December 2009
5 posts
Evaluation
Overall I really enjoyed these three projects, minus the pinhole one. I learnt to use a range of different media which had always interested me such as large format. And I also dabbled more with masks on photoshop, which has made me a bit more confident now. I would have shot my pinhole images again given the chance, but now I don’t want to even hear the word pinhole for a good few months.
Finals: Perfect Worlds
So I scrapped my original idea of doing something with a panoramic image as I have done similar stuff before and I wanted to try something new. Multiple exposure shots always used to fascinate and puzzle me when I was a little kid, until I knew how they were done I thought there were like 6 identical people used in the shoot. How stupid was I? I decided to shoot a series of skate photos but layer...
Project: Pinhole
In other good news I opened my box of B&W darkroom paper and found my paper negatives and prints from my pinhole project, which has saved me a lot of time and hassle. I no longer have to re-build a camera, re-shoot the photos and get super stressed out about everything when trying to print them. I am going to put them into a small book instead of just handing them in, so wish me luck.
Finals: SOS
I finally managed to shoot the photos for my SOS project and get them scanned in and sorted out. Took a lot of fart-assing about on photoshop to get them how I wanted them but it was worth it, unfortunately one of the negatives was madly fogged so I could only use two of the original three that I shot. So yeah here they are. I am really pleased with how they turned out, I think it is a nice...
Project: SOS
So all my ideas went to scrap this week. There was no way I could gain access to the leisure centre again and security was so on the ball it was unreal. So I gave up on that idea and tried to think of a new one. A friend of mine does and engine workshop class in Bexleyheath and I have seen the workshop belonging to the guy who runs it. And it looks so crazy, packed wall to wall with random engine...
November 2009
13 posts
Photographer: Dina Goldstein
I spend a lot of my spare time browsing blog after blog, gives me something to do in the evening when I get home and have a coffee. I find so much stuff of interest but this blog would end up being around 1,000 pages long by now. But occasionally I come across something that really stands out to me. I found some work that looked similar to that of Annie Leibovitz’s, I followed some links to...
Thought This Was Pretty Rad
Project: SOS Update
Where to start. I visited the leisure centre the other night whilst under the cover of darkness with a few friends. We had to creep through the nearby woods to avoid the security cabin. And for the next hour we crept around the site, crouched down in the bushes and long grass. Hiding behind walls and bins that were scattered around the place. It was seriously like something out of an army...
Project: SOS
The time I get to use large format cameras has finally come. I have long wanted to experiment with these as most of my favourite photographers use them and I always wanted to try one. They are a lot more hard work than I originally thought, but worth it none the less. I did two test shots on one the other day and the results were brilliant. And that was using black and white film, so I cannot wait...
Workshop: Perfect Worlds
I had a workshop today, teach you how to use masks and layers correctly on photoshop. Also how to manually and automatically create panoramic images. I learnt a few little new things which is good and it sort of got me in the mood for using photoshop again. It will take up a lot of my time but if I do it correctly, hopefully all the hard work will reward me. Below is an old panoramic image I made...
Project: Perfect Worlds
My latest project is the perfect worlds one. It involves creating a digital composite image of my perfect world, or a place that doesn’t exist. By using layers and masks I will combine elements from a range of photos to reach a final image. One that depicts a place of fiction. I don’t like using photoshop all that much anymore, I used to, but since it is a lot easier for me to shoot...
Project: Traces & Memory
I have decided on my final idea for the traces and memory project. I am going to follow the photo-essay idea with the subject being my great-nan. I am still undecided as to what format I will use, but it will be either 120mm medium format or 5x4 sheet film. All depends on my budget closer the time really. I plan to shoot first of all some portraits of her at her home. She lives with my nan and has...
Project: Traces & Memory
I have had a number of ideas going in and out of my head recently, the main ones came to me straight away. One of my ideas was to photograph my great-nan. She is 94 years old and i’ve spent a lot of time with her during my life, and look up to her more than anyone. Her stories always fascinate me and it is a shock to hear how different things were back when she was a child. And I wanted to...
