective was achieved by shooting photos from on top of shop stores and rooftop carparks. I decided to shoot some images in Trafalgar Square next to the lion sculptures as I wanted somewhere where I could get a large amount of people within each frame. While shooting in Trafalgar Square, I decided to shoot some street photos while walking back to Oxford circus to get the Tube. Not thinking much about them until the reviewing the street photos, I was really intrigued with the outcome of the photos and wanted to pursue the avenue of street photography. While deciding on themes I wanted to look into, I found it interesting how at the start of the unit, I was taking street photos of people from a far and then gradually through the weeks I ended up shooting much closer to my subjects, as if going through the weeks I gained more confidence taking photos on the streets. I decided to look into the work of Matt Stuart and Ronya Galka who both focus on London, although Stuart uses colour and Galka uses black and white. Matt Stuart’s work was the most inspiring of the two as I found that there seemed to often be an interesting story behind his work (as found in interviews with him) and I also liked his use of humour within his shots. While researching London street photography, I was approached by a Soho based hairdressers who wanted a series of images based on Soho for their store on Wardour street. While shooting these images, I found Soho to be an amazing place for street photography as it has such a varied amount of people, from businessmen to drag queens, which I knew I wanted to focus on for my final four images.
My final four images for the Environment unit focus on Berwick Street market in Soho, London. Berwick Street market is a traditional food market in the heart of Soho. Made up of around thirty stalls, traders have been selling goods in the exact same spot since the eighteenth century. Although still selling fruit and vegetables, the market has had a revamp since its beginning, it now sells food from around the world, such as Egyptian pittas, Jamaican jerk chicken and Korean stir-fry. While shooting in Soho, I felt a great sense of community within the market and I also appreciated how just a five-minute walk from Oxford Street, there was still a ‘traditional English’ feeling to the city. Berwick Street Market is a food hub for local residents or workers and is also a place for people who come from completely different lifestyles to socialise while grabbing a meal for lunch. Anna Boyle of ‘So High Soho’ 9 Berwick St, describes the market as the ‘Closets you’ll get to time travelling’. While shooting at the location, I wanted to focus on the traders behind the stalls and also the customers in front of the stalls, portraying the connection between the two.
After basing a test shoot in Trafalgar square and Oxford Circus, I wanted to shoot some images closer to the people within my past images from the environment unit. Up to this point, I was capturing people from a far at a high point of view, which intrigued me, but I wanted to be more engaged with the subjects in my photographs. While planning another shoot based in London, I was approached by ‘Fish Hairstyling’, a renowned salon on Wardour Street. Their ethos is celebrating everything Soho, which gave me the opportunity to shoot a series of street photographs for the environment project and also have my work exhibited in a renowned Soho store.
Deciding to shoot in Soho, I wanted to capture within the photographs the electric feeling which the district holds. Soho’s culture is diverse; it holds endless cultures and nationalities and always seems to have something interesting happening. The drastic juxtaposition from the classy Oxford Street to the quirky back streets which is home to underground nightclubs and sex shops. The range of people that occupy the area is diverse, including businessmen, musicians, celebrities, artists, and socialites. While focusing the images on the streets of Soho, I wanted the main subjects to be the people who really make the district famous.
While on the first test shoot in London, I found shooting on film to be limiting as you are restricted to 36 exposures (35mm) and I found that having to stick to one ISO setting was restricting my workflow while on the streets. I wanted to be able to shoot a burst of photos to never miss a moment, while mixing up ISO settings to get faster exposures, which made me choose to shoot with a Canon 5D MKIII as I could shoot hundreds of images and not have the drawback of constantly outing new film ion the camera. Due to having only exclusively shot with a 50mm prime lens in the past within my projects, I decided that I wanted to use this focal length in the Soho shoot. I find that with a 50mm lens, you have to get closer to the subject, often creating a more interesting reaction than if you were to just shoot images from further away with a zoom lens. 50mm prime lenses usually come in f/1.8 as its widest aperture, but as I was shooting on a cloudy autumn day, I decided that using a 50mm f/1.4 would be the best option and would give me the option of shooting in some lower light conditions. Although I didn’t shoot with the aperture set to f/1.4 as I wanted a larger depth of field, I did like having the option of the wide aperture just in case I needed it. For most of the images, I wanted a fast shutter speed but didn’t want to compromise having a wide aperture, resulting in choosing an aperture of f/8 at 1/125s. I chose to shoot at an ISO setting of around 400 or 800, which meant I could get fairly fast shutter speeds with a limited amount of noise. To carry on with the black and white theme which was present ion my past photos from the project, I made all the Soho images b&w in Lightroom and increased the contrast to achieve a similar likeness to Ilford XP2 which I shot in the past shoots. Comparing the digital and film photos shot in the two test shoots, I felt they looked very similar in contrast so I though they still looked coherent as a series.
