Lecture #5

In this lecture Dave started off by discussing books and he gave us an example of how he draws information from it. For example he wanted to look up semiology and the part in the book was about Roland Barthes.

From there we went on to talk about Paris Match. Paris Match is a French magazine. Dave discussed semiology and Roland Barthes. Barthes was always thinking photographically. Barthes saw the front cover of Paris Match and there on the front cover was a picture of a French African boy saluting a flag. During this time Barthes was writing his mythologies. What Barthes did was apply connotation and denotation to critically discuss images. In the book mythologies Barthes basically said its much more complicated than using connotation and denotation. Barthes comes up with this myth idea and this connects with critical reflection and trying to dig deep into photography.

Judith Williamson who wrote Decoding Advertising refers to a similar thing and she says reference systems. What Barthes may be trying to say with Myth is we can look at an image of an advert but it doesn’t explain the ideological system where that sits within. It doesn’t explain how we live our lives in a western society. If we grow up in a ideological society we won’t necessarily be able to identify or see because we have grow up in it.

Barthes went on to say if you then add another layer onto this like connotation and denotation you will be able to dig deeper and get more from the decoding of the image.

What I learned from this lecture is that I shouldn’t find myself reading the same books because I could find key examples of what I want to discuss in books such as Mythologies.

We then talked about putting a gam chart in place for our critical reflection or a system that works for me. We should set aside small parts of our time to do about 15 to 20 mins a day reading and taking notes on what I have read.

Dave mention that he was struggling with tying down a certain aspect of his practice. I understand exactly what he means. As this point of this project I am finding it difficult to pin down a area of portraiture.

Notes I made from this essay that helped me were; Keep the idea for the essay simple for example comparing an adverting portrait today with an portrait advertisement for the 1950s. This got me thinking of something that I have always had an interest in which is cinematography. I have always watched movies and thought I would like to use a narrative in my images. Now that I am applying theory to my photography I would like to combine to two. Last night I practiced this. I took a picture in my house. I have attached the image below.

What I was trying to do in this image was use the reflections on the wall to create a dreamy scene within the image. I was thinking of what is real and not real in the approach of this self portrait. What I see in the image is a wall that has shadows cast onto it. I have place myself off to the right of the image so my shadow would be projected onto the wall.

Earlier in Daves lecture I recall the part about Barthes and using Myth and connotation and denotation to critically discuss images. I would like to know what smoe like Barthes thought of this image because to me obviously it means something, nothing to deep, I was simply thinking of what is real and not real. Funny enough the reality to me in the image is the shadows. Those shadows were on that wall before I got there. I then constructed myself into the image and did a odd pose. In saying that because my shadow is now on the wall does that become part of the reality?

During this lesson we were shown the medium format camera and the basics of how it works. The reason for this is was to demonstrate the different ways we can use the equipment for experimental practice. I will use the medium format camera as I am interested in using a different medium of shooting my images.

New Brief

Brief

For this brief you will work alongside the clothing shop McQueen. McQueen is located on Beech Road in Chorlton. Next year marks the 20th anniversary for the store. The shop sells brands such as Rutzou, Snob, St Martins Child London. The store is coming up to a landmark event and you will prepare a project to commemorate 20 years in business. You will research and explore the history of the store as well as interview and profile the staff and customers. From looking at the stores archive photography and items you will grasp an understanding of what direction to expand in.

Currently McQueen has no online presence. You will design a website which will promote and expand their marketing/advertising profile to encompass a larger audience. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook pages will be set up and used to inform customers of the shops latest news. This will also enable customers to either shop or view the clothing before coming into the store.

To celebrate McQueen’s 20^th anniversary you will provide its customers with the opportunity to model the clothing from the store. This gesture will thank the customers for their loyalty as well as promoting the business of the store.

You will shoot the clothing in a studio with the customers that volunteer to model using a grey background. Each image that includes a model will be shot in a number of different styles. There will be a full-length shot in portrait style and a landscape shot to give a different perspective on the items. Each model will stand with a relaxed pose and have a deadpan expression. The clothing will also be shot on its own. To achieve this you will mount the clothing onto a mannequin using the same light that will be used on the models. The location for this shoot will also be studio based. These images will be displayed on the website in full colour, this is to show potential customers the level of professionalism that McQueen offers. With the commercial images you will create a catalogue, which will be available for customers to browse through, this will provide customers with an insight into what the clothing is like before trying it on.

