Fashion: Constructed Image

Task One

Irving Penn
June 1950 The Black And White Idea 

I chose this image by Irving Penn as an Iconic fashion image the main reason being at the time it stood out so much amugnst other fashion images of the time. When looking through a book ....................... at the time the VOGUE front covers were all about colours and this one was the pure opposite.
The high contrast image leaves much of the details out which lat in the blacks, however the face holds much tone which exaggerates the direction of the eyes which are looking away from the viewers gaze. Some details specially in the hat, look as though they are more drawn on, allot more graphical rather than a photo.

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Task Two :

Photography Fashion Scouting
Similar style to http://www.thesartorialist.com

Image From The Sartorialist 

I wanted to try both styles for the taking street photos of peoples fashion, or people that interest us.
One style used in the top image of the man in the suit in Camden was to take the shot without subject knowing, resulting in a very natural pose and over all image and the second style i wanted to try was to go up to strangers and ask them, tell them what i was doing and why, start some small talk and then get the photo that way. I found the second was a little easier and less nerving.

Photography Fashion Scouting
Similar style to http://facehunter.blogspot.com/

Photography Fashion Scouting
Similar style to http://facehunter.blogspot.com/

Unit Assessment: Semester one

Environment One

For this project i decided to look into the environments we spend most time in, environments we create to spend our time in. I wanted to look into the fake environment which we now look at to be natural wet its fully man made. The basic idea came from studying the pastiche photo we had to research and shoot. After looking at Robert Adams image of On signal Hill i read in his images the balance of natural and man made environment, with the pollution in the sky and the two thirds city it seems the balance has slipped. 

I decided to take this idea to an extreme and an environment where there is nothing natural in the sense of light, location and in a way all the surroundings. So i took my location for the idea to a shopping mall. 

My Pastiche 

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Environment Two

After looking at photographers such as Philip Lorca diCorcia and Adam Evens, i decided that what makes a city a city is the people in that given environment, the constant change of people in an area and the diversity of people in what is in perspective of things a relativity small area. Whilst doing this i also managed to explore how people stay in their own spaces whilst being in such a big crowd. How even though their forced to be so close they keep their distance.
I started by looking at the amazing business of the city, how no one comes together other by non intentional  and or by convenience, how we almost blur into one. However after looking past the hustle of the city and saw people and took my self out of the busyness of the city, this is what triggered ideas about peoples space towards each other. 

Final Chosen Image One

Final Chosen Image Two 

Final Chosen Image Three 

Pastiche 2

Pastiche of Brassi 

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Object 

My object shoot is about the economic downturn we are all facing, looking at the classics of the genre of still life paintings. I used both classic objects to convey the concept and also more contemporary. The house of credit cards was almost a play on the saying, Living on a house of cards basically meaning what we're used to cant last, referencing the state of us knowingly spending money that just isnt actually there. The deflated globe is  to show how its a global matter and does actually effect all of us. Chocolate coins again just the fakeness of money, the instability of our economic climate. 

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Body 

Im really disappointed with this image, no fault to this subject but the one that confirmed to do the shoot, then drop out pretty much the day before. My idea was to take inspiration from the Martin Schoellers celebrity photos and turn it on its head in the way that instead of taking people who have been placed on a pedestal and brought down to a mortal almost available to be judged level. I wanted to take something people look down on and bring it to a level where people cant help but be confronted by it and made to examine it. 

Deconstructing Environment Photographers Urban Environment

Looking three photographers, Rut Lees Luxemburg, Richard Wentworth and Vera Lutter. These three photographers looked into urban spaces in a City Environment, however in slightly different ways they almost try to convey the same things. At a first glance Rut Lees Luxemburg and Richard Wentworth seen to have the most in common with their ways of putting across their concepts in their aesthetics. Showing the grime and pollution of the city, a direct view of dirt or litter where as Vera Lutter shows this by having the image inverted to negative give an unconfortable feeling for the viewer as it drops the norm of the city to show a darker side.

Rut Blees Luxemburg
Folly 2003

To start with the photos by Luxemburg, shes shooting with a 5 x 4 camer awith longexposures to pick up every detail of grime and dirt, this is shown in amazing detail in her image called 'Folly'  which shows a stair case leading to the waters edge but is submerged in the water.
After looking at this image i start to read into it that it could be a comment on the grime and forgotten or unused and therefore unseen areas of the urban environment. Her next photo 'Piccadilly's Reccadilloes' also carries this idea of city in increasing grime.