The Soho shoot was definitely my most successful shoot out of the whole Environment project yet; I really like the results which I achieved, mostly by focusing on such an interesting location. The street / photojournalism style in the shoot definitely interests me and this is the route in which I want to take for the unit.
Ronya Galka is a German street photographer who focuses on London within nearly all of her work. Visiting London as a young child, she knew that she wanted to live in English capital, due to its diverse culture and buzzing streets. Two decades later, Galka now resides in London; once working as a marketing manager, she now focuses solely on her successful street photography profession. Galka’s love for street photography originates from observing people and to ‘celebrate their individuality’ (Gönen, Chowdary and Chowdhury, 2019); not referring to herself as a photo-journalist, Galka considers herself to be story teller, using her photos as a way to portray the endless unplanned moments which occur within London. Her images are candid and also reflect Galka’s emotions and expressions within the time of which the moment is captured. Having left a world of corporal management to focus on photography, her series Rat Race features a set of images focusing on the mundane daily routine of London workers, of which she strongly relates to; one of the main occurring themes within her work is the clear presence of human emotion, from the love of a couple cuddling in Trafalgar Square to the solitude of a café worker glancing out of her store window, emotions which we can all relate to.
Galka’s use of equipment is a key contribution for her images to be so intimate. Starting off with a Sony Cybershot point and shoot, she used the small camera to get up close to her subjects and by catching a minimal amount of attention. The use of shooting with the Cybershot meant she could shoot in varied ways, such as from the chest, viewfinder or hip, to capture a varied amount of perspectives. Once she became confident in shooting within the streets, she started shooting with a Canon 5D MK III but due to the size of the DSLR, it becomes very obvious to subjects that you are taking photos of them, as I have found when using the camera in my own work. As of this, she decided to return back to more compact cameras which include the Ricoh GX200 and Fujifilm X100. The functionality of these compact cameras means that Galka can travel on foot for long periods of time without any added discomfort from a heavy set-up. A simple system also means that the photographer can spend more time focusing on the subject, composition and lighting without spending too much time setting up the camera.
Galka’s images use a series of similar compositions and use of light to create an eye capturing moment frozen in time. Within her images, Galka often positions her main subject within the middle of the frame, often using the rule of thirds to her advantage. Adding to use of composition, Galka’s photos nearly always feature shadows, caused by the images being shot in strongly lit environments and when the sun is low in the sky, resulting in long dark shadows connecting to the images subject. Galka’s images use a fast shutter speed, capturing the fast-paced environment of London, and a small aperture to give the main subject within the frame context for the viewer. The use of black and white is the main reason why I find Galka a relevant photographer to look into; our work seems to hold a similar black and white theme and also a similar use of strong contrast.
Matt Stuart is a British documentary, street photographer who focuses much of his work within London. Stuarts most renowned London based street photography ‘All That Life Can Afford’ captures candid shots of the city’s inhabitants during their daily tasks from 2002 to 2015. Within his shots, Stuart materialises moments within London’s busy society which disappear in a matter of seconds, creating a true sense of urban living within his photographs. During the past twenty years of shooting street, Stuart has acquired the key skill which all street photographers work towards, being inconspicuous while shooting right in front of his subjects, often capturing natural, candid images.
Stuart’s use of equipment helps him camouflage into his environment to get in-the-moment shots which use composition, colours and light to his advantage. His main choice of camera consists of a Leica MP rangefinder with a 35mm f/1.4 lens, meaning he gets a compact and silent set up which creates detailed shots, with smooth operation. Adding to this, Stuarts use of film within his street series creates a stronger bond from himself and the subject which isn’t achieved when using a digital camera, due to Stuart focusing solely on the scene and not on the shots already taken. Stuarts use of Fuji Superia 400 35mm film creates fast enough exposure times which is versatile in a range of light during the day, without approaching too many situations where the iso isn’t fast enough. To focus quickly and accurately, Stuart uses a technique known as ‘Zone Focusing’ which is the ability to pre-focus the camera lens so when an interesting scene occurs, all Stuart has to do is frame up and fire the shutter. In Stuart’s case, he sets the shutter speed to 1/500 to prevent motion blur and then sets his aperture to f/11 on a sunny day, meaning most of the background would be in focus, creating a classic photojournalism style. After setting aperture and shutter speed, Stuart then decides on the distance in which his subject will be from the camera. Usually Stuart decides on setting the lens at 12 foot, which means that anyone standing more than six feet away from him would be in focus; if the subject moves closer towards him, then he only has to turn the focus ring accordingly.
