Professional Life Practice - Expanding your Practice
Week 1 - Figure in the City
Psychogeography describes the effect a location has on the emotions and behaviours of different people. It was inspired by the concept of the flaneur – an urban wanderer.
James Maher is a photographer from New York. He has run a photography business in the city since 2005, he sells his prints and as well as runs frequent workshops. I particularly like these three images. All three images have a lot of contrast within them due to the strong highlights and shadows. I also like how there is a main static subject within each image. When I first saw these images, I instantly got drawn to the subject and started to feel what they could have been feeling in the different spaces they are located. Although in the first two there are other subjects within the image, it is very clear which one is the main subject. In the first image, this has been done by creating a lot of movement through long exposures to blur the other subjects and to keep the main subject still. Whereas in the second image, the main subject has been placed in the centre of the image causing your eyes to be instantly drawn to them. I like the idea of using one main subject and when creating my own work I will focus on how the subject is positioned within the images.
I like the idea of using black-and-white photography and I feel like I will be able to portray stronger emotions by using high contrast between the whites and the blacks within the image. However, I will also try to experiment with colour, more specifically I will try and use the same colour pallet as Alex Prager and Wes Anderson. They use strong pastel colours which make their work t very eye-catching as well as sparks strong emotions within the viewers.
My own work:
I wanted to show how someone interacts with their surroundings. When shooting I found it difficult to find places that could give me the same look and colours that Alex Prager and Wes Anderson carry through their work. For the first image, the place I went to was Chalk Farm station as it has a telephone attached to the wall which consists of bold yellows and greens. When taking the image, I knew I would have to do a lot of editing as I did not want the poster in the image. I took a few images of just the setting itself and then added my model. My camera was set to ISO 800, shutter speed 1/60 and f8. I had a high ISO and slow shutter speed as it was very dark. I took the raw images of just the setting into photoshop and used the clone stamp tool to copy over the patterns on the wall to cover up the poster. I then opened the raw image of the model and used the select subject tool to cut the model out. I then copied and pasted the model into the original image. Once I was happy with the model placement, I exported the image as a tiff file. I then took the tiff file into Capture One so I could edit the colours. I went to the colour editor section within Capture One to adjust the colour to my liking and to simulate the same colour tones that Alex Prager has in her work.
I then walked just outside the station and saw this coffee shop which is where I decided to take the second image. I wanted the model walking across the shot, so I captured them as they walked past the window. My camera was set to ISO 400, shutter speed 1/160 and f8. I also took this image into Capture One and altered the colours to match my liking. I also used the Keystone Vertical tool to make the image look flatter.
I then went to Notting Hill and took the third photo in front of a pastel purple building. I thought this location would keep the same feel as the rest of the images and locations. It was hard to find a building which did not have cars in the way of the building, this was the only building wear the door of the house was visible. I thought about how someone would interact with this space, and I thought they would be getting ready to go into their house. I positioned my model in front of the door and between the two cars to not just frame the main subject but also make it seem like they were the house's owner. My camera settings were set to ISO 400, shutter speed 1/160 and f8. I took the image into Capture One and used the Keystone vertical tool to make the image look flat. I also adjusted the colours slightly to make them bold and eye-catching. Something I would change about this image would be to get rid of the cars, I tried to do this in post-production but it did not look realistic.
Week 2 - La Flâneur
La flaneur is a French term used to identify an observer of modern urban life. Its direct translation is ‘the stroller’.
Sophie Calle explores what can be observed. She works by writing down her findings as she stalks her subjects. She often looks at the discrepancy between personal and objective realities, for example, she hired a private detective to follow her and take notes on her visiting places which held significant meaning to her in Paris. I particularly like the work from her book ‘Suite Vénitienne’ as she follows a man around Venice. She documents her attempts to follow her subject. She called hotels and visited the police station to find out where he was staying. She also persuaded a woman, who lived opposite him, to let Calle take photos from the window into his house. Her work has filmic quality which helps increase the narrative within her images.
