Artist Research - David Hockney

David Hockney created his joiners by taking multiple polaroid photographs of the same thing from different angles, this one is of a man sitting, I like his joiners because they are usually almost perfect, with small imperfections like the foot being at a weird angle. With joiners we are able to see multiple sides to the same object/person in one photograph.

This joiner by David Hockney is really nice in my opinion, it looks like the pool is busy with lots of people at first, however, it is actually multiple photographs of the same person in the pool, I think it is very creative of Hockney to have done it like this and I think it creates a really good effect.

For me, this joiner is one of my favourites because at first glance it looks perfectly normal, but when you look at it for longer, you notice that one of the girls has four legs! It is probably his most morphed joiner and I think that it creates a really childish effect, these children obviously didn't sit still for the photographs, they fidgeted a lot like children do, which meant many of the photographs are a lot different

David Hockney has inspired me because he's made me think less about my photograph looking perfect, sometimes imperfection is better, in addition he has made me think about taking photographs from multiple angles, rather than just sticking with one and only coming out with four good pictures. I have learnt to explore with my photography more.

Artist Research - Alec Soth

This photograph is showing us the mans hobbies and interests, in this project, Soth wanted to show a wide diversity of people in Mississippi. I think that this photo looks like he has been caught during action rather than some of the other photographs in the project which look very staged.

This photograph is showing this womans passion, which from what I can tell, is religion, this project was carried out in Mississippi, which is a state in the bible belt. Soth obviously wanted to show this side of Mississippi in a subtle way.

I really like this photograph, it was taken in a prison in mississippi, it is again showing the religious side of Mississippi with the writing on the top, Soth wanted to show how big a part religion plays in peoples lives.

These are examples of portraiture by Alec Soth, I love his portraits because they show people in mid act, he has caught them in their own home doing whatever they were doing, I also love that the photograph hasn't been cleaned up, the background is cluttered which shows it was an unexpected photograph. Alec Soth's photographs all tend to be quite muted colours which looks quite good I think as they are quite lazy looking photos in general, no one is doing a lot of movement in any of the photos.

Artist Research - David Lachapelle

David Lachapelle is a portrait photographer who takes photographs of mostly celebrities, his photographs are extremely saturated like this photograph, this photograph is definitely improved by the saturation, it looks a lot brighter and hotter and the colours are a lot more powerful, it works because the photo is meant to be fun.
However you wouldn't be able to do this with any type of photograph because some photos, like war documentary, is better with muted colour, as it gives meaning to the photo.
Overall I think that this photograph works really well, he has made it look a lot more exciting than it probably was, just by using colour.

This is a photograph of Courtney Love by David Lachapelle, he has gotten inspiration from christian images and ideas for this photograph, to signify Courtney as a godly being. The lighting he has used also shows this, there is light coming from behind her, creating almost a halo around her, although we can se its from the horrible little lightbulb on the ceiling, I love this photograph because Lachapelle has made it look beautiful in what is really a horrible situation.

This is another photograph by David Lachapelle, it is of David Bowie, I think this is a really good photograph because you don't notice David Bowie straight away, theres lots of other characters on there that you might look at first, because next to them, David Bowie is very normal looking. Although, I still think that he is the main subject of the photograph, his face is the only one that looks very human, as the others are all masks. 

In addition, I think that the colours are lovely. The red is very rich, in contrast to the masks which are usually a pink or white colour.

He has inspired me to look at using colour a lot more, I can use different colours to show emotions in my photographs, he has also inspired me to take more portraits, I really like the human form and I could take photographs of this. 

Artist Research - Cedric Delsaux

This photo is by Cedric Delsaux, I love this because all the colours are so similar except for the signs, it is a landscape photograph and I think it is showing us how brands are taking over the world. I think it's beautiful because it's not symmetrical, all the buildings are different sizes, although they all look the same. This particular photo was taken in Hong Kong in China, the clouds at the top could be smog, so the photo could be showing us that the big brands are the ones causing the smog that is ruining their country.

These two photographs go together, they are called Orangutan Cage 1 & 2. I think they portray a very powerful message because when we look at the first photograph we see that it is where a Orangutan is meant to be and should be living, and then number 2 seems completely bleak in contrast. Personally I think that Orangutan's shouldn't be kept in a cage, along with any other animals, putting the two situations next to each other really makes you think about whether keeping animals locked up is any good.

Analysis post - Fourth Plinth

Analysis Post - Cedric Delsaux

This is a  picture taken by Cedric Delsaux for his 'Dark Lens' collection, for this collection, Cedric took photographs in central Paris and then put Star Wars characters in the photographs, the photos are hyper-realistic and they are also and example of the fourth plinth. The star wars characters aren't meant to be in central Paris, although personally I think that the photo looks really good, I like how dark this photo is and that you can only see the silhouette of Darth Vader. The placement doesn't look like somewhere that you would find a Star Wars character and I think that makes the photo even better.

