Tom Hunter Lecture Notes

Lecture was based around a general synopsis of his main body of work(s) in chronological order including some extra details such as ongoing project(s) that have not been viewed by the public yet

 

Hackney photos

• Owned a stall in hackney, took photos of customers-Talked of how this was a change of relationship, he no longer felt intrusive taking pictures of strangers on the streets as they were technically coming up to him first (What do your pics mean?)

• He focused on housing or lack thereof in hackney
• He got super emotional and started crying aw
• Noted how he ended up getting a bit bored and stifled so he went and made a scale model in protest, multimedia bro
• Made a scale model of his street, in which him and his friends squatted in for a number of years, he decided to take photographs of these people in their makeshift homes and subsequently incorporated these photographs into the minute windows. The aim of this artistic endeavour was an act of protest to stop the street from being knocked down and built over and the current peoples being evicted. Mentions the relationship between him as a struggling artist and suddenly having a lot of notoriety in the ‘real world’ in the fact that he suddenly had a little power in the form of his art saving that little hackney street

Hostomice-Pics of people in busses are cool

• Started using a 5’4 camera for portraits-made him think about the images more and seemed to make his subjects take the photos more seriously
• Took pictures of people in his bus he traveled around england in – these are cool you should talk about these
• Turned these double decker bus portraits into a book (buy that book)
• He mentions artist dorothea lange in reference to documenting homelessness
• Talks of relationship between mother and child-relates renaissance art in his own art (johan vermeers, 1657, girl reading letter by open window) find some of these comparisons in his own work and critique
• In his portraits he says he uses natural light, basically because he’s lazy (haha) that and it gives an effect, in his opinion, you are unable to replicate with studio lights

First degree show at The Royal College of Art

• Exhibited his scale model and some portraits
• Saatchi himself literally told him to “stop meeting art with politics” (haha)

Holly Street

• Was a local council estate/block of flats due to be demolished (+ residents rehomed)
• Still uses 5’4 camera to take series of portraits of residents (before the rehoming)
• Wanted to show “dignity, beauty and give people respect”
• After the people moved out, with the building due to be demolished and in a state of neglect and disrepair he took pictures of the same rooms the people from the portraits used to live in, now empty ghosts
• Made another model of the block of flats
• They exhibited his photography amongst other artists work actually at the top of the flats, occupying a whole level, each room carrying a different body of work. He had his portraits blown up huge and pasted on one entire wall of a few flats you know what your talking about insert pics here so you can critique. Other artists involved were; Racheal Whiteread, the children from the estate (after being given disposable cameras), and a previous tenants pictures from the 1940’s (who was a lil old lady)

Life and Death in Hackney

• Talks of grenfield tower
• Looks at pre-raphaelite paintings (ophelia, 1852, john everett millias) again recreated paintings with squatters

Living in Hell and Other Stories

• Started collecting nasty ass paper cuttings from the Hackney Gazette + noticed the stories are repeating
• So reimagined the stories in photography (from hackney gazette)

Dublin

• Got sick of hackney, went to dublin
• Started taking pics of the sea that influenced new landscape style of photographs of hackney
• “Like a tourist”
• Half an hour exposure time people disappear (reference hiroshi sagimoto)
• Talks of spaces, atmosphere, community

Unheard stories

• Comes back to same theme; locality, identity, representation, homelessness, art history
• “Create landscape of neighborhood to compete with hollywood” thats why he tried to make these portraits colourful he stated that he wanted to “imbue the ordinaryness around him and make it magical”
• Key influencer- Apocalypse now
• From this series find pic of girl on death bed of grandmother above cafe and critique (he just randomly asked at a cafe and ended up uncovering this story)

Midsummer Nights Dream

• Commision from rsc – more research (include quick overview and a critique)

Current Project

• Lawrence of Arabia-100 years since arabian revolt
• Looking at places affected by balford agreement and refugees

(research that a tad)

In closing of the lecture and ‘The Naked Truth’

• Talks of his trip to Dorset in the 1970’s to the isle of wight festival comparing it to a mini woodstock
• Mentions how festivals were and still possibly can be a very liberating experience, showing a picture he took in the 70’s of people stripping off and running into a nearby river
• This inspired his ‘the naked truth’ photo booth at glastonbury festival in 2016, in which he would take nude portraits of glastonbury-goers, however the nudity was not allowed outside of the booth which is an interesting comparison to the liberations of his previous dorset trip (pretty sad if you ask me)
• This body of work was taken down by instagram (for god knows what reason) and Hunter has not re-uploaded the images anywhere else and he doesn’t know if he wants to so i feel pretty privileged to have been able to see this project
• He went on to note that this may just be the beginnings of something better that he may work on in the future or he may just leave it be and keep it in the past and let it influence future projects and endeavours

On Documentary Photography

To document something is to gather and keep information. A documentary is producing and distributing it, often to inform people on major events, but not always. This could be documenting something like a war, or something as simple as your day. A documentary often can refer to educational movies, but it could also be in a book format.

When capturing and documenting events it is often referred to as photo journalism or real life reportage. The aim of the photographer in situations like this is to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography on a particular subject, but they are most often pictures of people.

