Unit 2 - The externally set task
My starting point 'Street Photography'
I have chosen street photography because it seemed most appealing as the word 'street' has so many different ways of expressing the streets in photography. I have recently looked at some of Robert Frank's street photography and some of his work really stood out in the way he captured images of things you would think of to take photos of, it is unique and one of a kind photography that I don't believe could be copied in the same way when it comes to capturing street photography. I think that street photography could also link to my old work in unit 1 when I did abstraction, the streets are such a big place to explore and I think I would like to capture some of my own attempts of street photography and post them onto my unit 2 work. INITIAL PLAN: 1. Create a new board on my pinterest page with examples of street photography. 2. Create a mind map on popplet of ways of exploring street photography. 3. Post some street photography examples on my weebly e.g. information or different street photographers and upload some examples of the photography. 4. Get out there, start taking some photos and explore ways of improving your work to a better standard. |
First attempt of my pinterest.
First attempt of my popplet
Robert Frank - Street photography
Robert Frank (born November 9, 1924) is an important figure in American photography and film. Frank later expanded into film and video and experimented with this for a while.
I am inspired by Robert Frank's work on street photography as he explores different depths of it such as the picture on the left, it has a main point which is at the front of the image and then your eye is drawn also to the background of the image as you see more people disappearing and also emerging from the background of the image to the foreground. I don't plan to do much work around Robert Franks methods of street photography but I may touch on it on some of my photos. |
Street photography can be many things it is vast and very fun because its never ending. You can take anything and take a photo of it then experiment with different methods of making your work better and improving and developing your own ways to express street photography. You can take a photo of an interesting building like a really tall skyscraper or maybe even just focus on people walking along the path in a busy shopping area, street photography can be anything its what you make it to be that counts. I want to focus on my life on the streets from just walking to school everyday, anything I see that is interesting to a day of me riding my bike with friends on the street, I have no particular subject to focus on apart from the fact every photo I take will have something to do with the streets, I want to explore this subject as much as possible so bare with me as I take the streets.
Marketa Luskacova
Basic yet effective street photography! Marketa Luskacova is a Czech photographer known for her photos taken in Slovakia. She works mainly around street photography and has done some interesting and inspiring work, most of her photos if not all of them are taken in black and white, I think that this is a good idea and does bring out the photo very well but personally if I was to improve this I would maybe introduce some colours because it is then exploring different methods around her amazing street photos.
An evaluation of an image taken by Robert Frank.... I used the rule of 3 to break down the image so I can see what really has the most effect on the person viewing this great piece of work.
Links to some good photography websites that I did really like. Click on photos to direct link to their websites....
Eric Kim, an amazing street photographer who feels he can help others as well, so not by only shooting photos by himself but with a group of other people as a form of workshop. Eric Kim believes that him and this group will capture all different perspectives of street photography and will cover more ground and hopefully capture better photos. These workshops are really productive and a good way to see how others take their street photographers and not just from your own perspective, this will hopefully then give you better ideas towards the future of your street photography.
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Some basics to help you with your street photography, its a helpful video so watch it if you are truly interested in street photography. It tells you about shooting techniques and other basics to perfect your street photography.
I like this street photographer because he has shown a new way of street photography, many photographers just take photos of the streets and what they see as interesting, but this street photographer has shown meaning in his work. This photo of a homeless person would not seem as bold without the sign next to him " I can't afford to love NY " this is really clever how he has noticed this and photographed it because its obvious this person ca't afford to live so he can't love and enjoy the city when he is homeless. The photographer cas thought of this cleverly and his other photos are quite interesting also, so go check out his site by clicking on the image above.
My own street photography....
Martha Cooper- Street photography
Link to one of Martha Coopers sites is here. Click the picture to go to her site......
In a recent film "Everybody Street", Martha Cooper is just one of the street photographers in this film talking about her day to day life based around the street photography she does in New York. All the photographers in this film base their work around street photography in New York city and it's day to day life, from people rushing to work, to the amazing views of the city landscape. Below are some photos taken by Martha Cooper just walking around NYC or just on public transport, I like this photographer because in her photos there is a lot of graffiti and other appealing things that draws your eyes to the image, she also doesn't only use black and white but also uses colour which shows different methods of her photography
All day everyday is a site that talks about Martha Coopers old and new work based in different cities, this is not a page made by Martha Cooper but by a person called Maureen O'Brien who is inspired about Coopers work and decided therefore to tribute a page to her work. CLICK ON IMAGE TO GO TO THIS SITE.
