RESEARCH METHODS

Early Printing Methods

Daguerreotype

             Long before group f64 was even heard of, two photographers were developing their own methods of producing photographic prints in the early 19th century. These pioneers of print were the French man Louise Jacques Mande Daguerre and the Englishman William Henry Fox Talbot.

Louise Jacques Mande Daguerre  1787-1851

Daguerre perfected the method of producing an image directly onto a silver iodide coated copper plate around 1837. Each image created was a singular image that could not be copied. In some cases the image would be painted by applying a thin coating of gum arabic and then having powdered colour pigment applied.

 

Examples of painted Daguerreotype images

_________________________________________________________________________________

William Henry Fox Talbot 1800-1877

Calotype

                 Instead of copper plate, Fox used silver iodide coated paper to produce a translucent image. Once this image had been made, it could be used over and over again to produce copies.

Example of a calotype image

_________________________________________________________________________________

Wet Collodian Method

Fredrick Scott Archer 1813-1857

Moving forward to 1851, Archer produced the first detailed negatives on glass, after which many paper prints could be produced from the one negative. Talbot was so convinced the method was only a variation on his Calotype method and brought a lawsuit against Archer that was dismissed. By the end of the 1860's this method became popular practically superseding the Daguerre method.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Mathew Brady 1822-1896

Brady and his team of around twenty photographers were responsible for thousands of photographs depicting the American civil war. Brady used the daguerreotype method in his early work and went on to use the wet collodian method in the field which required a portable dark room. So called as the plates were coated with a mixture of collodian and silver nitrate and were placed in the camera, still wet, for exposure.

Union artillery. American civil war

_________________________________________________________________________________

Sally Mann

1951-

Mann was a controversial figure in the world of photography, most notable for publishing photographs of her three daughters, in the nude. Her book entitled, 'Immediate family' was met with praise and great acclaim but in some quarters was looked upon as bordering on child pornography. It seems an age old argument ,where art and beauty, conflict with taste and morality. In context, this book was published before the age of the internet and the modern problems of online pornography, but it could be said, even in the nineteen nineties, there was an awareness of child pornography and child grooming .  Out of the 65 Photo's,  depicted in the book, 13 were of her naked daughters. Her defence was that child pornography was not in the public's conscience at the time. From a photographic view point, she went on to use the above mentioned wet collodian method in the nineties to photograph landscapes, using antique cameras from the early 1890's.

An Image of one of Sally Manns daughters's that would probably get you arrested today if found on your computer.
_________________________________________________________________________________



Photo Secessionists
The American counterpart of
 'The Linked Ring'

1902

The secessionist movement was led by Alfred Stieglitz. This was before the Group f 64 was founded and photography was in its transition from pictorialism to vorticism and futurism. Photographers could be seen to be producing painting like photographs. At about the same time, Straight photography was beginning to merge where the images were not manipulated and were to be sharp focused photographs of objects and landscapes.

High Seas by Joseph Petrocelli.

Pictorial photography still being produced in the early 1920's

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alfred Stieglitz, 1907.

Straight photography
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lewis Hine 1910 approximate.
Straight picture documenting the working conditions of children in the early 20th century.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paul Strand straight picture of wall street in 1915.
Strand was actually apprenticed to Hind

_________________________________________________________________________________

Pioneers of Photography

Joseph Nicephore Niepce

Credited with producing the first know photograph that has survived since around 1826. The heliograph as Niepce named it was a view from a bedroom window on his own estate in Le Gras France.  The exposure was made on a pewter plate with a coating of bitumen judea, a light sensitive material. It is said the exposure was up to eight hour to produce a positive image when only the light hardened bitumen remained after the rest is washed off.

 The original unenhanced plate.

Robert Cornelius

Said to be the first portrait taken in 1839. Cornelius specialised in silver plating and metal polishing and used his knowledge of such metals attempted to perfect the daguerreotype method. Daguerre himself though has unwittingly taken a pictue of a person a year earlier in a photograph of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. Two figures had been still long enough to be captured in the long exposure...below.

Boulevard Du Temple. Daguerre 1838

Anna Atkins

Not only noted as possibly the first woman to create a photograph, (though Constance Fox Talbot was an obvious contestant),  but also the first person to publish a book containing photographic images. As an English botanist and Photographer she learned first hand from Talbot about his calotype photography and also a method of placing objects on a photographic plate, known as Photogenic Drawing or  Cyanotype, invented in 1842.  A process producing a blue print, was discovered by Sir John Herschel. The method gave its name to blueprints used in industry as a cheap way to copy engineering drawings

 Cyanotype prints by Atkins, also known as Sun Prints.