The owner of McQueen (Sarah) also uses the space for local events and business meetings, but she would like to expand and use the space for events such as jewellery-making workshops, upholstery demonstrations, social evenings and children’s clothing events. You will create a promotional item, which will highlight these events. The promotional item will be a flyer or poster and will have times and dates of each event.

During the process you will interact with your client to get feedback in an appropriate timeframe. This is to ensure your client and you have an understanding of what direction the brief is going in.

Then There Was Us

Since starting this magazine I have always treated it as a side project, but from the release of the first issue I have learned a world of knowledge. I always new it wasn’t going to be an easy task, but what I learned from the first issue is that promotion an drawing awareness to the magazine is key if you want people to not only buy the mag, but also to get photographers and artists to submit their work.

In preparation for the next issue Jonathan and myself are working hard to promote the magazine. Since the first issue we have created a website, made contacts with well known photographers and I have learned to approach this issue with a realistic attitude. When I say realistic attitude I mean I have to keep an online presents, getting people to submit work almost everyday, work towards getting businesses to advertise and ensure that we stay on top of our schedule. Recently an editor of the magazine Square contacted me. I asked him for advice which he gave me, ”Well, I guess the quality of the artists featured will draw people in. Be active on all media sites, create a page and all that, invite people in. Get a flickr account for it, twitter and everything. You must be prepared to work on this quite a lot though and be regular, with a clear publishing schedule. Think big, I say that, but then again Square Mag hasn’t reached the 3000 Likes mark yet, in nearly 4 years”. From this conversation he has promoted the magazine for us and within a few hours we received over 25 submissions and over 60 new Facebook followers who also submitted work.

At the moment we are working on question to ask Ian. We would like to do a question and answer piece in the next issue with Ian and get his insight into the business. We have also contacted Sian and asked if she would do a review of Paris Photo which will either feature on the website or the next issue. Another person that is onboard to contribute is Graeme Vaughan. We first contacted Graeme in May, and asked if he would be the guest editor for the next issue, but because Graeme has a busy work schedule and the the theme he set wasn’t getting as many submissions as we’d hoped, Jonathan and I made the decision to steer the mag in a different direction. Graeme has agreed to write a piece for a future issue. We would like to feature his work at some point, but it is difficult to say which issue because we have to make sure the mag has a certain flow.     

 

 

Ian F Simpson & Then There Was Us Magazine

Ian F Simpson is a photographer and an artist. He has worked with some of the biggest names in advertising, T.V. and record industries. Ian came into college and spoke about how to be successful within our chosen field.

During the talk Ian gave us an overview of his work and how he got into the business. He emphasised that having a hobby away from photography is essential and hugely important. I gathered this was important because photography can consume us. Simply by having a hobby will allow us to separate our work or obsession with something outside of photography. This will help in the long run as I could get bored or consumed with photography. What Ian said was important and I believe all photographers should listen to this advice because it could also open doors within a different field in photography, by having a hobby and meeting people that have different professions could create a network platform that you didn’t know was there. For example these people may need a photographer to shoot events for their work place.

Ian went on to suggest that we read more poetry. He said by reading poetry will open our minds up to seeing the world in a different way. What I took away from this was Ian telling us not just to get our resources from other photographers but to tap into other sources such as poetry. By doing so could open my mind up to a different way to approach my own photography. At the moment I have begun to do this (or perhaps I have been doing it for long than I thought but have only now realised it) with movies. I have always been interested in the director Wes Anderson. He is the director of such films as The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom. Each movie Anderson makes I get inspired. I have begun to gather inspiration for a portrait series documenting a fictitious narrative shot in a cinematic style.

Next Ian said we should at some stage in our time at uni write down three things we don’t want to do within photography. Again this is a good idea because by simply doing this makes it easier if your not sure of what you want to do. The three things I know I don’t want to work for a catalogue shooting commercial objects for a long period, work for a company shooting newborns and I don’t want to teach photography.

