Tuesday 7 June 2016

project proposal (just in case)





Evaluation

The final outcome of my project included 4 images 2 of which were portrait and 2 were landscape. 3 images were shot on 35mm film and 1 was shot on digital, the aim of my project was to show the contrast between escapism and restrictions. I decided to focus mainly on skateboarding and show the aspects of that in my final images. The landscape pictures included two images one of which was of my dad who was an ex skater and the image was shown in a frame with another landscape photo of a group of young skaters sitting on the ramp, in these photos my dad was representing the restriction and the skaters representing the escapism as the youth are using skating as a method of escaping and they are restricted by their parents, as well as my dad reminiscing about his old skating days. The second set of images were two portraits shown in a frame and in the first image it was an old woman dressed in skater clothes this was to show her age being her restriction, the second image was a young skater girl who is looking at the old woman and thinking how that will be her, however she is also using eating as her method of escapism and age is her restriction as she will have to give it up soon. When looking at my project proposal this is what I set out to do as in my proposal I wrote about how people use different things to escape however without restrictions they would have nothing to escape from. One of the artists I mentioned in my proposal was 'Marco Hernandez' who also shot skaters in their lifestyle and showed escapism very well, I wanted to capture this but also show the restrictions I feel I have done this and showed it in my final piece.



During my project I used a sketch book and Blog to show my development of thought and work, in terms of the sketchbook I feel this has worked very well and has benefited me greatly as it has allowed me to show my research each step of the way and show how I have developed each image and what artists and different methods of research I have used weather it be: gallery visits, artist research or watching documentaries, also the blog has allowed me to evaluate my sketch book in words so it's more understandable and gives a more detailed explanation of my sketchbook, the sketch book is also good as I was just able to put all my research in no matter what it was.


I set myself my target of updating my blog weekly and also updating it the same time I did as my sketchbook I would say I have met this target as I have been updating my blog weekly. The second target I set myself was to include more artists as research as I had lacked in this before, I also feel I have met this target as I included many artists in my sketch book. The last target I set myself was to visit a gallery as research and during my project I did visit a gallery so I can say I achieved that as well.



When I first started my final major project I wasn't sure in which direction I wanted to go in, for example I didn't know I wanted to do skating as the method of escapism I also didn't know how I would incorporate restriction into my photos. So over the course of the final major project I would say my idea has developed massively due to different artists inspiring me and then developing my ideas until I had the end result which I am happy with an it wouldn't have got to that without the development of my ideas throughout my sketchbook and blog, as the sketchbook allowed me to have ideas and then if they didn't work I could just move on and try a different idea.



Each week I would seek advice from my tutors where I would sit down and present the work had done and show them what stage I was up to, this helped me the most as it abled me to receive constructive criticism and also abled me to try new ideas that were recommended to me by my tutors, I would also have group crits which allowed my peers to give me their views and ideas they thought would benefit me, and they would also tell me their opinion of my work which would allow me to think about what I could change to it to make it better.





I would say the main key points to take away from this final major project is to stay on top of your work and not allow yourself to get distracted and fall behind. If I was to change my approach I would go into more description on my blog and update it daily as this would give a much more accurate day to day development on your work, I would also add more research in my sketchbook and try and get more than one sketch book done as I feel I slightly lacked on amount of work produced, I would also would have liked to have shown a series of images in a magazine like book as well as the frames. I feel this has helped me develop my camera skills enough to continue photograph on a high level that of which I entered the course in. Next year I want to focus more on a photography media based job and I will use the skills I have developed this year and incorporate them into a work based environment.

Overall I was really pleased with how the project went and I feel i have developed my camera skills massively as I hadn't really shot on 35mm before this year and that is what I mainly shot on this year so I am happy to say that I have taken in and learned a great amount which I can take and use in the job industry.


Bibliography

Bibliography:

Soares, D. (2016) Totally free. Available at: https://vimeo.com/128875444 (Accessed: 4 feb 2016).

Grey Skateboard magazine (no date) Available at: http://www.greyskatemag.com (Accessed: 8 feb 2016).

Ashley, S. and profile, V. my complete (2014) ‘Sam Ashley Photography’, 7 November. Available at: http://samashleyphotography.blogspot.co.uk (Accessed: 21 feb 2016).