Sir John Herschel  1792-1871

An English scientist who became interested in photography and the inventor of the original blueprint.
This photography was made by Julia Margret Cameron in 1867

Julia Margret Cameron

Cameron was an British photographer taking up the hobby in her late 40's. In her short career she became known form her portraits of the times celebrities, using Archers wet collodian method. She was also know to have collaborated with Gustaf Rejilander and is thought to have produced the below image from layering ferns around one of Rejilanders negatives onto photographic paper

Kate Dore 1862









Hippolyte Bayard    1807-1887 

Invented the direct positive process to produce a print straight onto paper without a negative. This rivaled Daguerre's method though daguerre stole the lime light leading Bayard taking a self portrait as the walked over "drowned man" 1840


Oscar Gustave Rejlander 1813-1875

Was a member of the Linked Ring along with photographers such as Henry Peach Robinson who were making it clear that photography was an art and not just a science. Above is a layered negative entitled
Rejlander Introduces Rejlander 1871
Rejlander also worked producing photographs for Charles Darwen




Timothy H O'Sullivan  1840-1882

Elk Mountain signal tower, Maryland 1862

O'Sullivan was probably of Irish descent, but little known of his early life. He later became employed by Mathew Brady and went on to take pictures of the American Civil War'


Roger Fenton 1819-1868

 Lancashire photographer known for his photographs, of the Crimean War 1853 - 1856



Gaspard Felix Tournachon (nadar) 1820-1910

French photographer known for his aerial photos taken from hot air balloons.

Carleton Watkins..1829-1916

American landscape photographer who used large 18 x 22 inch glass plates.

Also used stereoscopic imagery for 3d effect

Influenced Ansel Adams

Eadweard Moybridge  1830-1904

English photographer. Very interested in the study of motion.

After shooting and killing his wife's lover, his defence was to plead insanity due to a severe head injury some 14years earlier. Muybridge insisited it was a deliberate act and his plea of insanity was thrown out. He was still aquitted though on grounds of justifiable homicide against the judges instruction

John Thompson 1837-1921

Extensively travelled taking picture of around the world.

Fredrick Evans...1853-1943

British Photographer. Though photographed portraits and landscapes, he was more known for his photographs of architecture. Above, Westminster Abbey. Gave uop photography because of rising cost of platinum for the platinotype method he used. 

Frank Meadow Sutclifffe 1853-1941

Famously worked in Whitby where he photographed the controversial water rats picture (1886), which got him excommunicated from the church by the local clergy for 'corruption of the other sex'.He was known to use a Full Plate camera which was big and cumbersome.

Full Plate camera as used by Sutcliffe

Peter Henry Emerson 1856-1936

A British writer and photographer known for his nature and rural work, though born in Cuba.


Edward  Steichan 1879-1973

An American photographer and one of Stieglitz's favourites who appeared many times in Alfred Stieglitz's famous magazine 'Camera Work'. Together with Stieglitz, they opened the 'little galleries' that became the 291 gallery after the address.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dusseldorf School of Photography

Beginning in the mid 1970's, the school was founded by Bernd and Hilla, Becher.
The Betcher's were noted for taking photographs of the disapearing industrial structures. These were taken in a straight forward objective manner as a record of a disappearing world. Many well noted modern photographers have started their careers at this school, and it has become an influence on modern photography.

Bernd and Hilla, Becher 1974
'Pit heads'

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(The Brotherhood of ) The Linked Ring

Founded by Peach Robinson as the counterpart to the American Photo Secessionists proclaiming Photography as much an art as a science. Members included the above Frederick Evans and
 Oscar Gustave Rejlander
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vorticism and Futurism

      Prior to the formation of Group f64 in 1934, artists such as Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson and Percy wyndham were painting in the styles of vorticism and futurism.

       Vorticism reflected the new machine age and was coloured also by the earlier cubism age, using brash colours and harsh lines to depict their meaning

Wyndham Lewis

Workshop   1914–15 

 Also, another product of cubism was Futurism, where the artists would meld the ideas of Vorticism and the machine age, with the onset of new ideas and technologies which gave their abstract art its unique modern appearance. The below painting could easily be an abstract paining of a modern car so in its portrayal it has become timeless. Futurism's point totally validated.

 

Dynamism of a Car. 

Luigi Russolo 1913

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The straight photography movement and the Group f64

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer who lived through the end of the 19th century and into the 20th, dying at the age of 82 in 1946. As well as being a photographer he was also an exponent of modern art which culminated in the first exhibitions of modern art in America at the 291 gallery in New York.  As well as featuring pioneering photographers of the time such as, Edward Steichen, Clarence H White and Alvin Coburn, amongst others, he also featured prominent artists such as Picasso, Matisse and the French sculptor  Auguste Rodin. Up until now Pictorialism had dominated the art of photography and photographs were more akin to works of art with soft edges, lacking any sharp focus and some even had brush strokes where the image had been manipulated. Influenced by the 291 Gallery exhibition, Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand were to popularise a new form of photography called straight photography; the idea being, to produce clear sharp high contrast images of the real world. While painters were moving away from, painting to reproduce what they saw, and turning to new forms of expression such as cubism and surrealism, photographers were moving from artistic forms of photography into precise depictions of the real world, with sharp clear images. And so the straight photography movement came about which gave birth to the short lived Group f64 who went on to create their first exhibition in 1932.

