Introduction
I chose the section of architecture because I think that taking pictures of buildings and physical structures is interesting. Buildings and structures are always interesting to think about how they might have been built or made or what they might have been made out of, this is the sort of things that go into my head when I see a building. Photographing a building can be interesting because there are so many different ways that you can do it, different angles, inside and outside, the thought that there are two completely different aspects to a building, the inside of a building is a completely different place to the outside and that of course means that there are two completely different ways to photograph a building, this changes the way that I photograph a building.
Architecture photographer
The architecture photographer that I have chosen is Berenice Abbott, her period was around 1930s, she took large scale pictures of skyscrapers, urban areas and structures, but she mostly focused on big buildings and structures. The cameras that she had were probably the average sort of camera for 1935, obviously it didn't take pictures in colour, they were in black and white however, considering that they were in black and white, the quality and skill of these pictures was amazing, I think that the black and white aspect of them adds to the atmosphere of the pictures. She was born in 1898 and died in 1991, some of her most famous pieces were taken in the time period of 1925 to 1940, a lot of her pictures were taken in New York or urban areas. An interesting thing is that she could take pictures from the tops of buildings looking down on the little cars and people but she could also take pictures amongst the people on the street and still take very good pictures, this shows that she can adapt and she has a wide variety of skills and pictures.
Photograph asesment
This picture shows the Chanon building from another taller building. Not only does it depict this building but it in frame there are lots of other buildings around it and the streets around it, I think that this image also tries to show just how urban and tall these buildings are and you can look down and see the streets that are obstructed by the shadows of the buildings, you can even see little cars and people on the street and from the highest angel and view. It kind of puts a perspective on how small we really are, and how we have managed to build things so much bigger than ourselfs.
My pictures like Berenice Abbott's pictures
These pictures are my first Berenice Abbott style pictures, they have had next to no editing, apart from the black and white tint which is essential for this style of photographs, because they were taken when cameras didn't have colour, so for all of these don't really look that old because they were taken on a modern day camera, although I put a black and white filter over the top they still have the quality of a modern day camera, this may mean that I need a filter to put over the top like one that makes them look older, that part is the most important because the artist that I am focusing on took pictures back in the early 20th century, so the quality of their pictures are not the best, that is why I need to make them look black and white.
Experiment
Image analysis copy out
In this photograph, there is a lot going on at once, first of all there are three people who look too be playing a game however, there is a fourth person who looks like they are playing too, but they are in the form of a shadow, the only evidence that they are there is a shadow, this means that they could be playing the game, it dosent look like they are, but they might not and if they aren't then what are they doing.
First colourful architectural pictures
These pictures were obviously taken in school, I didn't plan on taking any really to put on my website but I though they looked quite good, so I went ahead and put them here, one of the main reasons that I put it here was that I only had black and white pictures on this page until now.
Dip ticks and trip ticks
Dip tick
These two images are similar not in the way that they are similar colours but they are similar in the way that they are taken from the same angle and they have similar shading from where sun hits the building, also they are both the same building just different parts of it. The angle is pointing upwards but it is taken from the bottom of the building so the top and the side of the building is in shot but not the ground or the bottom of the building. The sun hits the building in a similar way in that it hit the building but another part of the building is blocking the sun from getting too it, they also both have similar shapes and patterns.
Trip tick
These three images have very similar colours and slightly similar angles, one is out of focus, one has a smaller less wide angle shot and one has a big landscape shot. They all have the same angle of being taken from a sort of ground level view or being taken along a surface, and from every angle they all show the building along with other things going on in the background like trees and bins and grass. The colour in all of these is very reoccuring, they all include that dark green colour and all have the same white and pale orange coloured building in shot, they all have a lot of grey in them and finally one object/thing that they all have is windows, in every picture they have windows on the building, this is in every picture and the easiest thing to notice in my opinion.
Quote from photographer related to architecture
Berenice Abbott- "Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed the subject becomes part of the past"
I chose this quote becuase it really is a true statment. It says a lot about time and how you can never really stop at all for a second because time never stops, technically even a photograph isnt a dipiction of time stopping because a photograph is how long it takes for a shutter on a camera to shut, which means that a photograph is like an extremely extremely short video. I think that she said this because she is trying to say that there will always be new things to capture witha camera because time never stops and this therefore mean that every photograph ever taken no matter how long ago it was wether is was half a second or 40 years ago will always be in the past and we are comstantly moving towrds and into the future.
Photographer who i am inspired by- Candida Hofer
Candid Hofer is a photographer who i admire for her photography work in architecture, she often takes pictures inside buildings of large or elongated rooms, this is different to what you might expect from a photographer that takes pictures of architecture, you might expect that they would take pictures from the outside of a building because that is what you think when you hear the word architecture, but she has looked into the other side of architecture and has made some amazing photographs inside buildings. Her pictures come out to look very perfect and tend to include lots and lots of individual colour, she often takes pictures of theatres, libraries and rooms like this that are usually quite old and very big. Some of her photos look very perfect because it is almost like there is a tint of white and everything looks very shiny and clean, this creates a individual style to her work that is interesting.
