Evaluation

Throughout this module of Portrait Photography, I have developed my knowledge and understanding with reference to shooting on the large format 5x4 field camera from what I have used in previous modules, and on the Hasselblad medium format camera using colour film, that I have never used before until shooting these portraits for this assignment. It has been a challenging experience learning new techniques and printing in the colour darkroom for the first time, but having to learn these new skills, will be ones that I will definitely be carrying on using in the future. It has also refined my perspective of what a portrait actually is, by researching photographers and portrait projects from other artists and by means of capturing my own images to portray this type of photography in different ways and by printing them it in different sizes and on different papers that were knew to me.

The brief title of “Who are they?” also proved to be an interesting topic. At first the title spoke out to me as shooting strangers, which is who I started out shooting on the large format camera at first. It was interesting because the strangers that I asked to take pictures of either seemed quite interested in the camera, what I was doing and why I wanted to take a picture, or they were reluctant straight away and were not willing at all. I found that older people were more pleased to have their photograph taken, due to the fact they wanted to know more about my reason of photographing them. Using the Hasselblad for the first time in colour proved to be quite difficult as I had never shot in colour film or was familiar with the camera, but after a couple of shoots I felt comfortable and began to enjoy capturing images on this format. In some of my other colour images I did not use strangers, but my friends instead who I do not think matters concerning the title as the audience does not always know who is in the images and the question of “Who are they?” is depends on the individuals views and beliefs.  

Shooting Black and White again was also an engagement with expanding my skills once again, on this large format camera that I have previously used before. After researching a number of photographers such as David Bailey and Richard Avedon at the beginning of the assignment, I felt I felt more inspired to go out and shoot portraits on different camera’s, of people that were strangers and also close to me. The use of each depth of field being used  was also interesting to learn and develop  my intelligence on apertures and f-stops, in how it would effect the positioning of the person who would be in my shot and frame depending on where they would be stood. The whole process of this was a step forward in the present time of my awareness to how to use the camera and how to approach people, which has lead to using this camera in this sense again has improved my level of understanding and will proceed to continuously from this module.

Overall I feel that I have achieved the outcomes of this module but also could of done better. My skills have extremely developed in using both cameras that were needed and also by learning to print in the colour darkroom. Having to shoot strangers will always be a challenge but proves it can turn out with capturing good results, as I have found with my own work. In the event of if I was to do something different during this module I would doubtlessly shoot a lot more, so that it would of helped my skills develop and also would of ended with handing in final improved and overall better more successful prints. The title is also apparent in my photographs because I have used strangers in some of them, making the question “Who are they?” clear to see, and although I have used friends in other ones I feel that when looking at a portrait there is always questions to be asked and answered about the individuals in the image. On the whole, the techniques and equipment that were used to capture the images are certainly ones that I plan to carry on using and proceeding to expand my knowledge, as I have enjoyed learning new ways to photograph and print, that I definitely want to become better and see more progress at.

Final 6 Colour Prints

Above are my final 6 images that I have chose to print for this module. It was the first time that I have used the Hasselblad, colour film and also printing in the colour darkroom from two different shoots. I really enjoyed experiencing these for the first time, especially shooting in colour because I did not know what to expect, as well as learning to print them. I am quite pleased with them because although I am not that experienced with this side of the module, they have turned out good for my first couple of shoots and will hopefully continue to develop these skills outside of the module.

Final 20x24 Print

Above is the scanned image of my negative that I have chose to use for the 20x24 exhibition sized print, taken on the 5x4 large format camera and below is the actual print. I am really pleased with this image and is my favourite photograph from the whole module. The woman was a stranger I approached after I had set up the camera, that was close to uni. She did not object and was willing to have her picture taken even though she did not know me. This being printed on the biggest size of paper I have ever used, I was slightly anxious at what it would turn out, as not all of the image is in focus. However after experimenting with filters (final print using filter 5) I am overall very pleased with how this print has turned out, along with the tones and contrast the filter has created and I would definitely print this size again because I think it really shows off the detail and definition. 

Shoot 2

Shoot two using the Hasselblad with colour film.

Shoot 1 - Colour

The images above are from my first shoot on the Hasselblad using colour film. Using this camera was quite hard to get used to, clearly apparent in the photographs because none of them are in focus. I feel that Depth of Field was the issue because of the problem with focusing even though when capturing the images I thought that they were fine. The following people in the images are all strangers that I approached around Hartlepool town centre. They were all very friendly and were totally fine with my taking a photograph of them once I explained my purposes of it. Following on from my black and white 5x4 images, shooting strangers is an interesting experience that will either go really bad or good. Thankfully this shoot went okay and I did not have to ask many people to take a picture of them. I am overall satisfied with how these images have turned out, as it was my first shoot and I will hopefully do better on my next one. I plan to print a couple of these ones just to see what they come out like, which will hopefully might look okay and will be a good experimentation with my first time using the colour darkroom. 

