What is Documentary Photography?
"Documentary photography is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage"
-Tate modern
-Tate modern
Experiment 1:
For this task we had to take 12 portrait photos of our partner, bearing in mind factors such as: framing, lighting, angles and background, and we had opportunities to take photos with both natural and studio lighting.
The task was fun because it gave us a chance to experiment with natural lighting and different backgrounds outside. I preferred taking photos outside as there was a range of different backgrounds, and using the sunlight was more experimental than the studio lighting. Some of the photos had too high of an exposure causing a very blinding background, and contrasting the foreground. I'd like to take more photos in natural light, or in black and white, as they are open to more experimentation than other options. If i had more time i would probably work on perfecting/editing the current photos rather than taking more, as some of them weren't as refined as i wanted them to be. The photo on the right is my favourite because i like the composition and the sun coming through leaves has a nice effect on the camera.
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I took photos of people within both my school and personal community, however is was hard to find people who didn't mind having their photos taken.
I took the photos with my phone camera as most of the photos were more impulsive and less planned.
I like the photos as they all have a bit of variety, however i like the one in the garden the most as it has more colour and is a bit more exciting than the others which have more neutral tones.
if i had more time, or could change anything i would ask more people for photos as it is quite hard to find people that say yes.
I took the photos with my phone camera as most of the photos were more impulsive and less planned.
I like the photos as they all have a bit of variety, however i like the one in the garden the most as it has more colour and is a bit more exciting than the others which have more neutral tones.
if i had more time, or could change anything i would ask more people for photos as it is quite hard to find people that say yes.
Negative Photos
For this project we took one of our photos from our portrait work, then we used photoshop on the computers to change the photos to black and white, and then inverted them. After this we printed them on acetate, and went into the dark room. We then layered the acetate over some light sensitive paper and exposed it to the light for 5 seconds. We then left the light sensitive paper in the baths until they were fully developed. This is the final product.
Evaluation:I really like how this turned out in the end, the negative turned out really well and most of the detail from the photo was carried through, I would also quite like to take more photos with glassware as when they are inverted they look really interested. The plants in the background are also a good contrasting texture to the foreground. The one thing that i don't like is that some of the corners hadn't developed as well, where they weren't exposed to as much light.
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Dawoud BeyDawoud Bey may want to take photos of his community to share his experiences, and enlighten the world and show the secrets inside Harlem. These could also be linked to street photography as they show not only the portrait of the person, foreground, but theres also a thought out background, where everything is in the correct place. You can also see that in most of the photos he has a bond with the subject of the photo, which shows he is respected member of their community and is present alot of the time.
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I think it was important that he took photos of his community because he could share his experiences and his relations with the people in his community. The photographer and the subject collaborated, because not many of the photos were candid, meaning they were staged, resulting in an in-depth, thought out background.
Siân DaveyI find Siân's work really interesting as she uses her photography work as a chance to disappear and turn invisible, whilst still being part of a community. She also uses it as a chance to discover who her daughter is, and so she can develop a strong bond with her. Her photos are candid, they are taken in the moment and no one ever poses for them, as instead of her being a presence, she becomes invisible to the people around her.
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Adama JallohJalloh uses photography as a way to share her experiences instead of keeping them to herself. She says 'I want more people to see, rather than me just keeping it stored in my head'. She wants to keep her memories alive, so even though most of the stuff she captures is quite simple, they often have a lot of sentimental value, to her. A lot of the photos are outside, so aswell as photographing the people in her community, she also shows the area in which her community is.
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Niall McDiarmidMcDiarmid is a scottish photographer who focuses on capturing the people and places of Britain. Encounters with strangers is one of his series of photos where he takes photos of people on his travels. He says he looks out for people with interesting colours or features that stand out in an otherwise grey area.
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Liz Johnson ArturLiz Johnson Artur is a Russian-Ghanaian photographer who was raised in Germany, but is now based in London. She has a range of chapters throughout her work, one focuses on the African Diaspora, one focuses on the area where she is based, and one focuses on the LGBTQIA community. She has work based on a variety of different people, and she does work to capture the memory of the people she meets.
