Research Post (Barbara Kruger)

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1945. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire. She took up photography in 1977, producing a series of black-and-white details of architectural exteriors paired with her own textual ruminations on the lives of those living inside. 

  Barbara Kruger created this piece of work in 1989. This is an example of one of Kruger's famous pieces of work. The fact that the image is in black and white makes the red dash with white writing stand out more. The term 'your body is a battleground' may mean that you are constantly fighting and doubting yourself. The fact that half of the image is in black and white and the other half is negative may link to that idea that we are constantly fighting the other 'negative' side of us which causes us to doubt ourselves. I like this image because she has presented the self consciousness a woman may feel but she has used this message to mask the real meaning. This means that we have to think deeper into what the message may mean and think about the conflicting thoughts and feelings a woman may have of herself. It also makes us wonder why a women may feel this way in society. Is it because of the image society has of a 'perfect' woman? Furthermore, I like her style of work because her smart one liners cause us to think about the problems within society that effect people.




  I picked this image as one which I wanted to explore because it looks at how boys/men may feel about the roles which they are expected to fulfil. Here a girl appears to be poking his arms, while he is tensing.The caption 'we don't need another hero' says a lot about how boys may feel they have to grow up to be strong and protect others. The photographer may be trying to convey that the idea of fitting into the two different moulds society holds for men and women is outdated. Furthermore, she may be trying to suggest that there are no more 'heros' needed in society and we no longer should be obliged to fit within these moulds society holds for us. Young boys may look at super heroes in the magazines, books, tv programmes etc and aspire to be like them because they are 'strong' and 'save people'. In my opinion, this image is promoting individuality because it is suggesting that we do not need to try to grow up and be like everyone else, especially sticking to our gender roles. This again causes us to look at the reasons why boys may feel obliged to fulfil the role of being emotionless and 'big and strong'. We may think about how the media may enforce these roles. I can use a similar idea when I develop my own work in this particular style.

Research Post Composite Image Making (George logan)

 George Logan was born in Belshill, near Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Blackpool college of Photography before moving to London. Even as a boy, George's fascination with the animal world was evident as he regaled classmates with stories of the African farm he'd been raised on and the exotic surroundings he'd left behind. Tall tales these might have been, but the imagination and passion that inspired them is clear to see in George's fine art work today.




   I really like this piece of wok produced by George Logan because it displays an idea which I am passionate about. The photographer has placed an animal within a context that we would expect to see a human in. It makes us question if we would care as much if it was a 'homeless' animal than if it was a homeless person. The idea of a monkey (who obviously belongs in the wild being able to roam freely) becoming homeless, emphasises the idea that the actions of the human race destroy their 'homes'. It is not difficult to realise that many animals are driven from their natural environment solely due to the things we do to make this happen. Many people may not think about the scale of the problem because we never actually witness this happening. Therefore, the photographer has consciously placed the animal on the side of the street with a sign and some rubbish laying around them. We would usually expect to see a human who is homeless in this position but the fact that it is an animal instead, highlights the immorality of the situation. I could possibly use a similar idea when I produce my own work.




  I really like this photograph taken by Logan because elephants are an animal which I find interesting due to their simplistic beauty. Logan wanted to explore his interests surrounding safari animals, which he discovered when he was a child. He wanted to picture what these animals would look like in a rural area such as Scotland. You would usually expect to see an animal such as this in a area filled with the warming orange tones (golden grass, sunset in background etc) as we have always seen animals such as elephants in that context. Therefore, Logan challenges the imagination of people and encourages them to think outside of the box. We may find it particularly hard to imagine animals such as elephants, lions, hippos etc in this context which is why I think that Logan has created something unique which guides our imagination to picture the elephants actually walking across this bridge with the green fields in the background. Logan also wanted to present the animal with traits he knew they had. For example, the elephants here are travelling in a pair which causes us to think about the traits particular animals posses.