My work:
When creating work like Sophie Calle I chose someone to follow around. My subject was one of my friends from Sweden. We went out with a group of friends to Whitechapel and walked all the way to central London, I wanted to document the journey she took, especially as Whitechapel is not a place tourists typically go. My subject was not aware I was taking photos of her throughout the day. The first image was taken on the tube at Cannon Street. I really like this image as her face is framed within the window of the tube that was passing. It is mirrored on the other side as another lady's face is also framed within another window however there is a contrast between each side as one is significantly brighter than the other. My camera was set to ISO 1800 1/60 and f5.3 as it was very dark. The second image was taken as we were walking towards central London. I didn’t want my subject to notice me so I hid behind a stranger and used the stranger's head to help frame my subject. I was scared that it would be hard that to tell who the main subject was in the photo, but the shallow depth of field makes it clear. My camera was set to ISO 800, 1/200 and f5.6. The last image was taken in the reflection of one of the buildings we walked past, this was to ensure that my subject did not know I was taking a photo of her. I liked how the reflection helped to frame the subject as well as there being a great amount of contrast between whites and blacks within the image as it makes the image more eye-catching. My camera was set to ISO 400, 1/60, f5.6.
Week 3 - Representation
Sebastien Lifshitz is a French screenwriter and director. He liked to explore the rich and unexpected side of gay life. I particularly like his book called ‘The Invisibles. The book consists of vintage photos that were discovered by Lifshitz at flea markets and garage sales. He was intrigued by the fact the pictures show couples holding hands, bearing in mind the photos were from 1900-1960 which was regarded as the ‘deep closeted dark ages’. The collection of images inspired Lifshitz to help identify the couple and restore their voices as the names of the couples were lost over time, so he created a documentary. He also created a collection of images that he titled ‘Sincerely Queer’. The collection presents men and women wearing clothing that is seen to be for the opposite sex. It consists of images that were taken in a studio, behind the scenes of cabarets or in the intimacy of the bedroom.
Within my own work, I want to represent how it can feel to be apart of the LGBTQ community. I want the images to be black and white, similar to the images Lifshitz found
I like the use of the mirror as it is a way of hiding the person's identity, similar to how members of the LGBTQ community hide their true selves for a long period of time.
My own work:
When creating work like Lifshitz, I wanted the model to connect to the location we shoot at. I asked the model what place she felt like she can be her true self, and the model responded with woods near her home where she asked her now girlfriend if they could become official. The model took to various spots in the woods where she shared memories with her girlfriend. I also liked the idea of taking the images in the woods as it can seem very isolating which represents how isolating it can be to be a part of the LGBTQ+ community. I got the model to place the mirror in front of her face, this creates mystery and represents that members of the LGBTQ community cannot show who they truly are all the time. I used a Nikon D3300 with a 50mm lens. I set my shutter speed to 1/125 for most of the images and ISO 400 as it was very dark, the f-stop varied but it stayed around f 5.6 and 8. When I was taking images, I did not direct the model too much as I wanted to capture her true self and how she felt in these areas. I edited these images in Capture One, I made them black and white as well as corrected the exposure slightly. When looking at the images in black and white I noticed that it was hard to make out where the subject is, so I kept the images in colour. I made the images slightly warmer by changing the colour temperature to more yellow. I thought carefully about the framing of each image and used the trees to help frame my subject making her stand out more, so it is easier for the viewer to see her. I am very pleased with how they turned out.
Week 4 - Urban Environment
Nick Miners is fascinated by the angles of brutalist architecture. Many people think brutalist architecture is ugly however Miners uses it as inspiration to create beautiful imagery. He shoots the architecture in black and white and then proceeds to increase the contrast making the images more dynamic. When he increases the contrast it almost makes the buildings look unrecognisable which makes the viewer question what they are looking at.
