Review

The exhibition was held in the Victoria building at UCLAN on the 10^th of December 2014  from 4pm to 6pm. The exhibition started a bit later due to everyone get everything perfectly set up, however the show was really successful.

The show was titled ‘Perspectives’ which everyone thought was correctly titled, as it was the same model in a lot of different styles. Everyone present was there to see around 30 college and HND students photographs, they were all surprised at the level of skill the college students had, because although HND’s photographs were good everyone though they were on the same level as the college students studying photography. It was obvious that all the students had thought a lot about how to layout their exhibition and which photographs looked good together and complimented each other. Each person looking around noticed that no coloured backgrounds were together they were placed with grey/black/white backgrounds; they all thought this was well put together and a very good idea so that the photographs didn’t clash.  

Although the space overall was very cramped and once everyone attending as well as the photographers it was very awkward and warm making it difficult to stay there for a long period of time. Someone thought that it would have been a good idea to have the theme of the photograph along with the name of the photographer so they could fully understand it and look at it in a different way.

A photograph taken by Stefan Eccle’s caught a lot of peoples attention, as the model had mascara running down her face as if she had been crying and it created a very cinematic feel to it; making you want to know the story behind it, the image was also in black and white which added quite a bit of mystery to the image.

A lot of people really liked Saffron Elder’s photograph as it was really sharp and detailed and the model’s expressions is really good, it was also low key lighting but still in colour so you could see all the models freckles and facial features. Although some mentioned that there wasn’t much looking space within the image, which would have made the photograph more successful.

There was one image that was a lot different to the other pieces, which was Josh Bannister’s. He had his plain backdrop also he had put coloured gels on the lights he used one being red and the other blue, this meant that half of the model’s face was blue the other red, which no one else in the group had done so I thought this was a stand out image.  Although the photograph was quite dark, it may have been the correct exposure but I thought if it were a bit brighter a lot more people who attended would have liked it too.

There was a piece of work that was slightly different to the others, which was Elentari Brown’s, she had an idea that no one else had. She made the models eyes demonic and black but she had left the light reflection there to make it look really realistic. It was obvious that it was demonic theme she was looking for and she accomplished it really well.

Overall the exhibition was a hit with everyone who attended, the prints were high quality RAWs with no pixilation once blown up and printed. A majority of the students stayed and answered all the questions they were asked which they answered very professionally.

Artist Research

Alec Soth
Soth is an American photographer and his photography has a cinematic feel to it with element of folklore showing there's a story behind each of his images. He has been said to be able to find a photographic career out of finding chemistry with a stranger. He thought that his awkwardness helped and comforted the people he was photographing, he uses a camera with the cloth over his head so that the models don't know he's looking at the but in reality he is looking at them in the eyes. He also had a list of people he would look for with certain looks for what he wanted to photograph. He has a book called 'Sleeping by the Mississippi' which contained landscapes and portraits. A lot of his images are muted colors and softly lit creating no shadows.

This is one of his more well known images because he was always looking for bearded men that he could take pictures of in nature.

I really like this photograph of the women with the baby because the way she looks is also portrayed in the location as he just asked her to stop and stand there holding the baby I find the way he just asked people really inspiring. She is also a white women wearing a Jamaican shirt which is really controversial and you want to know her story and why she's there alone with her baby.

Trish Morrissey

Morrissey's style could be described as narrative documentary as it uses the conventions of portraiture and snap-shot photography. She always appears in her work, although at times she is hard to recognize as Morrissey changes her persona is each shot, in one work being a teenage girl in another a young man. However despite having a connection to moving image work, her practice is very rooted in the tradition and language of photography her final work seems to have fallen out of a family photograph album.
I really like this image because she took the women out of the actual scene, she also wore the women's ring and took her place in the scene. I also like this because it's quite controversial as well with the different races, she had the original women take the picture so it looked like a normal family picture on the beach.

This is one of my favorite pictures Morrisey took because she had a random women on the beach take the photograph which is why there are fingers in shot because it was taken by an amateur. I really like how she's done this because it's really original and different, although she does it a lot I really like this one because all photographs are supposed to be perfect so she kind of breaks the rules.

Nan Goldin

Goldin is an American photographer who started photographing as a teenager and her earliest works were black and white images of drag queens celebrating the community she lived within. She then carried on taking these great photographs of drag queens but also took images of her friends who were suffering from AIDS while recording her experiences in Asia. Most of her work was shown in slideshows with a soundtrack her longest one being 45 minutes with 800 pictures with her main themes being love, gender, domesticity, and sexuality. All her photographs show a story of what people are going through, sex, drugs, traveling and sex.

This is a photograph of Nan Goldin a month after beaten, I like this image because it shows a massive story of her life and the ending of a long-term relationship. Although she has been beaten she seems well groomed with jewelry and makeup on with her hair done, this portrait has dark shadows behind her head an indication of using the flash bulb on her camera.

This colour photograph shows two drag queens one fully looking at the camera (Jimmy Paulette) and the other in profile in the reflection of the mirror (Tabboo!). I like this because it looks like the drag queens have just been going through there usual routine and has taken her camera out to get a good shot just after getting the attention of Jimmy. This almost shows them getting out of character and dress as he is getting redressed and taking off his dramatic makeup. Because as seen in another photograph earlier that day Jimmy is seen fully in drag along with a drag queen called Misty.

