Professional Life Practice
Selfie vs. Self Portrait
To me, a selfie is a ‘spur of the moment’ image that has far less thought behind it compared to a self portrait. The composition is not necessarily important and is quickly done. They can be inspired by anything such as an event, wanting to capture a moment or even something like noticing the lighting is nice. There is little prep involved compared to something like a self-portrait which, can be quick, but can also take days or weeks of planning and executing depending on the idea. There is far less intention behind the image. The selfie I have chosen to show is one of my friend and I in Hyde Park on the day of the queens funeral, we were quite bored and I was fidgeting with my phone and noticed my camera as I was holding it from a low angle and thought it would be an amusing picture to take so I did. I didn’t particularly care if it looked nice or try to make us look good as its not a very flattering angle but it was more for the memory and humour behind it.
A self-portrait, in my opinion, is far more deliberate. I think there tends to be a stronger sense of narrative to the images and aim to show an insight into the person being photographed. This can be done in numerous different ways and takes more thought than your average selfie. I think self-portraits have more minuscule details which can be recognised to those who seek them out and tend to serve more of a purpose than to simply ‘look good’ which I think a vast majority of selfies are made to do. That is not to say neither can go hand in hand but I think in general this is the main difference and can be noticed when looked for. My self-portrait was inspired by Dash Snow who took a portrait in his bedroom which I thought was unique and gaged an insight into who he is to the viewer which I wanted to replicate. I sat at my desk where I sit everyday and did work on my computer as I took a photo of myself from a birds-eye view to show myself and my bedroom. I think this angle made the image look more genuine as although it was set up, everything in the room was as it usually is and the way I was sat and what I was doing was nothing abnormal. You can see what is on my shelf, how I sit, my bedding etc and I think this can really show the type of person you are and I liked the idea of that.
Dash Snow
Dash snow was my reference. He is a lifestyle photographer from New York and I really enjoyed his photo as I felt capturing himself in his bedroom was a really interesting way of taking a self portrait. I feel like our bedrooms are a really personal place and show an insight into who we are which works really well with what my idea of a portrait is. His room looked untouched, with his bedding thrown to one side, his shelves cluttered and overflowing and the art on his wall being wonky creates a really raw image and creates this almost vulnerable image which intrigued me.
Classic vs. Contemporary Street Photographers
Vivienne Maier - Classic
Vivienne Mayer was an American street photographer. Her work was quite varied but always had quite a deep depth of field involved. She tended to involve both people and architecture in her photographs rather than focusing more on one or the other, and both were of equal importance in my opinion. The people created a story and the buildings and backgrounds added detail, context and depth. Her images almost create a scene as you engage with each one and there is always something to look at, which I find engaging as a viewer and inspiring as a photographer. Her angle is always from a persons perspective, which I think works very well for her style of photography as it transports you to the exact moment and allows the viewer to feel as though they are looking at the scene with their own eyes through the lens. Her images don't involve a lot of contrast between the colours - the majority of her work is in black and white due to the time period and costs of developing but I think this makes it all quite cohesive and makes her work quite identifiable. They have quite soft tones and are very evenly lit which looks really nice on the architecture as it allows the different shapes and signs stand out evenly and nothing it too overpowering. I think a standard lens was used and little modification was made to the images during development.
Beat Streuli - Contemporary
In my opinion, Streuli’s work is much more focal than Maier’s. She uses a much shorter depth of field and really focuses on that subject whether it is a person, a vehicle or building. There is much less going on in a visual sense but that does not take away from the quality of the images. Her images aren’t busy but carry a lot of detail. For example, the textures in a persons face, raindrops on a car or the colours of a building, all minute details but very noticeable and transformative to the overall image. I believe she would’ve used a zoom (find out term) lens for her work as all of the people she photographs seem to be unaware of it or any thing/object fills the frame when in reality they will be quite small attributes.
When approaching this task I wanted to try and capture a candid moment involving a person or people as I was inspired by the way Maier did this. It adds much more depth to the final image in my opinion and can create a story. I stumbled across a man carrying golf clubs down a road between apartment buildings and thought it looked interesting. I like the extra detail that the golf clubs bring to the photo, this is what helps create a scene and allow the viewer to formulate their own story and character. I think the composition works particularly well as the man is fairly central but the frame he doesn’t fill is filled by the tall apartment buildings which almost act as leading lines guiding the viewers eye towards him.
