Thursday, 29 November 2012
Thursday, 15 November 2012
1 Square Mile Proposal
For this project I have always had a clear idea of what I wanted to do. Last Month, I visited family In both Ballina and Enniscrone, Ireland. Here is were I decided to shoot for my project. Enniscrone is a small sea-side village which is well known for its seaweed baths available at the bath house. The coast line has been effected by shore erosion, making the old sea bath house, sea steps and cabins unable to be used. I wanted to focus my project on the old bath house and the surrounding area, which both have been affected by erosion.
I wanted also to make a connection with a previous project I did about a seaside village affected by erosion. However, the projects will be different as the previous project was shot at night, in the style of Andreas Gursky. This project is to be shot in the afternoon, and has been inspired by Paul Graham's project Troubled land, which featured images of Northern Ireland, with 'hidden' messages. For example, One image of a countryside landscape at first glance seemed indifferent from other landscape images, until you noticed the small Union Jack flag hidden in a tree.
To create the images, I will use natural light, and will adjust the exposure and ISO number to collaborate with the weather and conditions of the shooting day. I will be using a canon EOS 1000D camera with a 18-35mm lens. I will shoot all the images in landscape form with variations of close-up and wide-angles.
In my work, they is a recurrent theme of lack of editing. I choose to do this as I believe an image should be created whilst being shot, and should not be recreated using an editing software. However, during this project I propose to incorporate some editing into my images. This will be in the form of colour change; to make all the images similar colours and sharpness. I will also work with levels and curves on photo shop to create shadows within the images.
The images I am going to shoot will not involve any people, and instead will focus mainly on the beach and surrounding buildings. This is a decision which has been made to connote the emptiness of the town. Also it is to the the lack of use of the buildings etc being shot, and will use pathetic fallacy to show the buildings emotions, through colour and lack of people.
Through the images, I would like to show how the sea, while being beautiful, It can also have some devestating effects towards the land. The images I am going to shoot will have a focus point which will be the bath house. This bath house was first built in 1912, but became unable to be used due to dangerous tides. Other areas unable to be used are the sea steps and cabins on the beach. Also this is the focus point for my project, I want to particularly focus on the bath house.
I wanted also to make a connection with a previous project I did about a seaside village affected by erosion. However, the projects will be different as the previous project was shot at night, in the style of Andreas Gursky. This project is to be shot in the afternoon, and has been inspired by Paul Graham's project Troubled land, which featured images of Northern Ireland, with 'hidden' messages. For example, One image of a countryside landscape at first glance seemed indifferent from other landscape images, until you noticed the small Union Jack flag hidden in a tree.
To create the images, I will use natural light, and will adjust the exposure and ISO number to collaborate with the weather and conditions of the shooting day. I will be using a canon EOS 1000D camera with a 18-35mm lens. I will shoot all the images in landscape form with variations of close-up and wide-angles.
In my work, they is a recurrent theme of lack of editing. I choose to do this as I believe an image should be created whilst being shot, and should not be recreated using an editing software. However, during this project I propose to incorporate some editing into my images. This will be in the form of colour change; to make all the images similar colours and sharpness. I will also work with levels and curves on photo shop to create shadows within the images.
The images I am going to shoot will not involve any people, and instead will focus mainly on the beach and surrounding buildings. This is a decision which has been made to connote the emptiness of the town. Also it is to the the lack of use of the buildings etc being shot, and will use pathetic fallacy to show the buildings emotions, through colour and lack of people.
Through the images, I would like to show how the sea, while being beautiful, It can also have some devestating effects towards the land. The images I am going to shoot will have a focus point which will be the bath house. This bath house was first built in 1912, but became unable to be used due to dangerous tides. Other areas unable to be used are the sea steps and cabins on the beach. Also this is the focus point for my project, I want to particularly focus on the bath house.
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| Paul Graham-Troubled land |
Portraits for Documentary
The following photographs were taken at leeds market. This was the first project which was intended to approach people and take there portraits. This was something that I had no experience with previously, and was successful in building my confidence for future projects. As seen in the blog post below, which was one week after this, I had built my confidence and was able to photograph more people. I am happy with the images I produced, However, I think if I had photographed more people, particularly those working on the market stalls, Then this project exercise would look completed. It would also make it a documentary photography piece, focusing on people working at leeds market, which was my original intension.
