I had picked the theme portraiture and my question to the theme is " Various approaches to portraiture have been sued by many photographers interesting examples can be seen in the carefully controlled work of Felix Nadar, the more informal images of Jane Bown, and the work of Omer Victor Diop in which his backgrounds and props are important and add meaning to the portraits. Investigate appropriate examples and respond in your own way."
Threshold Concepts
'Threshold Concepts are the BIG IDEAS that will help students develop a deeper understanding of photography. They are not meant to be instantly understood. Once opened, they introduce students to troublesome knowledge; a new way of seeing the subject they are studying. As students become more confident, working their way across the threshold, they will begin to recognise and understand these big ideas. They will become more useful in helping them think hard about what they do, whether that's looking at other people's photographs or making their own.'
After some thought I had decided that threshold concepts 2, 6 and 10 relates most to portraiture. Threshold concept #2 is 'Photography is the capturing of light; a camera is optional', it relates to portraiture because most of portrait images revolve around light and how it is used on the model to either create a distorted figure or to even enhance certain aspects of the models face and or body. Threshold concept #6 is 'Photography rely on chance, more or less'. I think that this threshold concept is related to everything in photography, because photography in general doesn't have a specific outcome, you can never know how your images and or creations will come out, for example a picture you take on a DSLR or how your photogram comes out. Photography always relies on chance.
Threshold concept #10 is 'Photographs warp our sense of time; they remind us of things lost ' I believe that this relates to portraiture the most because portrait photographs have been taken of people over the years, either just of them or them and their family(ies). Once the shutter closes that image automatically becomes part of history.
At the end of my component two unit I would like to successfully have applied all three threshold concepts to my work.
Threshold concept #10 is 'Photographs warp our sense of time; they remind us of things lost ' I believe that this relates to portraiture the most because portrait photographs have been taken of people over the years, either just of them or them and their family(ies). Once the shutter closes that image automatically becomes part of history.
At the end of my component two unit I would like to successfully have applied all three threshold concepts to my work.
My starting point : What is portraiture and the history of it.
Portraiture also known as portrait photography is images taken of either a single person or a group of people, it captures their personality of the subject(s) by the use of efficient lighting , backdrops and even particular poses. A portrait image can be used for a variety of reasons, for example they could be for a personal , artist, clinical or even medical use.
To begin I had started by doing a spider diagram on what I believed related to portraiture, in addition to this also created a mood board on Pinterest.
To begin I had started by doing a spider diagram on what I believed related to portraiture, in addition to this also created a mood board on Pinterest.
Felix Nadar
Nadar was not only a photographer but a caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist. After he quit his medical studies he began to work as a caricaturist and a novelist for a variety of different papers; after these two jobs he moved on to photography portraiture in particular. His portrait images involved a wide range of personalities from politicians, stage actors, musicians, writers and even painters.
I researched about Nadar's caricatures, although I couldn't find many of them I was still able to find similarities between the caricatures I could find and his portraits.
There are a few similarities between his photography and his caricatures, one of the first similarities that was the most obvious was the background of both. I know in 1853 that images weren't in colour and that was the only result of them, however the fact that he was able to do drawings on similar coloured materials shows that he was familiar with it. Some portraits normally show just the subjects head to waist, this isn't something that is required in all portrait photography however it was the most common way to take a portrait image of someone. Another similarity is the plain backgrounds he uses in his portraits,most portraits especially back then had used a plain background. Identical to his drawings they also had a plain background. I know that most caricaturists draw only whats in front of them and distort it a bit however some also added things into the background to make the drawin- |
g more 'funny'. Personally I didn't get inspired from Nadar's work because of how I imagine portraiture, for example when I here the words portraiture I don't think of the history of it but how and why they'e used/ taken in this day and age.
*I linked the website that I found his other caricatures to the word 'caricatures' at the top of this paragraph.
Jane Bown
Bown was a photographer for the newspaper called the 'Observer'. Some of her work was based around photojournalism, she then realised that she had a trademark style, the black and white, close ups. When doing commission work she had done no preparation what's so ever when she was doing a shoot, she would also have no knowledge of her subjects when she got requested to take images of them.