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Documenting a member of your community.
Evaluation: I really like how most of these photos came out, a few were better than others. I found that the photos with more color were better as they brought out a bit of life in the community, rather than having monotone colors or just two contrasting colours, as they are better for reflecting the community.
The photo on the right is my favourite, I like the colours, composition, and lighting. I also like how a candid photo, can still look good, without any posing or pre-photo planning.
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Colin Pantall
Pantall is a photographer and writer based in England, his work is all about exploring his childhood and exploring the mythologies of family identities. He is interested in how environment, domestic space and family narratives overlap and interfere in our understanding of personal, visual, and political histories. He has multiple different galleries such as: Sofa portraits, all quiet on the home front.
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Documenting Communities
I like most of these photos, they are quite effective at portraying the area and people within our community. A lot of them have vibrant colours, especially the ones inside the art block.
Evaluation:The photo on the right is my favorite photo, i like the composition, with the background. It is more of a typical portrait, where the subject is in the centre of the photo with the face in the centre of the photo. It also follows some elements of the rule of the thirds, the two trees in the background divide the photo vertically, and the lines of the bench and the pathways divide it horizontally. I think that other people would also see the portrait as more traditional and appreciate the composition, however i think the camera could have shifted slightly to the left, to make it more central.
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Invert process
These where the three main stages of the process, the original, the black and white image, and the inverted image
These are the photoshop images from the process, first we crop the photo if needed, to make the composition more appealing, I made the image shorter, cutting out some of the area above her head. Then we turn the image to black and white, after, we change the exposure if the photo is to bright/dark so you can see more detail in the brighter areas, I lowered the exposure, using the white shoes as a guide. If happy with the current image, we invert and then save to the computer for the final image.
Tyler Mitchell
Tyler Mitchell is a young black photographer born in Georgia, 1995. His work often represents black male unity, and captures young men/teenagers in times of leisure/enjoyment. This contrasts previous ideologies and shows that black beauty is an art of justice. He was also the first black photographer to take the front cover of a vogue magazine.
Evaluation:
In the photo we can see a young black man lying on the floor, there are multiple warm-colored blocks which compliment the other warm colors of the man's clothes and the vibrant yellow background. Another main theme in this photo is the shadow, it covers roughly half of his face, and half of the image, one of the images appears to act as a cage around his face. This could be a metaphor showing the caged beauty, linking to one of the main themes in Mitchell's work. The rich and intense colors are a very dominant theme, you notice them straight away and could represent strength and empowerment. In a lot of Mitchell's work we see him use the color and light very effectively. Because of his pose, and closed eyes, and the vibrant yet peaceful colors, the photo radiates a soothing and calming feeling. |
Evaluation:
In the photo the subject has his face away from the camera with an interesting pose that follows the curve of his head facing away. The surrounding areas such as the background are all very grey, which contrasts the bright blue jumper, and the bright red water bottle. the subject was facing away because of the sunlight and this sunlight created interesting shadows because of the bars in the foreground. This overall has an interesting affect because we can see the sun present in the background and the shadows yet the subject doesn’t appear to be illuminated or highlighted by the brightness in the rest of the photo. |
- color, vibrancy
- fashion, props
- engaged in activities
- greenery(outside) or plain vibrant colors.
- unique composition
- challenges stereotypes of black youth
Tyler Mitchell Inspiration photos.
These are my twelve favorite photos:
For this task we had to take minimum 12 photos of our partner, the photos had to involve bright colors, elements of nature, or plain backgrounds. In most photos the subject was wearing a horse mask as a prop.
In my opinion, the photo on the right is probably the photo that is the best response to Tyler Mitchell's work. For example, the subject only has the head and torso in shot, furthermore, there are lots of bright colors, from the red shirt, and the vibrant color from the grass. Because this photo did not have a plain colored background it had elements of nature instead. Also, the sunlight provides interesting shadows and highlights the side of the mask, you also cant see any school uniform, and the mask appears to be part of the subject, and not something that is just there to cover up the face. |
For this task we had to create more photos inspired by Tyler Mitchell, meaning, most photos had to be head + torso, bright colors and unique props. I especially liked the photos using shiny materials such as gold fabric or the silver foil.
