Areas of Photographic Practice A

With this assignment we looked at narrative photography which is telling a story in the form photos. I looked at tableau vivient which isa French phrase meaning “living picture.” This is where the photo is of a living painting for example Red Saunders uses historical painting to create his own living pictures. I also looked at linear and non- linear which is the way the story id ordered, linier is the story in order were as non-linear narratives are when the story is not in any order for example pulp fiction is a non-linear narrative the scenes are all out of time.

The type of narrative I was asked to mainly look at was circular narrative which is where the story begins and ends in the same place so the story just goes round in circles. We were given a key word to focus the beginning of our circular narrative on, mine was table. With the key word I came up with three ideas for a photo shoot. The idea I chose after some research in to the topic was an anorexic diary which focuses many on the dairy and what it contains. I thought this would be a good idea because people would have to look at the image to see what was written in the diary not just look and walk away.

I did a small photo shoot to see what angle I would be photographing the book because at first I want to make the book look hard to read and miss parts of the writing out but then I thought against it since the main reason I choice the diary was because people would read it.

The photo shoot that I used for my final outcome has a number of images of the dairy all with the same angle and most with the same lighting. Out of this shoot I chose 11 image s to create my circular narrative the first image will be used twice as it will be the beginning and the ending of my narrative. I edited the image because I thought that if they were in colour then it would distract the view from what is in the diary. For the display of the narrative I wanted it to be in line so the viewer would just have to move across to each image.

In conclusion I did enjoy this assignment but I would have liked to also be able to choose my own key word but then I would not have researched in to anorexia and would not have a better understanding of the eating disorder, I like my final outcome and I think that they work very well and a series of images. I think if I were to do this assignment again I would try to do the diary in a different way for example I would have less information in it so the view would have to think about the diary and what it is about .

non-liner narrative assinment- yet to be realised

 I will produce 1 image that will ultimately form part of a wider narrative. The ‘whole’ of which is yet to be fully realised.My assignment is based upon a form of visual ‘Chinese Whispers’. In reality I will be creating a collective visual narrative.

The image below is the image that I received from a member of my group when I first saw it I mediately thought of the helmat and that it reminded me of a bickers helmet so I fond an image of a bicker.

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/motorbike,panning/Interesting

The story that I came up with for this image is that the scientist (the image above) likes to life on the edge so he also rides a bike home.

The images above are from when we revealed our chines whispers and the storied behind them. it all went quite smoothly until the image before mine which confused everyone.

editing assinment

I  choose publication of my choice, the publication with be something that I am interested in. I will then find a ‘feature’ story/spread with extensive use of images.

I chose this music magazine because I am interesting in music specifically rock music. The magazine has the latest news on the bands, tours information and what they are up to. The magazine also has reviews on gigs and new albums that are too be released. The reviews help the band sell their tickets and albums if the review is good.

The magazine is for those who are interesting in the different genres of rock music since it covers a large range of bands that have different rock bands.

I chose to look at to review on Metallica’s new album “Through the never” The review show a 3 images 2 are of the band and 1 of the album cover. There is a part that is highlighted in the middle of the page that is a positive review of hoe the album is a perfect view of how Metallica are in 2013.

Peter Marlow 1981 Margaret Thatcher

He had a Rollei flash on his Nikon F2 and "simply blasted away during Thatcher's speech, hoping to get that one shot".

The contact sheet is often described as the photographer's sketch book. It is the result of those moments of exploration, moments spent waiting for a scene to develop before the final moment when, 'click', you know you've got the shot in the can.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-15672930

" The photos may give the impression that I was the only one there to watch the speech, but there were in fact more than 10 other, mostly male photographers shooting away. It was fascinating to be a first-hand witness of the early days under Britain’s first woman prime minister. Forgetting the politics, she was always friendly and open to the photographers who were with her, in a way that would be hard to imagine today.”- Peter Marlow

Josef Koudelka

Josef Koudelka who is a  Magnum photographer, also recounts the story of taking photographs during the Prague invasion in Czechoslovakia in August of 1968. He took the photographs for himself, without the intent of publishing them

“What was happening in Czechoslovakia concerned life directly: it was my country, my problem. That’s what made the difference between me and the other photographers who came there from abroad. I was not a reporter. I didn’t know anything about photojournalism. I never photograph ‘news’. I photographed gypsies and theatre. Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I was confronted with that kind of situation, and I responded to it. I knew it was important to photograph, so I photographed. I took these pictures for myself, with no intention of publishing them”.