Documentary photography appeals to me on a level of personal interest as well as academic, not only has it helped educate and spread awareness in the general public that might not be able to see certain things going on, but it is a forever fresh and changing way to take portraits of people, often with their personality bursting right through the two dimensional image. It is a small obsession of mine to be able to catch the candid secrets we miss on the everyday, i love being able to seemingly travel to places so far away just because of how intimate the images appear (with or without a person in it).

Its extremely influential in my 101 brief as we are focussing a large part of it on people and places, which is all the ingredients you need for some candid, informative shots. I hope to possibly include some documentary style images in my work for this brief.

Focus Practice Task

In this task we were given ten minutes to look around the classroom to find objects to demonstrate various focussing techniques with a nikon camera. This task was a great oppurtunity to get to know a digital nikon camera as ive never used one particularly in depth before as digital is not my preferred medium, so i tend to stay away from it. Our tutor hid various stuffed monkeys around the room for us to try and focus our shots on, he wanted us to just play around with using spot focus, weighted focus and evaluative focus.

I found it a little hard at first as getting used to a camera model that i haven’t used before was a little intimidating, however i still did manage to complete the task at hand. It was beneficial to be able to hone is my own focus on one particular part of the camera and how it works, enabling me to widen my knowledge of my own equipment and how they work the way they do. 

So what is spot focus, centre weighted focus and evaluative focus?

They are different settings often already built in automatically to modern cameras these days that let you almost manually focus your camera. This practice is also known as metering, and knowing about it is important in digital photography because it helps control the exposure and lets you take better pictures with less effort!

Spot focus or focus lock is achieved in most simple cameras by pressing the shutter button half way down to reveal a red dot or coloured square in the viewfinder/screen (that points out what would be in focus). This type of focus can really bring your main subject out into the foreground of the image, giving it a little pop.

Evaluative focus or Matrix focus is the mode you almost always use when taking general pictures on dslr cameras. It just scans the image it sees across for general light and dark tones, which are then scanned in its database and calculated, so it knows exactly what kind of automatic function to give you when you press the shutter (e.g. shutter speed, aperture,focus).

Centre weighted focus is a better mode for harsher environments and portraits (e.g, if your subject has a bright light behind them completely washing them out). So this scans light thats in the middle of the frame and ignores the outer edges of the image. So its almost like a happy medium between the two previous modes.

I completed a few images including all of these focus modes within them, it was a good exercise as even though i did struggle with the controls at first, leaving one of my pictures over exposed, i did manage to prevail and produce some capable content representing each mode.

After this he asked us to go outside and photograph a moving subject to represent motion blur (illustrated by rapid movement on the subjects part, and not a particularly long exposure). I found this image a lot easier to create after i realised exactly what i was doing, you don’t really need to set the camera up to do anything particularly differently for the example types we were producing this time. 

Techniques demonstrated include; spot focus, centre weighted focus and evaluative focus.

Medium Format Camera Task

In this task we were given the general run down of how to use a medium format camera, then we were let off into the world for an hour or so to come up with a couple of images each (after being allocated a camera and a roll of film to each group comprising of about 3-4 people).

So to start- how does a medium format camera work?

Beginning with film, medium format cameras use incredibly large film compared to the 35mm, subsequently giving it a great eye for detail and authentic feel a lot of film photographers love. The two main kinds of film we will be using with the camera is 120 which gives 12 square images and is the original often used for these types of cameras, there is also the newer kind, the 220 which will give you twice as many shots. Depending on the size of the image made by the camera you’ll get more or fewer photos on a roll. Almost all medium format cameras and backs take 120 which is the most common, but are also able to fit the 220 as well. Some camera backs, like those from Hasselblad which we were using in this particular task, only take one or the other. However there is also the 620 film, but its been out of production for years and is considered to be much more of a speciality film that just isn’t really needed anymore (especially since its so similar to the 120).

Now onto loading and actually taking the shots, which sounds harder than it actually is! Due to my attempt at explaining without actually showing you, my words will probably not be fantastic to say the least.

So usually the camera will come with an empty spool, however if it doesn’t they are easily acquirable from any photography store or lab (that being said, every roll of film you shoot should also produce an empty spool so i doubt it would be too hard for you to get your hands on one). So now you need to carefully unwrap your film, and take off the little piece of tape that stops it from unrolling, being careful to NOT remove the protective paper. Now put the spool that was in your film(and should still be attached) on the supply side of the camera, the part that doesn’t rotate. Now you should have two spools in position, the take-up spool which winds as you turn the “film advance” and the supply spool (the one thats inside your unexposed roll of film).  Make sure your spool is in the correct way so you are able to expose the correct part of your film (so its not back to front). You should then be able to carefully guide your paper leader (the part of the film thats actually protecting it) from one spool to another, and hopefully depending on the camera you should see some handy arrows to guide you. Then after a while you should be able to see an arrow mark on the film rolls’ protective paper backing, which should line up with a mark on the camera. Your film is now in the correct position. Close the camera and wind it on until your little window has a 1 in it, to represent your first shot.