Autumn extended project
This term, we will be doing an extended project in response to our topic 'documenting communities'.
Location
Research
For research, I'm going to look closer into the work of Nick Waplington, his work caught my eye because most of his photos are candid, and are taken of his family, where they're living, and it is a small insight into his life.
Nick Waplington was born in 1965, in London, he travelled a lot as a child and studied art from a young age. He first started photography when he visited his grandfather, where he took photos of his area and surroundings. Slowly, the subjects of his photos turned to his friends, neighbours, and family, which became his preferred choice of photo because he did similar projects like this for the next 15 years of his life. From this work he made two books: 'living room'
Nick Waplington was born in 1965, in London, he travelled a lot as a child and studied art from a young age. He first started photography when he visited his grandfather, where he took photos of his area and surroundings. Slowly, the subjects of his photos turned to his friends, neighbours, and family, which became his preferred choice of photo because he did similar projects like this for the next 15 years of his life. From this work he made two books: 'living room'
and 'Weddings, Parties, Anything
He has also made other books and significant amounts of work that have been widely successful, being displayed in galleries, and the media. Such as:
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People
For my extended project I will mostly take photos of the people in my family, the people i'm closest too, and most comfortable around. This means that I can take photos where the photographer is in a better situation, and in result produce better quality photos. Also, because I'm taking photos of people i have the strongest relationships with, it means the photos have more meaning and significance as part of my documenting communities work.
Evidence
Documenting Place
Nick Meyer
Nick Meyer is an American photographer, born in 1981. He studied at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and the California College of the Arts. The book that we're looking out is a collection of pictures from his hometown of Greenfield, and highlights issues with addiction, housing insecurity, and small town decline in America.
Throughout, his book, all of the photos seem interconnected and linked, and they display the area he grew up in with lots of detail. The photos all appear in small groups or themes, such as cars, people, nature, etc.. They represent the area in which he grew up which means they have more importance to him, and therefore fit in to the documenting communities project.
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Zoe Leonard
These images are a small selection of photos out of the 400 total images taken by Zoe Leonard of different shop fronts. They were all taken over a 10 year period, however, they have all maintained a very similar style and theme. Every single photo is of a different shop taken at a different time. None are the same, however there are some key themes or recurring subjects.What can you say about the colour within the shopfronts? Most of the shops appear to be run down, or quite old. Most of the colours aren't that vibrant and seem very faded. I think that the photos may show how an area develops over time, and may show regeneration or neglect in an area. Maybe the photographer was trying to show similarities and differences in a common everyday experience that lots of people use. They also show a community as well, as small local shops play a big part in lots of peoples lives. None of the photos necessarily have a strong emotional influence, however, they all seem quite gloomy, and wouldn't generate any positive feelings. The photographer has done a very good job of finding shop fronts that all fit together, considering there are 400 photos, yet they all look like they belong together in sequence. Was it hard for this process to be completed, as it took 10 years?
Independent Learning.
These are a selection of 12 different shopfronts from around my area. These are all shops that I see most days, and I think that most of them reflect Leonard's work quite well, especially the ones that appear more derelict or neglected. For example: The newsagency or the dry cleaners. I also like the images with the metal shutters down over the windows as they are quite similar to Zoe Leonard's photos.
3D Collage
For my 3D collage i'm using 6 images with a similar composition to the photo above, my first attempt was alright but I found that the images were too small, so I re-printed the images on A4 so that they filled the space, and used a brighter coloured background as this one seemed quite faded and made the photo appear less vibrant.
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This is my final result, it has a very similar composition to the small 3D model, and the 2D reference. I think this selection of images work quite well together and they all reflect the area well. I also like how the images at the back are larger, and the ones in front are smaller as it creates some more depth and layering.
