What is documentary photography?
"Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit."
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Documenting communities
Evaluation of photos
The task was to take portraits inside and outside of the classroom preferably six inside and six outside.
I found the task quite easy although my model was quite picky with the location so it took a while to find any good location.
I personally prefer taking photos outside the studio as outside you can find more places to take the photos whilst in the studio its quite limited.
I think I need to improve on getting better angles for the photo
I would of liked to get some images in black and white as it gives the view a interest in what is going on in the background
The task was to take portraits inside and outside of the classroom preferably six inside and six outside.
I found the task quite easy although my model was quite picky with the location so it took a while to find any good location.
I personally prefer taking photos outside the studio as outside you can find more places to take the photos whilst in the studio its quite limited.
I think I need to improve on getting better angles for the photo
I would of liked to get some images in black and white as it gives the view a interest in what is going on in the background
My local community (homework)
I took two pictures of my friends then 6 of my neighbor. My friends are important to me as I interact with the quite frequently and my neighbor is important to the community as he provides entertainment in his boxing which happens quite often. I took the photos with my mobile phone as it was the only available device I had at the time. If I had time to improve the photos I would try to use a professional camera as the quality would be better as some of the photos are quite blurry. If I could improve the project would try to get some more photo's of the local community during my limited time
Dawoud Bey
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They might be thought to be an bad set of people who are up to no good or that they are not really know well and do quite amazing things. Dawoud Bay tries to get them in a natural situation and only changes their position and posture if needed whilst many others would but them into situations that with out the photographer being there. The relationships seem to be quite close as it seems that they have know each other for a bit of time to gain some trust.Yes it seems to be a positive relationship as they seem to be quite trusting plus in the video Dawoud says that he has been going to places with them for a bit of time. They seem to be quite comfortable but in a few some of the children are quite nervous but they might be camera shy especially at a young age. To document what them as they are thought to be a crime ridden area but actually they are an quite nice set of people.His inspiration might of been the fact that it was his hometown .He was interested in this community as it was his previous community and he wanted to return and see how it was going but in the end he ended up wanting to make them the subject of it as they were interesting in their eyes. He communicated to the the subjects of the photo by instructing them on what to do where to position themselves. They collaborated by getting a few members of the community to be involved in the photos and showing what they are like |
Evaluation of others work
The photographer might of chosen this community (country) as they are rarely documented but the way the the photographer (Niall McDiarmid) has chosen to document this individual is to include their local community. The photographer was quite lucky to get the person in the photo at that moment as they were looking at the camera and the positioning of the person was quite useful as you can slightly see what is going on in the background although the person is the main focus and the person looks at ease with them the photographer being there so they might have close relationship. The Photographer seems to enjoy doing street photography a thrives with it. His inspiration was probably the local community as a whole as they might be quite interesting but the photographer saw the moment and took the opportunity.
Liz Johnson Artur's work is about African diaspora. The photographer them self go out with the passion to meet new people and to remember the moment they become friends they take a photo of the new friend, as they are friends they are fine with communicating about taking photos and where to and how to position them self for the photo's. The way that they are in frame matters as if they are positioned in a different way they would have features that stick out of frame, in example they could have half of their face sticking out of frame so you can only see some of what they look like. A thing that probably interested the photographer is that they are friends and it would be the easiest to manage and sort out.
The only that they enjoy are being able to capture their memories. They wanted to share their memories with other people than just storing it in their head, so thats why they started photography. Even if they have captured something very simple it means quite a lot to them, even if its every
day moments. What compels them to do their work is having to form intimacy with some of the subjects
day moments. What compels them to do their work is having to form intimacy with some of the subjects
The photographer focused on their family and social events but mainly their daughter. They know the people in the photos quite well since they all go to a lake together. They communicate quite well as they know each other closely. The community probably interested them as the have not been recorded over the time they have been there so the photographer thought it would be nice to document them and show their lifestyle. The photographer was connected to the work as it was their local community.
Dark Room
First of all you would make a negative of your inverted photo which you then but underneath the amidifier and move the safety light. After that you would set the amount of time that the light would be of the negative and a small piece of light sensitive paper to run a test runs on. You would then dive the paper into chemicals so you can get a reaction for the light amidifer. After all of that you would soak the paper into water so that chemicals brush off. If the test run is successful you would do it on a larger piece of paper. If not you would change the settings on the amidifier and the timer to optimise the light on a new small piece of paper to re-do the test.
Sian Davey
Sian photographs their local community as photography is their passion and hobby. Every time They see an opportunity they take it immediately but then they also organise some photos if they are too cramped together as you can see above.
