Shannon - Overview

This project has been quite an experience for me.

It was based around problem solving and team work, this is exactly what happened and followed through without many complications.

I feel that team work is a great way to work as a module as such as this, it gets people talking and out into the more professional standard of working - Great practice for those who are going into the industry, especially for working within a company.

Personally it was great practice for me as I am currently trying to set up my own business with a friend!

More modules like this please! :)

Shannon - Lighting

We used the window light to create a more natural approach to photographing the portraits. Flash gave a 'cheaper' feel to the images.

Here is the difference it made in images:

With Flash

Using available lighting

Shannon - Body Language between Genders

I noticed that there seemed to be a recurring theme in terms of the body language between genders.
The boys held the board at the side and the girls held it infront of them.

I think it shows how self conscious girls are, so they hide themselves.

Whereas guys show themselves off more in comparison.

Final chosen images

So today as a group we decided on these 5 final images, taken from both shoots. 

We have chosen these images for the following reasons...

-All photographed using natural light only

-All consist of drawings which tell us a lot about the shop workers owners

-Portrait orientation compositions

-Compositions consist of head shoulders and mid way down legs

-Backgrounds which suggest shop types eg.clothing

Shoot 2 Thoughts-Rebecca

Last Wednesday we did our second and final shoot on self image. This shoot proved harder because we went in many of the shops around the northern quarter in our first shoot so had to go a little further around the area. I think overall more said no in this shoot as we only only ended up with 5 photographs/ people saying yes. For this shoot we considered lighting and composition a lot more because we had to think of final results. We told the subjects to stand near a window or door so we could have as much natural light as possible. We didn't really guide the shop workers to much on positions of pads because where they seemed to put them was quite telling in how much confidence they had. My role during the shoot was again location shots (as seen in an earlier post), this was again to give an idea of context.

Favourite Image from Shoot 2-

This is my favourite image from shoot 2. Even though there is no real story behind what/ how he has drawn himself, it gives viewers an insight into this persons personality, I think the shirt does too. The amount of natural light has worked well. I think this is a strong contender to be a final image but will be cropped to be portrait as mentioned by Ben in previous post. The surroundings of this person also reflects his clothing trend.

Cropping

We wanted to keep the cropping of the photographs the same throughout the set of images in order to create some sort of pattern and flow to them. We initially started taking the photographs in portrait however in the second shoot we though that if we were to take the photographs in landscape, we would have the ability to crop each image down so that they were all the same size.


Traditionally, many portraits would be a head and shoulder shot only however due to us having a sketch pad with a drawing on it, we decided to get the top half or the body down to the middle of each persons body into the shot. The full length body shots that we have taken will be cropped down to the uniform size of the rest of the photographs in order to follow the fashion of the others.




Ben Stokes

Body Language

The body language of each person is one of the key elements of the photographs because I believe that you can learn and read so much about a person by the way that they pose when confronted with a camera. I will now share my thoughts on the body language of each of my favourite photographs.

The body language of the above man is quite stiff, this suggests to me that he is uneasy with getting his photograph taken but from the drawing you would think that he would be quite relaxed about this because he see's himself as an action figure. His eyes also give away his vexed look, you can see some fear in his eyes, from getting his photograph taken. 

From the above photograph, I take it that this man is quite confident because unlike the previous photograph his stance is quite open. His tensed arm shows that he sees himself as a dominant person and this is backed up by his dress sense. His drawing also says something about him as a person, he is a confident person who sees himself as a comic book hero. 

The above man says to me that he is neutral, he is not scared about having his photograph taken and he is not over confident about it. There may also be a message in the fact that he has only chosen to draw his head and not his full body.

This photograph looks to me that the man is fairly uneasy about his photograph being taken and from what I can remember when we talked to him, this photograph shows this. He was willing to help us but slightingly uneasy at the same time.

This man was another confident person, with a open stance he looks like he is comfortable getting his photograph taken.

Each viewer may read each image differently.

Ben Stokes

Shoot 2 Photographs

Below are the chosen images from our groups second shoot. 

One thing that I really like about the above photograph is the fashion element that is apparent, the man has a unique dress sense which really interests me and shows some of the current fashion of Manchester.

The below photograph is my favourite one that we took of the man and his drawing due to the eye contact that he has with the camera. The photograph of the man that other members of the group chose was similar to this but there was no eye contact. That eye contact is a big part of the project due to the fact that the rest of the subjects in the other photographs maintain eye contact with the camera.

