Monday 31 May 2010

Week 51: Constructing the image III.

Still focusing on the same concept of construction, I have explored different events including different members of society. The environment of these subjects has to suit otherwise the relation between audience, photograph and subject would be invalid. This week has lead to a development in the project where I have been traveling to people's comfortable settings and analyzing relationships between individuals.

This construction of images lends itself to my scientific argument that I have so recently written an essay about. Relationships between people and objects are key to understanding and interpreting the photograph.

Human emotions, memory and imagination are as real as the books right in front of me. However, they are illusive and trick your brain into thinking they don’t physically exist, but in fact they are reacting to this text and traveling around your body right now. They can be both physically and chemically suppressed or encouraged. There is no magical phenomenon behind it. There is a fine-tuned chemical reaction within our hormones that makes us aesthetically attracted to another human being (it is built up of years of selection and rejection), just as there is one for when we are aesthetically attracted to a photograph. This is the aesthetic relationship between art and science.

Thank you for reading this week.
Dan.



I would like to thank Penny for letting me borrow her family and home for an afternoon last week. It was an inspiring shoot and put my faith back into the idea of family. It took a while before I could decide what situation the snapshot would include, I first intended to have a photograph of the boy (Sam) on the horse. Fate stepped in and bucked him off, so that was obviously a bad omen. I'm slightly frustrated at myself for not snapping the moment he was flung into the air, but I would have felt bad had he been seriously hurt. I then took a 5x4 of Sam washing one of the ponies to correlate with a photograph of my Father washing his motorcycle in the 1970s. However, this didn't work quite as well as the simple snapshot of just him, the horse and the house. It was simple and looked just like any other snapshot you would see in a family album, working well with the picnic photographs featured before. I am still keeping the irony of the snapshot behind these photographs. Of course, they are still being shot on large format to give that hint of construction within them.

Song listening to right now: Hey Good Lookin' - Hank Williams

Monday 24 May 2010

Week 50: Constructing the image II.

In the wake of last week, I have determined the route I want my current photographs to travel down. I asked myself, what constitutes a snapshot? Spontaneity? Nostalgia? These two things are related to the snapshot but I hadn't thought about it properly. The production of the snapshot is instant but the result is consequently Nostalgic. Human mannerisms come and go, but they are what keep familiarity within portraits.

Thankyou.
D.



This is the first time I have posted a variation of the previous week and it probably won't be the last. I think that I prefer this photograph to the last photograph. It is a reminder of the true image, and truth provokes thought. The cognitive reception of my photographs is the most important part of constructing them in the first place.

Song listening to right now: Onions - John Lee Hooker

Monday 17 May 2010

Week 49: Constructing the image.

This week has been full of images that I will remember for the rest of my life. Moment's I feel that I should record within my mind. They are snapshots of nostalgia that I hope will stick in my memory for as long as possible. In photography, a snapshot is a spontaneous image that is used to capture an instantaneous moment. Coincidentally this comes into relevance with the project I am now working on.

Thank you for your interest.
Dan.



I have been analysing categories of snapshots from different situations, events and general socialising. It has come to my attention that there isn't a specific type of snapshot. People feel the need to photograph their friends and family in completely different positions and poses. Gazes stray and stare. Attention to the camera is sometimes inappropriate but other times it is paramount to the candid bite. The set of images in this project are completely constructed to look like snapshot photographs. Everything in the photograph is placed and positioned. The picture aims to be subtley ironic. Although it appears to be a happy shot at a picnic, it is completely superficial. The snapshot does not exist.

This was taken on 5x4 colour neg with a field Wista so the sheet of film is precious. It takes a lot more time and precision to take a photograph than digital photography, so once again; the snapshot does not exist. To add to the pragmatics of the image, I intended to keep a subtle indication of the 5x4 camera, and include slight movements of the bellows. In whole, my aim is create images through realism and it's aesthetic values.


Song listening to right now: You Really Got Me - The Kinks

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Week 48: Flesh.

After seeing Rineke Dijkstra, August Sander and Thomas Streuth's work in the flesh, I was drawn into a sense of direction concerning my work. Viewing a digital image is a completely different visual activity compared to seeing the actual print. I didn't really think about it whilst I was there but the after affect was brilliant. To see Dijkstra's prints of the Mother's after childbirth with so much detail was truly awesome, there was so much that I hadn't noticed before. For example, two out of three of the women were wearing wedding rings. This was quite a significant indicator since during labour the wedding ring is normally removed and kept off for at least a few hours after. So the middle photograph [http://www.heyhotshot.com/blog/blogimages/qa_with_hot_shot_cara_phillips/dijkstra.jpg] made me think; was she single? Or was it directly after the birth (you can see the trickle of blood, without any padding or aftermath pants like the first mother) [http://www.hildebrand.me/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Dijkstra_New_Mothers.jpg]. There are many other possibilities that aren't indicated through a picture, but it is an action of viewing the original print that triggers our imagination the most.



Once again, this is a filmic self portrait, very much inspired by Sherman. It is a constructed piece that contains signifiers that your eyes may just pass over at first glance. However, now that I have mentioned this, you will seek to notice. This is where text can be paramount to seeing the actual print. 5x4 transparancy also helps by expanding the amount of light that hits the film and enhancing details.

Song listening to right now: Do It All Over - Cocoa Tea

Thursday 6 May 2010

Week 47: Direction

I haven't really looked at architectural photography for a few years now, it's not what I enjoy. However, over the past few days I have been thinking about maybe changing my direction in the industry or at least expanding it a bit more. I may have to give up what I enjoy to make it in the industry. I am determined to get to where I want to and I'm not afraid to work hard at it. I will strive through difficult, frustrating and mundane tasks for years to actually get somewhere in the end.

Thanks for reading.
Daniel.



This was captured in Nice back in 2008. So it's not a recent photograph but it has a very relevant point. I have been waiting for something to come into view, to change the direction of my lifestyle and it has finally started to look up. The photograph does it's best to represent it.

Song listening to right now: Lies - The Junglists

Saturday 1 May 2010

Week 46: Replacement.

I have become pretty jealous of my parent's lifestyle during the years before I was born. To travel the world and earn a living whilst doing it would be ideal for my mindset. Images are a reflection on times that may or may not have been better. Nostalgia is therefore a powerful tool when you are wielding a camera. This week I have been looking at the representation and the reinterpretation of images.

Thanks again.
Dan.



I fully intended to keep the situation the same, but the mannerisms had to be my own. These photographs weren't posed as such, just so I could just handle the situation in my own way. Everything else in the photograph had to be constructed to replicate the situation my Father was in.

Recently, we had a guest lecture with Tom Hunter which, at first, I was a bit skeptical about. Turns out, I really enjoy his images now. I knew that they were modernized versions of some of my favourite paintings, and at first I thought he had done a terrible job of it. What I did not realize was that they were concerning stories that were local to him and he had a personal connection to his art. However, I do not wish to remake an image in my own style, I intend to replace the individual but keep the situation the same.

Song listening to right now: Seasons of Man - Yes