Walead Beshty - Annotations

Walead Beshty - Research

Walead Beshty is an London born photographer but is based in Los Angeles.

Beshty earned a Bachelor of Arts from Bard College, then went on to get a Master of Fine Arts at Yale. His first solo exhibition was in New York in 2004 which was successful.

I am looking at his work, ''The Phenomenogy of Shopping and Dead Malls'' which is situated at Contemporary Art Centre, Long Island City, NY. 

I really like how these are so weird and unusual and I think the concept of putting the body in awkward situations kind of fits in with the rest of my work. I want to try this with Logan but put him under the blanket, to still keep the dark theme coming through. I tried to take some like on my latest post, but I didn't like the look if them, so I am going to try it again using different lighting and in a different setting. 

Artist Model Drawing Task

 Focal Point

 - In these photos an my drawings the focal point is the move moving the rocks, because there is a white boarder, it draws the eye to the image. Also the pyramids along the back draw the eye to the middle of the photo

Eye Level View

- The eye level view is perfect because it shows everything that is necessary in the photo. If it was from a birds eye view, the focus would be taken away from the man and put on the pyramids because it is the biggest part of the picture. 

 Landscape Format

- Allows the Pyramids to be seen in the photos. If the photo was portrait it would make the background smaller, and less a part of the picture. Which would make the concept irrelevant.

 Symmetry

- The photo is quite symmetrical not in the way that its the same on both sides, but in the way that the subject matter is very evenly placed, apart from the man.

 Rule of thirds 

 - The landscape of the Pyramids is along the line of the rule of thirds, so it does apply here.

 

Plan for Next Shoot

This is the plan for my next shoot, using Duane Michals and Kelly Nipper as artist models. I want to use sequences and series as a techinique in the photographs. I want this to be at the bottom of my panel 1. I've tried to take these before and it was becoming to hard to edit in photo shop, so I'm trying again. This was my first attempt, but I've struggled to take away the harsh lines.

Panel 1 Plan with Artist Models

This is a plan of my first panel , with all my artist models.

Artist Model Research - Eileen Cowan

I've beginning to look into other ideas and explore other artist models as I need to develop my folio further. The artist models I've started to look at are Eileen Cowan.

I've started to look at Eileen Cowan, who uses close ups of human features with lots of negative space and very little negative space to show the contrast between light and dark. I've decided that I want to explore my ideas further with this because I think it works well with the mood of my concept.

I've taken some photos so far with lots of negative and dark space. I really like the creepyness of these photos and I think they work really well. In my next shoot I'm going to take similar photos again, but with closeups of the arms and hands, and possibly use Logan's face aswell. The closeups will show more positive space with more light and shadow effects.

Plan for Panel 1

This is my plan so far for panel 1 of my folio. I've decided to develop the technique of sequences and use Duane Michals as a strong artist model. I've used these first shots to show the anger and frustration, and I'm going to develop this further with the sequencing technique. 

I also decided that I didn't want to use black and white as thoughout all photos on my folio as I personally find it boring and unappealing, so after talking to Mrs Clemence I have decided to use sepia and instagram style filters and possibly ending up in full color by the end of the folio. This isn't my final decision on this as I dont want my photos to look childish and tacky, so I'm still deciding on this one. 

My next shots I want to take will be close ups on Logans face and head, with him shaking his hair around and looking angry, I'm thinking of possibly using tears in this picture. I'm going to try with shutter speed and play around with the focus most likely in the dark room. I want to develop these shots and have four-six photos cover across the middle-bottom of panel 1. 

Im unsure of what I want to put in the gap between these photos and the previous photos i've taken, but I'm sure after taking,  editing and putting the next shot on my first panel, then I will have some inspiration of what to put there. 

Work So Far ...

In the past 2 weeks I have begun to take photos and I'm beginning to see my artist models come through my work, mainly with the sequence photographs.
I feel that I need to start to plan my work so I'm not taking photos that I wont actually use, so starting next week I am gonna plan out my first panel and write a list of artist models that are relevant. I will do this on paper and post it up on my blog on Monday or Tuesday.

