Recent Shoot-Arjan Benning

I took some photos using the ideas of Arjan Benning, where he used pegs to make letters. I thought I would just experiment with the pegs first, then see if I like the look of the letters next. I love how these turned out, especially the hand ones. So I'm thinking that I will do this again maybe on different parts of the body, like face, arms and back. I didn't love the face ones i've done so far, but I will take some more, maybe with bigger pegs and make them work. 

Kelly Nipper - Research

Kelly Nipper works with video, performance and photography. In her photos she uses still photos of models in awkward positions and uses contemporary dance to show movement. She also uses series of photos to show this and still life in her work. 

     

This is three different photos and shows series

Walead Beshty - Annotations

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.

Artist Model Research - Duane Michals

Duane Michals is an American photographer, who uses slow shutter speed and sequences to show philosophy and emotion. He also uses series and multi-exposure in an innovative form. Michals began his work in the 60's where he was inspired by photojournalism and wanted to communicate and show narratives in photo form. He did this by using 'frame by frame' layout, also in a grid format. Michals uses text throughout his images to title a piece of work or the person in it and to push a statement across to the viewer.
Michals work has been exhibited in many exhibitions in the last 50 years, including The Museum of Modern Art-New York, Odakyu Museum-Tokyo, International Center of Photography-New York, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography-Greece.


In this picture below Michals uses the grid, frame by frame format to position the photos. He uses text to Title the photo with the models name and the year in which the photo was taken. He uses black and white to show the strong contrats between the colours. this also shows alot of positive space, with the background, his hair, and skin being lighter than the rest of the photo. Making these areas of the photos really light makes the darkness in his eyes and mouth really stand out. Also his photos are very symmetrical and even, where the object or person is placed in the same place in all three photos, but still manages to show movement.

               

I have used his techniques of slowing down shutter speed and creating movement in a still photograph. By my strong use of positive space, show similarities in my work and the techniques of Michals. I've decided to not use black and white in my photography as I dont like the look of it. 

Latest Shoot - Duane Michals and Eileen Cowan

This is my latest shoot. I've used Logan with a plain black top on and a light background to make the photos look of high contrast and harshness. 

I really think using an all white background is a contrast in what i have done in the rest of my work, where I have used black and negative space. I think these relate well with Eileen Cowan's work as my photos are showing high and obvious contrast between positive and negative space.

Duane Michals uses slowed down shutter speed quite prominently in his work which is the technique i was experimenting with in these photos. I want to develop this further and go back to my original idea of using sequences in panel 1.

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.

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: