ENVIRONMENT: City Concept Ideas and Visual References

At the beginning of this project I asked myself; What makes a city? It's buildings, it's architecture, it's sights.
When people visit cities, they go to see it's sights. People travel to New York to see the Empire State and Paris for the Eiffel Tower. So, I thought regardless of what city I go to, to take photos, I want to take photos of the buildings that make up the city. And maybe the sights people go to see. 

I have been looking at lots of photographers for this project in order to gain some more inspiration for my concept. A lot of which we were shown in a recent lecture. Photographers like;

Alvin Langdon Coburnn.

Alfred Stieglitz.

I have also been really interested in Charles Marville's photography. I like the contrast in his photos, for  some reason I think the print of his photos have a strong atmosphere of the city. 

Deconstructing Environmental Photographers: Flatiron Building

The Flatiron Building, in New York has a strong architectural history and because of this the photos people have taken of it over the years express a lot of emotion and respect. When the building was first built it was one of the tallest buildings in New York. The following images were all captured in the space of 50 years, between 1903 and 1938. Most, if not all of these particular recordings of The Flatiron Building show it as a grand, overpowering spectacle, focusing on the photo taken by Walter Gropius in 1928 anyone can see how impressive he has made the building look. He has positioned the camera in such a place that shows the building imposing down onto the city below. The camera position could be seen as either a positive or negative representation of the building, but I feel that as the building is framed by the white out sky and the angle at which it has been shot shows Gropius's positive reaction to the noble building. 
The photograph taken by Edward Steichen in 1905 shows a very opposite regard for the building, I feel. He has engrossed the building within the silhouetted branches of the surrounding trees. This creates a negative atmosphere to the photograph and looks as though he is trying to cover the building. I think that Steichen was frustrated by the building and how imposing it was.
The way Walker Evans has shot his photograph of the Flatiron Building is at a very interesting angle, framing the building within the walls of others. The three photos taken by Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans and Walter Gropius a similar in the way that they show the sky with little importance as it as no detail in it, I think this shows the positive responses these three photographers have towards the Flatiron Building.
The last two images created by Alfred Stieglitz and Alvin Langdon Coburn both frames the building within trees; the photograph by Alfred Stieglitz looks as though it has been taken on a winter morning and although the building is in the background that fact the trees and branches are dulled out by the snow and frost means that looking beyond them is easy, showing their insignificance and allows one to focus on the detail of the building. Coburn's photo looks as though it has been shot in a similar position in the city to Steichen's picture, this photo has a lot more context to it and shows how the city works around the building. The images has a lot on contrast in it a like to the image Evans took and the complete opposite of how Gropius for example has styled his photo. Berenice Abbott's photo is the most emotionally detached for me, it is a document of the building rather than the artists expressed opinion of the building.
I have found from studying these six images that there has obviously been a wide range of responses to the building. When something so influential on the Manhattan skyline is built there is bound to be some division in opinions. These photos show this well, from where the photographer has positioned their camera to the lighting conditions, everything the photographer has chosen to do in order to create their image reflects a strong sense of purpose and emotion behind each photograph.



Edward Steichen, The Flatiron 1905


Alfred Stieglitz, The Flatiron 1903



Alvin Langdon Coburn, The Flatiron Building 1911



Walter Gropius, The Flatiron Building 1928





Walker Evans, Flatiron Building seen from bellow 1928



Berenice Abbott, The Flatiron Building 1938

BODY: Visual Research

I have looked at lots of photographers for during the research for visual referencing for my body project. 


HENDRICK KRESTENS

The reason I like Kresten as a visual reference is not only because of the personal connection he has with the sitter but the incredible connection he has created between us the audience and his daughter. The focus in his photos are wonderful and I aspire to be able to create the same intense connection in my photos.


I have also been looking at Toby Glanville and in particular one of his series called Actual Life. Looking through these images I could automatically sense the realism of them, and how simply 'true' they were to the people in them. 

