LAURENMYERS
PHOTOGRAPHY
ONE NATION
UNDER CCTV
INFORMATION
So for the first week of the project I decided on looking at CCTV. I wanted to keep it pretty simple and not complicate things. Looking at CCTV images on the Internet on various websites to get a feel for what a CCTV image should look like. I found that most images are normally black and white as it would obviously be too expensive to put in every city. The images are also quite distorted and blurry which I think is a con of the CCTV as it is a lot harder to indentify faces of people who are causing trouble or who need to be identified. So I decided to use my Halls window as a good place to take images, obviously because CCTV is normally video I would use the ‘continuous shot’ setting to take around 10 images it would provide images that are continuous just like a video would be. My images are pretty straight forward of a guy leaving the Halls gate and walking around the corner. I shot this from my window with the highest zoom and made sure that the picture would be a little bit out of focus to get the blurred effect of a CCTV video. When I thought about the whole concept of CCTV images I thought about the ‘invasion of privacy’ part and that this guy on my images, who I don’t know, had no idea he was being watched or photographed could have been doing anything and it would have been caught on camera, obviously this would the case if this image wasn’t staged by me and somebody I know. After I had my set of images I went back again and looked at existing CCTV images to make mine more realistic. I added the writing and time at the top as a lot of other CCTV images have and the date also to give it a better effect. I also made the image black and white and a lot darker to give that distorted impression. I think my images for the CCTV part ended up to be pretty effective, a good example and to the point; if I were to do this shoot again I would probably stage a
better example or but a theme behind the images.
INFORMATION
For my FHM shoot I started by looking through the magazine to get a feel for what it is about. It being a men’s magazine its not one I have looked at an awful lot. I looked at the content, which I found was mostly half naked woman and cars. I found though that the difference between a magazine such as FHM and the other men’s magazines such as NUTS are that the woman are never completely naked, its in a way tasteful nudity or soft porn. So when I was thinking of what I could do for my shoot that relates to FHM was a shot of a woman with the illusion of nudity. I found that in the magazine there didn’t seem to be many alternative girls in there, girls with piercings and tattoos so I thought id use on of my friends who has many to be my model, to also make my images different to them in the magazine but using their basic ideas. I wanted a shot that the main focus would go to the girl and not the background, which I know is the main aspect of images like these, but I didn’t want bright colours. I opted for a dark duvet and with darker lighting. I wanted a simple pose where the camera could see a lot of the top half of the model and her face then a bit of her leg to give away that under the duvet she is completely naked. I think the shot worked really well and I particularly liked the subtle look on the models face, which is also pretty sexy at the same time.
THE PRICE OF BEAUTY
FOR A GIRL NEXT DOOR
FACEBOOK FACEBOOK SOCIAL NETWORKING
INFORMATION On facebook there are always all kind of images. Images we take of ourselves, images of ourselves that others take, images that we take of other and even places where we can show people our own photography. As facebook is a social networking website the images that are put on there are then open for the world, or your 'friends' to see so they are always no longer private. When thinking of an image I could use for my facebook photo I chose one of myself that I think is a really good example of a facebook image. The image is taken on a night out and has the symbol at the bottom to represent that night. The image is really well framed around me and has a lot going on around. It in a way tells a story of the night with drinking, jokes and friends. With many people in the shot doing different things and not paying much attention and then im the main focus of the image with my hands in the air. I really like this shot and think is is defiantly a really good and effective sample of a facebook image.
PAPARAZZI DISH THE DIRT
INFORMATION Paparazzi is a type of photography that sometimes, I think is frowned upon with all the secrecy and invasion of privacy. Paparazzi images can come in many ways and in my opinion a little less interesting then other types of photography. Most images that come from paparazzi are image that end up in gossip magazines about celebrities and what they are up to. Paparazzi can be either you best friend or your worst enemy to a celebrity, photographing them at there best or at their worst. Celebs can never be too careful when they leave the safety and privacy of their homes. I decided to do my celeb images in a good light and keep it pretty simple. Using the vicinity of my accommodation I used a blackberry as the main focus of the images and a friend and myself as the celeb in focus. I shot the images for a far and even hid behind bushes to make it seem more realistic. I told my model to just act natural on her blackberry and I took many shots and chose the few I thought where the best before making them into what looks like a page from a magazine.