Candida Hofer photographs
my photographs
My photographs are taken from a similar angle and I tried to get the long hall way look, I also tried to get as many colours in as possible, one thing that i can see and strikes me as similar is the fact that both mine and Hofers photographs there is alot of colour and things going on in the frame.
Berenice Abbott photograph analysis
Pike and Henry Streets, Manhattan (March 6th, 1936)
This is an image of a street in new york city, in the 1930s. The image itself is interesting because it is dipicting and everyday scene in the streets of what looks to be fairly poor area of brooklyn. Another thing that I thought was interesting was that Abbott has managed to capture the manhatten bridge in the background of the image whilst also getting the almost urban decay like street of new york. Abbott has taken a photograph that could be a landscape but mostly focuses on architecture.
The general colours and tones on this image are obviously black and white but even if the image had colour it would probably be very dark, greyish tones. It is a street in a poor, lower class area, with buildings made out of brick with metal fire escapes coming down the sides of them, with rubbish in the streets and grey pavments, shapes in the image consists of very square blockey coloures and shapes, it is also interesting that on every building there is a repetative pattern of fire escapes on the front of them. The space in the image is used very well, the very foreground is empty with nothing but the wide road in it, there is a man walking alone towards the camera and also a firehidrent, obviously on either side of the road there is buildings however other thn that the foreground is pretty much empty. Then when we move forwards a bit more into the middleground, there are some people standing on the pavement, speaking to one another, possibly doing buisness, or possibly socialising, thereis also a car parked at the roadside and behind it coming round the corner is a horse and carridge (I think that this shows how long ago and purley how inadvanced people were only 80 years ago). Then moving into the background you can see that there is yet another car, more buildings on either side of the road, it isnt the same road anymore though, it is the next road where there may be very similar things happening, when you look at the very background the last thing that was picked up on camera was the anhatten bridge and the buildings on the other side of the river (Abbott often puts things in frame that really put perspective on things, they are often quite big). The area that is being photographed looks quite polluted and dirty especially in the air, we can only see this because of the sunlight beaming over, inbetween and around buildings, the way the sun hits the air it seems to create the effect of that on the air. The thing about this photograph is, that it is almost like you are in the picture, it is very true to life, it is an image of people going about their lives on a random street in new york, nothing special or significant, just the averge working-class person living life, is the vibe that comes off this image.
The part of this image that strikes and suprises me the most is the amount of people who are out during the day ad how casual and suprsingly happy they look, this suprised me because it is the middle of the day in a pretty bad looking area and everyone is acting casual like they dont have any responsibilities, maybe something is happening and everyone is watching, or maybe this is what people used to do to socialise before social media or the internet. Personally I think that timing and space is perfect on this image, Abbott managed to find a place where there was just people standing around in the street doing nothing at the exact right time of day in the exact right place. If i had a question for Abbott then I think it would be "at what time of day was this photograph taken", this is because I for some reason think the the time of day that this image was taken is a big piece of the puzzle and may just solve what is going on in this image.
An alternative title that I would give to this image would be "the working class" as I think that this is a perfect depiction of the working class in the 1930s. If i could put my figer on it I think that this image is about the average working class people and the lifestyle they lead, I came to this conclusion because, can you see anything else in the frame? I think that at the time it was taken it was the perfect depiction of th working class. I think that living in this photograph would present a certian lifestyle and that lifestyle is the general avergae day to day person, who has a nine to five job and probabaly gets paid alot less than they should be getting paid, I think this because across the rest of new york there are probably hundrds of other places with thousend of other people who are very similar to these people that could be photographed in the same way, it just so happend to be this one that got photographed at the exact right time in the exact right place, which means that this place must have been the prime example of that lifestyle. I think that Abbott made this image to show how images as simple as this can really say something for society.
I think what makes this photograph effetive is the fact that it is like it has been taken straight out of a singular glance at something which we take thousends of times a day, I think that the part of the image that could have been slightly better is the back of the foreground it all starts to stand in front of each other and I think that it makes that part of the image look slightly messy. Ithink that one thing to remeber from this photograph is the shear realness of the image and the rawness. One thing that i have learnt from studying this image is that as humans we all have our place in life and one way or another we need to learn to accept it, wether we are people like them in the street and with lower income or we are the richest of the rich who can do what they want but no matter what we need to rmeber that we all came from the smae place and there is no differencebetween any of us.