High, T.C. (2014) Buy the film. Available at: http://www.theculturehigh.com (Accessed: 9 feb 2016)

Reserved, A.R. (2015) Home. Available at: http://www.rickyadamphoto.com (Accessed: 17 feb 2016).

Bradshaw, P. (2014) All this mayhem review – meaty but compromised account of Aussie skateboarding outsiders. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/07/all-this-mayhem-review (Accessed: 28 feb 2016).

VICE (2013) Skate world: England. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrBrpgQ-rps (Accessed: 6 march 2016).

Escapism (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapism (Accessed: 7 march 2016).

Anton Giulio Bragaglia (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Giulio_Bragaglia (Accessed: 13 march 2016).

Santana, T. (2015) THEO PAUL. Available at: http://www.theopaul.net (Accessed: 16 march 2016).

Home (no date) Available at: http://www.marcohernandezphoto.com (Accessed: 20 march 2016).

Snap galleries: Never mind the sex pistols (no date) Available at: https://www.snapgalleries.com/exhibitions/never-mind-the-sex-pistols/ (Accessed: 1 april 2016).

The official Website (no date) Available at: http://www.sexpistolsofficial.com (Accessed: 7 april 2016).

ARTIST (no date) ARTIST: JEFFREY-CERVANTES - home. Available at: http://www.jeffreycervantes.com (Accessed: 8 april 2016).

iDropKickWallsvideos (2012) I just wanna skate (DGK ALL DAY). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O65_qRBWQU (Accessed: 15 april 2016).

David Sims (no date) Available at: http://www.davidsims.com (Accessed: 19 april 2016).

Asmith photography (2014) Available at: http://www.asmith.photography (Accessed: 21 april 2016).

Dictionary (1375) ‘The definition of restriction’, in Available at: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/restriction (Accessed: 29 april 2016).
Available at: http://www.alistairhall.co.uk (Accessed: 5 may 2016).

Rule of thirds (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds (Accessed: 8 June 2016).
Film cameras (2012) Available at: http://filmphotographyproject.com/store (Accessed: 8 June 2016).















FMP - week 8

At the start of week 8 I had selected both landscape and the portrait images I wanted to use for my final image display the first image I picked was a photo of my dad, the reason I picked this photo is because my dad used to skate and I felt the image I have of him is very strong I first put the image into photoshop and experimented with different filters and edits however the image was shot on 35mm film so it looked best unedited and the film gave it a nice effect already. The second landscape image I used was a photo of skaters sitting down on the ramps at the skatepark, at first I also put this photo into photoshop where I again experimented with different edits as i wanted to see what the image would look like in black and white however I didn't really like how it looked so its not something that I would proceed with. The reason I chose these two photos is because they contact with each other very well as I will lay the photos out so they are next to each other in a frame. I wanted to do this as both the images contrast with each other very well, for example the reason I used these particular photos was going of the style of the artist I took inspiration from which was: 'Marco Hernandez'. I used the photo of my dad as I wanted to show him reminiscing over his old skating days by looking at the photo of the young skaters, however I also wanted to show how the young skaters are looking at my dad and thinking about how thats what they will become. My dad is also representing the restriction which is something I have been looking at, the contrast between restriction and escapism but I have incorporated skateboarding into it, and then the skaters represent escapism as they are young skaters going to the skatepark to achieve freedom and escape whereas their parents (my dad) is the restriction. I will also have a final a3 print of both the landscape images to show the images in more detail and on a bigger scale. Below is the photos in black and white and the final images.























The second set of images I am using for my final piece is the portrait images, I did two different photoshoots for this set of photos one was on digital and one was on 35mm film and I wanted to select an image from each category to have a contrast between film and digital, like with the landscape photos I first put the photos into photoshop to experiment with different filters and effects, I wanted to put both images into black and white to see what the outcome of it was and too see if they looked stronger in black and white, however they didn't so I didn't continue with this effect. The reason I chose the images I did is because they contrast really well with each other, the first photo I chose was a photo of an old woman who I dressed up in skaters clothes the reason I did this is to show the contrast between the youth and the old lady as the second photo I chose was of a young model who was also a skater. I planned to put both photos in a frame just like the landscape photos and have them contrast with each other as they will be next to each other in a frame. Its also showing how age is that woman's restriction and she is not able to skate however the young girl is looking at her and thinking how that will be her just like in the landscape photos. I also want to have both images blown up onto a3 so you can have a more detailed view of the images. I also edited the digital image of the young girl in photoshop just to make the shadows more vivid by changing the levels, and I left the film image unedited as film gives of a nice natural effect. Below is the images in both black and white and original.


