Homework 12/10/2021
The inside photos were quite hard as there was limited space. If i would want to make changes I would go to a bigger building as it would provide more areas to use for the photos. The outside was hard as I had limited time with the lighting as it was going dark quite quickly
Pratical 19/10/2021
Evaluation:
Things that were effective were the model was very effective when going to new areas to create new opportunities. some things that was not so good was the weather as it was quite windy so whilst trying to take photos outside their hair would be messed up. I believe that other people will think my work was quite opportunist as the phots are quite similar to each other when based indoors. The main thing that is worth remembering is probably the opportunities I had.
Things that were effective were the model was very effective when going to new areas to create new opportunities. some things that was not so good was the weather as it was quite windy so whilst trying to take photos outside their hair would be messed up. I believe that other people will think my work was quite opportunist as the phots are quite similar to each other when based indoors. The main thing that is worth remembering is probably the opportunities I had.
The best photo in my opinion
What I believe to be the most effective factor of this photo is positioning of the model and how the background has worked well for them and something that did not work well for them is how the photo has been pixelated a bit. I believe that the most memorable part would be how the lighting has made it look like the model has just came from somewhere form beyond I believe that that part would be memorable as it is unusual. The part I think is worth remembering is how the light illuminates their hair from behind. I chose to create this as it would be a great opportunity to create something that would be something I don't usually do. I believe it does not
First of all I got the image into Photoshop so I could set it into black and white. after that I put the image into black and white I edited the tint which I decide to focus on a yellowish cyan tint as seen in image 2 which created a a extremely light yellow which was more similar to white than anything within the black and white version which resulted with image 4. After that I went to Change the exposure which I changed to -1.03 and then I said "ok". After that I cropped it to get rid of parts that are irrelevant to the focus of the photo I personally prefer that it is quite dark from the exposure so you can see the camera that the model is holding . After that I inverted the image so I can make a negative later on.
Tyler Mitchell
Analysis of an photo
In this photograph I see people of different origins harmonizing , and a word I would use to describe this is 'harmony'. If i had to describe this photo to somebody that had not seen this before i would say that it has people of different skin being harmonious together. The photo was made by using the 'rococo' art style as it is naturalistic and includes flowers. Something that I recognize is the use of the rococo art style, but a thing that I find new is the use of classical clothing is such a naturalistic setting.
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Pratical 9/11/2021
The task was to be inspired by Tyler Mitchel's work and use some of his ideas, I personally used his idea of using bright colours as it was quite fascinating as the colours always made a mark in it. Within these photographs I am able to see the subject, the concrete or grass and leaves. A word I would use to describe this set of images is autumn as the photos are quite similar to autumn as they used the orange leaves to explore the season. If I had to describe the images to someone who had not seen it before is that it had the person in the centre of them all. My photo-shoot was inspired by Tyler Mitchel and his use of the rococo style, the use of bright colours and his use of shadows. The bright colours were mainly the grass from the field and the autumn leaves.
Within this photo I am able to see the person's torso and face with a few leaves coming in through the left side. Yet again a word I would use to describe the image would be autumn as the oranges and reds of the leaves show the start of the season. If I had to describe this image to someone who had not seen it before is that it contained leaves and a young person who had a concrete path behind them. I would say that the image is quite naturalistic. I used the rococo style to influence my work. I discovered the bokeh within the photo after it was taken.
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Tyler Mitchell’s work is interesting as they are non-stereotypical images of black youth, and the colours used are normally quite bright. If the work is outside it always contains greenery or plain vibrant colours. His work usually uses props or fashion items. The images are mainly face and torso based. The work sometimes has people engaged in activities
Tyler Mitchel inspired response
Within this particular project, we can see the face and torso of the model. A random word to describe these photos would be summer as there were many bright colours consuming the screen. If I had to describe the photos to someone it would be that it focuses on the young man and uses bright colours to highlight him. I would proclaim that the work is naturalistic. Something that is new to me is the use of filters such as the yellow that went over the images
Evaluation
I believe that this is my most successful piece of work and coincidentally it is also my favorite as the lighting was perfect for the scene plus the contrast of the two sets of colors. The main idea was to get the image to contain the persons face and their torso. The use of the top perfect as it had such bright colors which contrasted the background which is the colorful grass, plus the activity of laying down was an amazing choice.