More of my own street photography
Favourite image and why...
I like this image because it is simple yet effective. I think what works best in this photo is that the subject of the people at the train station had no idea I was taking this photo which makes it come across more interesting, as the person viewing this image will probably be thinking what is that kid looking at in the distance where the image is cut off? It brings a sense of wonder to the image as you look closely at the subjects and you figure out which is the main point you should be focusing on in this image. I also like this image because it works on depth of field your eyes are also drawn to the train in the corner of the image because it stands out quite clearly, the train seems to disappear the further into the distance you look, the shadows of the objects and the people also work very well in this image.
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Photo that didn't really work that well and why...
I don't think this photo worked that well because there isn't a lot going on in the photo to really stand out and look appealing so their isn't a lot to look at and make you think what is the meaning of this photo. I also don't like the fact that half of the image is taken out by the seat, I did this on purpose but it didn't go the way I wanted it to. I think if I was to go back and do this image again i would try capture more people doing stuff on the train and get the whole image in it this time instead of taken out by a seat.
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Martha cooper Soweto to Sowebo
Soweto is a big city on the outskirts of Johannesburg, while Sowebo is a small neighbourhood in downtown Baltimore. Since 2006 Martha Cooper had been taking and documenting photos she had taken in the streets of Sowebo, when she went on a trip to Soweto she realised their were more similarities then just the names. The street life in both of these places were practically the same but different in so many ways. Sowebo is known for its crime and drugs on the street, it is a small neighbourhood and in high poverty there. Soweto and Sowebo both share a huge part in history, they both took part in a massive uprising for racial equality after the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. Today both Soweto and Sowebo are still struggling for decent housing and jobs, however they work around what they have and still manage to pull together in their towns in this struggle, neighbours having bbq's and children playing with toys that don't require batteries, day to day life in the streets of these towns are very similar so Martha Cooper thought she would show everyone else the comparicent between the two places.
More of my own street photography attempts
Photographer: Nacho Ormaechea
Look on here for more photos and information on not just Ormaechea but also other interesting photographers. http://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/street-photography/
Some of Ormaechea's work...
Ormaechea Silhouettes that open visual portals, these work really well and I would like to maybe touch upon this effect within one of my final pieces. I want to try mix two of my images together and collaborate them as one initial final piece. The way Ormaechea uses this in his work is amazing it makes you look deeper into the image therefore he knows more people are interested in the image and are staring deep into his work.
Final piece 1
I like this final piece probably the best out of the two final pieces. I realised in this photo that I took at a train station that the boy was just staring off into the distance this brings a certain aspect of wonder, wondering what is so intriguing that he has to look off and stare into the distance. I also liked the two images that are on parts of his clothing. On his jumper I decided to put the graffiti photo on there, I think it goes well because it really stands out especially on the black and white background. The photo of the bird on his trousers I feel also worked really well in this, The bird I captured taking flight in that photo looked really cool and I like the way I could capture that and it actually goes really well on the trouser design. I used photoshop to merge these images together, I think it was the best app for it and using the tools such as the brush I managed to erase the parts of the images I didn't want on his clothing so it goes with the perfect outline of his actual clothes. I really like this photo because it contrasts all the colours to make something beautiful that simply just stands out.
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Final piece 2
I like this image also, I saw these two staff members at the train station walking away from me and I thought this would be a perfect moment to capture the uniform and them not know I was taking the photo. I used two landscape photos that I had just taken on my mobile device and put them as the two member of staffs uniforms. On the right (closest to the train) I changed the mans uniform into a picture I had taken of this beautiful pond I had seen when travelling near some woods, I noticed that this pond wouldn't stand out by itself if it wasn't for the plants and flowers surrounding it, therefore I took the picture and put it onto the mans uniform. On the left (furthest from the train) I decided to change this mans uniform into a picture I took of the flowers and landscape that I saw when riding my bike, I saw the amazing landscape and stopped to take the picture, I like the picture because once again the amazing landscape would not be as beautiful as it is without the flowers, so I decided to make that picture into the seconds staff members uniform. I used photoshop to merge these images together, I think it was the best app for it and using the tools such as the brush i managed to erase the parts of the images I didn't want on their clothing.
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