Ben Stokes

Favourite Photographs

In a way, what the individuals were doing for us was drawing a self portrait of themselves inorder to show us how they thought they looked. The most interesting photographs we took were the ones which the people represented themselves as something out of the ordinary. This beng interesting because it is no 'the norm' people who think they are like something else are creating a smilie of themselves and this tells us something about this person.
Below are my favourite photographs from both shoots, when we are choosing out final photographs as a group, I will propose my favourite ones to the other members.

Although the above photograph doesn't look out of the ordinary like I said previously, I like the mans style and also how enthusiastic he was at helping us out with our project (even though this cant be seen through the photograph.)

The thing that I like about the above image is that the drawing pad is inline with the shops logo at the back of the shop, this is aesthetically pleasing and creates a circle for your eyes to read the relevant information.

The above photograph is one of my favourites due to the context of the photograph, it incorporates the shops nature (comic books etc) whilst showing the mans self portrait where he see's himself as an action figure, something out of the ordinary. 

The above photograph is another one of my favourites due to a similar reason the the previous photograph. The backgrounds and surrounding of the man, as well as his dress sense help you to gather information about the man. The main thing that I like about the photograph is the way that, like the previous photograph, the man has portrayed himself as something that he is not by drawing a super hero.

Ben Stokes

Location

When our group came together we chose the Northern Quarter to take the photographs, this was due to the artistic and musically talented people who work and live their. It is well known that this area is bustling with professionals and graduates with artistic nature and flare. These people tend to be more open to getting involved in projects such as our groups and this is the reason why we have chosen this area. 
We started off by confronting members of the public in the streets around the Northern Quarter however the strike rate of people stopping and talking was very low. We then as a group decided that it would be worth while if we modified our idea. I had the idea that we go into shops and ask the shop owners and workers if they would help us in our project. When we tried this, it worked with great outcomes so we decided to carry on with this technique. We focused on shops that we either knew would participate or are of an artistic nature. During the second shoot we were struggling to find anymore shops to participate who were of an artistic nature so we decided to broaden our horizon and target the rest of the shops around the area. I think that the second shoot lacked something from the first shoot because we had exhausted the people we could target. We still managed to work together as a team and to produce some great outcomes.


Ben Stokes

August Sander

Sanders background/ Photographic collections

Having done an emulation on August Sander in an earlier module I thought he was quite relevant for this project. Sander created portraits that documented his local community in Germany. The series that has most relevance is "People of the 20th Century" where he documented a portfolio of occupations. The collection is split into 7 categories: the farmer, the skilled tradesmen, classes and professions, the artists, the city and the last people.

He would cycle down country lanes with his camera looking for subjects "that would create his masterpiece".

Physically the compositions of the many of his photographs are cohesive, he has the subjects facing the camera in the centre of his capture and takes them in black and white.

The photographs give the viewer an insight into the subjects lives and each time we look at an image of Sanders we gain a brand new observation. The peoples clothes give us this intriguing insight into factors such as wealth and status in society.

Relevance to our Vox Pop Project on Self Image


I have looked into August Sander becuase of the relevance both physically and theoretically. His subjects look straight into the camera lens like we have directed our subjects to do. Also self image is key in both Sanders and our work. In our project we try to portray our subjects personality and interests through capturing what they draw, how they are dressed, and through photographing them in their shops/ businesses on backgrounds which give an overall insight into the photo location. Similarly self image is as significant in Sanders images as it is ours if not more. Sander seems to capture a community at a particularly hard time in their society, the postures of the people he photographs seem quite confrontal as if saying "no one will change who we are". Their clothes capture their professions and status.





Rebecca

Shoot 2 Locations

Today we decided to carry on walking around the Northern Quarter because of it being a place where small shops/ businesses are. We tried lots of shops but didn't get many who agreed to do it, even though they seemed very quiet most of time. Like the previous shoot we tried to target places who didn't have many customers, it was helpful that we did the shoot in the morning for this reason also.

For this shoot I took the behind the scenes image so mainly the locations/ shops we managed to get a drawing from. We wanted the location photographs because it would be helpful for the viewer to put the drawings photographs taken of the people in context.

Location 1- Flower Shop 

Location 2- Art and Crafts Shop

Location 3- Clothes Shop

Location 4- Clothes Shop in Afflecks

Location 5- Accessory/ Clothes shop in Afflecks

Rebecca

Keeley - Group feedback #1

When given the feedback of our presentation their were many points given to give us more to think on:



Technical Issues:


The lighting ~ In many of our pictures the lighting was inconsistent. One way to fix this would be to  photography at the door of the shop for the light to be better and more consistent throughout.
Also possibly a flash/natural light could be used?