To remove the film, its very similar to 35mm apart from the fact that you don’t rewind, you just have to wind it the rest of the way until the film comes off the other spool, you should be able to feel the tension release similarly to 35mm. Don’t forget to use the sticky bit on the end of the protective paper backing to stop it from unwinding and possibly being exposed!

For me as someone who has never worked with this type of camera before i found the whole process awfully nerve-wracking. Even though its actually quite simple it really didn’t feel that way. Especially after realising when i looked through the viewfinder it was mirrored (move the camera left, my vision goes to the right?? I’m still confused to be honest). However i have to say i enjoyed working with this model so much, it felt very hands on and engaging and i completely fell in love with this new medium of photography. Even so much as the click of the shutter release felt and sounded fantastic, well it was more of a ‘kuchunk’!

As a group we played around with the lighting that was available at the time, which was daylight outside (pretty overcast actually) so we were just using the usual f5.6 and around that number depending on the light meter reading for the location. I felt it captured a certain mood that is very difficult to encompass when using other equipment, specifically mentioning my first image there. I think considering these were taking in the spirit of test shots the composition in that one is quite good. As for the second, it was taken completely impulsively as i saw the most amazing rainbow! It obviously didn’t shine through on black and white, but i was still genuinely curious to see how it would come out as I’ve never thought to take a picture of a rainbow in black and white (painfully underwhelming i know but it was worth the thought). That being said theres something i find oddly satisfying about the square shape of the images, i think that might be what made me more inclined to like this essentially failed image, i definitely prefer them to 35 because of this.

Overall being eased into this process in a small group was very beneficial, it was a fun experiment and an informal introduction to something which at first seemed very intimidating. But after some playing we managed to produce some particularly accomplished images. I can’t wait to gain more experience with this camera.

This experience is a good influence in relation to my 101 and 100 briefs, it was a good chance to attempt a candid portrait in a public space (which is something i am particularly nervous about), practice my compositional skills and learn a new medium within the large umbrella that is photography.

Sophie Mayanne

Sophie Mayanne is another photographer i have found on instagram, and i believe her project will change things. What she is doing is incredibly influential and important, especially in our current political climate young girls and boys are growing up in.

Behind the scars is a project about acceptance, body positivity and education. She is still relatively small enough that she occasionally still does ask for subjects to shoot/interview on her instagram, just give her a message and you never know you could end up being part of this amazing movement (that is, if your brave enough.. i wish i was!). I think its fantastic that she also has the subject include a piece of writing under the image (if they wish) explaining their struggles and talking about themselves and how they came to be here. It gives a sense of context and affirmation, its inspiring to see these people embrace their pain and overcome such hurdles.

Personally i have been very influenced by this creative project in a particularly private way, it would one day be a goal of mine to be a subject for her. I am constantly inspired by the people who wear they’re struggles on their sleeve, so to speak, and am constantly aware of my own issues (even though they are mostly in the past, i still have a few scars of my own) i have yet to experience anyone actually ask me about my scars, however i think if someone did i would probably just sweat a lot. Im not really ready yet to reveal myself to the world, and thats why i admire and respect the people who do (and so well!).

I have two aims when it comes to Mayanne, to be more like herself and to be more like her subjects. What i mean by this is she empowers these people by giving them a voice and an outlet, yet these people empower her and her project by seeking that. Its a perfect yin and yang, almost.

I adore this type of raw, powerful image and i aim to replicate and be influenced by it every day i work as a photographer. Its my place to use my medium as a positive force in the world, use it to educate, inform and empower.

Sophie Mayanne is a 24 Year old fashion and portrait photographer, splitting her time between the Cotswolds and London. Her style is unmistakable, favouring striking imagery that is hers and hers alone. Her work has been recognised by both the fashion and music industries, and has been particularly favoured by up and coming artists and publications who admire the honesty and genuineness of her images.

Isabella “In the summer of ’15 I was in a house fire. My clothes and way of life up in flames. I spent my summer in a burns unit on Fulham Road. My scars and scar tissue continue to change, but I have never felt more beautiful.”

Ashleigh “I’ve struggled with self harm since I was 8. For as long as I can remember, my emotions have been very intense, this was one of the ways I learnt to cope. I have been stuck wearing long sleeves regardless of the weather. The appearance of my arms is one of my biggest secrets. Learning to embrace my scars and accept them as part of me is a major step. I also feel that hiding them away perpetuates the feeling of guilt/shame.”

“I didn’t feel like my body represented me, so I saved for 3 years to get a breast reduction when I was 18. ”

Darkroom Induction, how to process b+w film and how to process a print

This task was pretty standard for me as i have already learnt how to process black and white film, and how to make a print/work an enlarger. However it was still useful to go through again as i was a little rusty, i also wasn’t used to some of the little differences in materials such as different models of enlarger, and the fact that we had to order everything form the ERC. It was still a lot of fun and a good induction, i am now able to use the facilities which i am sure to benefit from in future projects.

 

Film processing

-You must use a light tight darkroom

-Lock the door behind you if possible, or have someone keep watch outside

-You must have with you a DRY film spool, black centre column for the spool, developing tank, tank lid, scissors and film cassette opener if needed.

 

With the lights on

If you have rewound your film leaving the leader out, or have managed to retrieve the leader using a special device, you can do the following steps with the lights on.

