Portraiture Straight Images / Work Diary -

Portraiture - 

Thomas Ruff

The above images are in the style of the portrait artist Thomas Ruff who focused on deadpan expressions with contrasting vibrant backdrops.  I like these images as the composition and colour are reminiscent of the photographer Thomas Ruff. I am pleased with the visual outcome although I believe that it could be improved using a variety of background colours. These images were taken in a studio using the settings 1/125 shutter speed, ISO 200 and f/22 on fully maul settings using manual focus. I believe my attempt was reasonably successful in acquiring a pastiche of the photographer who served as inspiration. The images replicate the passport style size of pictures, the deadpan expression and the vibrant highly saturated backgrounds. 

Richard Avedon -

The above images were taken in the style of Richard Avedon's series focusing on the 'American West'. I like this image as it demonstrates the basic composition used by the photographer Richard Avedon. Avedon also often included props relating to his subjects and thus I included the prop of a camera to obscure the identity of the subject and show how photography takes on a large role in their lifestyle. This image is successful due to the use of vignette, highly contrasted black and white through levels and the central composition of the subject. However, I think that during editing I have made these images too dark and if I was to improve upon them I would adjust the contrast in Photoshop. 

Progression - 

To improve from my current Thomas Ruff inspired final outcomes I would retake the bottom left hand image as the subject does not conform to the same composition and facial expressions as the other three.    To improve my second series inspired by Richard Avedon I would not edit the final images as much as I have. The final images vignette is too far in and shrouded the subject of the image. 

Portraiture Contact Sheet -

Portraits - 

Portraiture Image Bank Continued -

Portraiture -  

Annie Leibovitz:
Annie Leibovitz photographs mostly famous faces such as Anne Hathaway and Adele and also does photography for publicity such as the first image feature below. Leibovitz did the publicity photography for 'Les Miserables'. Leibovitz work focuses significantly on the use of light and the saturation of colour. As a photographer I find Leibovitz's work to be fascinating through the use of the formal elements such as colour within her portraits.

Thomas Ruff: 
Ruff employs a deadpan appearance within his portraiture that are reminiscent of a passport photo. It could be argued that Ruff defies gender norms by giving female subjects a blue background whilst male subjects are given pink. Ruff, unlike a few of the other photographers featured here, focuses on ordinary people rather than the lifestyles of the rich and famous celebrities. Thomas Ruff is sometimes questioned as a photographer due to his style that is considered controversial.

David Lachapelle:
Lachapelle is an extremely controversial photographer often focusing on extreme circumstances of the nude human form. Lachapelle is also a celebrity photographer who uses bold colours and out of the ordinary ideas whilst studying the human form and identity; working with celebrities regularly, Lachapelle, provides an interpretation of a famous face that the public may not be familiar with.

Alec Soth:
Alec Soth studies identity through his portraiture with some of his books being entitled 'Broken Days', 'Dog Days Bogota' and 'Sleeping by the Mississippi'. Most of Soth's works study regional identity and appear almost like a polaroid picture due to the hue and saturation of the colours; as a result Soth's works evoke an almost nostalgic feeling in the audience.

Richard Avedon:
Avedon is a portrait photographer who focuses mainly in the black and white genre. The three images below are featured in a series entitled 'In the American West'. Like Soth, Richard Avedon studies regional identity, specifically in this series, and evokes a series of questions within an audience. The black and white appears to have been used to exaggerate the forms of the human body in the portraiture but could also symbolise something more deeply about how skin colour is irrelevant.

Portraiture Image Bank -

Portrait - 

Portrait - A painting, drawing, photograph often focusing on an individual.

Portraiture - The art of painting or taking photographs.

My interpretation of portraiture - Any form of image documenting a person or something representative of that person.

Matthieu Bourel:

Matthieu Bourel uses pre-existing photographs which he then dissects to reveal the underneath layers to evoke a sense even unity even in diversity. Most of Bourel's portraiture features vintage period famous actors and actresses well known to the public which he then manipulates.

Dan Mountford: 

Dan Mountford uses the medium of photography but focuses on a technique referred to as 'Double Exposure'. 

Joiners Straight Images / Work Diary -

Joiners -  
The below images were taken by me using a Canon EOS 450D and edited using Photoshop CC 2014. These images study personal identity and the distortion of identity within individuals minds. For instance, the gas mask symbolises the need to protect oneself from the poisonous nature of society in influencing who we are and how we are composed in our individual identities.

Joiners Landscape -
All of these images were taken using a Canon EOS 450D and were edited in Photoshop CC 2014. In today's session I chose to focus on the man made landscapes of the concrete jungle father than the natural landscapes. This is partly because I still wanted to include my identity of the local area of which is predominantly man made. Of the below images the top is my favourite due to the surreal nature of the photograph whilst the bottom is my least favourite for the joiners subject as it simply appears like a panoramic photograph. The middle image of the three is my second favourite as the light in each section of the joiner varies and is evidence of gamut range.

Progression - 

To improve from this extra shoot I would create another small series under both studio and landscape. Also, I would also increase the 'Brightness/ Contrast' in editing to make the images lighter. The second studio image could have been more revolutionary as I used one base image and added a few simple layers over. 

Joiners Contact Sheet -

Contact Sheet - 

Joiners Image Bank -

Joiners - 

Joiners - Panography, or joiners, is a photographic technique in which one picture is assembled from several overlapping images.

David Hockney - 
David Hockney uses both the human form and many other subjects in his works. Hockney began to produce these photo collages which he then called 'joiners'. He began his work by starting in the medium of polaroid photographs then later moving on to other forms.

Various Flickr Photographers - 

The following joiner photographers were taken by photographers Alex Lowman, Elliot Dawson and Matthijs Rouw. 

Sculpture Straight Images / Work Diary -

Sculpture  - 
All of these images were taken by me using a Canon EOS 450D; I took the below photographs using the 'Manual' setting. The specifics include: f/20, 1/20 and ISO 800. Afterwards, I edited these images using Photoshop CC 2014 focusing on the 'Brightness and Contrast' tool.

Progression - 

To progress from this point I would experiment with various other compositions  and perspectives. Also, there are limited sculptures available in the local residency and thus the shot were dramatically limited.