My own work:
When creating my own work I walked around central London looking for patterns, shapes and angles created by the urban environment around me. I was often drawn to repeating shapes created as well as corners of buildings. I shot on a Nikon D3300 and used an 18-55mm lens. I shot on a wide angle when I wanted to capture the repeating shapes but I shot closer towards 55mm when I wanted to capture specific textures and didn’t want any other objects in the image. Once I got home, I started the post-production process. I made all the images black and white and increased the contrast within these images. I like these images as they are not my typical style when shooting, they also make you question what the main subject is.
Week 5 - Fashion and Performance or Performance
Martin parrs work can be seen as exaggerated and even grotesque. His work is original, entertaining, and very accessible. His perspectives are very unusual and are nothing like I've seen before. His colours are very bright and loud, making his work very eye-catching. Some reoccurring themes throughout his work would be humour, seduction as well as criticism. He shows how we present ourselves, how we live and what we value. I particularly like his work where he is located at beaches and has people dressed up in suits next to people dressed in swimwear. I like the contrast he creates not just through what the people are wearing but also through the colours. When creating my work I want to use the idea of having the main subject stand in a place where they would not be usually seen/ stood.
My work:
When planning my shoot, I wanted to show how everyone in London do not stop and take in the moment, everything is very fast pace I wanted to show this by creating long exposures so you can see everyone walking past the models. I had to think about how I could make the models stand out in the image to make sure it is obvious they are the main subject. To do this I made them wear these white masks, not only does this make them more visible it also hides their identity which I liked. When shooting I set my camera to shutter speed 1/15th, f 20 and ISO 100. I put my camera on a trip pod to prevent camera shake when taking the images. I took multiple images at each location of different people moving around my subjects. When I got home, I merged each image and used the brush tool in photoshop to paint different aspects from each image into one. I still thought the image was a bit hard to read and the subjects were not as visible as I wanted, I then changed the image to black and white and made sure there was a lot of contrast within the image. This made the models more visible as well as made the people walking around them look almost ghost-like which I liked. I presented my images in this way as the first image and second image are very similar as they have two models in them as well as are both portrait, I wanted the middle image to break up this pattern but to also stick with the theme so I picked a landscape image with more models. I think this makes the series of images look more interesting and eye-catching for the viewer.
Week 6 - Culture within the environment
Nicholas Goodden is an urban photographer who was raised in France but is now based in London. A lot of his work is based around street photography however he has worked with brands such as Adidas, Peugeot and Sony Entertainment. I am personally drawn to his work where he isolates certain colours. This effect makes the images stand out a lot more due to the bold colours, which are very eye-catching for the viewer. I want to include this effect in my work however I will choose a colour that is common with each image to make sure there is a theme running through each image.
My own work:
For this week's project I went to China Town. When taking the photos I focused on both the environment and the people who walk around China Town as I feel like they make up the environment within China Town. Once I got back home I wanted to isolate the colour red as I found this was the common colour within each image. I notice in Capture One there is a pre-set where it makes the image black and white except for the colour red. I used this on all the images as well as made slight adjustments to each image such as changing the exposure, saturation, contrast as well as adding a slight vignette with each image. I am pleased with how these images have turned out as there is a clear connection and narrative throughout all three images.
Week 7 - Cinematic
Gregory Crewdson work combines a highly orchestrated light, colour and production design to create cinematic and dreamlike scenes. Crewdson's series ‘Twilight’ guides the viewer into a nocturnal arena of alienation and desire. Crewdson’s psychological realism is tempered in this series by their heightened theatricality. I was particularly drawn to his twilight series as I liked the idea, they were taken in the evening time as I don't usually do this in my work so I want to give it a go. I can imagine he had to use a lot of postproduction in his work to help emphasise this dreamlike theme. I can also tell the composition is well thought out. When creating my own work I will think very carefully about the composition of my images as well as the lighting within my images. I will also try to incorporate quite a bit of post-production within my work to create this dream-like aesthetic. I also like how he has a clear subject throughout his work and the images typically consist of one model.
