Documenting Communities
What is documentary photography? Documentary photography is a style of photography that allows a artist to provide a accurate representation of things like people, places and events.
Dawoud Bay-Street Portrait
My first experimentation-Documentary Photography
We were instructed to take a set of photos of a partner, six inside the studio and six outside. I found the task quite interesting and enjoyed being able to use the cameras, taking photos of my partner was quite a good experience and it helped me to understand more about photography and the important features you need in order to create a good photo such as framing and light etc. I preferred taking photos outside as I enjoyed the more natural background and lighting rather than the solid colour background and studio light. I believe that I need to improve framing and the variation of photos I take as the majority of the photos I took where from the same angle and distance, for example taking more close up images. I would like to take more photos outside as I like the lighting and the background that the outside setting gives the photos I would also like to experiment with more close up photos. If I had more time I would probably try to take more photos and also create a variation of different photos to make the images more interesting and different from each other.
My favourite image
I selected this image as my favourite as I believe it is the most well rounded photo, the background the pose and the lighting are all in my opinion the best of all the photos I personally took.
Darkroom practical
Documenting Communities homework
Adama Jalloh
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Jalloh explains what motivates her to take the photos and where her ideas grow from she says "So a lot of the time I am capturing things that are very simple but for me it means a lot" she also says "Sometimes it can be linked to something that's more to do with where I come from, my upbringing, where my parents are from and other times its much more loose in terms of it being street photography and just being day to day" Jalloh says one reason she chooses to take photos is to retell a story she describes it as a "Visual diary" she says another thing that motivates her to make work is having the ability to form intimacy with the subjects and how she enjoys the fact that the people who view her images can connect with that form of intimacy and that people can relate to the subject of the image without necessarily having to know them personally.
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Liz Johnson Artur
Artur explains that she uses her work to try and "represent people from African diaspora" She says "I go out and try to meet as many people as I can and one way for me to keep this moment is to take a photograph she explains how she takes photographs but also that she try's to see how she lives with them, how she digest them and how she wants to show them. She says she uses a lot of fabric but also uses other surfaces as well and that this idea is what she considers a "visual tactility" and it has always been apart of her work.
Artur says that the chapter of Peckham is sort of the main chapter and that the outside wall literally represents Peckham Rye as it is her local high street and she wanted to represent that. When talking about communities Artur says "The foundation of a lot of diaspora communities lies in places like churches or in gatherings and I wanted to kind of sum that up in a certain way" she continues by saying "The idea was to have something that is round, organic and you can go around it and that there is no fixed idea of what community is" Artur also created a 'Women's Corner' which she says was "motivated through meeting people of the LGBT community who in a wider sense I think for me really represents something that is very much alive right now in London for me it made sense to make it a sort of feminine corner" She then goes on to talk about how she feels that if she creates a space particularly for black women hair is an important thing on many levels. Artur also says "I wanted to have a live programme because for me having this space it means bringing people in to bring those pictures that I can bring in here alive" |
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Niall McDiarmid
Naill McDiarmid is a Scottish photographer who's work is mainly about documenting the people and landscape of Great Britain.
He has published three books of street portraits made in Britain: Crossing Paths (2013),Via Vauxhall (2015) and Town to Town (2017) Crossing Paths, where he visited 120 towns and photographed 800 subjects over three years Via Vauxhall, which captures people traveling through the neighborhood of Vauxhall in London Town to Town, with more portraits from around Britain. and two more Shore (2020) comprises landscapes, portraits and still lives made on the Essex coast and Breakfast (2021) has photographs of his breakfast table made over for the previous four years. |
Liz Johnson-Artur
Adama Jalloh
My Second experimentation-more documentary Photography
For our second experimentation we was given a task to produce 12 photos of a partner, these are the photos I managed to get in the time. I only managed to get 5 as the experience was cut short due to my partner having to leave but for the photos I did get I can say that I like how the pictures look especially with the majority of them of them having the sky present as the background which I personally enjoy.
