I have decided that I wanted to do journeys for this unit because I really enjoyed documenting journeys in Unit 3 and would like to carry on with that. I would like to experiment more with all the different types of journeys that different people have done in the past and how I can create my own journey. There have been many myths of journeys that people have taken, mundane journeys like going to school 5 times a week and trips to places where I have never been before.
research
robert frank
I have looked through Frank's book called 'The Americans' and I find these images quite interesting. I like how the images are in black and white which seems to give the mood of sadness and tragedy.
Frank edited the book in a particular way, he began by making there only be one photograph on a double spread page leaving one blank. This was to give the viewer time to take in the image before looking at the next one. The photographs were organised in multiple different themes like transportation etc, each of these themes has been started with the American flag and ended with the American flag for the next theme. |
Frank had a lot of critical reviews about 'The Americans' saying it is 'a slashing and bitter attack on the U.S' and that it is 'the Ugly American'. It is his personal opinion of the way he sees America in the 1950s that hasn't been glorified.
These photographs are all quite different even though they were all taken by the same person, the image of the people on the bus is quite shocking, this is because of how there is a segregation of people of different colours. This shows the black man and the two white children all facing forward towards the camera which makes it look like they are all sitting next to each other which is what the future entailed.
My favourite photograph in the entire book is the middle bottom image of the open road, I like the effect of how there is nothing for miles and how contrasting the colours are between the light parts where the tyres have been and the darker parts of the road. I like how you can't tell whether the road is wet or dry and you don't know what is beyond.
These photographs are all quite different even though they were all taken by the same person, the image of the people on the bus is quite shocking, this is because of how there is a segregation of people of different colours. This shows the black man and the two white children all facing forward towards the camera which makes it look like they are all sitting next to each other which is what the future entailed.
My favourite photograph in the entire book is the middle bottom image of the open road, I like the effect of how there is nothing for miles and how contrasting the colours are between the light parts where the tyres have been and the darker parts of the road. I like how you can't tell whether the road is wet or dry and you don't know what is beyond.
film vs digital photographs
Over half term, I experimented with using a film camera, this was a new experience for me as I have not used a film camera since I was very young. The experience was quite peculiar, this is because I am so used to seeing the image as soon as I take it and not knowing how the image has come out until I receive it back from the lab where it has been developed. I took digital photographs of what I was going to take a picture of in film so that I could see how it would come out before I decided to take the photograph in film which made me feel slightly more confident about what I was doing.
The photographs below are the digital photographs that I took before the film photographs. I had the camera on the black and white function so that they would look very similar to the film which is black and white too.
It was quite difficult to find good things to take photographs of that relate to the journey that I was going on around the Whitstable area.
The photographs below are scans of the film photographs that I took at the same time as the images above. I found the process of film quite difficult, to begin with I found it very difficult to adjust to not being able to see the photograph as soon as I have taken it.
I decided to set up the images in different orders so that I could decide what I thought the best set up would be.
developing my own images
I have not spent much time in the dark room over the past few years as I have not ventured into photography using a film camera before. I had help with this process as I wasn't very sure as to what I had to do.
The photograph to the right is the first film image that I developed myself. It came out very dark as I exposed the negative for too long, this means that the white from the building is grey and the dark windows are black and you can't see any detail about what is in the image. Next time that I develop a negative, I am going to expose it for less time and add a filter to add more contrast to the image.
|
The image to the left is another film image that I exposed, this came out a lot better than the other print as it is much lighter so that you can see easily what the image is of, however I realised once I saw the developed photo that it is slightly out of focus which did ruin the photograph. |
notions of the sublime
The sublime is a thing that could be living, a feeling or a state of mind, it is having greatness, magnitude or intensity, moral, aesthetic or spiritual. It is about how our ability to perceive or comprehend it is temporarily overwhelmed.
photographers gallery
my trip to margate
On Saturday the 12th March I went on a trip to Margate, whilst I was there I went to the Turner Gallery and the Shell Grotto. It was quite an interesting journey which started with the Turner Gallery, this had a few Turner paintings in it that were quite intriguing. Once I finished looking around the gallery I then walked around the area and took photos of the surrounding area. I also took pictures of Seasalter beach once I'd left Margate.