The Herber Springs Portraits
Toba Tucker
Toba Tucker is a documentary portrait photographer interested in recording continuity and change in American culture for history and artistic purposes. Although her work is not exclusively devoted to Native Americans, they have been her primary subjects. The Portraits have been awarded prestigious grants and awards, acquired for permanent collections of major museums, are published books, and exhibited in museums, libraries and universities.
The Herber Springs Portraits
Toba photographed and taped oral history interviews with the people of Heber Springs, Arkansas to explore the continuity and changes within this rural community by comparing and contrasting her contemporary images with the body of portraits created by Mike Disfarmer, who operated a portrait studio on Main Street in the 30's and 40's. Disfarmer created a remarkably moving and insightful series of photographic portraits documenting the character of a segment of small-town America at a time when its endurance was being severely tested and its values were in transition.
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| Lauraine Morton Lawson 1990 ''Red'' Morton's daughter |
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| Lecil Bishop 1990 |
Thursday, 8 November 2012
Removing Signifiers from the documentary portrait.
Unlike other portrait exercises I have done before, this project directed the group to photograph on Location using a plain white background. This was so the focus point was on the person being photographed, without including a narrative using a background. The photographs were taken in Leeds, on a busy fashion based high street. I chose to shoot in front of a fashion store, so that the people photographed would be fashion based in some way, for example one person was a fashion photographer.
I chose to focus on the face, so only shot the face and shoulders of the person. I chose to do so as I think the close-up shots would look much more personal and casual.
I also made the decision to shoot only females, who were all different ages. They also all had individual looks. I instructed them only to look at the camera, and did not say anything about posing dead-pan or smiling.
I particularly enjoyed this project as it involved interacting with the general public, something that I previously was not confident about, and choosing women which I thought had interesting looks. I also looked at the women's outfits and makeup, to determine what there style personality's were like.
I chose to focus on the face, so only shot the face and shoulders of the person. I chose to do so as I think the close-up shots would look much more personal and casual.
I also made the decision to shoot only females, who were all different ages. They also all had individual looks. I instructed them only to look at the camera, and did not say anything about posing dead-pan or smiling.
I particularly enjoyed this project as it involved interacting with the general public, something that I previously was not confident about, and choosing women which I thought had interesting looks. I also looked at the women's outfits and makeup, to determine what there style personality's were like.
Clay Enos
Clay Enos refuses to be pigeonholed into any one category of photography. From a portrait session with Sting to a print campaign for Red Stag Bourbon or a spontaneous portrait on the street, Clay consistently captures moments that feel both real and transcendent. Always spontaneous and edgy, Clay's unique style shines through his commercial, editorial and personal photographs.
His first large scale photography project, Streetstudio. Launched in 2000, Streetstudio involved shooting portraits of random passersby on the streets of New York. By bringing his studio to the street he gains access to the most remarkable faces in the city. This access combined with his sheer enthusiasm and friendly rapport, allowed Clay to create quiet, poignant, portraits of everyday people that reflect the myriad beauty and electric spirit of New York City.
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| Clay Enos |
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| Clay Enos |
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Abstract fear-Evaluation
This assignment has allowed me to experience and try different techniques that I would not normally consider. I decided to use mediums that I was inexperienced with as I wanted to challenge my self as a photographer and widen my knowledge of lens based media. This is why I made the decision to create a short film instead of a set of images. The film was created using Adobe Premiere- which I had also never used before. The editing process was challenging but rewarding, and I am now able to work with Adobe Premiere confidently.
Before filming, I researched a wide variety of artists who work with a fear narrative or work in a way that is intended to disturb the audience. They all used different mediums to connote narratives, such as film making and photography. I think the research helped me to develop ideas as I saw what installation artists do in terms of creating an exhibition which is involved in the art.
My installation had a clear plan throughout pre-production. As seen in a previous post, I made a drawn plan of the installation, which is exactly how it looked in the exhibition. It involved three boards surrounding a computer screen which screened my film. The facing board had three small square cut outs, intended for the audience to view the movie. This made the audience feel like they were viewing a secret, created by the 'peep holes'. It also connotes insecurity and claustrophobia. The screen was on the floor, Making the viewer feel higher and more significant then fear. Connoting over-coming fear and becoming a stronger person. I am happy with the way my installation was represented and feel that it gave my message of over coming fear clearly and effectively.
