Photography and Photographic Practice Evaluation

Visual language: The visual language that can be found in the final eight images I produced. This includes parts of my work such as composition & the construction of my images. My images consisted of a female model (Olivia Bolt), appearing in all of the photographs. She was in the centre of attention in each of these photographs. I overall constructed the images with the colour & feelings of the room in mind. For example, in Lady Nunningtons dressing room features the colours blue and white very prominently (as you can see from the photograph on the right hand side). I took inspiration from the colours & brought close attention to her eyes as they are blue & I also used blue & white eye shadow on her eyelids to bring out the colours. I also used this in my other photographs. I did this, as I wanted convey different emotions in my work, which depends on the room. The photo on the right has a slight coolness and purity to the image, which can be also seen in facial expression. Whereas in the photograph to the left, red & black are the prominent colours which have dark & angry connotations. This can again be seen in the facial expression. I gained inspiration from the first modern artist I looked at named Martin Schoeller, as you can see in the first photograph as it is an extreme close up and is very much focused only on her face. I wanted to use the colours and feelings from the room to represent Olivia in different ways. I also wanted to represent the room in a different way by using a model as my canvas, compared to someone that just took photographs of the rooms without any imagination. During post-production, I ended up using four colour images & four black & white images. Although there were technical reasons for doing this, there was also a visual reason. Because black & white connotes class & nostalgia, these are also connotations I get when I look at the manor house as a whole. Audience: During my research, I looked at the work of Schoeller. His work features in galleries, magazines & his own photo book collections. Schoeller photographs a lot of celebrities, so therefore his work would be featured in magazines. For this reason, I dont think I would find my work in a magazine for that kind of audience. However, my extension task was to put my work into context, so I produced a short photo book that featured the final eight photographs that I shot of Olivia. Possible audience members would be interested in: my work as a photographer, Nunnington Hall (as I was inspired by Nunnington Hall), Portraiture photography or the model (Olivia). These are all different reasons for an audience to access my work. My work could also be featured in a gallery for modern art, just like Schoellers own work. These people that access my work via a gallery may not be interests in my work specifically, but they are still interested in this kind of art. Art is usually appreciated by older generations, so I would expect people aged between the ages of 30 40 to view my work. Although I must point out that my work isnt just for that particular age group. Thinking about social class, I would expect an audience with a higher socioeconomic class (ABC1). This is due to the fact that this class typically views this kind work.

Historical and cultural context: Like mentioned earlier, I was inspired by a modern day photographer (Schoeller). I was inspired by his extreme close up portraits and contrasting colours within his work. Another photographer named Sir Cecil Beaton also inspired me. When I was researching, I looked at his work & found that I liked the way it didnt have a studio or a set. So I incorporated this into my idea by shooting in different rooms in Nunnington Hall. I would say that my work, culturally, fits into the genre of modern portraiture & art. My photographs look modern, due to the technology I used (DSLR & Photoshop). But due to my influences from past & present photographs (and the fact I used a historically significant manor house to shoot my photographs in) when taking my photographs, they do have some significant historical context. I also used as black & white filter on four of my final images, as this automatically gives my photographs a classis feel (this was how I interpreted Beatons work). Whereas with my colored photographs, I wanted them to look modern & to show what colour could do to a photograph (which Beaton would not have been able to do in his work, due to the time). For these, I was inspired by Schoeller & Nunnington Hall itself. Final images: My final images consisted of eight final images, four in black & white & four in colour. The lighting was difficult to work with in Nunnington Hall, so I always had to shoot using natural lighting coming from the windows in the house. This created a shadow effect on most of my final images. In the bottom right, the photograph was actually taken with the flash that can be found on the camera. For the majority of my photographs, I used Aperture priority, which allowed me to manually change the depth of field in the photographs. For the photograph on the top right hand side in colour, I used a shallow depth of field (large aperture) so all the attention was on her facial expression. The other photographs used a deeper depth of field, as I realized the background was also important in my photographs. A smaller aperture was also needed to combat the lack of lighting in Nunnington Hall. The images were all exposed enough to see the features of the model clearly & the background clearly. None of my images were over or under exposed. Aesthetically, I believe my images are pleasing and interesting to look at. The links the viewer has to make between the colours & how they are featured on the model make the images interesting to view. I also believe, due to the technical skills I used, I have produced images that work together as a group, but can also be seen individually & still work. I particularly like the coloured photograph in the first set & the coloured image in the third set, as I feel they really do capture my idea well. Like most people, I prefer some of my images to the others. That does not mean they are bad though. Overall, I think my images look good due to the model being very professional on the day & my photography skills that I was taught. I was also allowed to alter my images in Photoshop, which allowed me to remove or crop parts of the photograph out that I did not feel looked good. Intentions and fitness purpose: My intentions were to produce at least 4 images that were inspired by the rooms found in the manor house. I ended up having 8 final photographs, with two photographs representing one room. Like stated earlier, I did not plan for 4 of my photographs to be in black & white but

