Deana Lawson
This is the picture "Nation" by Lawson sees two men sitting on a couch looking directly into the camera. There's also a man in the background whose face is being covered by an overlayed picture of decayed dentures. The men are posed in a way that they look intimidating due to the excessively spiky jewellery from one of the mens mouth and the other covering his face with a hand held up as if he were pointing a gun. The link between the middle mans accessories and and the additional picture in the top left are connected as I think those are the most interesting or eye drawing details in the picture. When I've seen this print in person, people are always drawn to the spiked grills and ask what it is they're looking at. The use of space in this picture makes me think that the photographer is trying to take a picture about the people in it and not of them because of how they look. The men in the composition may look interesting or unusual but the details like the person in the background, pictures on the wall and smaller picture of teeth make me believe that the environment plays a big part of the image when interpreted as a portrait.
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I've seen this picture in print a few times, but I've never noticed the man on the right side of the frame, I've always gone straight to the man in the centre which I think the lines made up by the couch and wall that lead a viewers attention there. The picture is different to reality as from my personal experience I don't see many people everyday dressed like the main subject, but the other two men in the picture are more common to see walking around. This picture is staged to resemble what the photographer thinks the public perception of these subjects would be, overly exaggerating the accessories and poses. after some research I discovered the teeth in the top right belonged to President George Washington, linking the initial pictures with the history of America and giving some context to the title, "Nation". I also discovered that Lawson comes from a family of photographers, her father using photographer as a hobby and her mother working for the company Kodak. Lawsons work often includes the theme of intimacy through the form of her subjects being partially undressed, so the shirtless subjects of "Nation" fit into a larger cliche of her work. While taking her pictures, she'll often provide her subjects with props and accessories that she picks out herself, in hopes to elevate them above what she thinks a viewers perception of the people Lawson chooses to photograph.
Image analysis
This is a picture by Joel Meyerowitz, a famous street photographer who used both colour and black and white 35mm film to document anything from everyday life through the 60s to dramatic and extreme scenes such as the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Most of Meyerwitz work is centred around his life in New York and the interactions around him in public space that he observes.
In this photograph I found on the Everyday Life section of work on his website, I see a very carefully composed image of three people lined symmetrically in the midground of the composition that directly oppose each other socially. I can see that the couple on the right are in a very intimate state on their bench, with a woman in a saturated red outfit paired the man in a dull black suit - which is similar out the left side of the frame which we can see their is a man in similar colours that is alone on his side of the picture reading a book. The feeling of isolation is strong with this picture not only in the actions and poses of the subject, but the spacing of the two subjects from each other, who sit on their respective edges of a wide pathway through a part, and the depth between the camera and subjects and the space behind them. This picture reminds me of a still from a film as the opposing sides of both the content and the frame obviously tell a story about each of these people.
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The picture is separated roughly using the rule of thirds to build a very square and symmetrical composition, the faces of subjects line up with the bottom horizontal lines and the trees in the background lay around where the vertical lines would rise. The use of light isn't anything extremely unexpected, I can tell it is a bright day but the neutral highlights prevents me from describing this as particularly warm - this could be down to the type of film that Meyerowitz had used while taking the picture. The element of the picture that interest me the most is the use of space is represented around the subjects and how it speaks to the isolation of one said of the frame compared to the other - I think it's interesting that even if the two benches were closer to each other the couple would still be invested in their own interaction and probably ignore the other man who would in turn ignore their presence in favour of his book. I think part of the drama that comes in this image is the depth of field, and the out of focus background that leans into the empty composition, as well as the leaves in the top right corner of the frame that creates the impression of a large amount of distance between the camera and the subject, even if there isn't one. I think this photograph wasn't meant to represent and idea of describe the type of people in it, I think Meyerowitz took this picture in this composition at that moment to express the distance between people in Everyday Life that he observes from a distance, adding a more three dimensional sense of isolation or distance. I think the tone is highly effective to evidence the themes of emptiness but if the picture was taken to document or express a different feeling and warrant another response from a viewer, colour could be used to display a tone more effectively, as there are obviously bright and colourful aspects to the picture but they still aren't very saturated, I think if the natural light from the sun or the red outfit worn by the woman would be adjusted to appear a bit warmer and the picture would be typically happier. I think other people might say the picture is a bit dull but its the drowned out colour and stillness of the subjects that attracted me to the picture in the first place as when I recognised the colours aren't as expressive as I'd expect them to be in that environment with those lighting conditions; I was inclined to ask and think more about what I was looking at. I think the use of an open aperture to capture a thin depth of focus is what I might incorporate into my own photography both in direct response to this picture and going forward to highlight the importance of certain aspects in my own work later on in my personal investigation.
Response to Nico Froehlich
For my work this week I had to take four staged pictures that are made to look natural. For the setting I wanted to utilise the garden in school that I visit for a documentary project that I've started working on. This work was hard for me as when I went to take pictures that look natural, the pictures I took look too symmetrical or planned. I took a lot of pictures walking up and down the garden but the four I edited them down to all include the blue crate that the garden equipment is kept in. I think it matches the clothes that my subject is wearing in the photo, again adding to the staged element that I was trying to avoid. My favourite picture, is the third one, where I walked up to my subject while he was blowing the seeds off of a dandelion that he found - both the angle of the picture and the exact moment the photo was taken capture a candid or unscripted.