Image evaluation
At first I didn't like the focus as the images was focused on the fence and not the person in frame but I grow to like it as I believe it gives the photo a nice and unique look. Something that I think possibly doesn't work so well in the image is the bottom of the stairs being visible. I like how the person in the image isn't looking straight at the camera but instead seems to be looking off into the distance this makes the image seem more natural which is something I like when photographing people.
Photoshop Process
The screen shots above document the process I went through in photoshop to create the edited version of the image. The first choice I made was to change the colour of the image to black and white. The second choice was to crop out the top of the images as I disliked how the bottom of the stair case was visible in the original image. I then made the decision to crop out part of the bottom of the image as I wanted the image to seem even rather than the bottom being much more present then the top this decision also allowed for the images main focus to be the person in it rather than the surrounding area. The two remaining screenshots show the final choices I made as I liked the idea of making the subject the main focus of the image so I drew the image closer in to the person in it.
Tyler Mitchell
Tyler Mitchell is a 26 year old American photographer widely known for his cover photo of Beyoncé for Vogue. He purchased a canon camera in the 9th grade and started his photography journey by taking photos and videos of his friends skateboarding, one of his teachers also brought to light the fact that his photography was a form of fashion photography as he dressed his subjects with clothes that he thought looked nice on them. He also went on a trip to Cuba with school as he said he felt like he should go because "Americans weren't allowed in Cuba" This trip may have inspired his use of colour as Cuba is a very colourful place with bright solid colours everywhere. His photography genuinely consist of either a solid colour background or a Natural background made if things like plants, trees, flowers etc. Tyler Mitchell says he takes photography's of black people and tries ro represent black leisure t break down the ideas that leisure an enjoyment in life is only a feeling for white people and not experienced by black people or people of other backgrounds.
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Tyler Mitchell Evaluation
This is a photo taken by Tyler Mitchell, I chose this image as I believe it expresses Tylers ideas of what he wants to capture very well. He likes to capture black people at leisure and this in my opinion does exactly that the image shows two young black boys casually siting on what seems to be an staircase up to a building this photo is also very recognisable as a Tyler Mitchell photo as he likes to photography on solid colour backgrounds.
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Tyler Mitchell Inspired practical(1st Response)
For todays practical lesson we were tasked to take a series of photos with Tyler Mitchells work in mind, we were reminded about his use of solid colour backgrounds, use of plants (Flowers and Tree Etc.), his style of work eg. tight/close up framing of the subject and his use of bright/vibrant colours. Unfortunately they was a bit of trouble at the start of the practical for me, this is what I managed to produce under the circumstances.
Tyler Mitchell inspired practical (2nd Response)
Todays task was to take a collection of photos inspired by the work of Tyler Mitchell, I feel that this weeks practical was better than last weeks as I believe the photos came out better and the overall experience went smoother with a more complete result.
This task was approached differently by the whole class as we was giving an additional challenge to work with someone we had either never worked with before or don't work with often. The task was more fun and genuinely an easier experience the second time round as I had a feel of what to do. This allowed ideas to come easier as a result of having already tried to work with the same inspiration the week prior. One thing that was quite difficult was having to include some type of fabric or material in the images as I am not used to having to use any form of additional features while taking photos. Having to include the fabric in the photos made the experience slightly more difficult as it involved having to style the fabric around the person in the image and into the image itself while also making sure it fits well with the theme of the image, although it made it slightly more difficult it was also a bit of fun to add a challenge to the task. If I had to do something differently I would probably try to use a wider range of colours as a lot of these images look quite similar due to the majority of them using the same colour.
I have chosen to further evaluate this image because I believe out of all of them it came out as one the best. I enjoyed the image most as it seems very natural, which is something that Tyler Mitchell also includes in his work as he likes to photography people in leisure, the image was taken just in time to capture the adjustment of the fabric which I personally enjoy.
