We Are OCA

I have become involved in a number of discussion streams on the Photography Feed of We Are OCA. I have found this a great food for thought and by participating in the discussions have found myself having to think more coherently about my views on a wide range of photographic subjects. The blog has been considering issues ranging from the link between documentary and art photography, street photography, the work of Cindy Sherman. I will continue to participate in this blog and engage with my fellow students and our tutors who take a lead role in stimulating this activity.

Format Derby 2011

Yesterday I attended an OCA organised visit to The Format Photographic Festival in Derby. The event was well attended with 15 students and four OCA staff/tutors. It was a great opportunity to talk to others about their work and to gain valuable insights from the tutors Jose Navarro and Clive White.

The theme of the Festival was 'Right Here, Right Now' Exposures from the public realm - essentially it was dedicated to street photography. As some of my favourite photographers were exhibiting - Alex Webb, Constantine Manos, Joel Meyerowitz - I had a great day. 

To begin with we visited the Quad Gallery where a great variety of street photographers were on display from all parts of the globe - UK, China, USA, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. 

My eye was immediately caught by the Joel Meyerowitz photographs by the entrance. What was particularly interesting for me was to see how his work had moved on from black and white street work, to colour on the street and then to the use of Large Format for his more recent portrait studies - a photographer must keep moving seems to be the message!

I spent quite a lot of time at the exhibition and had the opportunity to reflect on what drew me to particular photographers. Strong colour and constrast are certainly aesthetic factors, but it I was most taken by those photographers who had drawn their work together under a distinct theme which had some substance to it. My particular favourites on the day were:

- Frederic Lezmi's travelog of a journey from Austria to Beirut. I thought the way the photographs had been arranged as a continuous film-like display worked really well. These two photographs taken through windows both have a sense of mystery about them but both also portray their central characters so well - the strong mature business woman and the beautiful young maid.

- George Georgiou's exploration of Turkey's modernisation and national identity also held my attention. I felt drawn back to the images to look deeper into them.

- Dougie Wallace's reflections on life which showed a series of faces of people on trams about to depart - most are lost in thought leaving one to wonder what this person is about. The images are from all over the globe.

- Zhiang Xiao whose image depict the Chinese coastline - one can see the increasing development and westernisation but the spirit of the people appears to remain intact.  Often the images which contain much information have curious and amusing details within them - the man with the spotted sunburned back, the lady swimming in her dress and such like. The matrix arrangement of the photographs also intrigued - one was tempted to connect the images but left wondering about how to do this.

Jose had also asked us to look at the work by British photographer Peter Dench who has been documenting British society in the 21st century. He describes his work as  'explore[ing] all four corners documenting ethnic diversity, the miserable weather and the many characters [he] met along the way'. to be honest I did not like his work. I felt it was unbalanced, focusing on the worst elements within society often exploiting his subjects at times when they were under stress or at times of weakness, e.g. people living on the streets, people injured in car accidents drunken people etc. His work is similar in some ways to that of Martin Parr but lacks Parr's wit and satirical power in my view. Here is an example of his photography.

We moved from the Quad Gallery to the 'Take to the Streets' exhibition of leading Magnum photographers which is an outdoor exhibit in the square in front of the Quad. As I mentioned at the start of this post, some of my favourite photographers were on show. This exhibition only served to reinforce my opinion of their work. Two stood out for me:

- Alex Webb  has  a very personalised style based on the strong use of colour and contrast. Many of his images are complex compositionally and often he will break up the frame into components using doors, windows, archways shadows etc. Each element then seems to develop a life of its own leading to a multilayered reading of the images. His work is visually attractive and intriguing.

- Constantine Manos's work American Colour is brilliantly conceived in my view. His subjects are people in the streets, but in reality the actual subject is the colour itself. This he finds in abundance in Florida where most of the images are taken. What is also interesting is that one rarely sees the faces of the people in the photographs. They could be wearing sunglasses, be in shade, be turned away, be cropped out etc. This mitigates any sense of exploitation in his photographs and emphasises that the real subject is the colour itself.

From the Magnum show we went on to the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. The main exhibits that grabbed my attention was the Bruce Gilden work and the In-Publik movie.

- Bruce Gilden has a very distinctive and intrusive style of street photography. He gets up close and personal with his subjects and to cap it off uses a flash to capture them like rabbits in headlights! I watched the movie of him working and it was clear that some of his subjects were less than happy about his approach and felt singled out and victimised. This reinforced my view that my own style should be based on a sympathetic approach to my subjects not a confrontational one. Whilst I feel that many of his images have a strong powerful impact I was slightly disturbed by his approach and do not count myself as a fan of Gilden's work. 