A PICTURES WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS INFORMATION Holidays are something everyone looks forward to and the photos can tell the story of the holiday. I decided to use a photo from my holiday in august to Florida. I took a lot of images myself of certain sights and places of interest in Florida such as Disney world and Harry Potter world, things people are properly used to seeing normally on pictures from there. I decided on a photo with me in it and not of something that you would expect from a Florida picture. I thought it was also quite amusing so would add humour to one of my images as there is not really one there. I really like this image and think it is a good example of a holiday snap.
FASHIONS FADE STYLE IS ETERNAL INFORMATION Fashion images are suppose to all about the clothes. Todays fashion industry is still about that but not as much as they should be. Models have to be size 0 so the clothes with hang right on the body the way they are meant to. I decided to go a different direction and not use the typical models for the shoot. I chose also to use male and female as I thought it would give variation. I chose the setting of a grafftied under bridge against the models wearing evening clothing to give it a contrast. I took a lot of photos in various places but decided on the two singular shots of the models from different angles in different poses as I wanted two images for this part of the project overall. I think the images work really well. My favourite is of the male model in the suit against the wall of graffiti. I also chose to do the shoot on a location instead of a photo studio as when I looked through fashion magazines a lot of the shoots are normally on a location that goes with a theme. I chose the theme for this to be 'out of place fashion' I thought it fitted well.
HOPES & FEARS ESSAY Your reflection. 'Hopes and Fears' Straight from school I went to college and pursued Art & design. It had always been my favourite subject at school and something I had always thought myself to be good at and that I enjoyed. As well as doing a Btec in art & design I decided to do an A level in Photography. My first year was more 'following by the book' as I had done in school, trying out all sorts of different arts in my Btec and all the areas of photography. I learnt many different sides to photography. I learnt how to develop film from an SRL camera in a darkroom, which I did find very difficult and time consuming. And I also learnt how to use a digital SLR. I took these techniques and experimented in the studio space we had with all the lighting and flash guns, and outside with the natural light and how to adapt a camera to this to get a perfect image. I decided to try out a number of different types of photography during my two years of A level. I quickly found that I liked to photograph people as the subject, I found that with using a person as the subject that you could produce many outcomes from this. For my first project in my first year I took to the challenge of stereotyping people, photographing different types of people with many different life styles being categorised for what they wear. In my first year I also tried looking at fashion photography and based a few projects around that genre to try and get a feel for it, I found it was very limited and the main focus would have to be around the clothes and not the person which is not what I was really interested in. In my second year I took a step backwards from that and looked more at Documentary Photography and Black and White images but still using people as the main subject. I found this was exactly what I liked and my final exam piece was both black and white and Documentary based. Making the choice to do Pre Degree Foundation in Art & design and a third year at college was something I decided on during my second year. I thought it would defiantly give me an edge when I was to progress into higher education and I wanted to be as ready as I could possibly be. Im not going to say that I completely enjoyed the course and I had a few road bumps along the way, but I can honestly say now I am at University I am very glad that I did do that third year. I learnt a lot about myself as a photographer and as an artist during the Pre Degree course as well as learning how to manage my time, write essays and case studies on artists and present my work on a much higher level than that when I was on the Btec course, we also did crit's in class to get used to the idea of talking about our work in front of people and getting advice and structured criticism from our peers and teachers to develop our work further. I found this very helpful. I found early on in my second year that when it came to my work I kind of went off into a 'world of my own' and I wouldn't be meeting the criteria the way it was needed, I would start off in my sketch book very strong, with lots of ideas around the theme that had been given but as soon as I had an idea in my head I was set on 'this is was I am going to do regardless to if it fits it or links to anything' although my images were really strong and I had an idea behind them they wouldn't always link back to original ideas I had in my sketchbook. It wasn't until my third year when we were asked to write our own briefs and create our own projects that I finally snapped out of this phase. I also found that planning my time well with weekly plans and weekly assessments on how my ideas and plans were coming together to make sure I kept on top of everything, worked very well in my favour. By the time I came to doing my Final project in my pre degree course I was able to write my own brief and chose my own theme, for example, we did a mini brief project that was a month long, short and about something that would help us in our final project, I decided on doing Long Exposure to develop my skills with my Camera. I looked at the manual setting of my Nikon Digital SLR in more detail and took many images day and night playing with long exposure. I obviously found that the effect looks a lot better at night and in the dark as I looked at traffic, lights and light writing (set the camera to a long shutter and use light to draw pictures) but it helped me a lot in understanding my camera more before I started my final project. Writing my own brief and doing my own project was a big help and something