TIPS FOR INSPIRATION.

When thinking about my project, I've been finding it difficult to come up with fresh, new ideas and angles for the brief! Therefore, I decided to look up various ways to help get me inspired and I found a great list online! The article is titled "25 Ways to Jump Start Photography Inspiration" and simply lists some ideas to help get the creative juices flowing. Below I have written out a few of my favourite's from the post

--> Look through your CD collection - being a huge fan of music I never thought to turn to CD covers to help inspire me! Although most covers I now only have copies of digitally, I still look at them on a daily basis. A suggested idea that I found particularly interesting was to shoot a new cover for an old CD, I think this is a great way to re-vamp and modernise old CD's to fit this day and age!

--> Look 360 - For something so simply, the difference it makes is huge! Basically, when walking we look straight on, however if we look at the full 260 degree angles - upwards, downwards etc then there is a lot more we tend to miss! For example, reflections on puddles, patterns on car tyres and shadows!

--> Go to the movies - personally I love this idea, because I love going to the cinema! However, there is a lot more that we can pick out from watching a film in general - the dialogue, camera shots, characters and morals.

Those were three of my highlights from the post, but the entire 25 ways are listed in the original post here:

http://www.diyphotography.net/25-ways-to-jump-start-photography-inspiration

I definitely found this link very helpful in giving ways to think of new ideas and inspiration for my final photography project!

PORTRAIT TASK.

In class we were given our Nikon D7000's and told to go and photograph our fellow peers and other people walking around campus. I was in a group with Connor and Hayley and we decided to chose a brick wall as the background for our shots. This was due to the fact that it was a very simplistic setting, however gave enough colour and vibrance to make the shots star out against it. Here are the finished products!

READINGS.

    This week's reading was again from John Berger's"Ways of Seeing" but it was the chapter "Uses of Photography". The piece discusses the various uses for photography when it was first introduced - for example' police filing, war reporting, military reconnaissance, family albums and postcards etc. The main argument of is that photography has many uses but, what it most prominently does is preserve memories and recreate moments in time. Berger saw that photography is a transparent thing and offers direct access to real life and he likens the idea of photography to the human memory system. 

    Berger looks at how before photography was introduced there was the use of memory and what photographs do nowadays used to be done within human reflection. It is pointed out that human visual perception is a far more complex and selective process than what a film records - the camera saves a set of appearances from other inevitable further appearances, keeping memories and not allowing them to change. Unlike memories photographs do not preserve meaning, they just offer certain appearances without narrating anything - in other words photographs just preserve instant appearances. In conclusion to Berger's point, the photograph and memory system act as contributions to each other - the photograph stores the moment, but the memory narrates what a person or object is living.

    Once discussing with my group about the article, we came up with a few questions fro consideration:

1. Within the article Berger links photography to religion - claiming it to be the "eye of god" as it the rise of photography corresponds to the decline of religion. The question being, is there actually a link between the two and is it something to consider or is it just coincidence?

2. How does taking pictures of people change the style or meaning of photography?

AUGUST SANDER PRESENTATION.

    This week's group presentation was on August Sanders (1876-1964). He was born in Germany and received his first camera in 1892. He then went on to build a dark room and tour Germany as a commercial photographer, before being employed as an assistant in Austria where he and his partner bought a studio in order to explore his own themes, but then sold it.

    His most famous work is his "People of the 20th Century" exhibition which captured and classified his fellow Germans. His intention was to document all German people and to represent them as types of people instead of individuals and once completed his archive had collected up to 40,000 entries.  He classified people by their profession, social class and family relationship, and then divided them into classes such as farmer, skilled tradesman, women, classes and profession, artists, cities and last people (homeless). Sanders took a typological approach and most of his subjects wore work clothes and held the tools of their trade. 

    The exhibit was split into sections and one was dedicated to farmers and old farming men, women and couples in their homes of against a natural backdrop which showed their fundamental role in society. All of the males had female counterparts and families who were also included. 

