Demonstration of technical and visual skills Materials I intend to produce prints of these images and give a copy to the people who agreed to be photographed. Techniques Technically I did not use any novel or unusual techniques; all the … Continue reading Assignment 1 – The unfamiliar – reflection
Your first assignment is to make five portraits of five different people from your local area who were previously unknown to you. My initial idea for this assignment was to photograph people in their working environment in order to provide … Continue reading Assignment 1 – The unfamiliar
Bruce Gilden is an American street photographer born in 1946. He first became interested in photography whilst studying at Penn State University, which he quit without finishing, and went on to take it up as a career. Gilden’s work has worked primarily in black and white using flash to give his images a direct and powerful quality. Gilden initially started photographing the people of Coney Island and New York and has gone on to work in many part of the world including the UK, Ireland, Japan and Haiti. Gilden’s work comprises street scenes including aware and unaware portraiture. Gilden’s approach … Continue reading Bruce Gilden
Emil Otto Hoppé (1878 – 1972), or E O Hoppé as he is often referred to, was a German born photographer who worked in the UK primarily in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Munich, in the early 1900s he travelled to London to train as a financier. Whilst working for Deutsche Bank he became interested in photography and in 1907 he gave up his career in banking to work as a professional photographer. In the period from 1907 to 1939 Hoppé became Britain’s most influential photographer, so much so that Cecil Beaton referred to him as … Continue reading Emil Otto Hoppé
Look through your own family archive and try to discover a series of portraits (four or five) that have existed within this archive, but have never been placed together before. The portraits can contain individuals or even couples; they may span generations, or just be of the same person throughout the years (chronotype). Whichever way you wish to tackle this exercise, there must be a reason or justification for your choices. What message are you trying to get across about these portraits? The four photographs I have chosen are all of my maternal grandfather and span a period of roughly … Continue reading Exercise 1.4 – Archival intervention (P.51)
In response to the work of the artists you’ve read about so far, try to create a photographic portraiture typology which attempts to bring together a collection of types. Think carefully about how you wish to classify these images; don’t … Continue reading Exercise 1.3 – Portrait typology (P.45)
Make a portrait of someone you know, paying very close attention to what is happening in the background of the shot. Be very particular about how you pose the subject and what you choose to include in the photograph. Ideally, … Continue reading Exercise 1.2 – Background as context (p.41)
This event is one of a series organised by the Royal Acadmey and featured Tracey Emin talking to David Dawson. I must admit to being unaware of David Dawson which was does not reflect well on me as he was … Continue reading Artist in conversation – Tracey Emin – Royal Academy
Whilst looking for information about photographers who were known for their typolgical portraits I came across the work 445 Portraits of a Man. The work was first displayed at the Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Jersey as part of their exhibition Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture in 2014, and consisted of 445 silver gelatin 3 x 2.4 inch photographs of a man taken over an estimated 20 – 30 year period. The man in the photographs was Franklyn Swantek, not a photographer but the owner of Swantek Photo Service, which proclaimed itself as “Michigan’s largest operators and … Continue reading Typological portraits
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