Assignment • Yet To Be Realised

We received our new assignment today in our groups, which is titled "Yet To Be Realised", focussing on the circular and linear narrative and how our group can draw upon this. We have been asked to form a series of images as a group, drawing upon the fundamental principles of the photographic narrative. We have been given a chain of people, and the first person who in my group is Kelly, has to capture or source a photograph which avenues of possibility for a narrative structure. Then, the next person in the chain has to then capture a photograph that they feel relates to the meaning of that image, no matter if it is Kelly's intended meaning. Overall, the brief sounds interesting, and I'm sure we will produce a interesting narrative!

Magazine Assignment • Vogue

For the magazine assignment I got given, I decided to look at Vogue magazine (November 2013) at the overall layout of the magazine, content and advertisements that are included within it.

The front cover focusses on Claire Danes, who is a actress who works regularly with Leonardo DiCaprio. A lot of people on forums and Facebook have commented on how she looks completely different in real life compared to how she looks on the cover. I completely agree, if you look at Google Images and some of the red carpet images that have been captured, you can really see the power of Photoshop and how much she has been airbrushed and edited in the front cover image.

The first advertisement when you open up the magazine is for Louis Vuitton, which is a fold out advertisement containing two photographs (I have shown the advertisement folded out). Vogue tend to have high end fashion advertisements in their magazines, such as Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors and DKNY which are brands you would commonly call designer and find in higher end stores such as Selfridges and Harrods. It is typical of the magazine really, as Vogue is an expensive magazine, priced at £3.99 (the magazine this month was on offer at £2 which is pretty reasonable). Magazines like Company and Glamour which are aimed at teenagers and young women, contain advertisements for New Look and Topshop, which is where students and younger people generally shop at. Vogue is aimed at older women and probably people with a higher wage, hence the presence of high end adverts!

I found an interview conducted with Claire Danes from the front cover inside the magazine, which was spread over a number of pages throughout the magazine. The interview is inter spliced with images of Claire Danes herself, based on Vogues typical fashion photography style that they portray in the magazine.

I sourced a fashion editorial that the photographer Glen Luchford had photographed, based on "sea fashion", including tailored jackets and beach ready hair. I research further into Lutchford's work and what he bases his photographic work on.

Lutchford works mainly with female models in the high fashion editorial industry. He mainly shoots on film or in black and white and his photographs look very vintage and retro. He has shot mainly for Prada, but has also branched out and worked for Calvin Klein, Levi's and Mercedes Benz. He now predominately works as a cinematographer and shoots dark and artificially lit films.

I also noticed when looking at Vogue magazine, it is at least 50% advertisements, mostly high end designer adverts. The amount of money that Vogue makes must be insane!

The Editorial Industry • Jason Lock

Jason Lock gave us an inspirational presentation today, about his tips, tricks and experiences within the editorial industry, and what he recommends to do, and not to do. He had four main areas of exploration; research, notes and archiving, the contact sheet and the feature.

Research

Jason started by explaining that to produce a inspired and good body of work, one must understand the subject well. For example, for my circular narrative, I have done extensive research into the symptoms and signs of OCD and how it can effect someones everyday life. A knowledge of the subject, paired with a personal interest can help in producing a excellent body of work that is inspired from the offset. He also spoke about the photographer Mark Power, whom if he saw a photographic project already completed and published, he would not do it. His ideas needed to be original and not explored, or he didn't consider himself to be a photographer. However, upon reflection, I feel that every idea that could be explored about photography has been explored and exhausted. My job, as a photographer, is the explore the idea and make it better than every other set that has been produced.

He also spoke about scheduling your events and keeping a diary of shooting days. Keeping a diary of where I was on a certain day at what time is difficult for me, as although I would love to be organised with my life, I struggle. Jason told us about clients taking work without copyright, and when the question is raised as to if he met the client on a certain day, he could quickly refer back to his diary or work journal and produce an answer on the spot as to exactly where he was at what time. This would be helpful for legal situations.

Notes/Archiving

Notes and archiving also relate to the latter section of the subject Research that I just spoke about. Making notes of where you was on a certain day is helpful for discussing deadlines for briefs from clients, it also makes you look professional if you can come to a second meeting remembering everything that was said at the first meeting. A photographer working within the editorial industry must remain professional, as the money from jobs such as working with advertising and the like gives us the food to eat and the roof over our heads.