Stuart’s work captures an essence of culture within London which I haven’t seen from another photographer; his use of colour provides another element within his shots which gives a vintage feeling within his shots. ‘All That Life Can Afford’ gives the viewer an insight into how Stuart views the busy city, with a strong notion of humour within his shots, such as an elderly man yawning in front of a NOW 50 cd advertisement or a low shot of a pigeons feet walking in unison with bankers and tourists. Stuart seems to become ‘at one’ with the urban environment, spending large periods of time in just one position and place, waiting for that decisive moment which makes the shot. Stuart has stated that most some of his most renowned images have taken anything from thirty minutes to a couple of months to produce, as he has a vision of what the final image can be and is willing to dedicate his time to it. London as a location is great for street photography as you able to capture interesting scenes from relatively any time of the day as long as you have a vision of what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it.
After researching into Andre Kertész’s street photography, I decided to shoot a series of photographs in the same style as his Paris work. To achieve a similar theme of how tourists interact with the inner-city environment, I decided to travel to Trafalgar Square as it’s a great place to capture a large amount of people in a relatively small area. I also thought that the lion structures which surround the, monument would be a good place to shoot photos as it would give me a higher perspective of the crowd. The beige ground is also very similar to the style in Paris, giving me a new connection to the Kertesz photographs.
To carry on with the theme of black and white images, I decided to shoot a roll of Ilford XP2 35mm as it has a good amount of contrast, as well as grain. Shooting on 35mm, rather than 120 or large format, which meant I could get 36 exposures out of one roll, and have a light set up which I could move around comfortably if needed. I also scanned the negatives in TIFF files, at 3200 dpi which meant I could get a large resolution and can edit the scans without exaggerating the grain or blow out the highlights. XP2 also is renowned for creating a very detailed photos and also having a wide dynamic range. I shot all the images on 28mm and 50mm prime lenses as I wanted wide frames to capture large amounts of people and the nature of wide-angle lenses means much more is in focus.
After developing and scanning the film, I was impressed with the results from the day, mostly with the contrast which were present in most of the images. While on the editing process, I decided to crop most of the images as I didn’t want any negative space within the frame. I increased the blacks within some of the scans as I wanted a stronger contrast between the shadows and the highlights, creating a similar 20thcentury street photography sense to the images.
After shooting some photos in Trafalgar Square, I decided to take some street photographs on Oxford street as there always seems to have interesting moments to capture. I decided to go with the theme of shooting photos from an unusual angle and shot a set of photos from waist level. This created a perspective which represented the subjects in a heroic light, epically in the two photos which focus on the old couple. I’m really impressed with the street photos which I captured as I believe they really capture the individual people which make up the dynamic London culture. I plan to carry on with shooting similar style of street photographs as I want to continue looking into the interesting locals and tourists within the urban landscape.
‘Juergen Teller, Go-Sees, 1999’ uses a complex composition and perspective to create an interesting insight into the model’s relation to the scene and the theme of outside and inside. Within the image, the model is placed in the archway of the front door of an apartment, in an urban area; looking inwards into the building which she seems to have just entered. The model only talks up a small portion of the frame while the area which she is positioned in creates the overall emotion within the image. The curtains, staircase and pavement share the same beige colour pallete, while the model’s shirt blends in with the red door and moving car which connects the woman into the surrounding environment. The strong light which illuminates the subject from behind and the lower light within the building makes the viewer first look into the urban street in the background and then into the foreground of the building’s drapes and stairs. This image addresses the theme of inside and outside as it shows the two simultaneously together and creates a narrative within the frame caused by the model stepping out of the day light lit street into the dark, dingy house/apartment.
‘Guy Bourdin, Vogue, 1975’ produces a range of composition and lighting, juxtaposing the real-life models who walk the street, with the mannequins which are motionless inside the store window. The lighting within the store window holds a pastel colour range while outside on the street holds a much warmer tone, creating another difference within the frame and separating the two types of subjects. Displaying the women walking the streets as mannequin-like in stance and style, the viewer is given a narrative and journey of how clothing/fashion starts off within stores and on mannequins and then results in the general public wearing the outfits. The photograph can be interpreted as the outfits once being on the mannequins and then being removed once they are in real peoples’ wardrobes. This produces a theme of contrast between inside and outside, fake and real, industry and authentic real life.
