Yulia Brodskaya

I recently found this artist who works with paper. She isn't photography related but her work is really interesting. Check her out,

What I'm reading now

I started reading Susan Sontag's On Photography the other day. I'm really enjoying the book and how it looks at photographs. On of my favourite bits so far is the idea of photograph's as a trophies. Its really interesting and I plan to explore the ideas further through my own photographs and others. Its very simple to read and easy to understand, anyone could read it. If your interested in photography theory this is a key read. I can't believe its taken me to long to start reading it.

Sally Mann love

2 weeks ago we went to the Photographers' Gallery to see Sally Mann's exhibit. It was amazing. I've mentioned before that I love here work so was pretty excited to get to see the real images up close and personal.

She had 4 different series of images on display. The first images where from Faces, which were intimate and personal portraits of here children. These photographs where a result of here earlier work Immediate Family.

Because of her use of antique cameras the final result feels raw and honest. The images contain drips, marks and fussy lines which all add to the uniqueness of each portrait. All of the photographs are a close crop of the face and often blurred. This gives an impression of the subject rushing as if they couldn't stay for very long. I think they give the feeling of a memory, only the most prominent features or an expression defines that person are captured clearly. The image featured above is in my opinion one of the best.

The actual photographs where huge. Mann is well know for using large format cameras but these were the biggest out of the whole collection. This made it very easy to see all the detail and the sublet changes in tone. The room was darkly lit which also add to the mysterious, memory like atmosphere.

Upstairs was the rest of her collection was split into three sections. The biggest part of this was dominated by Immediate Family. I had seen a lot of these images before so it wasn't a surprise for me, but it was great to see the real size of the images rather than the tiny versions printed in books. Next was the series Deep South with were amazing. These were my favourite images out of the whole collection. The image seemed to glow as they had a strange kind of yellow white where the image was brightest. Again because the landscapes were photographed using an antique camera and had the feeling of a memory, or a haunted land.

I had never before images Mann as a landscape photographer but she really does capture some amazing stuff. The gosly mist and strange shapes definatly make the audience view the landscape in a differnt way.

The last images were What remains. This captured decaying bodies found in nature. She photographs through all the stages of decomposition. There was so much detail in the images, and in one even Mann's finger print could be seen. After going round the images I sat in a film for a few moments that interviewed/documented Mann and her work. It appeared at the moment that she is very interested in death as she was filmed photographing her dogs bones. But the images don't look gory or gross but are interesting and in their own way very beautiful.

Part of the reason I like her work so much is that is done using old cameras and techniques. This creates such a contrats to the highly polsihed images that are produced today that it intrigues me. These processes will be something I will try and explore this term at uni.

All images are copyright The Photograohers' Gallery.

Greenbelt

So at the end of August me and Keith went camping to Greenbelt. We volunteered for the Visual Arts section. I've been to Greenbelt every year since I was 13, but this was the first year that I got involved with the Visual Arts. My normal routine at GB is to just hang out and go to gigs. None of the stuff in the day usual interest me so in the past I have volunteered with the Kids festival. This year I though the Visual Arts sounds way more fun and interested so signed up, even though we both weren't too sure what we would be doing.

We both ended up working in gallery spaces. Keith's gallery was quite big and had a jewellery/photography exhibition and a piano made out of water. I had a collection of illustrations by Bobby Baker. The illustrations are of Bobby's journey though mental illness, they are funny, sad and most importantly eye opening to what it is like to experience metal illness. I loved working on this exhibit. It was great to see people go round looking at the drawings and then drawing their own response on a blank wall. It was amazing to see how so many people could relate to what she had gone though.

I worked 4 hours a day in the gallery and I learn't a lot about looking after a gallery space. I worked along two guys and had some great conversation with them. A main dominant of these conversation was what talks we had been and what we wanted to go to. I had planned on doing my usual of not looking at the day stuff and only turing up to the gigs at night. But I heard about some interesting talks going on and then Keith also was up for the talks, so I went along and was really inspired. The main focus of the talks we went to were on community.

It was good to experience more of the festival and not just focus on the music. I was excited about seeing Martin Wilson's work as its a style of photography I have never seen before. He uses 35mm colour transparency. His final images are contact sheets which create one giant image rather than different individual images.

This is the image that was created at last years Greenbelt and unveiled at this years festival. I think its really interesting How he manages to make all the l

ines match up. No photoshop or editing is done to the films. If he goes wrong he has to start again. This is amazing how he can remember what he has photographed and how it will match up with other frames later on in the overall images.

Its a style that I never seen before and I think its really creative. I don't love his images, I think they are a great idea. They look good in real life as well, all the detail is really clear. I liked how in the image above in one of his frames a tiny part of his foot can be seen on the edge. I think that its great, a mistake that adds character and isn't trying to be too perfect.

Another great highlight was Foy Vance. I saw him live last year but he was even better this year as he was playing on the main stage and sounded amazing.

Food

I found this photographer.

She is called Anna Williams and is a NY based photographer. I like her work.

Her work is really simple. She adds detail by food crumbs and table decorations. The messiness of the food makes it look

appetising and real. Its not styled to appears perfect and untouchable but rather the imperfect appearance of her photographs help the viewer connect to her images creating a feeling of homemade goodness.

As soon as I saw her work I was reminded of the work of Irving Penn.

Penn also photographed food, but created a different atmosphere with his images. He made the viewer uncomfortable at the imperfections of the food.

