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Photographer Danila Tkachenko
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Jonas Bendiksen photographs the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
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“#AlamyPicNeeds: Littlemill Distillery in Bowling, Scotland. #stockphotography #travelphotography”
A travel report on an older trip. This one from November 2016. I'd visited Dachau concentration camp before. A little over 10 years ago, I had travelled to Munich for a football match. This time I'd be there with Pamela, for a much quieter holiday. I had mixed feelings about going
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Five lessons in developing and sustaining a long-term photographic project from Magnum and industry insiders
Transitions - Exhibition Review
Is the work for sale and who might buy it? Is the work for sale and who might buy it? Is the work for sale and who might buy it? Class: HND2C Date: 26th to 30th of May 2016 Name of Exhibition: Transitions Location of exhibition: Theatre Royal, Glasgow
How does the flyer/poster advertise the exhibition?
It is advertised with an eye catching photograph and some information on the bottom half of the poster.
Sadly, the poster did not make any mention that the exhibition was not on on Sunday, which led to numerous people coming to see it and finding it closed. This is something that should be looked at for next time.
What is the suitability of the gallery space? How is the exhibition laid out?
The gallery space was superb. One of the best I’ve visited in the time I’ve been at college. Lots of natural light and the artificial lights were high and out of the way, minimising the reflections on the glass.
Portrait shots were on one floor and landscape above them. All laid out in a curve that allowed you to make your way round and concentrate on the photographs in front of you. Shots were placed beside ones that shared colour schemes. It was a system that worked.
A larger, banner poster sitting in the lobby downstairs may have been useful to draw attention to to exhibit as people entering downstairs would be unlikely to have known what was happening above them.
How has the work been mounted? Is this appropriate for the work?
On white cardboard mounts in black frames. They certainly suited my own work and probably most work (it’s a very neutral choice) but probably wasn’t ideal for some others. That’s the price you pay for continuity, though.
Who made the work?
HND2 students from City of Glasgow College
Who did they make it for, who is the audience?
They were taken from various assignments throughout the year, with some being from first year. Ultimately the photographs were made for the college course assessors but the photographs were chosen to show off to a wide audience.
How does it make you feel?
Great! It’s good to see everyone’s work shown in such a fantastic location. I had a swelling of pride when I saw some of the shots. Knowing how far some people have come since when they started.
If the work has a title does it make you think about the image/s differently?
The individual photographs did not have titles on display, although I’m sure some of them have names as given by the creators.
How would I describe it to someone later?
“Must see”. Although it’s gone now so that would probably just upset them. I would say it had been a diverse collection that spanned many genres that shows the benefit of surrounding yourself with as many creative minds as possible.
Does the photograph make you want to ask questions, what are these questions?
Knowing the photographers and having been present on many of the shoots, I don’t have many questions to ask. Maybe trying to find out what some of the abstract ones were.
Is the photograph valuable? How do you know?
As nobody from the year is world famous quite yet, the photographs are not particularly valuable. One day, they might be, however.
Is the work for sale and who might buy it?
Yes for £120 per photograph. Any number of people could buy it. Family members are the most likely although any art collectors might feel that they want to get in early with some up and coming photographers.
What information is available about the artist/s?
The name of the photographer is displayed beneath each photograph. Business cards were available from those who printed them.
Who organised the exhibition and who selected the work?
The exhibition was organised by course lecturers John Carberry, Claire Stewart and Iain Wallace with the individual photographs being chosen by the students.
I saw this on Twitter. It’s a bit wanky but I think the message is probably true. Obviously, it’s about writers but thought it applied to photographers as well. A lot of folk (myself included) compare themselves to others but should really concentrate on their own work.
Portfolio 2 Feedback.
Happy again at the feedback received for the 2nd portfolio of the year. Unlike the first block, I was happy with all the images submitted this time round which was a nice feeling.
Out of the 3 criticisms brought up here and in conversation, 2 are definitely something I knew would be in ‘issue’ but pressed ahead anyway. The 3rd was not something I had really thought about but will play a part in my personal project.
1) One of my Editorial shots was soft. I knew this at the time and really couldn’t get it right at all. I had no tripod and my shaky hands were causing all sorts of issues. I also suspect the lens I was using is back focusing slightly so will need to investigate. I decided to keep the shot in as the soft focus is minor and not particularly noticeable from standard viewing distance.
2) The choice of shot for the Fantasy Fashion. I went back and forth on this (with my final choice and the shot mentioned here) and in the end decided that both shots fell under the ‘fantasy’ umbrella and that I should simply chose the stronger shot. There are no real right or wrong choices here but I knew that one would prove relatively ‘controversial’. I would have been happy to submit either, to be honest.
