Research: Dear Photograph

http://www.dearphotograph.com

This is a website for people to submit photos of them holding up a photo from their past. It is almost a recreation of something that has happened within a photo. I looked further into this because of how it can create the feeling of nostalgia and the longing for the past which I liked. I find this website almost sad because it makes me feel like time is running out which is the type of feel I want to go for with my photos. This project has also been turned into a book, by Taylor Jones. This inspires my work because it is a photo technique I want to try out if I can find some old photos from my nans house.

Artist Research: Irina Werning

In one of our contextual sessions with mark we were showed an artist called Irina Werning who does a collection of photos called “Back To The Future” I think this links to my theme of nostalgia very well. It’s a way to re-create the past and bring back what has happened and the feeling/memory that the photo gives. What I like about these pictures is the detail and humour that these photos have. I think Irina does such a good job with al her photos on how she captures the photo in the exact same way and truly does recreate the past. I suppose this inspires my work because I want to shoot some things on film but also have that, once again, nostalgia feel. This inspires me to go forward with my photos and hopefully create the feeling of the past with present photos. Irina gives me hope that I can do this because of how successfully she does it with hers.

Artist Research: Estelle Dougier

I found these photos under the tag of nostalgia and thought it related to what I want to do with my idea. What Estelle did in her photos was capture things that reminded her of her childhood. Childhood, being on of her key themes of course will trigger the emotion of nostalgia and reminiscing. In an interview with Estelle she was asked, “what is the message, the emotion you want to convey through your photos?” and she replied “I love that people feel the poetry and nostalgia, there is no message, this is more than emotion” I suppose she is really trying to get people to feel when they look at her photos. I for one love her photos and how it gives a reminder of the past and things that used to be new and memories that were actually things that were happening right in that moment. Her photography makes me feel sad and kind of depressed because I feel like her work is captured in a sad way like things have been forgotten and nothing can be changed. This influences me for what I’m going for because I want to focus on my grandmothers house due to the fact it’s where I have a lot of memories from my childhood, a place where I can easily capture the feeling of nostalgia.

Artist Research: Helmut Newton

Becca told me to look at the artist Helmut Newton and some of the work that he has shot in the studio. My first impression I thought it was rather weird and in my opinion kind of stupid. I don’t really understand what he wants to be capturing by just photographing people in the nude. In the first photo I don’t know if it was because he got them in a relaxed state like how they would look if they were wearing clothes or what. I don’t really like his work but once again it influences me to have the people I photograph comfortable with the camera and me shooting them in a natural position.

Artist Research: David Bailey

While looking at David Bailey we can see that he captured peoples character without the photo being to posed. I really like how he approaches his pictures with the unexpected and eager differentiations each photo has. I like how his photos seem really professional but still manage to capture the person and what they are like. He manages to get them comfortable with the camera, like it isn’t even there. This influences my work because I want to try and get the person I will be photographing to not pay to much attention to the camera, I want to be able to capture them as a person as good as I can. If there was anything I didn’t like about these images is how their heads are cut off. I wish the framing was a little better in my opinion, it just frustrates me the tops of theirs heads are cut off.

Joiner Photos – Artist Research: Paul Dubois

When looking into joiner photos I came across Paul Dubois who does mostly outdoor joiner photos. These really appeal to me because of how natural it all looks, although it clearly looks photoshopped i like how it still makes up the objects in the image well.

 

Medium Format Portraits: Introduction

In this assignment we are trying out the medium format cameras for the first time and photographing people to capture their character. This assignment we are trying to capture what gives that person character but not having photos that are extremely posing. It gives us a chance for us to get comfortable with the model and for the model to get comfortable with us to even forget the camera is there. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can produce with this assignment considering it’s kind of a new type of project to capture the “character” of someone.

Me, Myself, I: Ideas (Mind Map)

As you can see I have many ideas on how I want to approach this project. I definitely think i’m going to choose blending in while standing out because that seems more personal to me.

 

Artist Research: The Witch’s Mirror (1962)

While researching things related to witchcraft and ageing I came across a movie called “The Witch’s Mirror” I immediately looked into it considering it sounded like it linked to the snow white theme. It turns out the movie is about a husband that murders his wife and years later her ghost emerges from a witches mirror to take her revenge. I’m not exactly sure what is happening in the images but it seems she is transforming and turning into an old witch? It really inspired me because that was the kind of thing I wanted to approach in my second image of my mum turning old and having a fearful face, just like the second image here.