- The In-Publik movie gave a great insight into the thinking of many well regarded street photographers. I took away a numerous thoughts about what they try to achieve with their work....

...humourous juxtaposition - Nick Turpin

...moments of magic - David Gibson

...drama in everyday life - David Solomons

...the world is a beautiful place - Richard Bram

...find structure in situations that are out of control - Gus Powell

Essentially though they are all looking for those 'moments of magic' in everyday life...this seems a great credo for street photography

Our final port of call was MOB Format HQ. Here was the headquarters of the Festival and also the exhibition of work submitted by members of the public. The organisers have set out six themes under which photographs should be submitted:

Street Surreal  

Shoot from the hip  

Decisive moment  

In the crowd

Street noir  

When worlds collide 

These are an excellent structure for thinking about developing a style in street photography and is one which I plan to think about in terms of my own style.

So I had a great day but what did I learn. The key points for me to reflect on are:

·      I have strong preference for colour and contrast - I will probably base my own work around this approach

·      I do not like exploitative street photography - my aim is not to poke fun at people but to find those 'moments of magic'

·      I prefer work where there is an evident linking them....almost a photo essay approach. This theme need not be about the people in the scene it could be something else like Manos's work with colour

·      I need to avoid forcing myself down the track of other photographers. I need to keep shooting and to allow my style to come through naturally

·      I need to take all opportunities to mix with other photographers!!

·      I need to keep learning and keep an open mind!!

Brighton Photo Biennial 2010 Visit

On Sunday 7th November I visited the Brighton Photo Biennial 2010, along with OCA CEO Gareth Dent, OCA tutors Jose Navarro and Clive White and fellow student Eileen Rafferty. The trip was organised by the OCA.

We had a very full day visiting several Exhibitions at different locations. The theme for the event is New Documents and it has been curated by Magnum documentary photographer Martin Parr.

We began with a visit to Strange and Familiar: Three Views of Brighton on show at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. In this exhibition three well known photographers were commissioned to produce a set of photographs which present their response to the city of Brighton and Hove. Sadly Alex Soth was unable to produce a set of images due to work permit issues. Instead, he presented a set of photographs made by his daughter with limited direction from Soth. These were interesting in that they presented an uninhibited and naive view of the city from a 7 year old girl. Indeed the perspective of the images is that of a small girl looking up. Whilst interesting and thought provoking in terms of what can be achieved when one frees oneself of adult inhibitions, I did not find this work too instructive. The second contributor was Stephen Gill, whose 'Field Studies' work I had come across in my documentary photography course. Stephen's work is very radical. He had collected detritus from the streets, beaches etc of the city and had included some items in each of his images. The effect is for the photographed scene to appear as a backdrop for the items resting on the film inside the camera. I was left wondering what the linkages were between the background and the items....the recorded interview with Stephen was not very forthcoming in this regard. The final contributor was Rinko Kawauchi. She produced two sets of photographs. One made in the winter with the murmuration of starlings over the sea. I liked this set a lot...as the images were taken at twilight the  colour is predominantly blue and whilst the images show flocks of the birds there is a sense of isolation and sadness about them. Here is an example of her work..

Murmuration by Rinko Kawauchi

Her second set was taken in Brighton during the spring festival. Her subject this time is people. I had the feeling she was trying to depict people flocking to the event. Her subjects were anonymously presented generally shown only from the waist downwards. Many of the images had great tension with the compositions very unbalanced  and unresolved. For me this set did not work as well as the murmuration group.

Our next stop was the House of Vernacular at Fabrica. This was an installation with seven collections of vernacular photographs, ranging from baby photographs to images of the interiors of African dictators private jets. To be honest this was not for me....although the jets were in my opinion the most interesting. They were presented as a typology in a very consistent manner and the quality of the work was excellent. Wonder how the photographer Nick Gleis managed to persuade the owners of the jets...shows anything is possible if you try hard enough.

