Environment/City: Critical Appraisal

For my environment unit, I chose to look at the effect that we have on the environment. I started by researching the artist Mitch Epstein. His work depicting the growing population of China, and its effect on their landscape was my main inspiration for the project. After the critique of my first shoot, I realised that I needed to continue shooting, as my first images didn’t show this idea of expansion. I wanted to build up a much larger collection of images for this project, but I struggled in finding places that matched what I wanted to photograph. After my second shoot, I had 3 images I was happy with, although I had had to shoot them on a 35mm camera. Due to this I printed some of the images smaller to retain detail, but I was overall happy with my final prints.

The city I found a lot more difficult. My initial thoughts for the project were to look at the unseen parts of the city, but due to an error whilst shooting, I had to complexly rethink my approach with the time I had left. It was at this point that I came across the work of Bruce Gildan, who specialised in street photography. I started to shoot around the city of Canterbury, photographing people walking the streets without making myself to obvious. I shot a single roll of black and white 35mm film, and managed to take 5 images I was happy with. I had wanted to use medium format for the shoot, but the relatively small size of the 35mm slr meant that I could be as inconspicuous as possible.

City: Bruce Gildan

Bruide Gildan is a modern day street photographer,. who is famous for his work in New York City. His style is catching people off guard in the streets, usually approaching them up close with a flash when they arent expecting it. This approach is very different to most street photographers, as they try not to alert their subjects to the fact that they are having their picture taken.

His work is all taken on 35mm, black and white film, and has a very grainy feel to it. This is key in understanding what his photos are trying to show. He has said that "when you can smell the street through the photo, then it's street photography". He looks for characters on the street, people who are more interesting than everyone around them. Its this that i want to try and capture through my work, as i believe that the people make the city and not just the buildings. However for my photos, im going to take the opposite approach, and try and be as descreet as possible with my camera.

City: Street Photography

Street photography is a really interesting concept to me. It seems to be the only way to get an honest representation of the city and the people who populate it. Ive been looking at the work of Henri Carter-Bresson. He pioneered the field of modern photojournalism, taking to the streets with his hand held camera, and taking pictures of every day happenings around the citys. 

This image was taken in Hyeres, France. Carter-Bresson's idea with his pictures was that the camera was an extention of his own eye, and that he was capturing eternity with his images.This is a perfect example of this. Without the use of a camera, this cyclist would have just passed by unnoticed, and not been remembered. A big part of what made this style possible was the introduction of the 35mm camera. Carter-Bresson liiked the annonimity that the small camera gave him in confined/packed spaces. It helped him overcome peoples natural reactions to being photographed. As soon as you dont know you're being photographed, you become more yourself, and less what you want people to see.

With this in mind, id really like to explore the world of street photography for my project. To me, the people in the city are what makes the city, more than the buildings or area. This way i can show the different sides of the city and who is in it. Because i want to keep up this annonimity, i will aim to use my 35mm camera for the project.

City: Anton Furst

For this project, i am trying to show the darker side of the city. I looked at how the city is portrayed in films and television, and came across the designer Anton Furst. He was the production designer for the Tim Burton "Batman" films, for which he won an oscar. His dark noirish nightmare styled sets are a massive part in showing Gotham City as a dark place run by criminals.

These scenes are not unlike some parts of modern cities. The idea behind these designs is that the city was constantly expanding, and being built upon. Because of the lact of space, the city was built upwards on top of existing architecture. This is very similar to the expansion of New York City, which grew up as the population increased and space became less available.

In most of these scenes, the city is shown at night, and it made me think about how the city takes on a completly different dynamic. I want to try and show these changes in the city, comparing the differences between the daytime and night.

Body: Richard Avedon

My tutor introduced me to Avedon's work early on in the project, and the style of his photographs really appealed to me. I looked at his book "In the american west", as series of portraits focusing on the people living in the rural west.

 The series was not about glamorising the people of this part of the country, but showing the day to day lives of the people who lived there. The models were ordinary people, not changed or dressed up, but photographed as they were. It was these details on the models that defined who they were, what they did, and how they lived.

The series contained 124 images, which were taken between 1979 and 1984. During this time, he travelled through 13 states, and visited 189 towns, taking these photos as he travelled. He used a 8x10 camera to capture his images, which gave a great depth of detail in his images.

All of the images were taken with natural lighting, although they look as though they are carefully planned studio photographs. I think that in the studio, i would be able to accurately recreate this look.

Body: Finding the Model

I asked many different people to model for me, ranging from tatto artists, to people in bands, and a few who have normal every day jobs. I struggled to find people who would be available on the days i needed them. Eventually, i asked one of the members of a local hardcore band i watched in Chatham. His name is Dan Lloyd, and he played guitar in a band called Alaska from Thanet. After meeting with him a fair few times, he was really interested in the project i wanted to do, and was really happy to help out. This is some background information on my model.

Dan is 21 years old and lives in Ramsgate. He has been a part of the local music scene for years, playing with various different bands as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist. His current band, Alaska, are a hardcore band that have toured the UK and Europe, and have a big fanbase around the south east and other areas.

He studied Music Tech in Bristol for a year before returning to kent and starting up his own home studio, in which he records bands from around the area. Currently, daniel is also training to be a tattoo artist.

Our discussions eventually came on to the topic of his tattoos, and how they would affect his future. As he doesnt have a conventional job, and has no intention of getting one, he see's no issue with getting completly covered with tattoos, but he does see the issues that people with tattoos on show have getting everyday jobs.

At the moment, Daniel has his full torso covered, and one full sleeve on his left arm. He also has a number of tattoo's covering his leg, some of which he has done by himself for practise. He said that as soon as he can find the right person, and the right tattoos to cover himself with then he will eventually be covered.

I was very fortunate to have found Dan, as we both have similar interests, and getting to know him before the shoot will really help in making the day less awkward for both of us. He hasnt had any previous modelling experience, but is excited to give it a go.

Body: Pose, Costume, Lighting

To prepare myself for the upcoming body shoot, we've been doing a few workshops that have focused on using different lighting in the studio, as well as considering our subjects attire and body language, and how this can help us to achieve what we want to show in our photos. In the first of these workshops, we were using continuous lighting to light our subjects, and were given 4 different emotions to try and portray. Venerability, pride, intimacy and aloof.

Only using one light source, i had to focus on the subjects posture to try and create these emotions. I found this difficult through the day, and discovered that some emotions are alot easier to show than others. This is my contact sheet from the day.

 Out of these shots, my favourite would have to be the middle top. This image was trying to portray venerability. I decided to make my model very small in the image, and had the camera aim from above her. I also used the shadow to emphasise this feeling of loneliness. Because of this i feel it was my most successful image. For my shoot, i am intending to show someone as being proud of their tattoo's without looking confrontational and conforming to a stereotype, so i will have to work on the proud look further before my shoot.

The second workshop involved showing peoples professions rather than emotions, and was meant to focus us on using different items of clothing to show these. Also this time round we used 2 flashes rather than a continious light. This ggave me a chance to experiment with the type of lighting i wanted to use on my final images. We has to pick 3 out of worker, intilectual, sales assistant, waitress and cleaner.