Documentaries

There are lots of documentaries on television at the moment of families looking into their past and finding out what happened with them and what did they do. I think this makes a really nice link with my work as I am looking at what happened and how society has changed it.

There is also a website which you can type your family name and it comes up with your family tree which was advertised on television to.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13142174

This link here is a video on the bbc news website talking about finding your past family and what has changed since then with Davina Mcall.

Final Piece/Evaluation

My final piece has been inspired by Joseph Cornell who has been the context and back base of this exam for me. I wanted to re-create his memory box (picture below) with all kinds of memories resembling me. This box would be filled with memories of my past family, images I have taken from this exam such as what I have re-created but also to have myself in their and memories of myself.

Things I would put in their from myself would be pictures from holidays/places or from my cousins wedding in 2003 when I was a bridesmaid.

These are my images I took. I did one in colour and one in black and white.

When taking this final shoot I experimented massively. I tried out the box in a studio with a black background and lamps but it was quite hard to make it look perfect as where ever the lamp went parts of the box look to over exposed and bright. I then eventually tried out a main lamp over the whole thing and used a colour and black and white dynamic effect on my camera. I also experimented with the ISO. I put it up to 1200 but I wanted the picture sharp and effective so I kept the ISO at about 400/800.

I am really pleased with these photos as this is something completely different to what I usually do. I like how I experimented not with just memories as I looked at landscapes and documentary to. If I had more time I would like to further develop this and go way back into family history to see what my family was like and how I could make into an art. These final images I want to blow up on glossy paper (size A3) and maybe put onto a thick canvas or put in a frame.

My memory box

This is a picture of my memory box. You can see the difference of mine from Jospeh Cornells one and the one I will be creating as mine is much more modern. I have always collected my memories such as pictures or gifts what have meant something to me so I can look back on in the future. That's why I am really interested on this subject matter for my exam as it means a lot to me but also is very different to what I usually do.

Urban inspiration

As I am doing a shoot of what my grandpas shop now looks like on Gloucester road, the new shop which has been replaced is much more urban by the colours such as  red yellow and green also with graffiti around it which is in contrast my grandpas shop.

This next link is some inspiration from Scott graphics which has some urban photos of graffiti. I really liked them because their quite quirky and different. The colours stand out really well but also the photography has added human form to the concept of making movements naturally like the graffiti it's self. A slow shutter speed would have been used here to show the concept of his movement and to show his difference against the graffiti.

http://www.inspiration.scottphotographics.com/graffiti-photography/

Joseph Cornell 5 (with urban inspiration)

These photos were taken at Gloucester Road to show what my grandpas shop is now like. It is much more urban style to what it used to be like and I thought I got some nice shots. I tried out a black and white mode with an ISO of around 2000 to see if I could get an old-fashioned effect to represent what it used to be like. Picture number 3 i really like as I used the rule of thirds with the garage and shop which I think came out quite effectively and unique.

Peter Jung

Peter Jung has been a professional photographer for over 20 years, starting as a freelance photojournalist. He has focussed recently on portait and wedding photography. His photos can focus on colour photography or black and white in the woods or at the sea side so he covers a range of parts.

I chose this photograph to look at as it's more the style I am going for. I decided to do a shoot on a family walk where my family always goes as it means something to me. As the weather we expecting is meant to be really sunny I could use a higher ISO to get a possible grainy effect but I would like to do it in black and white as I could get some nice shadowed effects from the trees highlighting the dark and lighter parts of the countryside.

This photo seems to have been taken underneath the tree in the shade as part of the photo is exposed a bit to much and I think a ISO about 1200 might have been used as it's not 100% sharp but still majority is clear.

Peter Jung and Joseph Cornell

This shoot was a landscape shoot at the woods where my family always go for walks. I was really lucky as it was extremely sunny so using the black and white effect was great. I used black and white (dynamic) mode on my camera with my ISO about 1200. I focussed mainly on angles and lighting trying to find the best effect as I loved standing underneath the trees to get the shadows of the trees standing out completely agaisnt the landscape behind it being really sunny.

Photoshop

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This is one of my favourite images I have ever done and really pleased with how this came out. This was an old photo of mine of my past family and I re-created it by still keeping the old family in but with my new family photoshopping them in. Once I layed them on with the cut out monolaser tool I had to dodge and burn the photo, even though the photo I took was with an ISO of 6400 on the left the people I cut onto the photo still seemed quite sharp so I had to dodge and burn them out so they looked naturally part of the picture compared to the other people.