Group f64

Ansel Adams Merced river Yosimite

So named after the smallest aperture setting of f64, to create a precise clear depiction of the image with a full depth of field, the group 's original seven members were;

Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, Willard Van Dyke, Henry Swift, John Paul Edwards and Sonya Noskowiak. 

Other Photographers were invited to display their work at the  group f64 exhibitions. The first invites were handed out to;

Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson and Brett Weston 

Edward Weston straight photography close up

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Context within the fields of creative endeavour

We all have the ability to create art and hopefully have the drive and imagination to do so. But, if one understands the formal elements that make up a work of art we can then understand that, that is the context that forms the basis for creativity. To understand the context that art is created in, can be a valuable tool to creative achievement.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Formal qualities of artwork

Like a formal occasion that becomes the sum of its parts, a piece of art is also made up of formal elements, or qualities. A wedding for example has many formal parts. The invitations, the reception, the dress, the taxi's, the flowers, the church, etc are all elements of the special day, but not necessarily all of them are used. Art also has a number of elements that make up its  formal qualities, and it has long since been established that there are seven of these in the form of..

Line
Pretty much as it sounds. A line drawn straight, curved or any number of ways by any drawing or painting implement.

Shape
Any shape that can be formed by lines and is two dimensional

Form
Three dimensional shapes that have depth.

Tone, sometimes  refereed to as Value 
The overall dark and,or, light areas of colour

Texture

Texture can be real to the touch or a virtual texture that appears to be texture, through use of any of the elements of art to create the illusion.

Pattern
Any repeating visual pattern

Colour
Colour or hue is what the eye sees when light is reflected off a surface. When mixing paint, all colours can be made up from the three primary colours which are red, blue and yellow. Where photography is concerned, the medium for mixing colour is light. The three primary colours of light that you would find as an adobe standard colour gamut are red, green and blue, commonly referred to as RGB. Most  modern monitors show a  slightly smaller colour gamut known as sRGB

A piece of art may not necessarily have all these parts, some may have them all. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Modernist Art

The Modernist order can be very complex and at first, the works of art during the modernist movement,  may not appear to be connected to the real world, but they are a result of the surroundings and a reflection of the view of the world at that time.

Surrealism is an example of modernist art which began around 1920.

The first days of spring. 1929.

Salvador Dali 

Unexpected Answer. 1933.

Rene Magritte

_________________________________________________________________________________

Wabi Sabi

Based on Japanese ideals going back two centuries, the term wabi sabi deals with the acceptance of imperfection. Or put simply, perfection in imperfection.

The broken pot

The weeds in a stone pavement joint

Contextual Studies. The lecture's by P.Grace,

Contextual studies deals with historical social ideas, movements and tendencies in art and design, where art relates to design and vice versa.

One can relate contextual studies to ones own personnel preferences, the cultural significance of art and design, and the synthesising and driving together of different ideas. One can then form a critique, or critical analysis which can take into account ones own aesthetic judgement, deciding if the piece of art or design is personally likeable, and if so, why?

Art, design and photography relating to social events and causes.

An example of art attracting attention to the social subject of Human Rights by

American designer and illustrator Paula Scher.

 Photographer Pierre-Emmanuel Michel bringing attention to Project Pearls, a charity helping out with the social issues relating to the poorest children in the Philipines.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Modernism.

The modernist order is open to wide interpretation but is concerned with the change in art and design as it is being influenced by the social culture at any given moment in time.

Modernism in itself is the cultural response to modernity, though when did modernity begin? How far back does one go. The industrial revolution is an example of a big change in art, design, photography and even music which were all influenced by this particular event at the beginning of the 18th century.

A 'Robert's loom depicting the art work of its time 1835.

Photography during the industrial revolution.

By Robert Howlett, (1831-1858) who was commissioned to photograph the building of The Great Eastern (1857)

Study era to be 1860 to 1960.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Bauhaus

The Bahaus building in the German town, Dessau

Founded in 1925/1926 and designed by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus was a school of art with various workshops dealing with art and design post WW1. The school ran from 1919 to 1933 in three cities beginning in Weimar and ending in Berlin. The Bauhaus in Dessau ran from 1925 to 1932. It was eventually close through pressure from the Nazi's.