Project: Traces & Memory
Rather looking forward to this next project. Gives me a bit more freedom in regards to what I choose to shoot and what I choose to shoot on etc. It has to represent something which I can relate to, showing a memory of mine for example. I will have to give it a few days so I can narrow the 57876 ideas I currently have down to 3/4 that I can work with. And I have until after Christmas to shoot this...
Finals: Pinhole
I fixed my camera when I returned to uni, turned out it was leaking light through the joint of the tin. So I re-loaded it and re-shot my photos outside. Thankfully they all came out just fine, quite sharp and contrasty, and with a very wide angle on them aswell, so I was very pleased. I printed them and cut the boarders to size. But just my luck I have lost them and probably won’t find them...
Secret Location Pinhole Shoot
Started off rather poorly, someone failed to realise that let’s say 25 students would not fit into a 20 seater mini-bus. So a group of us had to make our own way there, which was probably better than riding in the UCA wagon. The “secret” location actually turned out to be Aylesford Village, or “The Sticks” to put it plainly. It was a lovely little place, really quirky...
Project: Testing The Pinhole
Testing this camera turned out to be a lot harder than I had initially anticipated. Mostly due to the sheer amount of time it took to re-load it. I found myself loading it in the darkroom, walking 4 floors down, shooting with it, back up 4 floors, process, re-load, back down 4 floors and so on… It became a viscous cycle. I chose to shoot on paper because it allowed me to cut a perfect sized...
Project: Pinhole
I know some amazing images can be made using pinhole cameras and I did get myself physced up for this project. Ironically I found it rather hard deciding what to use to make my camera out of, even though almost anything can be turned into a camera. I had recently painted a wall in my bedroom and decided to use the empty tin. Washed it out, painted it and taped it to ensure it was light-tight, made...
October 2009
38 posts
Dirkon Pinhole Camera
Looks like i’m starting the pinhole camera project sooner than I thought. I have been warned about this one by a few people who did it last year. I for one, have very little patience with most things, so this should press all the wrong buttons with me. But I shall try my best. But other friends have encouraged me, saying that some amazing things can be created with these cameras, but again,...
Shooting @ Night
Me and a load of friends for our local skateshop, Popnow, went on a trip to Crawley skatepark in Surrey the other night. Unfortunately (mostly due to Nick thinking he knew the way haha) by the time we arrived night had fallen upon us and I was left with only daylight balanced rolls of film. The floodlights in the skatepark gave more than enough light to skate in, but not enough to take photos in,...
Photographer: Edward Burtynsky
Shooting with a contemporary view of the great ages of man. From stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. Photographing subjects that are rich in detail and scale, places such as recycling yards, quarries and refineries. Places that are out of people’s normal experience, yet where people partake of their output on a daily basis. The sheer scale of the images is just...
Scraps: Original Brief Encounters
These are some of the images from the first roll of film I initially shot for this project. I had no luck printing them in the darkroom, but when it came to scanning the negatives in, it worked absolutely fine, who knows why. Maybe I was having a bad day eh?
Finals: Brief Encounters
These are the final images I settled on, from the second roll of film I shot. I may change one or two of my choices around but for now this is how it stands.
Brief Encounters Re-Shot
I was having so much trouble in the darkroom trying to print my original images from this project. As much as I wanted to, there was only so much patience I had. I went into Maidstone and shot a roll of film the following weekend. Taking portrait photographs of local skateboarders at County Hall. I shall try and upload both sets once scanned.
Finals: First Sight
I don’t know why I am sat here at 02:46am posting these photos on here, when you (my tutors) have a hard copy of the same images. These were the images I chose and hand printed as my final series. There was so many to choose from but these when viewed together helped to narrate a story, showing the viewer a typical day in the life of me.
Finals: Internal Landscapes
After using the RAW converter and messing about on photoshop for most of the day, trying to get my image a bit closer to what I desired, and removing any imperfections along the way. I finally settled on this as my final image. The white moon type thing you can see is actually lens flare, which we proved hard to stop, so instead I made the most of it and used it to create a moon/sunset type thing....
Car Park Sessions
Winter time is upon us again, for the average skateboarder this means only one thing. Time to break out the gloves, wooly hats & thick hoodies. Many a nights will be spent in what is known as the winter training ground. Which usually consists of cold, dimly lit car parks which are occupied after their normal hours of operation by skaters. Shelter, flat and generally smooth ground is enough to...
Eyehate Colour Printing
Colour printing, as per usual after failing a few times I became very angered and stressed very quickly. Maybe it’s because I hardly sleep, maybe it’s because the neg carriers don’t hold your negs in place and instead let them slide about, maybe it’s because I can’t use the focus finders in the darkroom when enlarging. It’s made more frustrating by the fact that all I want to shoot is colour...
Photographer: Alec Soth
Alec Soth is probably most famous for his image of the man from Minnesota standing on what looks like the roof of his house, holding in each hand a model aeroplane. Dressed in green overalls and wearing a balaclava. His portraits are amazing in my eyes, the colours and composition of each image are, well, right up my street. Meeting these people for the first time and trying to capture them in a...
Photographer: Katy Grannan
I only discovered Katy Grannan’s work recently during a lecture. She photographs strangers in their home, most of the time naked, without anyone knowing, just her and the subject are present. In a sense it’s like a secret affair going on between her and her subject. Some of the images are quite interesting but on the other hand some of them did leave me a bit freaked out and confused....
Late-Night Warehouse Trip
A few months back me and my friends discovered an abandoned warehouse in an area that we regularly skated in. A huge old building about the size of an aircraft hangar. After gaining entry we found it still had running electricity and water, and due to a recent bill for £26,000 dropping through our door we know understand why, looks like the previous occupants shut up shop and left in a hurry not...
Bored?
If you’re getting bored of these posts, which I would be, to be frank with you, then be sure to head on over to my good friend Jonathan Winstone’s blog. A lovely guy and talented photographer whose work is definitely worth a view. Gauranteed you’ll like.
http://jonathanwinstone.tumblr.com/
Photographer: Joel Sternfeld
I have become a great fan of images that are a mix up of documentary and portraiture recently. A prime example of this is in Joel Sternfeld’s work. I like the way they aren’t shot in the generic, textbook portrait style. How you can see the whole subject, as well as the area around them, and the way the images have a meaning to them and convey an idea or put a point across. For some...
Photographer: Daniel Meadows
I found the story behind Daniel Meadows and his work rather fascinating the first time I heard it. A lot of his work went unrecognized for years until a recent exhibition at the Tate Modern brought it into light. A series of images dating back to the 1970’s which help to paint an idea of how England was really like back then. I later found out that Meadows travelled around the country in a...
Photographer: Ozkar Gorgiaswas
I was introduced to Ozkar Gorgiaswas by a friend of mine who is a passionate graffiti artist. Ozkar meets with groups/crews of graffiti writers and follows them on the journeys they make, also known as “missions”. Documenting what they get up to and showing how they avoid being caught or recognized. Although it is more documentary photography, I still feel that it fits into the...
Photographer: Jill Greenberg
I also managed to find a video/interview with Jill Greenberg aswell, which allows you an insight into how she shoots her images and the set up behind it all. Quite an interesting video, especially where she shoots monkey and other animals.
Photographer: Jill Greenberg
Although it is a more controlled and planned environment I still feel it relates to the “Brief Encounters” side of things. Because it is still the first time she has met the subject, she still has to make them behave in the desired way to obtain the image she want’s, whether it be crying, smiling or laughing. Which is hard to do with someone you have just met. In my eyes it is...
“If you can smell the street by looking at the photo, it’s a street...”