The notion of inside and outside explores the idea of what happens in public and what happens in private. The concept of the two being disconnected or connected leaves the viewer thinking about how the inside within an image can inspire the outside, as scene in ‘Guy Bourdin, Vogue, 1975’, where the store window inspired the models walking by. On the other hand, the notion of the outside inspiring the inside can leave the viewer contemplating what aspects of outside/public life affects inside, as seen in ‘Juergen Teller, Go-Sees, 1999’ which focuses on the red from the car on the street and paint on the outside of the door, inspiring the model’s use of red within fashion. Another aspect of inside and outside within photography is that it creates deep amounts of depth within the frame, producing usually a large depth of field, meaning all of the frame in in focus for the viewer.
Street
-a public thoroughfare, usually paved, in a village, town, or city, including the sidewalk or sidewalks.
-such a thoroughfare together with adjacent buildings, lots, etc.
-the roadway of such a thoroughfare, as distinguished from the pathway
-a main way or thoroughfare, as distinguished from a lane, alley, or the like.
The street is a place of various views, fashion and culture which due to these factors, is home to sub-cultures and ‘scenes’ which define the image which the street holds. Used to go from A to B, a street means much more than transport; bringing ideas to musicians, artists and photographers through the use of continuous new ideas and concepts. The street holds fashion trends from local people, which is incorporated into high-end fashion and society. The use of window and billboard advertisements cause vibrant backdrops for urban youth culture and fashion photography alike, causing a feeling of ecstasy within urban nightlife.
After researching Andre Kertész’s work, I decided to plan a test shoot based on the theme of focusing downwards in the camera onto people. I researched into places which I would be able to shoot from and also has enough people to make an interesting scene. I decided that the best places would be bridges over roads, on top of buildings along high streets, rooftop carparks and the top level of double decker buses. I chose to plan my shoot above high street shops and other buildings as It would be the best location to captured as many people as possible throughout the day. After gathering information from online and other students, I decided to stand above a supermarket and rooftop carpark on Maidstone highstreet as I’m very familiar with the town and knew which times of the day would be busiest, and best for shooting in. I got on top of the buildings around 11am, set up my camera and then prepared for the lunchtime rush within the high street which occurred from 12pm to 1pm.
After deciding on a location, I started to plan on what gear I would be using for the shoot. Being influenced by Kertész’s early 20th century photographs, I decided that I wanted to shoot on black and white film to achieve a similar effect within my own photos. I wanted my images to have strong contrast and prominent grain, which led me to choosing Kodak Tri-X 400 35mm film, as I have shot the film before and was confident in getting the photos I wanted. To increase the contrast and grain in the scenes without the use of post editing, I pushed the original ISO of Tri-X from 400 to 1600 and developed the pushed iso accordingly. Tri-X is usually left in the developer for 6 ½ minutes but as I pushed the film two stops, I developed the roll at 9 minutes, with 30 seconds in stop, and then 5 minutes in fix bath. After choosing film, I decided to choose a 50mm f/1.4 prime lens as it is very versatile and is wide enough to capture the whole street, but not too wide like a 35mm or 28mm lens.
After developing the roll, I was really impressed with the effects of the push development and the scenes which were captured. I thought the high contrast and grain added a great deal of depth to the photographs. Whilst standing on top of the high street store, the angle which was captured created a similar effect as seen in Kertész’s photographs and in some of the images the people within the frame noticed I was taking a photo of them and gave me uninterested reactions.
During the shoot and after scanning the roll, I considered how the people within my photographs would have felt from me including them in my work, which made me consider the idea of the public always being watched by businesses and the government via the use of CCTV cameras. The store which I was shooting my roll from had two security cameras which were positioned at the same height as my camera, which made me start to think about how I can refer to the CCTV society which we live in today through my Environment images.
André Kertész was a Hungarian photographer, who is most known for his extensive contribution to the photo essay and his documentary photographs, which often focused on everyday life. Through his life, Kertész repeatedly met criticism for his unique (at the time) style and subject matter which critics of early 20th century believed to be unworthy. Originally studying and pursuing a career in business, Kertész purchased his first plate camera in 1912, and decided to focus solely on creating a profession within photography. He created images of the mundane within his homeland country, focusing on peasants, farmers, gypsies and other Hungarian locals, foreshadowing a similar theme of subjects within the rest of his career. His work started to excel once he relocated to Paris, where he ‘found his favourite subjects in everyday life’ (Bourcier and Kertész, 2006) and created some of his most recognised photographs in the French capital. His French based work often featured the city’s buzzing lifestyle and streets which Kertész always found something interesting to capture. Brassai noted that Kertész had two traits that was crucial to a great photographer – ‘An insatiable curiosity about the world, about life and about people, and a precise sense of form. But rarely are the two qualities found in the same person’ (Wullschlager, 2013) and this clearly shines through Kertész’s photography, especially his polaroid series and his ‘Canal Saint Martin, Paris, 1926’ photograph. Throughout his career, Kertész set aside his personal beliefs and social biasness to capture the most authentic photographs within his photojournalism and photo series projects, causing his photographs to feel honest and trustworthy. Kertész expressed that intuition was the most crucial ingredient to create poetic imagery within photography, which he clearly exceled at during his lifetime.