To edit my video, I used Adobe Premiere. This is an editing software that previously I had no experience with, but have gained experience with trial and error whilst editing my video. Using this software has been challenging but rewarding as I now know how to use it to successfully edited both video and sound clips. I also found that the software was easier too use then iMovie, which I have used previously. I decided to use fast transitions between clips to add confusion to the viewer, also I made the clips very short so they world have a 'blink and they are gone' effect.
The voice clip I used to accompany my video was a recording of someone filing their nails, which was the fear my video focused on. I recorded it using a voice recorder app on my phone, which I then copied onto my computer. The recording was repeated along with my video, which created an overlapping effect which sounded equally as disturbing as the original recording.
Before filming, I researched a wide variety of artists who work with a fear narrative or work in a way that is intended to disturb the audience. They all used different mediums to connote narratives, such as film making and photography. I think the research helped me to develop ideas as I saw what installation artists do in terms of creating an exhibition which is involved in the art.
My installation had a clear plan throughout pre-production. As seen in a previous post, I made a drawn plan of the installation, which is exactly how it looked in the exhibition. It involved three boards surrounding a computer screen which screened my film. The facing board had three small square cut outs, intended for the audience to view the movie. This made the audience feel like they were viewing a secret, created by the 'peep holes'. It also connotes insecurity and claustrophobia. The screen was on the floor, Making the viewer feel higher and more significant then fear. Connoting over-coming fear and becoming a stronger person. I am happy with the way my installation was represented and feel that it gave my message of over coming fear clearly and effectively.
The voice clip I used to accompany my video was a recording of someone filing their nails, which was the fear my video focused on. I recorded it using a voice recorder app on my phone, which I then copied onto my computer. The recording was repeated along with my video, which created an overlapping effect which sounded equally as disturbing as the original recording.
The primary colours in the video were red, orange and black. As the video was shot at night with artificial light, the colour tones were quite warm. This was deliberate as I wanted the video to appear dark and dream like. The only clips which were a different colour was a clip of someone filing there nails close-up. This was separate as I wanted this to be the focal point of the video.
Overall I am happy with how my installation and video turned out. I think the reason why it was successful was because It was heavily planned and discussed to ensure all ideas and concepts could be achieved.
If I could have changed anything about my work, I would had added another medium such as lighting. This was discussed in pre-production but I was unable to use the idea due to lack of resources and exhibition environment. My idea was to have a single light bulk continuously swinging above my video.
Another thing I could have done differently was decorating the boards surrounding my video, this could have added a different meaning to my video and would have added depth and meaning.
Thursday, 18 October 2012
Organising and Preparing work for my exhibition.
In preparation for my exhibition, I have started to organise and layout my installation and video work to ensure that it will be successful. Whist at the exhibition location, I started to prepare my work by firstly setting up the installation. As shown in my installation plan and proposal, I wanted to create an enclosed area. This enclosed area will surround a computer screen showing my abstract fear video. It will be created by using three boards, the facing board will have cut out sections were the viewer can view the video. This is intended to make the viewer feel claustrophobic and insecure.
The video has a backing track of somebody filing there nails. This will be played at the highest possible volume to encourage the viewer to come forward and watch the video. The noise is also unclear what it is until watching the video, so it will also add curiosity.
The video will be displayed on a computer screen that has no keyboard or mouse. This will be placed on the floor. It will be placed on the floor as whist the viewers look through the peep holes they will look down on the video, making them feel superior to it. This will connote getting over fears and over-coming anxiety.
I think I have prepared my exhibition well and it should not have any problems, however is problems do occur they can be replaced with alternative ideas that I have.
The video has a backing track of somebody filing there nails. This will be played at the highest possible volume to encourage the viewer to come forward and watch the video. The noise is also unclear what it is until watching the video, so it will also add curiosity.
The video will be displayed on a computer screen that has no keyboard or mouse. This will be placed on the floor. It will be placed on the floor as whist the viewers look through the peep holes they will look down on the video, making them feel superior to it. This will connote getting over fears and over-coming anxiety.
I think I have prepared my exhibition well and it should not have any problems, however is problems do occur they can be replaced with alternative ideas that I have.
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