I like the look of her work because of the amount of detail thats in her pictures, you can see everything on her subjects face from: freckles, wrinkles to facial hair and the reflection of the natural light in their eyes. Another aspect I found in her images was that the background of her images are always blurred, this got me thinking to how she gets this every time; because she doesn't like to use camera equipment and prefers to work with natural lighting I didn't know if she uses a special lens such as a telephoto lens or micro-lens. However I also contemplated on whether she used photoshop to edit her images but because in on of the articles that is written about her it says that she likes to work quickly, this is because the best images were the ones she was able to capture the 'initial spontaneity of her subject(s)'.
I like the look of her work because of the amount of detail thats in her pictures, you can see everything on her subjects face from: freckles, wrinkles to facial hair and the reflection of the natural light in their eyes. Another aspect I found in her images was that the background of her images are always blurred, this got me thinking to how she gets this every time; because she doesn't like to use camera equipment and prefers to work with natural lighting I didn't know if she uses a special lens such as a telephoto lens or micro-lens. However I also contemplated on whether she used photoshop to edit her images but because in on of the articles that is written about her it says that she likes to work quickly, this is because the best images were the ones she was able to capture the 'initial spontaneity of her subject(s)'.
" The best pictures are uninvited, they're suddenly there in front of you ... easy to see but difficult to catch." - Jane Bown
My Response
When looking at her work I get the urge to want to experiment with different lenses and work with natural lighting instead of in a studio. I may also work with black and white instead of colour, this is because I thought that if her images were in colour it would take away a certain effect from her images, resulting the audience concentrating more on the colours than the details.
The people that I'm going to take pictures of are the students the are in Thomas Tallis school. Thomas Tallis school is a unisex multi-cultural school and I thought that it would a be a good idea to take images of the students that attend the sixth form and the groups of friends that people are in.
The people that I'm going to take pictures of are the students the are in Thomas Tallis school. Thomas Tallis school is a unisex multi-cultural school and I thought that it would a be a good idea to take images of the students that attend the sixth form and the groups of friends that people are in.
First set of images
I wanted to experiment with the black and white option, similar to what Bown does, for my first set of images I'm going to take them in colour and convert them into black and white, this way i'll be able to make edit certain bits of the images if I don't like them for example, the lighting of the images.
For the images I took in colour I had edited them onto Adobe photo shop. To start off I created a new layer and adjust the lighting of the image by increasing and decreasing the brightness and contrast settings, this way when I convert it into black you' be able to see the shadows in the face, showing where the light comes on from the image. After that I had used the black and white option and it converted the whole image into black and white, I had done this for all the images I had taken in colour.
Although I'm very inspired by Bown's photography and done a response to it, I think that it's one of the most cliché way to take portrait photography however it's also one of the most well known ways to capture it as well. I wanted to take a different approach to Bown's work and started to play around with the images I had taken in Adobe Photoshop.
First experiment
- I started by taking the three images of the same model as a response to Jane Brown's work and dragged them into Adobe Photoshop. I then chose one as the background and cropped the body of the other two using the magic wand tool.
- I then pasted and place them on the chosen background.
- I used the opacity option on the two images I had pasted in.
I liked how this outcome came out because you're able to see all three images and it looked like I had kept the shutter open and the model had moved. I also like how the you can only see half of the models face in the background image it adds a sense of mystery to it. On the other hand I didn't like that you can tell that the image had been cropped.
Second Experiment
For my second experiment I had used the same images and made the canvas width size longer, this way it would be able to fit all three images.
- I then began to fade the first and last image and I left the middle image to its original opacity (100%).
- To switch it up I done the complete opposite to what I had done before, I faded the middle one and left the first and last image. I think this looks better.
I like this outcome because i think it replicates the models personality however you can tell that the middle image was placed on top which I personally feel that it makes it look less professional.
Third Experiment
This edit wasn't too complicated, I simply had created my canvas but editing the size I want it. I then place the two images together and made sure they overlapped I then faded ONLY the top image and cropped it so you could only see half of their faces. I think thins adds a sense of mystery.
I'm very happy with the outcome of the rest of my edits, I was more successful when blending the images into one another. In some of then I tried to line up particular facial features so the audience would be confused, not knowing the the first and second model starts/ ends.