Next stop was Lighthouse and the 'Queer Brighton' exhibition showing work by Molly Landreth and Zoe Strauss. I was particularly impressed by Molly Landreth's sensitive portraits. She seemed to be able to gain the confidence of her sitters such that they have relaxed their guard. The resulting images reveal the sensitive and vulnerable personalities underneath the veneer of exotic clothing and make up. Here are a couple of her photographs:
EJ Scott, Brighton, England (2010) by Molly Landreth

 

Johanna and Anna, Brighton, England (2010) by Molly Landreth



Finally we visited the showpiece of the festival, 'New Ways of Looking' at the former Co-operative Department store. There was much to see here. The work 'Sleepers' by Dhruv Malhotra was well received. I felt that the series of images worked well to document the situation of many homeless people who sleep outside in India's big cities. Here is an example of his work...
Untitled, from the series Sleepers, by Dhruv Malhotra

Personally I was more taken by the series of photographs 'Windows' by Oscar Fernandez Gomez  a Mexican taxi driver. They are presented as a typology of sorts with each image a scene on his travels. Every image has the same framing with the door window of the taxi clearly visible. Here is one of his photographs...
Windows by Oscar Fernando Gomez

I also spent some time looking at the Simon Roberts Election project ...on first sight they left me a bit cold. Although I have to admit as I spent more time looking at the images I began to see more in them – perhaps this was Simon Roberts’ intention…to make us look and think. There is something of Stephen Shore in these images in my view. This could be simply the format used- large format 10x8- which is very static but has the ability to capture immense detail. 


All in all a good day out and great to meet with and talk photography with tutors and a student from the OCA. I will sign off with an image of my own. The day in Brighton was also the day of the London to Brighton  Vintage car rally....here is a piece of the action. 


Finish of London To Brighton Rally 2010

Postscript.... I have looked some more into the influences on Simon Roberts' photography and judging from this quote from an interview in 2009 about the 'We English' work there is no doubt that Stephen Shore's work had had an influence on Robert's style...'I’ve long been fascinated by the tradition of the road trip in photography. Two of my early influences, the photographers Stephen Shore and Joel Sternfeld, have both employed extended journeys as an avenue for exploring America’s cultural landscape.'

Projects 20 to 22 - shooting into the sun

These projects are concerned with shooting into the sun. Specifically how to create sun stars, how to position the sun in the frame to reveal more detail in the image, and how to use reflective surfaces to create more interest into compositions when shooting into the sun.

I tried on several occasions to capture sun stars and discovered pretty quickly that the sun needs to be set in a blue sky. Any degree of diffusion by clouds makes creating sun stars impossible. Having practiced the technique I decided to carry out the three projects concerned with shooting into the sun in sequence in the same location so that I might see how using the techniques in the course notes lead to a better final image. The location for the shoot was Burnham Beeches - it is starting to show the yellow/orange colours of Autumn.

The first step was to shoot two images into the sun aiming to achieve a silhouette with a sun star. The first image was at f/2.8 and the second was at f/16. The images are below with a detail crop showing the sun star.

Clearly stopping down has resulted in a much better star.....lesson here is stop down!

The next step was to investigate how placement of the sun  in the frame impacts on the exposure of the image. The idea is that if the sun is placed towards the edge of the frame then more detail will be revealed in the remainder of the image. Here are two images which test this...

Placing the sun to the side has indeed had the desired result. The contrast in the image with the sun placed near the edge is less which in the case of this subject and compositon has definitely improved the image.

The final step is to introduce a reflective surface into the bottom of the frame, again with a view to reducing the contrast and revealing more detail to add interest to the image.

Middle Pond, Burnham Beeches Buckinghamshire UK

I am pleased with this final image which was a recomposition of the earlier ones. I moved forward to make the pond a more visible feature of the photograph. I feel that I have some important lessons about shooting into the sun. The key learning points have been: stop down, move the sun towards the edge of the frame if I want to reduce contrast and reveal more detail and finally to consider ways to add reflective surfaces into the composition to further reduce contrast and add interest.

Assignment 1: the season

I have just today sent off my first assignment on the Open College of Arts Landscape course to my tutor. I was quite please with the photographs that I included and so it will be very interesting to see what my tutor makes of them.

When compiling my observations on the images I included some comments on how I might have improved upon the images. There were two recurring themes.

 First, I might have waited for better light on several occasions. The location was good but the light could have been better. This is partly a function of having to complete the assignment in a reasonable timeframe and so I had to make compromises. But it is also because I need to work a good location more when I find one. There are one or two images which I think I should revisit later in different lighting conditions.

Second, I might have framed the view better in some images. This is about care and attention at the time of shooting. I MUST make doubly sure I am happy with the framing before I shoot a sequence of images.