The sequence photos are just a practice of using shutter-speed, so I wont use those ones for my folio, but I'm thinking of re-taking them so that they are relavent to my concept.

New Photos + New Concept

I was talking with Mrs Clemence and we came up with the concept of depression and anxiety shown through pictures. So i'm thinking of using a model in a crowd of people and showing how they are feeling lonely, and maybe by the end of my folio having the model overcome their anxiety and fears. Im thinking maybe starting with black and white then moving to full bright colours by the end of the folio, which would symbolize overcoming the depression and anxiety. I still want to use sequences and street photography in with this concept.

I edited these to make Logan look dirty and high contrast.


What I have so far :

First Shoot-Sequences

As I have been looking at artist models that use sequences. I want to develop this idea further, with street photography. But for now I am just practicing the technique and using photoshop more in-depth.

This is what I have so far:

I had issues with the layering of photos as the shadows would overlap and make the photo look messy and blurry in places but I think with more practice I will be able to fix this and make the photos look correct. 

I like these so far and I think I can develop this idea further and work it in with street photography, possibly by going into town or maybe in the botanical gardens. Hopefully this will help me come up with a concept. 

Artist Models

This last few weeks I have been beginning to look at artist models from the NZQA page, I have found a few that I am interested in and have been researching these photographers. I think i will narrow these down when i start to take photos and work out what my concept actually is.
For my concept itself, i've been looking a lot into street photography, which shows something like a basic day in the life, or show a story of a person in an urban setting. I have also been looking and personal identity and life and death.

A NZ photographer i've looked at so far is Julian Ward. Julian Ward is a street photographer that uses the setting around her to show 'everyday' people in an everyday setting of Wellington. She uses black and white and high contrast to make the photos look grim and personal. She has been 'roaming with her camera' since the 1970's and has wrote on her website that she found it easier back then as there was more freedom for photographers and that you could take pictures or almost anything.

Some of her photographs, sourced from her blog and website, full credit to: Julian Ward.

Duane Michals is an american photographer who uses sequences and the passing of time by using double exposure and slow shutter speed, which is something that I am very interested in learning and using in my photography. He uses black and white in his photos.

Some of his photographs sourced from here and here. Full credit to Duane Michals.

Some of the other photographers i've been looking at are: Sally Mann, Anne Nobles, Robin Morrison, Ann Shelton and Rineke Dijkstra. I will research them further over the next few weeks.

I have started taking photos and experimenting with sequences, and getting the hang of photoshop, as i only really used the basics of it last year. I will have another post up during the week with those photos once they have been edited.

Research: Urban Environment

Urban Environment

For me urban environment photography is the same as street photography. This is when photos are taken on the streets, of ordinary people and places. The photos show how a human is interacting with the environment for example, walking the streets, waiting for the bus, putting rubbish in the bin. Street photography captures a moment, it captures people in there everyday self. Black and white seems a popular choice in the photography, I personally think this is so because it gives a sense of rawness and coldness. Graffiti and wall art is used widely in street photography, as it is always around us.
This can also have no human presence at all, it could just be building, streets, shops by itself.. this can link in with implied human presence also.

I came across Eric Kim who is a street photographer based in LA, he uses his passion for photography to help others with videos and tips to help street photographers with technique and also shows lists of photographers that he looks up to and has learnt from.

Some of his work :

Raghu Rai is a photojournalist and street photographer. He captures indian culture and uses journalism to capture events. He was co-owned Magnum Photos as a young photojournalist, and is a very rare photographer as he has always used his own culture of being indian in his work.

Some of his work: 

Brandon Stanton is a photographer and blogger. Stantons blog is called 'Humans of New York' and is shortened to HONY. His blog and photos are of normal New York citizens in their everyday life, but below the photo he adds a little snippet of that persons story or the conversation he had with the stranger. He uses social media such as Facebook and Tumblr to promote his blog. I find it interesting how Stanton uses normal people but finds out a little bit about them, for example: what they fear? or he would ask questions about their clothing, or objects they were carrying, or even just a small snippet of their life story. The blogger has gone on a step further from his blog and created a book called 'Humans of New York.'

Some of his work: