Light Photography

Light panting is when somebody takes a picture and uses a light, such as a torch, to create shapes and images on to the picture. This is done by leaving the shutter open for longer- slowing down the shutter speed and ‘painting’ in front of the lens. This technique is used by a lot of people as a form of photography. It was hard to start taking these photographs because I didn't know what the settings had to be on and I didn’t understand them properly. This was frustrating because I was trying to take photographs but they were coming out wrong. After I learned about the settings in the exposure table such as the ISO, Apeture, and shutter speed I took pictures which had a good result. I took most of my picture through daylight and done different effects with the images in the picture. I slowed down the shutter speed to roughly 4" and either zoomed into the subject, or mover the subject.
It was hard to find time to take the pictures though because the whole class only had a few lessons to take the pictures using the college cameras and the darkroom and I didn’t own a camera. I enjoyed doing this because it was creative and I got to experiment with the settings and learn about them and how they work.

  

 These are some of the photos I took on manual setting, changing the shutter speed and ISO. Shutter speed so that the picture takes for longer which means you can add a sence of motion and movement to the picture. And ISO so that not to much light is let in, in the 4 seconds so the picture isnt to bright.

  

William Eggleston

My chosen photographer is William Eggleston. Here are some examples of his work:

  

   

  

I chose to do William Eggleston because his photos resemble the style I like to shoot in and I feel I will learn good skills. William Eggleston photographs are also realistic for me to shoot because they involve everyday situations.
William Eggleston was born on July 27, 1939 in Memphis Tennessee He was 18 when he got his first camera and in the year 1967 he presented his work to John Szarkowski at the museum of modern art, in New York. He is an American photographer who is widely credited with increasing recognition for colour photography as a legitimate artistic medium to display art in galleries. His work is characterised by its ordinary subject matter. He became a lecturer in Harvard University. An Eggleston photograph might include 'old tires, Dr Pepper machines, vending machines, power wires, torn posters and no parking signs. 'William Eggleston includes colour widely in his pictures and uses ordinary things so I am going to try to incorporate this into my pictures. 
  
  Shooting was harder than I thought it would be because the way the images were staged was quite hard to shot, such as the layout of the rooms and the specific items in the photographs. I took pictures of objects from around the house. I started off by taking pictures of simple things such as one lone object.






  
But then I went on to take pictures of more interesting things and playing with the angle and colour, like the rose, and the radiator.



  

  

    I finally went onto take pictures more in the style of William Eggleston. I took a picture of the top of a sofa, and the curtains and window at the back of the sofa which plays with the colour because inside the house it is dark, with brown colours, but outside the window there is the blus sky, it is bright, and there are green trees, and a red shed. All these things gives a nice contrast of colours, which is William Egglestons style. Another picture I took in the style of William Eggleston is the one taken through the glass door to the fire place. This picture has a lot of colour inside of it and shows a fireplace inside a home. Alot of his photographs are taken inside a house, or building, showing furniture.






This is the picture I chose to reshot. Here is the original and my copy.

  

It was very hard to get the same angle as the original picture so I had to take a few and choose the best one.

Photography - Journalism

To begin with, I started off looking at different types of documentary/ social/ political and photojournalism photographers. I done this to look at the variety of photographer’s style I could adapt and to look at the style I like the most. I looked at a list of photographers photographs and I narrowed down the list to these photographers I would like to study: William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold and Henri Cartier Bresson. I have decided to look at the photographer William Eggleston. I have decided this because his photographs are realistic for me to shoot because they do not involve war scenes, or children. His photographs appeal to me as well because they look similar to pictures that I take and I would like to try and pick up the skills of this photographer whilst I am shooting the photographs.

Evaluation

I thought that this photography project went very well. It took me a long time to decide on what my alter ego should be, because I’ve never really thought about that before and I don’t have a dream job or fantasy. But once I decided I was happy with my idea. I enjoyed preparing for the photo shoot because we were doing hair, makeup and costumes which I enjoy doing. The photo shot was very fun and enjoyable; taking photos and posing for the cameras! If I could do this unit I would defiantly pick a more unique and fun alter ego to do as I feel I would have enjoyed it a lot more.  I didn’t learn/ wasn’t taught anything about the camera such as shutter speed, ISO and focus. It would have been better if we were thought these things because it is useful and I assumed that that is what we were going to learn in Photography. Putting our pictures on different backgrounds was fun. I didn’t understand how to use the software but the teachers came and helped me when I got stuck.

