Analysis of David BAILEY and Irving PENN

David Bailey and Irving Penn are both famous photographers who worked for the Vogue Magazine. The British artist, Bailey, was born on the 2nd of January, 1938 (age 75) and is known for his advertising, celebrity, and fashion photographs. When Bailey was in education at school he was told he was stupid because he suffers from dyslexia and dyspraxia, but then he had proved to them that he was brilliant at something as he is one of Britain's greatest photographers...

Penn was an American artist, born in New Jersey on the 16th of June, 1917 and died in New York on the 7th of October, 2009. He first wanted to be a painter, but his job at Vogue magazine in the 1940s turned his focus to photography. So now Penn is best known for portraits, still life and fashion photography. These two artists had influences towards my film processed portraits...

I was inspired by the techniques they had both used, which were different light effects: butterfly lightening, Rembrandt lightening and edge lightening. Both photographers used 35mm film cameras which brought out an rich black and white effect. Bailey believes that digital cameras and photoshop have taken away the personalities of photographers and photography, hence why he prefers film cameras. However, Penn used other equipment including photographic enlargers and stage lights to achieve highly visual results in his photographs; contrast was a key point throughout his work.

The shoot I had taken which was in the style of both Bailey's and Penn's photography was both successful and unsuccessful. Reasons for this was because I found it difficult to focus the camera so that the image is clear and shows high quality detail in the portrait - any small features or marks on the face. So that when it came to processing some of the photos did not have good quality. However, the lighting was perfect throughout as I used a variety of different lights at different angles which created different shadows and contrasts to the portraits.

To make the photographs original we could of made the subject do different expressions showing different emotions or even tilting or twisting their heads in different ways. We could of also focused on the image itself, only taking photos of half or quarter of the face, or zooming in to show or enhance more detail.

Analysis of Andre KERTESZ

The famous Andre KERTESZ known for his contributions to photographic compositions, was born in Hungary on July 2nd 1894 and died, September 28th 1985.

From looking at the work done by Andre Kertesz, a few of them look like surreal/abstract photographs as he has a few strecthed and 'blurred' images of human bodies. However, Kertesz also worked with ordinary day to day objects focusing on their compositions, reflections, shadows and focus of the lens through the 35mm film camera to get a clear developed photograph.

Having to do impressions from his style of work, we began to use 35mm film cameras taking pictures of day to day shiny objects (and a few ordinary objects) to get a range of reflections and shadows within our photographs. During this task I had to focus majorly on the aperture and focusing ring as I didn't want to recieve any blurred images, because I was aiming to get clear, bold images when it got to the processing stage. However, enable to get a vary of shadows, lamps were provided for us, where we were able to shine and angle them anywhere around the subject to recieve an Kertesz impression shoot. Making sure the subjects were composed quite randomly or in a position where I could get as much detail as possible so that the outcome has an comparison to Andre Kertesz's work.

Overall, his techniques had an huge effect to my work, as it created bold, detail effects which has made the photographs develop to high standards.

Justin QUINNELL Analysis.

Justin QUINNELL is a UK based pinhole photography artist who creates his own cameras and photographic paper, exposing them to light. He masters at making weird and sinister photographs. QUINNELL mentioned that from when he was 4 years old he had several operations on his eyes to sort out something; "I remember having a patch on one eye with a small hole to see through." And from then on he was inspired, and eventually became the head of the photography department at a school in Bristol. The kids there couldn't afford cameras but were able to afford cans of coke, so he had got them to make cameras out of their drink cans and he got hooked and obssessed with them himself.

Quinnell has made a career of pinhole photograph since 1989 and the joy of it, he said, is experimenting.

Ideally i would of thought that Quinnell had a theme around his work, concentrating on everyday things and life. But Justin mentioned the the doesn't initially approach his photography with a subject in mind. Instead he makes a camera, see what it does, then relates it's function to a subject.

"That's the way pinhole photographers work... We don't really think in terms of subjects. We find objects then we think, 'what would happen if...'" - Justin QUINNELL

QUINNELL has done many pinhole photographs over time which are highly experimental, mysterious and surreal. However one of my favourite pieces of his work is the smileycam (when the camera is in his mouth) of his son Louis when he was getting to know him - This image was made in the 1990's. I chose to analyse this piece because i am planning to make a pinhole photograph in his style; surrealism, which I am highly inspired by.

Justin Quinnell mentioned that he loves virtually everything about photography, through either a lense or a hole but he was intentionally inspired by a few people; John Blakemore and Paul Hill. And his favourite pinholer is Bethany de Forest.

"I love it because it's really quite uncomfortable and that's fine. Some pictures are a bit contrived. Others are accidental flukes. Some are a bit unnerving. Others, I'll never forget taking them." - Justin QUINNELL.

Justin implied that the smileycam technique is a tough trick to pull off successfully. He says it takes him between 15 and 20 images before he gets a few that he likes. Throughout continuously doing this experiment he has learnt to tape a bit of cellophane on the back of the camera to prevent saliva from dribbling into the film. But with some 110 film and patience anyone could do it.

Sometimes he disguises the cameras with straw and hides them outside, or leaves them about his house for months as a single long exposure, to then see what has been collected.

The pinhole photography above is Justin's favourite he has ever taken, which is called 'The Royal Crescent' as it was his first successful colour images and taken in 1991 when he had to wait for 4 days until the film was processed. A lot of Justins experiments don't or didn't work, but most often his cameras allow accidents or the unknown because they are most interesting.