When thinking about the theme of cinematic I instantly think about a certain cropping, this would be typically landscape and cropped to 16x9. I will use this type of cropping within my own work.
My own work:
When creating my own work, I wanted my model to be in the centre of the image so I kept this in mind. The first image was taken at night, so I needed to use a long shutter speed, the shutter speed I chose was 1 second, I had to use a tripod when shooting to prevent motion blur. Having a long shutter speed also helped the light give off this glowing effect which I tend to see in films. For example, in the film Skyfall I was particularly drawn to the scenes that used neon lights and the lights almost look like they were glowing. My ISO was set to 400 and f-stop 4. I stepped back from the model to have this wide shot as I knew I wanted to crop the image later in post-production.
The second image was taken at the Barbican, it was very dark so I set my camera to ISO 800, shutter speed 1/50 and f8. I had my model stand in the middle of a patch of greenery and told her to look up towards the building in front of her. I had a 24mm lens which helped capture a wide angle, making the model seem small. The crop matched the first image so I thought it would work well together.
The third image was taken near my house. I noticed that there was this blue light in a house with a bench outside. I thought this was a perfect spot for my last photo as I can create a mysterious atmosphere using light. I set up my tripod as I know I would have to use a long shutter speed. My shutter speed was set to 1/5, f 5.6, ISO 400. I was happy with this image however I've realised that the perspective is different to the other images so I will re-shoot this image soon.
I edited these images in Capture One. `I started with the cropping of the image and changed them all to 16x9. I then made the images have blue tones in them as I wanted to incorporate the blue light within the third image. I am happy with how these images turned out as I feel like they all have a paranormal theme to them which helps to carry a narrative throughout the images.
Week 8 - Image and Text
Magnus Sodamin is an artist that uses a painting practice that is hallucinatory and precise. He uses a variety of techniques to blur the line between abstraction and landscape painting. His work often consisted of vibrant paint that covered the walls and floors of an exhibition space. His work is very immersive which leads him to connect with the viewers. I am particularly drawn to his short film interpretation of Tame Impala’s ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’. In the song ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’ Tame Impala describes a relationship that only seems to get worse the more effort they put in, Sodamin wanted to capture a sense of trying to move forward only to return to the start. This has inspired me to create images that have to do with songs and certain lyrics. Within my images, I will either try to recreate how the songs/ lyrics make me feel or try to show the visual representation of the song/lyrics.
My own work:
For my first song I chose Loyle Carner – still – in this song Loyle Carner is reflecting on himself as a person and his human existence. He is standing still, unsure of himself and unable to progress. He feels he is lost and that things are not changing. The song also expresses how he is just as human as the average person. He uses a reverb on his vocals throughout the sing, highlighting the sense of being lost as well as emphasizing the words ‘lost’ and ‘still’ as though he can say nothing else. I wanted to create an image where the model was looking back at themselves so I created this multiple exposure image. To do this I put my camera on a tripod and moved the model around the room taking a photo in each location. I layered the images in Photoshop and used the layer mask and brush tool to rub out parts of each image so the model can be seen. I made the image black and white as this gives a sense of nostalgia and looking back on yourself.
For my second song I chose Frank Ocean – Ivy – in this song Frank reflects on his mistakes and explores a failed relationship. Part of the song shows frank drowning in tears and filled with anger. In an interview in 2016, he admitted to altering his voice in order to make it sound younger to better encapsulate the emotions of young love. When I listen to this song I imagine someone walking up to a house but they drop flowers next to them as they get heartbroken. I started by getting the model to hold the flowers as well as put Ivy going up their arm. I then started to shoot using different angles to capture the flowers as well as the ivy. In post-production I wanted the image to look quite dreamy so I added haze as well as decreased the saturation slightly.