Jason also explored the subject of metadata and how that can come in handy for retaining copyright of an image, and how it can also helped with the unfortunate event of suing someone if they happened to use the image without your consent. Metadata can hold all sorts of information relevant to the photograph; time it was taken, where it was taken, what computer it was edited on, what camera it was taken on and by whom.

Jason also stressed the importance of Model Release Forms and how they can be useful to keep a track of clients and have all their numbers and addresses stored in one place, almost like an address book. It is also helpful for if you want to use the images from a particular shoot for stock purposes, the model has already signed to say that that action is acceptable.

The Contact Sheet

Photographers in the 90's, especially those who used to work as part of Magnum (my dream!), used to use contact sheets as a main way of eliminating images from the final count, and evaluating the images as a whole. There are digital equivalents nowadays, and they can be made through Photoshop or Bridge easily. I never use contact sheets as forms of elimination for my photographs, but after seeing the process well recognised photographers went through after they had their film developed, I can see why it would work. Why should I look on a screen when I can see the photographs right in front of me in the flesh?

This Contact Sheet was produced by the photographer Peter Marlow when he visited the press conference that Margaret Thatcher led during her time in power. Out of all the photographs, there are so many emotions conveyed, such as the photograph fourth from the left at the very top row, conveys a strong sense of friendliness and humour, however, the photograph that Marlow chose to publish shows her as a strong headed woman, a no nonsense character, which suits her media personality very well.

Elliot Erwitt added humour to his photography, and this contact sheet shows him shooting a whole roll of 35mm film on one subject, and reaching a final decision on the final shot. It seems he was so confident he had a good shot, he scrapped the rest of the film? Confidence is key as a photographer, and is something I really need to work on if I want to be successful.

The Feature

I have worked on some editorial and commercial projects recently, I had my work presented on a billboard outside the Trafford Centre, as well as in Drapers Fashion magazine, which is a fantastic achievement, however, Jason's advise was still relevant, even with experience. Remember the key elements; don't get carried away with the things YOU want to get out of the brief, concentrate on what the brief setter has asked and fulfil it as much as possible. What the editor wants is not always who you would want, but remember who is paying you!

Cropping Assignment • Martin Parr, Don McCullin & Vivian Maier

We were assigned a cropping activity over the weekend following our cropping lecture on Wednesday. I decided to concentrate on the work of Martin Parr, Don McCullin and Vivian Maier and look at how the message and meaning of their work can be altered by using cropping alone.

MARTIN PARR

I chose this image to crop from his series of photographs titled "Signs of the Times" which focussed on the personal tastes in British design within the home, and why people chose certain things to appear in their houses. I cropped this image in the following ways:

6x4

I firstly cropped this in a 6x4 inch format, which is how I usually see my photographs at home printed. I cropped from just above the mans head and just below the woman's shoes. I felt this demonstrated a tighter crop, and if we was not concentrating on the series as a whole and what Parr was trying to demonstrate in this collective, it would make for a better photograph.

7x5

I then cropped this in a 7x5 inch format, which give the photograph more depth and gives extra room on all sides of the models. It is similar to the original photograph, yet I feel this gets rid of the dead space at the top and bottom of the photograph.

Square

I then decided to crop this in a square format like many photographers who worked in the 90's would present their photographs because of the crop on 120 film. I do not like the image cropped in a square format, as it takes away the interesting subject matter to the left and right.

Panoramic

I then decided to crop this in a panoramic style and I believe that it works too, but not as well as the 6x4 and 7x5 format I displayed earlier. This type of crop keeps all the subject matter important to Parr's subject series, but I feel that by cutting the woman's legs off causes the photograph to look unnatural.

Meaning

I decided to crop the photograph with just the woman sat in the chair. When I looked closer into the photograph as a whole, I saw that the woman look inferior to the male as he was stood up, towering above her, whilst she was sat down as if she was lower than he was. This was typical of the time, as men were seen to be a greater sex than women were, however, by cropping the image, so the woman is lone in the shot sat in a chair, there is no hierarchy to compare her too. She looks like the most important person in the image, as she is. Therefore, I have changed the meaning of the image to her being the lower power figure in the photograph, to being the higher and only.