Here is a contact sheet of the images I sent to my tutor. I will post a full report when I get the feedback.

Photography 2: Landscape Projects One to Three

I have now started work now on the Landscape 2 course. I am working my way through the first few projects and giving thought to Assignment One.

Projects 1-3 are about the frame format and placing the horizon within the frame. What have I learned? Well it has made me realise that I often approach a landscape scene with a fixed view on how I wish to frame the image. A more rational and probably more successful approach is to first consider the nature of the landscape and then to fit the frame to it. It is also clear that placing the horizon is a compositional design decision which is greatly influenced by what the sky looks like and how it complements the other elements within the composition.

These points are illustrated by the following examples.

The first shot I took with a preconceived idea of isolating part of the landscape in portrait mode.

View from Bledlow Ridge - Portrait Version

The image does not work well. The grass in the foreground is uninteresting as is the featureless sky. It is also clear that horizontal lines predominate and cutting them off, as the portrait frame does, reveals a series of short parallel lines. These lead the eye nowhere and do not illustrate the true nature of the scene. Were the lines to zig zag or create an interesting pattern then framing in portrait mode might have been more successful.

The next image is a panoramic version which acknowledges the horizontal nature of the scene and the result is much better. The high horizon in this shot also limits the impact of the featureless sky but the blue haze remains unappealing.

View from Bledlow Ridge - Panoramic Version

Taking this a step further I isolated an interesting element of the landscape which I think reveals the spring growth and texture of the landscape far better and avoids the most unattractive sky and blue toned distant landscape altogether.

View from Bledlow Ridge - Isolating the landscape

My learning points from Projects 1-3 are as follows:

1. Don't prejudge the format of the frame...consider the landscape carefully first...take time to consider the scene first!
2. Consider alternative approaches - worth trying both portrait and landscape if the image is a strong one.
3. UK landscape is typically flat and fits the landscape format more readily.
4. Generally sky with interest will improve a landscape image....if the sky is dull and featureless it is probably be better to keep set the horizon higher to avoid large blank areas within the frame - an exception to this is where a minimalist approach is being taken and a blank sky is consistent with the scene as a whole.
5. Look carefully within the frame - there may be a better image in there by isolating part of the frame.

Accreditation of Understanding Art:Western Art

Received my accreditation results for the Level 1 course into the History of Western Art. I passed at Level C, respectable but not outstanding - drat! Really enjoyed this course but felt pressure throughout to put pen to paper to sketch pieces for Projects and Assignments. I must admit my limited skills in this regard made me reluctant. However, when I did venture to give it a try I found that it made me look more closely at the subject. This is something I must bear in mind as I continue my studies. I have to learn to study the subject more carefully to select the best view, cropping, light etc.

It is also clear that I was marked down because I did not adequately record my learning experience. My approach to this was haphazard. I am disappointed with this as I did explore around the subject considerably - visiting exhibitions, galleries, architectural sites. I simply did not record my reactions, thoughts, influences etc well. This has to be continuously addressed throughout the course. The principle purpose of this blog is to provide a vehicle for me to keep a record of my learning experience as I go along from now on.

On the theme of art, this is a recent photograph taken in the British Museum.I like the contrast in this photograph between the dark of the background populated by tourists and the white of the subject, the statue of Venus known as Lely's Venus, named after a previous Victorian artist who once owned the statue. When I reflect on this photograph I am happy with the composition, but not with the way the content works. The angle I chose on the Venus, hides her face and there is very little interaction between the statue and the tourists. Were I to take the shot again I would have looked for a different angle and waited around longer to try to capture more interaction between subject and audience.

Technically the image was shot as a colour Raw file with my Canon 5d mk2 and converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro. I am a great fan of this software it provides lots of creative black and white treatments which emulate the way film can be processed.

Lely's Venus, British Museum London

Opening the Blog

This is the opening post of my blog. I have set up the blog to record my learning log for the courses that I am undertaking at the Open College of Arts. I am currently awaiting the results of the accreditation for my Understanding Art:Western Art course-work. In about 3 months time I plan to start the Landscape Photography module. The photograph below is I believe my best landscape photograph. I like this photograph because of the way the light reveals layers in the landscape. The autumn colours are also very strong and the cottage and road provide some added human interest. The development of my landscape photography will be the primary focus of the blog in the short term.

Langdale Pikes from above Chapel Style