Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff is said to be one of the most influential photographers of today. Ruff was born in Germany and still lives there to this day in Düsseldorf. He was born on the 10th of February, 1958. His portrait work is often showed in gallery's on a massive scale. Huge in comparison to human beings. I think for his portrait work in-particular showing his work on a larger scale is very effective. It makes you really pay attention to detail and with the way in which he photographs people for his portraits this is very important, especially for the message he wants to send through his images. 

A quote from Ruff himself states, 'you can only look at the face, and from that start to imagine who this person might be.'

This suggesting that he wants you to look at the work and imagine what the person could be like. Think about what their life might be like. Having the image on a large scale to me is only helping the audience to think about this point. Another thing that would make the audience think more into who the person might be is that the people in the portraits are emotionless showing as little expression as possible, making sure not to give away away anything about their lives.

I am quite a fan of Thomas Ruffs work because i think it is a clever thing he does getting the audience to make assumptions on other peoples lives, i think this is a really cool and clever concept because the possibilities to peoples view on a persons life is endless. There will have been many many different assumptions that no one will ever know about. 

These are just three examples of Thomas Ruff's portrait work. These were three that i really liked. All of the backgrounds are very natural, pale colors. This makes the subject itself (the person) stand out a lot more. I also like how these three images have all got people with short hair even though they are both male and female. I did notice that the bottom image of the man had a match within it. The color of the guys shirt matches the color of his eyes. I am not sure if this was intentional or not but i do like the fact those things match its very subtle but it takes you not time at all to realise it. 

Another thing i realised was that the two women had minimal make up or none at all on. I think this is a really helpful when it comes down to his concept of having the audience guess or think about their lives without knowing anything about them because you can tell a lot about someone through how they dress.

Malick Sidibé

Malick Sidibé

Malick Sidibé's work is very new to me and straight off that bat you can tell his work is older than the modern day portrait shots. Through research i discovered that this was actually the case as he was born in Bamako, Mali in 1935.

On first glance his work to me shows a lot of african culture. And quite often includes women in traditional african outfits, not to mention it is obvious that the people both male and female he photographs either live in Africa are from African descent this is obvious through skin colour, outfits and also the background and surroundings on many images.

I chose to talk about these three images in particular because i felt they went together quite well. All three appear to have the same type of background, just a plain wall with no detail in it. Another thing i thought was very similar was how the people aren't making eye contact with the lens. The people in the top and bottom photographs are quite obviously not looking at the camera lens at all and although the women in the middle photograph's body is quite obviously pointing forwards towards the camera lens you have no idea where she is looking as you cannot see that. So to me collectively none of the people are actually looking. 

Another thing i like about Malicks work is that he manages to capture a persons personality by what they are wearing with out adding a background or a facial expression.

A new project, introduction to studio.

Portrait photography

We are starting a new project no after we had handed in our street photography work. This new project is called 'introduction to studio' and will be all about using studio lighting in a professional way to achieve 3 or more portrait shots. 

But before i go on researching portrait photographers i wanted to see what portait photography actually is. 

What is portrait photography?

Portrait photography is when you capture the likeness of a person or a small group of people (known as a group portrait), where the face and expressions are predominant. 

The objective of this style of photography is to show the likeness, personality, and even sometimes the mood of the subject (person/group).
Although the majority of people would think a portrait is only from the shoulders up, this is actually not the case. The main point of focus will be the persons face and facial expression but a portrait can actually be a full length shot and can in many cases not only be shot in a studio but also in other locations. The only thing that is always the same for any portrait shot is that it is not a snapshot of a moving subject but a still pose.

The good thing about this style of photography is that quite often the models are not professionals unlike most other styles of photography. They are normally everyday people who get a portrait done either in a studio with a  photographer or a school photography or for a graduation etc. 

This is also a style of photography i used a lot of times during my studies at A level and is something i do enjoy doing and i am very looking forward to using the studio and the various styles of lighting.

Evaluation

Evaluation

At the start of the project i wasn't entirely sure what direction i would go in and i didn't have much of an idea about what street photography was but through research i started to discover more about it and it lead me in certain pathways.

Watching a short clip about Bruce Gilden was the thing that really started to inspire me to strive to be more outgoing with this project. I found myself being quite reserved when taking photos of strangers in the start of the project and i noticed that by the end i was a lot more confident and i think watching Bruce gilden in action in the clip, watching him not care what people thought and not be afraid to stand his ground if he needed to really empowered me to do so.

My final outcome to me does meet the requirements for the brief. I have captured in my own way human interaction on the streets there really isn't a way you can go wrong in this project as long as you are capturing human life in the street as it is happening, i believe my five images perfectly capture everyday human life and i am extremely happy with the way they came out.

One thing that i feel i could have done a lot better is choosing the location in which i took the 7 shoots. I feel like i stayed in the same location far too much and that i could have gone out a lot more, maybe to larger cities or different towns. I feel this way i could have got a larger range of different cultures in my photos and with that maybe more interesting images. 

I could definitely improve my work if i had spent a lot more time on my photographs when enlarging them. There were some photographs that i though could have benefited from manipulation like dodging certain parts because they were geting too exposed compared to the rest of the image. But having said that i do like the effect that can give on images sometimes and it hasn't ruined my photographs in any way. 