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Internal work 30/11/2021
What I see in this set of photos is the model looking off into the distance except the finally one is where they model is staring right into the camera. What i believe to be effective is that the color of the background was always quite vibrant. Some thing that I believe is not so efficient is the fact that the quantity is quite low. I believe others would say about it is that the velvet red is the main source of color in all of the photos
Nick Meyer
I believe that the image reflects a piece of news that happened in the local area that made them have a significant town/area. I believe that the images would not go together if you did not know it was about Meyer's area. The images represents a certain town which have had been in the news
5 week project
Week 1
Week 1 -
The location I decided to use in week one was my living room as the moonlight made a massive mark on the background making it more illuminated but then the use of the lights made the background even more bold as the glass table is originally barely visible
The location I decided to use in week one was my living room as the moonlight made a massive mark on the background making it more illuminated but then the use of the lights made the background even more bold as the glass table is originally barely visible
Week 2
Week 2 -
For the second week I decided to go out with friends and discover nice lighted places during the winter as it usually becomes dark way too quickly so we decided to go to Greenwich and also go across the Thames to try to get main factors of Greenwich in the background
For the second week I decided to go out with friends and discover nice lighted places during the winter as it usually becomes dark way too quickly so we decided to go to Greenwich and also go across the Thames to try to get main factors of Greenwich in the background
Week 3
Week 3 -
During week three I decided to learn things about dusk and dawn photography as the way the photos look always amazed me but I knew I should also include some people into the photos and use a prop (the lights from week one was the prop I decided on)
During week three I decided to learn things about dusk and dawn photography as the way the photos look always amazed me but I knew I should also include some people into the photos and use a prop (the lights from week one was the prop I decided on)
Week 4
Week 5
Week 4&5
Unfortunately I was busy during week 4 so I only got quick photos whilst we had stopped to view places so that meant I was unable to include people usually but once I had time in week 5 me and my friends went back out and took some photos whilst we roamed the local area then finished it off with my friends full bodies in the photo whilst there was a background that included some light or had a satisfying sky
Unfortunately I was busy during week 4 so I only got quick photos whilst we had stopped to view places so that meant I was unable to include people usually but once I had time in week 5 me and my friends went back out and took some photos whilst we roamed the local area then finished it off with my friends full bodies in the photo whilst there was a background that included some light or had a satisfying sky
Composition of twelve photos
This composition that is there is personal favorite as I have used the lights to amplify the color within the images as well as the lights link to most of the images as they were used as props to brighten up the persons clothes or were the main focus. What I believe is effective for the image was the lights (as stated above) but something I believe was not effective was the backdrop as it does not compliment the images. I hope that other people would say that this piece of work shows what my community is like.
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My choice of 7 photos
the reason of the choice of these photos are that they are quite colorful it is in the foreground or the background or the matter of fact that i believe that it is some of my best work the ones with the tree in the background work well as the lights can have something to reflect off. The ones with the ones in the park or green have some natural color that is easily seen. the one with sea is a trip that I went on and found opportunities and took them. After all of that i realized they are quite similar to Tyler Mitchell.
Compositions to decide final piece
These are the compositions I have decide to to be the final four I should decide out of for the the final piece of documenting communities I am tempting towards the on the one in the bottom right as it has space but also has a quite colorful display. I chose the black card backgrounds as it contrasts the images making the images more flamboyant
I found this display on Pinterest and to edit it myself and try to spread it out as the background could contrast the images used to make it an ostentatious display. Some of the images will slightly overlap
After all of that I decided to change some of the images as they were not suited to the set as they were either too light or did, then I decided to reduce the space used to make it look more close together to remove all the possibly wasted paper, as seen below.
A correction
I believe that I have effectively developed and explored new ideas through this investigation as it made me find a topic I enjoy. Each of these pieces have in my opinion a clear sense of purpose as they are there to display my community. I assume that my work has a strong resemblance of my community, I believe that one of my pieces of my work would spark some interesting responses and that one would be the one with the three people on the railings as it is in a unique place and a bit risky if they were to slip. I have refined my ideas to merge
I later on decided to change it again as I believe that I could fit more photos in as well as that I could raise some pieces as it would make the collage look better as some of the photos are going to be a bit easier to view than those at the back. I also changed the entire organization of the photos so that it does not seem so grouped together and that although some have been moved (this is before it has been made 3D). Afterwards I decided to add a background photo to go behind some photos
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Final Piece
In the end I returned to this piece with a few minor adjustments in the positioning as it in my opinion is my best work so far as it is my most refined work and although it took a while I developed it as much as i could whilst exploring ideas of it becoming raised so it would be on a different stage to the others. I believe that my understanding of context and culture has improved with this work happening because it has me re-think most things I thought about culture and it gave me a new point of view on it. The technique I have learned from such people as Tyler Mitchel is a new skill I have learned from this project and the knowledge I have gained from it was used in this project as well as it will be used in future pieces such as those in my external work (11/02/2022). I believe that I have understood the relationship between the process and the product as well as the ability to review the work then modify it to suit the theme of the work for example the theme of community within this project. Then I had removed the photographs that had a better suited theme whilst using those pictures that I had a strong opinion would suit the theme and the project as a whole. I have demonstrated the necessary skills to effectively within the photos as well as using the style of Tyler Mitchell to perfect them. The observation on Tyler Mitchell's work helped with the work as it gave me a new style of photography to try and use and over time I began to understand it plus the experiences I had trying to understand the method. I have presented my ideas and results within this final piece and the research. I decided to document the people within the images and those places as they are people who I constantly interact with and the places are somewhere I have either gone to once or twice or somewhere I constantly visit so that those places and people are my community. It changes what people think about what teenagers in London are like as in the news they described as quite aggressive and rude to others but within this piece it is meant to idealize the actual unity within the community.