Final Black & White Prints

These are the final three black and white photographs I have decided to print at each level of depth of field. They are all strangers that I asked to take a photograph of and were all okay with me doing that.  I am fairly happy with my images, but I have clearly had problems with the depth of field and getting the camera in focus. However I feel that I have achieved each depth of field length correctly, just not the right settings on the camera. Next time in the near future when I shoot on this format, I will continue to develop my skills and correct what I have done with these images. I feel that shooting strangers was much more interesting because each image will be different and each individual will bring different characteristics, whether it may be their clothes or the expression they appear to be doing.

Self Portraits

I found the body of work by Jen Davis, self portrait series really interesting and nothing like I have seen before. It is clear to see the influence of photographer Cindy Sherman, but the style and aim of Jen's photography is totally different. After looking through this project of self portraits that started in 2002 and carried on to 2011, I saw an article on the Daily Mail website explaining why Jen featured herself in this long project. Her self portraits were a exploration of her body, insecurities and her own views of love and beauty, in which she hoped would help her to love her body at the start in 2011, but eventually over the years of developing this project Jen realised she wasn't changing and was still the same 9 years on, which then became a project of inspiring herself to lose weight. Her series 11 years has gone on to become a book and recently exhibited in New York City and showcased in many other places around the world. Unlike other artists who produce self portraits, Jen used hers to understand herself better and become more comfortable within herself. After her epiphany within herself, she undergone a gastric band surgery and rapidly lost 110lb. Her series progressed from her surgery, presenting her weightless and experience. I find her work really her photographs and the stories within them really stunning and fascinating, showing this chapter of her life that began as one thing and ended as something that has changed and led to a positive outcome. I have included some images from Jen's series of work 11 years below.

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2633497/Woman-spends-11-years-photographing-overweight-body-try-love-come-accept-societys-view-ends-resorting-gastric-band-surgery.html
• http://www.jendavisphoto.com/index.php?/work/self-portraits/

No. 55 (Last photograph of the series)

No. 26

No. 1 (First image)

David Bailey

David Bailey is one of the worlds most well know and iconic portrait photographer. Bailey has shot everyone who is anyone over his successful career. From previous research I have gathered in other projects, I have explained and presented why Bailey has been so acknowledged throughout his time in the photographic industry. I have included two of his most well known portraits below, the photography of Mick Jagger in 1964 and the one of Kate Moss in 2013. Although their is 50 years between the photographs, you can only slightly tell.This shows Baileys famous portrait style that was new and different at the start of his career because there was no one else shooting portraits and fashion photography the way Bailey did, which are still extremely popular and in demand today. His iconic way of capturing portraits are what has made him so well know, the clean simple minimal background makes his subjects stand out so that the audience will concentrate on only them, clearly representing his subjects. David Bailey changed the face of portrait and fashion photography, clearly having a heavy influence of photographers today.

The ways in which Bailey worked also have effect on his photographs. Bailey has always been confident and friendly when photographing and often has a good relationship with his subjects, often already being friends or quickly becoming friends once he has photographed them, shown in the documentary "The Man who Shot the Sixties.". David still shoots today and held his most recent exhibition in 2014 "Stardust" at the National Portrait Gallery which I was looking enough to visit. The exhibition featured a number of his most well known pieces of work and also portraits of others which I did not know existed. He has shot a number of portraits of his wife, that have also been a successful piece of work. They are in a different style to his iconic black and white portraits, but show how diverse and talented Bailey is. The photographs Bailey has captured and produced over his career, will always have a huge impact in the photographic industry, being so famous and having such a advantageous career.

Claudia Legge - Underwater Portraits

ID article about Claudia's work here 

Danny Santos

Danny Santos is a professional photographer based in Singapore, who's project on portraits of strangers I came across when trying to find something similar to my own portrait assignment. His work concentrates on strangers he comes across when walking the streets of Orchard Road in Singapore. He focuses on people who appear to look interesting that he encounters and often has to look twice at. Danny's aim was to capture people who were by all means not ordinary, but strangely wonderful. What stroke me about this project is how it is similar to how I have had to approach strangers in the streets of Hartlepool and ask to take their picture. Like Danny explains in his article, it's hard asking strangers to take a photograph of them because you don't know what their  reaction will be, similar to street photography. The outcome of this project is really interesting. Danny has captured strangers close up creating really beautiful portraits shown below, presenting that its not impossible and can produce a really good outcome.

http://www.dannyst.com/shooting-portraits-of-strangers/
http://www.dannyst.com/gallery/portraits-of-strangers/

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon was one of the worlds leading portrait and fashion photographers up until his death in 2004, and still holds an iconic place in the photography world. Avedon's well known portrait work was so successful because of how character revealing they were about his subjects and also very minimalistic. His famous large scale portraits were nothing like the normal portrait's at the time because of what they revealed about the people in them. The simple white background meant that Avedon's subjects would stand out with no distractions or other context in the image, focusing the audience on what their expression is, what they are wearing and even what objects are in the photographs.