The Notebook

The Notebook is one of my favourite films and I watched it the other day and thought how it would be great for inspiration for my documentary shoot on my grandparents from the love letter.
The notebook is all about a man and woman who fall in love in the 1920s/30s and how they have developed together throughout to the years until old age which was what the context of my shoot will be about.



Toby Deveson

Toby Deveson has been taking photographs since 1989 and is a black and white photographer who studies landscape and documentary. He also uses the dark room for his edits which would be good to use as I haven't used the dark room yet during my exam topic and it also shows elderly times in photography. His photos also seem to have a grainy/film effect to them which will reflect my ones of my grandparents as I wanted to show elderly age but also a modern way of having the photos crisp and in focus.

This photo doesn't reflect what I want to do in the shoot but I think this photographer/picture reflects good inspiration and has aspects that I want to get from it such as the black and white or the ISO part.

I love the way this photo is so nautural with the children to the right and the man on the bike on the left riding. It shows different personalities of people and what people do everyday. I think the ISO been used would have been about 1200 to keep it sharp and focussed but to show that it is an older picture.

Joseph Cornell 3 (&Toby Deveson)

This shoot is to with old and new. I have a picture of my family from about 80 years ago with everybody outside their house and I wanted to re-create that with modern day with my modern family. My shoot consisted of making sure the aperture was correct as it was outside. I also then tried out using black and white with an ISO about 6400 which gave it a grainy effect like the oldfashioned picture.
I would like to try on photoshop and edit my family out and edit them onto the older picture to show generations.

This was the original old picture.

The new picture with an ISO of 6400.

The updated normal coloured picture.

Joesph Cornell 2

Over the weekend I had my family over as it was mothers day and had a lovely day as we had perfect weather to. As I wanted to try out documentary photography of my nan and grandad as of the old love letter on valentines day. I took a shoot of my nan and grandad in black and white as I feel black and white can look very much documentary style.

Research and inspiration

http://www.frameworksinstitute.org/assets/files/PDF/youth_public_perceptions.pdf

This is a website with a powerpoint talking about the change in society of teenagers and families. I thought I would add this in as it just links to how I am looking back at life and peoples possessions and I also thought it was really interesting.

"Much of the public’s critique of teens revolves around parents’ perceived inability to be involved with their children and teach them the right values. It is not just the elderly who question the lack of values they see in our youth; parents of teenagers share the same concerns. Teens seem vulnerable to strong external forces: drugs, alcohol, violence, sex, and the media. Without the right values to immunize them from negative influences, teens could fall victim to these pressures."

A journal

I have decided even though my blog has always been a backup of what I have been doing in my work I thought for this project as I am looking at family history and past memories I thought this blog could be an on-going journal like somebodies in the past. So I will be updating my blog with current issues or memories I have collected and what they mean to me and what I am going to do with them.

Valentines letters

My great gran got given when she was younger a lovely valentines letter with a envelope where he drew the village on and wrote about his love for her. I really thought their could be something developed from it and I didn't want to do something basic of shooting the old letter against a new valentine days card, I wanted to show a bit more creativity so I want to go and move onto a documentary shoot of an old couple in my family (ie my nan and grandad) to show how they are still madly in love and how they have grown in love and age.

Old and new

I have started to collect loads of old memories of my family so things like valentine letters, pictures, hats, maps, birth certificates etc. I am taking pictures of them or re-creating them so for example editing old and new parts together of the present and past. I have also decided to recreate memories of my own and compare them to back then to show the differences in society.

Changes in society: back in the olden days they would have maids or cleaners and that can happen now but you'd have to be quite rich to have that. Teenagers have changed in society ever since the 1960s but teenagers are much more open minded and rebellious now where as back then it would have been 'seen and not heard'. Houses have changed as they are much bigger, now have insulation and bricks with cars outside.

Ideas: taking a picture of something already done so an old house and a new house or I could hold up the old picture against the new place so it is contrasting.

Jospeh Cornell 1

This shoot I used depth of field mostly to get the effect of the birth certificate being really sharp. I used my birth certificate and an old one and placed on a old map of where I live and where my Great nan lived. I used natural lighting and placed it against the window to get a nice light effect. I also edited the photos using the clarity on Picnik.