               



Above you can see the final result of my images and I have them both in frame just as I planned, I think that the images contrast really well together and produce quite a strong picture, I also feel I have used 'Marco Hernandez' as inspiration very well,  as I said I have also blown the images up on A3 for a more detailed view. If I were to change anything it would be to have more images in this theme to make it even stronger.





FMP - week 7

In week 7 I have started to finalise my ideas I began by focusing on portraits as I wanted to shoot two of my final images on a portrait so I looked at an artist named 'Aaron Smith' who shoots portraits of skaters and people at the skatepark, when Smith shoots his portraits the people in the photos have the key features which make up a skater stereo type, for example he shot a portrait of a girl with dyed hair and earrings as well as a famous skater with earrings and a nose piercing in, I like the style in which Smith shoots in as he uses nice composition and his photos say a lot which i want to show in my final images. I wanted to recreate Smiths work by using the same sort of composition he did in both my final portrait images and the response to his work, he uses rule of thirds well which is something I want to incorporate as well as juxtapositions and contradictions.






















 Above you can see on the left is Smiths work and on the right is my response, I tried to capture the same elements Smith did in his photos I did this by taking my 35mm film camera to a skatepark in London where I devoted a day to shooting portraits of people at the skatepark and above is the photo I liked the most and which I thought best represented Smith's work, I tried to include contradictions by having the persons hat as black and the shirt as white, I also changed the photo to black and white in photoshop as well as changing the levels so that the photo came out better and looked sharper.


I then went on to photographing another portrait of one of the skaters sitting down eating an ice lolly, this was also shot on the 35mm camera and I liked the shot because it also resembled Smiths work. I decided not to edit this photo as I think it looked its best as the original, I also included the skaters shoes which are worn out and beaten which is a aspect I wanted to include in this photo. Photo shown below.


After shooting those portraits I continued on developing in portrait shooting, so I set up a photo shoot with my friend and began to shoot. From this shoot I wanted to get a set of photos of my female friend holding a skateboard, now as she is a model it shows the contrast between modelling and skating.


Here is one of the raw images on the left, however I ended up taking three photos all of which I edited in photoshop, two of the three photos I left in colour and just changed the vibrancy and levels and the third photo I changed to black and white as the shadows looked nicer. I really like how these images came out and I may use them for my final images however I'm undecided.
During this week I have managed to select the two images I will be using for the landscape. I just need to get them printed onto a4 and a3. as for the portraits I wanted both images to contrast well together, so I will select them carefully to pick the photos I think sum up my project the best.




I then was out half way through the week when the weather was bad and it was raining, so I went to a skatepark I found and took some shots of the skatepark covered in rain as I thought the rain or weather was the restriction preventing the skaters from skating the ramps. image shown to the left.






I also started to select the final images for my final display, when selecting the images I wanted to pick the strongest images, however I also wanted to pick the images which I thought best summed up my project as a whole. So I got the contact sheets on the images I had shot for the final piece and selected the images I wanted to use. In week 8 I will begin the development of my final images and experiment with a few different edits, I also plan to lay out the images in a gallery format and have two images portrait in a frame contrasting with each other and I then also want to have two landscape images in a frame contrasting with each other.








Monday 6 June 2016

FMP - week 6

Week 6 I started by looking at a new artist I came across from looking at his photography book he made with 'supreme' the artists name is 'David Sims' and I really liked his style of photography as it was sort of an old school style to it, and in some photos he had photos overlapping each other which i liked and wanted to recreate. In one of the photos there are four boys sitting on a sofa which was one of my favourite images as I think it bests links to my project and I will be responding to this image in particular but also incorporating my own theme of my project into it.