Avedon is argued to be the most influential fashion and portrait photographers of his time. His trademark style meant that no one else produced photographs like him, making him different and leading to a long successful career. His subjects are always standing up in his images, always facing towards the camera. The fact that his portraits just simply focused on the subjects, concentrates on the emotion the subjects bring, composing them to be very humane and compassionate, showing the human form in that instant when the photograph was taking, presenting the emotion the individuals in the image were feeling at that second. In the same as any other portraits, they always have the same outcome, but what makes Avedon's portraits so different is that he thought that portraits were pointless and ineffective unless they had a story behind them and presented a narrative, capturing his subjects showing something about themselves that would be apparent in the photograph. 

Richard's fashion work was also hugely influential in the twentieth century. He worked with Harpers Bazaar magazine and Vogue at different stages throughout his career, creating a different way of capturing and pressing fashion photography that was like no other from the beginning of his career. Avedon would have his models posing different to what was the norm of simple, still and lifeless shots that were generally filling up the fashion magazine. He would create images that were full of movement and excitement. His fashion photography was sometimes seen as quite controversial as he included nudity, violence and death, which also separated him from the "norm". He has separated and expanded portrait and fashion photography, which has created such a legacy of his work and an influential mark in the photography industry. Presenting his subjects in their true form, capturing and presenting something about them that shines through the photographs. 

Colour Printing

After getting our colour films processed we received them back ready to print. The colour darkroom is a little more complex than the black and white darkroom as their is no red light when printing, just complete darkness as the photographic paper is extremely sensitive when printing. It was a little bit difficult at first to get used to the darkroom, but the enlargers are quite similar to the others i have used in previous projects. The white light is okay to be on when setting up the enlarger and negatives and then once ready the light has to be switched off when ready to use the paper and make a print. Another difference is there are the filter settings already in built in the enlarger, which takes effect on the colour of the negative once it has been printed. After doing a few contact sheets and test strips, it began to become easier to print in the complete darkness.

FSA

The FSA; meaning Farm Security Administration, was organisation created during the Great Depression in the United Sates by the government. It was used to take action against the poverty in rural parts of America that had been hit hard by the economic disaster and where it has been mostly effected.The administration aimed to improve the way farmers who were affected were living and allowed the FSA to purchase parts of their land. It also gave an option to rehabilitate them into group farms if necessary so that it could be more financially manageable to live. They also provided loans to the farmers to that they could afford to keep working on their own farm and have enough money to be able to live and support their families. The FSA created a photography programme that illuminated the rural areas and has proved to be highly influential and produced iconic pieces of work. Only eleven photographers were apart of this programme, who worked on portrayed how the Great Depression had ruined the lives of the people they captured. From the beginning of the FSA, its photography has been included in hundreds of books and magazines. In the 1930's in would go along side stories that would explain the problems that they were trying to put across through these images and aim to make people realise the effect the Great depression had. Each of the eleven photographers had a different focus for what they were going to capture and the people they were going to present, it showed the people who lived in the city what it was like to not have a lot of money living in these desperate conditions, for example Dorothea Lange's work who has since became very iconic in the photography world. Her most successful image "Migrant Mother" taken in 1936, was one of the most used out of the thousands of images the FSA produced. The expression the women holds in the image, straight away shows the conditions and emotions that came with this event, presenting how bad life was for these individuals. The FSA was very relevant at this time as it brought attention to people like "Migrant Mother" which were then exposed to the public. It has been a hugely important association in history for the uses of documentary photography and influence of photographers over time, showing the importance of documenting and capturing life. 