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Editing the images
We where tasked to edit the images we had taken considering colouring and framing/cropping of the images
Tyler Mitchell inspired practical (3rd response)
For todays practical we where tasked to take 6 photos that had taken inspiration from the work of Tyler Mitchell, we where also challenged to include some sort of prop in the photos.
While completing the task today I felt like the experience was smoother and it was easier to come up with ideas resulting in me exceeding the target number of images, this may be due to the fact that this is now a third attempt at a similar task or possibly due to a partner change. I feel like the images as a whole came out quite well I feel there could've been a bit more colour included in the images but this was quite difficult to do as the environment we where photographing in only had bright and solid colour on the floor while the walls where plain. One thing I like about these images is how all of the images look quite natural and follow the instructions of including only the head and shoulders of the subject but one thing I dislike is how due to a lack of colour options a lot of the images look quite similar.
Documenting Communities Display
Image selection
We where instructed to select a group of 10-12 images minimum from all the shoots we've done so far in the documenting communities project after making the selection we where then presented with the task to create up to six compositions from those images after that we had to choose our favourite composition to be our final enlarged piece.
I chose these images because I felt that they where the ones that came out best from my selection of photographs some of them do slightly resemble the work of Tyler Mitchell which was the aim for a majority of our tasks. I also tried to chose images from the same shoots as I had an idea to create a sort of pattern using the images trying to include diagonals and/or overlaps within the compositions.
Pinterest ideas
I was looking through Pinterest through the 'Photography Display Strategies' search and this display idea caught my eye as I enjoyed the look of the images sort of overlapping.
Composition ideas - 1st attempt
We where instructed to create a minimum of 4 initial compositions using small images to get an idea of how the enlarged version would look.
The compositions have been placed in order of best to worst in my opinion, although the two middle ones aren't in specific order.I created a range of compositions during the lesson and I feel it was a good experience to be able to play with ideas and create a these compositions to help find out what I wanted as the end result.
Selected composition(from attempt one)
I have chosen this composition as I enjoy the look of it the most, I feel like this is because of the pattern of the diagonal lines of three. I thought of adding two more images in the top and bottom corners but the images printed too small so I may experiment with this in the larger composition or may leave to how it is.
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Composition ideas - Attempt 2
Inspiration
My Ideas
Selected Composition(From attempt 2)
Final Piece
Final Evaluation
Throughout the experience of creating my final piece there was quite a few ideas tried from layouts changes to swapping or changing the pictures in the piece completely. As a class we did research on a couple of different photographers and their work mainly photographers like Dawoud Bay & Tyler Mitchell who focused on their communities and finding creative and unique ways to document them. We were also told to personally research some other photographers out of a selection which were put on the schools photography website such as Adama Jalloh, Liz Johnson-Artur, Naill McDiarmid etc the work in researching different photographers helped because it gave an inspiration and a few ideas to work around.
Analyse and evaluate images.
2.
understanding of context and culture.
3.
Refined ideas.
used a range of resources.
4.
Combined your knowledge skill and understanding.
5.
Ability to define modify and refine work.
6.
Show the necessary skills to record and respond to observation appropriately.
7.
Present your ideas and the results of your research.
8.
Connections with the work of others.
Analyse and evaluate images.
2.
understanding of context and culture.
3.
Refined ideas.
used a range of resources.
4.
Combined your knowledge skill and understanding.
5.
Ability to define modify and refine work.
6.
Show the necessary skills to record and respond to observation appropriately.
7.
Present your ideas and the results of your research.
8.
Connections with the work of others.
Documenting places
Nick Meyer
Nick Meyer is a 40 year old American photographer who's work consists of these projects:
- Pattern Language. Brick, 2010. With an introduction by Melissa Febos.
- Either Limits or Contradictions. Daylight, 2016. With a foreword by Aaron Schuman and contributions by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
- The Common. 2018. Zine. Edition of 500 copies.
