Dan Boulton - Photographer Case Study 4

Dan Boulton - Photographer Case Study 4 

Dan Boulton was born in 1973 in Enfield, North London. His work, which crosses the lines between documentary, street photography and fine art has been featured in Document Skateboard and Plus1 magazines and the book “Emulsion Stew”. A collection of his work is soon to be published as a limited edition book by Chicago-based Parking Block Publishing.  

"I’m from the UK and was born in Enfield which is in North London. I first started skating at the age of seven in 1980. A junk shop near my house had a left over plastic banana board for sale and I saved my pocket money for about three months to get it. I snapped it within a couple of weeks and my Dad shaped me a wooden deck for it. There had been this weird yellow fiberglass skatepark near where my Dad worked as a mechanic and I think that’s where I first saw anyone skate. At that time skating in the UK had died out and it was becoming all about BMX. I was already pretty tall and kept hitting my knees on the Bars of BMX’s so I stuck with skating. A few years later the wider boards arrived from the States and skateboarding had another boom time in the UK and so thankfully there were more people to skate with." 

Dan Boulton uses a standard Leica M6 with a 50mm lens. His photography is based on the skateboarding culture. 

A large portion of his photos are black and white to give them that old documentary vintage feeling which he himself is inspired by. 

On this photograph the statues head and the black and white colour palette has a very vintage like feeling , also at first glance it does look like a human head looking out which is good because it means that his photography can make an inanimate object like a statue seem human or give it life in the set up its been photographed in eg: the urban environment with the man made graffiti and urban set up give it life and personality.

This photo has a very in-motion like feeling to it because of the heavy portion of blur in the photo which makes it seem like it has been taken at a party of sorts. 

The heavy number of people in the photo grabs the viewers attention because in most photos there is something in the background and foreground to grab attention in this photo all of the attention is directed at the foreground which helps the photo stand out. 

This photo represents the skateboard culture perfectly , everything is captured and framed to go in the centre which does not go with the rule of 3rds but other than the skaters there is so much more in the background the is not pointed towards the centre like the urban setting (walls etc) and the graffiti that it does not matter. 






Question : Would you ever want to go around the world in the future and explore and capture other diverse cultures?


http://blog.leica-camera.com/photographers/interviews/dan-boulton-southbank/

http://findrangers.com/danboulton

Photography Case Study 3 - Student Choice - Ansel Adams

Photography Case Study 3 - Student Choice - Ansel Adams  



Ansel Adams born February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984 an American photographer and environmentalist. His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, and in books.

With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his

 photographs. Adams primarily used large-format cameras because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images.

Adams founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston.

79-AAW-26 

Ansel Adam's style was very influential. He was one of the first photographers to start to photograph nature and landscapes all over the world with black and white portable cameras.  

This photo was taken in a underwater cave in New Mexico and was one of the earliest photos by Ansel. 

The photo is presented at a medium distance to try and fit as much of the content and landscape into the frame as possible to try and immerse the viewer. 

This photo is one of the best examples. 

79-AAT-4  

This picture was one of the first famous pictures in his era. 

An erupting glacier at Yellowstone National Park , Wyoming USA.  

Ansel always wanted to get distance and tried as much as possible to catch nature at its work and using the grid rule of 3rds he happened to capture an eruption of a glazier.

The photo is perfectly framed and moved to the left to see the glaciers explosion and the effects it had on its surroundings, the distance it was taken at frames all of the explosion to give a vertical show of how massive and brutal the explosion was.

This photo is one of Ansel's first narrative photography pieces. 

The shot is framed so the tree to the left takes the attention of the palette and extend to cover the rock and shield it from the sun. 

The Photo was taken at a Wyoming National Park , USA.  

Even though no color is present the image still has its effect on the viewer by using the rule of 3rds and the way its framed to tell a story happening in nature. 







http://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams

Final Photo Analysis - Photo 5

I chose this photo because I wanted to capture depth of field in this photo (blurry foreground , clear background) and it was captured perfectly.

I also wanted to use the rule of 3rd to make the image mirror itself so the centre point of the frame is empty and the real subject is left mirrored to right.

With this photo I wanted to use the opposite of distortion , I wanted the photo to be clear and have an exaggerated colour palette to help to match the feelings of the person in the photo.  To give a fever like feel to the photo by over contrasting the colour orange in photo.







The final product turned out very well , on the DVD cover it helped to give the thriller/mystery feeling to the whole project which I was looking for.

Final Photo Analysis - Photo 4

I have chosen this photo because I wanted to capture the sunlight in between the 2 buildings and out of all taken this one captured the sunlight the best.





In this photo I experimented with different settings  (threshold , contrast etc) but the final edit that made it fit into the poster was black and white because it gave the sunlight a water like factor. When changed to black and white it looks like the sky is spilling into the building which again helped to reinforce the theme of the poster being very dark and mysterious.

On the final product most of the sky was cut off but the reflections of the windows blended in with the white very nicely making it seem like the building never really ends.

Final Photo Analysis - Photo 3

I wanted this to be one of the main DVD back covers because it showed in one picture the whole environment the project was going to be set in.

It captured in one photo everything i wanted to show just an average typical sixth form.






The added threshold theme changes the whole perspective on how you see the sixth form , it gives it a very hallucinogenic feel to it which again helped with fitting the cover into a dark/mystery theme. The path from the centre of the photo extends into the background which in threshold effect gives the sixth form a very abandoned like theme which helped to make the photo fit into the DVD box.

On the final product a shadow silhouette was added to the photo to give it a bit of a creepy like factor which worked very well with the blacked out windows helped to boost up the scary factor which I wanted but i didn't want to over use it so that was the only modification made when it comes to adding creepy factors.