Simon Roberts Landscape Research Post

  Simon Roberts is a British photographer who focused on landscape photography. His project 'We Britain' proved to be a extremely popular project. He often employed expansive landscape photographs, his approach is one of creating wide-ranging surveys of our time, which communicate on important social, economic and political issues. He has published three critically acclaimed monographs, Motherland (Chris Boot, 2007),We English (Chris Boot, 2009) – voted as one of the best photography books of the past decade – and Pierdom (Dewi Lewis Publishing, 2013).

   This image was taken by Simon Roberts and was part of the 'We English' monograph. It was taken in Golden Horn Bay, VIadivostock in 2004. I like this image because of the natural environment. The trees represent line photography also. Vertical lines present power, direction and change. The trees are tall and cover most of the image. I like this image because it presents feelings of freedom and being enclosed within a peaceful environment. I could use the idea of photographing forests and natural environments in my documentary project because I really like photographing the natural world. This image is interesting because we can see a person walking amongst the trees in the background. We are unable to tell from this image what they are exactly doing there but it may show that people use this area to find peace and quiet. The sun looks warm shining through the trees which also radiates positive energy and calm feelings. 

  The image presented was taken in Herbedens Farm, Hampshire - 2007.  This image was also taken as part of Simon Roberts monograph 'We English'. The photographer clearly wanted to present the stereotypical ideas that English life involves living on a farm, shooting as a sport, drinking tea etc. This image presents a man, shooting a bird/clay disc which is a popular sport in England. Not only this, but they are shooting in a golden yellow field filled with crops ready to harvest. Roberts has presented here the rural parts of England and there is a very little amount of houses that can be seen in this image, only some in the background. The sky is clear blue and 'perfect'. This image looks like a a scene which could be a painting because it is picturesque  and peaceful. there is not very many people around in comparison to a heavily built up city such as London. I again could use this image to inspire me when taking pictures for documentary photography. I could take images of various fields similar to this image or stereotypical picturesque landscapes which are associated with English life. 

   I like this image because it is unusual. It is not common to see a red double decker bus in the countryside amongst fields because we would usually expect to see them in a heavy populated area in England such as London. As we can see, there are not many places for a double decker bus to go because there are not very many houses or buildings around. the vibrant red colour of the bus contrasts against the green of the fields. These are an example of complimentary colours. 

Documentary Research Post (Henri Cartier Bresson)

  Henri Cariter Bresson was a French documentary photographer. He first discovered his passion for photography when he saw a image taken by Martin Munkacsi in the arts magazine Arts et Metiers Graphiques. He then started to look further into photography and travels across Europe with his two friends, continuing to take photographs. Bresson suggested the idea about 'the decisive moment'.

The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself. 

    
  This image presents the decisive moment in action. Henri Cariter Bresson took this image right as the birds flew away from the steps. He took the image at the precise moment and if he were to take it any later or earlier, the birds may have already flown away or not even flown yet. He has also captured the moment before the women probably moved (due to the birds near her flying away).






                                                                                     This image was taken in Greece, Cyclades, Island of Sifhnos in 1961. Henri Cartier Bresson had taken this photograph while the girl was running up the stairs. Her body shape tells us that she is in the middle of running. The style of the buildings present the style of old Greece. The building are not modern or up to date (as we can tell by the arrangement of the staircase and how the door frames are not particularly straight). This image is a good representative of the decisive moment and how the photographer had to think carefully about the precise moment to take the picture. If he had taken the image a few seconds later, the girl would not be visible. This would make the image less about documentary photography and less intriguing to look at. I like this image because although we can only see a singular person in the image, there could have possibly been several others running up the stairs also. Therefore, the photographer had taken timing very seriously. In conclusion, timing is very important when documenting an event. I also like how there is a clear distinction between the light and dark tones. The child is far away and is a area of shade is casted over them which makes the outline of the body and the action they are showing more vivid.

Portrait Research Post (Thomas Ruff)

  Thomas Ruff is a German Photographer and one of his main focuses was Portraiture. Ruff embarked on a period of research which looked at the history of portraiture and carried out his own experiments with framing and composition. He decided on a style of portraiture which was as neutral as possible  in an aim to emphasis the person's face - the individuals wore their ordinary clothes and stood against a plain background. Thomas Ruff wanted his candidates to be as emotionless as possible. He outlined that some portrait photographers aim to convey a deeper meaning within a portrait however, Ruff was convinced that a photo is only able to express the superficial, literally showing us the surface of its subject. Ruff first produced this type of work on large scale in 1986.



