Photography Assignment

Here are my location shots. My idea was to have a posh/happy looking person in a scruffy/rough looking place. The location I chose was outside of Middlesbrough College as there is a space where there are old used scrap pieces of everything and its very scruffy looking. I knew I wanted to have the photo in black and white as I had planned to have the person holding a piece of material that would flow in the wind. My main focus was the purple colour. I wanted to use this colour because it links to happy and girly part of the images, which I would keep in colour to make it stand out and make the black and white image more interesting. I think the images work really well with the background as you can see the complete difference within the person and the location, which I what I was aiming for. This piece of work I wanted to be linked to how even if you don’t live in a nice place doesn’t mean you can’t be happy or have nice clothes etc. Which I thin comes across in these images. The black and white works well because it is as if she is living in a dark world but she doesn’t see this she only sees the good and happy parts. 

These are my studio shots. In here I wanted to make it the opposite to my on location shots. Thinking of how she is hurt and upset however tries to see the positives. You can see by two of the pictures she is looking either towards the camera or up and away as if she is looking for the happy places or somewhere that’s positive. However, in the other shots she is either looking down or touching herself. She is in reality of how she feels and looks.  I wanted to sort of keep the purple aspect of the images which is a representation of their lives almost. As you can see there are purple backgrounds or shining onto her face. The colour doesn’t really say anything about the character in these images it is just to link both location and studio shots together. As well as these points, her t-shirt has the word smile on it with a smiling face. This is sort of to show she knows about the happy place she just can’t get there. 

	ISO	Aperture	Shutter Speed
Location shoot	200, as it was quite a dark day.	F8-F11	1-1/125
Studio shoot	100	F10	1/100 as it always is when in a studio, because it is the best speed to use.

On my location shoot, it was quite a dull day therefore my ISO was higher as I was still outside which is brighter than in the studio. I also minimized the depth of field as I wanted to the background to be slightly blurred to make the person the main focus of the image. On my location shoot I took my images in an outdoor area. We did not trespass whilst doing this shoot. I was also very careful with my model as I didn’t want them to hurt themselves or get injured etc. I made sure she had shoes on so that she was not harming her feet when stopping in all the places I wanted images. We were very careful and my model did not hurt herself at any time during this shoot.

With my studio images, the room was much darker there for my shutter speed was faster and my iso was half the location shoot. My model agreed that it would be fine for me to out bruises on her for my shoot and knew it was not aiming at her in anyway. She was happy with what we were doing. 

To begin with, I did a lot of research on different photographers from different aspects of photography to get my ideas. I looked at fashion photography and the two people I researched about both had their photos in black and white. This is where I thought it would be a good idea to have some of my photos in black and white. I decided it would be best to do my location shots in black and white as there are a lot of backgrounds and more to look at, whereas the studio is already plain in colour apart from the coloured light I added, therefore it wouldn’t look very interesting or that I thought about the edit if I put that in black and white. I then had the idea to have something in colour. I didn’t want anything too interesting as my photos were simple, but it makes the photo look better with the purple coloured scarf. After deciding to have a purple scarf for my location shoot, I decided I wanted to make them link in a certain way and this would be the purple colour. From doing the research it made me think of focus mainly. Because professional photographers have a good way of making sure the audiences have the correct focus when looking at the image. I think my images do a good job of this. Most of the images I looked at were bright and clear and I really liked them so I wanted to make sure my images turned out somewhere near the same as them. 

Evaluation

Overall, I think my shots went really well and they turned out how I wanted them too. My location shoot is my favourite of the two as I felt I got more photos from it and had a lot to choose from when deciding which ones I wanted to edit. However, with my studio shoot I didn’t have as many photos’ to choose from that I really liked. I wish I had more time to do my studio shoot as I feel I would have been happier if I had a few more images that I really liked. I should have planned out what I wanted my model to do before doing the shoot because I feel like the storyline of the images would have come across better if she was doing different poses. I liked that I took all of these images sat down as I feel the storyline meant she was a very closed person so she was more likely to be sitting down hugging herself than stood up with her arms open. I also think I should have had more lighting in there as the images are very dark therefore difficult to edit to make them brighter as they went pixelated when I tried to bring the luminance up. I am not saying I don’t like my images at all, but I would definitely do some things better to make the overall outlook different. Each image from the studio shoot I took, I edited differently so not all of my shots look the same which is something I really like. Each one gives you a different body part to look at. Some of the images you can see her bruises more than others.  Whereas with the location shot I edited all 4 images the same way and they all turned out looking exactly the same just with different places and positions. I think I like my location images better because I chose a number of different poses for the person rather than the same kind of poses like my studio shot, therefore I had loads of images to choose from that I really liked. It was also easier as there were numerous locations I could take photos, whereas with the studio shots, I didn’t have anywhere to move and had the same background. If I was going to do them again I would maybe include some props, maybe a phone or something that is important to her. This may make it more interesting.  Overall I am happy with how my images turned out, I like the colour matches throughout my images and how they both contradict each other. 

