#phtotographer

Everybody knows Godzilla (Gojira). He’s the most famous kaiju (strange creature in Japanese) and probably the most successful monster-as-metaphor in cinema history. But do you know he has been awakened by atomic bomb tests? . . . image 1 : Gojira 1954 Japanese movie poster

image 2 : film director Ishiro Honda on set

image 3 : « L’ombre de Godzilla » 2009 48 x 60cm digital C-print, mounted edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs signed, dated and numbered verso

image 4 : « Godzilla » 2009 64 x 80cm digital C-print, mounted edition of 7 + 2 artist’s proofs signed, dated and numbered verso

The Square Mile is the ultimate connection between people and their childhood ‘home’ surroundings.

Tina Barney - Small Towns

http://www.tinabarney.com/small-towns/

The Boys With Bikes, 2009 

Bridal Shop, 2007

Tina Barney is a photographer who was born in New York in 1945. Most of her photos are printed in colour and to a large scale, often of people she knows. Small Towns is a series of photographs which shows the lives of various people living in places she has visited. In this series she has shown the diversity in character and affluence such as the two images above. In ‘Bridal Shop’ everything appears very organised and well looked after and the subjects have an elegant appearance. In juxtaposition ‘The Boys With Bikes’ has a very different feel to it. Things in this photo are a lot more chaotic, such as the vibrant colours, and it shows a more urban side to life. It also shows the youth fashion and culture of the time. I am a big fan of Tina Barney’s work because I am particularly interested in the human condition and her series examines this well.

Tom Hunter - Holly Street Residents

http://www.tomhunter.org/holly-street-residents-series/

Tom Hunter is an artist who uses film and photography for his work based in London. His series ‘Holly Street Residenrts’ showcases what it’s like to live in some of the homes on Holly Street and examines changes that have taken place there over time. The photos in this series show the different tastes of the people who live there. For example, the elderly lady in the first image above has a very old-fashioned home and over time it is clear that she has not invested in new furniture or decor. Her sitting alone in her big room begs the question of whether or not she is lonely there. In contrast, the second photo is full of young people. The chaos of this photo is seemingly shown by the slight movement blur over some of the children. This home is full of kids and subsequently full of toys. A large sized damp patch on the wall behind speaks of a potential shortage of money within the family. In 2017 I went to see an exhibition of Tom Hunter’s work at the V&A Museum of Childhood which was an exhibition titled ‘Searching for Ghosts’. Seeing these photos in person helped me to appreciate their grand scale and guage the detail in each image. They were arranged in a grid format which gave me the impression of looking through the windows in a block of flats. I live in a fairly affluent area and seeing some of these photos really moved me.

Karen Knorr - Fables

http://karenknorr.com/photography/fables/

The King’s Reception (Chateau Chambord)

The Queen’s Bedchamber (Chateau Chambord)

Karen Knorr is a photograper born in Germany and raised in Puerto Rico in the 1960s. Her photos often show incredibly affluent places and feature animals within them. The animals appear to have been added in post production but their positioning and shadows make the editing seamless. ‘The King’s Reception’ features two stags who are rutting which is something undertaken to increse testosterone and aggression as part of mating season. This may be an intentional way of mimicking a king’s percieved dominance in himself and sense of manliness. In ‘The Queen’s Bedchamber’ the animals seem to have taken over and the fox asleep on the bed makes it look like all the anikmals are meant to be there. It is an interesting twist to add animals to these fanciful locations and I like that about Karen Knorr’s work. You would expect to see wealthy men and women as the subject’s of these photos but instead we are presented with wild animals. It gives her work quite an exotic feel which Knorr may have taken from her world travel experiences to places such as India and Japan where she explored heritage, culture and legend.

Hand written notes and planning:

My shoot contact sheet:

My final edits:

Written Analysis

When I first read the brief, I began to visualise my home town, Horsham, and think about the key parts of where I lived and what I liked about it. I imagined the people who lived within it and the roles they played. After having done my research I complied a mind map and noted down any key words that popped into my head. This enabled me to select what interested me most and draw some simple sketches which I annotated with my ideas. My main idea was to focus on life in the home.

The photographers I looked at in my research were Tina Barney, Tom Hunter and Karen Knorr. Tina Barney’s work matched my original idea to explore town life and those people who make somewhere the place it is. However, the other two practitioners I looked at explored an indoor aspect of locality and this intrigued me more. Karen Knorr’s work was beautiful to look at but was not easy to recreate in my own style as she incorporated animals and placed them into grand settings. Tom Hunter’s work was a perfect alternative as it took a realistic look at people within their homes which is something that greatly inspired me.

The key concept for this shoot was to turn myself into a hologram or almost a ghostly figure within my home to show that it’s where I’ve always been and it’s where I am now. My home has played a part in my past and present life and will no doubt be a part of my future. Even when I am not there, I am a part of my home and it is a part of me. I created this ghostly effect by using the shutter speed priority on my camera and setting it to 8 seconds. Part way through the shot I walked into the frame and sat myself down. This way the camera caught half of the exposure without me and the other half with me.

I believe my photographs are now stronger having edited them in postproduction using Photoshop. I firstly put them in black and white which eliminated any confusion caused by the number of colours or layers in the image. I then used a feathered elliptical marquee tool to select the area around myself in the photo and inverted this, so I was framed. Then I adjusted the brightness to be much lower than the area I was sat in. In addition to this I added a vignette around the edge of each image to make my figure really stand out brighter.

I think that a key strength of this shoot was the main image manipulation using the slow shutter speed. I have been able to create features in my images which look as though they have been artificially produced. To get the images to a high quality I had to take my time and be still. In the future to improve upon a potential weakness I would allow myself enough time to take many more photos to ensure I have the ideal image in each setting.

Reflection:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills - I used a slow shutter speed to make my images dynamic and interesting.

Quality of outcome - I used Photoshop to enhance the meaning within my photos.

Demonstration of creativity - I have tried to develop a unique and thoughtful response to the brief.

Context - I researched and responded to three practitioners.

Hand written notes and print-outs:

Post feedback reflection

Bibliography:

Barney, T. (n.d.) Small Towns, Retreived from Tina Barney:

http://www.tinabarney.com/small-towns/

Hunter, T. (n.d.) Holly Street Residents Series, Retrieved from Tom Hunter:

http://www.tomhunter.org/holly-street-residents-series/

Knorr, K. (n.d.) Fables, Retrieved from Karen Knorr:

http://karenknorr.com/photography/fables/

I have used the word ghostly to describe my presence in the photographs. The use of this word may indicate a more uncanny feeling than I was going for. Therefore it might be better to establish myself as less of a ghost and more of a hologram both in the room and out of it at the same time. A supernatural feeling is not something these photographs are meaning to get at and so they could be made clearer with a more concise description not including the confusing wording.

A further detail to include regarding the technical side to this shoot is my use of an external flash. This allowed me to capture a bright, yet controlled, strong lighting situation.