Ian suggested we get to know people from other industries. He said these people will come in as useful friends to have in the future and we could learn a lot from them. I always thoughts this was a good thing to do. Becoming acquainted with people from other industries could be useful to my photography but also in the creation of the magazine I have co-created. By making these contacts I could get advice on how to boost the popularity of the mag and also could obtain a great deal of knowledge into new and exciting way to approach the future issues. Knowing these people could led to partnerships and collaborations in the future.

After the break Ian wanted each student to ask a question. He started with me. I asked if he was hiring and his response was, ‘not at the moment, but keep in touch’. I also asked his advice with the magazine. I explained what the magazine was and what our goal was. Ian’s advice was to build our network, this is key, use twitter, Facebook, Flickr and so on. We should blog about the mag and also write to Manchester Confidential (which I have recently done). We should have guest writers and guest photographers. Ian gave an example of how a mag, such as ours works. If the issue is 60 pages; 30 pages, images 50%, 20 pages feature text and the last 10% should be advertising. For advertising Ian suggested we try local businesses and even college. We should get to know our audience and keep up to date with our competition. Later Ian looked through our website. right away he suggested we buy a URL. For example it would be much more professional if we used mail@thentherewasus.co.uk & submissions@thentherewasus.co.uk.

I have learned much from Ian lecture and one to one. My reflection outlines the knowledge he has gave me to go forward and continue with my own practice and the magazine.

Mood Board

Before I meet my client I want to be prepared. In order to help my client understand the approach I want to take this in. To do this I will provide a collection of textures, images and text related to a design theme as a reference point. Mood boards help others to ‘get inside our heads’ in order to convey a thematic setting for a design or to explain function in piece of work.

Below I have included images from the Burberry website. I will present both having a similar website layout and shooting the collection with almost the same style as they have. My idea from the beginning was to shoot the collection on grey background and ensure the models are posing in a straight forward way.

The other images of the ties and shoes work extremely well with the whole site. The idea of having everything shot in the same style (lighting, same colour of backdrop and similarly posed models) gives the collection and the website a professional look.

   

The images below are from the designer Bora Aksu. I have included these because I like the constancy between the site and the images. They work well together.

Lighting

While discussing my ideas with Sian I expressed that I would like to do this shoot with dramatic light on a dark background. Ironically Sian showed me the collection and the labels that McQueen sell. The label Sian showed me was S’NOB. The images (which I have included below) are almost exactly what I had in mind.

The style of photography I like main surounds darkly light subjects. I understand I must be careful and make sure they show the clothing in a appropriate way so the people that visit the website will have a clearvision of what they are looking at.

What I mostly like about the style of these images, is the way they are shot in, the lighting as pointed out before inspires me, but also the poses the models are doing. I would like to do more relaxed poses and have similar expressions like the ones here.

   

The S’NOB images above are no longer a planned for the shoot. The reason is because the image is much too dark. From looking at other fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen’s collections, the majority of shoots are taken on a grey background with light detailing most of the clothing so it can be seen by the customer.

Poses & Lighting 

I have been researching minimalist fashion, which means eliminating all non-essential forms. I want the models to pose similar to the models below. The are posing without stretching and pouting. By stripping away all those elements the viewer can relate more to the image and the clothing.

The lighting in here is straight forward. From what I can see, the photographer has use one light. In the image of the girl I think the light is coming from here left side, as we can see the dark area on the right side of her face. In the shot of the man we can see the light source is coming from the right side of the frame because the left side is in darkness.

 

 

 

I haven’t included images of the hair and makeup yet. This is because I will propose to Sarah (from McQueen) that we use her customers as the models. I would like to see images of the models before I choose the hair and makeup.

My ideas for hair and makeup are simple. I am going for a minimal approach to these shoots.

Definition of Portraiture

Following a meeting with Dave where we discussed my statement of intent Dave suggested I look ou the definition of portraiture.

Just by looking up the word portraiture I notice the words ‘vivid and detailed description’. This has made me think about portraiture in a different way. Portraiture can be both vivid and descriptive at the same time. For example the portraits I took using a filter that I created with glass and oil, helped to create a mood. The person was placed behind the filter sometimes obscuring the portrait making the person vivid, but without this filter the description (or the concept) of the image was lost. So in this case I can understand how the portrait can be both vivid and descriptive.

Statement of Intent

The relationship between Photography and Painting through Portraiture

I will work towards producing an essay that will assist me, and give me an idea of the area within photography I would like to expand on.