Final Piece
I made 4 total compositions with my photos, out of these ones I prefer the horizontal one over the more even, square-shaped compositions. In the end i decided to do a similar composition to the horizontal one, but the photos wouldn’t overlap, and would be in a regular composition instead.
This is the composition i am going to use for my final piece, however as i decided the positions for the photos, i decided that as most of the photos revolved around my brother, I would take out the other photos which seemed random and didn’t fit in, and add in a few more of him so that it made a bit more sense and felt less random. I think it is an effective display method, even though it is simple as you can see all the photos clearly. Also I changed from displaying them on a wooden beam to a wall-mounted plastic ledge which is more stable and easier to display photos on.
These are the final photos I am going to use for my final piece. I swapped out the photos that didn't fit in, and replaced them with more photos of my brother, I did have some other options, but the photos didn't print in very good quality so I could not use them for my final piece. However I am still happy with my final selection of photos.
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Evaluation
I'm very happy with my final piece. After lots of trialling with different photos and compositions, my final piece is a selection of images of my brother, mounted and then displayed along the wall, the photos are in a range of locations, with different backgrounds and themes. I knew that I wanted to have a simple composition when I started, as seen by my practice compositions, but after evaluating them I knew I wanted a horizontal display that showed all the photos without any overlaps. I effectively refined my ideas after trialling different groups of photos and chose a selection that all complimented each other. I think one of the reasons why the photos work well together is because there is a range of different colors and backgrounds, with some inside photos and some outside, some of them were candid and some where planned. Furthermore, most of the photos are in small groups of themes and they are all portraits. This variety of styles and techniques makes the display method better as it shows the different ways photos can be taken to document communities. I chose to have this selection of photos for my final piece because they show an insight into how younger people live which are not often explored as much. I chose to document my brother because he was the person I felt most comfortable taking photos of, also, . I think another reason why this display is effective is because if you look at each photo individually it shows you about a different part of the piece as I believe both the final piece and the individual photos are effectively refined. Lots of my photos were influenced by the work of Tyler Mitchell who is a photographer who often takes photos of younger members in society. He takes lots of photos both outside and inside, with lots of bright colours, and I think my work is a good reflection of his because of this. In conclusion, I think this final piece shows that I have a good understanding of the subject.
Statement
Most of my photos are in small groups of themes and they are all portraits. This variety of styles and techniques makes the display method better as it shows the different ways photos can be taken to document communities. I chose to have this selection of photos for my final piece because they show an insight into how younger people live which are not often explored as much, by the media and other people in general.
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Documentary Photography: Evaluation
Over the last year I have been working on the project Documenting Communities, at first I found the project quite difficult and found practical responses quite hard. However, by the end of this course I felt a lot more confident and I think that both my final pieces came out quite successful along with my final exam that I did at the end. Overall I think my work has improved since the start of the year, both in written and practical elements of the course, and I have a greater understanding of the subject.
Throughout the 'Documenting Communities' project I have researched many artists and photographers, who work with similar themes to this project. By researching and evaluating their work, I could create a series of photos in response to their images. For example, one artist that I enjoyed learning about was Tyler Mitchell, after researching his work, and finding the different components of his photos, I could create a set of images, inspired by his, with similar elements that came under the documentary photography subject, but still had uniqueness and contrast compared to his work. Some other artists I researched were Zoe Leonard, Nick Meyer, Niall McDiarmid, and some others. This was good for this project because it helped me to understand the subject in greater detail, helping me to explore the broadness of different art styles, by different artists, that all came under the same genre of photography.
Also during the project, I had to use a combination of threshold concepts, for example, Threshold Concept 1, 'Photography has many genres, some old, some borrowed, some new.' Even though the main project was documenting communities, there were many other genres that I used within the course, such as: Portraiture, Landscape. Another threshold concept I used was 4, 'Photography is an art of selection rather than invention', because we were documenting, the whole point was to take photos of existing elements in our community that would represent it.