I was drawn to Kertész’s work since starting photography due to his interesting take on everyday life during 20th century Hungary, France and America. I also appreciate his use of contrast within his black and white photographs, his use of composition which is incredibly aesthetically pleasing and his determination to find a compelling subject within any situation. Kertész would often create complex compositions with the use of shooting from a higher angle than what was usually accepted during his lifetime, which is a similar theme as I am currently interested in during my Environment project. Kertész noted ‘I like high shots. If you are on the same level, you lose many things. But there are wonderful things between you and the horizon when you are high up’ (Bourcier and Kertész, 2006); i’m interested in this idea of a higher perspective within photography and what alters once the camera is shot looking downwards. When inspecting Kertész’s photographs, I’m able to look upon the people within the frame and understand their personal connected to the space which they occupy, such as the villagers walking the streets in ‘Carrefour, Blois, 1930’ or the tourists which are glancing upwards within the Eifel tower in Kertész’s ‘Eifel Tower, Paris, 1929’. After researching more into Kertész’s high perspective shots, I’m going to create a test shoot based around the idea of using tall structures which I could shoot photographs from and frame the camera so people lower down would be captured, similar in Kertész’s work, as well as waiting for a decisive moment which contributes to composition and structure.
Bourcier, N. and Kertész, A. (2006). André Kertész. London: Phaidon, pp.3-4.
Mark Power is a British photographer who shoots documentary projects worldwide, most notably in the UK, Poland and America. Power is most interested in shooting the world ‘as it is’ without any need for a specific significant moment. His first major publication ‘Die Mauer ist Weg’ focused on what German society was like during the period of the fall of the Berlin wall. Power has also worked extensively in the UK, starting off with his first major UK based project ‘The Shipping Forecast’ which involved photographing the thirty-one locations covered by the shipping forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Around 2000, his technical abilities started to change and he started shooting colour film through a large format film camera. As of 2019, Power currently shoots with medium format digital cameras and also delves in short film production.
In 2003, Power began a new UK based project focusing on run down towns within the London outskirts. Using a London A-Z map as inspiration for his exploration, Power photographed twenty-six different locations which are situated just inside of the M25. Power focused the overbuilt environment where the buildings looked like the remains of an ancient civilisation which had long gone. His London based series explores themes of emptiness and bleakness, the result of the urban metropolitan environment coming to an end. While studying Power’s lifeless suburban landscapes, the tarnished roads and desolate, homes lacking inhabitants and windows boarded up. The ‘harsh, sober daylight leaves you blinking in confusion’ (FOTO8, 2008), landscapes which are usually consisted on scenic locations, are not present in Power’s locations, with rows of rusting cars and run-down scrap yards, which don’t seem to have been used for many years. Unlike Simon Robert, Power’s photographs seem to focus the opposite of ‘We English’, with locations which showcase England to be cultureless and lacking any kind of community spirit.
My favourite instalment from the series ‘K 13 North’ focuses on eight completely rusted cars which have been stripped of all interiors and their wheels scattered around a run-down field. The image makes the viewer understand why this land, which was once a natural landscape, has been occupied by humans, used and then discarded without any aftercare, leaving the metal and rubber materials from the unwanted cars. The colours present within the frame, which lack vibrancy and contrast, can also be taking as a metaphor for the lack of life and emotion which is present within the area. Power noted within his project that his inspiration for focusing on these environments subconsciously came from his own childhood village, which was engulfed by the city of Leicester, causing the village to be no different from thousands of other places in the country and his hometown lost a sense of community. ‘26 Different Endings’ leaves the viewer with the image of their own location in which they live in being eventually run down and discarded.