I have started my research through books such as David Bate Photography, Clarke The Photograph, Susan Bright Auto Focus The Self Portrait in Contemporary Photography & Art Photography Now, David Campany Art and Photography and Charlotte Cotton The Photograph as Contemporary Art.

During the writing of this essay I will work towards exploring portraiture. I will research the connection between art and photography and how artists took inspiration from portrait photographer’s work and applied it to their own work. I find it interesting how artist (even though they will not recognize photography as art) turn to photography for inspiration. Another aspect of portraiture I find interesting is ‘deadpan’. Deadpan portraiture interests me because I find it borrows the deadpan expressions from early portrait photographers.

From researching Bate’s I have discovered that I have a keen interest in the relationship between painting and photography. I am interested in how both mediums sample certain gestures from one and other, such as, subjects would use their hand to prop up their face to stop them from moving in early stages of photography because of the long exposures. This led to artists including the same gesture into their own work’. I would like to explore this further.

As my research and knowledge of portraiture grows I intend to experiment through photo-shoots, as this research is also intended to supply me with a grounded idea for my own personal project next year.

Lecture #4 (Critical Reflective Studies)

In todays class we started with Dave’s bingo. There was a number of words wrote on the board and we had to chose six words and place them in a bingo column. As Dave called the meaning of the word out we had to guess which word it was. The reason for the exercise was help us understand what these word mean since they are used quite often in the academic world.

We then moved onto ‘reflective thinking’. As I understand, reflective thinking is when we assess a situation in our lives and reflect on it in a productive manner. For example, if I failed at something I would think of a way to do it so I wouldn’t fail next time around in other words reflective thinking focuses on the process of making judgments about what has happened.

By understand reflective thinking I can go back to my SOI with a better frame of mind and except that its okay to fail at sometime, but I should reflect on them and come away with a stronger SOI the second time around.

Lecture #3

In this lecture we were given advertisements and told to write down what we see and what we think the photographers intensions were while creating the image. The image below is what I had to try and decipher.

The scene in this image is fictitious. We see hounds chasing a fox whilst a couple are hiding behind a tree cradling a fox. Behind the tree along with the couple are two bicycles. In the last paragraph from the source magazine, which analyses the image states,  ”Everything here is a signifier for something else: the entire ad is built on layer upon layer of evacuated meaning. The spatially disjunct elements of the photo have been emptied of whatever ‘reality’ they each started out with and brought together to signify ‘fox hunt’. This, in turn, is emptied of any actual meaning regarding fox hunting, and used purely to signify British heritage. The insertion of the cool young fox-savers then builds on this meaning, adding the suggestion of modern/ alternative to the traditional/classic. This signification produces the desired meaning connotation for the product, the traditional Brooks saddles on the modern bikes”.

What I take away from this paragraph, and what I believe the advert is trying to say is that Brooks Saddles are trying to aim this advert at a younger and more alternative audience.

Before starting this exercise I read the handout Dave gave out called ‘Audience & Intention’. I found this short piece helpful. It helped me remember way we were doing these exercises. The key points of this article is to show us intentions behind the photographic communication and understanding the function of the image. They point out in this paper that as a photographer when composing an image we are connected to what it is we are photographing, whether we know it or not.

Lecture #2 (Notes on Class and what I plan to do)

In todays lecture we discussed research.

It is important that I focus on researching the area that I am interested in. My area is portraiture. I will use primary and secondary research. Primary research is something that you gather first hand… usually through interviews, covert/overt observation, questionnaires, surveys and by asking people. Secondary research is the analysing of information that has already been collected. Secondary research can be found in books, video, media, archives, websites and articles/newspapers.

How I will approach my essay on portraiture

1. Intro

2. Read

3. Research

4. Books; Clarke, Bate, Liz Wells (The Reader, Critical Intro to Photography), Charlotte Cotton, Susan Bright and David Campany.

What are my key arguments going to be?

Discuss a quote? (What is a Practice), (Where is Photography in the 21st Century)

Discuss these topics in my essay

Process which create a one of print, (Old Process)

Process that create a one of image that can never be produced again, (New Process)

From this lecture I have gained a great deal of knowledge of the best way to begin research for my essay. I will now start my statement of intent and follow the guidelines Dave issued us with in order to write a successful SOI.