-Cut the film leader off between the sprocket holes(leave no sharp edges)

-Feed the first two inches of film onto the spool

With the lights off

If the film leader has been wound back into the cassette the next steps will have to be carried out in total darkness. I recommend that you practice loading a blank film onto a spiral several times before attempting this in the dark.

-Open the cassette in total darkness with a special tool similar to a bottle opener.

-Gently withdraw the film from the cassette and remove the film leader with a pair of scissors

-Let the film hang down and push/twist the film gently onto the spiral

Loading the film in total darkness

-Wind the film gently onto the spiral by twisting one side of the spiral back and forth

-If the film jams, remove it from the spiral and start again. Check the spool is dry and the leading edge of the film isn’t damaged

-When the film is wound onto the spiral cut off the film spool

-Push the loaded spiral into the centre column and the place into the tank

-Place the lid onto the tank, making sure its light tight and not twisted in the process

Preparing the chemicals

-Fill a 2 litre jug with water at 20.c, Use a thermometer and mix hot and cold water if necessary. if the film developer is very cold or warm this temperature may be raised or lowered to compensate.

-Measure accurately with a measuring cylinder the correct amount of film developer for each film to be developed.

-Pour the developer into a measuring cylinder containing enough water to make up the total quantity needed – 300ml for one film, 600ml for two etc.

-Have ready measuring cylinders with the required amount of stop and fix to complete the process. (or you can just do this part by eye)

-Dont forget to return the stop and fix to their bottles

 

Developing

-Pour the solution into the tank quickly and start timing immediately

-Press on waterproof tank cover firmly and invert the tank several times

-Every 30 seconds give 2 inversions of the tank

-When the time has elapsed pour developer away, do not re use developer.

Stop

-Fill the tank without delay with stop bath from the measuring cylinder

-Replace the cover and invert for 30 seconds

-Return the stop bath to the correct container using a funnel

-If the stop bath turns blue, pour it away

Fixing the film

-Fill the tank with fixer from the measuring cylinder which has already been diluted

-Replace the cover and invert once every 15 seconds for 5 minutes

-Return the fixer to the correct container using a funnel

Washing the film

-Fill the tank with water from the cold tap

-Replace the cover and invert the tank several times

-Pour the water away and remove the tank lid

-Check that the film is clear (no milkiness)

-Wash under running water for 15-20 mins

-alternatively, skip all steps and leave under running water for 20 mins

Final Rinse (optional)

-Remove the film from the tank and fill it with clean water

-Add a few drops of wetting agent to the water

-Replace the film and waterproof seal, invert twice and leave for 30 seconds

Drying the film

-Remove the film from the tank and remove from the film spiral

-Wipe excess water off film by wiping between two clean fingers or using a squeegee. However dirty or damaged squeegees may damage your film.

-Hang the film up to dry with  a weight at the bottom so they dry straight, do not hang the films to dry in a dusty place or near a radiator.

–Do not dry film with hairdryer

-Place film in college facility dryer cabinet if you are able

Clearing away

-Replace all the lids on the chemical bottles

-Rinse all parts of the tank and fixing equipment and leave to drain

-Clean and tidy away all materials

-Film should be dry in 20 mins in the film dryer, 2 hours if hung on a line

-If using heat to dry your film do not leave it too long or have the temperature too high. Both of these actions will lower the quality of your film.

Wet Processing

Health and Safety

-Wear clothes that are okay to stain/wear protective clothing

-When pouring chemicals wear protective gloves and eyewear

-Use tongs when handling prints

-Never sit on work services that have come into contact with chemicals

-Never bring food or drink into an area where chemicals are being used

-Ensure that the room you are working in is well ventilated

Processing procedure for images

-Place the exposed piece of photographic paper into a tray of developer at room temperature (approx 20.c) and submerge it using a pair of tongs

-Rock the tray gently for 1 minutes. Do not ‘snatch’ the paper from the developer if you think its going too dark.

-Use the tongs to transfer the paper to the tray containing stop bath (allow a few moments for the extra developer residue to drip back into the developer tray). The tongs from the developer tray must not touch the stop bath. If they do, you must wash them.

-After 10 seconds transfer the paper to the fix (don’t forget tongs)

-After 2 minutes in the fix transfer the print to running water for a further 2 minutes. If another print from the fix is added to the water during the wash period the print must be washed for an additional 2 mins. Therefore if the room is busy id recommend leave it in there for 20 mins.

-Dry the prints face up on a clean and dry work surface in a warm room. Prints must not overlap during this time or they will stick together. Drying prints with too much heat will cause the print to curl badly (you learn from your mistakes).

Cleanliness–

Dirty marks, hairs or white spots appear due to chemical contamination or dirty negatives, make sure your hands and workbench are clean and dry. Use a blower brush to clean negatives.

Contact sheet

Preparing the negatives

-Cut the negatives into strips of five or six frames on a clean dry surface. Use sharp scissors and be careful not to cut into any of the images. Do not handle the image area of the negatives with your fingers.

-Slide the negative strips into the negative file shiny side up

-Switch on the enlarger and adjust the lens aperture so that the light is at its brightest. Close the aperture by 2 stops.