Focus

I have changed the focus here by cropping the show the upper torso of the male figure in the photograph, and then changed the crop so he was placed exactly on the rule of thirds line to the right. This changed the focus from the surroundings to him exclusively.

DON MCCULLIN

Here is the original photograph that I chose to crop, as it is one of my favourite photographs to date by Don McCullin. Don McCullin is a war photographer who travelled all over the world to document the wars and crisis'.

6x4

I cropped this photograph in a 6x4 and not only do I feel it gives a tighter and more condensed crop, but it also gets rid of the policeman in the right hand side who seems to be talking to another policeman. I felt this made the image a bit messy and this crop gets rid of that and concentrates on the main purpose of the photograph. I love how all the policemen are just staring at the man on the floor, in a sense of disbelief?

Panoramic

I then cropped this photograph in a panoramic composition, with just the policemen's heads in shot. I felt this gave a certain mystery to the photograph, what are they looking at and why?

Square

I then cropped it in a square format and placed the protester central in the composition. I felt this gave it a clear and crisp composition and made the photograph look tidy and neat (my OCD shining through perhaps?). It, again, cut out the talking policeman to the right which I find distracting.

Message

I cropped so you could just see the protester and the policeman's legs, but then this shot takes a completely different meaning. This person could be a child who is just sat on the floor, and the policemen no longer look like policemen, they just look like people in black trousers. By just using this simple crop, I take the viewer from knowing exactly what is happening in the photograph to knowing nothing at all.

Focus

I then took a completely different direction, I decided to place the talking policeman on the right rule of thirds line, making him one of the main focusses of the image. I then also placed the protester and foreground policeman on the left rule of third, making them a fore point of the photograph.

VIVIAN MAIER

I decided to, for my final cropping assignment, to concentrate on the work of Vivian Maier. Lawrence and Jason introduced me to her work and I am addicted!

6x4

I cropped this in a 6x4 format, and it works really well in concentrating solely on the man with the crutches rather than the passersby. The feet of the people in the background still give the viewer a knowledge that they are walking by.

10x8

I had not tried the 10x8 inch cropping format until this image, and was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I cropped this image just below the foreground passersby's faces to give them a sense of anonymousity.

Panoramic

I then decided to crop this in a panoramic format and was not impressed. I thought the other panoramic crops worked really well, but this one cuts out most of the detail. We can no longer see that the man in the foreground is disabled, and we cannot see that the people are ignoring him either. However, if you had originally seen the photograph and then seen it cropped, it holds a good composition because the girl in the background who is looking back is on the right hand side rule of thirds line making her the main focus point of the image.

Focus

I also concentrated on that last statement, and made the girl the main focus in this image, I placed her on the right hand side rule of thirds line to make her one of the central pieces of attention in the image.

Message

I cropped the entirety of the image out to leave just these two walking ladies in the image, which changed the whole meaning of the image. Instead of us focussing on the disabled homeless man being ignored by the passersby, we see these two ladies immersed in conversation having a relatively good day, which is a completely contrast to the darkness of the original. 

Vivian Maier • An Analysis

During this session we were introduced to the work of Vivian Maier and the importance of context and cropping. Vivian Maier was a secret photographer and was not discovered internationally until she died in 2009. Her work was found in a storage bin in the USA, and after the finder tried to track her down, her work became recognised for being a fantastic street photographer.

Above is Vivian Maier, when a person bought the storage bin at an auction, he found between 100,000-150,000 negatives, 3,000 prints, 700+ rolls of the unprocessed film and a collection of home movies and audio recordings. This woman, who was a nanny by trade, was never recognised as a photographer, and practiced her "hobby" in secret, but turned out to be one of the most talked about street photographers of all time. She travelled the world documenting people and places that she found and has a wide collection of imagery of hundreds of different people. She visited Los Angeles, Maila, Bangkok and Italy, as well as a variety of other places. She used a Rolliflex camera during her early years, but then moved on to using colour film on a Leica.

This is one of my favourite photographs that Vivian Maier took, and is based on the face the person is looking directly at the camera. It almost looks posed, but we can tell it is street photography because of Vivian Maier's typical style. In the trailer for the Vivian Maier film which is being release round about now, one of the people who knew her said that judging by her photographs, she gained the trust of people instantly as they were able to look directly at the camera without seemingly being asked too.