The general colours and tones on this image are obviously black and white but even if the image had colour it would probably be very dark, greyish tones. It is a street in a poor, lower class area, with buildings made out of brick with metal fire escapes coming down the sides of them, with rubbish in the streets and grey pavments, shapes in the image consists of very square blockey coloures and shapes, it is also interesting that on every building there is a repetative pattern of fire escapes on the front of them. The space in the image is used very well, the very foreground is empty with nothing but the wide road in it, there is a man walking alone towards the camera and also a firehidrent, obviously on either side of the road there is buildings however other thn that the foreground is pretty much empty. Then when we move forwards a bit more into the middleground, there are some people standing on the pavement, speaking to one another, possibly doing buisness, or possibly socialising, thereis also a car parked at the roadside and behind it coming round the corner is a horse and carridge (I think that this shows how long ago and purley how inadvanced people were only 80 years ago). Then moving into the background you can see that there is yet another car, more buildings on either side of the road, it isnt the same road anymore though, it is the next road where there may be very similar things happening, when you look at the very background the last thing that was picked up on camera was the anhatten bridge and the buildings on the other side of the river (Abbott often puts things in frame that really put perspective on things, they are often quite big). The area that is being photographed looks quite polluted and dirty especially in the air, we can only see this because of the sunlight beaming over, inbetween and around buildings, the way the sun hits the air it seems to create the effect of that on the air. The thing about this photograph is, that it is almost like you are in the picture, it is very true to life, it is an image of people going about their lives on a random street in new york, nothing special or significant, just the averge working-class person living life, is the vibe that comes off this image.
The part of this image that strikes and suprises me the most is the amount of people who are out during the day ad how casual and suprsingly happy they look, this suprised me because it is the middle of the day in a pretty bad looking area and everyone is acting casual like they dont have any responsibilities, maybe something is happening and everyone is watching, or maybe this is what people used to do to socialise before social media or the internet. Personally I think that timing and space is perfect on this image, Abbott managed to find a place where there was just people standing around in the street doing nothing at the exact right time of day in the exact right place. If i had a question for Abbott then I think it would be "at what time of day was this photograph taken", this is because I for some reason think the the time of day that this image was taken is a big piece of the puzzle and may just solve what is going on in this image.
An alternative title that I would give to this image would be "the working class" as I think that this is a perfect depiction of the working class in the 1930s. If i could put my figer on it I think that this image is about the average working class people and the lifestyle they lead, I came to this conclusion because, can you see anything else in the frame? I think that at the time it was taken it was the perfect depiction of th working class. I think that living in this photograph would present a certian lifestyle and that lifestyle is the general avergae day to day person, who has a nine to five job and probabaly gets paid alot less than they should be getting paid, I think this because across the rest of new york there are probably hundrds of other places with thousend of other people who are very similar to these people that could be photographed in the same way, it just so happend to be this one that got photographed at the exact right time in the exact right place, which means that this place must have been the prime example of that lifestyle. I think that Abbott made this image to show how images as simple as this can really say something for society.
I think what makes this photograph effetive is the fact that it is like it has been taken straight out of a singular glance at something which we take thousends of times a day, I think that the part of the image that could have been slightly better is the back of the foreground it all starts to stand in front of each other and I think that it makes that part of the image look slightly messy. Ithink that one thing to remeber from this photograph is the shear realness of the image and the rawness. One thing that i have learnt from studying this image is that as humans we all have our place in life and one way or another we need to learn to accept it, wether we are people like them in the street and with lower income or we are the richest of the rich who can do what they want but no matter what we need to rmeber that we all came from the smae place and there is no differencebetween any of us.
8 week plan
week 1
. do a photo shoot out of school \
. do research from a book \
week 2
. do a experiment with a photo shoot in school \
week 3
.try to make the photos from the previous week look old
week 4
. do a photo shoot inside
. make them look old
week 5
. start to think about final pieces
. do a normal unedited photo shoot in black and white inside and outside
week 6
. have at least 1 final piece idea and start working on it
. do more research from a book
. try take some photographs like any photographers you find
week 7
. continue to work on final piece
week 8
. finish final piece
. do a photo shoot out of school \
. do research from a book \
week 2
. do a experiment with a photo shoot in school \
week 3
.try to make the photos from the previous week look old
week 4
. do a photo shoot inside
. make them look old
week 5
. start to think about final pieces
. do a normal unedited photo shoot in black and white inside and outside
week 6
. have at least 1 final piece idea and start working on it
. do more research from a book
. try take some photographs like any photographers you find
week 7
. continue to work on final piece
week 8
. finish final piece
week 1
I have looked at a book about architecture and it isbn a street photographer called Andy Feltham, his book is called incidental view, it is a bunch of insignificant pictures of random unimpressive things that are made to look very good because of the way that he photographs them
week 2
this is a photoshoot that I did to see if i could try using people in architecture without it becoming portraiture, I think because it is architecture, and thats what i tried to do with them then it looks like architecture however, if it was used in a portraiture project I think that it could be portraiture also.
