This background text comes from the BNF ( British national formulary) – a dictionary of medications and I chose to use the page on lithium as its a drug I have to take. I printed on top of this a photograph of a skip with no fires printed on it which was lying among some pink carnations growing around it. In the same way that the surrealists use text e.g. ripping up and rearranging text ( David Bowie) a seemingly random collision of flowers/fires and text from the BNF can be connected together to produce something meaningful.

Would this work have been as effective if the camera’s view point had changed with each shot?

No this would not have been as effective, the camera’s view point allows the sequence to be read and understood quickly and easily.

What encapsulates this sequence giving it organic unity? The timed shots, the grid presentation, the similarity between shots?

I think that the position of each shot because the camera hasn’t moved creates a sense of unity which is increased by the use of the grid.

How do you read the sequence? from left to right like a text?

I read the sequence from left to right just like a text.

Do you notice your responses changing through each shot?

Yes there is question posed in the second shot as to why the man has left the tent followed by a shock of the explosion in the third and relief in the 4th that the man hasn’t been harmed. following this there remains the question of why this has happened.

How do you interpret the work? Is it what you see or a metaphor?

As a metaphor it could be interpreted that man produces explosions- carbon causing global warming ?

Research –

A series- is a group of images of the same kind related to each other e.g Bechers photographs of grain silos

A sequence- stresses within a group of images a continuity in time or thought e.g Muybridge animals running

Cohesion- a body of work can be said to be formed if the images show cohesion

Muybridge: photographed horses in motion to settle the dispute of whether all 4 legs ;eave the ground together. What he produced and other images of animals and people was the beginnings of cinema.

Duane Michaels: surrealist. “Things are queer” – photo series of bathroom , miniature and in a picture within a book. Also women in a mirror, Andy Warhol’s head and two men in an alley.

John Hilliard; the camera recording its own condition.

Ed Ruscha – 25 foot concertina phonebook of 1 .5 mile sunset strip

Nicholas Nixon- the Brown sisters. Took photograph of hi wife and three sisters every year for 40 years.

Upon finding a packet of weeds that in my childhood were called opal fruits I decided to have a playful time exploring a sequence with building a tower of these sweets.

This tower block game reminded me of doing this test with 2 year old children when you would be testing their development by seeing how many cubes they are able to balance. Because of the retro feel of this project I converted 1 series to black and white and with the other I tweaked the colours using curves to get that feeling.

I could have been more accurate with the composition if I had used a tripod and perhaps had a central point on the wall to centre up with the camera’s centre of the lens.The lighting was afternoon and quite bright at this time and I could have experimented with different lighting conditions. I may try this using a light box – see and a tripod as this would increase the clarity and give a more overhead light rather than light coming from the side.

I spent the day with OCA East at Aldeburgh and decided to use my time working on the latest brief- for narrative photography. Initially I just followed the rain and took pics of manhole covers revealing the water and debris beneath. Aldeburgh is a pretty seaside town but just like any others it still needs sewage and still has rubbish. Having spent time looking at the ground I walked along the raised periphery- the edge between the pavement and the seaside and took photographs of items that interested me on the way. I finally came across collections of fisherman’s line, thin, holding water droplets and of differing colours. I took a series of photographs of these which along with the other series are shown below.One could say that I made a journey along the edge of town: from the familiar ubiquitous gutters of a town through border of beach and roadside to the beauty of the Fishermans nets – some looking almost like stars.

The weather. was challenging – mostly drizzly or overcast and I used a 50mm lens with a wide aperture to try and capture most of the light.I altered a couple of the fisherman’s nets in post production-increased the contrast which highlighted the droplets of rain.

I chose to make a contact sheet for exercise 3.1 : searching of photographs at the boundary/edge between the road and the beach.I chose to make two contact sheets for series, exercise 3.2 – one of the drain covers and one of the Fishermans nets.

What I could have improved-I could have been more careful with the framing and sizing of the drain covers. Using a tripod would have helped as this would have maintained consistency.

References- http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/atlas

Michael Wolf’s My favourite things

I lwanted to take pictures too without people but that show traces of them. The fishing industry is dying in Aldeburgh and the nets I found were mainly in boats that no longer go out to sea and have been repainted on the outside :because they look quaint for the tourists, but inside the boats contain nets as well as old bits of rubbish.

continuous line drawing

Selected individual photos

These pictures were taken at either 8 in the evening or 5 in the morning.

I used an I phone torch and as it did bleed around the edges in some of the pictures it appears to be almost daylight . Because of this I partially covered the torch and directed it in a more focused way to get the effect of the later photographs. The settings I used initially ( at 8 in the evening) were ISO 800, 25 mm, f22 30 seconds whereas at 5 am It was ISO 800 25mm f5 1/20 sec. The first 2 photographs below were taken at with the wider f5 aperture, the others with the f22.

I decided for this assignment that I wanted to paint with light using a statue as my model. This was because this particular statue stands within the nursery I am exploring and also I wanted to simplify the assignment as it involved multiple elements that I had not tried before. The benefits of a statue despite its stillness are that I could play with the light over a completely white surface, almost like a nude. I would like to try this with a nude model at some stage.

contact sheets:

Following my assignment feedback I need to do more work on this assignment. Firstly my tutor suggested some references and I have also found some others.

Man Ray

Anne Brigman

According to tutor I need to reflect upon he outcome of my work and consider how to improve it. Approach each shoot as a step in the right direction rather than the destination.

How to improve the shots I have taken- use a torch not a phone torch to get a more accurate painting with light on the subject. Try the same assignment but with a live model and can then try effects of model holding lights and moving them e.g. writing like in the Man Ray Picasso and Matisse photographs.

1. This photograph consists of a group portrait- there are 4 figures in the foreground and 3 in the mid ground. They are located in what seems to be a caravan park – the foreground figures are situated on the grass, the mid ground are on the steps leading down from the mobile home. The women who are dressed in brightly coloured Indian clothing are deep in conversation which looks serious from their facial expressions.The posture of the 4 figures suggests listening whilst the 3 others suggests watching the other 4.

2. I associate the clothing with that worn by Asian women- perhaps from India,Sri Lanka or Thailand. Its then easy to assume that the woman are Asian but on closer inspection they are Caucasian.

3. The women appear wealthy – because of their gold Jewellry where the setting appears to be a mobile home park which is a type of housing associated with poorer residents.

4. The picture appears posed because of the composition of the 2 groups of women. the foreground women are arranged in a triangle around the rule of thirds and this triangle is repeated in the figures further back.

5. the title suggests that the picture is posed and that the women are dressed to appear exotic.