Walter Gropius, “Bauhaus Manifesto and Program” (1919)

 The ultimate aim of all visual arts is the complete building! To embellish buildings was once the noblest function of the fine arts; they were the indispensable components of great architecture. Today the arts exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, cooperative effort of all craftsmen. Architects, painters, and sculptors must recognize anew and learn to grasp the composite character of a building both as an entity and in its separate parts. Only then will their work be imbued with the architectonic spirit which it has lost as “salon art.” The old schools of art were unable to produce this unity; how could they, since art cannot be taught. They must be merged once more with the workshop. The mere drawing and painting world of the pattern designer and the applied artist must become a world that builds again. When young people who take a joy in artistic creation once more begin their life's work by learning a trade, then the unproductive “artist” will no longer be condemned to deficient artistry, for their skill will now be preserved for the crafts, in which they will be able to achieve excellence. Architects, sculptors, painters, we all must return to the crafts! For art is not a “profession.” There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. In rare moments of inspiration, transcending the consciousness of his will, the grace of heaven may cause his work to blossom into art. But proficiency in a craft is essential to every artist. Therein lies the prime source of creative imagination. Let us then create a new guild of craftsmen without the class distinctions that raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist! Together let us desire, conceive, and create the new structure of the future, which will embrace architecture and sculpture and painting in one unity and which will one day rise toward heaven from the hands of a million workers like the crystal symbol of a new faith. Walter Gropius.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer 1925

This design follows the adage Form follows function, where an object is designed with its intended use at the forefront of its concept.

Artwork by Piet Mondrian between 1920 and 1940

Composition C, Piet Mondrian. 1935

Geometric forms making their way into architecture during the modernist movement:-

The Villa Savoye in Poissy. 1928

A modernist villa designed by Swiss Architect

LeCorbusier

Vkhutemas

Vkhutmas was the Russian equivalent of the German Bauhaus and was founded in 1920, Moscow.

The book cover Architecture at Vkhutemas

by El Lissitzky

Alexander Rodchenko

A Painter and graphic designer who turned to photography completely in 1927. The years following the Russian revolution.

Examples of his work:-

As a graphic designer

As a photographer

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dadaism Movement 
 Disorder and Dissonance

The Dadaism movement was a reaction to WW1 and began around 1916 from Zurich to New york and Paris etc, the first Dada exhibition being in Berlin, June 1920. The movement was a rejection of logic and reason and produced a more nonsensical disorder and dissonance to art forms.

The opening of the first Dada exhibition. The figure hanging from the ceiling is that of a German officer with a pigs head.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Dadaism was also portrayed in audio by Kurt Schwitters, in the piece entitled

Ursonate, which was an early example of sound poetry'

_________________________________________________________________________________

Vladimir Mayakovsky

The author of  'The Bathhouse' written in 1929. A 6 act drama satirising the growth of bureaucracy and its control over social goals and individual lives.

Dada Artist Hanna Hoch. 1889-1978

Cut with a kitchen knife, H.Hoch (1919) 

One of Hoch's political collage, photo montage, works, depicting images and text criticising the failings of the German government.

_________________________________________________________________________________Dada Artist George Gosz

A prominent member of the Berlin Dada group. Known for his paintings and drawings of Berlin life.

Especially attacking the social corruption of Germany relating to capitalist's, the middle classes and even prostitutes. 

Suicide. 1916 

_________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Art and the Russian Revolution 1918

The Bolsheviks, the reds, came to power by defeating the 'whites', an anti communist force, during the Russian civil war 1917-1922.

A Soviet propaganda poster showing the rise of the proletariat against the capitalist state in an illustrative style.

A more abstract piece of propaganda.

A 1919 poster with English translation.

A man with a movie camera.

A movie about ordinary everyday life in Russia after the revolution by Dziga Vertov

The Battleship Potemkin

In 1905 during that years revolution, seen as a prequel to the 1917 Russian revolution, The crew of the Russian Battleship Potemkin rebelled against the officers on board. A film by Sergei Eisenstein used the mutiny as a basis foir his movie 'The battleship Potemkin'

The Odessa Steps, sequence from the movie. Some scholars believe that the massacre never actually happened as portrayed in the movie.

By 1924, after the Russian revolution, Lenin became the first communist leader. These were revolutionary times affecting the social and political values in Russian society.

In 1930 the symbiotic nature of art and design were producing new works such as the 1924 movie by Yakov Protazanov 'Aelita, Queen of mars' which deals with the very subject of revolution in its storyline.

Yakov Protazanov's  'Aelita, Queen of mars'

_________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Studio Photographers 

The three genres of photography are.

1   Portrait

2   Landscapes

3   Still life.

Be familiar with iconic studio photographers, understanding types of studio photography to avoid and understand how to evaluate images.

Types of studio photography to avoid examples:-

Simplistic and generic with simple shallow depth of field for effect. 

Staged unnatural pose for a dog with same shallow depth to obtain a modicum of effect.

Standard family shot devoid of any personal character with not a lot to say about the family in question.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Irving Penn 1917-2009

American, Penn was best known for his portrait photographs having worked for Vogue magazine, and also as an independent for clients such as Miyake and Clinique.

Salvador Dali by Irving Penn, 1947,  gifted by Penn to the American Art museum. Penn showing Dali as the flamboyant, eccentric surrealist painter.

A more serious pose to show the status of the subject, King Gustav VI of Sweden in 1964.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Richard Avedon 1923-2004

American, Avedon was known for his portraits and his work in the fashion industry. He once said, quote "My portraits are more about me than they are about the people I photograph'.

Said to have helped define the American style and culture for the last 50 years or so.