I find it hard to believe that such a fantastic street photographer can have kept her talent secret for her entire life, she had such a passion and drive to capture the beauty of people she had never met before. I love the simplicity of her photographs, the way people simply gaze into the cameras lens without a care in the world with regards to who this woman is and why she is taking their photograph. She has such an elegance within her photography, it is something I admire and would like to have within my street photography. It has also given me the drive to go out on the streets and capture more traditional black and white street photographs and spend more time analysing the work of her. I have decided I am going to purchase her book of work, as I admire her work greatly.

Session Reflection • 02/10/2013

We began the session today with an activity in our groups where we had to distinguish authors and criminals from each other in a catalogue of mug shots and portraits. Our group got 7/17, which was not bad, but we were fooled by just assuming the people who had the mugshots in the typical prison line up way were criminals, when in actual fact, they were authors. This gave us a strong base to begin our session with, as we already knew a bit about pre-conceptions of people from imagery through doing this activity.

Jason Lock the went on to discuss the power of photographs and how anyone can take a photograph and call it art, and how we need to step up our game, so to speak, and become "photographers", rather than a person with a camera. I learnt that the way photography is looked at has changed. In the old days, when film cameras were used and digital was not around, people took photography as a gift, as a special thing that was precious. People used one or two rolls of film a year, for example, a roll of film would contain the family holiday they took during the summer, as well as the big Christmas meal they had. Photography was precious, as well as expensive, so they savoured the moments they had and took the best as photographic memories. In the modern day, people take photographs all the time, whether it be their breakfast, a page in a book to remember the words or a new pair of shoes, people don't take photography as a precious thing anymore, it's part of our everyday life.

The next subject we delved into was how our perceptions change because of the context in which an image is presented in. Lawrence guided us through a series of scenarios and asked us how our perceptions changed because of the situation the photograph was placed in. Here are my thoughts:

• Image viewed on a computer screen: no importance to me personally, they could be anyone from anyone, the woman and man in question looked like they were going to a wedding, and the woman was a bridesmaid, but it was a typical couples shot

• Image viewed in a photo album on a bookshelf at someones home: the image obviously has some significance to the person who owns the photo album, I thought it would be the man that was of a significant importance to the woman as men don't often compile photo albums for themselves or family

• Image viewed in a photo frame: the image or the person in the image is obviously special, depending where the photograph in the frame is viewed, if it was on a wall it would be more important than a image at a desk or somewhere were you cannot see it fully.

• Image viewed in a frame on a white wall: again, image is obviously of some importance otherwise why is it on the wall? A white wall suggests a gallery location, rather than a house. Is it part of an exhibition? If so, why?

• Image viewed in a frame, on a white wall, in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (prestigious internationally renowned art gallery): the person in the photographs has some worth, but the person who has taken the photographs is the one with the most importance, we look at the photograph and look for a deeper meaning, rather than just thinking "yeah, it's just a cute photograph of a couple at a wedding", we think "why has this photographer taken this photograph? Is it part of an set of photographs with the same theme?"

The photograph we analysed was part of the exhibition by Rankin titled ALIVE: In The Face of Death, and the above works featured old photographs of his parents before they died recently. He also photographed several people who were in the "face of the death", such as suffering from a terminal illness or having a condition which shortens their life, or people who faced death and overcame it.

Above is a woman named Sandra, who is a 48 year old mother from Switzerland, who suffered from breast cancer 8 years ago and was given one year to live by the doctors. She overcame that but the cancer has now spread, making the cancer spread to her brain and becoming terminal. All Sandra can do now is have chemotherapy to prolong her life and fight. Sandra said when talking to Rankin "she is displaying her inner warrior" (Walker Art Gallery, 2013) in the photographs and through her battle.

Above is Louise who was a 42 year old charity worker from Edinburgh, and she had untreatable bone cancer. She spoke about how a terminal illness means much more to someone who suffers from it, compared to someone who doesn't. To her, it is a life changing word, which can change the rest of your life, however short it can be. Louise died shortly after the launch of the exhibition.

I am not overly keen on the work of Rankin, I find his studio work that is NOT fashion to be very bland. Obviously, this project was going to upset people and tug on the heart strings, but without hearing the context behind the set, I would never have known what the photograph was supposed to represent.