Community
A community can be a society of people all living in the same locality, a group of people who have common interests or even a form of belong. We were asked to think of the different communities that we live in and around, these can be organised groups, friend groups or accidental and temporary groups of people. When thinking about our own community we were asked to list words that we felt described the community that surrounds us. Broken, Diverse, busy and simple are words that I felt accurately some up the area I live in as there is such a strong contrast between the busy highroad and the quiet pristine flats.
Statement of intent
In this project I intend to represent my community by focusing on capture strong photographs of building work, areas that are being cleared out, road works etc that are currently on going in my in area. I feel my community is constantly trying to be improved, there is always some form of construction work going on, often causing a lot of disruption and the outcomes do not always have a positive effect on the community.
In this set of photographs the lighting was the most important element, I chose to take these photographs as the sun was going down to capture a more intense light quality. Using photoshop I enhanced the contrast increasing the intensity of the shadows to create more dramatic view of the construction work. I also experimented with using a black and white colour scheme to emphasis the dark tones and shadows in comparison to the natural light reflected of the signs
Artist Analysis : Steffi Klenz
After deciding upon a theme to focus on for “my community” I went on to research artists that worked in a similar style to what I wanted to capture. From this I was most inspired by Steffi Klenz’s series of photographs “Nonsuch”. The photographic series presents a feel of estrangement in its depiction of an abandoned town, free of people, litter and personal details. This is done through Klenz capturing on the “model” town, representing a new urban development in a more “ideal civic society’ view.I feel that by avoiding capturing people in any of her photographs Steffi Klenz is trying to portray an urban space free of human presence, this is an element I want to carry on in my own photographs as a “community” is based around people whether its through common interests, where they live , beliefs or interests, however, by removing people from an area shows how new developments and improvements in urban areas do not necessarily bring people together as one community.The lighting is also a key element Klenz focus’s on in her photographs. The unnatural lighting creates a very mundane colour scheme with the soft brightness subtly enhancing the tone. I feel this element symbolises how an urban development free of people, removes all dramatic emotions and elements, creating a lifeless photograph.The strongest element would be the composition each photograph is specifically spaced and balanced helping to emphasis the artificial perception of a perfect and ideal model town.
Overall I would like to develop my photographs into the style of Steffi Klenz’s work , capturing an ideal urban space in my own community by disregarding human presence and focusing on architecture.
Overall I would like to develop my photographs into the style of Steffi Klenz’s work , capturing an ideal urban space in my own community by disregarding human presence and focusing on architecture.
After researching Sfteffi Klenz I went on to capture my own photographs with the same intent of capturing an ideal urban space. I chose to capture a variety of different estates that all had very similar architecture as I feel the lack of originality and the sense of repetition through out the community creates an unrealistic ideal perception of the area as every photograph is free from personal detail.
I focused on removing all colour from the sky and the background to create a very mundane setting, this emphasis’s the rich tones of the buildings and creates an overall perfect contrast between the tones of the greenery and the architecture. Composition was a very important element when taking these photographs, I wanted to stick to a central to create a strong symmetrical and balanced composition, again emphasising the idea of idealistic urban area.
I focused on removing all colour from the sky and the background to create a very mundane setting, this emphasis’s the rich tones of the buildings and creates an overall perfect contrast between the tones of the greenery and the architecture. Composition was a very important element when taking these photographs, I wanted to stick to a central to create a strong symmetrical and balanced composition, again emphasising the idea of idealistic urban area.
To continue the theme of “Community” we were each given an artist to research, we then had to explore a different community capturing photographs using elements of their work.When I first saw Liang Yue’s work I was intrigued to know the meaning behind why each photograph included a man holding a light in her photographs and what it represented. Each photograph has a very mundane scene, mainly urban-like, the colours schemes very de-saturated, all these elements emphasis the man holding a light, keeping him as the main focus. I feel the strongest element in her photographs is the composition. The man is central in most photographs, or to the side but still in the foreground. This creates a strong and upfront composition for each photograph and also enhances the contrast of subject matter between the man and the urban location he is standing in.In my own photographs I would like to take forward the concept of her work, I plan on using light as my own form of language. I want to focus on avoiding capturing any people by locating my photographs in desolate parts of the area to capture the same lifeless atmosphere.