What is it within your photography that you are really interested in?
When I look back at my past photography, I've mainly taken portraits, or I try to capture the aesthetics of peoples clothes or the way they carry themselves by walking past me. Lately my interest in photography has specified into learning to shoot film and traditional pre-digital cameras. Mostly looking at black and white film, my photography has taken a big focus on the placement of light in the frame and how different chemistry in film manipulates or captures it. I like using shadows to create shapes and guide the viewers attention with the light, shooting on bright days or trying to achieve the highest amount of contrast in my photos while processing or printing to create the impression of dark and light areas in pictures that might not seem interesting. Though I use mostly portraiture to achieve this, I feel like landscape photography is a good direction to lean into exploring the uses of film in differing conditions - I can image that open, messy areas that appear empty would be effective to really increase the importance of detail that is achieved while manipulating light.
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What is it about your project that you want to know?
I want to know what exactly draws me into finding light so interesting and what it is that interests other photographers who take similar styles of images that I do, and where our interests differ - and what inspires photographers that make entirely different pictures to me and see if there are any overlapping themes or ideas. I also want to know why I'm interested in a certain area of photography that I may not have looked into before, and be able to explain what I'm looking to create when I start exploring that type of work.
What is it that you want to document?
I think I want to continue to explore the shapes and detail that comes from bright lights and hard shadows but if I work more in portraiture I want to begin the habit of learn about my subjects and taking authentic pictures that relate to who they are and not quick and thoughtless pictures of what they look like, I once read a photography book about portraiture by Henry Carroll, and I learnt the best way to document a person through the medium of photography is to try and take a picture about them and not of them. I think this means moving away from studio portraits using dynamic coloured lights and blank backgrounds, and instead exploring the environments of each person I photograph and how it relates to themselves. These environments or settings don't need to be too interesting as long as they have a connection to the person that exists inside them - but I also think that I could take an interest in the presence of light in wide unconventional or distinctive areas and photograph a theme of empty space, using the lack of a traditional subject that the viewer can immediately identify with, pushing them become closer with the image and make more of an effort to seek out the detail highlighted by my use of shadows.
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How much do you want to document what you see?
I can't think of much of my life in particular that I want to photograph such as hobbies and what I do in my spare time - as my main body of work has always been about capturing what is around me and not about how I spend my time. I think if the right situation presents itself where I can use the spaces I frequently interact or visit as a setting for my work in portraits or document the activity around there.
What do you want to share with the viewer?
I want to share the type of photography that influences me through my own work using recognisable themes or processes that I have studied to create my images. Doing this I want the viewer of my pictures to look at my work and link the use of colour to another photographer, and possible also the difference between conventional photography and how I try to subvert it.
What do you want the viewer to experience?
I think I want my viewer to experience a story in my portraiture. I mean this in a way where I want to be able to create a narrative in a collection of still images or represent a story that influences how I think about my work. In the case of landscapes I want to photograph a space that has the same open areas of the
What kind of emotion/experience do you want the viewer to have?
Typically I wouldn't have a specific response from my pictures but with my idea about portraiture I want the viewer to respond to my images by feeling they are familiar or nostalgic. I think if I create a space in my pictures that the subjects look like they belong in, the viewers can experience the same sense of familiarity between subject and environment that I am hoping I can try and capture. I think I can also use colour and shadows to add to these emotions, so while setting up my shoots I'll be careful to cast shadows and add light intentionally to fit whatever story I'm trying to present - as well as making sure I'm tedious while editing these pictures afterwards in Lightroom as I know colours are very important when directing the emotion of a viewer to a certain feeling.
Have you documented in great detail a photographer or groups of photographers that have also photographed similar themes/stories/subjects?
I have been looking at several portrait photographers since starting this course, such as Nico Froehlich and Niall McDairmid - and additionally I'm interested in other artists like Tyler Mitchell, all of which are known for their use of colour and saturated hues to capture their subjects. I think I want to incorporate the compositional aspects of theirs as well as the interesting use of colour to match a subject with the environments around them in my work. I feel like this could be an effective way to get into the habit of taking photographs about people instead of taking photographs of them. I feel like I can try exploring this by having discussions about my subjects about what environments that are comfortable in as well as what they actually mean to them. After making these decisions I can then start to think about the aesthetic directions of each shoot that I conduct, like the colours I will use and the atmospheres I intent to create, inspired by artists such as Mitchell, Froehlich and McDairmid.
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What were your findings within their work?
The Garden
In my own time, I've started this project where I frequently take pictures of the garden at the back of the school every two weeks or so, watching it grow and documenting how both the flora and fauna adapt and change throughout the seasons. My hope is to have a large portfolio dedicated to this one project by the end of the year; something I could make into my own exhibition or photo book - this interests me as I have never actually dedicated a large amount of my time to one project before that I haven't done in school, let alone landscape photography. I worry this project might feel repetitive, as taking practically the same photos of the same areas from the same angles once a fortnight might feel monotonous, but I know by the end I'll be better off with a wide variety of weather and lighting for each subject I chose to shoot. These are the pictures that I took on my second shoot.