One person taking the pictures for them to be of a consistent style throughout


Framing ~ Do we want the contents of the shop in the fame? Do we want their feet to be cut off, or for all of their body to be in frame


Other places to consider photographing is:


Cafes
Department stores


Research:


Relationship between the Model and the photographer
Attitudes of people posing, why do they pose that way?

Power Balance in Portraiture

Power balance always needs to be considered by a photographer when taking a photograph and portrait photographs in particular. Susan Bright talks about this power balance in the book "Art Photography Now".

She mentions the powerful encounter that exists between artist, sitter and spectator, there is a triangle that forms especially with portraiture. A portrait is important in providing the spectator with clues of someone's character and identity. The viewers creates a further meaning into what was intended by the photographer. The photographer wants to create an insight into the persons character, but doing this entirely is almost impossible because of the different interpretations different people will have. Identity can be changed in an instant. 

Rebecca

Shannon - Photo Analysis

This photo stood out to me more than the rest because of the person's personality and workplace completely matching each other.
Putting the technicals and framing aside, the concept draws me in the most out of the set of images produced. In comparison this one has more character, he works in a shop full of comics, figurines, superhero merch, general 'geeky' items, whilst he drew himself as a superhero. It shows if he sees himself as a superhero, then being surrounded by such relative objects indicates to me that he loves his job.
The rest lacked such concepts of character for me, the reason being could have been down to location choices.

I think, personally, locations must be chosen a little more carefully to discover such stronger personalities shining through as much as this.

Shannon - Reflection on Shoot 1

The first shoot ended up growing into even better ideas than planned.

We were going to originally stand on one street corner waiting for the people to come to us so that they could draw themselves and be photographed with the drawing.

I learnt many people will not accept, streets can be quiet at times and that one area was going to be more bland than we made it out to be. But going out without a defined plan is something I personally have picked up on working better as you can be versatile with your aim throughout shooting. 

The group work was discussed well as some decided to try out a shop, then they came back to inform the rest that it worked much more better going to find interesting people in their surroundings. It clicked that they might feel more comfortable in their own environment because whilst walking to and from locations on the street, usually you think more about your locations and destinations more than anything, so people are more likely to refuse as they're more caught out of their world in their heads. We took on a rota of who enters the shop and who does/says what. Less people is less daunting and it gives each of us a chance to do different things beyond the task.

Rebecca- Thoughts on Shoot 1

Yesterday we did our first shoot in Manchester (images below). I really enjoyed observing how the people around the Northern Quarter reacted when we asked them to draw how they see themselves. It also appeared interesting how many of the people who we photographed were men because women seem to be a lot more conscious about how they look and this tells us a lot about the society of today.

My role throughout the morning was to produce behind the scenes photographs such as shop locations and the people drawing themselves in order capture reactions. I really enjoyed the role however I may try to do the asking/ talking next time as it would be good to build up my confidence in doing things like this and if I am to do future projects with strangers I will need to break this barrier.

We chose the Northern Quarter as our location because of it being a place where creativity seems to take place through the art shops/ galleries that are there. I feel this was the right decision as there are many small businesses/ shops that maybe wouldn't be as busy as those right in the centre of Manchester so we had the opportunity to ask shop owners to draw themselves.

The portrait results we achieved were really interesting ranging from images with a sense of insecurity through to childhood hero influences. My favourite portrait to date is the one took in " Den Furniture and Interiors", as it sparked a story behind the drawing drawn.

The man drew a religious comic character named John Constantine, as that is who he inspired to be. What was interesting about this was that he said he wasn't very religious himself. He took time with the drawing maybe sparking us to consider whether he was a slight perfectionist or very creative, he also did his signature and the bottom right of the drawing. It also may reflect him being quite a confident person. Overall the drawing creates an intrigue from the viewer into who he has drawn and why this is the case. 

Rebecca

Shoot #1

To begin with we started to experiment with angles to see what would work best. Because we were outside the lighting was a bit hard to work with due to the sun shining. Another thing that affected the idea of doing it outside was people saying no straight away, and not wanting to participate.

To bein with we took pictures of ourselves to see what would be the best framing and how it would actually look.

             

              

Because no one wanted to take part outside, we decided to go into shops and see who would like to participate.

Unedited Images:

               

             

             

             

            

           

Edited Images:

The first shop we went into was a photography shop:

Then into a record shop:

Third was a Comin Store:

Furniture Store:

Oxfam:

Afflecks Palace:

#2