William's photography draws on the senses of smell and taste as well as visual appreciation. By photographing the texture of the food the viewer automatically reference similar food that they have experienced. Thus automatically the viewer can image the feel, smell and taste of the food. The styling of the image also creates the feeling of warmth and homeliness. The background and table decorations are neutral enough for most people to connect with and unimposing so they don't distract the eye.

Rather with Penn's images he manages to make the food look unappetising. He also create imperfect images by dusting spices and leaving crumbs on the table top. But instead of inspiring in the viewer memories of smell and taste it makes the table look dirty. Penn also photographs flies on the food. Making the food in the image look disgusting. The viewer becomes repulsed by the food. The colours are also dull and slightly grubby in appearance, making it seem old. Where as in Williams photo's she captures the bright and shiny colours which look fresh.

I think both these photographers demonstrate that with only a few changes to the way something is photographed, it can dramatically change how the audience see it. This is probably most prominent in food photography as it draws on so many other senses but can be applied to all type of photographs.

The beauty of wedding photography

I haven't been very good with blogging recently, but my excuse is that I have been a bit distracted with getting married.

While preparing to get married these past few months the only images I have really been looking at are wedding related. I have seen some amazing photography, mostly from this site which has the some of the most beautiful detail photos. I loved looking on this website mainly for inspiration for my own wedding but also I just because the photography is pretty and makes me want to make prettyphotographs. But most of the photographs are quite similar with only the people and colours changing,so it can feel like you looking at the same images all the time. However sometimes you can find some really gems that are different, which capture something real and honest about the big day rather than just the standard expected shots.

I have to admit that quite a lot of the time I think the pictures look to cheesy and there isn't that much personality to the images. The photographer seems too busy concentrating on trying to make the photos look like something out of a fashion shoot that it stops being about the uniqueness of the couple. Instead the pictures look too perfect to be real. I preferred the detail shots as they were great inspiration decorations, co

lours and quirky stuff for my own plans.

I like this persons wedding pictures much better as they capture the real day. Not just the day which looks out of a magazine perfect, but the actual day. Which in my opinion looks a lot better than most of the fancy American weddings from the first blog. Ironically as I went on to Hannah B's blog to get the link she has posted her thoughts on weddings. She has managed to write everything I have been thinking and trying to say, so take a look at hers... What she writes here really sums it up

But there’s a danger, I think, that some of these blogs turn weddings into something a bit ....odd, an aesthetic focused design fest rather than the real, life changing gritty reality of the commitment.

I love the photos from the style me pretty blog, I think they are so pretty and could defiantly be used as reference to fashion or produce photography, its just they are sometimes focusing too much on the perfect prettiness of it all and lacking a real heart to the day. However photography isn't the problem, its more to do with the whole industry of weddings and what society is being conditioned to think a wedding has to be (again Hannah B talks about this on her post).

On a side note one of the other reason I love Hannah B's photos is because they were taken on Polaroid. It makes me want a Polaroid camera so much.

This is photo from my wedding. I like it because I didn't realise it was being taken so I think there is a more 'real' feel to it. I suppose it just that it wasn't posed for so its all natural and captures the moment. It was taken by my friend Jess. You can see her work here.

Anyone for water?

The past few days I have been doing some admin stuff for Owen. While doing this I was also experimenting with photographing something that seemed ordinary and boring, and trying to make it exciting. So I chose a water bottle. I mainly experimented with different lighting to try and create different atmosphere to the product. I focused on only having a small amount of light highlighting certain aspects of the bottle. Therefore juts giving the audience an idea of the bottle shape and function. I shot it from a slightly lower angle than the bottle so to highlight the length of the bottle (hopefully making the viewer think about the volume it can hold).

When I edited I just removed a few dust spots and a few reflection in the bottle. Overall I like the final outcome but it is a bit too dark. PWC would have a fit if he saw it because it wouldn't basically black! I think it needs to have a few more highlights and maybe the bottle fades into the background a bit to much and to quickly? But for just and experiment it looks nice.

When doing the tag line I was thinking about how how the bottle was simple, easy, it held a large amount of liquid, it was quite masculine. So I came up with the line 'quench your thirst' and 'made for real drinking'. Aladdin is the brand of the bottle. I really did not know how to use make the text eye catching and complimentary to the image so Owen did the text and showed me some simple stuff to that could make it better. I like what he has done, I would never have thought about putting the text down the side. I think it kind of looks like a movie poster?

Look look a film, want to see?

Retromania

Owen and I decided to do a little photo-shoot with the company Retromania in mind. This is company that has an office in the same building as Owen's. We borrowed a few o their clothes and decided that we wanted to do a fashion/advertising shoot which contrasted the vintage clothes with an urban background. Before doing the shoot did research into old images and looked at the lighting, poses and general style of the images. Here are the images that we took:

Owen photographed me and I photographed Owen so we both had a go at being the model and photographer. Got some really funny looks walking round London like this but was really good fun. Owen did all the post production on the images.

We tried to keep a theme of lots of shadows and averting eyes.

Paper isn't dead

For this shoot I had to throw loads of paper at the camera while Owen photographed its movement. He photographed it in different stages of being a paper airplane and being screwed up. I had to throw and drop the paper at different points of closeness to the camera. The aim of the this was to create and interesting images using something that was boring and plain. The idea that paper isn't dead came from the though that the office is technology dependent meaning less paper waste but yet we still use so much of it! Therefore we thought about the idea of creating and advert for a paper shop showing how their paper is exciting, versatile and quick.

The editing took the most time on this image as each piece of paper had be cut out, then all of the cut outs had to be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle to create one image where the paper looked like it was flying out at you. Starting as a screwed up all of paper, then being folded out into airplanes.

I did the cutting out of the images but Owen created the main image.