in my first year and most of my second year I would I feared to do without help. I ended up producing images I was very proud of on my final project with a theme I stuck to throughout the project, without any wandering. What I want to achieve at university & my own photography Although I did do a lot of work at college and a lot of my off site shoots were based around projects on my course I obviously also do my own projects and take my own pictures of things that interest me. Something that I defiantly like to do is photographing live music. I discovered I had a good eye and was pretty good at this when I shot one my my friends bands for him as a favour. Its very challenging with the subjects, being the members of the band, moving around a lot on stage, so it involves a lot of movement myself to get a really good shot. This is defiantly something that I enjoy doing and I have bands that do ask for me to photograph them when they play in the area I am living. I want to defiantly get back into this now I am in Leeds. Now that I am at university on a course that is specifically what I want to do, which is photography but with a journalism side to it I think that I will progress in all areas much faster than I did in my pre degree year. I found in my last year at college I didn’t actually start to understand myself and my work until I was set to create my own projects and briefs, I find that when I am
in Leeds. Now that I am at university on a course that is specifically what I want to do, which is photography but with a journalism side to it I think that I will progress in all areas much faster than I did in my pre degree year. I found in my last year at college I didn’t actually start to understand myself and my work until I was set to create my own projects and briefs, I find that when I am asked to do projects that involve things that don’t interest me or don’t relate to things that I am doing with my photography, which happened a lot at the start of the year my mind tends to wander and my ideas don’t fully end up making a lot of sense and don’t relate to each other. I also find a lot of the time that I have trouble explaining myself somethings when it comes to my work, if it doesn’t interest me or I have done it 'because they asked me to do it that way' I know that now I am at the point of higher education its a lot different and I will be able to express myself in a photography side a lot better. Although I do say this I am very open to using mixed media in a sense that relates to my photographs, I know that silk screen printing, although hard and I wasn't very good at it, I enjoyed making my photographs into silk screen prints. Another example is a project I did where I sewed into my images to create a textual look to them, I found this also very effective, but i must admit that painting is something i'm not particularly fond. I know that by the end of my first year I want to have produced to amazing images that I will be proud to exhibit and a body of work for my portfolio. I want to go into my second and third year knowing where I stand as a photographer and understanding as many elements of photographic journalism as I can. I have also heard about trips the university do to other countries, I would also most likely want to participate in them, for the experience and the photographic opportunities. Future. 5 years and 10 years. When I look 5 years into my future I see myself have completing my 3 years, 4 if possible, and going into a job in the area of photographic journalism to build my portfolio more and my experience in the work field. I also, if by this time it is possible, want to travel for a bit when I finish with my camera to places i've always wanted to go around europe such as Berlin, Auschwitz, many parts of France, Madrid and Barcelona, which are just a few I have in mind. 10 years down the line I see myself emigrating as I have done for the past 3 years. I know that I want to move over to the states to pursue photojournalism further over there and it is where I plan on staying. I am not certain where I will start or what state I will want to live in but I know that I will want to travel all over and see as much as I can. I know that before I consider emigrating I will work in the UK and build up contacts and a body of work and experience before finding a job to go out to in the states. My hopes are that I succeed in the things I want to do and work hard to get what I want, build an amazing body of work that I am proud of and gain a lot of experience. My fears are obviously that I wont achieve all of what I want and that I fail. But i'm going to try damn hard to make sure that doesn't happen.
IN MY OWN WORDS
I DON’T DO FASHION RECREATING VOGUE INFORMATION ooking at the magazine Vogue I wanted to see what the best way would be to recreate that front cover myself. I chose to use myself as the main focus as my model bailed on me twice when I wanted to do the shoot. I used a tripod and took the images of myself up close to mimic the up close images of front covers of vogue. I chose then to make the image look a little yellowish and sepia toned to change it from the normality of a normal Vogue cover and put my own twist on it. After the cover image was covered I then looked at what was written on the covers so I could make my own stories up to place on the cover in a similar way. I saw that there is always something related to the cover model, then something to do with fashion or make-up and then fashion trends so I interoperated them into my cover using the colour scheme black and white which I thought went really well.
I AM FASHION
BE ICONIC LIVE IN HISTORY INFORMATION I decided not to go with a iconic image that came up when I researched it and what other people would use so I decided on this image of Hitler in front of the Eiffel tower, its pretty simple and in a way when I photoshopped myself into the image became quite humorous. I son't think that my photoshop skills are very good in this image but I still think it works quite well, I tried my best to get myself to blend into the image and become part of it. I do look pretty out of place though. I defiantly need some more advice and a tutorial on photoshop to make my skills a lot better, even though I know the basics and can do quite a lot on photoshop I still need to learn a lot more. As im sure I will throughout the year.