Artist Anaylsis : Liang Yue
Liang Yue is a photographer from Shanghai whose work is concerned with "the perception of the city's physical and social architecture". As inspiration for my community photographs I looked at her most recent project, Morse code. This is a set of photographs consisting of a model standing in common spaces around shanghai with a torch at dusk. I was inspired by Liang Yue’s specific timing of day, she attempts to mark and record that moment between day and evening in each photograph. The light quality during dusk creates an intense atmosphere between the end of daylight and the bright city night lighting, the photographer describes this as the torch's light 'pricks' the tension of this atmosphere.Another strong element in these photographs is the location, all the photographs are free of human presence representing a feel of isolation in a usually heavily crowded shanghai.
This was the final photograph i submitted for the community project. In this photograph I wanted to portray light as alanguage by creating a sense of life in a desolate area. The mundane colourscreate an intense atmosphere emphasising the strong central composition of thelight. Overall the most important element in this photograph is the location;this was shot five minutes from a heavily populated college and a busy mainroad, by capturing a photograph free of human presence I wanted to representisolation and a sense of alienation in a usually heavily crowded community.StartFragmentEndFragment
After researching Liang Yue I went on to capture my own photographs using her intent of light as a form of language as inspiration. Instead of copying the idea of a man with I light I wanted to keep my photographs free of human presence so using Photoshop I included trails of light in a variety of locations from the busy city to the empty countryside.
I did this as I wanted the light to used as a form of language to bring a sense and feel of life back into different areas. I wanted to represent how people can feel isolated in different communities whether its because they live in an area with fewer people or feel alone in a heavily busy city. By capturing these locations and replacing the presence of people with light it doesn’t focus on specifics but instead can be used as a language to represent everyone.
I did this as I wanted the light to used as a form of language to bring a sense and feel of life back into different areas. I wanted to represent how people can feel isolated in different communities whether its because they live in an area with fewer people or feel alone in a heavily busy city. By capturing these locations and replacing the presence of people with light it doesn’t focus on specifics but instead can be used as a language to represent everyone.
Artist Analysis : Lina Scheynius
This untitled photograph was taken by Swedish photographer Lina Scheynius, as part of a summer 2008 photographic journal.
I chose this photographer to study as I was immediately drawn to all work, in each photograph a fragile intimacy has been captured, creating a strong delicate element. I felt her work would provide strong inspiration for my theme of “belonging” as she captures variations of sensuous atmospheres, ranging from dark rooms, to cloudy skies showing a range of different ideals of serene locations and atmospheres.
This photograph was taken as a portrait series for a fashion editorial, I feel the out of focus creates a mysterious element to the photograph, creating a strong visually interesting image.
The natural source of lighting creates a strong contrast between the background and subject matter. Lina Scheynius always works with a light source that exists in our everyday life. The soft light quality enhances a strong ray of grey tones creating a calm and mood enhancing light form.
There is a strong unbalanced composition in this photograph; often her compositions are not intentional, however I feel it is one of the strongest elements in this photograph as it creates a non-posed, natural photograph
This is photograph also appealed to me as her work is often shot in colour film, so the fact that this is a black and white tonal photograph I feel captured a more intense atmosphere.
Her photographs are usually taken in film however this was part of a portrait set shot in digital, by shooting out of focus and leaving the photograph unedited creates a natural strength of the contrasts in tones and the subtle light overall capturing a pure and soft photograph.
Other work by Lina Scheynius includes subtle portraits of people she has a relationship with in their natural surroundings.. Many of these are people in a bathroom. This is primarily because it's one of the few places in the world that is private and Scheynius finds it intriguing to capture a person in a place where you would not usually let anyone else in, unless they were personally close to you.
All her photographs are personal to the photographer as she never intentionally has a viewer in mind for her photographs, she just focus’s on capturing moments in her life rather than constantly carrying around a camera. Overall I feel this gives all her photographs an evocative intimacy and turns her photography into a documenting tool for her viewers to see her world.
I chose this photographer to study as I was immediately drawn to all work, in each photograph a fragile intimacy has been captured, creating a strong delicate element. I felt her work would provide strong inspiration for my theme of “belonging” as she captures variations of sensuous atmospheres, ranging from dark rooms, to cloudy skies showing a range of different ideals of serene locations and atmospheres.
This photograph was taken as a portrait series for a fashion editorial, I feel the out of focus creates a mysterious element to the photograph, creating a strong visually interesting image.
The natural source of lighting creates a strong contrast between the background and subject matter. Lina Scheynius always works with a light source that exists in our everyday life. The soft light quality enhances a strong ray of grey tones creating a calm and mood enhancing light form.