As you can see from above the photo is of the four boys sitting on a sofa and I think that it is a good photo of escapism and the boys are enjoying themselves all laughing and having a good time, so I decided to respond to this by going out into London and taking some photos on my 35mm camera trying to capture what I thought would best respond to David sims' work unfortunately most of the photos didn't come out very well, however there was one photo which was a happy accident as the roll of film must have messed up and exposed two photos onto one, but I think it worked really well as it contrasted with a working man with the skateboard representing the escape. photo shown below.





I then made a collage focusing on the aspects of escapism in skateboarding, I focused on one person that I originally interviewed to start this project, the collage is shown below.



From this collage I wanted to capture is a few photos which I took on a disposable camera of just a skater enjoying himself and what he gets up to on a day to day basis, I then wanted to respond to this by having the same person however have an image of him contrasting with an image of my parents, and my parents being the restriction as they will keep a teenager from going out too late and steering them in the right direction which may not allow them to skate as much. I then have an image of the same person on a bike smoking a joint which shows him being free in his environment. Both images shown below.



Half way through week 6 I started to plan how I was going to lay out my final images and I decided to have two images in landscape and two images in portrait, I wanted to have the two landscape images contrasting with each other and I also wanted to have the two portraits contrasting with each other, I will be printing the photos onto a4 as well as a3 because I wanted to have the two a4's together and the a3 shown separately. My final images will be laid out into pairs and they will also contrast each other, I will also want to think about the contradictions and the juxtapositions, for example I will have one picture of a restriction and I will then have a picture of escapism in skateboarding contrasting with the restriction image. I am doing this as it leads the person viewing the image to ask questions about the photos, I also think that the images will contrast well as one is needed for the other an example of this is without restriction there would be no escapism as there would be nothing to escape from, because there thing people most commonly escape is their own restrictions. Below is a the frame I would like to show my final images in.





I then began the process to select images to use in my final display, to do this I laid out most of the images that I had taken so I could identify which ones I thought would contrast with each other the best,  thought this method of selecting images was the best as it gave me a birds eye view of all the pictures and I am also able to move the images about so I can mess about with different images.






FMP- week 5

I started week 5 by continuing to look at the contrast between restriction and escapism in skateboarding, I did this by looking a different videos on 'youtube' and I came across a song called 'I Just Wanna Skate' made by 'DGK ALL DAY', which had a photo on the video of a man about to whack his skateboard against a police car, and I thought this was a good representation of the skater rebelling against the restriction, as recently I have been exploring how people use skateboarding to achieve freedom and feel like they are escaping from the restrictions of life. Whatever those restrictions may be, below I have shown the screenshot of the song.


I decided to respond to this song with a photo I thought would best recreate the song in a photo so I went to a skating event where the police were patrolling so I tried to get a photo of one of them, luckily I managed to get a photo of one of them amongst the crowd which I thought showed contrast between all the people walking about and how they weren't looking at the police man maybe because they are scared of the restriction, as the police are a big restriction in a skaters eyes as they prevent a lot. Below is the photo I took when I was at the event.


I then went on to focusing on the contrast between restrictions and escapism in skateboarding and I did this by going out shooting at the skatepark and also shooting adults in their workplace, I again shot this on a 35mm camera so therefore didn't know what the outcome was going to be however I got a really nice set of photos, I then selected two which I thought best contrasted. I ended up picking a photo of my dad and a photo of people sitting down on the ramps, the irony of it is that my dad used to skate so you could almost say he is reminiscing on his old skating days if you put the images next to each other, or that the youth is thinking about how thats how they will end up. Below is the images I chose.




























I wanted to start looking at what makes a skater a skater, for example could you tell someone skated just by what they wore, an example of this is dyed hair or piercings I think that fits that sort of life style and having dyed hair shows that the person in being original and doing what they like, this is in context as the skaters are skating because they enjoy it and its what they do to escape and be in their ideal place.

I have done an example of this below as I did a small experiment by taking photos of the shoes of two skaters and then taking a photo of the shoes of two parents and as you can see below it is easy to identify which is which as the skaters shoes are covered in holes and they are very worn out and messy and the parents shoes are neat tidy and clean and professional, I think this resembles more than just shoes but their lifestyle as well. You could argue that the shoes are much like the lives of the people they are owned by as the skaters shoes are covered in holes and the parents shoes are neat and tidy. photos of the shoes shown below.