I wanted to focus on architecture for the contemporary shoot and decided to explore Manchester when I was visiting as I felt like it offered a more unique approach to the task as I would be in a different city to my peers. I took inspiration from Beat Streuli and the way that she focuses on a singular subject and for me I focused on a building near Oxford Road. The white of the building contrasted really well with the completely blue sky and reminded me of the way clouds contrast with it - I feel like it highlights the contrast between the built and natural environment and how features of each can accentuate one another and create a unique beauty. I also like the details of the windows and the repetitiveness of them, each one designed the same but holding a different image in their reflections combining together to create a unique image.
Classic vs. Abstract Architectural Photographers
When shooting for my abstract shoot, I was looking for leading lines and buildings that contrasted with one another, I took this image as I really liked how both buildings had different shapes and colours but created a leading line between themselves. They contrast really nicely and even the different sizes works together to add an extra layer of depth. The sun is casted directly onto one side whilst the other is darkened due to the way it faces and the angle of the sun. I also really like the lamppost involved in the image, It fills the negative space in a really pleasant way and also helped me with my composition as I found it difficult to know which point I should align my camera angle with.
Swee Oh
Swee Oh is an architectural photographer based in San Fransisco. She states that she enjoys challenge of combining both the artistic and the technical in her photography, to achieve a story that will attract the attention of a viewer. Her intentions evidently worked as I found her work to be inspiring for my own task. She almost transforms buildings into art pieces through the way she chooses to photograph them, but in an abstract way. Of course architecture has its own beauty but this beauty can me modified and transformed into something else by altering angles and taking into consideration the space, lines and positive and negative space.
The Built Environment
My first image was heavily inspired by Bley, I was searching for places where nature had taken over due to the space being ignored and abandoned. When I initially heard what the task was I wanted to take each word of ‘built environment’ quite literally and combine them. I took both of my pictures at the barbican, as it worked quite perfectly with the ideas I had. I found some gardens attached to some apartments that I was walking over and found a very lowly maintained one with lots of moss, trees and bushes. I think this garden worked particularly well for this idea as it was in a state of decay physically when looking at the built aspect, but the nature was almost flourishing and creating a new kind of beauty to appreciate.
With my second image I wanted to highlight the combination of nature and man-made and how it can be combined to allow users to appreciate both. Still at the barbican, I shot this picture of a man walking down a path surrounded by nature which I’m presuming made the walk more pleasant. It shows functionality doesn’t have to eradicate beauty and alter the environment so much so that it destroys it. I think due to London being such a big city with such little green space, it allows you to appreciate the beauty of what it does have and how it can make places significantly better.
Steven Bley - Inspiration
Steven Bley is a photographer based in Northern NJ, he found his love for abandoned buildings in 2009 and was fascinated by the story that everything around him told. He liked being able to convey the past life of a place by photographing its state of decay and piecing together what once was there. This has made him since keep his eyes open to everything around him, taking in the small details which many overlook and seeing beauty in it. I really liked his choice to photograph abandoned buildings as they carry such strong narrative. Especially those where nature has began to take its place once more, I like this idea of nature reclaiming itself and seeing the beauty in this kind of ‘abandonment’ which helped me create my final images.
Environment - Week Six
For this task I was inspired by our previous task in week 4/5 and how I explored the combination of architecture and nature within London, a large city. Nature within London is very much inferior part and I wanted to explore an area that was almost the complete opposite which I had the opportunity to do in Wales, a very rural area. These are two completely different types of environments which completely changes the lifestyles of the inhabitants which I find really interesting. I find it very interesting to compare the two and the different pros and cons of both, I grew up in a suburban town in Greater Manchester which meant I had the privilege of experiencing both lifestyles and now, living in London, I find myself more restricted from nature which allows me to appreciate it a lot more and recognise the benefits of it. I was staying in a cottage in Wales when shooting for this and wanted to capture the solitude of the houses I was surrounded by, I found the lack of architecture so peaceful and pleasing. The beauty of the houses is more so the environment as opposed to the architecture. The narrative of my images is that the environment you are surrounded by is equally as important as the home you inhabit, it completely changes lifestyle, opportunity and point of view which is why I think people should take opportunities to explore different environments and experiences like how I decided to move to London and go to Wales - of course I have a lot of privilege to be able to do such things but even on smaller scales I think its important to explore regardless of a positive or negative outcome.