I learnt many new techniques throughout the project, by researching artists and engaging in lessons such as making cyanotypes, photograms or creating camera obscuras. These were all new methods as we had just come out of lockdown, and they were good to learn as they are methods that we could use for this project, and future ones. I think that having a variety of techniques available for me to work with made the project a lot more interesting.
When it came to my final projects, which were more in depth and detailed, I now had to explore and refine my own work. For example, one project was the exhibition piece, where I worked with different selections of photos and different compositions until I found a setup that I like, resulting in a good final piece. I had a similar process with my other piece. I also felt that my work was overall refined throughout the whole project, as I learnt new processes and methods to incorporate into my work. In addition, I also liked the process during the exam and I felt that I less restrictions allowing me to work to a greater level.
By the end of the project, I had two completed, and evaluated final projects, one was representing the people in my community and one was representing the physical place that my community was. I tried to have these two main themes in mind throughout the whole process of creating these pieces as I wanted them to be clearly centered around these two ideas. I think this worked quite well in the end, as I now had two refined pieces that embraced the two subjectsI wanted to show. I personally preferred the 3D collage final piece as it was more complex and took more time to create, meaning I could refine it further, I also preferred the selection of photos used for that piece. I think that these final pieces were a successful response to the project 'documenting communities' as they covered the two key aspects of the project, and turned out quite well. If I had more time I would have liked to further refine the 3D collage by cutting 'windows' that would add more depth. Furthermore, I would also have liked to try making some changes to the exhibition piece, to see if changing the images, eg: creating photograms, would improve or deteriorate my final piece.
Throughout the 'Documenting Communities' project I have researched many artists and photographers, who work with similar themes to this project. By researching and evaluating their work, I could create a series of photos in response to their images. For example, one artist that I enjoyed learning about was Tyler Mitchell, after researching his work, and finding the different components of his photos, I could create a set of images, inspired by his, with similar elements that came under the documentary photography subject, but still had uniqueness and contrast compared to his work. Some other artists I researched were Zoe Leonard, Nick Meyer, Niall McDiarmid, and some others. This was good for this project because it helped me to understand the subject in greater detail, helping me to explore the broadness of different art styles, by different artists, that all came under the same genre of photography.
Also during the project, I had to use a combination of threshold concepts, for example, Threshold Concept 1, 'Photography has many genres, some old, some borrowed, some new.' Even though the main project was documenting communities, there were many other genres that I used within the course, such as: Portraiture, Landscape. Another threshold concept I used was 4, 'Photography is an art of selection rather than invention', because we were documenting, the whole point was to take photos of existing elements in our community that would represent it.
I learnt many new techniques throughout the project, by researching artists and engaging in lessons such as making cyanotypes, photograms or creating camera obscuras. These were all new methods as we had just come out of lockdown, and they were good to learn as they are methods that we could use for this project, and future ones. I think that having a variety of techniques available for me to work with made the project a lot more interesting.
When it came to my final projects, which were more in depth and detailed, I now had to explore and refine my own work. For example, one project was the exhibition piece, where I worked with different selections of photos and different compositions until I found a setup that I like, resulting in a good final piece. I had a similar process with my other piece. I also felt that my work was overall refined throughout the whole project, as I learnt new processes and methods to incorporate into my work. In addition, I also liked the process during the exam and I felt that I less restrictions allowing me to work to a greater level.
By the end of the project, I had two completed, and evaluated final projects, one was representing the people in my community and one was representing the physical place that my community was. I tried to have these two main themes in mind throughout the whole process of creating these pieces as I wanted them to be clearly centered around these two ideas. I think this worked quite well in the end, as I now had two refined pieces that embraced the two subjectsI wanted to show. I personally preferred the 3D collage final piece as it was more complex and took more time to create, meaning I could refine it further, I also preferred the selection of photos used for that piece. I think that these final pieces were a successful response to the project 'documenting communities' as they covered the two key aspects of the project, and turned out quite well. If I had more time I would have liked to further refine the 3D collage by cutting 'windows' that would add more depth. Furthermore, I would also have liked to try making some changes to the exhibition piece, to see if changing the images, eg: creating photograms, would improve or deteriorate my final piece.