Category Archives: Research and Reflection

Project 3 The beauty of artificial light

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Review of Photographers using artificial light:

Christopher Doyle

This video shows the evocative lighting that Christoper Doyle uses to light his characters. Alot of the scenes are dark and are shot looking through something, often completely black on the edges with bright almost primary colours lighting the subjects.  He particularly seems to like reds and oranges which give a warm sensual nature to the images.

The techniques outlined in this video:

  • Wide angle lens as wide as 18 mm
  • long lenses
  • shallow depth of field
  • angles off kilter
  • moving camera
  • use of colour, influenced the neon colours
  • embraced random chaos of colours
  • used dark alleys and tight spaces
  • silhouetted actors against the colours
  • liked buildings and the way light fell on them
  • inspired low angle shots
  • used small spaces and street lights
  • the lighting in a naturalistic environment is always from the top
  • actors always lit by one light, rarely any back light or glamour light
  • introduce a slight blue tint into the faces of the leading ladies.
  • Contrast ratio of the charts
  • Blacks had a lot of green in because he’s using fuji film

“I think the point of cinematography, of what we do, is intimacy. Is intent, is the balance between the familiar and the dream, it is being subjective and objective, it is being engaged and yet standing back and noticing something that perhaps other people didn’t notice before, or celebrating something that you feel is beautiful or valid, or true or engaging in some way.” — Christopher Doyle

Don’t Look Now Nicolas Roeg, 1973 Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond

“During the minutes or seconds that this fleeting image is on the screen, you have to enable the viewer to see and especially to experience that there is a very rapid emotional shock. So the lighting has to be designed in such a way that its form can pierce through the screen and travel like an arrow into the viewer’s mind.” — Henri Alekan

The advantage of still photography, is that the viewer has time to peruse the image at leisure so perhaps the impact could be more subtle?

quotes and images from : https://mattystanfield.com/2016/01/06/light-and-shadow-or-the-magic-of-cinematography/ [accessed 20.04.18

Brassai

Tony Ray-Jones Interviews Brassai” Pt. I (1970)

Although trained in art Brassai says he thinks education and intelligence are better prerequisites for photography as painters try to unconsciously take photos like paintings and that photographers need to see things fresh, using their intelligence as well as their eye. 

Project 2 – ‘Layered, complex and mysterious…’

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Photographers reviewed:

 

www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/consumption-shortlist/michael-schmidt/
[accessed 24.03.18]

Michael Schmidt’s project – Lebensmittel (Foods) – 

The images on their own didn’t make much sense until I translated the title which is ‘Foods’.  It is a series of 10 images which have a connection to the food we eat.  the majority of the images are black and white with just two being in colour.  The lighting is very defused and almost clinical with no dark blacks or white whites.

I think he may have deliberately taken his images this way so as not to put his feelings into the images, allowing the viewer to make there own conclusions. 

translation: The photographer Michael Schmidt will be exhibiting at the Gropius-Bau in Berlin in his exhibition “Michael Schmidt. Lebensmittel” on January 11, 2013. For his most recent long-term project, the artist photographed the production of food in salmon farms, bread factories, slaughterhouses and vegetable farms. Photo: Maurizio Gambarini / dpa)

Michael Schmidt

In this article Michael Schmidt is described as a contemporary photographer, with is analytical style.  From this I take that they mean that the images are not ‘painterly’ Personally I think they work as a series together, but individually I don’t really like them as individual pieces.  some of his earlier work is

http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/01/interview-sally-mann-the-touch-of-an-angel-2010.html [accessed 19.03.018]

http://sallymann.com/selected-works/southern-landscapes

In contrast to Michael Schmidt, Sally Mann’s images in Southern Landscapes are full of dark and light almost macabre.  Alot of her subjects seem to be around decay and deep contrasts and soft lighting seem to add to the feeling of the image. 

Her images are all feel very intimate and she explores some very deep emotions around sex and death.  She says in her interview for ASX that quite often the project finds her, rather than her starting with it all mapped out, a bit like a writer to doesn’t know the ending when he starts to write.