Cultural differences in photography

In this piece of work, I will be looking at fashion photography from different cultures, for example, India and the UK. I will be finding out the purpose of their images and the environments they worked in.

Fashion

India: Prabuddha dasgupta (1956 –2012)

Born 21^st September 1956, he was a self-taught photographer who grew up in the culture of India. He started his career training to be an historian before turning to photography. In 1996, Dasgupta’s controversial collection of portraits and nudes of urban Indian woman were collected and turned into a book entitled Women was published, with the intent of reinstating nude women to their rightful place in the Indian cultural discourse. In the time that followed, he pursued a variety of photography projects. He brought a bold, individualistic sensibility that very quickly placed him in the ranks of major photographic talent in the country. Here are some of his images.

Pieces of his work are in his books as well as online galleries. When he passed away in 2012, the estate of Prabuddha organised an exhibition of his work at the national Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, in September 2015.

The first photo is a pregnant woman. This is part of the gallery/exhibition called ‘Urban Women’. Indian women are never seen as anything other than exotic models of attractiveness. Currently they are seen as the one dimensional Bollywood stereotype. The exhibition where this is found is on his website where there are portraits of Indian women, selected for their interest instead of their physical charms, drawn from a variety of disciplines, sometimes confirming to gender stereotypes and sometimes defying them. With this photo, you can see how she is wearing clothes sop that her stomach is bare; this proves how he wanted them to, not hide what they have, but to express it. To show that women should be happy with what they have and should be able to show it off rather than be embarrassed and hide. He has not done anything special with the background, he has taken it in what looks like the woman’s house, we can only imagine. I believe he has done this because he wants the woman to be the center of attention and not distract people with what is in the background. He has not used a lot of difficult or technical ideas, he has simply used the camera to in the easiest way possible to create simplistic images.   

This is the next photo I chose from his website. This is part of the ‘Edge of Faith’ Gallery. These images are located on the west coast of India along the Arabian Sea. The point of these images is to show the independence of Goa. Goa had been under Portuguese rules for 450 years. There are 79 black and white photographs included in this gallery create an intimate atmosphere with personal portraits of the catholic community. All these images represent what has not been seen before in Goa. The images of people in this gallery, like the one I have picked out, are portraits of people, generous and gentle, torn between their fidelity and the rights of the Portuguese faith and culture. This is them now, post-independence Indian identity. These images are all important to the Goa people that have been caught in a time warp, between comforting nostalgia and a doubt-ridden, insecure future. I think this photo is very heart warming and proves many points. Again, he has taken this photo without having to make the background anything important to what is happening. He has focused on the two men in the image and wants the audience to focus on them too. His images are all representations of what these people are actually surrounded by, and how they are living. He does not capture his images to give the people a fake identity. He is taking these photos to show people what it is like and how people can be happy no matter what their fidelity. He keeps the bright/light parts of his images so that they are not too dark and dingy and we can see what happens. The light reflects all the good things that have started to happen for these people, for example being able to live a happy life whether your partner is the same sex or not. Being a free independent country and no longer under the Portuguese rules. However, he keeps the black in these photos to show that not all the bad things can disappear that they are always going to be somewhere out there and nothing can change what used to be.