There is a strong unbalanced composition in this photograph; often her compositions are not intentional, however I feel it is one of the strongest elements in this photograph as it creates a non-posed, natural photograph
This is photograph also appealed to me as her work is often shot in colour film, so the fact that this is a black and white tonal photograph I feel captured a more intense atmosphere.
Her photographs are usually taken in film however this was part of a portrait set shot in digital, by shooting out of focus and leaving the photograph unedited creates a natural strength of the contrasts in tones and the subtle light overall capturing a pure and soft photograph.
Other work by Lina Scheynius includes subtle portraits of people she has a relationship with in their natural surroundings.. Many of these are people in a bathroom. This is primarily because it's one of the few places in the world that is private and Scheynius finds it intriguing to capture a person in a place where you would not usually let anyone else in, unless they were personally close to you.
All her photographs are personal to the photographer as she never intentionally has a viewer in mind for her photographs, she just focus’s on capturing moments in her life rather than constantly carrying around a camera. Overall I feel this gives all her photographs an evocative intimacy and turns her photography into a documenting tool for her viewers to see her world.
After researching Lina Scheynius i took inspiration from her self portraits a captured a small set of photographs of myself in my bedroom. I decided these two were the most effective outcomes as i like the rich grainy texture from the poor quality of light. These photographs were taken in the early morning straight after waking up to capture a more personal and natural subject matter.
For my next set of photographs I still wanted to focus on the "city life" side of belonging just in a different perspective. I themed this set around familiarity, this is as people often find what they've have always been around and used to the most comforting. I chose to photograph a rough estate in my area, as it's an atmosphere I've grown up around since I was young.
I focused oncreating a dull and mundane background so the buildings do not appearattractive. This creates a strong contrast between the gray sky and the richbrown textures of the walls. By increasing the contrast small details on thebuildings are enhanced creating more visually interesting photographs. Composition isanother strong element in these photographs; each photograph was taken from a worm’seye view from various angles. This creates a range of compositions fromunbalanced to symmetrical. I thenexperimented with changing some of the photographs to a black and white tonalrange to create a more intense atmosphere. The white sky emphasizes the darkshadows of the buildings overall creating a much more dramatic mood.
Artist Analysis : Nicolai Howalt
Nicolai Howalt is a Danish photographer who’s work carries references to the tradition of documentarism. His work is typically based in specific environments, for example his how to hunt series, which balanced the art of hunting and a series of beautiful landscapes.
I was inspired by Nicolai Howalt’s “How to hunt” series, as it consists of beautiful and interesting photographs of a modern portrayal of hunting as a ritualised performance that was once a basic human need.The artist says “ This thread is central to How to Hunt. There’s no blood, no guts �" the kill itself is not in focus. Just as modern society chooses to elide the actual reality of slaughter, so our images are an aestheticised rendition of the hunt, reflecting its recreative rather than essential nature”
Despite hunting being the main prospect of the photographs I chose to look at this photographer as the series also features many strong enchanting pictures of the forest where the hunting took place.
With the de-saturated colours the grey sky blends in with the mist, this enhances the right textures of the woodland overall creating a eerie atmosphere. The enhanced lighting contrasting with the grey sky overall creates an enigmatic landscape. The limited tonal range enhances the melancholy colours of autumn and the strong silhouettes of the birds in the grey skies. Overall the series portrays hunting as a romantic affair, avoiding any signs or gore and blood , Nicolai Howalt has managed to capture the graceful elements of hunting, manipulating her photographs to show every step of the kill in a single photograph. In my own photographs I want to portray the same mysterious atmosphere creating a fantasy-like serene atmosphere, taking forward Nicolai Howalt’s use of interesting and enhanced lighting enhancing the rich textures of nature
I was inspired by Nicolai Howalt’s “How to hunt” series, as it consists of beautiful and interesting photographs of a modern portrayal of hunting as a ritualised performance that was once a basic human need.The artist says “ This thread is central to How to Hunt. There’s no blood, no guts �" the kill itself is not in focus. Just as modern society chooses to elide the actual reality of slaughter, so our images are an aestheticised rendition of the hunt, reflecting its recreative rather than essential nature”
Despite hunting being the main prospect of the photographs I chose to look at this photographer as the series also features many strong enchanting pictures of the forest where the hunting took place.