    Sander is seen as one of the most important German post-war photographers and his style favoured large format cameras with lengthy exposure times in order to focus on detail. His work is described as assisting a self portrait but he made his exhibition specifically for the strict documentation of his view of man. Questions arose over where his work is documentary or portraiture and a conclusion was never come to - it can be seen as documentary as it documents what is happening during specific time periods however the photos are very controlled and precise therefore, reflecting a portrait as it is from Sanders specific point of views and he composes the subjects into certain positions.

   Similar artists to Sanders are Cindy Sherman and Diane Arbus. Both Sanders and Arbus' work reflect the haunt of war - being two world wars for Sanders and the Vietnam war for Arbus. All of the work by these three show class, identity and respective societies ideologies. They highlight the unseen truths of their cultures and the everyday documentary style portraiture and it can be argued that each are trying to document society through their constructive nature of images.

     Below we can see the similarities between work - with August Sander's image on the left and Diane Arbus' on the right.

COMPOSITION.

    As part of today's class, our tutor asked us to explore composition if we had no prior knowledge of the term. Before starting my degree, I had no previous experience of photography (as previously mentioned!) aside from just mucking about with a camera therefore I had little understanding of how to actually composition a shot. She gave us links to various websites in order for us to learn more about what composition is, what it means and the basic rules/guidelines of how to actually set up a photograph:

    "Composition" can be used within various different forms of art; such as music, dance, literature and visual and it has two very different, yet still somewhat related meanings. Firstly, it describes the placement of objects in art and secondly it is a key aspect of good art. Composition is of extreme importance and it enhances detailing and requires good balance - it helps to emphasise the idea or story you are trying to convey.

    In photography, the way an image is shot is crucial. Therefore, composition in a photograph is when certain elements of a photo are arranged in order to fit the goal of your work. One link give to me describes 10 rules of composition:

  
1. SIMPLIFY THE SCENE: remember that the camera picks out everything, even if the naked eye doesn't therefore you have to chose your subject, select a focal length that makes it the centre of the frame - and make sure that other objects are part of the background.
2. FILL THE FRAME: leaving too much empty space makes your subject look small than it actually is and leave viewers confused as to what the focus point is, filling the frame gets closer to the subject and makes it easier to control what is in the background whilst also giving a more interesting take on things.
3. ASPECT RATIO: make sure to keep changing your camera between horizontal and vertical shots and you can always crop an image to 16:9 for a widescreen effect particularly if your subject doesn't fit the frame.
4. AVOID THE MIDDLE: it's tempting to shoot right in the centre of the frame however, it only produces basic, boring photos. In order to prevent this, you can use the "Rule of Thirds" idea where you split the image into thirds horizontally and vertically and put your subject into one of these imaginary lines with the other two bring free space.
5. LEADING LINES: there is a way of controlling a persons eye movements when looking at a picture. Converging lines give a 3D depth to an image that lead you to the main subject. Lines can be found everywhere, for example on walls, fences, roads, buildings etc.
6. USE DIAGONALS: diagonal lines introduce a drama, uncertain feeling to an image, wider angles tend to produce more diagonal lines as you are more likely to tilt the camera. To introduce diagonals into your work the "Dutch Tilt" technique where you tilt the camera just as you take the shot helps to create this effect.
7. SPACE TO MOVE: despite being static, photographs convey a strong sense of movement and you should always leave a little more space ahead of a subject than behind it as a viewers always looks to where the subject is going towards not where it came from.
8. BACKGROUNDS: don't just concentrate on a subject, take note of what is in the background, you cannot exclude it completely, but you can control it. Using a wide liens aperture and a longer focal length throws the background out of focus to create a good effect.
9. CREATIVE WITH COLOURS: bright primary colours are what attract the eye and including a splash of colour across a monochromatic background helps create colour contrasts. The key is to be selective of how you isolate and frame subjects to exclude unwanted colours.
10. BREAKING THE RULES: once you get a better understanding of the rules, its best to start breaking them in order to create interesting images!