For my third image I chose She – Tyler the Creator – this song revolves around a man and his intense lust for a woman to the point where he goes as far as to watch her sleep and stalks her. The song features soft melodies from the frank ocean but is harshly contrasted by Tyler's graphic lyrics. When shooting I shot from the perspective of a man who has this intense lust for a women. I created framing by shooting through the shutter in a window to also make it seem like the man is looking through the window. In the song, references to a knife being used so I added this to the image. I also made the images look slightly dreamy to add to the fact that the man has this lust for a women. I found this image hard to take as when the model would be correlcty exposed the shutters would be overexposed and then when the shutters were correctly exposed the model was underexposed. I had to take two photos and then use the layer mask and brush tool to merge both images together.
I added each image to pages and then added the title of each song above the image.
Week 9 - The domestic
Eli Rezkallah is a fine-art photographer and visual artist. They were born in Beirut Lebanon, which is where they started their career as a fashion show producer in 2004. They noticed the casual sexism that occurs in daily life. They created a series called ‘In a parallel universe’, which consists of a series of fictional images, recreated from real adverts in the Mad Men era, that question modern-day sexism. I really like their work as they use humour to start conversations about serious topics. Within each image, you can see how they have carefully chosen the outfits the models are wearing and the placement of the props to recreate the old adverts. I will try and use this method of working in my work.
My own work:
My family is Greek- Cypriot. In Cyprus, it is seen to be very traditional. The men go to work or sit outside playing cards with their friends while the women stay inside, cook and clean. When I go to Cyprus to visit my family I am expected to help cook and clean while my brother gets to sit down and relax with the other males in my family. As I grew up in a generation where we are trying to move away from these stereotypical roles I wanted to challenge these traditional roles and reverse them. I started off with the outfits. I got my mum to wear a smart suit, like she was going to work. I then got my dad to wear an apron. We came up with three different scenarios, my shutter speed stayed at 1/5 as the lighting in my house was very dark, the ISO was set to 400 to also make sure the camera was picking up as much light as possible without noise being present. The f-stop ranged from 5.6-8. I used f8 when I wanted everything to be in focus and 5.6 when I wanted a shallower depth of field. I made the images black and white because I wanted the image to look old however the action in the image contradicts old traditions. Overall, I am very happy with how these images have turned out. I particularly like the middle image as it almost looks cinematic due to the placement of the subjects and the cropping. The female looks very powerful due to her being close to the camera and her expressions.
Week 10 - Social media/ gender/ personas
Bunny Kinney is a creative director and filmmaker of NOWNESS. He is also the editor-in-chief of Dazed beauty. He has worked regularly as a freelance film-maker, creative director and digital consultant for clients including Dior, MAC cosmetics, and L’Oreal Luxe. His short film explores gender roles, patriarchy, and hegemonic masculinity. 16 people took part whose identities span the spectrum of masculinity. ‘Each person featured has a different relationship to their own sense of masculinity and what that even means to them’ I particularly like this piece of work as it shows that gender is fluid and everyone has different relationships with gender.
My own work:
When creating my work, I wanted to show my relationship with gender expression. To do this I wanted to take self-portraits of what I would wear when I feel more masculine or feminine. When taking these photos I started with my set-up. I put my camera on a tripod and used a blank wall in my house as the backdrop. My. Ain light source was the window next to me however I turned on my main lights to get rid of as many shadows on my face. I found it hard to set the focus, so I attached a balloon to a chair and coloured in a black square to focus on. I would use this to focus on before every shot. I also used a self-timer. I wore different clothes and changed my hair and stance in every shot. I did this to show how I show off my masculinity and femininity and how gender can be very fluid. Once I finished the shoot I took the images into Capture One. I cropped the images so I was in the same position in each image, I also made the images black and white due to the white balance being off as I used different light sources and it was hard to get the white balance correct. I also used a radial gradient mask to brighten my face as I noticed that it was a bit too dark.