In regards to inspiration from a photographer, I’d say I was more concept driven and inspired by my previous task than a photographer. I wanted to continue a theme of exploring environment and couldn’t find a photographer looking at a similar concept to me but I didn’t feel as though I needed one for this shoot and was confident enough in my idea to pursue it.
Nature - Week Seven and Eight
My images for this task were taken over a course of multiple days. I had been going on walks along a beach near the cottage I was staying in and found a lot of dead jellyfish. I found it quite comical at first as it was unexpected and by curious nature I inspected all of them for a while, taking in the autonomy and details of these creatures. I think they are quite unusual as they are sea creatures that are pretty much see-through which isn’t very common. The sizes and shapes all varied and it was very interesting. I took pictures of a lot of them during my walk to capture the fascinating details - I used manual set up with an average shutter speed of around 1/125, f8 and iso adjusted based on the sunlight as it was partially cloudy 100-400.
Chris Jordan
For this task, I wanted to challenge myself to do something different and as I was looking through photographers, I was drawn to Chris Jordan who took pictures of dead birds filled with land waste presumably to make a political statement. His photography is very political and leans towards the harmfulness of mass waste and our overpopulation. His images are about our consumerism and how it affects the more defenceless. I think he creates very strong pieces of work and I was particularly intrigued by his images of bird carcasses. Although his intention is to highlight our consumerism, I was more drawn towards the autonomy of the bird and its decay. I thought it was an interesting concept to find these bodies and actually found myself amongst many dead jellyfish whilst visiting a beach. It was very fascinating as it allowed me to really admire and investigate the details I would typically be unable to view due to the fact that it is a dangerous animal and lives in the sea. These jellyfish died naturally due to the tide moving in and out whilst they were still in. I decided to take pictures of them as it is not common for the greater population to be able to see such a thing and I wanted to capture its beauty. I think they fit this theme due to it being apart of nature, the subjects themselves are wild animals, or invertebrates to be specific, and the way they died was as natural as possible and wasn’t really caused by anyone. I think my images highlight how death doesn’t have to be ugly and brutal, it is simply a part of life that we all go through and can be very beautiful.
Diary - Week Nine
For our final task, I wanted to have a narrative all of my images followed, or even combined to show it. I looked through all of my images from this project and noticed a theme of humans and nature, I have made it clear I think nature is an important aspect of life and should be treated as such, but I do think it is often overlooked and half cared for. With that in mind, I wanted to take images of ignored or abandoned stuff within nature where nature has almost tried to reclaim itself. This was an outdoors shoot and I explored different areas and looked out for anything left on its own or clearly unused by humans in a significant amount of time. I ended up finding a deserted digger of some sort surrounded by bushes and leaves that hide it from plain sight. I love the contrast the digger had in the images, its bright orange complex completely different to the greens and browns it was surrounded by. I also found a rusted chair on its own as well as a greenhouse with little maintenance and a handmade log burner to cook outdoors. I think the colours of each image really compliment one another, I felt very confident taking my images as I understood the mechanics of my camera more from practical sessions in university. I adjusted exposure, iso and white balance where necessary to help bring out the colours as much as possible. I shot towards the time on sunset so the images have a warm hue which works really nicely with the colours of the subjects I shot.
I looked for photographers who focused on abandoned things and places. I came across Darmon Richter’s blog called exutopia, which focused on the history, politics and folklore of places which is essentially what I was looking at as well. He looked for ruins and anything abandoned and took really interesting images, which leads the viewer to wonder what lead to such decay and abandonment. His images are very open framed, and I wanted to be more focal in my images but I think his are like this due to the scale of the places he shot - he typically shoots buildings or large spaces. I like his concept and style of photography.