With the de-saturated colours the grey sky blends in with the mist, this enhances the right textures of the woodland overall creating a eerie atmosphere. The enhanced lighting contrasting with the grey sky overall creates an enigmatic landscape. The limited tonal range enhances the melancholy colours of autumn and the strong silhouettes of the birds in the grey skies. Overall the series portrays hunting as a romantic affair, avoiding any signs or gore and blood , Nicolai Howalt has managed to capture the graceful elements of hunting, manipulating her photographs to show every step of the kill in a single photograph. In my own photographs I want to portray the same mysterious atmosphere creating a fantasy-like serene atmosphere, taking forward Nicolai Howalt’s use of interesting and enhanced lighting enhancing the rich textures of nature
After looking at busy and hectic environment i wanted to then look at the complete opposite to show how
I am very pleased with how the sharpness of this photograph has captured the wide range of crisp textures across the photograph. the subtle light subtly beaming in through the trees creates an intense light quality and emphasizes the dark shadows amongst the trees.
I feel this is one of the strongest photographs of the set i like the horizontal contrast of light. I feel the natural lighting has created a strong tonal range in rich greens emphasizing the textures of the leaves against the dark gravel on the ground. i also feel the off center composition creates a much more visually interesting image.
overall i am very pleased with the outcome of these photographs, I feel they have captured a calming yet mysterious and desolate atmosphere.
Artist Analysis : Jem Southam
Jem Southam (born Bristol 1950) is one of Britain’s finest landscape photographers whose work is situated around where he lives in the South West of England. Southam is known for his observation over single landscapes, exploring and revisiting the same locations over and over again to take time affected notes. Through this he is able to witness how the site has changed through natures cycle and mans interference with it.
I particularly was inspired by his series “ The Painters Pool”, part of Jem Southams “path to a picture” exhibition held at the V&A museum. This particular set of set photographs was taken in what’s known as ”the ancient” woodland in Exeter, Southam was inspired by a fellow artist who used the same land to paint and had constructed a pool there after a tree blocked the previous stream he was painting. I was immediately drawn to the intimacy of these photographs and how the painter’s tools are subtly present in the first photographs and gradually fade out into the surroundings through the series, I feel this gives the series a more interesting narrative element instead of a set of separate pretty pictures.
Each photograph captures an intense atmosphere from the range in rich autumn colours which emphasis the various textures from the tangled undergrowth of grasses, to the tangled branches, capturing a real essence and feel of the forest.
Composition is the strongest element in these photographs, Southam appears to not conform to classical compositional techniques and disregards focusing on satisfactory visual balance and appeal, Southam tends to forget about these elements when photographing landscapes, and instead photographs more freely, capturing what may not be an immediately beautiful shot. This technique contrasts well with the range of lighting in each photograph. The natural lighting effectively illuminates various elements of each photograph from the rich autumn colours of the leaves to the dusk mist surrounding the trees.
Overall I strongly admire Jem Southams technique of trying to promote the narrative element of his photographs to detract from his work being seen as aesthetic contemporary photographs. I was also inspired by his ability to capture the calm and mysterious atmosphere and evoke such a “knee jerk” reaction. This is and element I would like to capture in my own photographs
To continue my photographs on a serene atmosphere I visited Rainham Marshes as i felt this would be a perfect location to capture a range of scenic landscape shops free of human presence
I feel this is the strongest photograph of the set s i like the balanced horizontal composition creating a strong tonal contrast between the sky and the rich earth colours of the field
I also tried experimenting with an action sampler . Most of the shots were unsuccessful due to the poor quality of lighting, however I felt these three were the strongest. I feel the film gives the photographs a soft tonal range which creates a tranquil and calming mood, I also feel the four squares creates a more visually interesting and abstract composition. I would have liked to have continued experimenting with this camera as the soft detail captures a more serene landscape perfectly and feel more effective photographs could be achieved if experimented with further
As development and experimentation i went on to experiment with projection. In this i wanted to show the contrast in the two clashing atmospheres. To bring in my original intention of involving myself in the photographs , like in the style of Lina Scheynius, I included myself in all of these being torn between the two locations.
I also experimented with bringing in the element of light by wrapping myself in fairy lights, this was inspired by the concept of Liang Yue's Twilight series. I felt the subtle lighting created a strong contrast against the projected imaged and overall worked most effectively in a black and white tonal range.
Overall i feel these projections were not strong enough development and want to go onto experiment further with different projection concepts.
Overall i feel these projections were not strong enough development and want to go onto experiment further with different projection concepts.
After my previous projections were unsuccessful i went on to develop the idea by re photographing my images overlaying each other through projection.