WWW
I think that the way that the people stand in front of structures and how the human form kind of works with the tall buildings works really well.
EBI
I Think if the pictures were taken from further away then it would have looked better.
WWW
I think that the way that the people stand in front of structures and how the human form kind of works with the tall buildings works really well.
EBI
I Think if the pictures were taken from further away then it would have looked better.
week 3
these are the pictures from week two that i made look old
WWW
i like the yellow tea coloured tint that i managed to get with them
EBI
i think if i managed to get a old piece of paper over the top of the pictures to make them look crinckled
WWW
i like the yellow tea coloured tint that i managed to get with them
EBI
i think if i managed to get a old piece of paper over the top of the pictures to make them look crinckled
week 4
50 mm prime lens
These are some pictures that i took because i wanted to revisit my old theme of a very low ground level view, almost like an ants point of view, these were taken on a 50 mm prime lens.
WWW
I think that the angles that I took them from is good and what was in the background was interesting, i like that i could change the focus.
EBI
I think it would have been better if I had more where the background was focused, as what it the focus is, is what a worm or piece of rubbish sees not focusing on the rubbish.
WWW
I think that the angles that I took them from is good and what was in the background was interesting, i like that i could change the focus.
EBI
I think it would have been better if I had more where the background was focused, as what it the focus is, is what a worm or piece of rubbish sees not focusing on the rubbish.
standard telephoto 18-25
Tthese ones were taken on a standard telephoto 18-25 lens.
WWW
I really like the last set of pictures because it went into really great detail and showed all the reflections on the wrapper that I used, and it really worked with the weather and looked good, I also like how the third set of pictures got a really good wide shot of the school building.
EBI
I wish that I had taken more pictures of different angles for all of them apart from the second set of pictures.
WWW
I really like the last set of pictures because it went into really great detail and showed all the reflections on the wrapper that I used, and it really worked with the weather and looked good, I also like how the third set of pictures got a really good wide shot of the school building.
EBI
I wish that I had taken more pictures of different angles for all of them apart from the second set of pictures.
These were taken on my iphone se camera, they look at the darker colours rather than all my other pictures which are all sort of bright, not happy but they are bright, these are dark but not sad.
WWW
They came out the exact way that I wanted them to, dark and slightly lively, that is where the cars came from and that is why I tried not to make it sad which it isnt.
EBI
This would have been even better if I had taken pictures with different pieces of rubbish instead of just the blue packet of crisps.
WWW
They came out the exact way that I wanted them to, dark and slightly lively, that is where the cars came from and that is why I tried not to make it sad which it isnt.
EBI
This would have been even better if I had taken pictures with different pieces of rubbish instead of just the blue packet of crisps.
Controlled assessment December
This is what I have made this controlled assessment, It is meant to be a tabloid/newspaper however, it is constructed in the form of a book because of the way that I have set out the pictures across the pages, makes it so that I can't have it like a newspaper because it wouldn't add up and look right. First I tried to make it on a website called newspaper club however it didn't really work that well so I ended up making it on InDesign, it took a while but eventually, the book came out the exact way that I wanted it to. Once it was done I saved it and put it here on my website for people to see if they wanted to. Things that I would like to do with the book would be printing it out and constructing it like a book and having a little booklet out of it, I would like to make it look different, maybe experiment with things like without writing in it or with no colour or in a more orderly fashion. Essentially, in some parts of the book it is not only an investigation into this one camera angle that keeps being shown but also how I was sort of bringing light and dark together in the same book and how I only had really light, white pictures, the white images are meant to not be happy even though they are bright, but they aren't meant to be sad either or really low, dark images that aren't sad but then there is no way that they are happy, I think another thing that I investigated is that these images are almost emotionless and are neither sad or happy. I think that the themes that I have explored are camera angles and emotions, the emotions theme is a bit of an unsure path as my goal in this was to make pictures that were emotionless or that made individuals feel a certain way with deeper emotions other than happy and sad. Then another theme or idea was that it was also what an ant or a piece of rubbish might see when it's on the floor, from a very low angle. Another aspect of this piece was time and the general idea of how the day and time move on, time also takes things like how after a while, rubbish will either decompose or be picked up no matter how long it takes everything that exists will change eventually. I don't actually think that people will really understand it when they look at it unless they properly study it and think about it and look into what I've said about it because it really just looks like a magazine with my pictures in it. To me personally there really isn't anything personal about it, I just really wanted to make a book with my pictures because books are really good ways of presenting things. I think that one of my favourite parts about this whole book is that it is an online booklet but it can also be a handheld item if I want it to be but it is very easy to access and I think that it is important for something to be easy to look at or access. In conclusion, this piece is probably the best that I have made so far in terms of final pieces and I actually feel like I haven't worked on anything harder in the hole course more than this so far.