These images are taken from an article in vogue which was discussing the achievements of the actor (the model) Timothee Chalamet. I think that the images were a good example of a photographer trying to capture somebody in a very natural and relaxed way which allows the viewer to gain an alternative perspective on them to the one they might get from studio portraits of more editorial work, This is one of the things I find desirable about documentary photography style. Obviously these are not documentary photographs but I think that the elements that they share with the documentary style is something I find compelling and are the thing that inspires me to explore new avenues of documenting youth as opposed to just candid expose work. I also think that because my topic of youth is broad and i'm not planning on photographing the more shocking and vulgar aspect of youth eg. drug taking (I won't be ruling out the possibility of exploring this theme but for now I think I will be taking it in a more lighthearted direction), I think that trying to capture youth in this way is something I will be carrying through lots of my future developments; trying to focus on the people and what the image can say about them as opposed to trying to capture where they are or what they're doing.
I thought that the composition of the images were really interesting and the trees gave the images an aesthetic that I wanted to incorporate into my first development, they really add to the natural and relaxed vibe of the images. I think that the model looking into the camera adds an element of intimacy to the photos and the proximity of the photographer to his subject adds to this as well, overall this all feeds into the purpose of trying to allow the audience to get a sense of the person being photographed which I believe is another key aim of any documentary photography. |
moving on from my previous development i used a black and white film camera to create these photos. i drew inspiration from Mary Ellen Mark and i think that this is evident in the images displayed below. as you can see i took about 12 usable images on the whole role and these are displayed as a contact sheet on the right.
This was my first time using film i think that the process was lengthy and at some points tricky but it allowed me to appreciate the end result more. in addition it helped me further develop my photography skill which i can use when taking photos on digital camera regarding knowing what aperture and exposure to use. As you can see lots of the images needed to be exposed at different times under the enlarger and that why i had to make multiple contact sheets to form one whole one. i chose 3 images which i felt were the most candid and most in the style of Mark's work which i had tried to keep in mind as a point of inspiration when taking these images. i think that with practice i could definitely master the technique of taking pictures on film however to proceed with the project i don't think ill be using it because of how time consuming it is and because i don't think its the medium i should use when i want to create the best work possible. in the future when i have gotten better i would be open to using it to create more substantial bodies of work. |
when developing this image of Eva i used the same process of using a test strip to determine how long i should expose the images for. however this showed that none of times i tried developed the whole the image the way i wanted it to, in other words one time wouldn't work for one part of the image like it would for another. this is why i had to expose the whole paper for ... second and then cover the parts i was satisfied with, in this case her body and face, and then expose the rest for another .... seconds.
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by coincidence as i developed the pictures it became progressively more complicated to get the look i wanted. using the same technique as i had used on the image of Eva, i exposed this image at three different exposures. i exposed the face and hair for... and the the tree area for.... and then the right hand side background for....
in retrospect the small area behind her head could of been exposed for slightly longer because its very bright and underdeveloped, however in Mark's work the focus is never on the background of the image so this does draw more focus onto the subject of the image. |
This is my work compared to Ewen Spencer's. I chose these images to compare because even though they are very different in aesthetic I think they have a similar sentiment. In Ewen Spencer's image it appears that the couple are calm and relaxed while being surrounded by excitement and mayhem. The boy in the image has his eyes closed which emphasises the idea that he is feeling calm and peaceful and is only focussing on the girl. The couple in my image also appear to calm and at peace with each other both looking off in the distance and not concentrating on their surroundings, although it is taken in a much calmer environment than that of spencer's work. For this reason the images have the same sentiment, they both emphasise the immersive nature of young love and how it can be consuming but peaceful at the same time and these emotions and qualities work harmoniously together.
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In this development I used colours to convey the emotions of the subject. I covered the lens of my camera with coloured gels, similar to the ones I have shown on the left. In some cases this created a hue over the images and in other it created and intense and strongly saturated image, it all depended on how the camera performed and where we were standing in relation to the light. The process was simple and I found that other less common feelings like jealousy or rage were harder for the subject to convey without the image seeming forced, for this reason the best images that came out of the shoot were the ones which conveyed simple and common emotions like sadness, happiness or love. this was the final product:
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ARTIST- Peter DeVito
Peter DiVito is a American photographer who showcases his work primarily on social media. He wants to change the conversation about body positivity, he doesn't want to just talk about it but wants to showcase people embracing themselves and their imperfections. He says "I was really inspired because a lot of people on social media started posting things about body positivity and self-acceptance". His work is very literal and to-the-point. This is something I wanted to carry over into my work. |
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I started the development by taking portraits of myself, I used multiple mirror so that there would be multiple reflections of me in the image, similar to the effect that Viviane Maier uses in her work. I also experimented with my reflection in windows and in reflective surfaces, For a few of the image I used my reflection in tin foil. I then edited these images in Photoshop, I have shown how I've done this in a slide show below.
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Moving forward into the next development I knew I would be using self-portraits so I took those on a film camera in the studio. I didn’t really know what I wanted from the images yet so tried to be natural and neutral in the images. The contact sheet from this shoot is on the left.
I knew that I wanted to make collages and I also wanted to combine the discussion of the topics without making them random and jumbled. So, it seemed obvious that I would make a set of collages that could be displayed together. So I chose 6 topics and developed 6 of the images I had taken in the dark room. These topics were school, love, politics, friendship, music and social media, although they aren't the exact topics that were spoken about in the video or in my previous development I did feel as though these were the one that I had the most to say about and the ones that affect my life and a young person the most. So after developing the images in the dark room i write down what I wanted to say about each topic and collated the collages. I felt as though they needed to have texture and layers so I added black tape like I had previously done in my last development. In addition to this I added tin foil, this idea was inspired by the portraits I took in the reflection of the tin foil, I wanted this to emphasise the aim of the collages he final product is shown bellow |