TASK ONE - SELFIE VS SELF PORTRAIT
to me as a photographer there is a big difference between a selfie and a self portrait. a selfie is typically casual and not too much thought goes into details such as technique and planning like a self portrait would do. the. main way people take selfies is by using a handheld cellular device which typically has a small and compact lens to take the image which reduces the quality compared to a lens on a professional camera. I think that social media has massively changed the way people take photographs and how people use images, for people use their selfies on social media which is a very fast moving and trendy place for images therefore users want a really quick and easy way to upload their photo from their device. whereas historically self portraits were very formal and also costly, usually involving the subjects to be posed and dressed up accordingly dating back to the 1900s when self portraits were only accessible got the higher and middle class and having a self portrait connoted high authority and ranking in society.
my self portrait
my self portrait was taken using studio lights and with a backdrop , I also used a dslr camera and a tripod. you can tell my image quality is high because you can zoom into my image and the pixels won't deteriorate.
MY SELFIE
as you can see from this image some aspects of the photo are slightly distorted like the face shape and the focus of the background , also one of the subjects wasn't ready for the image and I really think this goes to show how careless and disposable images are nowadays.
ARTIST RESEARCH FOR SELF PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
for my research I looked into some of Vivian Maier's work. Maier was a woman who made a living working as a nanny. She walked the streets of New York with a camera in her hand , predating modern projects such as the humans of New York by decades (she truly was ahead of her time). By combining street photography with self portraiture , Viviane used to catch her reflections in mirrors and shop windows.during her lifetime her work went unnoticed and unpublished , while today her work enjoys a lot of attention and is being exhibited worldwide.
after researching Vivian Maier I felt extremely inspired specifically how she incorporates her location into her images and the feeling of identity that goes hand in hand with this. I think her work stuck out to me and touched me personally as I have only just moved to London and can't wait to have this sense of identity with my new home.
TASK TWO- STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
Initial ideas for classic street Photography
when I think of street Photography I imagine black and white grainy film images in my head, I always think of early 1980s New York for some reason and I think in a lot of the more classic street photography artwork that the images are quite simple but aesthetically pleasing to they , a lot of subtle techniques are used such as rule of thirds and large depth of field. in my opinion A lot of the classic street Photographers use the city as a backdrop and focus on an interesting subject or unusual aspect of their frame to create a juxtaposition , making their image more interesting
artist research for classic street Photography
I have looked into William Klein for my classic street Photography research. Klien is an American born French photographer and film maker , most commonly known for his ironic approach to media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in context of fashion and photojournalism photography. Klein was asked by vogue to produce a photobook of New York , he recorded the city's vibrancy and grittiness , producing an uncompromising portrait that the magazine rejected.Klein later went onto take his images and publish them under the title ' life is good and good for you in New York".
this is an image Klein took in 1954 on st Patricks day, I love this image as I think it brings together all of the classic street photography connotations such as the black and white image taken in film , the documentation of human activity and also location stamping the image with aspects of the area like shops and other minute details in the background.
initial ideas for contemporary street photography
I think contemporary street photography is a bit harder to create, you need to really be tuned into your creative senses to create a bold and effective image. I associate the word contemporary with colour , modernism and overall playfulness
artist research for contemporary street photography
I chose to look into a photographer named Beat Streuli for my artist research. beat streuli is a Swiss born visual artist whose work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and museums . he is well known for his street portraiture in which he documents the daily life on the streets of big cities . his initial work followed the lead of Russian constructivism , gradually the outer world started to enter streuli's works. in 1994 he started to shoot in the big city of New York.
the approach
I think in the modern world Beat Streuli's approach of contemporary Photography is much more achievable just by walking out the door with a camera due the modern public being so used to privacy invasion and people taking photos randomly compared to Kleins work where a lot of the public are puzzled as to why their photo is being taken. I think the big difference between the two artists work is how the subject reacts to having their photo taken which really shows the evolution of street Photography. I also think that Kleins work is different to Streuli's work in the sense its more thoughtful , Klein used film so he. had to make sure everything was correct technically like lighting and shutter speed as. well as physically developing images.
my classic street photo
I took this image using a 35mm camera therefore I was quite close to the subject, this is how I got that same effect Klein has in his im ages where the subject is. puzzled, it was actually quite hard to find this reaction but it was fun tp try. I edited the image into black and white to give it that vintage effect . I really like how I framed the man inside of the trees and bollards which creates a lot of leading lines. I also like how the foreground has a shallow depth of field swell as the. background but items. in the middle ground like the stop sign and the trees and pavement have great detail.
my contemporary photo
my image was inspired by Beat Streuli's voyeristic pov which A lot pf his street Photography artwork has , its almost like being on cctv and has an off-putting vibe because you know the subject most likely isn't aware their photograph is being taken to accomplish this look I used a zoom lens so the. subject. wouldn't notice me. I also like this image because the colours are all bright and I love the reflection which mirrors the subject and I also love the shallow depth of field so the background doesn't take away too much attention from the subject
TASK THREE ARCHITECTURE
classic architecture research
I looked into the work of Bernice Abbot for inspiration on classic architecture pictures, Abbot did some work experience in Paris for a few years and arrived back to New York in 1929, on her arrival abbot was shocked. by the rapid transformation of the built landscape and claimed that 'old New York was disappearing ' . on the eve of the Great Depression Abbot began a series of documentary photographs picturing the vast structural elements of the big city.
Bernice Abbotys image taken in 1929 , the facade Alwyn court
my classic architecture picture
I really love this image , I used a 35mm cannon camera lens as I stood underneath this beautiful grand building. I pointed the camera up towards the sky to create an overwhelming feeling for whoever is viewing my image.
Contemporary architecture research
whilst looking among many contemporary architecture photographers Leana Cagnotto really stood out tome in particular due to. her incising images. Leana was born in Italy, she specialised in architecture and interior design. she has a visually pleasing minimalist Approach to her photographs the lack of everyday life and nature in her images creates an almost ' too perfect' look and really reminds me of the movie the Truman show where everything is a set.
my contemporary architecture image
my favourite part of this image is probably the colour, I had to edit it quite bit to make the skyline clear and make the colour of the sky stick out and be noticeable but also still look uniform. the statue has a special meaning to. me as its located in Greenwich and I walk past it everyday to get to uni so taking a nice -picture of it so other people can appreciate it meant alot to me .
after taking this image I up-loaded it to my photography instagram account and the greenwich peninsulist commented
TASK FOUR - BUILT ENVIRONMENT
I looked into photographer Pauline miller for inspiration on how to capture human movement in the city, I really liked how she used slow shutter speed to dramatise the amount of people in the city and create the busy feeling of being in the big city
pauline uses slow shutter speed and high DOF in order to capture the motion surrounding me. This photo was taken in a particularly busy area in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay. Pauline stood up in a shop window front in order to gain a better perspective.
my built environment Photographs
I took some advice from Pauline and got to a high viewpoint above a busy place, I took. this picture above the exit of Canada place mall and changed my shutter speed to 1 second while people walked around. I really like the clocks and how it creates symmetry in my picture
my built environment image with no people
I took this picture from my balcony using a zoom lens with helped me ensure nobody else was in the picture, I thought the sunset was really nice and it also highlights all of the construction happening around me which links to the idea of living in a ' built environment'
I think focusing on human behaviour when taking photos really changes the image and the undertones of it. I preferred taking pictures with people in them because I got to experiment more with techniques as well as producing different images
TASK 6- ENVIRONMENT
TASK 7- NATURE
TASK 9- DIARY