Portraiture photography is normally wither full body, mid body or close ups of the models however i wanted to take a different approach to it and done half of the face instead of the whole. I feel like this brings mystery towards the image; portraits are usually known to show and project the personality and mood of |
the model, however when you're restricted to a certain bit of their face you can only imagine those aspects. Usually portraits are of one person unless it's something like a family portrait when it's the entire family in one image, as I previously stated the images I had created give off a sense of mystery and the fact that I had added two people into one portrait makes it look like the two models are related, or know each other. The mysterious effect comes in at this point because the audience have no idea if the two people in the single image know each other or not. Over all I'm happy with the outcome of these images and there's a high chance that I'm going to use a couple of them as final pieces.
Omar Victor Diop
When I searched Diop's name into Google I was automatically astonished by the images of his work that had came up, they were so full of colour, bright and eye capturing. After looking through Google images I found his website, I was amazed by the layout of his website and his images, you can tell that behind every image theres a story/ background to it. All of his images have colours that are bright, eye - catching and are striking making the images look bolder and adventurous. He has many categories to his work, I found a series of images called 'Hopeful Blues' containing portraits of refugees in the UNCHR camps of Cameroon, giving an insight to the audience on the efforts to survive, the needs, the dreams and the hopes that the refugees had for a better future for them and their families. These images features the colour blue/indigo and the individuals wearing clothes that are related to their religion; all in the colours white and blue/indigo.
Here are some other series of portraits he had taken. Some of his themes not only include bright beautiful colours but patterns too. Although I'm interested in his work and it's very eye-catching I wouldn't do a response to his work because of how formal is images are, I personally prefer to take informal images therefore I'm going to do some research on artists that take those types of images.
Juergen Teller - "Go-sees"
Juergen Teller is a German artist who focuses on fine art and fashion photography, his work has been produced in books, magazines and in exhibitions; he's most comfortable working in colour and features himself in most of his images. The images in his book 'Go-sees' are located in the doorway in his studio in West London. For the duration of a whole year, May 1998 - May 1999, he was visited by hundreds of girls that were referred to him via the girls agencies for a casting shoot. I think that Teller's work shows that even though he's taken all of these images outside his studio and or in his doorway, it's still possible to find new ways of seeing an image; each image looks different in itself. His book reviews the relationship between the photographer and his subjects. I enjoyed this book and liked how he presents his images; every image has a white boarder around is placed in the centre of the page. Some pages have no images on them and some have cropped rectangle images on the top of the pages. While looking through his book I didn't find a pattern to how he organises his images but I am fond of the way he presents them. On another note on each page he has the date of when he took the images and the first name of the model(s).
I like the idea of taking images everyday and creating it into things that are memorable, such as a book. Although I don't have a year to complete this project, I'm going to take a picture every day of the person I'm with and or a location I' frequently in, and similarly write the dates down. This would make the outcome very personal to me because the people I'm with on a day to day basis are either friends or family who I'm quite close with; almost like I'm documenting my own milieu.
I like the idea of taking images everyday and creating it into things that are memorable, such as a book. Although I don't have a year to complete this project, I'm going to take a picture every day of the person I'm with and or a location I' frequently in, and similarly write the dates down. This would make the outcome very personal to me because the people I'm with on a day to day basis are either friends or family who I'm quite close with; almost like I'm documenting my own milieu.
'The models become characters in a fiction that the viewer is invited to imagine.' - Juergen Teller
My Response
I'm going to start by taking all the images I need, when I'm finished and ready to find ways to publish these images I'll edit some of them on photoshop.
When editing my images I wanted to have an urban effect on all of the images, similar to Juergen has to his images, in order to do this I used Adobe Photoshop .
- Firstly I decided to start by adding a warming filter and have it's density at 38% this way the orange tones appear on the image but doesn't overrule the whole image as well.
- I then began to both increase and decrease the levels of the image making the dark colours appear darker, vice versa.
Before After
Here is the before and after of this image, I liked how it came out because I believe that I captured that urban feel without per say "overdoing" the orange tones. Because I'm so happy with the outcomes I've decided to continuing experimenting by using the other images I had taken as a response; I used the same technique as I did for my first urban themed image, below are the final results.