Rut Blees Luxemburg
Piccadilly's Peccadilloes 2007 

I think i prefer this photo to her last, to me it shows the underside, the un-noticed side to a colourful and glamorous city. The pavement with oil, chewing gum, dirt and a puddle in many ways can be a metaphor for the real city, the reflection of the glamorous side of the city, the glorified and in many ways beautiful side of the city reflected in the puddles cant help but leave the viewer questioning why at first impression when we see the lights of the city we do think its amazing, but after we look around maybe see it as a little bit fake, a front perhaps to cover up the problems of a city. The over population, the isolation, the sense of alienation and maybe in-superiority. I get this mainly from the gum on the floor, the trodden in and now a fixture to the floor of the city, each on their own but put there at different times by different people. This image to me starts to reveal so many underlining issues of a city.

After looking at Luxenburg i started to look at Richard wentworth and with ideas in my mind still from Luxenburg i started to read more into the images by Wentworth, the sense of dirt and human effect on the city. But uses a much different style of photography, more basic almost straight documentary style to show the similar idea to Luxenburg.

Richard Wentworth
Bottlestick 

Although Luxenburgs worked seemed more about the grime, loneliness and human effect, the direct sense i get from Wentworth is the effect of man on its environment, the fact that someone has made a conscious effort to place this bottle here rather than put it in the bin or recycle or anything else, they've placed it here. Almost a a knowing disregard to the place they live in, but at the same time because its all man made, all urban its in ways makes it almost acceptable . I think this is what Wentworth is getting across from these images, the ways its photographed, just a plain straight street photography documentary shot, no interesting shadows, tones, colours or aesthetics just information for the viewer to read. I think its a way of commenting on the effect the city has on the individual, maybe how the city is so big the identity of an individual can be lost, the anonymity in an act in a large urban area.  Similar to his next image 'Tirana' 

Richard Wentwoth
Tirana 1999

A similar aspect for this image by Wentworth in the way there's been a conscious effort to leave these scraps here. In a way Luxenburg and Wentworth are working on a very similar concept of effect by human on the environment, but coming at it in very different ways, Wentworth maybe more the conscious and Luxenburg the unconscious and also how the environment effects the main different ways, individuality or anonymity. Both gone about it in similar ways but Vera Lutter in a very different way.

Vera Lutter
333 Michigan Avenure, Chicargo 2001

In these works by Vera Lutter i again get the sense of loneliness but not within the city an isolation towards the viewer, because the image has been inverted it places the viewer in a much more unknown and uncomfortable situation. As the viewer is placed n this uncomfortable place to read the image we start to notice and read the image differently, it almost starts to alienate the viewer from what we think we know about the city.

Vera Lutter
Battersea Power Station 2004

For example the image of Battersea Power Station, an iconic piece of architecture becomes much more daunting and creates a harsher impression on the viewer now its inverted, something that should maybe be seen as a thing of beauty has now been changed to impose upon the viewer.

Vera Lutter
Venice, xx 2005

Again this is done with what should be a beautiful city scape of Venice, it creates a much different atmosphere when reading the image. Prehaps this is doen to create a daunting impression on the viewer as it would be for seeing it out of context in real life.

Photo Shoots

In the shoot

  

Chosen Images

Fashion First Year Shoot

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Fashion First Year Test Shots

In The Shoot

Chosen Images 

Environment Project Part Two Urban Spaces

Pastiche

Brassi
Paris After Dark, No.27

 I chose to pastiche this photo with out really looking into it, night photography has always interested me, the minimal light, contrast and especially in this case and with the work of Brassi the feel of film noir.

I need to recreate the mood and feel of the image, to me this mood doesnt seem to be threatening or dangerous, but just fairly relaxed scene of a Paris street at night. However reading into the image and reading around the works of Brassi there may be more to it than just a scene at night. Brassi was well known for taking images of shifty goings on at night between its subject matter. So maybe the street of hotels down a dark side street might not be as innocent as it is at a first glance, two men in the background walking away from the camera.

Location for pastiche ideas, i took these on 35mm colour film, scanned them in and changed to black and white, just to see how it might look. Walking around London looking for back streets with only a few lights and only a few people on the whole street.

                                                         

















I was looking mainly for the lighting here, i feel its slightly to light, i could change this in the dark room but i think it can be done a bit better.

I prefer this shot to the previous one i'd done because it was taken in Soho, dodgy area. I prefer this one because Brassi was known for taking photos which on first glance looked innocent enough but if you look at it a little deeper becomes much more grimy and a feel of indecent about it.
This is the view of the full street way, its a pretty dirty looking street with strip clubs and really dirt massage parlors.
It might look better if i don't crop it so much and show more of the street, this would agree with the aesthetics of Brassi a little more.