Through this project i do believe i have developed greater people skills/social skills. Street photography has forced me to take photographs of complete strangers and in some case actually talk to them and communicate, a lot of the time just to avoid any heated situations. This definitely chucked me in at the deep end and this was one of the main factor that made me more confident in taking photos leading to better and better outcomes with each shoot. 

This assignment was very challenging in that it was a completely new topic, something i had barely if at all heard or been told about. I had to research a lot to be able to understand the concept, to then lead to me having a go myself. I did like the challenge aspect of this project it makes you strive to achieve greater things so you can beat the difficult aspects of the challenge itself.

Overall I feel for a first project this was really good. It wasn't extremely difficult to understand and follow but it was challenging enough to get you interested in giving it a go. If i was to go back and do the project again i think i would have tried to be much more outgoing with this project and strive to get closer to the people i was photographing in order to achieve better images than i have already got. 

The final 5

My Final 5

Below i have put my final chose images for the street photography project, and i am going to explain why i chose each one and how they are good together collectively in my opinion.

This image was taken at a market and is the second to last shoot i did out of the 7 i have done. It is also from my favourite shoot of the project. I feel the shoot that this image came from was more outgoing than my previous shoots because i wasn't as reserved whilst taking photo's i had gotten more comfortable in myself so i wasn't too aware of people staring or commenting. I was just getting the job done. 

The market was taking place next to the shopping mall in Hartlepool. The majority of people there were older people which was ideal for me, as the older people in the population tend to be who i was targeting in this project. There were a lot of interesting characters at the market young and old but i feel i have captured the best of what was there to shoot. 

The reason i chose this image in particular to be one of the final five is because i like one the old man bending over slightly to look at the goods on the table but also because of the use of lines. In the foreground you can see a tall pole that is partially covering the mans face. Then if you look in the background, again you can see a similar pole almost in a parallel position. Then as the top of the image you can see railings with vertical lines also. Another thing i did like after looking at the photo more is how the tables are right to the edge of the photo and it looks almost like a tunnel or pathway through the market, it draws your eyes into the centre of the photo and i really liked how that looked.

 This image is from the same role of film as the previous image. The main thing i can really say i liked about this photo is the amount of character the guy has. To the modern day society what he is wearing is quite strange, you don't really see those kind of hats and the trench coat and trousers anymore, I do remember that on this day it was really sunny and to see someone so wrapped up was quite unusual, his appearance would make me think that he was going somewhere rainy or maybe fishing.
Another thing visually i like in this image, something that i think is visually appealing to the eye is the lines on the building in the background of the image. all of the angles are similar and it also fits with the angle of the market stall you can see at the bottom left of the image. 
I am quite fond of images that give the viewer a lot to think about. Something that gives the image a lot of mystery always entices the viewer and this is something i will always want to try and achieve in my work i just think it gives the viewer a hell of a lot more to think about.

I chose this to go with the first image as one of my final 5 because one it has an older person in it and i have noticed this is a theme running right through my shoots and two because i have also noticed that neither subjects from either image are looking at the camera or are aware there photo is being taken. 

 This is also similar to first image and is from the same shoot. You will notice that almost all of my chosen images are from the same shoot. 
I do prefer this one a lot more because of how central the man bending down is in the picture, as he was my main focus.
The fact the guy is in the centre of the image is one reason why your eyes are instantly drawn to him but another i feel is that everyone else around him is stood up and he isn't making him the odd one out in the photo and also everyone else is either looking to the camera, at him or out of frame apart from the main guy. 

 This is the only image out of the five that did not come from the same role of film. This shot was actually in one of the first couple of films i shot. I saw an old sat alone on a bench and luckily i managed to capture this moment right before anyone walked past her or sat next to her. 
This is by far my most successful print. It is clear and the lighting is perfect and the lines in the image look really good. 

The fact there is an old lady in the image combined with the saying on the poster makes an interesting link. To me associating post card sayings with the older generations just fits. There is a saying on the poster that says 'wish you were here'  that combined with the old lady being alone does make for a sad image but i think for me to capture those two things together and almost making a story out of the image i think is a great achievement and it makes me look at things a lot differently, it makes me want to open my eyes more and capture these interesting links in photos. 

The final image i chose is for my final 5 is above. This image again is from the same shoot as the first three images. At the market there was a greasy looking burger van and there was two old ladies sat outside of it in a chair and a wheel chair. They were busy nattering away so i decided to take a quick photo and i didn't think too much about it until i looked at the developed negative and saw it properly. I havent got much of a main reason to chose this photo other than i like how the two ladies are just doing something really normal and every day and i love how you notice the ladies more so and then you see the guy in the burger van off to the right i like photo's where you keep noticing more and more detail.

Sunderland trip and digital shots.