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/10/03/10-things-street-photographers-can-learn-from-magnum-contact-sheets/

Contact sheet of Josef Koudelka, “Prague Invasion”, Czechoslovakia, August 1968.

Elliott Erwitt 2000 Bulldogs

The photo below was a moment thing, Elliot Erwitt was out walking with a friend in Manhattan when he came across this scene he did not have his camera so asked if he could borrow his friends camera and photographed this scene a number of times.

I shot the whole roll of film on it.”  “Its a lot of pictures getting to the good one.”

It was that Erwitt deliberately worked the scene that on the last frame, he got his best shot.

Philip Jones Griffiths 1961 Boy Destroying Piano

The image shows a young boy holding a large piece of rubble above his head, whilst standing on an already destroyed piano with a full intent of making it worse. The boy has on lookers 2 other children watch what he is doing making it seem like he is showing of but destroying thing is what young boys do. 

His contact sheets show the playground, the several shots of kids walking towards the piano, and the aftermath but does not show the child destroying the piano.

Nikki S Lee- Parts

Nikki S Lee has also introduced a conspicuous formal device: every picture has been cropped from a larger original so that all but the hand or arm of a male companion has been eliminated. This makes them like photographs saved by someone who wants to consign an unhappy love affair to oblivion. Yet the memory of the old boyfriend is not dispelled; the cropping makes you think as much about what is missing as about what is present.

 

Nikki s S Lee crops out the partners in these images as the name parts show she is only showing part of the image. The top left image make you think if the couple are have an argument because she is sat quite far away from her partner and looking away like she is annoyed.

cropping assignment

The cropping assignment is to improve the photographic composition or balance of an image. 

I am to highlight or zoom in on a particular aspect or subject matter with in the image in order to create a drama and or increase or add a visual intensity to an image.I am to change the aspect ratio.by doing so increases its visual weight, presence or import.

 I will be changing the ratio of three images three different image with three different ratios for each image. images in full three different aspect of image by cropping what each cropping has done.

 First Image

The image below is a photo by Bruce Gilden I chose this image because I thought that their quite a lot going on in the image for example the woman in the image looks like she is being dragged away were the man at first looks like she is just looking at the camera but he is also holding to woman arm.

As you can see I have highlighted the parts of the image that I thought could be cropped to make a completely different image. the image of the woman looks like she is being moved around because of the crowed she is in. The image of the man looks like another street photo of a man looking quite seriously at the camera. I think this works because the atmosphere in both images are comply different from each other so if they were cropped you would not think they were from the same image.

example of cropping

Eddie Adams- Vietnam War, Saigon Execution

The image it self show a distressing scene from the Vietnam war with the american solder pointing a gun a a Vietnamese prisoner it shows how at that moment the solder does not care that he is being photographed 

By cropping the image your eye are drawn to the emotions on the prisoner face and how that moment was captured you also don't see on the right image that its a solder in it could be anyone pointing that gun in a man's face

“Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths.”  said Eddie Adams who took one of the Vietnam War’s most arresting photos of a point-blank execution

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/351589-still-photographs-are-the-most-powerful-weapon-in-the-world

  

David Hurn Tenby, Wales

With the image above you can see that it can be cropped to make 3 different images for example the group of people in the left hand corner, which looks like a group of people looking out at sea. Also the young boy on the cannon ball looks like he is just enjoying himself and the the couple and their dog would also make a single image.

 

Framing and Cropping-Bruce Gilden

A member of Magnum Photos since 1998, Bruce Gilden is best known for his uncompromising, in-your-face approach to street photography

 

 Many of Bruce Gildens likes to take photos  from extremely low angles, making his subjects look larger than they really are. He often cuts off subjects in odd places in the frame (only showing one half of someone’s face), while still filling the frame.

