My thoughts.

Initial Thoughts and Impressions.

 

Throughout this past month, I have had many ideas and thoughts racing through my head on what I should do for my three projects on Visual Communication.

For my Light and Shadow brief..

I enjoy the idea of using landscapes, and the way this is shaped and visually seen and created through light and shadow, just like how John Blakemore uses black and white photography with his landscapes.

I liked how this worked due to the fact that you are unable to see any people in the initial images. “His landscape photography was always about ideas, rather than just the place itself. He wanted to capture a sense of the forces that shape the landscape at large”, which I believe would be an intriguing idea for Light and Shadow, using the actual Light that comes into the images, shaping the shadows that can be found, with the effect of using Black and White on them. However, when looking into John Blakemore’s work, it has a lot of greys and whites, depending on the images and the series, which really forms the lines and contrasts within the landscapes, which is something that I would like to experiment. I furthermore like his idea on capturing more than the simple landscape, as he tries to capture the “elemental forces” such as wind, water, change etc.

 

 

 

Another idea I believe that I would like to experiment with, and maybe use as a final product in my images, is the idea of simplicity in light and shadow.

A photographer who uses this well is Uta Barthes. Her interesting work on her series “and of time” and “Compositions of Light on White”

She has stated “in each project, I stop being just the observer of light as it spills into the house and moves through it in the course of the day. Here I have become a participant in creating these images of light by drawing the curtain or drawing the shades in a different room.”

I personally believe that these images are extremely clever, despite the simplicity of these images; it makes the observer truly think. Furthermore, the colour tones in these images work very well, such as this image, with the orange tones, matching the couches extremely well.

 

 

 

I furthermore enjoy the work of Trent Parke, with his surrealism in the shadows and the silhouettes.

 

 

 

Moreover, I have thoroughly enjoyed the work of Henri Cartier Bresson, taking great inspiration in their work.

 

 

 

For my Who’s who brief…

I have also had many thoughts here, for instance, the project calls for the idea of the photographer taking photographs of people who are strangers, with the idea of using an individual quality.

I personally liked the idea of using an object, such as, a hat or a scarf and seeing how they might use them on themselves.

I have looked into many different photographers for this second brief, such as Bruce Davidson (and his work on “Girl with Kitten”) which is something that we looked into in university and the idea that the kitten the girl is holding could be a metaphor for the girl, who looks extremely young and vulnerable in the big city in the background, which is something that I find extremely inspiring, looking into the meaning as opposed to only the image.

 

 

Another photographer I have looked at is Kalpesh Lathigra, who uses the environment around the person in his advantage to tell a story, who also works with the personality of the person, making it quite personal.

 

 

 

Richard Avedon is another interesting image maker due to the negative space in his images, only purely showing the person, who is staring at the camera, which brings a raw quality to the photograph.

 

 

 

However, another idea I had during this project, was the idea of “Surrealism” (which is defined as “a style of art and literature developed principally in the 20th century, stressing the subconscious or nonrational significance of imagery arrived at by automatism or the exploitation of chance effects, unexpected juxtapositions, etc.” )

This, I believe, would work extremely well in this project due to the sense of mystery created with the “stranger in the image” alone.

Two photographers I have looked into especially, who create these type of images is both Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Brooke Shaden and Gregory Crewdson.

 

 

Ralph Eugene Meatyard has quite a dark outlook on his images, with children and adults both wearing masks alike, hiding their identity in quite desolate places, showing he not only thinks about the model and their position, but also the position of the surrounding area. The images are also extremely dark, not only in the true “meanings” but also the actual images, the shadows.

 

 

Gregory Crewdson creates images, but stories within the images, that he leaves clearly to the imagination of the viewer, leaving it up to them to come to the conclusion on what happened in these images. He uses lights very well and quite in depth set-ups.

 

 

 

Furthmore, another person that has inspired me throughout this brief is Brooke Shaden, who works well with surrealism. She specifically looks into the idea of the environment and the colour around the model protraying the story specifically well. Her images can be extremely mysterious, usually covering the models face, with ghostly effects.

 

 

 

For my Everyday Geometry brief…

 

And lastly, but not least, my ideas for this brief has been explored thoroughly also, through photographers such as Carl Kleiner, Ralph Steiner, Michael Bodiam, Ruth Bernhard and Richard Maxted.

I enjoy the somewhat surreal effects that Ruth Bernhard creates in her geometry, alongside the black and white effects.

 

 

 

 

Michael Bodiam and Ralph Steiner has a very symmetrical view on geometry, which I think works very well, creating a rather pleasing outcome.

~ Michael Bodiam

~ Ralph Steiner

 

 

 

Two photographers that I especially appreciate in this third brief is Richard Maxted and Carl Kleiner, for two specifically different reasons.

 

 

I like the textured images that Richard Maxted creates, with contrasting, harsh lines to define the effect it has made to the objects he uses.

 

 

 

For Carl Kleiner, I especially appreciate the symmetrical pastel effect, creating a lot of negative space with food, which is pleasing to the eye. He works very well with not only the objects, but he thinks about the background, what they are placed on, which creates a good image.

 

 

All in all, I would like to work on specific ideas for these images, ranging from using colour and black and white, experimenting to see what works well in my photography.