 

  This is a good example of a photograph from Thomas Ruff because it is effective in presenting the key components which made up a piece of his work. The women is staring blankly into the camera and conveys no emotion. This is exactly what Thomas Ruff was aiming to achieve. Due to there being no expression on the woman's face, we cannot tell what she is thinking, feeling and so on. Ironically, I think that the approach which Ruff has taken is more interesting than other representations of portrait photography because it makes us really think hard to make something out of the picture. For example, it isn't predictable (she isn't smiling, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she is not happy). The white background makes the face of the individual stand out, which the photographer has done consciously, to highlight the emotionless expression of his candidate. We are forced to focus of the face of the individual and therefore the expression in which they hold, due to it being a head shot. I think that the photographer has outlined the fact that a picture can be taken in lots of different ways, by different individuals and therefore presented individuals in this way. By him using this approach to portrait photography, it allows us to take whatever we wish from a picture, rather than the photograph deciding how the person is feeling (by photographing someone laughing, does it actually mean that they are happy? However, we may just think that they must be happy due to them being photographed laughing).






   This is another example of Ruff's work. Once again, the women remains completely emotionless, against a plain background. She is not dressed smart, but in ordinary clothes. He has tried to keep the image as natural as possible.  The photographer has photographed many people, who are all individuals with different lives, however are all presented in the same way. We therefore cannot make prejudgements about them as people as they are all performing the same action. I like this image because she looks relaxed.








  I like this example of his work because it shows how even though he photographed both males and females, there is no difference in the methods he used to create his work. The man is once again, emotionless, standing against a black background and wearing ordinary clothes. Experiences may vary between men and women however, they are both presented the same way so we cannot take anything in which is specific to the man as an individual or his life. The soft pastel background makes his pale face stand out and the background contrasts with his dark hair. Furthermore, we really focus on his face and the expression he is pulling. Thomas Ruff has consciously chose specific background colours (all which are neutral) which work best for a specific individual. Within each example I have shown, the background colours differ between individuals, as the photographer has picked the colours which are most effective in emphasising their faces.


  I like Thomas Ruff's style of portrait photography because I find it interesting how as quoted, we can just see the surface of the subject (the persons outer layer) and that we cannot make judgements about what they are thinking or feeling because there isn't much to work with.

Ansel Adams Research Post

 Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. He created the zone system shown above which was a scale of 1-10 to help identify different tones. He not only focused on tones but looked widely at landscapes. Adams commonly linked the two subjects together - manipulating his landscape photographs to show a wide tonal range.

This is an example of Ansel Adams' work which shows a wide range of tones. It is a good representation of his usual work and focus point. This picture shows large depth of field because it is all round a sharp image. Ansel Adams often focused on natural landscapes rather than man made landscapes. He tied together his connection to the environment (due to being an environmentalist) to his love of photography. This is commonly seen within various famous photographers work (for example, Vivian Maier and her tying of her occupation as a nanny and photography). The stream  catches our attention because of the light tone it shows and the fact that it leads us into the photograph (leading line).

   This image is another piece of Ansel Adams work which again, presents a wide tonal range. There are extremely bright whites which highlight certain areas and therefore are eyes are more drawn to this. Our eyes are close drawn to the reflection of the sky onto the water which is very clear. The clouds look soft and puffy and the grass looks untouched, presenting the natural world in a more picturesque way. I like this image because you can see the real contrasted difference between the bright white highlights and the dark tones.
 

  I chose this image taken by Adams because it not only explores tone, however it explores form of the natural world also. The rocky and jagged shape of the boulder creates a sharp contrast with the soft and calm clouds. I like this image because the way in which the photographer has taken it, makes it seem as if the boulder is touching the sky which creates a intriguing illusion. It is more interesting than the other images of Ansel Adams which I explored because it looks at more than one topic in photography. I could possibly attempt to bring these two topics together when shooting my photographs.
          