I found these rules extremely helpful and cannot wait to put them into practice!

INTITAL PROJECT IDEAS.

The brief for our photography is:

"To produce a series of 6 - 8 photographs that investigate ideas of representation and identity in relation to your cultural position in society."

We do not have to chose our specific idea at this precise moment in time however we are mean't to be researching various ideas therefore I have come up with a list of possible ideas for my project:

--> a timeline of events in life - for example starting school, moving house, starting university, meeting people etc. and possibly writing them on a body and then photographing that

--> a day in the life of - photographs from daily life that sum up who i am in society and my identity

--> DNA - fingerprints, drop of blood, skin, handprints etc to emphasise my identity

--> mistaken identity - for example the negative representation of youths in the media

--> lyrics, quotes all written and photographed in various places that reflect my identity and my position in society.

Although these are only very basic ideas, hopefully I will soon find something that I can base my project on!

CREATING A CONTACT SHEET IN ADOBE BRIDGE.

This week we learn't how to create a contact sheet in the Adobe Bridge software. As previously mentioned the task was to put all of our Stanmer Park photos into a contact sheet at the end of the lesson.
Our tutor helped us by creating a step by step guide to making a contact sheet:
1. Using the folders panel you can navigate your images
2. In the content panel, you arrange the images in the order that you want them to appear in the gallery
3. Activate the images you want to include by holding "cmd" and clicking on each selected photo
4. At the top of the Bridge panel bar click the output button
5. In the output window click PDF
6. In the template tab, choose the contact sheet of your choice
7. In the document panel, select and edit the size, quality and background as you require it
8. Scroll down to the layout panel and adjust columns and rows as needed
9. Check and edit the overlays, header, footer and watermark panels
10. Go back to the output panel and click "Refresh Preview" to get a sneak peek at your contact sheet
11. On the bottom of the Output panel, press save and your contact sheet is complete!

Here's the contact sheet I created using photographs I have taken from Stanmer Park:

I also did some online research and found a really helpful youtube video for making a contact sheet:

STANMER PARK PHOTOGRAPHY.

As part of the course, today we went to the local Stanmer Park to take some test shots - in order to create a contact sheet. This gave us the opportunity to work with the Shutter Speed and Aperture on the D7000 and just generally get used to using the camera.
Here's some of the photos from the day:

READINGS.

    This week's core reading was chapter one of "Ways of Seeing" with John Berger. The chapter discusses the different ways that people see photographs. The chapter opens with the phrase

"Seeing comes before words. The child look and recognises before it can speak"

I feel as though this was the perfect opening to the chapter. It then goes on to look at how the way we see things in day to day life are affected by what we know or believe and that what we look at - particular objects, shapes, colours etc. is a choice, and that therefore we only see the items that are brought within our reach. It particularises the way that individuals looks at things and how we pick out objects that relate to us.

    The chapter then continues to discuss images, it claims that "an image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced" whilst then discussing how a photographers way of seeing is usually represented in their choice of subject for a photograph.  A point I found particularly interesting was the idea that an image can outlast what it represents, that there is too much to an image for it just to be a representation - there will always be other stories and ideas behind it. 

   Berger then talks about the past and how cameras changed certain views. The camera itself completely distorted that way that men saw in general - a photograph captured meanings that were never seen to the human eye, whilst it also changed the view of paintings as they were simply a 2D representation of a moment whereas photographs always reflected a 3D sensation. He discusses the fact that a film that reproduces the images of a painting leads the spectator through the painting - looking at the hidden representations and meanings to it and the film leads the spectator to see various conclusions. 

    The piece is concluded with the idea that art of the past is completely lost, no longer existing and therefore as a results of this its authority is lost.