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My work was inspired by Tyler Mitchell's methods as his work always gave me a sense of unity and I believe my work has followed in his footsteps with the colour and the framing. And this shows that even though the media only shows the misdeeds of teenagers as well as how they are supposed to be aggressive but my final piece is meant to idealise the unity and hope there actually is on the younger side of the community.
Documenting places
Zoe Leonard
- Write about why you choose these images.Are there similarities within the images?
- What are the differences with the images?
- What can you say about the colour within the shopfronts?
- Can photographing a series of shops document what may be happening within a community? Give reasons for your answers?
- What was the photographer trying to document with these images?
- How do these images make you feel?
- What would you like to ask the photographer about these images?
Take a series of at least 12 images of various shopfronts near where you live. You can chose which shopfronts they are and they can be all different. Think about how you take the images and how they will look as a series of images:
- Are the shopfronts in a row?
- Will you photograph the same type of shop, for example a group of newsagents?
- How will you frame the images? Will you take them in portrait mode, landscape or square?
- Will the shopfront fill the frame?
- Will you stand in front of the shop or to one side?
- Will the whole shopfront be visible in the frame or only part of the shop? You might focus on the lettering, for example.
- Will there be any people within your images?
- Will you photograph your shopfronts in the morning, in the afternoon or early evening once it starts to become dark?
- Add your photographs to your website and review them.
- Are the shopfronts in a row?
- Will you photograph the same type of shop, for example a group of newsagents?
- How will you frame the images? Will you take them in portrait mode, landscape or square?
- Will the shopfront fill the frame?
- Will you stand in front of the shop or to one side?
- Will the whole shopfront be visible in the frame or only part of the shop? You might focus on the lettering, for example.
- Will there be any people within your images?
- Will you photograph your shopfronts in the morning, in the afternoon or early evening once it starts to become dark?
Nick Meyers. 'The Local'
- Do you think that these images reflect an area or a place?
- Do these images go together to form a sequence of images?
- What do you think that these images represent?
- What do you think that they 'say' as a community?
Formats for the work
I believe that the two formats above shows all of the pieces whilst being an hint to whats to come. Then after cutting the photos off the mounting boards I but them in to collages
After I cut them out I began to sort them out and started to place the pieces in to different formats so that I could see which style and placement I preferred
Once I had prompt them up I began to re-organised again as I believed that the angles of the work could improve especially as the work in my opinion had to be perfect or it would bother me
My favourite piece
WWW:
The placement of the props meant that the whole piece was in the image as well as the angle used meant that the key parts of the image were visible such as the logos. The use of the window through the car as well as the angle of the stands. |
EBI: I should've not shown the borders of the image so it would have clean edges from the viewers perspective. The images seems to be quite busy so I should’ve reduced the amount of images included in the piece. If I were to go back and do it again I would leave out two or three shops as to not over-crowd it and leave it quite simple.
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Peter Mitchell
Peter Mitchel takes most of his photos outside of broken places or store fronts in the lesser know areas in big cities and within the imagery he depicts the reality in desolate areas which is shown by the lack of any sort of life within in his photos. His photo gives a sort of devoidness within his photography and that is because the lack of human life within in photos as well as how many images are of run down houses or of the destruction of somebody's home. I believe that he uses a digital camera as it is easier to use and traverse as well as it is viewable within some images. Peter Mitchel uses quite bland colours within his images as well as if you compare his work to another photographer his work is quite dull compared to someone such as Tyler Mitchel. Another comparable factor would be that his choices of location are more broken down and dull whilst Tyler Mitchel's is quite new and bright.
The whole of documenting communities
WWW: Within documenting communities there was an expansion of my knowledge on the methods of photography and the photographers strategy. I enjoyed learning how to create some of the images as the techniques were unusual and difficult to understand but once I understood them it was amazing. I am proud of the quality of the work as it.