Overall i feel these outcomes are far more successful and work as effective experimentations to portray two contrasting atmospheres coming together as one. I would have liked my photographs to be sharper in detail but this was the highest quality i could have achieved with the projector i was using. However, i feel this also works as an advantage to my photographs as it allows the two photographs to blur into one another more subtly
Final Photographs
I feel out of the entire project these are my strongest photographs
Final EvaluationTo start of our coursework we were given the class project of "Community". This gave us all the same starting point in which we could go on to develop further in our own personal projects or just use an introduction. I begun by brainstorming different communities and researching what I felt made up a community, this enabled me to get straight into the project and start taking photographs. For my first idea I looked at construction within a community and how no matter how much development work takes place the results are not always beneficial. 1 was pleased these photographs and felt the fact I took them just before the sun went down gave them a strong and intense sense of lighting. However, this was also a disadvantage as it meant I had to strongly enhance the contrast to bring out the detail in the photographs, Though this looked effective I feel 1 could avoid creating such heavily edited images if I were to revisit the same area during the day to show comparison and achieve a more natural set of photographs.Although I was pleased with the outcome of this photographs I felt the idea could not be developed further. From this I went on to research artist Steffi Klenz who portrays modern urban areas through model buildings, and bland colours, taking away any sense of human presence and originality. I decided to change the direction of my project because I felt inspired by her portrayal of an urban area, as I myself live in an area surrounded by blocks of flats that all bear exactly the same architecture. This then gave my community project a stronger focal point and because the photographs were based around my own community I liked the idea of having a personal element to the photographs.Overall the community project gave me a strong starting point for my own topic of "belonging" within various atmospheres. I went on to explore various landscapes and locations and how one can find comfort in them. My main advantage to this was I continued to give my work a personal element as I involved myself in each of the different locations by visiting places I personally found comforting.I am pleased with the overall quality of my photographs, I feel I have a high number of sets showing contrasting atmospheres. I focused on capturing strong and interesting compositions, including birds eye and worms eye views of various buildings and cities. This showed a range of viewpoints and overall created visually interesting angels for the viewer. I am quite disappointed with the quantity of the Rainham marshes photographs as I feel there was not enough photographs to fully capture the mood of the atmosphere. I would have liked to have visited more desolate locations however unfortunately I did not find enough time in the project. However I am pleased with the outcome of the photographs I did manage to take, I was able to create an intense and misted quality of lighting in the forest photographs and then capture a more harsh and bold lighting in the marshes photographs, capturing a range of emotive photographs.I think my original problem in this project was the direction. I had taken many sets of photographs without a purpose or direction as to how I was going to develop them. I was only able to round up my project towards the end which I felt left me with less time to take more photographs to develop.I think 1 could have produced better imagery if I experimented with combining the two contrasting locations in comparison to keeping them separate for the whole project till the projection work. However I do believe my projection work was successful as I liked the idea of bringing light in a literal sense into my work. The projector used did not reflect my photographs very strongly, leaving my photographs weak in colour, however this element could be used to emphasis the element of bringing light into a dark atmosphere.I think 1 chose very strong photographers to research. Lina Scheynius is who originally inspired me to involve a personal element in my photographs which then later also inspired my experimental photographs, because of this I felt my project had more of a meaning and interesting element to it. Her photographs also did not focus on a certain field, yet varied between different locations in each set, which I feel also relates to my own project.Nicolai Howalt was also a very strong influence because it was her skill of capturing a beautiful landscape in a less obvious location that inspired me to look into a more eerie state of atmosphere in comparison to a clean and bold calmer scenery. I feel I took this element forward into my own forest photographs by enhancing select colours and experimenting with colour filters and lighting to create a more mysterious atmosphere which overall enhanced the quality of my images.I think my final photographs bought together my project as they combined the two sceneries and I was able to include myself in these photographs and represented what I originally wanted to portray of being torn between two sides of state of mind. I feel I would have been able to produce stronger outcomes of a longer and more creative scale if I was given a longer time period because I would have been able to experiment with more printing techniques and then re photographing them to enhance in photoshop.If I had more time to develop this project I would have liked to been able to experiment with creating a collage of my photographs by sewing them together to form a grid pattern and experiment with reflecting light through the photographs to highlight significant locations. This could then tie in with my personal element by enhancing where I felt most comfortable out of the different landscapes I photographed.This idea would be inspired by German duo Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke ,who illuminate the beauty of nature through light, turning striking natural settings into backdrops for glowing forms of moving light. However Goepel and Warnecke experiment with light in the actual location. Light graffiti is also another area that I think would have tied into my project effectively. I would have been able to visit the same locations, however this time at night experimenting with shutter speed, exposure and a light to bring a anew element to the lifeless areas.
