#mpho407

Alex Cavendish is a photography student from South East London. He is currently studying a Photographic Arts Degree at the University of Westminster. Alex draws inspiration from a range of photographers, from Don McCullin to Terry Richardson to Diane Arbus. From these inspirations, Alex has drawn an interest to a number of genres of photography, which include documentary, photojournalism, portraiture and fashion, though much of his work now focuses on documentary based photographs as it is a genre that he is interested in most.

His most recent project focused on the homeless in London and how people view them when walking through the streets of London. This project was created using a 35mm camera using black and white film. His current project has him working in a studio, and involves the recreation of a chosen image with a series that will follow on from the image. The series that followed was inspired by Sophie Calle’s Suite Vénitienne series, and had Alex follow a model around the streets of London over a day, documenting what she was doing. The photographs used in the series were partly covered by a coloured gel, adding Alex’s own take to Calle’s work.

Alex has worked using different types of cameras and mediums, changing from a standard DSLR camera to cyanotype printing to 5x4 cameras in a studio. After completing his degree, Alex hopes to find a career in a place such as Vogue magazine or the New York Times. While this may seem ambitious, Alex himself he believes he can achieve these goals.

Business Cards 

Wembley Under Construction

Building construction is the most distinctive element of Wembley right now; it is a place undergoing huge development and many large buildings, mainly student residences, are being constructed. The walkway from Wembley Park station towards the stadium is a much used path, particularly on big event days at the stadium. Either side of this walkway are huge construction sites and many large cranes. Passers-by are dwarfed by the obtrusive machinery. For this project I wanted to explore the relationship between humans and their urban landscape.

 Reflections – Kingsbury and Wembley

Kingsbury and Wembley are close knit communities and, particularly in Kingsbury, I felt very much like an outsider, especially walking around holding a camera. I wanted to convey this idea of me as the photographer being an outsider looking in. This led me to composing my images through doorways and windows. I did not want my photographs to appear as though I was part of what was going on but merely observing. The use of reflections to integrate the outside with the inside I felt conveyed this strong cultural identity established within the community.

For me, choosing an image to recreate in the studio was one of the most difficult parts of the project. The difficulty came from a lack of confidence in myself because I had never worked in a studio before. Because of this, I did not really challenge myself in choosing a somewhat difficult image to recreate; rather choosing what I feel was a simpler image. The image I chose to recreate was an image by Polish photographer Agata Awruk, who works on photographic stories. I chose her image to recreate because I admired how she used a blue filter to construct a part of her image, and because of this I used colour filters to construct the images I used for my series. I am unsure how Awurk created the blue filter in her image, but in my copy and my series I used a coloured gel. Another reason I chose Awurk’s image is because I felt it would not be too difficult to shoot in a studio, and while the shoot itself was somewhat challenging because of my lack of experience, I feel I have replicated the image well.

I found shooting the series was much easier than the copy, as I was using 35mm. After some test shooting with the gels, I eventually settled on creating a series that was inspired by Sophie Calle’s Suite Venitienne project, in which Calle followed a man around Venice and photographed him, unbeknownst to the man. In my project however, I used a model who I directed where to stand and walk to look as if I was following her, unlike Calle’s work which was completely candid. I did not follow someone I had found in public because I had to construct the image, and felt I could only do this with a model which I directed. In my photographs, I used red, blue and green coloured gels to cover up a portion of the lens on my camera and shot the model from places in Central London. I chose a street based project because I had more confidence in my ability to shoot on the street work rather than keep working in a studio.

As my series is based on Calle’s Suite Venitienne, I wanted my series to look rushed, as if the photographer was hurriedly trying to capture the subject yet not get caught in the process. When photographing the subject, I did not care much for composition or lighting because I wanted my images to look as if I were only there to photograph the subject and nothing else. I feel I have been able to create this ‘rushed’ aesthetic through slightly blurred photographs that are also visibly grainy, photographs that look as if the photographer was trying to capture the subject and not caring about anything else. I was more considerate with my use of colour because of the gels; the gels make an obvious contrast in my series because much of the work I shot is quite dark, so the colours of the gels stand out against the darkness. I would say that my series fits into the street genre because it is set in the streets of London, although my series could also fit into surveillance or even voyeurism.

I believe my copy is strong in the sense that I have been able to replicate it well, it is quite similar to the original and I achieved much of this through editing. A main weakness of the copy is how simple I believe the image to be, I feel that my copy image is weak when compared to others because the image itself does not have much going on in it; it is just a model posed with a light filter covering half of the photograph. Given more time, I may have chosen a more challenging image to recreate and use as inspiration for my series, for example I wanted to use a photograph by John Clang originally but I did not have the confidence in myself to make my copy out of it.  I am happy that I have been able to recreate the image, but unhappy that I did not challenge myself more.

A major strength in my series, I believe, is how well I have been able to use inspiration from Sophie Calle for the series and also how I have utilised the lighting gels as filters in my photographs. Similar to Calle’s Suite Venitienne, I have given my work a voyeuristic approach through a grainy look and slightly out of focus images which give a ‘hidden photographer’ aesthetic to my work. Unlike Calle’s project, my work was staged, and because the brief was about constructing the image I directed my subject where to stand and look while I was photographing her, yet in Calle’s work her subject is completely unaware that he is being photographed. Despite constructing my work and making it less candid that Calle’s, I still feel I have been able to show a direct influence from her in my series. I feel I have also shown strength in drawing influence from my copy too, from my use of the gels as colour filters. I have used the gels in a similar fashion as the filter in my copy, I have covered up a portion of the image, and I always chose at random which part to cover, and photographed the scene with the subject in it with a gel covering part of the image. I am quite happy with how the gels look in my photographs; the obvious colour adds a uniqueness to my work. When displaying my work I will be able to show a narrative with my photographs; the series will start with the photographer following the subject from a train, and through the series the passing of time will be apparent because the day slowly turns to night, and will end with the subject finally noticing the photographer, as if the photographer had been caught. I feel my series could have been stronger if I had more images to choose from to use in my narrative. While I only used a single roll for my final images, I shot three rolls in total but because of a lack of experience in film photography, I did not handle the rolls properly and because of this I was not able to use the photographs on them. With more time I would have shot more photographs. Despite a lack of variety, I am happy with my chosen images and believe I have been able to create a strong series.

Emily Wong is a photographer currently based in London, studying Photographic Arts at the University of Westminster. Her work specialises in street photography and urban landscape which derives from her strong interest in cultural identity and the behaviour of people within their surroundings. She has a passion for travel and her work is largely influenced by this. Her work is also influenced by photographers of a diverse range of work such as Martin Parr, Berenice Abbott and Robert Frank.

Here is another website which i have chosen as inspiration, this is more of a blog but i like the style which the images are lay out, i also like the font which is used it look simple and not to much to distract the viewers from looking at the images.