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Summer Project - Thoughts

By Josh Solly

Summer Project - Thoughts

By Josh Solly

Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier was a nanny in the Chicago, Illinois area for approximately forty years. She was born on the 1st February, 1926. She also worked as a secret street photographer throughout her entire life, using her camera every day. Her life’s work was only discovered four years ago and it contained around 150000 photographs. Most of which were never printed. These days a new Maier print will be sold for $2000 and a vintage print would be sold for over $8000. She never held any exhibitions of her work and she never published or let anyone see her work, suggesting that her work was entirely self-driven, independent of what anyone else thought. Maier’s work was extremely private and personal to her and people were very rarely allowed to see her photographs. Although it is still unknown how she learnt to use her camera to such a degree of dexterity there is no doubt about saying that she was certainly a woman who knew how to use the tool that’s earned her this new-found fame.

Vivian Maier was able to keep a low profile while taking her photographs because of her status as a woman. In the times that she was taking these photos it was very rare for a woman to be a photographer worthy of note in the eyes of society, this meant that she could walk into a situation, take a photo and leave without many people even noticing her. Also the Rolleiflex camera she was using had a viewfinder which you had to look down into instead of through. This meant that she wasn’t holding up a conspicuous camera and she wasn’t making eye contact with anyone as she took her photographs. This meant she was very subtle when taking her photos so she was able to capture much more casual and spontaneous atmospheres.

One of my particular favourites of Maier photographs is the photograph of the child in the pipe on the beach. In this photo I love the smoothness of the shot and the shadows across the child’s face. Looking at this image I get a feeling that I’m glimpsing a bit of Maier herself in the child as this child seems to be hiding, and I think that reflects the way that Maier always hid her photography and how it was always a private affair that was not shared with anyone else.

I think that she never developed some of her rolls of film maybe because some of the photographs she just, for whatever reason, couldn’t find it within herself to share with anyone else, and she just didn’t want anyone else to see it. She was an extremely private woman, her charges while she was a nanny were very rarely allowed inside her room when she was living the family she was working for at the time. These images that she took were remarkably personal to her and she didn’t want to share them with the rest of the world, which is why I think she never published any of her extraordinary work.

#streetphotography #a2photography #chicago

A time lapse experiment shot, edited and produced by myself.

Summer Project Proposal

For the theme of my summer project I have chosen to base my project on portraiture. I am interested in exploring this area of photography more because I feel this is where I take the best pictures. I also enjoy composing images using strong shadows and intimate lighting which works very well with black and white portraiture photography.

I find Gregory Heisler’s photography work particularly inspiring when looking into this field because of his use of lighting and his composition in his photographs. A lot of his images are black and white shots, this is a great opportunity for experimentation with lighting which I think Heisler takes full advantage of. His images don’t have very strong contrasts between the black and white but the quality of the images gives a very smooth and slightly soothing atmosphere of reflection and calmness. I get this impression especially from his series “quiet”. Also in this series his backgrounds in his photos are exclusively very simple. This also gives the impression that there is not a lot going on in the photo, creating a further atmosphere of gentle serenity. In his photos the artist uses quite a soft focus where his subject is very crisp and neat, but then his background is just out of focus.

Another portraiture photographer that I admire the work of is Gavin Gough. He carefully composes his shots using natural light, parallel lines, experiments with shutter speed and uses a soft focus on most of his shots which gives his photos a smooth and serene atmosphere. He shows all of these techniques in his series “Burma Railway”. In this series he uses very vibrant colours in his photographs; this sets an atmosphere of effervescence.

Another photographer that I have enjoyed looking at the work of is portraiture photographer, Duane Michals. Michals use of natural and black and white settings makes for very interesting photos. He quite often takes little mini-series of a certain situations so that he can tell a story that usually captures an audience’s attention. A particularly famous example of this technique is Duane Michals “Chance Meeting”. In this photo Michals depicts two men walking past each other on the street and then, in turn, turning to look at each other. This artist’s images usually have a very retro and old feel to them. This is achieved by his images having a slightly grainy quality which creates the retro atmosphere.

For my summer project I am planning on taking a variety of portraits. The majority of which I think I will take in black and white on my camera to get a better effect than turning it into a black and white on photoshop. I am also planning on taking colour shots to include some variety and more vibrancy than just the monochrome effect. I think I will use aperture very often to create a similar sort of effect of smooth photographs like Gregory Heisler.

#A2photography #summer #project

Small time lapse video edited and produced by Arnie Monteith, Chester Ellis and myself.

#staydench #time #lapse #timelapse #swag #A2photography

Shot & Edited by Brett Junvik (http://www.brettjunvik.com) Sit back, and let me take you to some of the most beautiful places I've ever been. From Puerto Ric...

Making It Up: Photographic Fictions

On the 13th of June I attended a photography exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum that was titled: Making It Up. This exhibition focused on staged and set up photography that showed completely engineered and fictitious photography. The exhibition featured very influential contempory artists such as Gregory Crewdson, Duane Michals, Cindy Sherman and Hannah Starkey. These exhibits were displayed alongside 19th century photographers such as Julia Margeret Cameron, Clementina Lady Hawarden and Oscar Gustav Rejlander. All of these photographers were and are considered very high achieving and influential artists.

One particular photograph that captured my interest was an image taken by Cindy Sherman. In her photography she dressed herself in different disguises and outfits and then took photos of herself. The image took my interest because of how it looks like a movie still from an old movie. I thought this because of how the image was slightly grainy, which added to the retro feel of the photograph. Also the background of the photo seems like it is just on a screen rather than the real streets of New York. I liked this photograph because of how the subject really stood out from the backdrop and how the subject was slightly off centre to leave some space with more human interest in the background with the cars.

Another photo that I felt very interested in was the mini-series: “Chance Meeting” by Duane Michals. This little series included six photographs of two men walking past each other, and after a quick glance as they passed each other, each of them in turn looking back at the other. I think that these photographs are very interesting to look at because of how they look like they could have been still images taken out of a movie. There is also an air of mystery to the photo as you were left wondering whether the two men in the image would meet again or whether the men would just go on about their lives as if they had never met. I liked the lighting in this photo as well as the light creates strong shadows and strong contrasts.

One of Gregory Crewdson’s photographs interested me as well as it showed a very detailed scene that seemed very ordinary at first, but then as you saw the figure standing in the garage door you got the feeling that there was something eerie and slightly creepy about the image that you so often do with Crewdson’s work. The image itself looked like a still frame taken out of a movie clip, and you could imagine the light entering the frame from the side to be from a cars headlamps. I also thought that the figure made the image seem eerie; one reason for this is that the subject was holding a spatula in one hand. To me this made me think that the subject had been drawn away from something, perhaps by a noise or disturbance.

In conclusion I think that the exhibition was a very interesting display to go and see. It was good to get a bit of insight into how photographers set up and design their photographs so that they get the best result they can, it was also good to see the finished products after all of their efforts.

Reflection

History

Consume

Diversity

Exchange

Character/Portrait

Waste

Bustle

Second Initial

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