-Adjust the enlarger head height until the spread of light covers the negative bag or contact printing frame.

Making a test strip

-In red light only, cut a 2cm strip off a sheet of photographic paper using a pair of scissors or a guillotine.

-Place the strip of paper emulsion side up on the foam of the contact printing frame.

-Place an average strip of negatives, neither the darkest or the lightest, on top of the strip of paper.

-Cover the photographic paper and the negative with the clean sheet of glass and ensure that both are in close contact. Press down if necessary.

-Cover up 3/4 of the test strip with card

-Set the enlarger timer (i reccomend 4 seconds) and expose the first 1/4 of the strip.

-Uncover one further 1/4 and expose again (i recommend that 3 seemed to work for me) Repeat process until all the paper has been exposed.

-Remove and process paper, Examine the test strip in daylight conditions. Choose the best exposure from the test strip and set the enlarger timer accordingly. If all the exposures are too light then increase the exposure times for a second test strip. If all the exposures are too dark close the lens aperture down one more stop.

-Expose all the negative strips onto one sheet of paper and process.

Common Faults

-Faint and fuzzy image=Photographic paper upside down

-Test strip too dark=Enlarger lens not stopped down

-Test strip too light=Enlarger lens stopped down too much

-Out of focus images=Glass not in close contact

-Marks or splodges=Glass not clean or chemical contamination

Melissa Spits

I first heard of Melissa Spitz as i was scrolling through instagram, i have found that this platform is great for finding new individual artists and the communities it creates are wholly supportive and very interesting. Ive seen artists promote each other very regularly on the site and in turn this includes more and more traction to the lesser well known but equally as important up and comers.

Spitz, however caught my eye on a particularly personal level. Her series “you have nothing to worry about” consists of various portraits and moody scenes of the whereabouts of her mother. She documents the relationship in a very therapeutic way, her mother being considerably mentally ill, which sometimes results in some particularly raw and emotional images.

My take from this is pretty selfish, every image she posts i am not only hungry to know more of the story but i am also thinking about my own experiences growing up, reflecting back on the people who raised me. It gives me comfort to know i am not alone in some of the struggles that i have faced, and the comment section of almost every image is of people saying the same. Not only is this a very interesting project, but it has developed itself a support network and some kind of community for like minded people. Albeit psychologist types who are genuinely interested, or of just people currently dealing with similar issues.

As far as her influence on my own work, i aim and struggle to take such candidly beautiful, if not slightly chaotic photographs myself. I have always loved street photography, documentary and just generally unusual portraits. Ones that may need a little explaining, ones that evoke a certain narrative and pose questions and stories. In my first segment of my 101 brief i aim to keep her style in mind, not in such a completely emotional sense but more of a candid portrait style, i am desperate to catch that split second of emotion and vulnerability she is able to do so well (i guess because she does have a closer relationship with her subject, i guess i will have to see what kind of reactions ill get from my subjects soon).

Melissa Spitz, born 1988, is a working artist from St. Louis, Missouri, who currently resides in New York. She went to the University of Missouri and the Savannah College of Art and Design. Melissa work has been featured by the Aperture Foundation, TIME magazine, Vice and many more publications.

“I fell down and broke my jaw”, 2012

Ashtray, 2015

Smoking, 2015

Wallpaper, 2013

Colour Theory in Photography

To first relate colour theory to photography, we have to go through the basics of what it is first! Colour theory is actually very complicated, but the main categories are the ones most people know, including the context of how colours are used (e.g; marketing brands and logos).

So put simply there is the basic colour wheel and what it encompasses; primary, secondary and tertiary colours. Then theres the extra theories including colour harmony and colour context.

The basic run through is as follows;

The colour wheel- A circle of colours, based on red yellow and blue is traditional in the field of art.. i would know I’ve had to make one pretty much every year of my academic life. Reportedly, the first colour wheel was developed around the 1600’s by Sir Isaac Newton, and since then scientists and artists alike have been studying and developing the many variations (such as gradients) there is to a colour wheel.

Within the colour wheel there are –

Primary colours- Red, yellow and blue

These are the three colours that cannot be mixed up or made from any other type of colour. All the other colours are made from these.

Secondary colours- Green, Orange and Purple

These are made by mixing the primary colours (mix yellow and blue for green, mix red and yellow for orange, and mix blue and red together for purple)

Tertiary colours- Yellow-organge, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green and yellow-green

These are the colours that are made when you mix a primary and a secondary colour.

Colour harmony

This is essentially the name for colours when they are pleasing to the eye, match up almost.. but not quite. A basic formula for colour harmony is a colour scheme based on “analogous” colours, which are any three colours which are side by side on a 12 part colour wheel such as green,yellow and orange.

There is also “complementary” colours which are any two colours which are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel such as red and green.

Colour context- I’m mostly going to brush over this one as i could go way too in depth, but its basically the way we see colours reacting to each other. For example, red on a black background stands out whereas red on a white background is kind of dull, and if we see red on a light blue background it pops out extremely well.

So now I’ve recapped on some basic colour theory, where does that leave photography?