FMP- week 4

I started off my fourth week by visiting a gallery, and the gallery I decided to visit 'Never mind the sex pistols' by an artist named 'Pierre Benain'. I really was inspired by Benain's work and I really like the way he shot and the style of his photos, I came across the gallery on an educational visit and i really enjoyed it so I went back for a second time. I got a feel of escapism from his photos and this is why I am including him as research in my project, as there is a old fashioned feeling to his photos and the way the people in his photos look like they have been out all night and they have beers and cigarettes and the room they are in is dirty and there is things everywhere. The photos are of John Lydon who was in a band named 'There sex pistols' and 'Paul Benain' shot photos him. I could really relate to these photos as some of my nights out after skating have looked like the photos he took, so i thought I could get some great photos to respond to his work.









I then started to plan a response to 'Benain's' work so I started to go out an shoot on a 35mm film camera to get the same effect as 'Benain's' pictures so I took a camera to a party that everyone was going to after the skatepark so I could incorporate the theme of my project into the same style as 'Benain'. I took a lot of different photos and tried to capture the same essence as Benain did, for example I took most of the photos when the party had finished and the last men standing were all together. I felt like this was the best way to capture the same style as Benain did, I even captured a photo of one man sleeping which I used as one of the responses as it reminded me of Benain's work I also had one photo of a man smoking and then another of a man drinking at early of the morning. I feel like this is a good representation of escapism and freedom as its photos of youth doing what they enjoy on the weekends when there not at school or work or anything of that sort, below are two of the photos I took responding to Benain's work. As I said I took them on a disposable camera that I took to   a party that was taking place after a skating competition so I feel like I have stayed in context of my project.



After looking at Benain's work I started to focus on restrictions to contrast with escapism which I was thinking would be a good idea to show in my final set of photos. For a first look on restrictions I decided to focus on myself as I had suffered a severe arm brake and it was preventing me from skating and therefore I thought it was the perfect example to display as restriction as I had been put in a cast and I thought the cast represented a restriction perfectly. Below is a photo of my arm in a cast.




After looking at restrictions I decided to research artists who focused on restrictions and I wanted to show in my work restrictions as well as escapism to show the contrast between the two whatever the restriction or method of escapism may be. After searching and looking at different artists I came across an artist named 'Jeffrey Cervantes' who did a set of photos of a man with wire wrapped around his face and obviously the wire representing the restriction of the man but the question I asked myself was what they were restricting him from?
I wanted to respond to Cervantes work but I wasn't sure how to, however I went down to the skatepark and began to shoot, I was shooting on a 35mm camera so I didn't no what results i was getting but when the photos came out I immediately had a photo which I thought represented Cervantes photo very well, as you can see from below it is a photo of a boy smoking a joint blowing smoke with his middle finger up however he is also behind the bars of the ramp and I thought the bars represent the restriction very well and the bars almost represent life which he is rebelling by showing his middle finger and smoking a joint.


I then edited the photo in photoshop to get the same effect as Cervantes did with his photos, so I added a brown tint effect on the colour to recreate his work as you can see below.







Friday 3 June 2016

FMP- week 3

I started week 3 by deciding what direction I wanted to continue in my project, and I came to the conclusion that I wanted to focus on the contrast between escapism and restriction within skateboarding for example showing how skaters will achieve the sense of escapism whether it be skating in the ramps or just socialising with people who have similar interests and restrictions could be the law or parents or things as subtle as the weather, just anything that restricts the skaters. I started off the week by making a collage as you can see below.


I made this collage by cutting up photos I had already taken which hadn't turned out how I wanted so I was able to do this, I was trying to capture escapism in skateboarding. As you can see I have photos of skaters and I then have added thought bubbles to represent what they're thinking about or what they would rather be doing, I did this just to experiment with unused photos I had.

I then moved on to a photographer named 'Marco Hernandez', he shoots in a style I really like as he captures all the 'madness' that the skaters are doing when they are not skating, for example at a gig or something like that. The photos that I focused on I think represented escapism quite well and I also felt like you could tell that the person was a skater just by how they looked and what they wore, for example if they had tattoos and piercings and they looked messy and dirty with worn out shoes with holes in then they were most likely a skater. I also like the style he shot in as it looked almost as if there had been a crazy night out and he had captured the photos and each photo told a story, like the photo below. I think that the photo below shows how the skater is sitting down at a gig/party smoking thinking about his restrictions and almost asking 'is it worth it?' with a beer in his hand, this also shows the recklessness behind it as well.