TOBY GLANVILLE

 

Begdebury, 2000

BODY: Concept

I have been really excited about this project, and with ideas about my concept, as the area of photography that interests me most is portraiture, beauty photography etc. 
My idea for this project is focused upon the idea of how personal portraits actually are, and whether a photo taken by one person of another can ever be an true and accurate representation this person in the photograph. 


My thought is to take myself as the photographer out of the equation and act just as the person taking the photo, I want to have as little input into the composition, directing etc as possible and ask the sitter to take charge and show me how they want to be represented. 
Another aspect to my concept is the idea of each person having two parts to them; One, the person they see themselves as and Two, the person they think other people see them as, and the idea that these two 'people' and personalities making up one person.

Critical Appraisal: ENVIRONMENT

My idea for this projects stemmed from my love of history. I wanted to take the chance to try and capture the feeling I get when I visit historical places, when I sit in the grounds of Rochester castle or walk around the Cathedral.. I think it is really important to not forgot the way our world was before our generations and that even though the cities and towns of our country are always changing it is important to keep what was here before. For this project I really wanted to share how captivating the history of something is, and I couldn't think of a better way than to take my photos at Rochester castle. 
For this project I looked at a painter called Susan Brown, I found it hard to find an artist that had a strong relation to my concept, I think because it is so personal to me. However, Susan Brown's work addressed the same ideas that I had for my concept. Her work placed buildings of history within our modern world, keeping them strong and making that connection with my concept gave me inspiration with how to style my photos.
The photo shoot for this project went well, I enjoyed going out into Rochester and finding the places that I feel the greatest sense of history! However when it came to printing my images, I had a few issues to overcome. My negatives were over exposed and therefore hard to print, I really like my final images but I am very aware that they are not to the highest standard, but feel that nevertheless, my concept has been reached by the images themselves, regardless of the end print quality.  
The aspect I found most difficult about this unit, was finding visual references. I found that with a concept that was so personal, it was difficult to find a painter, photographer, sculpture etc that made a real connection with my intended work. One artist I came across, Justine Reyes, through my research really inspired my shoots though and found her work really interesting. 

Critical Appraisal: OBJECT

My Grandparents have had a very large influence on my upbringing and I therefore have a great amount of respect for them and anyone of their generation. When we were briefed for this project my initial thought was to focus my project around ageism, in particular the stereotypes and prejudices people have against the older generations.
I had thought from the beginning that I wanted my project to have a strong connection to symbolism and take inspiration from the symbolism in still life paintings. This is how I thought it best to express my thoughts, emotions and response to this issue.
I looked at the works of painters such as Hans Holbein, I draw a lot  of inspiration from his work due to his works' strong connection to symbolism, which is what I wanted my project to be focused on. I also looked at the photographer Justine Reyes, her still life imagery was both aesthetically pleasing and symbolic which gave me a lot of food for thought. 
When it came around to think about what objects should best represent the prejudices related to ageism, I thought that using an egg or a group of eggs seemed most accurate as for me they symbolise new borns, the younger generations and innocence.
My idea for cracking the egg was to make a point from the prejudice view, as though the elder generation were now a broken youth. The statement I was trying to make was that young generations can be just as broken as the older generations and that vice versa, the older generation can still crave the level of activity and engagement that the young do.
I really like my idea, and think that my concept reached the points I was trying to comment on well, but looking back felt that it could have been greatly evolved. I think that the final picture without any context isn't 'obvious' enough, and in this situation maybe it needed to be. 
The photo shoot for this project was my most stressful of all the ones I have had to do for these projects. I wasn't confident enough with the camera, and I definitely wasn't organised enough! However, I think that from this bad came good, because I will now be completely organised for every photo shoot I do. 
I liked my concept for this project as it was very personal to me and meant a lot to be able to comment on this issue, I have also learnt a lot about the expectations of a photo shoot, especially when you are organizing it yourself. 

OBJECT: Final Image

This is my final image from my object shoot. As  I said in a previous post, this shoot was quite overwhelming for me and I was very worried that the printing would be even worse. However, I enjoyed printing this photo, and I like the final image. It differs a lot from my original expectations for  the project, but I think that that is a good thing for my progress.