First Shoot Plan

Well this is it first shoot! Studio is all booked for tomorrow and I've got my help organised now all I need to do is make a plan! 

Having researched some still life photographers I've found inspiration from their work. Flowers will be the subject of some of my photo's. I've been inspired by Tina Modotti's work particularly Calla Lilies 1925 and Calla Lily 1924 -1926. Calla Lilies is interesting in that the main subject matter of the photograph is in the very top third of the image. It breaks the rules of photography but this is in part the beauty of it. One of the dark stems points straight upwards through the image while the other curves slightly to the left. The light at the bottom right corner  guides us up those dark stems to the beautiful flowers at the top. The varying tones of the backdrop really add to the composition of the image. I'm going to try a similar concept tomorrow during my shoot. I'm using different flowers but will try a few shots with the flowers in the top third of the image. I'm shooting on medium format with a square 6 x6 frame so my shots will have a different feel to them. I will also try to recreate this lighting for some of my shots but possibly with differing compositions. The single Calla Lily shot is simple yet stunning. I love how the flower head takes up the whole frame and the curves of the flower aide the composition so brilliantly. The lighting in this shot is perfect. Again it appears to be coming in from the bottom right hand corner. Shining up and emphasising the downward curl at that point whilst casting all but the very tip of the stamen in shadow. There is another shadow cast just under where the petal curls into the center of the lily which shows the beauty of the flower perfectly. I love how you can see the subtle but different tones of the flower head itself and also the fine details and lines. We are drawn to the center by the curve of that petal leading us inwards. I also feel like that speck of light on the stamen also draws us into the image. I would love to shoot something this beautiful it has such depth and detail. All my still life photography of flowers so far has been in colour and I have some beautiful photographs I now want to achieve even better but this time in black and white.

Calla Lilies Tina Modotti

Calla Lily Tina Modotti

Other sources of information with regard to flowers as subjects are Irving Penn and also the brilliant Art Forms in the Plant World by Karl Blossfeldt. His black and white images of plant forms are so beautiful. The composition is quite simple in appearance with just the plants against a plain background but it is the lighting which brings them to life. While light and shadow gives depth and interest to images the contrast of the dark plant against a light background (or vice versa) emphasises the beauty of the plants. For the contrast of dark against light I particularly like Cornus Florida Boxwood of N. America. and also Adiantum Pedatum Maidenhair Fern shown below.

Cornus Florida Karl Blossfeldt

Adiantum Pedatum Karl Blossfeldt

In terms of his flowers one of my favourites is Parnassia Palustris I love the lighting which is probably raised up above the flower but not by a great deal and positioned so it's hitting the flower from the top right hand corner. I like how the shadow is cast to the bottom left of the flower. This is a beautiful image. Another favourite of mine is Tellima Grandiflora the lighting on this shot is fantastic. It's shining mostly from above and obviously to the left and I love how the whole of the right hand side apart from the delicate fringes of the flower  is in the dark. This lighting perfectly emphasises the beauty of this flower as you will see below.

Parnassia Palustris Karl Blossfeldt

Tellima Grandiflora Karl Blossfeldt

From my research for my initial project I found a few still life shots by Maholy-Nagy. One of which was a cabbage. His cabbage was imperfect, eaten by caterpillars or something and probably picked from a farm or someones garden. I love the image though and it's probably the imperfect nature of it that made the image so beautiful. It was this image that first gave me the idea of photographing vegetables. I did also go on to study Edward Weston's work as well and loved his Cabbage Leaf and his Pepper. Inspired by their work I've also bought some vegetables. I bought a cabbage although mine was neatly wrapped and looks almost perfect as it came from the supermarket! I really wanted to find a pepper to photograph and experiment with but they were also all perfect which was a real shame. I don't think there is nearly as much beauty in a perfect pepper. For a future shoot I will visit the market in town or a farmers market and see if I can find some more interesting specimens for my work. However, I did find one beautiful vegetable, a butternut squash. It has a simply beautiful shape, fantastic detail and best of all I love the colouring of it. I can't wait to see how this looks in black and white. 

Pepper Edward Weston

Cabbage Leaf Edward Weston

Maholy-Nagy

Maholy-Nagy was born in Bacsbarasod, Hungary on July 20th 1895. He went on to study law at University of Budapest. Conscripted to the Hungarian Army he was sent to the Russian war front. He began sketching and painting whilst recovering from serious war injuries.