Test Pastiche 1

Pastiche of Brassi 

Test of print 

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Bouncing Ideas:

Idea 1)
An idea that came to me when i first got the brief was of place of waiting, waiting to travel or places of waiting for contemplation or relaxation. Place where people either make a conscious effort to wait or just have to wait out of necessity. To do this is was maybe thinking a slightly long exposure so it would capture the people in the image, but take away their identity and make it slightly more abstract, more impersonal in ways as to be read by anyone, keep the figure in the photo but at the same time take them out.
This does still need more work, and perhaps guidance from looking at other artist.

Idea 2)
An idea of keeping a city scape quite fairly beautiful, but not for how nice the architecture is but more for how it either blends or stands out or even apposes nature. This sort of idea came to me whilst looking at William Turners painting, how he uses the light and how the light intensifies areas or bleaches them out.

William Turner
Rain, Steam and Speed 1844

As an exploration of this idea and to see possible how i could either advance this idea or completely drop it, i went to the river side early in the morning to see maybe how i transfer this idea into the city. I'm thinking of combining the city with some sort of natural landscape to, where you see the crane in this photo maybe trying to find a sky scraper to 'poke' out the mist or early morning light.
The photo here works for what i want to use it for and show so maybe keep looking into this idea, see where it goes, explore it until i can feel comfortable with either dropping it or committing to it.

Test of an idea
shot early morning
Digital 

Idea 3)
After looking at Philip Lorca diCorcia street photography series of one person in a crowd. Isolation in the crowded city. He set up flashes and almost hid himself and with a telephoto lens snapped when someone walked past, this way the subject is completely relaxed and not aware that they're being photographed so are totally normal and unopposed.

Philip Lorca diCorcia

So maybe look at the people in the city, the people that make it a city, this at the same time could begin to influence the way i shoot idea1

Student Fees Protest
maybe use as a starting point for people in city

I decided to go to London and explore some of these ideas and see if i could come up with other ideas too.

Testing the idea 1)

35mm neg test shot 1
longexposure movement in theses spaces

35mm test shot 1
longexposure movement in theses spaces

I wanted to look into places of waiting, places where people dont really set out to go to or to perposfully go to spend their time, but maybe have to spend time in order to go to places where they intend to spend their time. Walker Evans briefly touched on this but called it 'transitional spaces'

I wanted to show the hustle and bustle, the busy and maybe chaotic nature of these places of people wanting to be there for the least amount of time or the reluctance to be in these areas.

35mm neg test shot 2
longexposure movement in theses spaces

35mm test shot 2
longexposure movement in theses spaces

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35mm test shot
Location of waiting
London Underground

A classic and well known place of travel is the London Underground, an iconic symbol of British transport of London. As im looking at transitional spaces i couldnt not look at the tube, this lead on to the next few test shots, of taking a slightly longer exposure shot in one spot, taking down the movement of the transitional space, an unwilling waiting area.


Shots from tube, 35mm tests

I set up my tripod in the corner of a station and took a long exposure from of people waiting for the train and people getting off and on.
The images are slightly over exposed but shows what i wanted to explore for this sort of idea.
The blurred figures give a good impression of how busy the city can be.







Tube Station Redone :

After taking these photos of the movement on the tube i started looking at the expressions of people in the tube as they become more and more in their own space. These are as they are coming down the escalator, this triggered off my final idea of people waiting in the areas where they dont intend to be.

35mm test shot idea

35mm test shot of idea

People using and reacting in these spaces.

After looking at the hustle of city area in waiting places or transitional areas i wanted to look at how people use these spaces, use the areas where they are almost forced to wait. I set up a tripod with my 35mm camera and using a telephoto lens (a 70 - 210mm lens) just waited for when people had to stop and got a snap of when they where waiting at a traffic lights.
I think the shot i got of the couple kissing really works, the focal point is the couple but what interests me are the people around them. How no one looks into their space, no one wants to intrude in their space. Everyone is dotted around, looking in every direction and just being in their own zone their own space.

35mm shot, how people using space,
how people react in these spaces
Taken with 210mm lens

35mm shot, how people use space,
how people react in spaces
Taken with 210mm lens

35mm shot, how people use space,
how people react in spaces
Taken with 210mm lens
(doesn't work in this set)

35mm shot, how people use space,
how people react in spaces
Taken with 210mm lens

Telephoto camera set up