Joe Deal was an American photographer who was renowned for his focus on natural landscapes which had been disturbed by human development and artificial infrastructure within nature. His most famous series ‘Photographs of a Man Altered Landscape’ was chosen to feature within the ‘New Topographic Exhibition’ in 1975 with the likes of Robert Adams and Nicholas Nixon, who also focused on similar themes. For this exhibition, Deal produced a series of eighteen, 32cm by 32cm black and white prints, featuring scenes in which newly constructed homes within building sites. Deals work is known by photographers as a key watershed moment during 20th century photography, which broke away from the romanticism within the likes of Ansel Adams work; Deal opposed this movement and supported the view of ‘Anthropological rather than critical, scientific rather than artistic’ (Grimes, 2010).
Deal’s work mostly depicts scenes of human built infrastructure which has been placed within a desolate American dessert. Each of Deal’s photographs has equal weight and presence, produced by a dramatic use of composition and the use of black and white film. Deal also focused on shooting his photographs from an aerial perspective, similar to a view captured from a small plane or helicopter. The use of his aerial view ‘can reveal design features impossible to record from ground level’ (Hedgecoe, 1999) and produce a different perception for the viewer. Deal’s work makes the viewer consider many themes such as of old and new, natural and man-made, rural and urban – making the viewer consider how a natural landscape can quickly be destroyed for human pleasure without any thought about the aftereffects. The scenes which were captured focus solely on the white from the buildings, while the natural landscape is much more dark toned; possibly with the use of a red filter, which causes green tones on black and white film to become darker, making the light tones from the infrastructure more prominent.
After noticing Deal’s work in contextual studies lecture two, I started to research him and some of his other work and found it very interesting. I enjoy the theme of human development and how it effects the natural landscape which we decided to reside on. His use of black and white film also gives his work a very serious effect in the final outcome as the viewer is forced to focus on composition and shapes within the frame rather than being distracted by colour. Deal’s work is in some ways the dark side to Simon Robert’s ‘We English’ which holds a much more optimistic tone of how humans use their local environment. In another way, Deal’s images can be interpreted as the start of society/ building development and Robert’s series can be used to represent the end product.
After researching Deal’s work, I feel greatly compelled to shoot a series of images of a similar theme. There is currently a housing development site near where I live and I might shoot a roll of black and white film, from a hill near the site to achieve a similar effect as Deal. I am also going to focus in the shoot between finished product and homes which are halfway from being built, juxtaposing the two together. Similar to the landscapes that Deal focused on, while shooting at the site, I will capture the large amount of environment which has been disrupted and cleared for the buildings to be built on.
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Joe Deal’s ‘Untitled View’ and Mark Power’s ‘26 Different Endings’ both represents humans’ use of land and development to create buildings and homes. Each of these photographs show a similar theme but both being opposite sides of the spectrum: Deal’s image represents the early stage of building infrastructure and Power’s showcases what this development leads to as the image shows an established suburban area. Deal’s 1974 photo explains the early stages of a town and how the land is stripped back and prepared for houses. The roads within the scene also infers how the land, which was once whole and connected, has been split up into segments. Power’s scene shows a much more connected area which has been well rounded and developed into a functioning network. The focus on the roundabout within the road infers a choice for a driver who can take multiple exits along their journey. The use of grass as the roundabout also portrays a segregation between the natural land mass due to man-made creations.
The juxtaposition between Deal’s black and white and Power’s colour image can be taking as a metaphor for beginning and end of property/society development; the use of black and white depict a much more morbid and destructive element, which works parallel with the theme of land disruption within property development. On the other hand, Power’s use of colour produces a calmer, more rounded feeling within the frame which resonates with the finished product of the suburban town.
Joe Deal
Joe Deal was an American photographer who was renowned for his focus on natural landscapes which had been disturbed by human development and artificial infrastructure within nature. His most famous series ‘Photographs of a Man Altered Landscape’ was chosen to feature within the ‘New Topographic Exhibition’ in 1975 with the likes of Robert Adams and Nicholas Nixon, who also focused on similar themes. For this exhibition, Deal produced a series of eighteen, 32cm by 32cm black and white prints, featuring scenes in which newly constructed homes within building sites. Deals work is known by photographers as a key watershed moment during 20thcentury photography, which broke away from the romanticism within the likes of Ansel Adams work; Deal opposed this movement and supported the view of ‘Anthropological rather than critical, scientific rather than artistic’ (Grimes, 2010).
Deal’s work mostly depicts scenes of human built infrastructure which has been placed within a desolate American dessert. Each of Deal’s photographs has equal weight and presence, produced by a dramatic use of composition and the use of black and white film. Deal also focused on shooting his photographs from an aerial perspective, similar to a view captured from a small plane or helicopter. The use of his aerial view ‘can reveal design features impossible to record from ground level’ (Hedgecoe, 1999) and produce a different perception for the viewer. Deal’s work makes the viewer consider many themes such as of old and new, natural and man-made, rural and urban – making the viewer consider how a natural landscape can quickly be destroyed for human pleasure without any thought about the aftereffects. The scenes which were captured focus solely on the white from the buildings, while the natural landscape is much more dark toned; possibly with the use of a red filter, which causes green tones on black and white film to become darker, making the light tones from the infrastructure more prominent.