America: Lillian Bassman (1917 – 2012)

Bassman was born in 1917 into an immigrant family of freethinking intellectuals. Her upbringing meant she had the mind-set that allowed her to live as an independent and unconventional woman. She started of work as a textile designer and fashion illustrator, which shows us she has always been into fashion and knew what she was talking about. She then went on to work at Harper’s Bazaar with Alex Brodovitch, where she ultimately became a photographer. Her fashion images are unique and achieve their affects through manipulation in a dark room. Her work was categorized by their elegance and grace in each image she created. She transformed her images into original work of art through her darkroom techniques in which she blurs and bleaches the images, investing them with poetry, mystery and glamour. The first image is of the Thierry Mugler Dress, German VOGUE, 1998. You can see how these images are also in black and white; however, we know they are taken in a studio rather than a location. There is no purpose to these photos but the fact that they are there to show off the dress. The woman’s head is cut from image showing that it is not important in the photo either. The images she has created are very interesting as they look like they have been drawn rather than photographed. It is as if the woman’s body is highlighted and you cannot work out the background at all. This image is completely different to the image of the pregnant woman taken by Prabuddha. They are total opposites in the way that Lillian’s images are taken to show off the dress or clothing that the models are wearing rather than of the actual person. There is no ‘Trying to get a point across regarding woman and their rights’. You can clearly see the stripes in the dress and where two different colours are meant to be. What I do not like about these photos is that no one actually knows what the colour of this dress is. We see it in black and white, which is hiding what the dress actually is. Fashion in America is completely different to in India. For example, in India they are very true with how woman look and want to express their natural beauty, whereas Americans are covered in makeup, hiding what they actually look like.

The second photo is slightly different. It is still black and white; however, this image looks more as if it has been painted. The way she has worked with the light gives it different effects. She has really taken time to get this image how she wanted it and there looks like there has been a lot of effort to make the image right. Again, in this photo, you cannot see the dress properly, so we do not know what the image is trying to tell us. We do not know whether they want us to focus on the dress, her stance or the people in the background of this image. As you can see, there is more than one person in this image. The gallery that this image is found in explains to us how this imaged has something to do with ‘dance’ as the caption is ‘Born to dance’.  Most of the images that she took were black and white and more unusual than the normal fashion photography you would see.

These two photographers have a lot of differences but also similarities. They both take their images in black and white, or at least edit them to look like this after capturing them. However, the first photographer has one aim in his photos and the thing he wants you to focus on; he makes sure it is the main part of the photos, the part that everyone is going to look at first. Whereas with Lillian, there is not necessarily anything else top focus on. Sometimes there may be something else in the picture but there is often just one thing for you to look at.

Sport

Britain: Graham Watson

Graham was born in London in 1956. He studied at Stanley Technical High School until 16, then he joined society photographer, Lenare, for a period between 1972 and 1977. He learned the basics of photography here. He has taken photos All over the world. He is now known for being a cycling photographer. He has exhibitions all over the world, most notably with ‘eyes on the tour de France’ an exhibition that visited Dublin in 1998, London in 2007, and Leeds in 2014. Graham says he would always want a 300mm lens in his possession, as you can get close up images of moving objects, clearly.

He has taken this image during a race. The image is very clear even though we know the cyclist will have been moving fast. He has great focus on the image he is taking, and takes his time to get it right, which is not very long at all as the person he is capturing is riding a bike and high speeds. You can clearly see every little detail down to the colours on his helmet. It has high resolution as you cannot spot the grains, and it is not blurry.  The image he has taken also has a high aperture because the image is so clear, even the blue of the sky. The trees are blurred slightly which shows he has taken care with his focus to make sure the man on the bike was not blurred. He has a fast shutter speed in order to make the image clear and not have the man blurred as he is riding past. Most of his images are for galleries and advertising of events, like the Tour de France etc. Therefore, the images need to be clear as the cyclists are going to want to be recognisable. If they were blurred, he could have taken a photo of anyone on a bike. For advertising committees, they will want to be able to see whom that biker is in order to write about them etc. 

Australia: Delly Carr

Delly car is a freelance sports photographer from Australia. He is known for being Australia’s top freelance sports photographer. He is a founding member of the world photography academy, also the sport photographic ambassador for Nikon Oceania, Creative Ambassador for Subaru Australia, Après Velo Ambassador and the4 senior director of the sports photography academy. He found his love for photography at a very young age. He was only 7 years old when his parents bought him his first camera. H loved it, he said he was hooked from the moment he entered the black and white film. 