Tacita Dean’s short film on the ‘green ray’ at http://vimeo.com/38026163 [accessed 18.03.2018 – interesting

https://www.nga.gov/404status.html [accessed 19.03.18 – page not found]

Golden, R, 1999, 20th Century Photography, Carlton, London

Le Quai, I’lle de la Cite (1925) – Eugene Atget

Atget’s images were largely seen as ‘functional illustrations’ of life in Paris, until he sold them to a lot of the painters of the time. It wasn’t until after his death that people recognised the artistry in the images themselves.

In the image above, Arget has used the early morning light to create a serene and mysterious look to his image.  When look at his images i was reminded of the glass plates made Nicolas Laboire now and remembered how much better the glass plates look than the printed images, I would like to seen these on their original plates.

making the ordinary resonate

Quote

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What do you think should be the mission of an artist?

To express their intellectual curiosity. Just like Emily Dickinson said, to reinterpret the obvious world in the way that enlightens it and enriches it. As artists, we have the obligation to do so, because we have the gift to see things differently from other people. If the world we present to the viewers can challenge them, provoke them, and even change their situation, so much the better. And if it is beautiful at the same time, that’s icing on the cake. That’s my own mandate: to make beautiful art that also is about something. I want to make the ordinary resonate for my viewers in a universal way.

source: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/01/interview-sally-mann-the-touch-of-an-angel-2010.html

Nicolas Laboire

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Nicolas Laboire, is a French photographer who has lived and worked in London for over 25 years.

His Presentation at the Brighton and Hove Camera Club on Tuesday 30th January 2018, entitled 
“Tin Tribes in the garden of Ether and Wet Plate Collodion” was about personal work that he has been doing using  an old Wet Plate Colldion Camera. This camera was invented by Frederick Scott Archer in 1851.

Nicolas coats the glass plates with a highly toxic mix of chemicals which he mixes himself.  He described the process as taking approximately 7 minutes for each plate, which includes coating the glass, exposing the image and then carrying out post process methods to fix the image 

He has won national and international acclaim with this set of portraits in which he mixes contemporary figures with this antique method of image making.

Portrait of Britain Entry used as a bill board poster – by Nicolas Laboire

The first half of the presentation consisted of Nicholas showing his images on a projector and talking about how he had made them.  He said that always looks for the story in the image.

The second half of the evening was demonstration of the process he uses to operate the Wet Plate Collodian works, followed by a question and answer session.

My impressions

Nicolas clearly enjoys the whole process of making the image, including buying and mixing the chemicals, right through to finished plate.  Rather than producing a digital image he enjoys the making of a ‘product’ that is original and can not be replicated.  I found the project images a little bland, but the images really come to alive when you see and hold the plates.

I felt this was a really ‘photography as art’.because of the tangible product produced. which was so much better in the flesh than the printed image. Nicolas was very engaging and passionate about his work and i found the whole evening, both informative and interesting. Particularly learning more about the history of photography and the danger early photographers were in.

client’s of early photographers often didn’t like their images because they were used to painters who amended their imperfections. Reminded me of what we do in Photoshop now, so maybe we’ve come full circle!

When asked if he was a fine art photographer or a photo journalist, Nicolas replied that “if you take an image from a newspaper and hang it on the wall, it would be called fine art.  It depends on what you want to do with the image.”  I really liked that analogy and felt that the really didn’t want a label, he just wants to take photos that tell a story he wants to tell.

He is currently working on a set of images about suffragette in order to celebrate 100 years of (some) women being given the vote.

for more info about Nicolas visit his website: http://www.nicolaslaborie.com (accessed 31.01.18)

 

Project 3 ‘What matters is to look’ – research point

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What Matters is to look

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, 1932

This image by Henri Carier-Bresson is described as ‘one of the most iconic photographs of the twentieth century’. Personally I’ve never seen it before.

As part of my research into Henri Cartier-Bresson, I watched ‘L’amour tout court’ on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/106009378 (accessed 10/01/2018).

