Tuesday 28 July 2009

Week 8: Relationships.

Relationships, no matter what type, effect our day to day lives and routines, and this blog is part of my day to day life. I have some great relationships with friends, and some great relationships with family members, I have met some people who have affected me in unique ways, both positive and negative. I wish to show more affection in the future, for those that are close to me I want to get to know you more. For those that are not so close, I want to do the same. This week, has made me realise how much I appreciate certain individuals and I would like to proclaim my respect for them.

Thank you.
Daniel.



This photograph is how those individual people make me feel.

Song listening to right now: Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

Wednesday 22 July 2009

Week 7: Perception.

My perception has really been blurred this week, probably because I've spent a lot of it sat in my room doing nothing. I've been outside for a little bit of it though, which is good, but my motivation has pretty much hit an all time low right now, I don't even know why.

Thanks again

Daniel.





Taken to contrast ideas on perception and also culture, this picture relates to the difference between industry and culture on the same street.


Song listening to right now: Baz Lurhmann - Everbody's free (to wear sunscreen)

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Week 6: Engagement.

So these past seven days have had they're ups and downs. I don't really know where to start, so how about I just confirm for you that, it has involved a number of things relating to music in a positive and a negative sense. So most of my life I have been studying music, and pretty much all of my life I have been listening to it just like everybody else. I have a passion for it, and that will probably stay true throughout my life. By stating this, I do not single myself out from anyone, there are millions of more experienced musicians than me in this world and this is to applaud them.

In my eyes (and ears) music is a language, as is photography. A format of communication that is universal throughout, or is it? This is a tough question and is answered simply by perception and process. We are brought up by our culture and kin, we know what is right and what is wrong according to the world we have grown up in. People grow up differently and have different cultural ideals, it is this built-in code that changes the rules of engagement and may or not be perceived as universal. The languages of Music and Photography are similar in this way. For example, in this stock photograph of a Cambodian woman (http://blungerhog.typepad.com/photos/michaela_cambodia/med_112350145329.jpg) most people from Britain's mainstream culture are aware that this is a woman begging and obviously living in poverty. What the majority of viewers won't know is that the scarf she is wearing on her head is a symbolic indicator that shows she is a member of the communist regime that still controls parts of rural Cambodia, and will stop her from getting shot in most places. It is this knowledge that acts as a "code" that separates photography from the universal.

This is also similar with music. We are brought up listening to what our culture provides us and we have a mixed opinion on what seems foreign to us and vice versa. This is the main thought that goes behind the reason I entered the world of Music Photography.

D




In this photograph I have captured the Bass guitarist of one of Reading's larger local bands. I have tried my hardest to snap him with an expression and position that best communicates his personality and music style. The engagement of the eyes and the detail in clothing and the instrument are symbolic indicators of his music style and personality in much the same way the scarf was an indicator of the old Cambodian woman's survival. World's apart but still trying they're best to communicate through symbolism.

Song listening to right now: Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien

Tuesday 7 July 2009

Week 5: A touch of Fashion.

This week I have been watching quite a few old Hepburn films on the internet, including one of my favorite films of all time My Fair Lady. When George Bernard Shaw wrote the play Pygmalion (which MFL is based around) in 1913, he loosely stole this idea of mixed fashions and etiquette on the original Greek Myth of Pygmalion. The Pygmalion idea has been spread out through a number of different cultural references we are familiar with today such as Pinocchio and in the last scene of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Throughout the middle ages Pygmalion was the pinnacle of idolatry, a pure of example of what the different classes should look up to. This is the core reason why My Fair Lady is my immediate favourite film of all time, it sublimely shows, in an intrinsic light, the way in which we have to try and change ourselves to suit society.

Daniel.



So, this photograph of Leanne Briggs is my own "Pygmalion". I have made her into a woman of high status and class, dressing her in such a way, but I have purposely left remnants of her real attitude towards social class. This has been executed by her "showing some leg", the label still showing just above the heel and especially the contrasting background she is set in (this imitates the metaphorical background that is set in her genuine attitude towards the higher status).

Though I state all of this, Leanne is actually a very down to earth friend of mine, and any imposed social classes I just mentioned are not in any way related to her actual views on society and are merely my description of what I was trying to portray. Centuries of Idolatry in my own portrayal of society.

Song listening to right now: Steve Hackett - Horizons