3) Not written here but mentioned in conversation was my use of writing throughout my documentary book. Each segment is punctuated with a few paragraphs giving my own experiences in the area. John felt it was unnecessary and that the photos were enough. I can see that point and do tend to over explain things when it comes to telling the story behind a photograph. As I’m doing another book for the Personal Project, I’ll need to evaluate this and see if I want to continue writing for each/some of the photographs or just not write anything at all. I might hand in a photo-only book and do the writing for my own version.
Nancy Borowick was busy hustling as a New York City-based freelance photographer when she learned her father had stage-4 pancreatic cancer. Her mother was al...
Such great timing. Haven’t seen this yet but it’ll surely help with research for the personal project this year.
Exhibition Visit
I first visited the GOMA as I’d never been in before. Though to be honest, I wasn’t at all impressed. Not with the photos on show or the gallery space itself. The lamp that lights the photograph was quite low and behind me so if I stood close to the photographs I would cast a shadow on them. So I left and went to Street Level.
I looked at the two of them and decided to do the exercise on “A Rare Visitor”. I liked the photographs of the stuffed animals but the black backgrounds and being mounted behind glass meant that the frames were like mirrors. It wasn’t particularly helpful.
A Rare Visitor was quite interesting. The photos weren’t beautiful and the displays were unconventional (one photo was lying on the ground) but I appreciated the theme.
The most productive part of the day was chatting to Sarah Amy Fishlock about my Graded Unit. She’s doing a similar project.
We were rubbish at this. Bit of an eye opener at how little we knew.
Portfolio 2 Submissions
These were my final choices for the submission for portfolio 2. Looking back, I made a few mistakes with things but also got some things started and finished early (brand & Documentary) which allowed me those mistakes.
I’m happy with all the photographs. I I fear I might have played fast and loose with some of the briefs, though.
Brand Advertising, Documentary and Editorial Fashion all fit the brief fine but metaphor and Fantasy Fashion less so.
In the case of Fantasy Fashion, I think it should probably have been more fantasy. As it is, it’s a guy doing martial arts in the park. Maybe I should have had him wear a mask or something to make it less real world. I may well just be over thinking it and when I think of it, why would big dresses and bigger hair have a monopoly on fantasy fashion? Either way, I chose a shot that told the story I wanted to tell (the lone warrior) and also showed the clothes. I decided upon this shot at the last minute, having printed off another to give me options.
The metaphor is another one where I feel I might be pushing it. I can’t help but feel I went with a ‘cool’ shot, rather than one that a motorcycle safety campaign would use. It looks more like an album cover. Or a weird book. I’m not sure it’s metaphorical, though.
As for the images themselves, I’m happy with all of the ones included. In portfolio 1, I was handing in work (yo, glassware) that I was neither here nor there about so it’s nice to be able to flick through the portfolio case and not skip some.
Documentary
My book arrived today, which is handy as it saves me printing off a PDF.
I went with Blurb. I’m impressed with the paper quality. I chose an improved paper quality for a price increase and I’m happy with the result.
I chose 10x8 portrait which I suspect might be unusual when sat beside most of the other books of the class and indeed photobooks in general. One of the reasons was experimentation. This isn’t for a paying client so I can afford to try things that might seem a bit backwards to see how they work. I already have two books that I had printed with Groupon vouchers a while ago that were in landscape format so I wanted to see something different.
The second reason was that most of the photographs in the book were portrait orientated. I felt that landscape shots could be stretched across two pages to maintain their shape while portrait shots often look lost on landscape pages (another thing I learned from my previous books).
The landscape double page spreads don’t really work. The book well is too deep. I don’t know if this is something that could be avoided by choosing a soft cover or if they also come with a book well. It’s something I’ll look into.
Overall I’m happy with how it has turned out. I think I’d like to continue the project (it was a refinement of an existing idea, anyway) and possibly print out a larger book in the future. Or maybe the ‘Zines that we were shown my Ms Fishlock at her talk.
Fantasy Fashion Shoot
3rd time lucky part two. I think this block has really stressed the importance of having back up ideas. With both the metaphor brief and this one, it was the 3rd plan that worked out.
Having already had 2 attempts (above) at this brief that didn’t work for numerous reasons, I was keen to have another go at it as it had been the brief I was most interested in when everything was first announced. So I would have been disappointed to hand in mediocre work when I was sure I could do better.
I had wanted to do a “Warrior Princess” style shoot away back at the start. I shelved that idea in favour of the ones above, mainly as it would have been too difficult to put together a suitable costume in time. When I decided to go ahead with that idea I had to modify it to use a male model (so maybe that makes this my 4th idea).