After noticing Deal’s work in contextual studies lecture two, I started to research him and some of his other work and found it very interesting. I enjoy the theme of human development and how it effects the natural landscape which we decided to reside on. His use of black and white film also gives his work a very serious effect in the final outcome as the viewer is forced to focus on composition and shapes within the frame rather than being distracted by colour. Deal’s work is in some ways the dark side to Simon Robert’s ‘We English’ which holds a much more optimistic tone of how humans use their local environment. In another way, Deal’s images can be interpreted as the start of society/ building development and Robert’s series can be used to represent the end product.
After researching Deal’s work, I feel greatly compelled to shoot a series of images of a similar theme. There is currently a housing development site near where I live and I might shoot a roll of black and white film, from a hill near the site to achieve a similar effect as Deal. I am also going to focus in the shoot between finished product and homes which are halfway from being built, juxtaposing the two together. Similar to the landscapes that Deal focused on, while shooting at the site, I will capture the large amount of environment which has been disrupted and cleared for the buildings to be built on.
After researching into Simon Roberts’ work, I decided to try and shoot candid environmental photographs like this. One of the main photos from ‘We English’ features a caravan park landscape at dusk; I particularly liked the white blocks of mobile homes, juxtaposed with the scenic sun setting over the camp. With this image in mind and a location which had caravans positioned in, I decided to shoot a series of images with a Canon 5D MKIII, shooting mostly with a small aperture to get as much of the frame sharp. To get a perspective as seen in ‘We English’ I decided to shoot on the highest point of the field so the tops of the motorhomes were in clear view. After selecting my three shots from the shoot, I was really pleased within the composition and colour saturation from each of the caravans, as well as the grass acting as a barrier between each of them.
After shooting the images of the caravans, I decided to to see how far I can change/exaggerate the perspective with height and I chose to find the tallest accessible building in Rochester to shoot some aerial shots. I decided go at the top of Rochester Castle as it had best views of the city. With a zoom lens and using the stone wall as a makeshift tripod, I zoomed into a small section of the view from the castle which gave me a drone like perspective. My favourite shot from this series is ‘Rochester Aerial View Three’ as the road carries your focus from the bottom left of the frame to the top right – showing you all the small details in the image. I also like how simple the colour palette is in the image – green (from the land), light grey (the road which separates the green) and hints of brown within the green (from the buildings).
‘Bahrain I’ 2005, Andreas Gursky Bahrain I’- a portrait shot of a racetrack landscape, taken in the Persian Gulf, incorporates documentary, fine art and abstract genres. The photo uses an interesting perspective and scale to create an other-worldly effect for the viewer. The interesting perspective was achieved via the use of a helicopter and also manipulated with digital software to enhance the abstract effect. The black racetrack juxtaposes with the desert sand which causes a curving stream effect along the ground. The lack of people and/or cars in the scene makes understanding the image harder for me personally as I couldn’t decipher what the landscape was. After researching the photo, I found that Gursky managed to achieve this effect on his viewers by combining multiple shots taken on the helicopter into one frame. I chose to describe ‘Bahrain I’ as I really appreciated Andreas Gursky ability to turn a racetrack, situated in middle of a desert, into a makeshift optical illusion. Coming up with ideas for the Environment unit, I thought about the theme of making ordinary objects and scenes somehow abstract or fine art based, and Gursky’s work expresses the idea perfectly. Gursky’s use of curves and lines also drags my attention fully into the scene and the beige surrounding makes the track seem somehow flat and two dimensional from the bottom of the frame and then suddenly three dimensional once the viewer recognises the buildings and skyline within the top of the frame. While looking closer at the photo, the viewer can recognise faint phone advertising along the track which “serve to bring the photograph back into the here and now of a society distinguished by the ubiquity of trademarks” (Strozzina.org. 2019. Manipulating Reality, http://www.strozzina.org/manipulatingreality/e_gursky.php – Accessed 4 Oct. 2019).