Material List

For the photo shoot I will need a suitcase, a camera around my neck, and I will need to wear semi- smart clothes. I will put myself on tourist attractions around the world such as the Eiffel Tower. This is to make me being a traveler seem realistic.

Statement of Intent

For my alter ego I decided to be a tourist. I decided this because I already travel around England quite often but I would like to travel all over the world. I though this was a good idea and very unique so I was a ‘tourist’ for the day!

After producing several very successful films in the UK, I moved to America, LA to peruse one of my dreams: to become a world class film producer. I moved here with my mum in a small house. I promised myself that all my earnings and wages were going to go towards mine and my mother’s number 1 dream: to travel the world. Then after that I can buy the mansion and Ferrari that I want!

Artists and their Imagery

Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director, who was born in January 19^th, 1954. She is best known for her conceptual portraits and her representation of women in society and the media through different series of work. Her series of photographs include some of the most expensive photographs ever sold.  She lives and works in New York till today.

She received her first camera at the age of 12 which she loved.  Shortly after that her Uncle sent her and her brother a darkroom kit which was used by her great grandmother. Her and her brother really enjoyed using it. She was the yearbook editor in her high school. When her school’s basketball team won the State Championships, she became the sports photographer.  Cindy Sherman photographed her first wedding in 1976 and has done professional photography since 1980.  After freelancing for several years she opened up a shop called ‘Photos by Cindy’ in Union County, Oregon in 1987.  She sold her studio in 2000 and moved to Boise, Idaho due to her husband job.

Cindy Sherman’s photos are mainly of woman and the way they are represented in society and the media.

Andy Warhol was born on August 6^th 1928 and died on the 22^nd February 1987 at 58years. He was a leading figure in pop art, which was a visual art movement. He was a successful commercial illustrator. His photographs explore the relationships between artistic expressions, celebrity culture and advertisement. He worked in a range of media including painting, printmaking, sculpture, film and music. He funded a magazine and was the author of a number of books including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties. He is notable as a gay man who lived openly before the gay liberation movement.

Andy Warhol’s studio ‘The Factory’ was a famous gathering place that brought together people from different, stereotypical cultures, such as drag queens, playwright, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrity and wealthy patrons. There have been a lot of retrospective exhibitions, books and feature/documentary films. He created the saying ‘15minuttes of fame’. There is a museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which celebrates Andy Warhol’s life and work. Warhol’s work contains some of the most expensive paintings ever sold, with one selling for $100million.  $100million is a benchmark price that only Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre- August Renoir, Gustav Klimt and Willem De Kooning have achieved.

Andy Warhol photographs a lot of portrait images and does a lot of pop art. These are the main two occurrences within his galleries. I prefer these images to Cindy Sherman’s ones because they make more sense to me and I feel that these are the type of photographs I would produce if I became a photographer.

Arnulf Rainer was born on December 8^th 1929 in Austria. He is a painter, printmaker and photographer and is known for his informal abstract art. He became painting as a self taught artist in the mid 1940’s. In his early years he was influenced by surrealism. From 1048 to 1951 he producer surrealistic drawings representing underwater scenes and mystical forms, rendering these fantastic images in pencil as a densely worked surface.  Around this time he producer his first portraits such as Rainer Dying. In 1050’s he produced the first of his prints; over the next 20 years he explored a variety of media including etching, dry print, lithography and screen-printing. He had done some paintings under drug influence. In 1978, he received the Great Austrian National Prize as well as an Austrian representative at the Venice Biennale.  He was also a representative in the year 1980. From 1981 to 1995, Rainer held a professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His works are shown in the Museum of Modern Art and in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Arnulf Rainer’s photographs seem very abstract and distorted. The common form in his photographs are portraits with dark blurs and drawings over the faces. These pictures seem very dark and different and I don’t get any sort of messages or ideas from these photographs that would be seen and identified through the Arnulf Rainer’s eyes.

Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close was born on July 4^th in 1940, Monroe, Washington.  He is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive- scale portraits.  Although he had a spinal artery collapse in 1988 which left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work that remains sought after by museums and collectors. 

Charles Close has a lot of portrait photographs. They look realistic and simple. He has photographer different people’s emotions in colour and in black & white and this seems more understandable and easy to read. His paintings look like photographs. They are very specific and he pays a lot of attention to detail. There is one painting called ‘Emma’ where he paints a child which looks like a photograph, with an effect put over the picture. At first I thought it was a photograph but when I read about it I discovered it was a painting.