My friend Phil, would be my model. Phil is a photographer himself and has acted in student movies before so is good when it comes to acting in photographs. He has modelled for me before for my Graded Unit and is always keen to get involved in creative projects. I contacted him to see if it was something he’d be able to do at short notice and thankfully he was available and told me about his martial arts clothes that could be useful. Before committing I wanted to clear it with one of the lecturers in case it wasn’t fashion or fantasy enough for the brief. Claire Stewart gave the all clear and I let Phil know. Had that not been the case, I was going to stick him in a suit and bowler hat in the forest, holding a rubber duck (plan 5).
While walking to the location for the above left shot, I had noticed an area in the park that had trees but still felt open. I thought it would be perfect for this shoot. I like to create stories for shoots like this to help me visualise the character and decide how I am going to shoot things. In this case I decided that Phil would be playing the part of a lone warrior who was training in the woods. The trees would afford him some privacy but the space would allow him to see any would-be assassins approaching. This would actually be the story of our shoot, though substituting would-be assassins for people walking dogs. To portray this part, I would have Phil striking various poses; both accurate and dramatic.
I did a recce visit the day before the shoot. I hadn’t done this for the prior two shoots and it had cost me so I wanted to be prepared. I took some general shots of the area and did some mock shots that I sent to Phil.
I was so proud of that artwork that I considered just submitting that for the brief but figured I should go ahead with the shoot anyway since it was already organised.
I met Phil in the park the next day at 0730. Sunrise would have been at 0655 and I would have liked to have been there for that, as an experiment if nothing else, but I felt that I was already asking a lot and the sun doesn’t reach the area we would be in for a while anyway as there are loads of trees that block the way. So we would really have been shooting in darkness.
He arrived in his clothes with his training sword. I was going without a stylist so simply asked that he comb his hair. He brought some hairspray with him just in case but thankfully didn’t need it (I have an allergy).
Once we arrived at the location, Phil warmed up and started going through various poses while I did some test shots, chose a position and evaluated the poses for aesthetic merit. Some were things that may have been useful to the martial art of Kendo but didn’t look so good so when he got to a good one, I would ask him to hold there while I got the shots.
The sun was creeping through the trees so his position was dictated by where the light was landing. I wanted the main light to be provided by the sun and I would use a flash on a lightstand to fill in some shadows. This worked well and created some nice, dramatic scenes.
We shot for about an hour and a half, pausing for small breaks when the sun went behind clouds or when the set was invaded by cocker spaniels. After being satisfied that I had what I needed, we experimented a little and had Phil run along a path while I panned. The shots didn’t work out but it was good to try something a little different.
Editing, I mostly did what I usually do, which is to desaturate slightly and add blue to the shadows. Shooting in the woods, there was often distant branches that would be distracting in the final shot that I removed afterwards in Photoshop.
Which left me to decide which shot to use. I feel that some are stronger than others but also have to bear in mind that it was a fashion shoot, not a film poster shoot so can’t just go with what looks the coolest. With the editorial shoot, I printed off more than I needed to allow me to make the decision once I’ve seen the final print. I may do that here as well. I find it hard to judge how prints will turn out if they have large areas of darkness, which these shots have in abundance.
One thing that I’m not happy about is that these changes were made as a result of failure on my part to take the photograph at an acceptable standard, and not because of a creative decision. So I still have lots of work to do. Some of it wasn’t entirely my fault (bad weather had ruined a location, for example) but certainly one of the shoots was 100% abandoned because it was turning out to be too difficult and I made mistakes for the rest of them too.
Fashion Editorial
As noted in the previous entry, I was granted early access to Callendar House in order to get the shoot done before visitors arrived. As it was, our liason at the House was running late and so we finished soon after opening, although there was no issue with visitors.
I had decided on a “Lady of the House” theme and gave my model a short story to outline her ‘character’ so she could get the look and mood right.
“Your parents own the mansion. But they spend most of their time away, leaving you with the hired help.
One day, when the parents are away, you fire the help in a fit of rage and decide to throw a party.
You get dressed up and put on your make-up for the first time by yourself. Only no-one comes to your party because you're a spoiled brat. The shoot takes place during the realisation that you are on your own.”
She loved the idea and was on board with the make up suggestions (”heavy eye make-up and dark lipstick”). I wouldn’t be using an MUA as all the ones from the other classes were all from Glasgow and I would be asking them to arrive in Falkirk at 8am. To be frank, I didn’t want to have to rely on that happening so asked Hazel to do her own make up.
I wouldn’t be allowed equipment lying about so light stands were out of the question. During my recce visit the week prior, I had seen that the large windows provided fantastic light and decided that I would be using the natural light already there. I did bring a reflector though only used that with the shots in the darker stair well.
I’ve worked with Hazel a few times now so we work well together. She had been nervous during my Graded Unit last year but this time she really threw herself into it. Despite some attention from the cleaners, she was confident enough to do some more unusual poses.
The light inside was beautiful and I honestly wish I had access to that quality of light every day.