John Tagg: “The photograph is not a magical ‘emanation’ but a material product of a material apparatus set to work in different contexts, by specific forces, for more or less defined purposes.” The Burden of Representation, 3
John Tagg’s description of what photography means to him is a literal interpretation of how a photograph is created and what it’s purpose can be. Tagg’s idea stems from the belief that a photo is the result of an object which has the ability to record information for a certain context. The theme that a photograph is not a ‘magical emanation’ and instead being a product of a photographer recording a scene for a specific purpose seems to lack a certain sense of emotion that most photographers put within their projects. Although Tagg’s description is technically correct, I personally feel as if the black and white explanation paints photography to be a medium which doesn’t hold much substance within the art community and incorporates a similar view of many art scholars of pre 20thcentury who believed that photographs could not cause the same emotional and/or social impact as a painting or sculpture could.
While coming up with some ideas for the project, I decided to head out into Rochester with a roll of 120 XP2 and a Bronica SQ-B. I Decided to focus o the building infrastructure and composition between the old brick buildings and the natural environment which they resides in. After developing the roll, I took the scans into Lightroom and Photoshop to correct the image levels and also increase the images contrast and punchiness via the curves tool in Photoshop. I liked the striking contrasts between the dark and light tones within the frame.
Roberts is a British photographer who focuses his work around English tradition and culture, resulting in his extensive project ‘We English’ which ‘surveys the diverse pastimes of ordinary people in the context of the English landscape’(Roberts, 2019). Roberts travelled around England in a caravan between 2007 to 2008, which gave him a new perspective on the scenes he was capturing due to shooting the entirety of the collection from the roof of the motorhome. The scenes which depict the English at Leisure use a vibrant colour pallet achieved by the use of a large format 5×4 film camera. Robert’s use of perspective creates a god-like glimpse on the scene for the viewer who is able to look below onto the subjects and into the distance of the background. Roberts’ use of shooting his photographs above his motorhome is a very interesting technique to give the prints an unnatural aspect as well as a feeling of familiarity for the English viewers.
The series of fifty-six large scale colour prints depict the population’s connection to their local area, often bringing the viewer to consider themes linked to belonging, identity and notion of being an anglophile. Each photograph captures a certain concept of what it to be English and also how certain people react to the environment they are positioned in. The thirtieth photograph from the series, ‘Ratcliffe-on Soar Power Station, Nottinghamshire, 16thJune 2008’, features three retired labourers who worked at Ratcliffe-on Soar power station from 1966, playing a game of golf on the outskirts of their previous employment site. Roberts noted, ‘Despite no longer working – they still return to play on the employee golf course several times a week’ (Roberts, 2009). I especially enjoyed this photo from the series as it clearly represents the men’s’ long connection to the plant and though the landscape isn’t typically visually aesthetic, it is each of their pasts which brings them back.Roberts’ series also depicts England’s well renowned coastline, which evidently is what many people believe to be a quintessential factor of living in England.
Since the early 20thcentury, photography has gone hand-in-hand with travelling and tourism, resulting in millions of amateur photographs being taken by holidaymakers wanting to record their adventures. England belongs to a culture which normalises documenting your family trip away, with shots of relatives running across the beach or eating lunch in picnic style; these images often captures the identities of the subjects and how they act with their surroundings. Roberts’ ‘We English’ captures on a large scale how individuals can use the same environment but in their own personal way. Looking at Roberts’ photographs, you can spend a large amount of time focusing on just one portion of the scene and still manage to notice something new after looking onto the scene once again on a different occasion.
The extensive amount of information which is captured still doesn’t mask the excellence in which Roberts portrays his locations to the viewer. The composition and vibrancy within the frame deliver a strong eagerness for the viewer to look thoroughly within the environment in which Roberts has photographed. The use of small aperture causes Roberts to create a large depth of field, meaning all of the frame is sharp, emulating an Ansel Adams style of landscape photography.
‘We English’ appeals to me greatly as while thinking of ideas for the Environment project, I wanted to include an aspect of my own surroundings within my theme and I appreciate Roberts’ use of English landscape within his series. Looking through the series, I feel a sense of belonging and understanding of what ‘We English’ was trying to infer to the viewer and it really inspires me to shoot what I usually take for granted. I often consider Kent to be photographically dull but after researching Robert I feel much more inspired to shoot within my local area, especially living just one train journey away from famous seaside locations, such as Brighton, Margate and Dover, where interestingly some of Roberts’ ‘We English’ photos were taken. I’m also interested in shooting some photos around the Rochester area due to the nature of the traditional British high street which often brings in large numbers of tourists frequently.
Roberts, S. (2019). We English by Simon Roberts. We-english.co.uk. Available at: https://we-english.co.uk (Accessed 8 Oct. 2019).
Roberts, S. (2009). We English. London. Boot, Commentary – page 2.
Joe Haines 