Ideas...

Joseph Cornell and Holly Lackner 1

This shoot was taken at school using the white background studio and lamps for a lighting shoot. I really liked the outcome especially on some of the photos where I used depth of field to have certain parts in focus against other parts which were blurred. The shoot was looking at my hobbies and memories I have collected over the years of swimming.

My pictures

I was going through my familes old photos and letters the other day and just took some photos of them all collaged together, it wasn't using anything inspired by a photographer or photography techniques they were just simple photos layed-out to show family generations and an inspiration for my work I am doing.

Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor who focussed on creativity and memories. He collaged photos, letters, pieces of memories together. He based with film.

This photo isn't something I am going to reflect or copy it's just an inspiration of  how its set up with letters, pictures, drawings to reflect a memory. This photo is more of an inspiration of how the memories are set up and equal to one final piece, I am going to try collect photos of new and old memories and collage them together.

Holly Lackner

Holly Lackner is a freelance american photography who focusses on still life, wedding photography and real life. I am looking at her for a inspiration of still life. Her images focuss on different things such as she looks at food or cuttlery but I am going to be looking at old memories of somebody and staging them out doing a lighting shoot.

These photos aren't staged with a studio but lighting has definately been used to make it stand out. It looks like natural lighting coming through on the left of the photo as the shadow is onn the right. Depth of field has  been used to focus directly on the cup and make it stand out. The black and white effect I think looks really well with the lighting as it makes the whole image seem more contrasting.

Tom Hussey 1

This was an image of mine I took it for my Tom Hussey shoot. I took a picture of somebody with the glasses, red lipstick, nailvarnish and cigarette which I think can reflect 1950's quite well and wrote a letter and tea bagged it to make it seem more old and to show that it's a memory. I photoshopped the two images of them together and changed the opaticty to show that this is her memory and it's a past one. I also tried out a 1960's effect to warmen the photo a bit.

These were the two images before I changed them and their opacity on photoshop.

Florence and The Machine

Recently on the BRIT Awards they were doing 30-1minute/second videos of artists who were nominated for best album, they did a 5-10 second montage of her fading into a piece of paper with song lyircs on which were hers. I think this was such a beautiful piece of work as it looked so unique but quite vintagey and I want to see if I could resemble that just different context.

Tom Hussey

Tom Hussey is an award-winning, international, commercial photographer. He runs a full- production photography studio. Looking through his photos they focus on age or social everyday issues.

This photo is very creative and clear but still has a emotive context to it. This photo resembles sadness but happiness. I think as he is looking back in the mirror at himself to reminisc what his life used to be like so it could be dwelling on the past but at the same time happy it happened. This photo would be done on photoshop by using the magnetic lasor tool and cutting it out onto the mirror. Using the white sink and background gives it a clean fresh feel which could be a metaphor of his age and how he felt in the past.

For my shoot I am going to do something a bit different but I think this is a great base for this shoot. I am going to look at taking pictures of something which is a memory to someone such as a letter and take a picture of the person who's memory it is and on photoshop fade it in so it is clear that it looks like a memory and it's in the past fading away.

Films

This is quite random but an inspiration I saw for this would be films such as Cheaper By The Dozen where it's a family with 12 children so the house is all messy and nothing can be perfect as it has to be natural day to day life where things get left around like how my pictures are meant to be represented/soon.

Tracey Emin 1

This was a shoot in style of Tracey Emin but with my own ideas. I focussed on creativity instead of getting a posed/style. My theme is everyday stuff so things which get left around the house of what people do so I wasn't focussing on lighting or staging pictures it was all set up naturally. My last picture of the lighting I did use 4.5 aperture to focus on the first tap so everything else behind it was blur which I thinked look quite effective, I clarified it so it was made a bit darker/stronger so it looked really clear against the blur background.

Tracey Emin

Tracey Emins photos have a genre of the present. Her photos aren't the prettiest of photos as she photos cigarette packets, condoms, stains but its the creativity and the context behind it which shows that it actually is what everybody does it's just staged all together.
I want to try a shoot out on everyday peices which get left behind, it won't be the prettiest of photos or the most 'wow' but I am looking at context and creativy to get my point across.

This photo shows the creativity of peoples lives all gathered in one piece. Even though it is staged I like the way it does look really realistic. When I do my shoot I will consider looking at close up shots of what people leave around everyday.