the opportunity arose. I did produce my intentions & more. The theme overall was discovery & I know that I discovered the feeling & the colours in the room on the day. I then worked from this. This gives some context to my photographs. Once the viewer knows this, they can see how I have interpreted this into my work. The lighting was a serious problem whilst I was taking my photographs, which left me to make decisions on the day that I was not prepared for, like using the flash on the camera. If I were to take the photographs again, I would be prepared for this by taking additional (artificial) lighting with me to the shoot. Another problem that arose during the shoot was my ability to put make up on the model. I had not used make up before the shoot. Due to this, when I was using the make up, it was time consuming & it would never look 100% to what I imagined in my mind. Although I fixed this during post-production, it was still very time-consuming. Linking back to my paragraph about my target audience, I believe I have achieved a piece of portraiture work that could be accessed in an art gallery or featured in my own (although small) photo book. As mentioned earlier, I was inspired by two photographers (Schoeller & Beaton). I believe you can see the inspiration from them in my final images. Technical competence: Although I had learnt many of the techniques that we were taught (due to photojournalism), I believe techniques such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO & white balance now make even more sense to me & now I can use them properly. Another important skill I learnt about was time management. I had to make a schedule so I had enough time to produce the images I needed. Due to time management, I decided it would be appropriate to use aperture priority to save time. This worked to my advantage as it did save time & allowed me to produce the images I wanted without having to change the shutter speed, ISO & white balance manually (Using the aperture allowed me to change the focal length, movement & how exposed the overall image was). I have also gained further knowledge about techniques you can use on Photoshop to make your images even better. Tools like burning & dodging (techniques like this were also used in red rooms) made specific tones of the image darker (burning) or lighter (dodging). Creative ability: During this project, I have discovered that my creativity doesnt just have to be one set idea & I have to use that one idea straight away. I can grow from my ideas & come up with different ones so I have a choice. To develop these ideas, I used a mind map initially stating my ideas down. I then branched off these to develop and find which one I was going to pursue. I then produced a mood board that showed my ideas down in photo & colour form. During this production of the mood board, I researched two different artists that would be useful to me when I was taking my own photographs. Looking at these photographers (Schoeller & Beaton) I was able to see what would possibly work without having to take any photographers. Due to my increased technical competence, I have gained a further grasp on my creativeness & was able to produce (& edit) the photographs I wanted. My creativity has lead to the creation of the work I have produced & I am very happy with it. The ideas in my brain would not have been made possible without the technical. My creativity was allow down to the colours in Nunnington Hall, as this allowed me to colour match the make up I had been lent from my model & my sister. Time management: To help with time management, I produced a schedule for when I was taking my photographs. This helped me stay on track and to actually get the images I needed for he project. Because of my time management, I was able to get all of the images I needed to & get them edited on time for my deadline. I learnt/knew what I needed to do, so it was

easy to make this happen. I planned specific times for me to take the photographs & how much time it would take for me to take each individual image. I also had a plan inside my head of how long it would take to edit my photographs the way I wanted them to look & this timing fit into the allocated 6 days we were given to edit the photographs in. On average, I would edit four photographs to a high standard each day. This then left me a choice for which ones I wanted to be in my final eight. It also allowed me time at the end to make my chosen photographs that little bit better. The production process: During the production progress (shooting in Nunnington Hall) I found that, due to my pre-production work, I could produce better images overall. I also felt that, due to the fact that I was working on-set with a model, the shoot was more professional than anything I had previously done to do with photography. I enjoyed the production process overall. The pre-production allowed me to get the best idea I could. The actual production allowed me to gain photographs I could then edit into the final photographs I wanted. Feedback: I have received written feedback on my photographs from three different people & verbal feedback from three different people. Overall, the feedback was positive and people gave me constructive criticism that I will take on board next time a take photographs. For example one person said that the image to the left was my strongest image, whereas another two people said it was my weakest image. A viewer said to me that it was their favorite image because it was a bright & contrasting image, whereas another viewer told me it was my weakest photograph but for the same reasons. This tells me that different people have different opinions on my work. This was also the case with the image on the right. The fact different viewers have different opinions on what my strongest & weakest images are what I wanted to happen from my photographs: for people to have an opinion on my work. Other feedback I was given such as people telling me that my use of shadow and light was prominent in some photographs, whilst in some of them the light and shadow doesnt stand out as much as the others. This is something I can improve on at the next photo shoot I do. I am also taking on board another piece of feedback, which stated I should try different focal lengths to blur our backgrounds, so the models face is the primary focus of the entire photograph. I would have done this yet, at the time, I felt like the backgrounds were just as important as the model (as it linked to why she had specific colours on her face).