A less than flattering portrait of Marilyn Monroe which says more about the reality of the actresses life rather than the glitzy Hollywood portrayal we all know.

Shot in 1993 for that years Versace campaign in New York, featuring models, Kate Moss and Aya Thorgren.

A similar set of pictures were taken with the same theme in mind

These wild poses were said to reflect the fashion of its time portraying the models as wild women with striking 'violent' patterns. A statement about the feminist energy of the time.

"If you do what I've done, which is to record the beauty of your time, that doesn't go out of fashion." Avedon
_________________________________________________________________

Albert Watson 1942-

Scottish photographer known for photographing fashion portraits and art and also commercial work. has shot covers for rolling stone magazine and vogue since the 70's. and also created major campaigns for company's including Prada, Levi and Chanel

Created in 1992, for Rolling Stone magazine, is this composite photograph of Mick Jagger and a leopard. Maybe Watson wanted to portray Jagger as the bad boy animal in the world of music at the time.

Watson's more commercial work shows that his interest wasn't totally in fashion and art. Here taking a photograph of a glove recovered from the burial room of Tutankhamen, in a pretty much, catalogue photograph style. Watson was not adverse to still life showing himself to be a versatile photographer, not hindered by the fact he has been blind in one eye since birth.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Jan Groover 1943-2012

In the 70's groover experimenting with the latest colour technologies and produced many still life pictures centred around kitchenware.

Various kitchen item, painted and positioned to fill the frame. Groover's photographs tended not to leave a lot of empty space.

 More kitchen utensils,  filling all the space in the frame. Groover took to still and made this particular style her own.

_________________________________________________________________________________

John Blakemore 1936-

An English photographer who has a huge catalogue of landscape and skilled life. This picture is one from his slight tulip obsession at the time. Taken from his book The Stilled Gaze, 1994.

"The tulip became an object of attention and fascination. It became both text and pretext for an activity of picture-making". Blackmore.

Here he explorers the nature of tulips and the way the react to time, opposed to the daffodil for example that, in his words, lives and dies to attention. The Birds nest could a hint at new life being created as the tulips die away.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Paulette Tavormina 1949

An American 'Fine Art' photographer best known for her series Natura Morta (still life) taking photographs influenced by the still life painters of the 17th century.

An arrangement of flowers, shells and small insects, butterfly's and in this case, goldfish, apparently trying to flee their prison or confinement.

A collage of notes and pictures and little keepsakes that you would find in a romantic setting.

This photograph entitled love stories.

A photograph in the same style entitled Love Notes.

Having worked for six year in Sotheby's auction house in New York she had developed a taste for fine art. Also having a grounding in the food industry she still takes photographic images for cook books.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Felix Nadar 1820-1910

An early self portrait of the french photographer 1865. Maybe took as a way of showing people the whole person, or self, rather than the two dimensional restrictions of portraiture. Photography at the time was a new phenomenon and unwittingly Nadar had really created the frames of a movie, before movies were even possible.

The frames played as a movie

Edouard manet

Nadars portrait of French painter Edouard manet. A casual relaxed shot showing Nadar could go from experimental to standard portraits. 

Hadar's experimentation took him to great height's, literally, as he became was the first photographer to take aerial photos.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Brian Griffin 1948-

"Ive spent a lifetime tidying up the world" Griffin.

        British photographer known for his mostly staged photographs of the working classes developing a style which has been referred to as Capitalist Realism

Black country Factory worker 2010.

 Could be said to be portraying capitalism at its worst with only the working classes getting their hands dirty while the wealthy reap the benefits. A  link to the Black Country, so called because of the 30 foot coal seam that comes to the surface in the area.

Harrison Ford as Han Solo

A completely different genre, portraying the actor as the character he is playing rather than being a standard, face on portrait.  Han Solo, man of action.

Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia.

A clever use of movement in the Carrie's cape to simulate wind in the outside world or an alien planet, though most likely a staged studio shot.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Olivier Richon 1956-

A Swiss photographer and a professor and the head of photography at the Royal College of Art in London, where he now resides.  A keen photographer of animals and still life, which sounds a bit of an oxymoron, but not all his photos of animals are of dead ones. These are two pictures from his Acadia solo show in London. It had a general theme of hunting with no clue as to the photographers personal views on the subject

 Acedia show2013.
 Showing two severed Salmon heads. The result of hunting for food showing what is discarded or used for dog food, perhaps, when the 'human' animal has taken his fill.

The Quarry 1995

 A dead deer that could have been hunted for food, but more likely to have been hunted for the sheer pleasure of the hunt. The animal is shown discarded and of no use to anyone once its purpose as pray has been fulfilled. Richon has left the interpretation to the individual observer, though a clear message of exploitation is being sent.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Norman Riley 1954-

Born in Munich and now living in Washington, driven to work in Black and White from the start purely because it was cheaper.