Maholy-Nagy was not only a photographer but a talented artist, sculptor, designer and educator. Obsessed with light and colour this brought about his love of photography. He felt that black and white photography which showed everything in greyscale helped us to distinquish between minute of differences in not only grey tones but also chromatic tones. I have the same love of black and white photography and love the way that some black and white photographs have such a wide range of tones that you can almost sense the colour. He was also fascinated by the inverted light and dark of negative prints. Maholy-Nagy loved to experiment. One of the first to produce photograms (produced by placing objects over light reflective paper and exposing it to light in the darkroom), he would use light in many different ways, both static and moving it over his objects as they were on the paper. This experimental side of Maholy-Nagy is what interests me the most.
These next images are examples of Maholy Nagy's photograms.

Self Portrait:Moholy-Nagy 1924 Photogram with torn paper.

Photogram:Moholy-Nagy 1922

Photogram:Moholy-Nagy 1940

After seeing his work I spent some time in the darkroom experimenting myself these are my photograms

            

All of these were done by placing the objects directly onto the paper and then exposing it. I didn't move anything it was all left in place for the same length of time. Maholy Nagy would move things during exposure and place them at different distances from the paper. He also experimented using both static and moving light. In my first image there are several tones from white to black and a few greys in between. It's interesting to see that where the long handle was placed on the paper leaving a gap underneath the pattern of the paper doiley infringes on it looking like it's actually on top. In the second image all the items were placed directly onto the paper. I used white plastic pastry cutters and I didn't expect them to let any light through. It's interesting that not only has the light got through to some degree but also that there is a white glow around the edges. I really like this and think it's far more effective in terms of the image than solid white shapes would be. The two solid white circles add that extra something to the image, linking the black of the background, the grey and the white glow around the daisy wheels. This is probably my favourite image. For the final image I used some jewellery and a belt of coins that I had. Again it was placed directly onto the paper and as none of it was transluscent it has left a stark contrasting image of white on black. I like the extreme contrast of this photogram and feel it suits the design.





Machinery
Another fascination of his was Machinery. His paintings often featured his visions of machines. I particularly like;-
The Peace Machine Devouring Itself: Moholy-Nagy 1920

and also

Collage R: Moholy-Nagy 1920

I recently took some black and white photographs inspired by his love of machinery and will post them up soon.



Moholy-Nagy's paintings were all very graphic. Based primarily on shape line and colour he created the most beautiful geometric paintings. His use of colour and implied light and shadow gives his paintings great depth adding that third dimension. He has a great eye for colour and tone and uses this brilliantly in his work. I particularly like The Great Aluminum Painting:Moholy-Nagy 1926 and A19:Moholy-Nagy 1927
Inspired by these very geometric images I took the following images on a trip to London recently: -

Thursday 6th October 2011

I've been to the library today and taken out three books. I have Edward Weston:Photographer, Karl Blossfeldt:Artforms in the Plant world and Tina Modotti:Photographer and Revolutionary. There are some really inspiring photographs in these books but I also want to get to know the photographers themselves and what they are about. Whilst in college I have also booked the small studio for 4 hours on the 14th October and reserved all the equipment I need. I will also be taking the equipment home for the weekend in the hope that I might get chance to experiment some more at home. For now I will continue with my research, think about what I want in terms of subject, and lighting etc but I'm really looking forward to getting into the studio for my first shoot.

FDPH101 First thoughts.

Today I got my first look at the assignment brief for FDPH101the title being first light. In short I need to photograph a still life object in the studio using studio lighting. My previous research on Maholy Nagy should be the starting point for inspiration but I also need to research other photographers using aspects from several or just one of them to influence my work. There are two Maholy Nagy still life images I have found so far that inspire me these are "Laboratory Glass Study" and "Cabage". I'm particularly fond of the lighting in the "Laboratory Glass Study".
My first point of reference for today's research was Photo Icons by Taschen. Looking through the only still life photographer I found who I thought I might have an affinity with was Karl Blossfeldt. Tomorrow I will go to the library as there is a book there that might be really helpful for my research. I then looked through the photobook and found several photogaphers who might be interesting to look at in more depth, they are: -

Baron Adolph DeMeyer
So far I have found two images of his that I love they are "Waterlillies" and "Hydrangea". I now need to research him further.