Well photography colour theory is arguably even more in depth, especially thanks to digital photography and applications such as photoshop. However it can still be applied very simply such as in landscape photography, the reds and oranges of a sunset, perhaps. Or the blue, greens and whites of snow, ice and sea. These colours we have chosen to pick out and accentuate instantly give our images narrative and emotion, hot, cold, sad, happy. When composing an image there is so much more you should be thinking about, including colour and the way our lighting set ups etc. may affect that.

Colour theory will forever influence me in my photography and i will continue using in in my plans and shoots for my upcoming and current projects, i aim to challenge myself in creating a landscape with colour narrative in the image and to not focus entirely on my subject but my and its surroundings too.

People, Places Things 101 Final Images, Evaluations (and self directed)

Evaluation of Brief

Overall this brief was a small rollercoaster of trying some new mediums, new concepts and new shooting methods. We did this by exploring and getting to know various film equipment such as 35mm film, how to use a 35mm camera, inductions into the darkroom, education on multiple different cameras and being urged to go outside and take more photos of things we may not have noticed before in certain exercises.

My personal takeaway from this is a fresh mind towards the everyday object, and a few new ideas to nurture and revisit when the time is right. Such is the way i tried to illustrate intensity through taking images of my photos and letters scattered across the floor, fully in frame. This idea of completely filling the space, almost overwhelming it is something i am definitely not used to, but really like. It feels almost as if there are any rules in your art, you should try to break it. Can you do an image thats essentially the revers of say the rule of thirds? What would that look like?

Out of all of the projects we did i have to say i like the first segment (people, places) the least, but only because i don’t like shooting on digital. I loved some of the images and final outcomes from tat shoot, i just wish they were on film as i think they would have run on a lot more smoothly with the rest of my images and my style. However it is good to do things out of your comfort zone, i do appreciate being pushed to do new and different things, or things i just don’t like..

Shooting on expired film was also new to me and i didn’t know quite what to expect, however i actually really enjoyed it as the colours that it produced were subtle yet fantastic, the blues and greens are so much more vibrant and gave my final images a unique sense of unity. It has influenced me to proceed with using this technique again in the future, and i am currently batting around the idea of using expired chemicals to process the film/print.

We explored street photography, film processing, image processing (in the darkroom), digital imaging techniques and experienced these hands on. We were allowed a lot of free reign on the project, which was particularly daunting at first however the struggle to pin an idea down for each part was eventually succeeded. I often suddenly go blank when offered with a large opportunity, what i mean by this is my mind is constantly buzzing with ideas but as soon as i get given some freedom I’m a little shocked. So get a bit of writers block, but the artists version. However it usually doesn’t take too long to come up with some solid ideas after I’ve given myself some time to shoot freely and research random things i happen to think of. This randomness is beneficial to the way i work as i never know what theme of image ill be going for from one day to the next. It keeps my ideas interesting and flowing, but of course not all of the will be good. Thats why the quantity of ideas is very important compared to quality at the beginning of an artistic project.

During this module i researched many artists and processes, influences and places. These included the works of Andreas Gursky, Richard Billingham, Michele Bisaillon, Sophie Mayanne and Melissa Spits. I also obviously included some of the classics such as Henry-Cartier Bresson, but I’m sure your probably sick of art students raving on about him by now. I also went and visited many places around plymouth and my home town, shooting all the while. I begun to explore the concept of lost and found a lot more in my second part of the brief, “things” and i visited an abandoned mansion house near looe. I didn’t muster up the courage to go inside however, but i did get some great shots that gave me a good feeling about that theme for my project. They were in black and white polaroid form and some digital, which again influenced my final creative decision making process. I also attempted to use motion capture blur which we had practiced at goose fair a short while ago, but this time it was in my home town. I wanted to keep using and experimenting with the different ideas and themes we had been given, and produce some more interesting outcomes in my shoots that had a little more thought put into them.

In closing, this brief was a fantastic and ingenuitive start to the course that influenced my creative processes greatly in the meantime. It enabled me to take my time to explore different means and mediums to produce my final outcomes, and pushed me to explore and research other areas and paths of photography i may not have thought to go down before. It was particularly challenging to me when we were confined to digital camera work only on certain parts of the project, but however difficult i find it i would still actually like to give it another go simply because i want to better myself and my abilities in camera work, even if i won’t use it personally afterwards. Film has also not been with ought its hiccups, as unfortunately i underestimated how long my first film processing would be, and it took a bit longer than expected. Therefore in my next brief i need to be more aware of my time management when producing physical materials. However i am very happy with my final images and can’t wait to produce more and better pieces in the future, i just hope i am able to illustrate my meanings behind them properly through my research.