Also I have put the special features and the story bars which on the whit background really fit the whole DVD box as a whole.

Final Photo Analysis - Photo 2

I knew I wanted a contrast of an urban structure on one side of my character and a rural like scape on the other to show contrast linking to the theme of split personality in characters. This photo perfectly combines both rural and urban aspects of the college.









In the edited version i decided to get rid of the large portion of buildings and just leave the rural aspects in the frame.

After applying the threshold effect to give picture a graphic novel like feeling it also made trees seem like people or something abstract coming from the nearly pitch black windows.

Combined with the other elements of the poster , it bring a great contrast between the glass building on the right and the sky and the trees on the left it helps to establish/hint to split personality aspect the project would of had.

Final Photo Analysis - Photo 1

I have chosen this photo because the body language presented in it is very clear and has a negative connotation which is exactly what I wanted a the photo to be.   









I added the threshold effect in photoshop to give the picture a graphic novel like feel to it. I wanted the picture to be distorted and not crystal clear ,  I wanted the viewer to have a second look to make out what the picture really is.
The threshold effect also narrows the colour palette of the photo to be only black and white which means once modified and put into the poster further changes and adjustments could be added to make it fit into the poster more as a whole.

The final product has full filled its purpose in the poster very well. The negative body language and the distorted threshold effect give the photo a very mysterious and negative feeling. Once combining the photo with two other ones in the background there was an accidental like aura from the the photo that really put the whole poster together.  The threshold effect simplified the colour palette which meant I could put in the MUTRIX barcode to really help to make the poster stand out.

Photographer Case Study - Henri Cartier-Bresson Chris N

Henri Cartier-Bresson 

Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the "street photography" style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed.



Trained as a painter, he began his career in photography in 1931 on a trip to the Ivory Coast. He was one of the first photographers to shoot in the 35mm format with a Leica camera, and helped to develop the photojournalistic "street photography" style that influenced generations of photographers to come. 


His visual style is a very basic and simple which is why a lot of his work looks very modern and something you would see today , that is mainly because his visual style inspired a lot of photographers. His photographs are mostly everyday scenario based. and they follow the rule of 3rds almost every time.  



This photo uses a rule of 3rds by placing the subject of the photo to the left. I like this photo because its caught in motion and the stair case adds a nice touch as a path way to the bike. 

NDIA. Kashmir. Srinagar. 1948. Muslim women on the slopes of Hari Parbal Hill, praying toward the sun rising behind the Himalayas.  

I really like this photo because it was captured at the right moment and because it is in black and white it gives the impression that the women look like ancient statues which really helps the photo to stand out.  The sunset in black and white also helps to bring out that ancient and old feeling of the photo. 

FRANCE. Champagne-Ardenne. Aube. Mussy-sur-Seine. 1955. The Seine river. 

This photo is very effective because it follows the rule of 3rds with the two subjects being separated by a river on the left and right side. With the black and white and the river in the middle it connotes a feeling of separation between the two people in the photo  




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL53ZMYN

Photographer Case Study "Gregory Crewdson" Chris N

Gregory Crewdson was born on September 26th 1962
He is an American Photographer best known for elaborately staged scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. 

Crewdson was born in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He attended John Dewy Hight School, graduating early.

As a teenager, he was part of a punk rock group called The Speedies.

In the mid 1980s, Crewdson studied photography at SUNY purchase, near Port Chester, NY. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Yale University. He has taught at Sarah Lawrence, Cooper Union, Vassar College, and Yale University where he has been on the faculty since 1993. He is now a professor at the Yale University School of Art.In 2012, he was the subject of the feature documentary film "Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters". 

Untitled, 1998
C-print, Diasec
135,5 x 152,4 cm
Courtesy the artist; DZ Bank Kunstsammlung; Luhring Augustine, New York
© Gregory Crewdson   

This is photograph gives a very alien like feeling by using a ray of light and a person towards the right in a sub-urban American neighborhood , like all of his work this photo looks like it could be taken out of a movie due to his style being Staged/Narrative Photography. 

The photo is being staged and taken at night , that combined with the ray of light helps to bring everything out in the photo. 

Untitled, 2001
C-print, Diasec
122 x 152,4 cm
Courtesy the artist, DZ Bank Kunstsammlung, Luhring Augustine, New York
© Gregory Crewdson
This photograph has a very mysterious because it is staged to look like an accident has just happened and the ray of light from the fence towards the right and the person getting out of the car midd action gives an impression that something is about to happen but its caught in the moment.
The blue dawn/dusk sky also contrasts the sky from the ground and the quiet and small road in the neighborhood 

This photograph is one of GC most recent photos its from a series of photos called Brief Encounters. It gives a very abandoned  like feeling to it because of the woman standing at the edge of the road and the car in the middle of the street. These two components are the only subjects in the photo which gives it that abandoned feeling  

2012/ HD / Color / 16:9 (1.78:1) / 79 min 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Crewdson

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/gregory-crewson/

Narrative/Staged Photography - Chris N

NARRATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY 

Narrative photography is the idea that photographs can be used to tell a story. Allen Feldman stated that "the event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated". In this case, the medium is photograph. 

  
Narrative photography example 


Photographer: Lawrence Ripsher 
Cameras used: Canon 5D (Mark I) and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L zoom 
Editing Software: Photoshop Cs2 










This photograph shows a girl in a chair sitting in a very depressed like position, The rule of 3 is applied due to the subject of the photo is placed towards the right of the frame. The space left on the left side gives the photograph a very desolated and abandoned feeling. The reflection of the girl in the water and the rubbish around her also connotes a feeling of loneliness.






Staged photography involves a performance enacted before the camera. 
It embraces studio portraiture and character driven scenarios directed or manipulated by the photographer.