My evaluation of unit 1
Personal Projects
1. Mobile Photography
1. Mobile Photography
- While doing mobile photography I've learned that you don't need to have a brilliant camera to take pictures, I've also learned that in some cases mobile photography is better like taking pictures on the move or in a busy place. Its also good because phones are usually smaller that a camera so they're easier to keep in your pocket and take picture on the move.
- The latest phones usually have applications where you can put lots of different effects on the picture you want to take or the picture you've already taken.
- You can also put filters onto the photo that you have taken like making a picture black and white instead of coloured, these are good because it can make a picture more appealing or interesting.
- Changing filters or putting effects on can also change the meaning or purpose of a photograph which can be good but sometimes bad
- While doing street photography I studied a selected photographer called 'Boogie'. He was born in Serbia and as things heated up him and his family decided to move to the United States of America. He was situated in New York and used the violent crimes and gang rivalry on the streets of New York as a photo opportunities. He began to take photographs almost everynight mixing in with gangs and taking pictures of them with their guns and other weapons he used these photos to make a number of books where it was clearly documented.
- Street photographers use the Lieck camera which is very quite, overall showing the reason why street photographers use them because they need to be quite and not attracting unwanted attention from people who don't want their photo being taken.
- Street photographer are usually very energetic and alert to their surroundings allowing them to capture things that people don't usually see when they're on the move.
- It lets people look at the hectic street life because usually people are rushing around and not taking a moment to stop and look around at whats going on, so street photography gives everyone a calmer view on street life.
- There is also a big danger because people can often react badly to having their photograph taken this puts quite a risk on the photographers taking pictures on the street.
- Another danger could be the fact that they're often taking pictures of gangsters or gangs with weapons, so its easy to imagine how scary and how much they're putting their life at risk to get photographs.
- Diagonal lines and the Rule of third help photographer split their photographs up, like the main focus like a face and then the negative space like the sky.
- Fred Herzog and Lee Friedlander are both street photographers that take pictures of on the street but of different thing applying to the rule of third and diagonal lines.
- I used openings as a doorway to something else like my ideas was based around having a window or a door and on the other side it would have a completely different picture.
- I researched the work of Kurt Schwitters and he done nothing to do with openings but he would take pictures of things no one else takes. I then put them on the other side of the opening giving a new effect that hasn't been seen before.
- Me and my class went to see Lorenzo Vitturi who like Kurt Schwitters didn't take pictures of openings but took pictures of things that could link to what I'm trying to do.
- We went up to London for a whole day where we went to a Lorenzo Vitturi exhibition, and took pictures along the way there like street photography.
- Light paintings are when you use light to make a picture. Long exposure helps capture the movement in the light, like the brushing of the paint on a piece of paper. Off camera flash help the image spot the person or background in the image.
- We also used Strobe Lighting where we would just capture the movement of a person or and object like a ball moving.
- Harold Edgerton was the first person to use strobe lighting where he tested it on milk, like the dropping of milk into a glass. He also tested it on bullets shooting into an apple or different fruit, this allows you to watch the bullet slowly make impact with the object in this case being the apple.
- It was the first way of making accurate drawings, a whole shed would usually be how you make the drawing, it'd be done by reflecting whats outside onto a wall where someone can trace over it making an accurate drawing.
- In more recent times its become more practical allowing people to take it outside with them being made allot smaller instead of being a shed.
- People can now make the Camera Obscura's out of anything they can find or just any old items in peoples houses.
- Pin hole camera's are hollow boxes that are completely blacked out and has a tiny hole in it which reflects the image onto photographic paper that captures what the landscape or what ever it is its facing onto the photographic paper in black and white.
- They're extremely easy to make and it can probably be done with any house hold objects, the only thing the person may have to buy is the photographic paper because everything else can be easily made up.
- Anna Atkins was the person we studied when doing Cyanotypes because she was the first person to do it. She has made books on her recordings and she is also the first person to put a picture in a book.
- They're fairly simple to make and people all round the world decide to choose her way of taking picture instead of digitally. this shows that we have learned allot about her and she has been good help because we followed how to do it according to her.
- Hans Arp, Marcel Dutchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Francis Picabia and Tristan Tzara all played a part in making the Rayographs work.
- A museum in America is dedicated to the Rayographs.
- John Balessari was the photographer we looked at while studying the picture 'Wrong' mainly because he is the photographer who came up with the picture 'Wrong'.
- I learned that even if a picture might be wrong it doesn't stop it from being good, meaning that don't shy away from taking a picture because the worst that could happen is that the picture isn't good because you cant have success without experiencing failure.
- Harry Callahan was the first photographer I looked at while on the theme of The Natural World, now I choose to look at his work because he had this technique when taking pictures of nature which would blur the image up to put this effect on. He also had a technique where he would have hardly any colours involved in the picture, and at first it would seem like its in black and white but in reality its not.
- I also took a look at Lee Pengelly's work which focuses more on natural landscapes. So this linked to what I'm doing because its along the lines of natural world and I tried to mash that up with the work I was doing.
- One final photographer I looked at was Idris Kahn because as I came up with what I'd be doing for my final piece it almost exactly match the work of Idris Kahn. He would take pictures of one object like a building but from different angles and then put it in black and white, this would make the image look slightly blurred giving off a good effect.
- Final Piece 1: This follows what I've tried to do from the start but with a slightly different twist to it where I have put the image in black and white with the contrast up, so it match the work of Idris Kahn. It basically shows the same tree from all different angles making a slightly blurred effect, I also like the way the further you look into it the more layers you spot.
- Final Piece 2: Now this one has exactly the same idea just its not in black and white and its a different tree. Like the one before the more you look into it the more layers you spot and the different backgrounds collide, like trees with house and then the school mixed in as well.
- Final Piece 3: This has got exactly the same concept as the second one and the idea behind having these three things all similar in one way was because I wanted to show how there has been a development in my ideas and each one has a different tree, background or colour.
- I'm pleased with the results of these final piece because it has a strange effect making you look deep into the photo and continue to find something new with all the layers. I'm also pleased with the overall way they came out because a first you're not to sure what it is and in some senses it looks slightly ghostly, which I think looks good.
- Final Piece 4: This one is diferent to the others because its got three different trees inside the image and I've put an effect on which makes a very effect. What I'm pleased with on this one is the way that when you first look at it, it's like its one picture with three trees but the second time you look at it you notice that it blended in with the luminosity effect. Overall I'm pleased with the outcome of this because its slightly off the plot but the effect of needing to look at it twice I think is very unique.