Paul graham- american night
Graham over-exposed and bleached out some of the images in order to create "the sense of disorientation and drama that he felt when he came out of the cinema in Tennessee into the bright, blinding sunlight of the American South".
These images are intertwined in the book with photos of normal colouring. I like how giving the image hardly any contrast makes it seem a lot more open. It is as if there is no end- kind of like the search for the miraculous by Bas Jan Ader. |
I decided that I would like to 'white out' my own images to see what they would look like if they were in the same style of the American Night. I used some of the photographs that I took on my journey around Margate and whited them out myself, this is because I wanted to see how the images would turn out as most of them have the sea in the background and I wanted to see how it merged with the sky. It does give it the effect that they are endless and that there is something miraculous out there that you may not be able to see.
|
Overall, I have decided not to carry on with the "whiting out" of images as some of them looked quite good however others do not look very good and do not really show that it is taken on a journey through out the photographs.
hiroshi sugimoto- seascapes
The Seascapes are based on water and air, they are very simple images due to the fact that there are only two elements in the photograph, however this makes it quite interesting with how the light in the image is different for all of them.
The Caribbean sea photo seems to be very clear and as if the shutter was not left open for a very long period of time.
|
The Ligurian sea photo seems to have been taken when it was very foggy or the shutter had been left open for quite a long period of time to let in a lot of light causing the sky to merge into the sea.
|
The Baltic sea photo seems to have been taken on a dark day or with a small aperture and a fast shutter speed which didn't let much light in.
|
The North Atlantic ocean photo from 1996 is personally my favourite photo of the Seascapes and it is completely different to the others. I like how the sea looks so smooth and is reflecting the suns light.
|
Hiroshi Sugimoto tends to use a large-format camera, he uses different lengths of exposure depending on the subject matter which in this case was of seascapes which meant that he used a very long exposure. All of the long exposure photographs have been made with the aid of a tripod. Sugimoto experimented with shutter speeds in excess of one hour.
ed ruscha 26 gas stations
Ed Ruscha's gas stations were taken along the highway between his home in Los Angeles and his parent's home in Oklahoma City. Each photograph is taken from the highway, they tend to have huge forecourts or roads in front of the gas station. Ruscha purposely left so much empty space in the frame to draw attention to how there is an estranged relationship of people to their rural environment.
michael wolf street view photography- paris streets without leaving office.
Michael Wolf has made many different street view series, the images below were taken in Paris from his apartment whilst trying to learn the layout of the city. I like how this is a completely different way of showing a journey compared to actually going on a real road trip and taking photos.
jon rafman
Jon Rafman has done many different series of street view photographs, he has a series of street view photographs called '9 eyes'. This seems to be Rafman documenting weird things that he has seen on street view, he also takes pictures of landscapes or beautiful scenery that is shown on their journey. |
the virtual road trip
I decided to do a virtual road trip of the Florida Keys and take a screenshot every time I saw a fuel station along my journey. This took a lot longer than I expected as it was very time consuming having to continuously click until I came to the end of my journey, this trip took longer than it is was to be physically driven. I was inspired by Ed Ruscha's journey where he photographed all of the fuel stations along his journey however instead of going out and driving somewhere and take pictures of the fuel stations along the way, I decided that I would take a virtual journey on google street view- although more time consuming, it was quite fun.
Cutty sark to o2
I took a trip from the Cutty Sark to the O2, this journey took about an hour and a half. During this journey I took photos of different signs all the way along the journey in a typology. I also took some photos where I stood in one place and took pictures every 90 degrees at different levels (head height, arm height, leg height, knee height and at my feet). This was quite a long process, however I decided to make the decision to not look through the viewfinder to take the photo. This has meant that some of the photos have come out a bit blurry however most of them worked as it has autofocus.
|
Within the gallery of pictures above, I have sorted them into different sections, the typology of signs along the way, 360 degree images and then other photos when I just thought of taking along the way.
william eggleston
Eggleston experiments with colour a lot throughout his photographic career, however he started it in the 1960s when colour photography was only associated with commercial industries. Each colour in his images are in its richest form. He shot most of the images around his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, he takes pictures of the mundane and everyday. Egglestons work is characterised by bold colourful interiors, cars and gasoline station. |
pier 18
Willoughby Sharp is the curator of the 1971 show of Pier 18.