- Good Bones. 2020.
- Obvious Children. 2020. Edition of 50 copies.
- The Local. London: Mack, 2021.
Nick Meyer 'The Local'
These images have some similar features for example they all seem to be taken outside and done naturally, I say this meaning I don't believe any props where added to any of these photos as they seem to be capturing people or things in a natural state. When first looking at these images I was made to think of how empty and abandoned this community may be. The images of the two houses give the feeling of abandonment as they seem quite run down/forgotten about. In almost every image the area seems to be quite empty, with a majority of the images having no people visible. When there are people they seems to be quite vulnerable for example the women in the pink jacket or the older looking lady on the far right who both seem to have a look on there faces which sort of calls for some help in a way, the two images are both photos that capture emote quite well as although the people being photographed cannot openly say how they feel the images quite clearly display the emotions of the two.
Zoe Leonard's
Give reasons for your answers?
I do believe that documenting a series of shops can tell a person a bit about a community,
When asked what the photographer was trying to document with these images the simple answer would be the shops in and around her area but there is a possibility that there is more to it for example she may be trying to tell a story of her community through the images she chooses to take. If I could ask the photographer (Zoe Leonard) a question I would probably ask about the inspiration behind the shops that she had chosen to capture, if she had a plan or just went into it and took photos as she went along, if the shops where captured whilst on a journey or if she had travelled to the specific destination just for the photos.
I do believe that documenting a series of shops can tell a person a bit about a community,
When asked what the photographer was trying to document with these images the simple answer would be the shops in and around her area but there is a possibility that there is more to it for example she may be trying to tell a story of her community through the images she chooses to take. If I could ask the photographer (Zoe Leonard) a question I would probably ask about the inspiration behind the shops that she had chosen to capture, if she had a plan or just went into it and took photos as she went along, if the shops where captured whilst on a journey or if she had travelled to the specific destination just for the photos.
Shopfront Homework
These images weren't heavily influenced by the work of Zoe Leonard but the project its self is inspired by her work on shopfronts. I decided to take these photos in and around the places I'm familiar with, my idea behind the photos I took was to document the shops along the journeys I normally take eg. to and from school or from my mums house to my dads house or vice versa etc (which is why some of them are taken from inside vehicles). There wasn't a set theme to the photos I took although I did have an idea of where I wanted to take the images I didn't have much more than that as I didn't want to go into it with a complete plan because I feel it makes the experience more enjoyable when going into it and just taking images while going along or as it feels best rather than planning what to take and what not to take. If I had to take the images again I don't think I would change much about the images themselves but I would try to take more in certain locations to create a wider variation of locations included in the work as in this first attempt the majority of them are in one location.
Peter Mitchell
Early Sunday Morning
1) Where does he take most of his photos?
It seems as if he takes most of his images in and around his local area, all of his images also seem to be taken outside in open space generally including a building of sorts whether that's a house or a shop front.
2) What do the photographs say about the area?
The images make kind of imply that the area is very
3) What does he depict within his photographs?
4) What sort of mood do his photos portray?
5) Why do you think that?
6) Do you think that he uses a film or digital camera?
7) What can you write about the colours within his photographs?
8) How do his photos differ from those of other photographers who have looked at that place?
9) How do you think that these images relate to the Documenting Communities project?
It seems as if he takes most of his images in and around his local area, all of his images also seem to be taken outside in open space generally including a building of sorts whether that's a house or a shop front.
2) What do the photographs say about the area?
The images make kind of imply that the area is very
3) What does he depict within his photographs?
4) What sort of mood do his photos portray?
5) Why do you think that?
6) Do you think that he uses a film or digital camera?
7) What can you write about the colours within his photographs?
8) How do his photos differ from those of other photographers who have looked at that place?
9) How do you think that these images relate to the Documenting Communities project?
Shop Front - 3D Sculpture