This is another photo by Cedric Delsaux, personally I really like this photo, although I don't usually like the idea of the fourth plinth. I think this was done really well and I think that the colours go together really well. I can tell that Delsaux has really thought about this. The bright whites and greys all go together really well with the odd little black bits on the stormtroopers. Although we can tell that this photo is of a road under a bridge, I think that the stormtroopers being there almost tricks me into thinking that it is part of the Star Wars set.

This is a photo of AT-AT by Cedric Delsaux, I like how subtle but obvious it is, when you first look at the photo you might just mistake the object for dark smoke, however when properly looking at it, it is quite obvious that it is AT-AT. This photo was taken in Dubai, which obviously isn't where Star Wars is set. The fact that there isn't any other characters in the photo as well is good, it makes the photo more subtle.

Definition Post - Documentary & Don McCullin

Documentary Photography 

Documenting using photography is taking photos to chronicle something (usually historic events or everyday life) in an inventive way. War photographers like Don McCullin would be an example of Documentary photographers, I think that photography is an amazing way of documenting things and I love it.

This photograph shows a man during the war by Don McCullin, I really like that it shows a lot of emotion and that he isn't looking at the camera. I also think that it is dark to show how he feels, as in like he feels quite sad and dark because he is fighting in the war, this photo doesn't look staged and I think that it shows someone mid-action which makes it look even more realistic.

This photo is by Abir Abdullah, I quite like this photograph because it shows two people reuniting in a war environment, I think that it is very beautiful because it gives me a sense of hope. I think this photograph shows hope because they have found each other even in such a war zone, however in the background you can see lots of people who still haven't found anyone or are hurt.

This is another photo by Don McCullin, this photo is from when he visited Africa to take photos. I like this photo because it is showing three different ages in one photographs, a small child, a teenager and an adult. I also like the fact that they aren't looking at the camera, it makes them seem even further away from us, geographically and technologically.

This is also by Don McCullin, I think this a fantastic photograph, the subject is looking directly into the camera which almost seems confrontational, I also think that McCullin has framed this photo perfectly, there ins't anything missing from the photo and I think that it looks very good. The subject hasn't changed himself for the photograph which shows me that he has a lot of pride.

Artist Research - Rut Blees Luxemburg

Analysis Post - Rut Blees Luxemburg

This photograph of an urban landscape by Rut Blees Luxemburg is very good in my opinion, I love the colours that she uses, it makes the photo look like it was taken at night and lit artificially, which it likely was. I also like the hight and angle it was taken at, the birds eye view angle was very well used because it shows the cars at the bottom, it also gives a sense of mystery because we don't know what sort of building this was taken, it could've been a car park or it could've been a block of flats. This photo is called 'Vertiginous Exhilaration' - Vertigo is the sensation that the space around you is moving or spinning and many people get this from being at great heights, it makes it hard to stand and you are more likely to fall over if you have vertigo. The title is related to Vertigo and makes you think that the photographer felt as though they were going to fall.

This is another landscape by Luxemburg, I love this photograph, the colours she has used in this photograph are very warm browns, reds and yellows that make it look old and cosy, the colours used are similar to the sepia filter used in very old photographs. I also love that this was taken in the late evening, when some people have their lights on and some people have them off because they are asleep, it makes you feel like you have some sort of connection with them. The photograph is called 'Towering Inferno' which is why she used the warm reds and oranges I think.

This is a photo of another urban landscape by Luxemburg, I can tell she has used a slow shutter speed for this photo because I can see car headlights going past in a line but no cars. I think this photo is lovely because it is showing rather warm colours from the cars on the road that is a dark grey or greenish, the majority of this photo has quite cool colours. I think it is interesting that she has got a photograph of playgrounds next to motorway as this isn't a common occurrence in many places. This photo is called 'A Modern Project', I think she called the photo that because it shows so much modernisation with the roads and the fact that the whole photo is lit up by street lamps.

Rut Blees Luxemburg is a German photographer who takes photos in London, these photos are usually taken at night. She uses long exposure so that she can use the light emitted from London instead of using her own light, long exposure makes the lights look like they are glowing. She uses a 5 x 4 camera that 'requires slowness'. The colours and tones she uses makes her work recognisable in an instant because of the cold greens/blues next to the warm oranges and reds.

Definition Post - Landscape & Ansel Adams

To take landscape photographs, we need:

• A camera
• A tripod
• Zoom lens
• Wide angle lens
• Rain sleeve
• Lens cleaner
• Fliters
• Spare Batteries
• Memory Card

Definition: 

Landscape photography shows spaces within the world, they can be incredibly vast photographs or they can show only a small patch of land. Landscape photographs usually capture nature but they can also capture man made objects.

Analysis of Ansel Adams' Work:

I think Ansel Adams' work is odd, his photos look very edited and quite grainy. I think that the sky looks unedited but then the amount of bright light on the mountains instead of shadows make the rest of the photographs look very edited. Ansel Adams uses pre-visualisation to have an idea as to what the photo will look like.