Personally i don't like how most of these images came out because of how orange tones has overruled the whole image, if I was to judge them I would say that the images that were taken outside suit the experiment I had done, whereas the rest of them looks too orange. To continue my experimenting I had wanted to take a different approach to how I was editing them and chose to have a more cooler/cold effect to the images; using the same 9 images as I had done before.
Second Experiment
- I started buy again adding a warming filter this was because I thought it would be easier to reverse the effects. I increased it by 46%.
- I increased both the brightness and contrast this made the detail of the image look more enhanced.
I then began to experiment with the colour balance tool, I still wanted to get the cold effect on my images so I had increased the levels of the much cooler colours, blue, green and cyan. I believe this got the effect I was going for.
Before After
I don't really like how the outcomes of both sets of images came out, I feel like I hadn't captured the true essence to what I wanted, this set of images don't have that cool feeling to it, as I was hoping for.
Because I didn't like set of edits, I've decided to take on a different approach to Juergen Teller.
Because I didn't like set of edits, I've decided to take on a different approach to Juergen Teller.
I started to analyse the language that is used in the question by creating mind maps about both the words and sentences that are used to construct the question and how it relates to portraiture. The first one I analysed was 'carefully controlled'. Below on the left hand side are the things that I think are carefully controlled during portraiture photography as a whole.
After doing research on the photographers that had been given via the question I've come to realise that they all have a different approach to portraiture yet their work is in the same category. Because each photographer is different in their own way I've decided to make a key code of each photographer and using the mind map I'd previously made, I'll highlight each word that I think that photographer had controlled during their series of images. I had put a question mark next to the ones that I thought that they did control during their photo shoot but I'm not completely sure. I put this mind map on the right side of the original one.
Similarly I done a mind map for the words 'Informal images.'
Similarly I done a mind map for the words 'Informal images.'
I realised that almost all of the artists that I had researched had formal photography; set up, positioned etc. However the only person that didn't do it was Juergen Teller. Teller had taken images of models that were sent to him for test shoots, they weren't told to wear anything specific meaning that the clothes their wearing is their style, as well as them not being able to pose but to just stand their as if they were in a normal photo shoot. Similarly I think that Jane Bown had done informal images because she expressed on her website that she only uses natural lighting and doesn't like to use any types of equipment apart from her DSLR.
After doing this mind map I'd realised that I base my photography more on the informal side rather than the formal. This is probably because I'm more comfortable with taking informal images. |
Taking a different response to Juergen Tellers series of images 'GO-SEES' I thought about the way he was sent upcoming models to take images of them and how he kept one controlled variable the same throughout the series of images, the location; outside his doorstep. I wondered if he asked the models to pose because not all but most of them have full, mid body and head shots of them looking straight at the camera, however some of them are in a weird and or awkward position, for example one woman is bent over touching her ankles.
For my response I want to approach it in a more distinctive way, I've decided to take a set of images based on peoples actions. For instance I'll write a set of instructions that have no more than 7 actions for the model to do. While they're reading that I'll take images of their reactions and outcomes. For these set of images my controlled variable would be the set of instructions and the location of the images are going to be independent variable whereas for Juergen he done the opposite.
Here are my first set of instructions:
Here are the response images I took, of my models, both their response and reactions to the actions that they were being told to do.
My second set of instructions, I wanted these instructions to be more complicated than the first set because I wanted to get a different response.
I'm happy with the outcome of these images because I was able to catch both the reaction and the result(s) of the models understanding of the question. During the photo shoot process I got someone to read the actions to the model so I could concentrate on when to take he images, no one helped the model as the main idea was to see how each person understands the instructions; everyone's were different, which is the reason to why i think that these images came out extremely well. I'm definitely going to be using these as final pieces however I'm not sure how I'm going to present them.
To start I wanted all of the images to be exactly the same size so I had dragged them all into Iphoto and had played with the printing options.
I chose the contact sheet because I wanted them to be small but not so small that you can't see the actions of the model this is why I chose to have two columns. This made the images smaller than I thought so it resulted in me lowering the margins, making them a little bit wider. Once I printed off each models set of images I cut them all out so they were separated and stuck th-
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em onto mount board I the sequence of how the questions were asked. Here were the results:
The reason to why some of the images were slightly wonky is because I had used the panorama camera option on my Iphone. If I had taken them on a DSLR camera you wouldn't have seen the figures properly.