"Migrant Mother"

http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/dorothea-lange-migrant-mother-nipomo-california-1936

Artist, Designer, Author

Art has an emotional and spiritual impact on people, whether it is by its creator or spectators. The debate of artists being authors is a debate that has been widely researched. Steven McCarthy, Graphic Designer, wrote a book "The Designer as Author" which explores the role of designers/artists that have to take on different aspects for their projects. The point of being a designers shows that we have an obligation to address problems that come with it, so therefore have to explain and narrate these factors. Films and books that are produced are meaningful in the way that they communicate to show life as it is and why it is worth living. Designers and authors use this when presenting their work whatever it may be, to communicate and highlight the importance of it and the value it holds to its creator. Events have been recorded over history that show we can communicate with others, such as cave paintings many thousands of years ago, that highlights how we can be connected through what we create. Communication is also important in the sense we need other people to gain ideas and inspiration, to then go on to construct and organise our next project. For example Van Gogh had a creative partner who was also a painter who would often work with and around each other, feeding ideas off one another. Other artists and designers use apprentices, who would learn off them, then creating more projects that have been inspired from themselves. Jeff Coones is a very successful and well known artist, known for his reproduction of sculptures and objects. Jeff works with around 120 people who also create his sculptures, and without them they would not be produced and Jeff would not result in having any work. This is an argument of the designer using other people and not themselves to create their art and would not themselves become the author. The debate of when is art art and when is design design for when it relates to each other is is also often brought up for when it counts as author. This occurs because every piece of design, art and photography whatever form it maybe becomes itself at a certain point. Although it does not have a certain moment, it often depends on the opinion of others for the determination for what it truly is.

The Photographic Message

The photographic message is an issue that has been debated since the creation of photography. Each image holds a meaning and insight into what the photographer has thought when taking the image and what they have wanted to put across through the photography. Roland Barthes created a theory that applies a system in which we can denote and connote images. Denoted means how the photograph is portrayed and literally comes across. Connoting is the references and symbolic meanings that is in the message of the photograph. Depending on what the image is for, depends on the message behind it. Such as if the photograph is for advertising the message would be to benefit what is being advertised whether it is for a holiday or something for the audience to purchase. The message also depends on our knowledge as an individual and will see different messages to other people because photography has so many different meaning's, we translate them in our own unique way. Text also has an important role in the photographic message because when we see images in a newspaper or next to a story, it instantly changes our opinion depending on what it says. If we just look at a photograph we then will decide what we think it means, but if we then read something about what is happening or what the image is about it then will change what we think. This is important because it is then the text that illustrates the photograph rather than the image being the the only crucial element. Barthes goes on to explain how it is also important how close the text is to the image because it is the structure that also determines the connotations in the image. Below I have included examples of the photographic message. It is a self portrait by Nan Goldin, and straight away is clear that it is a woman who has been beat up, the denotation. The connotation then is that the woman may have been in an abusive relationship or she has been in an accident.
The realism in photographs is also a debate in the photographic message. This includes that idea that realism is the signifier in the actually photograph and that we only see the subject matter for what is is. Semiotics is also included in this, in how it signifies between what we seen straight away and what the concept of it is, interpreting the image as a collection of signs that are there to be read .The photographic message theory by Roland Barthes proves to be useful when analysing photographs and shows us that a photograph is more than what it just appears.

Nan Goldin

Documentary photographer, Nan Goldin started her photography career during her teenage years. Her work has always heavily focused on the people who surrounded and were involved in her life. Her lifestyle is shown to be a subculture of living in the transsexual communities of Boston and New York, presented in her images of this glamorous way of living but also holds elements of the darker side of violence and drugs. In the documentary "I'll be your mirror" by filmmaker Edmund Coulthard,  it shows Goldin explaining her life that is captured through her images of the people who are and once close to her. The document of her life and events of times in her life is what makes the images so candid and interesting, which holds the connection of emotion that is apparent of what Nan had with these subjects in the photographs. The images hold a narrative of the certain experiences her and her friends had. During the documentary, it shows how much trust the subjects had with Nan because they were a family, which even though she is not in the images the feeling that it is her life and that she has a relationship with these people is still there. The experiences of violences and AID's in Nan's life is definitely apparent in her image because of the dramatic sense and honesty it shows. She also explains in the film how her work just happens and is never planned "I've never believed in a decisive portrait of someone" she states, which is what makes her work so successful in how she has captured these people in their worst and best moments, that has nothing to hide. The way Nan Goldin's lifestyle and career has been joined together presents a journey that is so personal has made her one of the most well known and successful photographers of this day because of the connection between her subject's and herself. They are moments in time that are frozen but show the life within it that is full of emotion that has featured throughout her lives work and have became physical memories. The images that I have included below are what I feel are relevant to what I have mentioned above. They show exactly what her life include, with the environment that is shown to the emotion on her subject matters faces. It is what has made Nan Goldin so iconic because her photographs are full of truth. There is nothing to hide in these images, you can feel the stories within them which makes you want to know more.