– Bruce Gilden
Photographer: Bruce Gilden
I am going to kick off the research for this project with a short video/interview with Bruce Gilden. The Brooklyn born street photographer who is well known for his up-close and spontaneous way of shooting. On reflection I should have been more like this. But to be fair I probably would have been robbed or beaten by most people in Chatham.
Project: Brief Encounters
This is the project I had been warned about, yet was looking forward to more than anything. It involved taking to the streets and shooting colour medium format portraits of people I came across. To give me an experience of street photography. We had to identify and focus on a certain group or sub category of people. And approach them in the street asking to take their picture. I chose OAP’s...
Mini Rolleiflex & Leica
All I am saying is I need one of these cameras, they are around 4 inches high, have a 5 megapixel sensor and take SD-Cards. Not only that they are one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Obviously it’s just a gimmick but a gimmick worth having nonetheless.
And I also found that there is also a Mini-Leica M3 camera available too. Boasting a 5 megapixel sensor and a 1.5 inch TFT...
Film Processing
Well what can I say? A lot less hassle than hand processing the film, and a lot cheaper in the long run as well, I can imagine. I go through a small door that looks like it was taken from the starship enterprise and fumble about for a few minutes in a pitch black room that is no bigger than my dishwasher. Then I can walk away and let the machine do the work for me. When was that ever a bad thing?...
Black & White Printing
I have processed film before in my home made bathroom to darkroom conversion, but I have never used enlargers and printed my own images. So this was a totally new experience to me, but a good one none the less. I am currently printing my “First Sight” images, with moderate success. I would much rather scan the negative and digitally tweak and print the image, but I suppose it is handy...
Photographer: Erin Tyner
Finding artists for this project was always going to be hard for me, as it is totally out of my neck of the woods. But browsing flickr I came across someone called Erin Tyner, and the only information I could obtain is that she is a self taught photographer who lives in Atlanta. Nevertheless she still had an interesting array of images on her photostream. Using models from railway sets and putting...
Artist/Photographer: Slinkachu
I knew Slinkachu’s work from a project I did last year whilst on my ND course. The best and most interesting example of “Internal Landscapes” in my eyes. In his “Little People” series, he places small hand painted figures in the street creating miniature scenarios and photographs them up close, to make them seem life-size. He also has another series titled...
Artist: Zhan Wang
Zhan Wang came to my attention when I saw a cityscape that had been created out of kitchenware on the internet. It turns out that he re-created the whole of San Francisco out of pots, pans, graters and other kitchenware for an exhibition at the Asian Art museum. The scale of the sculpture is mind-boggling to me. Guy must have a lot of patience.
Photographer: Carl Warner
I remember seeing some of his foodscape images in the Metro newspaper on a train home one night and it did amaze me to be honest with you, infact, I think it would amaze anyone. He makes scenes out of food and photographs them in such a way that they appear as a genuine small city or village made entirely out of food. I dread to think how many hours were spent draped over each set, and how much...
Project: Internal Landscapes
I can honestly say after seeing the examples in the lecture I was really looking forward to starting this project. The concept seemed so fun. But thinking of an idea was not as easy as I initially anticipated. And I was left at 7am on the morning of the shoot still trying to find something to use. I ended up placing a small figurine in front of a chunk of rock and using gels and the position of...
Gregory Crewdson at work.
As I mentioned before Gregory Crewdson is probably my favourite photographer of all time. I love everything about his images, the lighting, ideas and more importantly scale. I found this video interview with him where he talks about his inspirations and you are given the chance to see him in action. The sheer scale of his images is unbelievable, it’s more like a film set than a photograph....
Photographer: Matt Lingo
During the summer holidays I got really into riding fixed gear bikes. And I spent the whole time, bar a few weeks in London riding with and meeting new people. I had the best summer I think I have ever had, riding all day with a big group and then going for beers in the evening together. I shot a lot of photos based around fixed gear riding and came across a guy called Matt Lingo whilst on a blog...