Photography

William Klein

Finally I looked at William Kleins photography. I was really very impressed with his photos. They are just really striking and eye catching. 

These are examples of his street photography. He's just really captured the essense of the time in his photos. I love the movement and how he's caught particular expressions. Also the black and white makes the photo really striking such as the black and white squares on the top one. 

I love little elements of it such as the advertising in the background, and the postures of the people captured. Each one of his photos has lots to look at and and are each strong in there own way. 

Photography

Andre Kertesz

Andre Kertesz is the third photographer I decided to look at. It's his series of distorted images that really caught my eye. 

 This is an example of one of them. He was first commisioned to do these for a magazine, then carried on to do more of this nature. Obviously the nature of distortion appealed to him, and I think all the photos are really genuinly intreguing. They seem almost surreal. He used carnival mirrors to take the photos and pretty much all of them are of female nudes. There is something about the photos that I find quite unsettling (In a good way) as reality is completley taken away and they are really confusing to look at. I think how he's not included the edges of the mirror emphasises this. It's not clear that these are taken through a mirror via the photos themselves which make them quite mysterious, and ulitmatly draws you in more to the figure itself.

Photography

Lorna Simpson

The fourth artist that appealed to me was fine art photographer Lorna Simpson. American photographer who made her name in the 80's/90's. The piece I wanted to look close at was "Five Day Forecast" which was first made in 1988 and she remade it in 1991. 

I think the general composition and how this piece looked visually is what drew me to it. But researching more into the underlying context I found really interesting and really made me aware how strong the piece is visually and contextually.

 

The is the piece "Five Day Forecast". It's hard to see from the size of the image but along the top is days of the week engraved in capital letters, san serif font on black plaques. Along the bottom of the images is ten more plaques with the words ‘Misdescription’, ‘Misinformation’, ‘Misidentify’, ‘Misdiagnose’, ‘Misfunction’, ‘Mistranscribe’, ‘Misremember’, ‘Misgauge’, ‘Misconstrue’ and ‘Mistranslate’. In the photos is a cropped image of a black woman with her arms crossed. They are not the same repeated image, there is subtle differences in each pose. But the pose itself is very defensive and obstinate. Despite the cropping you can still tell it's a woman in these images. I think it's clear Lorna Simpson is trying to say something about sex and race in this image.
The clothing that the woman is wearing seems to be a plain shift dress and looks to be some sort of uniform. You get the impression these photos are taken from each working day and are portraying the feelings and experiences of this day to day working life for this black woman. How the pose hardly changes suggests this is how she feels every day, this is her life. 

How the image has cropped the face off, gives the woman a lack of identity. A lack of personality. Which is presumably hinting to how she is treated in her work place, or how she feels as a worker. She's not regarded as a person. All the words below have negative connotations and hint to the working relationships.

To conclude, as only really looking at this image for 10 minutes I've read a lot into, shows how strong her images are. I think there is a lot more underlying meaning to this piece and I think that's what makes it really interesting.

Photography

Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman is the second photographer I decided to look at from the 50 photographers list. Most of her work is black and white photos of herself and female models. They are often blurry and quite obscure and I really was just very intrigued by her work and really wanted to look more into it. 

There is something really eery and ghost-like about a lot of her photos. How she often obscures the face gives these bodies a lack of identity. The composition of this above one is really nice, how she's taken it from the top of a stair and incorporated a reflection from the mirror at the bottom. Theres a real enigma to the photo. The blurriness of the figure has created a movement in the image, as if she's falling/fell/been pushed down the steps. It's quite a violent image. The cracked mirror, the brawled figure and the grungey stained walls.

I really like this one. How it's really captured the movement. The blurring of the figure and the garment. How the clothing the figure is wearing, even though you can't see it appears quite white and crisp, it contrasts nicely with the dirty wall behind. The floor is really dark and grimy but the figure looks free, let loose. I think it really is a nice image. It's distorted just enough, it's still clear that this is a female figure and you can still make out the dress she's wearing.

This one is also really quite a nice one. It's subtle. How the figure is semi in the water and semi intertwined with the roots of the tree. It's as if she is one with the ground. She's part of the nature surrounding her. 

Photography

Idris Khan

For contextual studies for photography we were shown a PowerPoint of 50 photographers and had to pick 3 in which we wanted to have a look at in detail. Idris Khan was the one that struck me as most interesting. I think it's the general use of layering that I thought looked really effective and have always found appealing when it comes to photo distortion. 

The Houses of Parliament London 2012

I'm also a bit of a sucker for black and white photography, so it's no wonder I found this photographer of interest.  This above photo I particularly liked. He apparently used 70-100 different images, different fragments of the image. His sources ranged from photographs, to stock images and postcards. I think it looks really effective, the different opacity's and layers. It urges you to look closer into the photo.  I also like even though the image looks really distorted you can still see what building is. It is still recognisable, which shows he's been very selective with which bits of the building he's chosen to repeat and how he's layered it. He's been careful not to alter the essence of the building and the surrounding area. 

I also thing there is something about the image that makes me think of time and change. From researching this work some of the photos used were from the 1930s and I presume others were contemporary. Which I think draws on this theme of change and the passing of time. 

The London Eye London 2012

I also think it's genuinely really interesting to see a photographer whose primary material is software. Often it's just a tool used to alter photos slightly but for Idris Khan software is essential for making he's artwork. I think this is interesting, as fairly often photo manipulation can be something that is kind of frowned upon, and seen as a 'cheat', when really so much can be achieved with it and his work is a great example of that. This London eye one I really find quite mesmerising. The way the different layered images of the eye are from deifferent angles and prespectives is really interesting and again really gives the idea of movement. It works really well for this one because the eye is a moving structure and this effect nicely gives an impression of movement.

A Memory of Being Watched 24/7



This one above is of street cameras. Hence the title "A Memory of Being Watched" apparently the cameras that Idris has to pass on is way to work every day. I really like this image as almost as if you can see rays of light like spotlights coming from the cluster of cameras in the middle. Plus you feel like your looking up at the cameras from a low angle, and with the vertical brick wall that is also visible within in image it really makes you feel looked down on. As if something is watching you from all angles.

Week 7 PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography Week 6.

We started the week using a film camera (Pentax K1000) which we used the studio to take portrait photos of each other using external flash. Whilst we were taking portrait photos of someone else the other members of our group were asking questions to try and get a reaction and capture it with the camera. It was great to be able to get practical straight away and start using the equipment. After taking the photos we learnt how to develop our photos in the dark room. 

We also had a go at photograms. Using random objects such as glass pattern bowls, lace, bottles, light bulbs ect. on photo paper and exposing it to light. We then used the developing liquids to develop them and see what interesting shapes we had created. 

(Photos to come) 

When looking at photograms we were also introduced to cyanotypes. I found these particularly interesting and thought they looked really lovely. 

I popped this link in for my own reference but also if anyone else was interested in the process.