Final Images for “People, Places and Things; Self directed”

My final images for this brief are particularly vibrant compared to my usual black and white images (which are my favourite to create). However this time i decided to try and stretch my artistic and photographic capabilities by shooting on film, digital, colour and over multiple destinations. It was really a huge experiment, and if anything I’m awfully glad it didn’t go wrong. However in the end i was delighted with the colours and hues in my final images, they represent an air of summertime influenced by all of those “lost/found” holiday snaps and my own childhood memories of the beach. I unintentionally managed to match up the horizon lines pretty well, which meant after seeing these images together for just a few seconds i knew they were meant to be together, with the digital portrait image in the middle and two landscape images of the beach either side. Visually i just wanted to not only create something pretty, but something boring too. I didn’t want these images to be show stoppers, to pop out and garner a lot of attention. I wanted these to be soft, personal and take a moment to sink in. I wanted these images to remind the viewer of their own memories, or evoke a story narrative in their own heads, just like mine whenever i look at my lost photo collection. To keep the flowing feeling going in the images i would present them in glass (frameless) frames, with a very very small border. They would also be very close together to keep the horizons in line. I would print them to be roughly A3 in size as i want them large enough to see the detail but also small enough to still be reminiscent of a family photograph.

Contact sheet for “People, Places and Things; Self Directed”

For this final part of the brief we were able to explore even more of our own ideas and themes for “people, places and things”, myself choosing to experiment with integrating both shooting methods we used previously together. This is illustrated in the diversity of my two contact sheets i have merged together for the sake of simplicity (as this is the final selection of images i chose my final images from). My inspirations for these images were drawn from the previous experiences and ideas i had when developing the other areas of the brief. I want to relate my final images to the “lost/found” family photos i have collected over time, and link them in from my own personal memories of looe beach, which is where i went to shoot my final chosen images. Not only this but in the developing process i went to a couple other various locations that have been important to me growing up, this includes my home town high Wycombe and my best friends current place of residence in Bristol (in an attempt to explore the contrast between the new and the old). So when shooting in each place i used a mix on one roll of expired colour film (35mm) and one digital camera. I attempted to experiment and push my ideas in the form of portraits, landscapes and anything that caught my eye. I let myself not be too refined in my shots and it led to some variable outcomes that illustrate a journey of emotions, places, people and things.

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

SONY DSC

Final images for “Things”

After reviewing my images i chose two final pieces that i feel represent my intense aim in exploring things. I wanted to represent emotion, and not necessarily evoke it. If anything i want you to be curious about the images, let the things draw you in, try to discern the faces of the people we will never know with my personal letters. The complete lack of frame, with images and paper alike being abruptly cut off makes the viewer assume there is more, much more, to the image that we are not seeing. It lets your imagination take off with you and develops a question with no answers. This level of intensity i feel has been achieved in my outcomes and i have completed this segment of the project with a strong idea and final product. Even though there is definitely room for improvement i can’t wait to try to replicate and experiment with this concept more. I loved shooting on black and white film for this one, i think it again adds to the overall vibe of the images i am trying to create, especially in reference to most of the “lost”/”found” photos i have as they are mostly in black and white. However i feel that the previous images do not link up very well visually to this theme and i would like to work on my overall arching continuity and themes.

Contact sheet for “Things”

For this part of the module i tried to look even deeper into my own personal life behind the camera, focussing more on the personal themes brushed over in the first part of the brief. I myself sat and thought, things? What can this apply to? Hoarding, maybe? It reminded me of those huge landscape images of shopping malls and such by Andreas Gursky. No, things could be smaller than that, what things do i own? Then i remembered i keep a box of ‘memories’ and keepsakes, those are definitely things. It interests me that i am the only person they hold any importance or value to. To anyone else it would just be tat, with no precious memories attached to them. To me, flowers from my 18th birthday bouquet, to you..dead flowers. I started photographing that, i on purposely didn’t photograph the box open at first as the air of mystery surrounding what things could be inside was a great starting image to set the mood for my project. After that i thought about other collections i have, and a huge influencer in my life sprung to mind; i collect lost photos. I have hundreds of them, photographs that do not belong to me nor anyone else anymore. I love the stories they conjure and the questions they arise, how i have in my hands a tiny slice of someones life i almost definitely should not have. I decided to photograph them in the uniform way i did with my objects previously, but then i decided to scatter them on the floor, attempting to capture the extensiveness of the collection, and the intense feeling of memories being created and lost. I loved the idea and the way these images turned out were so much better than i anticipated, they’re so detailed you could spend such a long time just trying to dissect the image of images, every glance discovering something, or someone, new. After this i finally shot my ;last collection of things, the most personal of all. I have kept every single letter and not i have ever received from anyone, but mostly my best friend. Now laid out in a similar way to my collection of photographs i again wanted to represent the sea of emotions and intensity these simple objects, things, hold. I also shot all of this from an arial perspective onto my dark wooden floor, the setting adds a certain old world charm to it, and the point of view illustrates a intensity with the images almost bursting out at you.

 

Final images for “people, places”

Contact sheet for “people, places” (the first segment of the task.