Final Evaluation
To start my research I had looked at the history of portrait photography and made a spider diagram on what I personally think and know about portraiture photography and then went onto a website called Pinterest, creating a mood board on portraiture images and how people have taken images relating to that subject area. This gave me an idea on how to go about portraiture, however I still didn’t know how to start my work so as a starting point I used the artists that were provided in the question: Jane Bown, Félix Nadar and Omar Victor Diop.
Each artist had different approach to portraiture, for example Félix Nadar’s images were more traditional for example the images were mid body length and the subjects were dressed smartly, whereas Omar Victor Diop’s images were more colourful and had a range of both full and mid body shots. This made me realise that portraiture isn’t just a simple simple image that has a plain background, smart plain clothes and the subject standing with a neutral face. After my research I thought about what threshold concepts may relate the portrait photography and I found that threshold concept 2, 6 and 10, I had explain why I picked those particular ones and how they relate to portrait photography.
While taking my images I had had experimented multiple times for example so of the times I had either used my phone and or a DSLR camera. I also frequently varied from using a studio with the lights and background and using natural lighting, I preferred to use the natural lighting and so therefore most of my images are outside. I personally feel like that this was the best way to express myself, keeping them For most of my images I had used Adobe Photoshop to edit them, whether that was enhancing particular colours within the image(s) or doing something more complex such as combining 2 / 3 images together. Once I’d edited using photoshop I had printed them out and while creating final pieces I use materials such as mount board, adhesive spray and scalpel.
The first experiment I had done was when I was doing a response to Jane Bown’s work. I took similar images to what she had done however, I had even research how she takes her images; using natural lighting which is what I had done to get my work to look similar to hers. I had taken them in colour and converted them into black and white, I’d taken them in colour just in case I wanted to use and experiment with the colour images, the option would be there. I realised that Bown's portraits is one of the most well - known ways to take images, I thought that this was quite an uninteresting way to take images, therefore I put all of the portrait images I had taken as response to Bown and I experimented with them in photoshop. I started by using the magic wand tool and selecting the woman's face and placed it next to another image of the same model, repeating this action a second time.
I slightly like the result of this because it looked like the shutter was open for a long period of time and the subject had moved. Although in parts of the image you can see where had cropped the face, which had taken away that ‘open shutter effect’. Because I didn’t necessarily like the outcome of that experiment,it resulted in me doing the same thing with the same images however this time I didn’t crop the background of the other images; I didn’t like this outcome either because the images just looked like they were place on top of each other. I didn’t know how I could improve either of these experiments so I continued to experiment with the images until I was happy with the outcome.
This allowed me to stumble upon my final experiment. I just two images that I had taken from the Bown response and overlapped them, I then faded the image that was on the top layer. Personally I was proud of this outcome because all the images had blended in with each other nicely, as if to was one whole image. Because I had such good outcome I had decided to do this with the rest of my images.
My final pieces are the ones I had created from my Jane Bown’s response and my final Juergen Teller’s response. For my Teller’s response I had created a list of actions for my subject to do, I had take images of both their reactions and responses, from this I had printed them and cut them out sticking them in the correct order; the order I had asked the questions. I done this for each model and had then printed out the instructions. For my final piece I’m going to place both set of instructions next to all of the images and allow the audience to decide which set of images match which set of instructions. As for my other final pieces I had printed them off and stuck the onto mount board making sure each one was exactly them same size, I’m then going to place each image underneath one another so it looks like a set of images.
I personally think that I had somewhat successfully explored the theme, however I don’t think that I had done it in complete depth, nonetheless I’m happy with the outcomes especially because I had turned all of my response images / photo shoots into something thats more personal to me and different than the artist(s) but still trying to relate it to them. At first I didn’t know how I wanted to display my work however I realised that I wanted the audience to at least interact with one of my final pieces, I was successful in doing this, I didn’t do any research on any displaying strategies because the ideas I had chosen, I had thought about after I had mounted my work onto mount board.
Firstly for one of my final pieces I hope that the audience interact with it like I intended and as for the reason of my final pieces I hope that they try and piece particular things together, for example i know my Jane Bown response were I had layered tow images they may ask, “How does this relate to portraiture?” or “ Are they related?” / “ Do they know each other?”. That’s my goal, for them to attempt to answer their own question, ow they interpret the image(s). If I had more time I would try and experiment more probably using different types of media as I possibly could, something like other computer applications to edit and or different cameras such as a film camera, or even use the dark room.