I responded to this photo by trying to capture the same sort style as Hernandez's work, I did this by shooting just after I had been to the skatepark with my friend and I then took a photo of him holding his hand up in the shape of an 'L' I also had skateboards in the photo and the location of the photo is under a bridge, you can also see on the wall he is smoking I think this is a good representation of escapism as he is normally at boarding school so on the weekends he is able to go out and escape.
photo shown below.


I then did another shoot after we had all been to the skatepark, I took a disposable camera to a party that I was going to and I shot photos of people when the night was coming to an end to get that same feel as Hernandez's work, I wanted to capture peoples facial expressions which I feel tell a pretty good story of how the night went to is going for them. For example as you can see from the photo below he looks rather agitated and annoyed and waiting for the night to end so he can get to bed.


I plan to start week 4 by going to a gallery which I feel is relevant to my project, I will be doing research over the weekend to find what I think is the most interesting gallery.

FMP- week 2

 After the first week of research and exploring I have come to the conclusion that I will be following the path of skateboarding as I feel this is the subject I could go the furthest in as I think it is interesting to get a perspective on a skaters view of escapism and what they do to feel free and escape, so in this second week I have began to look and different methods of shooting and I started to experiment with with long exposure and motion photography.
I first came across this by seeing 'Arturo Bragaglia's' work whilst exploring long exposures, 'Bragaglia' was a pioneer in Italian futurist photography and he did long exposures in the 1900's and mainly shot motion photography of peoples faces as you can see below.
                                   

I found 'Bragaglia's' work very interesting and I used it as inspiration for my own work as I wanted to incorporate long exposure into skateboarding and capture the movement in skateboarding. So I began to set up a shoot, I first completely blacked out a room and made sure no light was able to get in and cause any unnecessary exposures as that would have ruined the photo. Once i had set up the room I got a strobe light and placed it in a position where the light would expose the person on the skateboard each time the strobe light flickered. I set the camera to an exposure of 5 seconds so that it would capture 5 seconds of movement and as you can see below the outcome was very successful and I feel like I recreated 'Bragaglia's' work quite well.


I then put this photo in photoshop so I could put the finishing touches on recreating 'Bragaglia's' work as his work has a slight green tint on it so I changed the colour balance and made the image slightly more green to capture that same effect of 'Bragaglia's' work.

Unfortunately I didn't stick to this method of photography as I didn't feel I could develop it much further so I started to move on and carry on with my research. I did this by starting to look at 'Theo Pauls' work and as you can see below the photo is of a skateboard in focus while the background is blurred, I liked this style of shooting and i wanted to recreate this as 'Paul's' photo looks like its telling a story with the person holding a cigarette in the foreground who is obviously having a break and chilling out however its hard to see but there is a man doing a trick on his skateboard blurred in the background and you could even argue that the cigarette is the restriction to the skater.


When responding to 'Paul's' work I decided to include a part of a skateboard and use the depth of field  and had the part of the skateboard in focus in the foreground while the city is blurred in the background, when I took this photo I thought the skateboard part almost looked like a building in the city and it could represent skateboarding in the city and the contest between the working side of the city and then the escapism of skating in the city. Below you can see my response to 'Theo Paul's' work.


After looking at Theo Paul's work I started to research different documentaries exploring escapism in skateboarding and I came across a documentary called 'All This Mayhem' which was a documentary about two brothers who started skateboarding as a hobby and then became world class athletes, however it shows how they became addicted to drugs and abused them in way in which it affected their performance and they eventually ended up going to prison and one committed suicide. I felt as if this was a demonstration of too much freedom and they abused the freedom they had as they could have become successful world class athletes.

I responded to this by taking a photo of a skater behind the bars of the ramp, I did this to show the bars as the skaters restriction much like in the documentary the bars in the prison were the skaters restriction in that, I feel as if the skateboarder and the bars contrast well as an escapism and restriction and the bars represent the restriction.