critique-Gregory Crewdson Ophelia

My chosen image by Gregory Crewdson is Ophelia (2001) from the series “twilight” as all of Gregory’s photos the image is surreal and like the other image in this series Gregory creates the movie like sets and controls everything the lighting, the pose of the model and the angle of the photos.

The image is of a flooded room that has older looking plain furniture there is a woman dressed in a white night gown floating in the water. The water looks as dark as oil and to be as thick, you can see the reflection of the furniture and stairs due to the light. The floating woman is the main focus of the image because I find that my eyes are drawn straight to her in the centre of the image, this is because of her white gown and very pale skin, she has a vacant look on her face which gives you the idea that the woman is dead since she is so lifeless in the water but saying that the water is very still there is no ripple in it also hinting that the woman maybe dead. The light is coming from the lamps and from the windows hinting that there is someone coming to the house the light source could be from a car.

The image all together makes you feel calm due to the state of the water and the woman floating in it. Also chaotic because the top half of the image that is not flooded is cluttered compared to the calming water.

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.