First Photography Shoot

I took my first photos for the project this morning. I decided to walk around Leicester city center and look for inspiration. I used my Sony Alfa 6600 to take the photos. I took all the photos with the same aperture F 2.8. This is related to weather conditions. Namely, outside, where I took most of the photos, it was very cloudy, which resulted in little light. I took black and white photos in RAW and JPEG format.

After the shoot, I then created contact sheets. This is a result.

Taking photos of people working is difficult because few people want to be photographed, and those who do start posing and it looks unnatural.

F 2.8, 1/13, ISO-100, 0, 41mm

F 2.8, 1/80, ISO-100, 0, 26mm

Another problem is lack of time. Most people who agreed to let me take photos of them gave me a few dozen seconds because they were at work and had a lot on their minds. I now know that I will have to spend a lot of time to find suitable models.

Initial Ideas and Planning

 As a project this term, I need to take portrait photos. I'm going to make 10 portraits. I will use Sony Alpha 6600 to do that. The final portfolio will be made in early March and I will post it as a gallery on the website.

Wayne Bellows with his crop-Morten Watkins/Solent News

As reportage photos seem interesting to me, I decided to go in this direction with my project. I find it interesting to create a series of photos of people doing work. For this purpose, I decided to look at the work of Lewis Hine, who is one of the first photojournalists.
Lewis Hine was a sociologist and photographer most famous for his photos of people at work. His greatest fame was brought to him by his reportage about child workers.Traveling the country with his camera, Lewis Wickes Hine captured the often oppressive working conditions of thousands of children—some as young as 3 years old. (Saunders, 2023)

One of many children working in Carolina cotton mills, 1908-Lewis Hine

In the photo above we see a Sadie Pfeifer, a small girl working in a South Carolina cotton mill. She was captured next to huge, dangerous weaving machines for contrast with her petite body.Though she is bathed in light, her small form is nearly overwhelmed by the rows of spools in front of her, their repeating forms evoking the monotonous, mechanical nature of factory work. Hine’s images originally appeared in periodicals, posters, and booths at anti-child labor conventions. (The Art Institute of Chicago).

This photo is extremely powerful and evokes many emotions. Its mission was to draw attention to the use of child labor, and in my opinion it did an excellent job of doing so.

The next photo I would like to introduce is the photo below titled: Powerhouse mechanic. It shows a young man tightening the screw in a huge valve. It has harmony, it has visual balance, and at the same time, he positions the worker in a way that he’s controlling the machine.(Brooklyn Museum) The worker's muscles juxtaposed with the machine were highlighted in an interesting way. This photo was intended to raise the profile of ordinary factory workers. This is an interesting proposition for me. It shows the hardships of ordinary people in blue-collar jobs, which I identify with.

Powerhouse mechanic, circa 1921- Lewis Hine

In my project I want to take photos of people in a work environment. I would like to achieve a natural effect in the photos. I will take black and white photos.

References

Saunders, B.“The Photographer Who Forced the U.S. To Confront Its Child Labor Problem.” Smithsonian Magazine, 12 June 2023, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-photographer-who-forced-the-us-to-confront-its-child-labor-problem-180982355/. Accessed 23 Jan. 2024.The Art 

Institute of Chicago. “Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina.” The Art Institute of Chicago, www.artic.edu/artworks/23336/sadie-pfeifer-a-cotton-mill-spinner-lancaster-south-carolina. Accessed 23 Jan. 2024.

Brooklyn Museum. “Power House Mechanic.” www.brooklynmuseum.org, www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/112132. Accessed 23 Jan. 2024.

Studio and Natural Light Practice

Today, instead of the usual classroom lessons, I spent time improving my photography skills. I took some  shots in studio and outside and created contact sheets. 

For this shoot I used ISO 200, Aperture priority. I changed the focal length and adjusted the appropriate angle.

On the advice of my tutor, I took all the photos in black and white because it blended well with the background.

All the model's poses were arranged by the my tutor.

I will now discuss some of the shots, composition, the set up, and settings for each shot.

In this photo, part of the model's face and back are illuminated. Half of the face remains in shadow, which creates a mysterious effect. I don't like the composition at all because I left too much space above the model's head.

F 2.8, 1/60, ISO 200, -2, FL 28mm

This photo looks much better. The composition is preserved. The model's face and wound are illuminated, but not the back, which is intended to highlight these elements.

F 2.8, 1/100, ISO 200, -2, FL 50mm

The next part of the lesson is outdoor photos. For this purpose, I went to a nearby park and the nearest streets around the university. 

In this photo I used the Negative space technique. The person in the middle of the frame is a photographer and when I took this photo, she was looking through photos taken a moment earlier.