Irving Penn

Penn originally set out to become a painter, but at a young age took a job at Vogue designing some of the covers. His fashion images showed elegance and luxury through composition and clarity rather than using  elaborate props and backdrops, this I appreciate because he was able to do it really well. He photographed a large number of celebrities and would spend hours with the model he was working with to get them to let out their true personalities, they were also taken in front of plain backdrops with natural lighting, which made them really direct and to the point while being sophisticated.

I like this photograph it's really clean and doesn't have any distractions, also the lighting is really soft and she has a lot of looking space.

I'm not the biggest fan of Penn's photographs because although there are clean cut and sophisticated I find them rather boring and don't have much to them.

Rineke Dijkstra

Dijkstra is a Dutch photographer who's style was formal portraits until she formed her own style of portraits. She started taking pictures of adolescents at the beach in their bathing suits, this got her recognized in many countries like the USA making her internationally successful. She did a lot of short videos of her portraits from adolescents, clubbers and soldiers, her models are mainly shown looking directly at the camera standing against a minimal background.
This is one of her adolescent beach photographs, the girl is stood very awkwardly as if she is very self conscious with her hands pressed tightly to her thighs. With the light from the sun casting a shadow directly behind her, Dijkstra also uses the bulb flash to narrow the depth of field having only the foreground and the girl in focus.

This women was photographed at her home almost straight after giving birth to the child she is holding, with the medical pants to stop bleeding. She appears happy and content holding her baby close to her in her arms. I like this because it shows a lot of emotions and that she has just been through a lot but is happy enough to have her photograph taken.

Contact Sheets

These are some contact sheets of all the photographs I took while at UCLAN. As seen there are a few images that are composed badly and have the set up visable, also some of them are very dark.

Second Shoot

I kept the same idea for my second shoot but I was a lot more aware of how I wanted my photos to turn out. I was going to sake her to wear some bright lipstick but we were quite rushed and short on time to get it done, this was also bad for my trying to get the lighting how I wanted it. This second shoot was a lot more successful I made the facial expressions I want more known to the model    Sarah-Alyce and she looked a lot happier and did all the poses I wanted. In this second shoot the background was a lot lighter, this was unintended but it looked a lot better than in my first shoot.


I used the light meter to get the correct settings for my photo shoots so the photographs after this weren't as dark.

These are a few of my photographs from the second shoot, I kept the same outfit because I think it fit my chosen theme really well. I was a lot happier with the models facial expressions because it was a big part of how I want the photographs to look.

Although she was stood inform of the same background in the same clothes her facial expression changed the whole thing. She was serious in a few photographs but that was okay because I could just leave them out and not use them. The photos from the first and second are similar in a lot of ways but the differences that I made change them a lot. I think my theme was well known but even if it wasn'tYou

First Shoot

My plan was to get an 80's / 90's look, I wanted to mix them together to make it really original. The model we had was Sarah-Alyce and she is really photogenic, she's very versatile so she could look really good in any style which gave me confidence that mu idea would work out and look very different to other peoples photographs as we were all going to be using the same model.








To get the look I wanted I researched both 80's and 90's studio photography to get a good look at the styles. I really like the poses from more of the 80's style they were really happy and colourful. Although I preferred the clothing from the 90's photographs so I wanted to get those aspects mixed into one.

                     

These were a few of my images from the first shoot I personally really like these images but there are a lot of faults with them that I need to consider for my second shoot. The background in these images are a lot darker then I wanted it to look, I ended up with a vignette affect at the corners where it had darkened while I was taking images. I also asked the model at the beginning to look really happy and smile a lot but in most of the images she was pouting and looking very serious, I understand this is jet what she's used to and in the next shoot I will just make sure she is smiling more and fully doing what I asked.


From this first shoot this is my favorite image of them all, she looks kind of cocky and is doing one of the poses I really wanted her to do. Although you can see the soft boxes reflecting in the glasses she's wearing .

First Day At UCLAN

We all met up at the reception of the media factory building at UCLAN, we were then taken to the studio there. The studio is a lot more professional than the one we have at college and it was really good to know that we could use a lot more professional equipment for this assignment. Nicola, was there to over veiw everything and explain how to properly use all the equipment. The lights in the studio are all attached to the ceiling on moving rails, and you could drag them down and they were weighted so they stayed in place. After we were shown we were split into groups to use the light meters, they are a lot more precise. You are able to set it so it knows there's going to be a flash so you can get more precise readings then a light meter on a camera. The model has to hold it in front of their face with the shutter speed and ISO set, then when you take a picture it tells you the best apiture to use to get a really good exposure.

We then went to look around the dark rooms and we were shown how to use all the chemicals and how to process the film to make an actual picture. Outside of the dark rooms was where we were going to hold out final exhibition, we were shown how to use the spotlights and how to hang the frames on the wall using the hooks and hangings. This day showed me that for the future shoots we were going to be able to use a lot of professional equipment.