I get from doing a little bit of research and looking at his work he like to have a bit of mystery to his photography as he chose the composition in a odd way for example the top left image shows a elderly woman looking quite scared  but when you look behind her you see a woman who looks to be snaring at the old woman it makes it seem that the woman behind her is a person she is wanting to get a way from. 

framming and cropping-garry winogrand

winogrand never cropped his photographs if only part of the photos didn't work then the photo was not good enough. He said that ' cropping was out and to shoot it full frame so quality of the visual problem is improved"

 

 

Looking at Garry Winogrand work I can see were he could crop the images but I also agree with what he is saying because  these image look amazing and they should not be cropped.

 

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/08/20/10-things-garry-winogrand-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/

Framing and Cropping- Diana Arbus

Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.". Arbus believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws

 

"American rites, manners, and customs"; the fellowship was renewed in 1966. In 1964, Arbus began using a twin-lens reflex Mamiya camera with flash in addition to the Rolleiflex

 

 

I don't remember why we were asked to look at Diana Arbus but when looking at some of her portrait I realised that the reason could be that her portraits look like they have been cropped to just include the faces of the interesting looking people she photographed kind like she is saying that she does not want to focuse on anything else except their faces

framing and cropping

The importance of cropping

vivian maier's massive body of work would come to light when in 2007 her work was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side. From there, it would eventually impact the world over and change the life of the man who championed her work and brought it to the public eye, John Maloof. 

  
 

she never let anyone see any of her work which makes you think why and is it right that John Maloof is reprinting her work and is he doing it right since vivian Maire may have cropped some of her negatives. this leads to the question of artist intention ans misinterpretation of original context 

I thought that I would show how Vivian Maiers photos could be cropped to show a completely different image  as you can see the image above show a man being taken into a prison or hospital in new york with passing people watching. 

By cropping the images I have shown  how it can change the intent of the image the first image only show a man being escorted in to a building you dont know were he only that he need escorting. the other image only show a woman walking on the streets .

Red Sanders Exhibition in People’s History Museum

A new exhibition at the People’s History Museum uses digital trickery to recreate democratic trouble.

Red Saunders new show at the People’s History Museum may have more of an art gallery feel to it than you might expect of this otherwise historic institution, but it’s an exhibition that nevertheless sticks to what the People’s History Museum is all about, namely telling the story of ordinary Britons’ struggle for democracy.  In Hidden, Red Saunders uses digital photography to create a series of re-imagined historic moments involving people whose stories are often overlooked.

I don't really think that red sanders can take all the credit for the photos as he really just copy's the subject of his photography from paintings. I feel like his work does not have that much creativity involved which is what I like in photography saying that I do admit to understanding that its about controlling how the photo is arranged and photographed.

Lee freelander - 1997 Sense of playfulness

Lee freelander - 1997

Sense of playfulness

The image seems Motionless their is three section within one image 

The middle of image gives impression of moving forward. And looking backward kinda make you think of what's behind A mirror of car.

Right hand Side looking toward front of car speck of the present due to it being on over side of morrow drags you out to the right and of the image.

Left section much more in mind of space the space specks of the past look at bottom of section give you a feeling of moving backward  middle draws you in to the image draws you to ward the back of the image 

the image drags you backward,forward and into the image and our  eye is dragged all over the image, to questioning what you understand of it.

Everyone is a photographer

Everyone is a photographer

Instergram images 

everyone is using different type of photo sharing websites and over ways of sharing their photography especially since cameras can be fond in almost every phone. everyone is photography everything from family photos, fun photos to artistic photos and one of those sharing communities is intergram


I do use instergram every once in a while purly because I like taking snap shots of thinks that I like or that I think look interesting so hear are some photos that I have put onto instergram as an example.

This is a snap shot of a sun flower in my local Asda  the photo was taken at the end of summer. I thought that it was something nice to see since the summer has ended.

The first image above is of the train station on which I use every week to get to uni, this was taken last year.  The other image was a snapshot of my rabbit that I wanted to take since she was being co-operative for once.

As you can see I use intragram for when I dont really have my camera with and want to take a snap shot of anythings.

sally Mann

Sally Mann has also used photography in ways of creativity and family photos just not in the way you would usually see them.

 

Sally manns whole body of photography is based on her family and children you can see in the two images a both that they are not your usually family photos, in the images above you see her doughtier with a cigarette in her hands it looks like sally is trying to portray how children are growing up a lot quicker and are wanting to become adults before their time. the whole idea of the photos being of her doughtier make you think if she cares about what people think about her and if she should be exploiting her children like this.