Shape Research Post (Bill Brandt)

Bill Brandt    

  Bill Brandt was a British photographer known for his documentation of British life and unusual and explicit representation of women. He was born in May 1904 and died in December 1984. Despite being born in Germany, he moved to Britain in 1933, where he documented all levels of British society and was quickly well known for his photography. During World War II Brandt concentrated on many subjects but excelled in portraiture and landscapes. To mark the arrival of peace in 1945, Brandt focused on a series of celebrated nudes. 

    

  This is a piece of work done by Bill Brandt which was taken in South London and is presenting a graceful, white bird. The picture is in black and white which makes the bird stand out better and contrast against the dark background, consisting of gardens and trees. Here, Brandt presents London as a peaceful setting - photography a elegant bird and well kept gardens, with little but a peaceful bird around. He has taken the image which looks like the center of the gardens however, the bird is offset and is not photographed directly in the middle.The bright color of the bird against the dark background means that we focus mainly on the bird and the smooth, crisp shape it holds, rather than what the gardens consist of. Brandt may have wanted to capture pictures of London as a side which many people may have not seen during this period of time (World War II). Most of London was chaotic during this time and therefore, many people may have skipped the opportunity to witness London for it's beauty and peacefulness; many people may have been so focused on the war which was taking place that they missed the chance to be peaceful and recognise the beauty of the place in which they lived.


  This is an image taken by Bill Brandt who also focused on the female form. This image is of a female lying on a stoney beach however, we can only see her legs. The legs are positioned in an unusual way and the shadows casted onto them help towards producing a photograph showing female form in a unique way. The legs look smooth and 'feminine' which helps to match the texture of the soft pebbles the person lays on. Preconceived ideas surrounding femininity suggest that this is a women's body however, by just looking at the legs only, it is hard to known for definite if this is a woman's body. The image is grey scale which helps to recognise the shadows casted and focus of the form that the female body holds. I think that the female form is an interesting subject to focus on because a body has so much potential to create interesting images relating to form. For example, in the picture shown to the left, shows only the legs of a body but there is so much more to a complete body. This brings various opportunities to capture the form of a human body.

Form Photographer Research

             Imogen Cunningham

 Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer who was well known for her form and nude photography. She photographed objects in a intriguing way, catching the eye of many people. She used shadow a lot during her form photography work which clearly has an effect of drawing people in. She focused a lot of living objects such as flowers; taking into account that she focused of form, living objects probably intrigued her because of the way they naturally grow and therefore, the form that they hold.

  This picture was taken by Imogen Cunningham and is of flowers. She is popularly known for her photographing of objects which represent form. The flowers are casted in different lightings - the flower at the back is barely visible and we can only really see the outline of the form. This outlines the fact that the details of the object are not really important, but only the form is. She has incorporated tone within her work to create dark shadows. The flowers present a spiral shape and they all roll into one. Most of Imogen's work is in black and white which creates strong and powerful contrasting effects.

This picture was also taken by Imogen and is again of a flower. The flower holds an unusual form and is hard to work out what type of flower it is. It again holds the spiral shape which is interesting to the eye. There are some serious contrasted tones here which is important when photographing form because shadows and lights and the intensity that they are can change the form of an object completely. For example, the bottom section of the photograph contains an intense shade of black; this makes it hard to work out what the object is because we cannot clearly see the form which it holds. There are other objects in the picture but they are not dominant. Objects such as the spikey plant are also intriguing to look at because they hold an unusual shape. Imogen has consciously picked out particular objects to photograph and positioned them in a specific way to create a photograph that draws people in.

Here is another example of Imogen Cunningham's work. When looking at her work, it is not difficult to see that it presents a pattern; she focuses of similar objects especially flowers. Despite this, she photographs them in different ways, showing different amount of specific tones each time. For example, there are more soft tones in this picture compared to the ones pictured above. I like this photograph of hers because the background is muffled and isn't just one block colour; it almost looks like someone has smeared different grey and white tones together, The form of the vase which the flowers sit in is vague and almost is camouflaged into the background - we can only see a mere outline of it. The flowers all hold a similar form to one another which would appear bland to some people if Imogen had photographed it normally.