Each artist had different approach to portraiture, for example Félix Nadar’s images were more traditional for example the images were mid body length and the subjects were dressed smartly, whereas Omar Victor Diop’s images were more colourful and had a range of both full and mid body shots. This made me realise that portraiture isn’t just a simple simple image that has a plain background, smart plain clothes and the subject standing with a neutral face. After my research I thought about what threshold concepts may relate the portrait photography and I found that threshold concept 2, 6 and 10, I had explain why I picked those particular ones and how they relate to portrait photography.
While taking my images I had had experimented multiple times for example so of the times I had either used my phone and or a DSLR camera. I also frequently varied from using a studio with the lights and background and using natural lighting, I preferred to use the natural lighting and so therefore most of my images are outside. I personally feel like that this was the best way to express myself, keeping them For most of my images I had used Adobe Photoshop to edit them, whether that was enhancing particular colours within the image(s) or doing something more complex such as combining 2 / 3 images together. Once I’d edited using photoshop I had printed them out and while creating final pieces I use materials such as mount board, adhesive spray and scalpel.
The first experiment I had done was when I was doing a response to Jane Bown’s work. I took similar images to what she had done however, I had even research how she takes her images; using natural lighting which is what I had done to get my work to look similar to hers. I had taken them in colour and converted them into black and white, I’d taken them in colour just in case I wanted to use and experiment with the colour images, the option would be there. I realised that Bown's portraits is one of the most well - known ways to take images, I thought that this was quite an uninteresting way to take images, therefore I put all of the portrait images I had taken as response to Bown and I experimented with them in photoshop. I started by using the magic wand tool and selecting the woman's face and placed it next to another image of the same model, repeating this action a second time.
I slightly like the result of this because it looked like the shutter was open for a long period of time and the subject had moved. Although in parts of the image you can see where had cropped the face, which had taken away that ‘open shutter effect’. Because I didn’t necessarily like the outcome of that experiment,it resulted in me doing the same thing with the same images however this time I didn’t crop the background of the other images; I didn’t like this outcome either because the images just looked like they were place on top of each other. I didn’t know how I could improve either of these experiments so I continued to experiment with the images until I was happy with the outcome.
This allowed me to stumble upon my final experiment. I just two images that I had taken from the Bown response and overlapped them, I then faded the image that was on the top layer. Personally I was proud of this outcome because all the images had blended in with each other nicely, as if to was one whole image. Because I had such good outcome I had decided to do this with the rest of my images.
My final pieces are the ones I had created from my Jane Bown’s response and my final Juergen Teller’s response. For my Teller’s response I had created a list of actions for my subject to do, I had take images of both their reactions and responses, from this I had printed them and cut them out sticking them in the correct order; the order I had asked the questions. I done this for each model and had then printed out the instructions. For my final piece I’m going to place both set of instructions next to all of the images and allow the audience to decide which set of images match which set of instructions. As for my other final pieces I had printed them off and stuck the onto mount board making sure each one was exactly them same size, I’m then going to place each image underneath one another so it looks like a set of images.
I personally think that I had somewhat successfully explored the theme, however I don’t think that I had done it in complete depth, nonetheless I’m happy with the outcomes especially because I had turned all of my response images / photo shoots into something thats more personal to me and different than the artist(s) but still trying to relate it to them. At first I didn’t know how I wanted to display my work however I realised that I wanted the audience to at least interact with one of my final pieces, I was successful in doing this, I didn’t do any research on any displaying strategies because the ideas I had chosen, I had thought about after I had mounted my work onto mount board.
Firstly for one of my final pieces I hope that the audience interact with it like I intended and as for the reason of my final pieces I hope that they try and piece particular things together, for example i know my Jane Bown response were I had layered tow images they may ask, “How does this relate to portraiture?” or “ Are they related?” / “ Do they know each other?”. That’s my goal, for them to attempt to answer their own question, ow they interpret the image(s). If I had more time I would try and experiment more probably using different types of media as I possibly could, something like other computer applications to edit and or different cameras such as a film camera, or even use the dark room.