This is another photograph by Ansel Adams, I like this photo more than the last because it looks more realistic and a lot less grainy. I think the colours contrast a lot more in his photographs than some other black and white photographs, this may be because the whites are a lot brighter and the blacks are a lot darker. I like this contrast even though I don't really like his photos that much in general. His photographs have a wide depth of field which I think looks really good because if he used a narrow depth of field we wouldn't be able to see detail in everything and I think that the photo needs that.

This photo by Ansel Adams is very unrealistic in my opinion, I don't like it as much as the second one because it's a lot lighter and personally I prefer darker photographs. I think that the water falling from the rocks and hitting the river surface look very fake and over edited. personally I prefer photographs that are subtly edited and don't look unrealistic.

Ansel Adams got his inspiration from Yosemite National Park and he took black and white landscape photographs of it. He was a co-founder of the group f/64, this group was made up of seven photographers in the southern California area, after the Great Depression in America, the pictures that group f/64 took were of natural objects and were sought after by the public because they were a sign of hope in a bleak time, they were seen as a sign of hope because of massive public work projects like Hoover Dam. 

Adams primarily used large format cameras because they had a higher resolution. He also created the Zone System with Fred Archer as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print.

F/64 refers to the smallest aperture on a camera, the effect that having a camera at f/64 would be that the photograph would have a very large depth of field, meaning a large amount of the photograph would be in focus, they saw the camera as a passive viewer of the world, so they didn't want to focus on any particular object and detract away from the rest of the photograph.

He inspired me to look into rural photography more, and he also inspired me to experiment with slower shutter speeds and using a tripod, I definitely want to use my tripod more because I think it gives me the option to get steadier photographs

Artist Research - Henri Cartier-Bresson

This photo is an example of the decisive moment. It catches someone at a moment where they are doing something, but with these photos, if it was taken a moment before or after it would either be a bad photo or he wouldn't even be in it. I think that the decisive moment is really good as it looks like it wasn't framed, I can't know if this was or not but with some of his others you can tell, like the one below this, you can't get the pigeons to fly back to where they were previously.

This is another example of the decisive moment by Henri Cartier-Bresson. I really like this because if it was taken a moment later or earlier it would be quite a plain photo. When comparing to Sally Mann, I would say they are only similar in that they both contain people and they are both black and white. In my opinion although Henri's photographs are framed very well and are taken perfectly, I prefer Sally's work.

This is an example of Sally Mann's work, it is from the collection 'Family Pictures'. These photographers aren't very similar in styles, I personally think that Sally Mann's work is better because there is more emotion in them. I also like the depth of field more in Sally Mann's photographs. Henri Cartier-Bressons photographs are good because of the decisive moment, but I am personally drawn to Sally Mann's work more.

This photograph is by Don McCullin, This photograph is quite morbid and it is an example of the decisive moment. I think this is a very well taken photograph that was framed well  and I really enjoy his work, it shows a very powerful message because we don't get to know what happened for him to be in this position and what happened after. If this photograph was taken a few seconds after the man with the gun to his head could've been on the floor.

Artist Research - Thomas Ruff

This photograph is lovely in my opinion, the subject has a very interesting face, as it isn't symmetrical, Thomas Ruff's photos are similar in that they are all deadpan, however, they are very different because each person is different. the colours they have chosen to wear may show an underlying emotion that isn't shown through facial expressions or body language in the photo.

In this photograph I think that the model is showing emotion, I think that he is almost smiling and part of me seeing this may be the fact that he is wearing yellow, yellow is a colour that signifies happiness for most people and I think Ruff knew this when he took the photograph.

I love his photographs, although they are very similar in that they all show no facial expression, however in some ways this is better, you can choose to see any emotion you want in these people, they are easy to relate to because you have no definite idea what they are feeling. Furthermore, I really like the colours in this photograph, the hair and shirt are the same colour and they are very plain dull colours, so as not to show any connotations towards emotions.

I chose to study Thomas Ruff's portraits for Portraiture, I really like his work because I think it's very simple. It is similar to how a photo would be taken in a Photo Booth, the lighting isn't inventive and I think it's just very direct and face on. I like his photos because it shows us that even though you can see peoples emotions in other photographs, it doesn't mean we actually know how they're feeling.

Artist Research - Vivian Maier

This photo by Vivian shows reflection, it portrays her as unfocused and quite transient. She puts herself in many of her pictures because she was quite alone, she didn't have many friends, she learnt English from theatre and plays, her theatre of life was acted out in front of her camera and she wanted to be a part of it. She didn't have any family, nor did she ever marry, she was a very singular person that probably wanted to be remembered and the only way that could happen was through her photos.

I do think her work should be considered as art, although many of them are very casual and don't seem to be staged at all. I think it is easy to look at and quite calming as not too much is going on and it seems to me to be quite relaxed and happy. Many of her black and white photographs are like this, they only have a few characters in them and the background of the photo isn't very busy.

This photograph by Vivian Maier shows a man on the street. He is very dirty, even in contrast to the wall. I like this photo because I think the subject is framed very well, none of arm is cut off on either side.