Straight Images - Mapplethorpe Studio

Work Diary - Mapplethorpe Studio

Evaluation:

During this shoot in the studio I tried to replicate the way Robert Mapplethorpe used tone and shadow to show off his subject. I enjoyed coming up with ideas like Mapplethorpe's work. For example I got images with subjects holding a knife, someone tied up and people looking dead and lifeless.

Not quite the menace I was hoping for but I was trying to replicate the tone and shadow of the original image. Even though this is no were near as menacing as the image Mapplethorpe did this is still fairly menacing and still would create a little bit of controversy between some partys of people.

I like the almost mannequin feeling to this shot and the feeling on the subjects face is uncomfortable and slightly manic. Which appeared in some of Mapplethorpe's work. This type of expression can be seen in many of MApplethorpes works.

Progression:

If I were to continue this I would try and use more exaggerated lighting from extreme angles with greater contrast.  Mapplethorpe appeared to do all this particularly in his Black and White work.
I would like to get some body builders in the studio and try and light them as Mapplethorpe did. Mapplethorpe had a very controversial type of taking photos which i have decided to take in to controversial and have already taken some more interesting shots that are also controversial. He liked images that lend themselves to contrast and he lit from angles that showed off the body.

Herre we see a rather menacing image of Mapplethorpe with a knife which make him look more like he is in a gang of some sorts. I like this image because to shows that Mapplethorpe isn't afraid to show people what he thinks of himself.

Here we see Mapplethorpe in front of an inverted pentagram which is the main sign used in worshiping satan and is seen as a symbol of satanic cults. We also see that he is holding a Thomapson submachine gun with a circular clip. This image implies that he is going to go out and kill lots of people in the name of satan. This would have defiantly been seen as being controversial because during American in this time we know that most of the population is Christian and have very strong views on stuff like this.

Image Bank - Mapplethorpe Portraits

Here are some images by Robert Mapplethorpe that I found on the internet. Mapplethorpe was a rather controversial photographer at the time and one of the less controversial image types he did was portraits which he did for a lot of people.

Here we see a picture of a woman which at first glance looks average but Mapplethorpe's use of focus and contrast makes the shot almost ethereal.

In this image I think Mapplethorpe is making a statement that woman should be seen not heard and the tape makes degrades the woman to no more than an object.

Here we see a self portrait of Mapplethorpe. I think this was carefully contrived to make him look cool and is reminiscent a James Dean image from the early 50's

Mapplethorpe having fun, and playing with low light to emphasise the devil theme.  

A simple but classic study of light and dark but I think the background of the black man. If I was to do this I would make the background of the Black man totally white.

Another self portrait of Mapplethorpe typical of 50's movie imagery.

Work Dairy - Outdoor Contrast 2

Evaluation:
In this section showing outdoor contrast it was relatively easy to find a range of contrasting colour, shape, texture and dark/light areas. On the day we shot the sun was quite high in the sky so I was able to find some areas of strong contrast between light and dark. Also the college uses a lot of different building materials to differentiate different areas. As below

In this image there is a strong contrast between the two colours of brick. The interesting thing about this is that they are both the same brick, laid n the same pattern so the only contrast is in the colour  of the brick it's self. So this contrast is made purely through colour and not shade, shadow, texture or light/dark.

In this image we can see a strong contrast as one subject (the brick wall) is in light and the other subject (the wooden wall) is in shadow. The fact that they are different materials is of less importance in showing contrast.  I exposed this shot for the brick wall thus throwing the wooden wall behind in total darkness. You can just about make out the slatted wood if you look hard.

Progression:
If I were to continue this section I would like to shoot at night. Using flash I would aim to get very strong shadows and very dark and light tones as in the images below. I would set up lights in areas to get some long shadows and good silhouettes.  A forest would be good to experiment with this kind of light but equally an old building or anywhere where lights can be placed to emphasise shadow.

In this image I can't see where the light source is so I think this was done by taking a very long exposure and painting with light using a torch. If the exposure was around 5 to 10 seconds you would be able to expose for some areas with a torch and not get yourself in the shot.

In this image there is a single large light source hidden behind the tree at night and if I were to do this I would need a strong light source. Either flash or a powerful torch. Buy using a low ISO you would be able to increase contrast as less detail would be picked up.

Work Diary - Outdoor Contrast

Evaluation:
In this section we had to find places that showed contrast outside of the studio. This was an enjoyable task because it could be a contrast between anything. There was little sun because it was a cloudy day which meant there was little chance of getting any good photos of contrast with shadow.

In this image we can see that there is a good contrast between the grey of the plant on the left and the green of the plant on the right. This makes a great image because they are both split in the middle of the image and are competing for control over the area.  Both plants have a similar texture and the day was very overcast giving a very flat light so it was colour rather than anything else that gave this image the necessary contrast.

In this image we can see contrast between the plant on the wall which is natural and the wall which is man-made. This reminds me of the constant battle between organic growth and man made structures.  In this case the man made structure has win as the growth as all but did back to nothing. So this image tells us a story.

This is an image I shot from a motorway bridge and it shows contrast in both extreme light and extreme dark

as well as the contrast between black white and red. If you look hard you can just make out the horizon which adds to the intrigue of the shot. As I exposed for the light only you cant see the road which makes for an abstract view.

I shot this in London after the 11.11.11. Armistice day. To me the contrast in colour is obvious but 

the contrast between each poppy representing a life lost and each light in each office representing someone living says more!

Progression:

If I were to continue doing this then I would like to find similar shots showing contrast between plants, buildings and life. I would like to shoot more black and white photos. By removing colour from images this always seems to add emphasis to the tonal range of a shot.