In this first segment of the task i was struggling with ideas, however i knew i wanted to take some intimate portraits of my friends and hopefully even strangers, after being influenced by our workshop we did the other day of practicing street photography, and i managed to actually get some great images just from that little tester. I wanted to do something reminiscent of that but with a little more of a personal touch. I ended up realising, after thinking about myself and how these themes apply to me, that my favourite place and my favourite things are my home! My bed, my stuffed animal ect.. So i travelled to meet my friend who’s currently staying in university halls to see if i could not only take her photo, but maybe some of her roommates too? I thoroughly enjoyed getting a little bit out of my comfort zone to take these images, and it was very beneficial in building some interesting images and some general photographic confidence for the future. However even though i aimed to take more images of people in their bedrooms it is pretty hard to gain someones trust that intimately and that fast, therefore i realised i had a little less choice in the editorial process when choosing my final images. However one i took on a whim seemed to catch my eye, an image of my friend Amy in the utility room of the building. The bold colours and harsh vibrant whites really make the image pop, and i feel next to her portrait in her room it made a fantastic illustration of her and her new life living in halls. So i decided to change my idea slightly and focus more on my friend and myself, our age and how our lives are at the moment. Oddly chaotic however peaceful. I shot this on a digital Nikon, and actually am pleasantly surprised with how well the colours came out with the flash, very bold and eye-catching. However, i always prefer film and think film would have left a much softer edge to these images, and it would have linked up a little more to my other part(s) of this project.

People, Places, Things; Project proposal and first impressions

Originally i was extremely excited to work with this theme, if not a little overwhelmed at the possibilities presented by the loose themes of the words. What exactly do i fill the idea of people, places and things with? Now is my chance to explore. We were shown artist influences like Richard Gillingham, who documented intimate portraits and photographs of his own family. I am somewhat influenced by this and photographs of my own choosing in my collection of “found” photos, and i aim to use these ideas to create my final outcomes. This amalgamated in my idea to take portraits of people in their own bedrooms, with their favourite things. Therefore filling all of the criteria for people, places and things in one shot! However i didn’t realise just how un-original this ides was, so i experimented with other means before settling with an overall theme. I decided to research into the personal realm of my photography, sprouting an idea for things with family photographs and collections of mine. As i realised the closest relation i have in connection to things is collecting objects. I aim to explore this theme and experiment with the different possibilities my images can produce.

Contexts of Practice (100) an Introduction

Contextual Studies is about learning more about ourselves, who we are and what choices we want to make in the future. It is about exploring paths. It allows us to explore forward in modern photography, but also does not let us forget about the past, the great influencers and pioneers of photography.

TIMELINE

6 Years – My first experience with a camera, was given a polaroid to play with.

10 Years – Always loved being given disposable film cameras when i went for trips, would always take as many pictures as i could when i was able.

11 Years – Became homeschooled

12 Years – I was given a sony digital camera for Christmas

14 Years – Joined Amersham College, started a BTEC in “Art and Design”

15 – Second year of College, Joined a “Art and Design course” similar to previous.

16-18 – Studied Extended Diploma in Fine Art still at Amersham College (throughout this time i collected a few cameras from car boot sales ect, and realised my love of film photography.

18 – Studying a BA in Photography at PCA

 

Where I want to go with my photography

It is hard to say exactly where i will be with my art in a few years, i hope i’m just doing projects and things that i enjoy. I am not sure if i intend to pursue photography as a career, as i don’t want something i love to weigh me down like a job does. I just want to aim to keep productive, and not let things get in the way. I think i would like to do more shoots with older cameras though, so maybe i should focus on practicing with that type of equipment for the now.

 

What is a photograph?

Is a photograph just simply an object? Or is it something with more meaning, a piece of visual memory, recorded in time. Is it just an art form, an act and nothing more? Or should it be simply a means of communication, documentary evidence submitted to you. A material? Full of chemicals and pulped paper….. Or can it be all of these things?

The History of Photography

In short, the first person to really capture any images was Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in the 1830’s, even though the basic concept of photography has been around since about the fifth century and in the 11th century an Iraqi scientist actually developed the camera obscura, which was what Joseph used.

Even then, the camera didnt actually take photographs, it was more like a  projector. Using a pinhole in a tent, it was documented that it could project a image from outside the tent into the darkened area. The images were also upside down though they could be traced to create drawings.

However around the 17th-century basic improvements started being introduced to the camera,it was small enough to be portable and people started creating lenses.     

So onto the actual first recorded photographs, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce exposed a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light whic is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly.Within each type of emulsion, photographers experimented with different chemicals and techniques.Niépce’s success led to a number of other experiments and photography progressed very rapidly. Daguerreotypes, emulsion plates, and wet plates were developed almost simultaneously in the mid- to late-1800s.

The Power of The Media

Media outlets and photography have always had a connection ever since the commercialisation and frequent use of cameras, because now instead of painstakingly drawing their marketing imagery they can just shoot it!

That being said, it has also been incredibly beneficial to the media, specifically news papers and programmes and it spawned the birth of war and documentary photographers, which aided in the education of the masses on a whole new level.

Ever since newspapers have existed their main goal has been to inform, and in most cases to shock the reader. And ever since photographs have been invented newspapers have used them to their advantage to document and spread interesting information. I found an interesting article on the guardian’s website entitled “show and tell:the highs and lows of life as a documentary photographer”, about a (you guessed it) documentary photographer called Ed Kashi. It was in the style of a letter, writing home to his wife. It portrays such a spirited journey, its very moving. This kind of daring exploit is key to documentary photography, if we didnt have people like this we wouldn’t see both sides of the story, we wouldnt know about all of the good and bad going on in the world. I love the way photography covers news stories, it gives a sense of realism to the reader.