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EBI: I believe it would be better if I had included some of my failed attempts so it shows how long the process is to create a photo for each method. If I could understand the methods quicker I would of been able to create more photos in better quality. My work would be better if I had increased the amount of writing I did so that they had a deeper explanation of what I had done
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We explored themes based around our community and documenting it, and at first I was quite nervous as I did not believe there was anything interesting to document so i decided to investigate my community further and realising that there is a lot I could document and I became more dedicated to finding out things about it and the more I developed my work the more enjoyable it became. I researched many artists such as Tyler Mitchel and Zoe Leonard who documented their community through different things for example Tyler Mitchel documented the people in his community whilst Zoe Leonard documented the shops in her community. I discovered them whilst searching for documenting photographers. I have learned a lot from studying their work such as the framing of the image and the placement of people. A threshold that I have tackled whilst documenting my community is threshold number six, "Photographs rely on chance more or less". I believe that this is a threshold I have encountered as all of my photos have relied upon the chance that the light was correct or that everything is naturally in a position for me to photograph.
I attempted many different ideas and some which were unsuccessful, I would use many different materials such as masking tape or sugar paper but there was a common appearance from a camera and mount board. I used many different types of media to assist me in my research from online media to discover new methods to media in public and asking photographers what methods they use on the street. the techniques I used many different techniques as it changed a lot through out the project for example my original method was to have people standing at the centre of the photo but through out the project it changed more and more and then it became there would be less and less of people being included in to my work and I became more interested in the background. I began to refine my work more and more as I constantly noticed small incidents within the image and I then developed my work more often inside and outside of school so I could improve on my methods, my constant interest on the work helped me develop my work and I believe it became more sophisticated over time as my evaluations and it has changed a lot since the beginning of my work. A Tallis habit I believe that I have been exercising the most would be collaborative as I have been working with participants who I used as models in my work and as a photographer I have been enjoying working with my participants but something I have been finding difficult is my poor time management so if I improve that I believe the quantity of good images would be. I began to improve that and my amount of images began to increase
The final outcome on my personal project became more advance the more I looked into what improvements I could make and i displayed it on a mount board and placed it in the gallery. I was hoping to create something memorable in my opinion and I believe I have as the work that I have done is going to stick in my mind for a while as I believe that it is some of my best work. I believe that I have successfully explored the theme of documenting communities because I completed all of the tasks as well as I looked for additional ideas to use. If I had more time I would’ve liked to review my work in greater depth and if there were pieces that looked back on I would like to reattempt it as well as improving it even further. What I think is quite personal about my work is the matter of fact is that this is just my community not someone else’s friends or their neighbourhood hence why I believe it is personal towards me and not somebody else. I hope that the viewers will begin to understand my work and the matter of fact that the work is quite personal to me as well as the fact that the people involved enjoyed being involved in this project.
I attempted many different ideas and some which were unsuccessful, I would use many different materials such as masking tape or sugar paper but there was a common appearance from a camera and mount board. I used many different types of media to assist me in my research from online media to discover new methods to media in public and asking photographers what methods they use on the street. the techniques I used many different techniques as it changed a lot through out the project for example my original method was to have people standing at the centre of the photo but through out the project it changed more and more and then it became there would be less and less of people being included in to my work and I became more interested in the background. I began to refine my work more and more as I constantly noticed small incidents within the image and I then developed my work more often inside and outside of school so I could improve on my methods, my constant interest on the work helped me develop my work and I believe it became more sophisticated over time as my evaluations and it has changed a lot since the beginning of my work. A Tallis habit I believe that I have been exercising the most would be collaborative as I have been working with participants who I used as models in my work and as a photographer I have been enjoying working with my participants but something I have been finding difficult is my poor time management so if I improve that I believe the quantity of good images would be. I began to improve that and my amount of images began to increase
The final outcome on my personal project became more advance the more I looked into what improvements I could make and i displayed it on a mount board and placed it in the gallery. I was hoping to create something memorable in my opinion and I believe I have as the work that I have done is going to stick in my mind for a while as I believe that it is some of my best work. I believe that I have successfully explored the theme of documenting communities because I completed all of the tasks as well as I looked for additional ideas to use. If I had more time I would’ve liked to review my work in greater depth and if there were pieces that looked back on I would like to reattempt it as well as improving it even further. What I think is quite personal about my work is the matter of fact is that this is just my community not someone else’s friends or their neighbourhood hence why I believe it is personal towards me and not somebody else. I hope that the viewers will begin to understand my work and the matter of fact that the work is quite personal to me as well as the fact that the people involved enjoyed being involved in this project.