With in the exhibition of Pier 18, Dan Graham exhibited his work. This was very interesting as he stood in one spot on pier 18 in New York and took photos at different angles and different levels.
I found this extremely interesting as I like how it is like a journey with out moving and is conceptual. I like how the images are not all straight and look quite disorientating. |
The albums above are examples of places I went to take the 360 degree photos. Each of them have a completely different feel to them. There are also some images which are blurry however I knew that there would be some blurry pictures as I was not looking through the viewfinder and was letting the camera autofocus. |
The pictures to the right are of the pictures I took at different levels from standing in the same spot. I decided that I wanted to use this batch of images as I like the contrast that there is between each different angle. It looks as if each side were taken in completely different areas even though they are taken with a 90 degree difference. This was inspired by Dan Graham's pier 18. |
FINAL PIECE
After looking at Dan Graham's work from pier 18, I decided that I wanted to use these images as my final piece as I like the images and I also had a very good idea as to how to present them. I decided that I wanted to display them as a cube on different layers to show the different levels that the photos were taken from.
|
evaluation
During unit 4 I researched multiple different artists. I started by researching Robert Frank's book ‘The Americans’. I discovered this as it is one of the artists listed on the externally set assignment paper. I quite liked his work as it is in black and white, which is different to what I usually like. I also like how it is quite controversial as the Americans did not like to be portrayed how they are as they preferred Hollywood glamour at the time. Racism was also a large aspect, which was portrayed in the photographs. I also researched Paul Graham’s ‘American Night’, this was quite interesting to me with how he had whited out the images rather than upping the contrast. After using some of my own images and whiting them out, I decided that I no longer wanted to pursue this as I didn’t like how it made my images look as it was too hard to see them and didn’t seem to link with how I perceived journeys. I then moved onto seascapes by Hiroshi Sugimoto which are time lapses taken by different seas. I decided not to do this as it doesn’t portray how I personally see journeys, it also is very difficult to achieve as the shutter speeds need to be experimented with for hours and I do not live by the sea.
Ed Ruscha’s 26 gas stations interested me, as I like the concept with stopping at every gas station on a journey to take a photo, as I can’t do that personally I decided to look into street view photography. By doing this, I looked at Michael Wolf who did a lot of street view photography and Jon Rafman, each of which uses street view in different ways. Wolf used street view to learn his way around Paris without leaving his apartment where as Rafman’s street view photography is very much based on weird things or beautiful scenery. I also researched William Eggleston’s work however I didn’t really like his pictures that much so I made one response and decided not to carry on with this. The last artist that I researched was Dan Graham and his Pier 18 work; this was my favourite artist to research as I found his work very conceptual which is how I describe my own work. The theme that I explored was journeys, I decided to pick this theme as I did work on journeys for unit 3 and felt that I could expand further to a different spectrum of journeys. My ideas changed quite a lot through out the project as I experimented with different ways of documenting journeys.
The first experiment that I carried out was using a film camera as a response to Robert Frank's images, this was the first time that I had used a proper film camera, this was a very weird experience and I didn’t really like it. I did not like how you cannot look at the image straight away and how it takes so long and so much money to get the images developed. However I did take a digital photo every time I took a film one so that I knew what it may look like. Once the photographs had been developed they did look quite good but after the experience I decided not to use film again. I then moved onto whiting out images in the style of Paul Graham however I did not like the outcome.
I also did a couple of virtual road trips, the first virtual road trip that I did was from the school to my house. I did not like this as I only took pictures of the start point and the destination and all of the bus stops in the middle. After this failed attempt, I then decided to do a virtual road trip along the Florida Keys, I did this by documenting all of the gas stations along the single road and I was very happy with the outcome. The last journey that I did was that I walked from the Cutty Sark to the O2, on this journey I took plenty of pictures in many different ways. I took photos of signs along the route; random things that interested me and I also stopped at multiple places along the route and took shots at different levels at 90-degree intervals.
