'Cracker Cam'
Pinhole camera made from a cream cracker
November 22, 2012
Week Three: Further Pinhole Research
Bethany De Forest
Bethany De Forest is a pinhole photographer who works by creating her own fantasy worlds using everyday accesable objects such as food, insects and other materials. She makes fantasy worlds in a case or box and builds up a set, much like a child furnishes a dolls house before photographing the final outcome with a pinhole camera. The result is a quirky and brightly coloured image which screams out adventure and magic. I find her work to have an almost Alice In Wonderland feel to it.
Abelardo Morell
In the above series of photographs, Morell's pinhole images involve reflecting the view from a window onto the wall from that bedroom.
Stephen Gill
The above images are from Gill's series: Outside In.
"Recently, I've been trying to photograph not just what the place looks like, but also trying to include as much as I can of what it feels like. I started collecting little bits of stuff from actual places, and then putting them inside the camera. Bits of plant life, seeds, or glass: I drop them in just before loading the film. I've even used insects. These objects then sit on the film emulsion when I'm taking the picture. It's a way of encompassing the actual essence of a place in an image, the visual noise and chaos." - Stephen Gill, extract from The Guardian online article 'Photographer Stephen Gill's Best Shot' (full interview)
Week Two: Staged & Constructed Photography
From this lecture I was made aware of how many painters took their inspiration from literature and these paintings would later go onto influence photographers work also. A prime example of this is Shakespeare's character, Ophelia (Hamlet) and the painting by John Everett Millais (below)
This iconic painting has since been replicated by photographers such as Tom Hunter and Gregory Crewdson (below)
Other Photographers who works are constructed and staged:
Jeff Wall
Andreas Gursky
Week Two: Pinhole Photography (Practical)
After recieving a lecture on the art of pinhole photography, we were split into groups and shown how to construct a pinhole camera from something as simple as a large black dustbin. Because of the bin already being black, it became a perfect container in which to photograph some large prints of our surroundings. We experimented with different aperture sizes that were exposed to a setting for more or less time, depending on the size of the hole. After the group activity, we were split into small groups and given the task to take a pinhole camera and photograph something. We set up our pinhole (minus a lid) making a lid out of black plastic wrapping and alot of duct tape, lining it with a large sheet of photographic paper. After that, we decided to photograph outside of the University's grounds by the main road, in an attempt to capture some of the moving light of car's headlights that passed us. We exposed the paper for around 25 seconds before returning to the darkroom and this was our outcome. As you can see from the negative, the static objects such as the trees and the buildings are very clear, but there are lines streaking across the photo from the headlights of cars.
(image reverted to a positive image)
Week Two: Pinhole Photography (Research)
Renowned pinhole photographer Justin Quinnell (website)spent the day with my photography course, broadening our minds and introducing us to the quirky and creative world of pinhole photography, an art that knows no limit to the weird and wonderful things you can use to create an image. Here are some examples of some of his work that I really liked.
The above images show the passing of light from the sun, moon and the stars at night. The trails of light they leave behind create and eerie and ghostly effect that is particularly creepy in the image of the gravestones.
November 21, 2012
Week One: Deadpan Photography: Candida Höfer
When researching deadpan photography, Candida Höfer's series of photographs of libraries caught my attention most of all. Höfer's work is very sober and sterile in its feeling, the lack of people in a place that should be bustling with life; the atmosphere remaining undisturbed. All these factors contribute to the deadpan aesthetic.
Week One: Deadpan Portraiture & Photography
What is the deadpan aesthetic?
emotional detachment
cool and detached
sharp and scaled
clarity
Photographers of Deadpan Portraiture:
left to right: Thomas Ruff, Rineka Dijkstra
Joel Sternfeld: 'Summer Interns Having Lunch' Wall street, New York, 1987
Week One: Wet Collodion (Primer)
Here is the wet collodion plate that my group had made.
The portrait is quite clear but will hopefully be clearer once the back has been sprayed black.
I found the Wet Collodion process very interesting and would consider experimenting with it again.
The portrait is quite clear but will hopefully be clearer once the back has been sprayed black.
I found the Wet Collodion process very interesting and would consider experimenting with it again.
October 21, 2012
Week One: Wet Collodion (Primer) Research
My introduction to the photography course came in the form of looking at the traditional photographic process of Wet Collodion. This process, founded by Frederick Scott Archer was developed in the 1850s. (source)
As a group, we worked together to create our own collodion prints onto glass plates.
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