#bapa1

[francescabrooks-blog1]

During Neil Matheson’s lecture on street photography, I discovered that photography is about the exchange on the street between either the photographer and subject matter or the subject matter and themselves. It’s not about the perfect focus and composure, but more about the interactions between people or even animals. Photographers like Helen Levitt, Vivian Maier, Lisette Model, William Klein and Robert Frank, have managed to capture these interactions beautifully.

Eamonn Doyle was one of the main street photographers we looked at. Martin Parr stated that Eamonn Doyle is “the most important street photographer he’s seen in a decade”. He uses his local area, which is a restricted area in Dublin. He shoots very low looking at people, by shooting low you can crop a lot out of the picture and capture the subject matter perfectly. Visually, it gives the subject matter power over the photographer, where as most street photographers hold the camera high and therefore holds the power over the subject matter. He worked in the music industry also and therefore collaborated with musicians and expanded photography by breaking traditional photographic boundaries using innovation. He published 3 books: ‘I’ in 2014, ‘ON’ in 2015 (the picture above was published in this book) and ‘END’ in 2016.

Joel Meyerowitz, another street photographer, used colour film in his work. In the days of his work, 60/70’s, colour was very new and a commercial version of photography. The image above, West 46th street 1976, shows that it’s very hard to work with colour in street photography because it can be fairly chaotic.

Philip Lorca DiCorcia, one of the other main street photographers looked at, uses the street as a theatre. He uses unusual lighting conditions, normally a powerful flash as shown in his New York 1997 photograph. DiCorcia made an on going series of work named ‘Heads’ from 1999 to 2001. He used artificial light and captured people in the street without their knowledge. The image above, Head 13, is an image of Nussenzweig. This man sued DiCorcia for the picture because it was against his own beliefs. There was a clash of intention, however, the man lost the case due to artistic grounds. This case shined the light on ethics and people’s privacy and right to their own image and security.

[bateman-90]

MPH0407 Personal Development 2: Jooney Woodward Talk Jooney Woodward’s talk about the development of her practice was particularly interesting and inspirational for me. Her style of photography is something I really enjoy, much of it focusing on English leisure pursuits and traditions - Her stories of developing her confidence in chatting with strangers and building a rappor with her sitters when photographing them is something that I feel I wish to develop further, people being my favourite things to photograph.  My existing practice has so far focused on landscapes, due to my nervousness with approaching people but as a result of this lecture I feel more inclined to put myself out when seeking to photograph what I want; to quote Jooney’s own story of her first conversation with a stranger sitter - “If you never ask, the answer will always be no”. All photographs courtesy of Jooney Woodward  http://www.jooneywoodward.co.uk

[bateman-90]

MPH0405 Constructing the Image: ‘The Series’ Ideas Development Having re - watched the film which my ‘Copy image’ was taken from (Fight Club) I noted down the main themes I took from the film’s narrative. Having chosen those which could be developed further I sought to explore all the affiliations, links and definitions of each of these two themes, as shown in the spider diagrams photographed above. The two main themes of the film I decided to explore were masculinity (their rejection of how this had been used to market products to men, resulting in a generation of those defining themselves as such based on the products they buy as opposed to their personal identities) in the film, and consumer culture (Edward Norton’s character rejects his previous lifestyle of incessant purchasing of furniture in order to feel he still takes the ultimate decisions about what is worthy of his purchase). Having reviewed all aspects of these, I then considered the questions that I would ask myself to then consider how these may be developed into further projects. For clarity given their small record on each of the spider diagrams, they are as follows; Masculinity; > In what ways is masculinity used to sell us products? > What does it mean to be ‘A Man’ from person to person? (Age, Sexuality, Gender) > What does it mean to be a ‘successful man’ in the 21st Century? > How is masculinity defined in wider society shaped by how it is used as a marketing tool? Consumer Culture; > How do our experiences in life shape what we value most? > How do our possessions shape how we identify ourselves? > How does our own initial feeling of who we are define what possessions we value most? As is clear from the questions above, it is evident that there are strong influences from my own interests in what shapes our values. culture and subsequently our own identity in modern culture in my ideas for ‘The Series’ project. I will explore these further in shooting some test shots in the next few days.

[bateman-90]

MPH0405 Constructing the Image: Lighting Tests, 24/02/16 Having decided upon my chosen image and after some discussion with peers regarding the lighting setup within this image, I booked some studio time in which to trial my proposed lighting setup for shooting my copy. Starting with a rectangular 2 x 6ft softbox positioned to the back of my model’s shoulders this gave an even cast of light across my subject, however I struggled on occasions with achieving a flat lighting effect across the face. Some other issues were noted when trialling this particular lighting setup and pose; > The need for the model to be able to effectively recreate the mouth shape as made by edward norton in the original film > The need for flat, almost underexposed lighting across the face whilst keeping the shoulders and cheek bones in highlight Various lighting locations were trialled to achieve this, and it has provided me with a good starting point from which to progress my next shoot when more studio time is available.

[bateman-90]

Shooting some ideas for 'the series' project today, around the idea of exploring what it means to be 'a man' for different people... #mph0405 #DSLR #identity #BAPA1 #University of Westminster (at Walthamstow London UK)

[bateman-90]

Thoughts/Observations on Annie Leibowitz: Women exhibition at Wapping Power Station

Exhibited in the industrial setting of Wapping’s old Hydraulic power station next to the Thames, Leibowitz’s latest additions to her ongoing project Women are as powerful as the machinery that once resided in the main hall space of the Victorian era structure at the heart of London’s East – End. I spent almost 2 hours perusing the prints and visual displays that make up the exhibition, the latest additions to the project being displayed on a freestanding board at the far wall. They comprise beautiful, intimate and personal portraits of women from all aspects of life including artists, dancers, politicians, activists, writers, musicians, journalists, actors, athletes, scientists, comedians, royalty and family to name a few. With each new photograph is a short caption giving information on the woman photographed, and a short history of their lives. In every photograph you get a sense of the woman’s true self, but you can also see the diversity of women and not what the ‘standard’ depictions of what a woman is. Leibowitz selection of participants for the project sets out to both challenge and celebrate what it means to be a woman in the 21st Century, when gender roles are no longer prefixed into categories about what either sex can and can’t do. This is by no means to say that as a society we have overcome these boundaries; but what Leibowitz’s project shows is the diversity of women in the world around us. Aesthetically, many of the women are photographed facing the camera, but this is done in a variety of different scenario’s; their place of work, a studio set, a place of interest, familiarity or intimacy to the subject. Other’s in environments which seek to show the woman’s character or personality. Overall, the exhibition is one of my favourites from my short time of attending such exhibits. Leibowitz’s ability to both depict the identity of the subject whom she photographs, as well as celebrate and challenge what it means to be a woman is something I truly admire; I hope to be able to capture the essence of an individuals’ true being as well as she can.