The film is an interview with HC-B made by Raphael O’Byrne entitled ‘Just Plain Love’
It is in French but has English subtitles
 
HC-B starts by saying that most people don’t look properly at their subject, they just press the shutter buttons
 
He intermates that his parents were strict and prudish, whilst he frequented bordellos 
Left-wing catholics
 
HCB went to Africa
He is a bit of crusader for people less fortunate than himself.
He been in jail and then to the commandos, he feels like an escaped prisoner
 
HCB and Klavdij Sluban hold a regular photography workshop with the inmates in the Fleury-Mergois.  Sluban is now also going to a prison in Georgia.  At first the inmates seem very cautious and suspicious, but are soon running around taking photos, mostly of themselves.  He says that the inmates either refer to themselves as before incarceration or after, but not during.  By giving them a camera, we see their view of the prison, rather than the photographers.
 
HCB reviewing his famous leaping man image, said it was just luck, but that you need to leave yourself open, you can’t just want it to happen, because it won’t
 
He has framed his images, using geometry, divine proportion. Which he instinctively knows where it is.  It’s about capturing the physical rhythm of a situation.
 
Form should come first, light is the icing on the cake. Interview with writing, says that HCB was always looking, will see things others don’t see.  He sees the form or geometry of an image and the people within it provide the interest.
 
HCB you either have it you don’t.
 
Arkivah – people need to love to look, you can’t look at something you don’t love
Art is not a visual think, is a sensual think, if you don’t taste it you won’t see it.

 

just plain love a film by Raphael O’Bryan

the gaze should pierce 

wanting won’t work

physidcal rhythm

light is like purfune to me.

giocometti?

to look means to love – painter

suite nl3 en re mineur sarabande, bach

suite no3 en ut majeur, parelude, bach

suite no 1 en sol majeur, courante, bach

suite no 9 courante, haendel eric heidsieck

Jo Teasdale

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I was really motivated by Jo Teasdale’s presentation at Brighton and Hove Camera Club on 23.01.18.  She presented projects she is currently working on, one of which is “Looking Forward, Turning Back” series really inspired me.

read more about:Jo Teasdale’s; Looking Forward: Turning Back (accessed 28.01.18)

Looking Forward: Turning Back by Jo Teasdale

In Jo’s blog she says:

The concept came about when I thought how I took my photographs. Looking, watching and waiting, trying to keep alert for those individual moments in time when a picture is born. So taking a photograph of a particular view we naturally look around at what is in front of us. It occurred to me we never see what is behind us, there’s no reason to, we have found the view we wish to photograph. However, if we were to turn around what would we see? I wanted to capture precisely this

I found this a really interesting juxtaposition between in front and behind, in terms of Assignment 3 – Decisive Moment, I feel that this is something I could use or expand to incorporate the other themes.  Jo’s image above definitely engenders both landscape and a decisive moment.

Following this presentation, I went out the next day to have a go at taking a similar image.  I found out I can ‘overlay images’ in camera, so used this feature for this image. I chose to stand inside one of the shelters to take the images, as I wanted to explore the idea of Henri Cartier-Bresson that form and frame of the image can be prepared in advance and provides structure to the image. 

Mewsbrook – 24.01.18 – overlay image in camera

I would like to explore this idea further, taking an image of a person coming towards the camera and then from behind as they walk away. The decisive moment will be as they pass me, but the viewer will only see the before and after.

 

Christian Stoll

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Christian Stoll, is a German photographer, working in Dussledorf and New York.

Multiple Exposure Street Scene – Christian Stoll

I particularly liked this image from his series “New York Split Second’.I love the concept of lots of ‘decisive moments’.  I know how to create double exposure images in my camera using the overlay function, but I think this level of multi-exposure will need to be worked up in post processing.

source: http://www.christian-stoll.com/website/photos_detail.php?gallerieID=1102&gallery=new-york_split_second (accessed 26.01.19)

Martin Dietrich

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Martin Dietrich is a German photographer living and working in Frankfurt

He says of himself:

My work is mostly of a certain abstract, minimalistic and geometrical nature including strong leading lines and shapes. To a large part my work incorporates urban themes such as architecture and street photography. Nevertheless you’ll also find some other things I feel like at the moment. 

source: http://www.martindietrichphotography.de/about-me/ (accessed 26.01.19)

I came across Martin’s work whilst doing research for Assignment 3 – The decisive moment. I have an idea for doing double exposure images for this assignment and was looking up other photographers who have done this.  