Here is one of the images Delly has taken.  As you can see this image is also outside, like the Graham Watson shot. However, the images are different. This image is slightly darker in background colour, yet the colours of her outfit completely stand out. Again, we can see every single little detail of colour and pattern on what she is wearing. He uses a Nikon 300mm 2.8 lens. He states it has been with him since day 1 and is his best friend. He says he has used it in all kinds of horrible weather and it has never let him down once. The image is clear where it needs to be clear; however, the background is blurred, as it is not the focus of the image. You can tell how she is moving as the focus on her face, however the image is not blurred, and it is clear and bright. He takes images of all kinds of sports.

The two sports images I have chosen out are not too different. Both of them are clear with background slightly blurred and colours bright. Although they are indifferent parts of the world, they are not too different. The biggest difference is the sport; however, I could not find any images that Carr had taken of cycling. The image that Graham has taken is a lot brighter than Delly has, however I believe this is because of the weather and where they are in the world. Both of these photographers make sure they have their focus correct in order to take the perfect image they want to get. 

Landscape/ Wildlife

South Africa: Martin Osner

Martin was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1963. He opened his first photographic studio in Johannesburg 1985 where he established a solid reputation as a professional photographer and artist. In 1993, he co-founded the national college of Photography, which today has become the premier photographic training institution in Southern Africa. Osner eschews photography, favouring a more expressive vision that accords with his visual understanding and spiritual appreciation of the world. 

Here is an image that Martin took. As you can see, the image is dark. You can see how much work he has put into the edit just by looking at the highlights and shadows in the image. Often when you see photos of Africa, you get many orange colours. He has gone the complete opposite, taken all of them bright colours out, and made the image dark. It is almost as if you can see the sunrays through each of the trees, which give a nice highlight effect on the light areas of the image. The image is not quite black and white, there is more of a green/blue feel to it, but not obviously. The white is almost a sort of cream/yellow colour too. This gives a good effect of the colours being completely different, but not using the same old black and white effect. Even though this image is simply just some trees and a little bit of water, it is as if there is a lot going on with the image. You can see every single detail in the trees and the leaves. It almost feels unrealistic. He uses a canon EOS 5D Mark || an EOS 5D and a PowerShot G9. He uses numerous lens’ such as EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM, EF50mm f/1.4 USM, EF70-200mm f/2.8L USM and EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM.

Spain: Jairo Rodriguez

He is a landscape and nature photographer based in Barcelona. He uses photography to express his love for nature in his own way. He was born in a mid-sized town called Llieda (Catalunya, Spain). He moved to Barcelona to study at college and he says this was the beginning of a journey that keeps on going. In Barcelona, he got his B.Sc. in Biology and soon after followed a Ph.D. in molecular biology. During his time in Barcelona, he discovered photography, which he says blended perfectly with his love for nature and exploring the great outdoors. He was doing this when early digital photography was emerging and the only camera to buy was a Pentax SLR, which he still keeps to this day.

Here is an image he has taken in Barcelona. It is an image of the sun setting behind illa Mateua. As you can see this image is very different to the other landscape image we have looked at. This image is bright colourful and expresses every part of the scenery. We can see all the clear ripples in the water, which at this time looks very calm. Every single detail in the rocks and the sun shining through the gaps in the trees to make six sunrays shine down separately. Both of the landscape images we have looked at are using the sun as the main reason for the image looking good. Both times the trees have been used as an opening, but a block for the sun’s rays shining down. However, one image is bright and colourful and the other has been made dull and greyscale.

Geographic

America: Brian Skerry

Brian is a Photojournalist who specializes in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998, he has been a contract photographer for National Geographic magazine covering a wide range of subjects and stories. He is also a Nikon Ambassador. 

Here is an image he has taken of some fish. You can see that he has taken this image with a slow shutter speed in order to get the fish’s tails to look like they are blurred out. This is because as the fish are moving the image is being taken at a slower speed than they are moving. The image is very bright and colourful, which it should be as it is underwater and the fish are very bright. You can also see the background of the image is blurred which means he has made sure the fish are the object in focus rather than the rest of the image. Then also made them blur out slightly as they are moving. You can clearly see the bright orange and blue colours of the fish and the dark and light colours are seen well. This image looks good because there are loads to look at. You can look at each fish individually and it is always busy. He has edited this to make it brighter, by bringing out the blue and orange colours to make them stand out more than the others. 

