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.
Paul Graham-Troubled land



Abstract fear-Final piece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-dGrQKF4o4 - Link to final piece.

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.



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.


Lauraine Morton Lawson 1990 ''Red'' Morton's daughter

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.





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.
Clay Enos

Clay Enos