This exercise started with considering a familiar environment and how we tend to ignore or not see certain things in them. Looking at thins we are used to seeing and then removing them changes the ambience. mood and intention of the photo.

The photos below are of my desk at home where since lockdown I spend most of my day. The image on the left is set up for work with two laptops, monitor and mic (the webcam is out of view) and definitely my workplace. This is my personal response, but by removing my work laptop and anything connected with delivering live sessions on Zoom, I can reclaim the space for my own creative use. To me the two images create a different mood contrasting the restrictions of work and the potential of free time.

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Going beyond the initial exercise, I looked at how absence or presence in a different setting can affect the mood or meaning of an image. The two images of the beach at Fraisthorpe, provide a contrast by the presence and absence of the wind surfer. Though the first image has a sense of space and calmness, the second image is more ambiguous with just the sand, sea and has no sense of scale evoking a feeling of timelessness. The second image is my favourite and is one that captures my attention by the absence of direction.

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I also looked at two photos from St Aiden’s Nature Reserve. In these, the removal of the heron completely changes the intention of the image. In the first image I am drawn to the different layers, and shades of green and brown grass and reeds blowing in the wind moving from the sharp foreground into the blurred background. The second image captures the stillness of the heron in its natural habitat, which is always my preference for wildlife photos. Though not the purpose of the exercise, I do find the yellow distracting at the top of the image and if this image was not being used for comparison would consider further editing.

My final pair of images strikingly show the difference of an standard image of an horse in a field transformed into a portrait by the use of photoshop, textures, and creative use of brushes and paint. In this instance less is definitely more.

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The exercise, has been thought provoking and I enjoyed exploring beyond the initial brief. Not all the images are things I would usually publish, but they do show my thought processes. The absence of an obvious subject can completely alter the interpretation of an image and draw people into the image. By manipulating the content of an image (either physically or digitally) the meaning can be altered. My biggest learning points from this exercise are the importance of composition in capturing the mood you want create, and how in some instances less can create a more intriguing and engaging image.

I build in reflection to my creative practice throughout the process. My development points from my third assignment, have informed my responses to the points to consider in this exercises

Points to consider

1. Areas to develop

• Continue to develop my knowledge of the work of other photographers
• Look at how other art forms influence photography
• Create more regular learning log posts to consolidate my learning and research (approximately 500 words per post).
• Research the use of flash.
• Plan how I will communicate my ideas to models I am working with.
• Ambiguity can be good, the photos should be able to speak for themselves without being over reliant on descriptive titles or text.
• To continue to get feedback on my work from a range of people including my tutor, fellow students, and other people (including photographers and non photographers).

My tutor recommended the book, Light, Science & Magic, an Introduction to Photographic Lighting, as lighting is a recurring point.

In addition, I am also reading, Langford’s Basic Photography.

Both of these books are more technical than my previous reading, explaining why things work in a certain way. For example how light is reflected in different ways depending on the surface. They are a useful next step in developing my knowledge.

2. What type of photographs do I want to take

A difficult question, I am drawn to many different types of photography, but as I progress through the course I am interested in images that have pattern and shape, with creative use of light and shadow. This could be still life, architecture, landscape. Fine art photography, mixed media, and abstract are other interests.

3. Photographers who interest me

• André Kertész
• Henri Cartier-Bresson 
• Rui Veiga
• Valda Bailey
• Matthieu Venot
• Ola Kolehmainen

4. Key elements

• Creative use of light
• Patterns and shapes
• Light and Shadow
• An exploration of colour
• Intentional Camera Movement
• Contrast

5. One key photo to use in Exercise 4.8

Research into the photographers mentioned above will be ongoing and posted in my learning log.

There are many images to choose from. I chose this image for its simplicity and a starting point to explore further some of the techniques used by Kertész in the next exercise. This also supports my aim to learn more about different techniques of lighting.

References

HUXLEY-PARLOUR.(n.d) Fork, Paris, 1928 [Online]. Available: https://huxleyparlour.com/works/fork-paris-1928/

I found this an interesting project and through the process ended up with images that do not fully follow the brief, but came away with new ideas, skills and approaches for still life.

I shot more images and subjects than the ones that were used, but ended up using the shots of just one guitar as for this subject, fewer images produced a stronger result.

Looking at cubist paintings provided different ideas and using blended layers in photoshops the following image was created, which is closer in style to cubism.

Last updated 12 Jan 2020