This image came up in a page: 10-photographers-creating-enigmatic-works-with-double-exposure.  i particularly liked the monochrome forms and the matt look of the image.

Double Exposure done in Camera (Fuji X-Pro 1) by Martin Dietrich

I particularly connected with Martin’s Street Photography work, which has other examples of this type of image.  Many of his images are very minimalist, and looking down from above at this subjects.  They are mostly high contrast and always have great light.  Many of the images also make use of shadows, which makes me think that he must research his locations in terms of time and light.

Looking at these images, brought back the comment by Henri- Cartier-Bresson in the video, that he always looked for form first, to him Light was just the ‘purfume’.  I am inclined to think, however, that getting the light right, really makes the difference and this is definitely the case in Martin’s work.

 

 

 

 

http://www.martindietrichphotography.de/

 

Assignment 3 – The Decisive Moment – Research

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Research into the concept of ‘the decisive moment’

How to Master “The Decisive Moment”

Eric Kim says that H C-B believed that:

  • “The Decisive Moment” was that split second of genius and inspiration that a photographer had to capture a certain moment
  • You can never recreate the same circumstances in terms of location and people.
  • You must constantly be looking for moments to capture,
  • Once that moment is gone, it is gone forever

7 Tips How to Capture “The Decisive Moment” in Street Photography

  1. What is a “decisive moment” for you
  2. Follow your intuition
  3. Set it and forgetit
  4. Photograph what you’re afraid of
  5. Look for emotion and gestures
  6. What is personally-meaningful to you
  7. Work the scene

The Decisive Moment and the Brain

this is an interesting article from Petapixel, which explores the interactions between conscious (i.e., knowing) and unconscious (i.e., intuiting) awareness and how the brain works to link the two. 

 

Extract from conversation on on student forum about a3 decisive moment.

https://discuss.oca-student.com/t/eyv-a3-decisive-moment-feedback-needed/6483

Comment by Clive White – OCA tutor:

I didn’t want them to be just an extension of cliché esthetics’

The decisive moment isn’t an outdated Modernist conceit, it’s an ever present appropriate strategy concerned with when you decided to press the shutter button. It’s the second most important decision the photographer makes after framing.

Some students seem to get the idea that they’re supposed to critique it in some way as an outmoded idea by redefining it or that they’re supposed to be critiquing the work of H. C-B.; as tutors we don’t really understand why the section has been read like this but the assignment, along with the rest of EYV is being revised and I’m contributing a case study from one of my students to help explain the concept and this assignment more effectively.

You are encouraged to critique it in the sense that one can consciously produce indecisive or non-decisive moments but in order to do that one needs to understand what a decisive moment is, some people are jumping straight to the critique position with out properly understanding the concept of the decisive moment and a spurious motivation.

The minimum requirement of this assignment is that the images should visually demonstrate the understanding of the concept without requiring any explanation or captioning when viewed by those familiar with the concept. It is not enough to say this is a decisive moment because I say it is. The image at the moment of capture should have a significance which is not extant at the moment before or the moment after.

Once that’s achieved the aspiration should be to make images which are not only decisive moments but to make them part of the natural progressive flow of one’s work.

Review the images you’ve made and decide if they meet the base criteria, was the moment you’ve chosen different in its resonance in any significant way from a moment before or after.

I think this really helps clarify what is needed from this assignment.

  • it it NOT a critique of HC-B, but needs to demonstrate and understanding of the concept
  • it should capture a moment in time that is different from the moment before and the moment after.
  • the images should have aesthetic balance

I also had a look at a couple of blogs suggested by the tutors which were held up as demonstrating the required response to the brief

Kate Aston  and David Fletcher 

two very different responses and very interesting.