A photo of a manikin repair shop. There is a bit of movement in one of the 'arm's. As Riley is known for the occasional portrait and landscape, and more so for his abstract creations, below, its hard to imagine what the manikin picture is doing in his collection as it stands remotely from his usual work. The photograph itself can be seen to be the disembodied, mainly, arms on a production line which is in contrast to the usual items on a production line with the arm belonging to the workers about their tasks.

Rileys abstract creations show the artist also has a penchant for art and design in the filed of model and sculpture and has a hands on approach to create what he is photographing.

More Noted Photographers

Roy Stryker 1893-1975

An economist, government official and photographer who worked for the Far Security Administration in the USA and set up a photo documentary project about the plight of the poor  in rural areas. Stryker actually hired photographers such as Dorothy Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and Walker Evans to name but a few.

One of Walker Evans photographs showing the hole punched by Stryker to prevent publication.


Karl Blossfeldt 1865-1932

 German photographer best known for close up photographs of plant and other living things.

His 1928 book Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature) became an international best seller.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Primary Research Questionnaire. Photography.

Open questions

Questions designed to solicit an informative in depth answer.

1.   When did you first become interested in photography and why?

2.   What type of photography do you find you are drawn towards and what do you find appealing about that particular style?

3.   What are you views about the fact that most people  now, have access to a camera on their mobile phones, and what do you think affect this has on the photographic industry?

4 .  What equipment do you use, and why do you favour that particular make or sort?

5.   How far and how often do you travel in pursuit of the perfect photography.

6.   What are you opinions on the post processing and photographic manipulation in the industry.

7.   Do you believe you need the best of equipment to take the best photographs and what would you recommend as a starting point.

Closed questions

Questions design to solicit an answer that is difficult or not necessary to expand upon. The answer being a straight forward yes or no, or a factual piece of information.

1.   Are you married?

2.   Do you have children?

3.   How old were you when you bought your first camera?

4.   What make and model was it?

5.   Do you own your own studio.
6.   Do you think a degree in photography will help you obtain a satisfactory income.

Multiple choice questions

1.   Which field of photography  would you like to specialise in?

     A.    Landscape

     B.    Portrait

     C.    Still life

2.  What style of photography are you most attracted to?

     A.    Fashion

     B.    Sport

     C.    Wildlife

     D.    Macro
     E.     Other (Please state)

3.  How important is it to buy the best photographic equipment?

     A.    Very important

     B.     Important

     C.     Not important 

     D.    Unnecessary

4.  Which medium do you prefer to use to take photographs.
     A.    Digital
     B.    Colour Film
     C.    Black and white film
     D.    All

5.  If money was no object, which camera from this list would you buy.
     A.    Canon EOS 6D Mark II
     B.   Canon EOS 5DS
     C.   Nikon D610
     D.   Nikon D850

_____________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________

Still life through the ages and symbolism

Holbein 'Ambassadors'
Note objects in the picture can be symbolic. Such as the book and musical instrument to symbolise culture. In the background we have a globe and instruments that seem to be connected to travel and exploration. In the foreground, Hobein has cleverly created an image of a skull that can be seen whole from an angle. This shows how an understanding of perspective is becoming more prevalent in paintings.

            _______________________________________________________________________________

Research methods assignment

Task 1

Learning outcomes 1,2,3

On your blog or in your visual note-book discuss your understanding of ‘Research.’ This should include an overview of a range of research methods and techniques. Describe the difference between quantitative and qualitative methods and show examples. Explain primary and secondary research and show examples.

Research

     Research and information can be obtained from many sources, and be categorised as Primary or Secondary research.

   Primary and Secondary Research

     Primary research is the up front hands on research. Interviewing people that are directly connected to the theme of your research. Doing surveys, talking to focus groups, observations and interviews are all forms of primary research. Basically getting as much information at source before it has been filtered down through repetition and hearsay.

Primary research in an interview, going straight to the source of information

     Secondary research is the use of information that is already available, that has been researched by someone else. Any information you take from a book or encyclopedia, or any fact given to you by a third party, be it a news item on television or in a newspaper, can be said to be secondary research.

Library as an example of secondary research.

     In the modern age of the internet the information overload is not necessarily a good thing. It is true that one can input, into the myriad of search engines, any topic, subject, name or place etc and be bombarded with an overwhelming mountain of information. some of which is true and useful and other material of an apocryphal nature. All of which is secondary research. 

Quantitive  Research

     Quantitative research is the way by which any research can be quantified in a structured way, by collecting information from a wide base of sources so that one can generalise ones results.                       For example. The quantitative data collected from individual countries appertaining to their yearly climate temperature, leads us to the generalisation that there is indeed, global warming, taking place.

     The information collected in the above example would have been scientifically measured and, most importantly, accurate. Other ways of collecting factual data and information could include, surveys, polls, interviews and observations from reliable sources.
To summarise,  quantitative research is research that can be measured and quantified. so that useful information can be accurately ascertained.

Qualitative Research

     Basically, the quality of the research. Qualitative research is more about ideas and opinions that can be gleaned from, for example, group discussions and observations. It is more about exploring ideas and reasons behind those ideas.  Qualitative  research, though, can be unstructured and does not have to adhere to counts and measures. Any insights gained from this type of research can be used to do more thorough Quantitative research.