F 2.8, 1/100, ISO 100, 0, FL 50mm

The next photo shows a middle-aged man taking his dog for a walk. For this photo I used the leading lines technique. It was cloudy so, contrary to the recommendations, I increased the ISO from 100 to 200.

F 2.8, 1/400, ISO 200, 0, FL 50mm

In my opinion it was a good session. There are a lot of things I need to work on, like composition, but I think I've gained a lot of experience.

Above & Below: Class Practice

The main topic of today's classes is practicing shots from above and below. I will also be improving the adjustment of camera settings like ISO, aperture and exposure compensation. 

To better understand this issue, you need to look at the photos of renowned artists.

This is a shot from above of three models. The composition uses triangles to attract the viewer's attention.

Corinne Day 

As an exercise, I took photos on campus with my partner. The task was to take photos from above and below and adjust the camera settings. When we returned we created contact sheets in Photoshop. 

These are some of the photos I selected.

In this high-angle image I have used a wide aperture of F5.6, the ISO was on 400 as it was in the building so the camera needed a little more light and there was exposure compensation -1. I could have worked on the composition better because there is a lot of space above the man's head.

F5.6, ISO 400, 1/30 shutter speed,  Exposure Compensation -1, Focal length 18mm

Next picture is low-angle image. I took this photo while standing on the stairs. The lighting conditions are very similar to the previous photo. The background doesn't look the best, but since these are just training photos it's acceptable.

F5.6, ISO 400, 1/40,  -1, FL 31mm

In the future, I need to work on composition and proper setting.

Welcome to Spring Term 2024

Welcome in new term. During the semester break, while I was in Poland, I watched a movie called The Hurt Locker. It presents the war in Iraq and how it looks like from the perspective of an American soldier. As I served in the army a few years ago, and my nephew and brother are serving now, it forced me to reflect. I personally know many people who were there, including my brother, who saw the horrors of the war with their own eyes.

"The Hurt Locker"

One of the most famous photographers of the Iraq War is Christopher Anderson.

He is the first photographer-in-residence for New York Magazine. He worked for Agency VII, for which he took photos, among others, in Iraq. Over the next two decades, Anderson would rise to the status of one of the world’s top war photographers, chronicling Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine (Seymour, 2021).Since 2005 he has been associated with one one of the biggest and most influential cooperatives in the world: Magnum Photos.

Christopher Anderson Soldiers wait out a sandstorm listening to BBC

He spent a very large part of his life in a war zone and he was very involved in his work.Ordered to the world’s far corners on contract for Newsweek and National Geographic, the Canadian-born, Texas-raised photographer had spent years lensing conflict and national upset – instilled with a responsibility to capture people he doesn’t know and sometimes can’t relate to, to visually journal their bitter stories for the sake of reportage (Pistachio, 2022).

The risk Anderson took was enormous because it is very easy to get injured or even die in a war zone, even if you are just a reporter. Many journalists were injured or killed, such as Waldemar Milewicz, a Polish war journalist who died in the shelling of a convoy from Baghdad to Karbala. This shows the risk photographers take to show the world the truth and report events from anywhere in the world, even the most dangerous ones. 

Photography is not only about sessions of models and celebrities, but also about risk and showing the truth, even the uncomfortable one. Even though these photos are terrifying, they are also necessary. Beautiful war photographs may seem like a moral oxymoron. Can something so ugly be depicted with beauty?(Lubow, 2022)

It is a mission that few people undertake, but from the perspective of history it is the most important.

References

Bayley, B. “The Way Christopher Anderson Sees the World Is Amazing.” Vice.com, Vice, 21 Mar. 2013, www.vice.com/en/article/9bn748/christopher-anderson-interview. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

Matthews, K. “Fair Game: An Interview with Christopher Anderson — GUP.” Web.archive.org, 21 Jan. 2018, web.archive.org/web/20180121000019/www.gupmagazine.com/articles/fair-game-an-interview-with-christopher-anderson. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

Pistachio, G. “Christopher Anderson: The War Photographer Who Turned His Lens to Family.” AnOther, 16 Nov. 2022, www.anothermag.com/art-photography/14522/christopher-anderson-marion-interview. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

Seymour, T. “Industry Insights with Le Book: Christopher Anderson on Understanding Why You Take Photographs - 1854 Photography.” Www.1854.Photography, 13 Oct. 2021, www.1854.photography/2021/10/industry-insights-with-le-book-christopher-anderson-on-understanding-why-you-take-photographs-studio/. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.

Lubow, A. “Has War Changed, or Only War Photography?” The New York Times, 13 Oct. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/10/13/arts/design/war-photography-addario-capa-icp-sva.html. Accessed 8 Jan. 2024.