Emmanuel Sougez
The image in the photobook for Emmanuel Sougez is "Grapes". This wasn't particularly inspiring to me in terms of composition but I do like the lighting in it. It was from this that I looked for other images that were inspiring and found "Glassware With Orange". I love this image, the light on the glassware and the use of the reflective surface under the glassware. The reflections below and on the wall behind are beautiful. I also like "Satin and Feathers" and "Rose with Glass".

Tina Modotti
I love photographing roses so was instantly attracted to Tina Modotti's Roses photograph. Googling her I've found some other images that I love they are "Calla Lillies",  "Easter Lilly and Bud" and "Flor De Manita".

Edward Weston
I think I will draw lots of inspiration from the lighting of Edward Weston's images. Just having a quick look in a search the following stand out for me so far "Cabbage Leaf" and "Pepper".

This is obviously just a start for my research based on a few reference books and some google searching. However, I think the subject for my still life is likely to be either a flower, plant, fruit or vegetable of some kind. I think these all look fantastic in black and white and the detail on any one of them will create fantastic light and shadow detail for my image.

London Royal Acadamy

Last week we visited the Royal Acadamy to see the Eyewitness Exhibition of Hungarian Photography. This related to our initial project which was to choose a photographer from either Brassai, Capa, Kertesz, Moholy-Nagy or Monkacsi and research their practice, influence on photography of their era and photography in general. We needed to then use this research as a source of Inspiration and accordingly shoot some black and white film in order to produce a final print.

I chose Maholy Nagy for my research. His work was instantly inspiring. I loved the geometric nature of much of his work using shapes, lines and angles within the environment to create beautiful images. Another interesting feature of Moholy-Nagy's work was the experimental side and his invention of the photogram. On reading about this and seeing his photograms I immediately wanted to get in the dark room and experiment myself. Moholy-Nagy was also interested in the industrial, machinery and the like and this also featured in his work. Moholy-Nagy was not just a photographer, he was a talented painter, sculpture, designer and of course teacher within the Bauhaus School of Art and Design. His composition is faultless. His works show great appreciation of the formal qualities of art, line, shape, form, texture, pattern and colour. If we consider the painting below "Construction" 1933 Oil on Aluminium.

It has all of the above qualities but it's the skill with which they are used to produce this final peice that is truly inspirational. The shapes are there, the lines, the pattern but through the use of light, shadow and tonal range he creates depth and another dimension to what is essentially a two dimensional painting. I would imagine there is some texture to the painting as well but that is difficult to appreciate from a photograph of the painting. For this painting he used oil on aluminium. Moholy-Nagy was experimental in his painting as well as his photography using new and interesting surfaces on which to paint.

The exhibition of Hungarian Photographers at the Royal Acadamy included many of his photographs. To see his genuine photographs in a gallery space was truly inspiring and for me quite emotional. To know they were the original images that he had taken, processed and printed himself left me filled with awe.

Image Analysis Feedback

I finally handed in my Image Analysis for Contextuals last Tuesday and got my feedback this week. The feedback was great the only real problem being that I'd forgotten to include the Bibliography! I was a little disappointed there was no mark to guide me and did ask what kind of mark it would have got. However, I was told it hadn't been looked at according to the grading matrix so it wasn't possible to give one. I was reassured that I had no need to worry, that it was a very good analysis. My written feedback said it was a fantastic first attempt and it contained comments such as brilliant link etc. So I guess I have to accept there isn't much more I can do to improve on it. I should be pleased with my effort and hand it in as it is. However, I would still have been happier had I got a grade. As I still don't know if very good means 60% or 80%?
Now I'm moving onto the next part of the Contextuals Assignment but hopefully staying with the topic of visual culture.