In this image we can see the very hard contrast between two building materials. Namely glass and  concrete.
The reflections of the glass turns black and the concrete a very light grey. IN this shot if the light was at a different angle the reverse might have happened or if this was shot at night you would be able to see all the activity in the building and nothing outside. This shows how important it is to understand light and decide when to shoot for the desired outcome.

In this image we can see that there is a contrast between the white, green and the pink of the main flower. What makes that interesting is that there is so much contrast of colour in just one flower. I think this kind of flower is called variegated.
Although it has good colour it is a bit of an ugly shot as the photographer could have avoided the cars and telegraph pole by moving his position. Even by 50 cm would make all the difference.

Work Diary - Studio Contrast 2

Evaluation: 
In this section we did some more work with the contrast between people. Some examples of this are height, gender and clothing colour. I enjoyed getting different types of people and coming up with interesting contrast.

In this image I have two people of different sex, ethnicity, height, shape, colour and hair. These were the two most different people in our class. These two people were polar opposites so for me this was a good example of contrast, not with regards  the way it was shot but in the subject matter.

In theses two images I wanted to show a happy woman and sad man and vice versa in the second image.  I wanted to add to this emphasis by the use of props hence the knife and boa. Looking at the shots after the shoot it did not work as well as I had hoped as both models were not animated enough to show the emotion I wanted.

Progression:

If I were to continue this project it would be great to extend this by using people from outside of my pier group. I would like to use a range older and younger people and people of different race. I would also like to have to use a stronger lighting on both the background and the subject as below.

In this we can see that we have two people wearing fur. The one on the right is wearing an expensive fur coat, while the  one on the left is wear random bits of fur that he has hunted and put together himself. The photographer appears to have lit the background from one side and the people from the other. This light against dark and dark against light gives the shots a nice quality, throws the subject forward and adds a lot of contrast.

By using the same background for a homeless man and wealthy man the photographer has added emphasis to this series of images.   The same photographic style of lighting the background from one side and the subject from the other emphasises the clothes and contrast of the subject.

Straight Images - Outdoor Contrast 2

Straight Images - Contrast Studio 2

Connecting Essay 2

Here is an image of the poppy installation at the Tower of London during November 2014. This photographer has taken his image with the point of focus is on a post card of one solder. The reason this makes a good image is because the image puts a real face to the 1,000,000s of people who died in the first world war. As represented by the 888,246 poppies placed around the tower.  The reason I choose this photo is because it shows both a personal and national mark of respect and remembrance. 

In my image I decided to take a photo of the poppy waterfall with the Shard in the background. I didn't have a tripod with me so I couldn't get a photo of the poppies in the background in focus as much as the other image. Even though I couldn't get what i wanted I still managed to get an emotive image. I think this would benefit from retouching to remove the white tent poles. The poppies went right round the Tower of London. A 10 minute walk. The total number of deaths in WW1 was over 17 million.

The connection between the two photos are that one shows personal tragedy and one shows national tragedy. They also both show the poppy display that was outside of the Tower of London to show the number of people that died in the war. Both of the images show people paying their respect to the people who died. In the top photo we see someone who has decided to put a photo of a loved one in front go the display of poppy as and the other photo (my one) shows people paying their respects by displaying the poppies in the surrounding area to the Tower of London.

Connecting Essay 1

Here is an image of Tower Bridge in London at night. A you can see the bridge is raised up and the lights are on which gives the image a contrast of the light bridge and the building and the dark sky and water both above and below the light. The photographer has also taken the image from far away and at a lower angle. I think that must have used a high ISO. The image is rather interesting because the only light sources used were manmade light sources. In this image they must have taken it when there was still some blue sky so for them to make the sky darker they must have brought that exposure down. This makes the image look like it was taken more at night then anything else.

Here is my image. I decided that I would like to get an even stronger contrast of light and dark, so I decided to go later at night so the sky was even darker and the lights looked even stronger against the black sky. I also decided to take my photo closer to the bridge because I preferred the image this way. My image is un-retouched so a true representation of the night I visited. I think this works better then editing it because the image is rather interesting as it is and the only light source is the bridge so this would have been what someone would have seen when they looked at the bridge at the time I took the photo.

The connecting point for my image and the image I found was the contrast between the obviously enhanced image suitable for a photo library and my image straight out of the camera. The other connection is both of the images are of tower bridge and also taken at night only using the lights in the area of Tower Bridge. This makes both images rather interesting because both of them show what sort of lighting there would be at Tower Bridge if you visited it at night which looks rather interesting. 

Work Diary - Studio Contrast

Evaluation:
In this section we did some work with the contrast between lots of things for example height, gender and clothing colour. The main part of this that I enjoyed was getting different types of images and coming up with interesting contrasts.

In this image there is a contrast between the both the male and female and then there was also a contrast between the two heights of the subjects the male is natually taller then the female but because the male subject is giving the female a piggyback ride it makes her taller then the male.

In this image I decided to get two people of different hair lengths stand back to back so there could be an easy  comparison of the different hair lengths.

Progression:
If I were to I would like to continue to do the same thing but with a wider range models to use to get more interesting contrast. I would also like to have some types of contrast on the background for example a model wearing white on a black background and anothetr model wearing black on  white background.

Here is an image of a young boy with little muscles and an older man with lots of muscles. There is both a contrast of physical structure and the age of both. There is also a contrast between the blacks and whiote in the photos which show off the blacks and white in the photo.

In this image we can see the difference between a young in shape man and an older out of shape man which is the contrast. There is also a contrast between the blacks and whiote in the photos which show off the blacks and white in the photo.