Germany: Gerd Ludwig

Gerd was born in Alsfeld, Germany. Initially he studies German Literature, Political Science and Physical Education at the University of Marburg. He studies photography for 5 years with professor Otto Steinert at the Folkwangschule (university of the arts). He graduated in 1972 with a degree in Photo Design from the University of Essen.

Here is an image of Gerd’s. He travels all around the world to take photos. I chose one that included water like the photo before by Brian. This image seems very open. There are focuses in the image, but they are not as obvious as the other photo we looked at were the fish are focus. However, again the main two colours we can see are blues and oranges. This may be because these photos are opposites so they both stand out against each other. This image is very clear, there is not a blurred out background or object. He has edited the image to sort of muffle out the hills in the background so that they look more distanced and make the photo look larger and more open. You can also see how he has edited the image to make it more obvious that the objects are reflecting in the water. There are also good shadows in this image, especially the one closest to us around the bottom of the first tree stump. I like how the centre of the image gets lighter and the top and bottom are darker. It gives it an interesting look when you look carefully. This is not one of the first things you spot when you look at the image, but it is there and makes the image look good. These two images are completely different. For example, as I said before the first one is very bright and colourful, whereas the second one is more of a dull photo, more real life colours. The first looks very edited but looks good in its own way, whereas the second one looks more realistic in colours, but the lighter centre of the image is edited. Both images have the same main colours in them (orange and blue) but one just stands out more than the other does. As well as this, the first photo is very busy there are loads to look and you constantly pick out new parts of the image, however the second one does not feel like this. Although the image looks very plain and empty because it is more spread out, there is still a lot to look at and you will pick new bits out every time you look, but the whole image itself looks to spread out. 

War

London: Bert Hardy

Bert Hardy was a war photographer born in London. He worked his way up from a lab assistant to become a photographer. He joined an illustrated magazine company during the Second World War, as well as travelling with the armed forces; his images are some of the finest and closest to the action itself. 

Here is one of his images taken during the Blitz. These two young boys were both going through the horrendous times yet they are both still smiling. He has captured a nice moment of two friends or brothers being happy even though everything that is going on around them is bad. As you can see this image is black and white. This is because there was only black and white film out during the Second World War therefore he had no choice of having the image in colour. I think this also represents how there are horrible things happening which make you feel down and sad for these two children, therefore the darkness of the photo works well with the situation. You can see how the background is slightly blurred out to make the boys stand out more. Even if the background was not blurred out we already, know that the two boys are the focus of the image. There are more shadows in this image than highlights, which make the overall image seem dark and dingy. 

Mexico: Javier Manzano

Javier is a Mexican photographer born in 1975. His family moved to America when he was 18 years old where he worked as a journalist and photographer for advertising agencies and the Rocky Mountain News until the newspaper closed its doors in 2009. This is when he began freelance photography for the associated press, Agence France-press foreign Policy and other new outlets. He has also been to Syria to take photos of the current war and horrible happening’s there right now. Here is an image from Syria. 

Here is an image from the streets of Syria. As you can see, it is completely different to the image above of the two boys. This photographer is right in on the action and there experiencing the worst parts in dangerous places. Whereas the photographer above has taken more images of the people around that are seeing what is happening, rather than the people who are actually in it, the people who are fighting etc. This photo is very close to the action therefore it gives you a better understanding of what is actually happening and how it is happening. The colours are bright, but then the dark parts are very dull and the image works really well with the feeling of the people there. You can tell just by what is going on that he has had to take the photo quickly in order to get out of dangerous places. You can see how he may have edited the image to brighten the orange of the fire when the other parts are dark. He might have done that because the fire represents hatred and anger, which is essentially what, is happening in this photo. When we look at this photo we see fighting and hate we do not see happy people. This brightens up the centre of the image. The right hand side of the image is very dark, showing that they are hiding away etc., but the opposite side of the image is bright and we can actually see a man running, which we can only assume he is running away from the danger. Showing that unless you are hid in a dark place, you are going to be caught or hurt. I believe he will have used a fast shutter speed as he is on the dark side of the image, plus he is wanting to take as many photo’s as he can because he only has little time to take them. The image is very clear, and unlike the other images I have spoken about, this image does not seem to have a certain focus. Either this or there is not one thing that stands out more than the rest of it apart from the fire. He has taken this image trying to include as many things that are happening as possible, rather than just focusing on one thing.