Trip to Sunderland:

So today my group, myself and my lecturer Antony went for a trip to Sunderland to look at a gallery and a museum. Although half of the class didn't show or alternatively just couldn't find us we still had a productive and interesting day after meeting at half 10 at Sunderland train station we went of to the gallery we had a brief break for a pub lunch at 12 then we went on to the museum after this we had finished a little earlier than i thought we would so myself, Courtney, Elle and Lauren decided we would catch a later train home and do some shoots around Sunderland just so we weren't photographing the same scenery in hartlepool all of the time. I didn't bring my 35mm camera but i did bring my DSLR and i also brought my fish eye lense to see what effect i could achieve with that. The result of the shoot is bellow now i will talk about each shot briefly but as a whole i do really like what effect the fish eye has on the street photography it makes it look more unusual and different. I think if i was doing this project using a digital camera this would be the style i would definitely follow.

The pictures below are also in the order i took them and i have edited them all the same, by converting them into black and white and adjusting the contrast and brightness depending on how bright or dark the image was.

The thing i like most about this photo is how you can see my shadow on the man. Showing me in my work. This is one advantage to the fish eye lense.

I also like how the high contrast works on this image. 

This is another image where my shadow is cast into the shot because of my lense, It's also super contrasted.

This is just a shot of the street as we were walking up it. You can see elle in the side of the shot. Because i was using a fisheye lense 

This is a shot of a bus stop that i took as i was passing in the street, I noticed some older ladies climbing onto the bus 

This was one of many shots i took in Wilkinsons. We were stood near the pic 'n' mix section and i just took a random burst of photo's of the people that were near me.

The same applies for this image as the last one.

This was a shot i took whilst waiting in the que. The women in front of me was stood rather still so i instinctively took the womens picture. Lauren is in the shot because of the wide angle on the fisheye lense.

This is another shot of a bus stop i took whilst walking back up the street. Similar shot to the last bus stop shot but i prefer this one as i am closer to the subjects i.e. the pedestrians entering the bus and also sitting waiting for another bus. 

This is another far away shot, i was just taking a photo of the street.

A closer shot this time. I got closer to the people in the previous shot by speeding up whilst i was walking. Even though i was pretty close it still looks like i am far away because of the lense i used.

This shot and the remaining shots are from the outside of Cafe Nero. We all sat there as we were waiting for out train and we decided to get a coffee. We thoughts as we were drinking our coffee we may aswell use the opportunity to take more shots so we sat outside even though it was really cold. This shot is just a shot of the view i had and was the first shot i took at this location. 

As well as taking shots of people i took the opportunity to take a shot of Courtney and Elle, I managed to get Elle taking a photo at the same time and i just liked the look of this so i thought i would include it in these images. 

This was a different shot and is the start of the shots that aren't using the fish eye lense. I realised people were way too far away for me to capture them from the seating position.  For this shot i made sure my Cafe Nero cut was in focus and the people in the background weren't. 

This is one of a few shots were i zoomed into the person as much as i could and i really liked the cropped affect.

The same points apply for this shot as the last one.

I really like how the only person in focus is the women in the middle and people closer and further away than where she is stood aren't in focus.

This is another one of the zoomed in shots i like how the man fits perfectly into the empty space on the wall/shop front in this. also his walking stick fits perfectly with the lines on the wall and window displays. 

This was the last shot i took as i was going into the train station i saw the women to the right of the shot walking towards me so i knew i could get a good shot of her face from this angle i did get a bit of a word from her but i just pretended i didn't hear it and hoped for the best!

Second attempt at street photography

More successful

This time around things were way more successful. Although i did not do as much prints as i would have liked too. Overall from the time i spent in the dark room i got 3 successful pictures that i would say are pretty good.

This is a image that i took from my first shoot. It is a picture of Courtney from my course and some may argue that this does not make it street photography but i would argue that it is because for one she wasn't at all aware i was taking the shot. It is out on the streets, in a public place and it is still a picture of a human. This image was taken on a bench in the street and as far as i am aware there is no rule in street photography saying don't use someone you know even if the shot is candid. I really like the depth of field in this image, how Courtney is really in focus but the buildings are very much blurred. Another thing i like is the high contrast. The blacks are indeed very black and the whites are very white.

This is an image from what i believe is from the third shoot. I just really liked the shot because of the casual look and also how normal it looks too. I also like how there is lots and lots of lines in the shot, if you look past the two men talking you can see there are lines on the scaffolding  lines on the street lights, lines on the benches and lines on the fence/railing next to the road.  I also really like the contrast its much darker than i would ever want it but i like the effect that brings. 

This is my favorate image from all of my shoots. And i have also found a pattern that links with this image and i will be going in this direction as a theme. When i was coming out of Greggs after buying my lunch i saw an old lady sat by herself and i though this looked interesting and really cute so i took a photo not thinking anything of it. Only did i notice through looking at my negatives that i had captured her image at the perfect time 

when nobody was walking past. This made the image look even more lonely. Another connection i made was that the poster in the background although is an image of a modern younger man says 'wish you were here' which you can't see on this image but you can see on the original picture. I thought this was weirdly fitting. The saying 'wish you were here' just made me instantly think of the 1950's 1960's when people were big on postcard sending and the 'wish you were here' is something that was said a lot on post cards and this tied the whole image together for me. 

Soon i hope to develop another two shoots so i can get miles more enlarging done.