Formal Intervention Feedback

For my Formal Intervention assigment I received back last monday with my mark and feedback. I got 64% for it and really good feedback. I was really pleased with my grade as I'd been off sick for the last 3 weeks before it was due in. The feedback was really helpful and has certainly given me ideas as to where I can improve on the next assignment. My research needs to be broader which I knew and more in depth. I also need to experiment more with my photography and try and do more shoots rather than just stopping when I find a photo I'm happy to submit. I do understand this is important in terms of my development as a photographer but it just wasn't possible on my Formal Intervention assignment. I found it really hard to get assistance with my shoot and I'm not physically capable of doing location shoots on my own. I was told prior to starting the course that I would get support with these things but have since found out that I can only get support in and around college. I therefore have to rely on the help of my family and friends. Finding times when they are free and I am well proved difficult. As far as the research goes I can hopefully do better with that on my next assignment "Cover Story" but again this depends on my health. I will always endeavor to improve on my previous grades. It would be fantastic if I could attain a First Class Honours degree and this is my aim. However, realistically given my on going health problems I wouldn't be at all disappointed with a 2:1 and with a mark of 64% I don't doubt I can achieve that.

So pleased with my progress so far!

Formal Intervention

Another week at college over can't wait for the next session on Tuesday. I'll be doing lots of research over the next few days though. Today I was given my first full assignment for the course. It's a little daunting as I'm really not sure where to start. At the same time it's exciting and good to have something to get to work on. The idea is that we take a photograph that demonstrates an understanding of the formal qualities of a photograph. Within in our final image we are to place a person or object or implied presence in order to create a personal statement. I think first I should be thinking about the statement I wish to make  and then work out what best to use to make that statement and within what circumstance.
I have been looking at the work of other artists/photographers so far with little inspiration. I do like the work of Richard Estes, I love the photographic like quality of his paintings and the way he uses light reflections. I also like some of the still life work of Wolfgang Tillmans but I'm not sure this assignment is based on a still life image. My understanding is that it should be landscape or city scape. I can't wait to have our next seminar to get an understanding of what others feel is expected of us. In the mean time I shall continue to research the wider art world and other photographers to gain inspiration. As this is a black and white shoot I need to consider colour qualities of my chosen location and how they will reproduce in a black and white spectrum.

Changes

I've had to review my time in college as 9am until 6pm on a Thursday was just not going to be possible. College is a real struggle for me even when I'm in for just a few hours so a full day like that was far to ambitious. Anyway I've now dropped PCAD100  and changed to group c or d not sure which yet which means I'm only in from 11am until 4pm on a Thursday now. Still quite a long day but hopefully manageable.

Another good day!

This morning wasn't the easiest as I had to be up at 6.45am! Needed to get Thomas ready for school as well as myself ready for college in order to be out of the door by 8.20am. Wasn't entirely sure I would make it to college on time after dropping Thomas off at school but I made it in good time thankfully. Just hope the traffic is always as easy as this morning, probably helped that I took the backstreets. Anyway all that said I made it to the induction albeit very tired. I usually stay in bed all morning! Quite an achievement for me to be that motivated long may it continue. 

It was the induction to the course this morning which was necessary but far from exciting! Lots of useful information though. I was a little upset to find out that Dave would rather I had done the initial project only because had I known that's what he wanted I would quite happily of completed it. My presentation was all ready. Anyway what did come out of my conversation with Dave was that it would be useful to go along to the tutorials linked to the project to see what everyone else was doing. I'm not normally in on a Friday so this wasn't compulsory for me but I am so glad I went. It was so interesting to see the pictures the others were working on and their ideas on how to derive a self portrait from those images. Ideas for derivation seemed to come very easily to me and I was able to make suggestions for almost every image although I didn't vocalise my opinions on all of them. Actually taking part in the tutorials made me want to be part of the project and take my own self portrait as derived from my Image by Alma Tadema. The only problem is I don't have any thoughts on how to approach things in the style of my image. When the project was first announced I thought perhaps I would photograph myself on the the Hoe looking out to sea. However, on talking and reflecting this afternoon I realise this isn't enough. That would simply be taking a photo of myself in the style of Alma Tadema without any indication of who I am in the image. I feel I would like to show maybe triumph over adversity since I am learning to make the most of my life despite my ill health. Quite how I would show that in a photograph in the style of or derived from an image of Alma Tadema I'm not sure. I intend to give it some thought and if I come up with something prior to Friday 8th I will attempt my own self portrait.

I am amazed by the knowledge and inspiration I'm getting at this stage. I am wondering if this is where I should always have been, in a creative industry it seems to fit so well. 

Although it's been very tiring to the point of exhaustion today I am looking forward to every day I spend in college. I really wish I was well enough to do it all full time as I kind of feel I'm missing out but I have to be grateful for what I am able to do. Enjoy it and strive to succeed.