Environment Presentation

For the first part of my environment unit I focused on the colour and beauty that can be found in the sky during golden hour and sunsets. For the second, urban, part of the unit I focussed upon the idea that the city never sleeps. For this i shot buildings at night, indicating that even when people are at home sleeping, there are still others at work in the city all night long.

My research for the first environment topic involved me looking at work by the photographer Eric Hines, and the beauty that he captures, I found him online and have found his work fascinating.

Eric Hines

Sunset Contact sheets

Final Shots

My research for the urban section originated from a photograph that I have at home in a frame, it made me look at the photographer Ralf Uicker and some of the shots he took of New York City at night.

Ralf Uicker

City Test Shot

I had to use digital to take my test shots due to lack of equipment availability, but this made it possible to shoot when I wanted, and play around with the results a little to see what I wanted before actually shooting my final shots.

City Final Shots

Self Evaluation

The reasons behind my photographic choices were to use large format because that is the closest equipment to what the more tradition f/64 group photographers used.

The most significant challenge of this unit so far has to have been getting hold of the right camera & equipment when I need it. Also getting the shoot timing right in terms of time of day and weather was very difficult too.

I can overcome these problems in the future by using my own equipment more often and generally making the most of the weather when it is good. Allocating my time more efficiently.

Object & Body Presentation

For the first part of the "Object & Body" unit  I chose the idea of depression & heartbreak. I used specific objects that represented my own personal past in this area and attempted to create a still life out of them. For the second part of the unit; the body, I opted for a literal interpretation of the term “portrait”.

Object research

For the object, my research was mainly web based, I looked at the meanings of song lyrics and the symbolic representation found in items and objects associated with love. 

My final print features damaged and distressed photographs of past loved ones, mixed in with objects that reminded me of them. I opted for a dark setting for this still life, with lots of dark, negative space representative of the soul after heartbreak.

Object final print

My research for the body involved me looking at the work of a photographer called Martin Schoeller. I liked his work because of the way it conveyed simplicity within a portrait and the clarity in which we can see ourselves in portraits.

Martin Schoeller examples

Body test shots

I decided to go for a quadriptych in order to show the idea that people's personalities can have multiple variants despite being the same. They feature 4 portraits shot straight on of the same subject that are similar, yet slightly different. I used Rembrandt lighting to make the photos look natural & realistic to try and give them a more literal look.

Body final prints

Self Evaluation

My understanding of the issues relating to the object & body is that this unit can be interpreted in both a representative and literal matter, with both able to cover each section either separately or jointly. That is why I addressed one with each.

I think my visual choices translate to my ideas in that I tried to use a specific visual style to influence what I included within the photographs.

The aspect of my shoot productions that I need to reflect upon are my forward planning because I felt that I didn't plan my shoots thoroughly enough before the date. This let me to make rushed decisions closer to the shoot itself.

 Managed to get my hands on a Wista finally, so I could go back up to London and shoot some decent film negatives. I ended up shooting photos of Canary Wharf from three angles around the city.

The first was from the latest location I found, looking east from Rotherhithe over the river. This was probably my favourite location as it was the closest to the buildings so the shot I got was much clearer and detailed.

The second location was in the same area as the first, except it was further west and away from the buildings. I chose this location because of the pond's location due to the buildings emerging through the gap in the trees. The lights around the edge of the pond also give great reflections in the water, creating a very unusual effect when combined with the exposure time.

The third location was the original place that I found and visited on numerous occasions to get the right shot, it is located on the other side of the buildings, and looks the other way - just behind The O2 Arena. This shot is also great because of the proximity to Canary Wharf, but gives another angle on the buildings.

I also shot a fourth location from the Isle Of Dogs itself, but further south and looking north. The body of water that I used for the reflections is one of the docks, but I didn't print the shot because the shot was full of camera shake. I suffered from this problem in all of my shots because I didn't have a sturdy enough tripod, and had to manually hold the Wista's shutter open for over a minute. The ice cold winds didn't help either, but considering the conditions, I think I did a fairly decent job with my 'ol digits.

In order to get a decent exposure over a minute, I had to use a much smaller aperture than normal, I ended up using the camera all the way down on f/64. I felt like one of the group :D

The Body: Production Shoot

These are my four final shots from my Production shoot yesterday, I'm really happy with the way they came out not only because of the quality of the prints, the correct exposure and focus etc, but also because I managed to produce some very decent shots, near enough what I wanted, within a 20 minute shooting period (because that was all the time I could get with the model)

Sides of A Coin (kinda)

This was one of my earlier initial ideas for my Body production shoot that I went back to later on to experiment with a little in digital post production. I had an idea of people having split personalities, and this was inspired by events in my own social life with friends. I wanted to experiment in creating a picture that showed "two sides of the same coin" of someone's personality. This result shows one half being a perfectly normal human being, lit up in the darkness of reality, whilst the other side represents the same person, but they have started to decay and crumble. 

A very strong contrast I think.