Quality or quantity

     Quality is always much better than quantity, which brings us back to the original point about the amount of information that is available to us in the modern world through web pages such as Wikipedia. Being a free crowd sourced platform, Wikipedia is open to errors in information, and a 2005 study placed a figure of 80% accuracy on its data
     It is  advisable to check the authenticity of any research source, by comparing with alterantive sources.

Ethics In Photography

Anonymity
     This is concerned with the rights of the person of whom you take a photograph. It is not ethically right to take a photograph of a person and use that persons image for your own projects or financial gain without that persons consent. Street photography can be a problem as there are the faces of many people in view and it is not ethical or well mannered to point a camera at an individual, unknown to you, and take their photograph. If you do see someone of interest or maybe a street artist, it is always best, where possible to ask permission. This of course does not mean that you could sell that photograph. But, of course, when we see a newspaper article recording an event, there are many recognisable faces in the photograph, so is there a difference?
     Newspaper and magazine pictures  are editorial, usually depicting a public event, in a public arena, and it is lawfully acceptable to publish these images.
      For example, a Royal Wedding photograph can be used as an editorially but one could not reproduce those pictures as large prints and then sell them to the general public.

Prince Harry and Megan's wedding day. An editorial photo opportunity.

Ethics relating to research

     It is lawful to stand on public property and take pictures of private property, but the super zoom lenses of today seem to make a mockery of that law and the paparazzi take full advantage of it as this example shows.

Bruce Jenner. Transgender Olympic gold medallist having his privacy violated by unethical paparazzi. Clearly permission was not granted for this picture to be taken or used. Which brings us to, how to obtain permission to use the likeness of a model.

Model Release
     Permission to use an image of a person can be obtained through a Model Release form. A model release is a contract signed by a person or model, and the photographer, along with the date and a description of the photograph itself. Any person under 18yrs old the form must be signed by a parent or guardian. The form will have specific instructions to say what the image may be used for, who owns the image, and any other conditions relevant to it. In other words, getting consent off the subject to make and use the photograph. On stock photography websites, such as Shutter stock and Adobe Stock, they are so strict about anonymity that any picture, even in a public place that is not connected to an event, (which would make the picture available for editorial use), would be dismissed if there was any recognisable face that did not have a model release attached to it

Photography and the Law. Know your facts.
     The Royal Photographic Society have issued guidelines supported by the Association of Polices Chief Officers to inform the photographer of his rights when taking photographs in public places.

       Responsibilities of a photographer   

As a photographer there are certain responsibilities one has to have, for example:-

Being knowledgeable about the profession and being proficient with the equipment one uses.
Liaising with other professionals in the business.
Actively seeking out subjects and locations to photograph.
Liaising with the client or model  to achieve the best working result.
Arranging lighting and be knowledgeable of the use of constant and flash lighting.
Presenting finished work in the requested format to a satisfactory professional degree.
Achieve a level of professionalism and a client base by creating a body of work.
Safe storage and back up of all digital files and any hard copies. Dated and references for future retrieval.

Task 2

Learning outcome 4

Your proposal should contain:

•   A description of an event, situation or other piece of work that you wish to make work in response to
  
• 
  
• 
  
•  
• Edward Weston 1886-1958

"The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh." 
                                                              

 (‘Edward Weston’s “Cabbage”, an Icon of Modernist Photography’, 2018) 1931

The majority of Weston's close up still life photographs were made in black and white, though he did use colour in his later landscape photography. Weston was a member of the f64 group in the early 1930's producing what was known as straight photography, creating high contrast photographs of what seems like mundane objects. The photograph of a simple cabbage, lit in such a fashion and photographed in the 'straight photography' style displays a large range of tonality, texture, shape and form, all key components of the formal qualities of art. Also note the deep depth of field as was the fashion of the F64 group Photographers.

(‘12 Great Photographs By Edward Weston’, 2017)

  An explanation of what your work is about 

As a response to Westons work this proposal will attempt to bring Westons work into the modern digital age, yet preserving the look, contrast and intent of the original photographs.

Weston was originally a Pictorialist, producing photographs that were akin to  paintings but his association with Alfred Stieglitz  gave him a more modernist approach to photography and he began to have a fascination with shapes and forms.  Weston produced made many photographs of the humble  cabbage which he developed a certain fascination for.

  These photographs led him to be regarded as an icon of modernist photography.

  A description of your research and practice methodologies that will allow you to 
define the parameters of your project 

 It appears that the photograph of the cabbage leaf and the pepper were lit from above and there is evidence looking at the shadows that only one lights source was used. Westons pictures were taken with a large format camera and taken using relatively long exposures I hope to emulate the style by using a modern digital camera.

  Discuss others work that will have an influence upon your own.

                As we move into the modern age,  black and white still life photographs are still being made, such as this flower by Joel Tjintjelaar

(Tjintjelaar, 2015)

Tjintjelaar's still life photograph could easily be labelled as a modernist and is not far removed from the high contrast F64 style of the late 1920's and 30's.  It is a  photograph of a simple subject, lit in such a way as to emphasise the shapes and contours of the petals in much the same way as the texture, shape and form are portrayed  in Weston's cabbage leaves.

Keeping to this model, this project will produce black and white photographs as a tribute to Weston's style of photography.

Other High contrast photography is evident in this street photography shot by

Nico Goodden  (https://www.nicholasgooddenphotography.co.uk)

In this photograph, Goodden says he was more interested in the lines and shapes rather than telling a story.

  Describe what you hope to learn from this practical research project.
 From this exercise a better understanding of using light to accentuate the shape and form of a still life object is hoped to be attained. To learn a better understanding of the use of continuous light rather a flash to create much softer shadows than a harsh flash.

Studio lighting set up to create Research brief photographs.

 Overhead continuous light. Strobe to left. Speedlite fill to right

____________________________________________________

 Flagged continuous light

_________________________

________________________

Flagged continuous light with white card and paper to bounce extra light onto left surface

An attempt to create the full tonal range as seen in Weston's original cabbage leaf

________________________

_________________________

Continuous light with white card reflector too left. Mushroom suspended in mid air by use of a cocktail stick.

____________________________________________________________________

More pics from the shoot

Development Photographs from this shoot:-

Overexposed by too much continuous light creating harsh shadows

Lit from upper right front with white paper reflector for fill at the rear. Still too much hard light.

Toothpick pro and card surface. Ambient light soft shadow to right with hard light shadow to left. It was decided that using flash creates too much hard light and hard shadows.

Trying to adjust the light as to light the whole cut area leaving no shadow.

Original colour photograph before converting to black and white for the intended effect.

Overexposed first shot of mushroom showing supporting cocktail stick.

Improvement on light position.

Further experimentation with Weston style photography.

Focus too shallow compared with Weston's photographs.

 Unsatisfactory hard shadow due to small hard light source'

DateTime - 2018:12:15 20:34:18

ExposureTime - 13 seconds

FNumber - 22

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ShutterSpeedValue - 13 seconds

FocalLength - 105.00 mm

Snoot grid fitted to LED panel.

Re positioned light source to shorten intrusive shadow. Taken at F40 to greatly increase

depth of field

DateTime - 2018:12:15 20:34:20

ExposureTime - 13 seconds

FNumber - 40

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ISOSpeedRatings - 64

ShutterSpeedValue - 13 seconds

ApertureValue - F 40.00

FocalLength - 105.00 mm

Softened shadow by moving the light further away creating the effect of a larger light source.

Even at f51, the dof can be quite shallow with a 105mm macro lens.

ExposureTime - 30 seconds

FNumber - 51

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ISOSpeedRatings - 64

DateTimeOriginal - 2018:12:15 21:50:07

ShutterSpeedValue - 30 seconds

FocalLength - 105.00 mm

Keeping the light soft and at a  distance to reduce hard shadows, using  F18 stop to show off the

webbing leaving the outer edge slightly out of focus.

ExposureTime - 3 seconds

FNumber - 18

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ISOSpeedRatings - 64

DateTimeOriginal - 2018:12:15 22:04:32

ShutterSpeedValue - 3 seconds

ApertureValue - F 18.00

FocalLength - 105.00 mm

Using a slit in a piece of cardboard light was skimmed across the surface of this mushroom. A white reflector was used to add light to the left side, though the light was quite harsh on the right edge.

ExposureTime - 6 seconds

FNumber - 16

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ISOSpeedRatings - 64

DateTimeOriginal - 2018:12:15 22:14:29

ShutterSpeedValue - 6 seconds

ApertureValue - F 16.00

FocalLength - 105.00 mm

_______________________________________________________

Here, the light was adjusted to create deeper shadows adding to the contrast. The reflected light on the left was removed and the light was missing the right hand edge.

ExposureTime - 5 seconds
FNumber - 16
ExposureProgram - Manual control
ISOSpeedRatings - 64
DateTimeOriginal - 2018:12:15 22:15:41
ShutterSpeedValue - 5 seconds
ApertureValue - F 16.00
FocalLength - 105.00 mm
___________________________________________________________

Below. One shallow and one deep depth of field. Single light source with long exposures

ExposureTime - 1.6 seconds

FNumber - 11

ExposureProgram - Manual control

ISOSpeedRatings - 64

DateTimeOriginal - 2018:12:15 22:25:19

ShutterSpeedValue - 2 seconds

ApertureValue - F 11.00

FocalLength - 105.00 mm

ExposureTime - 1/10 seconds
FNumber - 3.20
ExposureProgram - Manual control
ISOSpeedRatings - 64
DateTimeOriginal - 2018:12:15 22:26:19
ShutterSpeedValue - 1/10 seconds
ApertureValue - F 3.20
FocalLength - 105.00 mm