My final outcome is made up of 16 photographs all of which were taken whilst standing on one single spot, 4 of the photos were taken at each 90degree turn. The four images were taken at different levels, the first at eye height and the last from just above the floor. The final outcome has come out exactly how I expected it to and I am very happy with the outcome, the idea of how to present it does work as it shows how they were taken at different angles, I know this as the feedback that I have received has been positive.
Personally I think that I have explored the theme of journeys very well as I have been on many journeys and taken pictures from many different places and in different perspectives. However I also think that you can never fully finish exploring journeys, as there are so many different ways to present them and also many different journeys to go on. I found it quite simple to decide how to display my pieces of work, as it was the only logical way to present it so that it shows the 4 different sides. I feel like my work is personal as I really enjoy going on journeys, this also links to the fact that I am a geography student. I hope that the viewers that see my work will understand that the photos have all been taken from different angles and all from the same spot. If I had more time I would have made more outcomes like my final piece so that it showed more how they are taken on different levels and different angles. I would have also experimented with more different ways to how to document my journey.
Ed Ruscha’s 26 gas stations interested me, as I like the concept with stopping at every gas station on a journey to take a photo, as I can’t do that personally I decided to look into street view photography. By doing this, I looked at Michael Wolf who did a lot of street view photography and Jon Rafman, each of which uses street view in different ways. Wolf used street view to learn his way around Paris without leaving his apartment where as Rafman’s street view photography is very much based on weird things or beautiful scenery. I also researched William Eggleston’s work however I didn’t really like his pictures that much so I made one response and decided not to carry on with this. The last artist that I researched was Dan Graham and his Pier 18 work; this was my favourite artist to research as I found his work very conceptual which is how I describe my own work. The theme that I explored was journeys, I decided to pick this theme as I did work on journeys for unit 3 and felt that I could expand further to a different spectrum of journeys. My ideas changed quite a lot through out the project as I experimented with different ways of documenting journeys.
The first experiment that I carried out was using a film camera as a response to Robert Frank's images, this was the first time that I had used a proper film camera, this was a very weird experience and I didn’t really like it. I did not like how you cannot look at the image straight away and how it takes so long and so much money to get the images developed. However I did take a digital photo every time I took a film one so that I knew what it may look like. Once the photographs had been developed they did look quite good but after the experience I decided not to use film again. I then moved onto whiting out images in the style of Paul Graham however I did not like the outcome.
I also did a couple of virtual road trips, the first virtual road trip that I did was from the school to my house. I did not like this as I only took pictures of the start point and the destination and all of the bus stops in the middle. After this failed attempt, I then decided to do a virtual road trip along the Florida Keys, I did this by documenting all of the gas stations along the single road and I was very happy with the outcome. The last journey that I did was that I walked from the Cutty Sark to the O2, on this journey I took plenty of pictures in many different ways. I took photos of signs along the route; random things that interested me and I also stopped at multiple places along the route and took shots at different levels at 90-degree intervals.
My final outcome is made up of 16 photographs all of which were taken whilst standing on one single spot, 4 of the photos were taken at each 90degree turn. The four images were taken at different levels, the first at eye height and the last from just above the floor. The final outcome has come out exactly how I expected it to and I am very happy with the outcome, the idea of how to present it does work as it shows how they were taken at different angles, I know this as the feedback that I have received has been positive.
Personally I think that I have explored the theme of journeys very well as I have been on many journeys and taken pictures from many different places and in different perspectives. However I also think that you can never fully finish exploring journeys, as there are so many different ways to present them and also many different journeys to go on. I found it quite simple to decide how to display my pieces of work, as it was the only logical way to present it so that it shows the 4 different sides. I feel like my work is personal as I really enjoy going on journeys, this also links to the fact that I am a geography student. I hope that the viewers that see my work will understand that the photos have all been taken from different angles and all from the same spot. If I had more time I would have made more outcomes like my final piece so that it showed more how they are taken on different levels and different angles. I would have also experimented with more different ways to how to document my journey.