Composition and Light- Home Exercise

Shallow Depth of Field

Texture

Space

Color

Frame

Lighting

Andreas Gursky- Five Photographs

The Genius of Photography: Snap Judgements

• How many photographs are taken in a year?

As the documentary explained, 80 billion photographs are taken in a year, however, this figure exponentially increases from one year to the other.

• How does Gregory Crewdson work?

Crewdson's work varies completely to main stream photography, as he aims to photograph staged locations. With the aid of a film production crew, he manages to set up a whole area, whether a street or neighbourhood, to suit the elements of his photo. Cinematographic lighting is also used at the scene to enhance the overall sense Crewdson wants to portray through his lens; a camera lens which is not even operated by himself, however, a professional photographer.

• Which prints commands the highest price and what are they called?

First copy prints which include either the original photograph or some of the first few prints are classified as the most expensive and they are called 'Fine Wines'.

• How many photographs does Andreas Gursky produce and what size are they?

Gursky is another unique photographer, who limits the production of his images to six copies. There are two main reasons behind this, first being the fact that each photograph is printed on a large scale (meters by meters) and secondly because this would inflate the price of each photograph.

• How are Seydou Keita's photographs different to mainstream African photos?

Keita's photograph are all taken inside his own personal studio, in contrast to other African photographs that are taken outside, whether to show the marvellous landscape or the devastating conditions of the people. However, what really differentiates them is the fact that he includes many crops, including cars, bikes, dresses, gowns etc, which are used by the figures in his photograph in order to set a sense of social ranking. Africans who usually attended Keita's studio were mainly middle class people, therefore by adding a car in the background, it was an entity used to convey wealthiness; a contrast to the sad truth of their daily lives.

Impossible Photography

Pre- Photoshop

Post- Photoshop

The Genious of Photography- William Klein

"I thought New York had it coming, that it needed a kick in the balls. When I returned to New York, I wanted to get even. Now I had a weapon, photography." William Klein is an American Photographer that was born in New York City  in 1928. Post World War ||, Klein moved to Paris, France in 1949, to pursue a degree in painting. It was five years later, 1954, when he decided to head back to New York for a visit. During that visit, Klein had established a new hobby, career and future; it was photography. Two years after residing in New York and photographing the streets of the city, he published his first photo book which he named: 'Life is Good and Good for You in New York'. This photo book is said to be one of the most 'influential' of its kind, simply due to its unique perspective on the wild streets of New York at the time. "Everything turned into a show in front of his lens," Klein's camera lens was different to others, because each photograph it took was mixed with diverse perspectives; the European and the American. This had a great influence on Kleins New York photographs, as he managed to get his subjects to either smile, laugh, dance, pull angry gestures and facial expressions which added a sense of unbalance to the image, yet made it quietly brilliant. He also captured photographs of people 'pretending' to shoot each other, and this showed a different side to the rough streets of New York. One famous photograph of his revolves around two young boys, one who aims a gun towards the lens, and the other who stands staring at his friend. The photographs meaning is deep because of two main factors. Firstly, the gun pointed towards the camera lens is in fact out of focus simply due to its extravagant close range and secondly the contrast between the ' angry' looking boy holding the gun and his friend who looks calm and polite. Personally, William Klein portrayed the people of New York brilliantly within his photo album, because he was capable of maintaining simplicity within his images, in addition to that odd factor found in each image, which gives a Klein uniqueness.

Composition and Lighting Exercise

Fluorescent Light

Natural Light (Cloudy)

Tungsten Light

Pattern

Perspective

Color

Shallow Depth of Field

Lift-Marc Isaacs

Lift is a 24 minute documentary, filmed and directed by Marc Isaacs. This personal project revolves around Isaacs and his one-on-one daily interactions with the residents of a tower block in London. Isaacs duty was to simply stand for ten hours in the elevator with his camera and wait for that perfect moment of footage. At the beginning of the documentary, it seemed to be that the residents were not very fond of a camera being in their elevator for most of the day; it was more of a constraint and obstacle to their personal lives. However, as the documentary progresses, we are shown how Isaacs relationship with the residents exponentially grows as well. At the start, there was a guy who prevented Isaacs from entering the elevator, however, later in the documentary he begins speaking to Isaacs and interacting with him in a friendly manner. As time passed by, Marc managed to build a solid relationship with all the residents of the tower block, he simply asked questions and they replied. His questions began with basic ones such as, "What was your last nights dream?", but later on they became much more specific and personal. Hence, the residents were sharing private matters with Isaacs camera and that was only possible due to a shared circle of trust between both sides. What made this documentary unique was the fact that it included residents from different nationalities, religions and ethnic groups, this made it a diverse piece of work which showed different peoples perspectives in life.