 

Maja Daniels – Participant Observation

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This is a review of Maja Daniels’ talk about her work at Brighton and Hove Camera Club, on 9th January 2018

Maja Daniels is a Swedish photographer who was talking about her projects and showing the resulting images.

Maja described herself as a Psychologist whose photography is usually the result of a very long process. She left home in Sweden at 18 to move to France and has studied Photography, psychology, journalism and speaks a number of different languages.  

Maja sees her projects as of a way of communicating stories of the society in which she is living, and which gives her the opportunity to “talk about the world, to the world“.

Maja Daniels – INTERVIEW in The NEW YORK TIMES

‘Into Oblivion’  was the result of a three year project which came out of a call out by the director or a geriatric unit in France, near to where Maja was studying.  She started the project alongside 4 other students but quickly ended up being the only person still doing it.  She says that she spent a year visiting the hospital, working the with patients and getting to know their families before she even picked up a camera.  She then spent a further 2 years developing the work to a point where she thought it was finished. The initial concept of the door came during her initial visit when she saw patients peering out of the window from the other side. 

Photographing the patients looking out of the window is a message for those making medical policies.”can you see the reality of the policies you make”. She says that Alzheimer sufferers often walk and move around and their attention becomes focused on the door, because they ‘stuck’ by not being able to get through.

Maja like the idea that the viewer of the image always brings half the story. so doesn’t like her projects to direct the viewers thoughts too much.

Maja likes to work in different mediums depending on the impact she want’s to achieve. We saw a video of her images which were dubbed with the sounds recorded on the ward.  Although the images themselves are ‘quiet’ and subtle the video felt much more impactful and really gave a sense of the realty of living in this place.

In the break, I was able to speak with Maja and asked how she decided what images to use in her set and how many images to include the project.  This is something that I thought might help with the assignments for EYV.  She said that she always goes back to a subject on numerous occasions and challenges herself to try different angles and new views.  She always tries to come away with something new.  She also tries to get a range such as wide angle placement shots as well as details and each image should add something new to the work.  When asked how do you know when it’s finished, she replied that when she keeps coming back with the same images and can’t add anything new she will realise that it’s finished.  She doesn’t have any timescales and tries to be organic and open to the work expanding. 

She also said she very good at cutting images out.

Twins

MADY AND MONETTE IN NEW YORK MAGAZINE

The second project that Maja showed us, was a project that chronicles the lives of identical twlns Mady and Monette who live in Paris.  The work is a juxtaposition to the oblivion project in that it celebrates the positive side of ageing.  She has never sought to ‘expose’ the twins, but to help illustrate how they see themselves and how they enjoy their ‘twindom’ and document the way it shapes their lives. I particularly like the image above in terms of the composition, colours and light.

Maja goes back regularly to visit them and has built up a great relationship with the twins, I think she see this more as a collaboration with the twins as they retain much of artistic control over the images she takes and also where she publishes them..

Sweden

Finally Maja shared some of the images she is currently working on, back in her home country of Sweden.  She has moved into a log cabin in the hometown of her grandparents, where they speak the oldest form of Norse still spoken.  She was fascinated by how the language has survived and how it is now declining as the younger generations are no longer learning and speaking it.

This is a very different piece of work from the other two projects and when finished, i think, it will be very interesting.

Maja says that her work is personal and subjective and shouldn’t be taken as an objective documentation of people or a situation.  She aims to make knowledge, through participative observation. 

It seems that for all of her projects, she has spent a lot of time and invested emotionally in the subjects she is photographing.  I think this is evident in the resulting images, they are intimate and real.

All in all, I like her approach and was very touched by the subject matter.  I think hearing her speak about them also gave a real connection with the people and places portrayed

Debra Flynn 10.01.2018 

majadaniels.com

addendum- 07/08/2018

In conversation: Maja Daniels

Sharon Boothroyd talks to photographer Maja Daniels about her work.

https://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/conversation-maja-daniels