He has used a wide variety of materials, from fruit to Wellington boots, toilet rolls, traffic cones and Pringles tubes, and taken portraits through holes in a cream cracker. He has only fired them on rockets, thrown them off buildings and bridges, used them as shuttlecocks, held them underwater, taped them on to trains, car windscreen wipers, giant tortoises, forks and snooker cues; anything you can imagine!

In addition, my first reaction to the work of the smileycam of his son was..."How was that made?" Because it looks entirely surreal. Many keywords came to mind when looking at that image; crazy, dark, scary, mysterious and unique. As it's in a composed focused form of a fish eye lense, and has a contrast of both dark areas and colour; like a 'light at the end of the tunnel' it really does bring out that mysterious effect throughout the image. This highly inspires me.

How To Make A Camera OBSCURA.

Today we were introduced to camera obscurers.Camera: latin for 'ROOM'Obscura: latin for 'DARK'A camera obscurer is a room which is completely dark which only has a small opening of light from a window cover, looking out into the world. And because sun light travels within a straight line, from that opening the view is projected onto the wall as an upside down image.
To make a obscurer you would need tape, 6mm thick black plastic sheeting, an a craving knife.You would need to cut out the black sheets to cover and fit all areas what reveals light and tape them down. Especially on a sunny day were you would need to COMPLETELY cover windows in order for it to work and turn off all lights and have closed doors.You would then cut a round hole in the plastic, not too big, quite small/medium.
HERE IS A VIDEO WE WERE INTRODUCED TO:MAKING YOUR OWN ROOM WITH A VIEW..


An artist we then began to look at was Abelardo MORELL, born in Havana, Cuba in 1948 but then lived in America as he was brought to the USA by his family in 1962. Morell is well-known in the photographic community creating camera obscure images.
"The thing that makes me want to take pictures now is just looking without many prejudices. This stuff right under your eyes is the most wonderful universe - if you care to look with young eyes." - Abelardo MORELL.
Morell's first camera obscure was made in 1991 called 'Light Bulb', where he had darkened his living room; covering up all windows with black plastic in order to achieve total darkness. He had then cut a small hole in the material which allows an inverted image of the view outside to flood onto the walls of the room. He would then focus his large-format camera on the image and expose the film. In the beginning his exposures took 5 - 10 hours.Over periods of time Morell began to expand and develop this technique by adding colour. He did that by using colour film and positioned a lens over the hole in the window plastic in order to add bright and sharpness within the incoming image. Eventually he was also able to shorten his time of exposures because of the good use of digital technology; which helps to capture more light.In addition, Morell had moved from his living room and began to expand to all sorts of interiors around the world; from not only seeing the beautiful view from the outside, but all inside too.

The reflection looked so real that you would think that the world has been sucked inside a building, In addition I think that the technique of camera obscures are absolutely unique as you can choose an view and a layout of an room inside a building and create a mind going piece of art, which can either be featured as black and white or in colour.

Analysis: Photograms of László MOHOLY-NAGY & Man RAY

At first i was told to look at these two different, usual photograms. And i was to analysis them for a few minutes and think about what first came to mind when i saw them... DARK, CHAOS and CONFUSION. 

Gelatin Silver Print
Photogram

The photo on the left hand side was made by Moholy-Nagy. He was born July 20th, 1895 in Bacsbarsod, Hungary, and died on November 24th, 1946 (the age of 50) as a painter and photographer. Moholy-Nagy worked mainly with light. His photograms were made on film, and the light he used also came from his mobile which created an light effect. Before he found out the technique of photograms, he would of only focused on painting. But from then on, Moholy-Nagy began to do many different experiments on photograms, changing objects, light, and his surroundings: he tried to capture light from the best angles. Throughtout the gradual experimenting process he had decided that he no longer wants to use opaque objects but transparent and translucent ones instead. i.e. crystal, glass, liquids and so on. 

"Light is the cause that allows the work to be born." - Moholy-Nagy

Photograph of László
Moholy-Nagy - 1926

However, when first looking at the photogram above, I could see some visual, basic objects which maybe Mohloy-Nagy had used;  A hand, spatular, fingerprints, instrument (guitar strings) or a crowbar. But then once i went to research more about this photogram, i found out that the object that i thought was a spatular was really a paintbrush.
The composition of the art work is structured in way which has shown many different varieties of tones and shades; in all means he has overlapped the objects to create this effect. Nagy also could of moved his hand during the developing process as to why one hand is brighter than the other; experimenting with different shades. The thin lines shown which i assume are guitar strings creates a intriguing line pattern in the photogram which caught my eye. I also began to think as to what this photogram could of been about, does it have a meaning? Personally, i thought it was just an abstract piece of art, with an layered composition, but it had caused me to have some deep thought as to what it could of meant.

1924 - Gelatine Silver
Print

The other photogram i had analysed (shown on the left) was made by Man Ray. He was born as 'Emmanuel RADNITZKY' in America in 1890, where he had grew up, but spent the rest of his life in Paris. Ray had died in 1976.

Ray's art includes: painting, sculpture, collage, constructed objects and photography.

"I paint what can not be photographed. I photograph what i do not wish to paint." - Ray

Photograph of Man Ray

Ray produced his first photograms (camera less work) after he came to Paris in 1921. He did this by placing objects and other materials onto photosensitive paper. Man Ray claimed that he discovered this technique through an accident in the dark room.
From these results he had created and called them 'Rayographs' on behalf of his name and 'photographs'. which means: "light-writing."
When analysing the photogram i had noticed straight away that there was a gun/pistol used as an object which has been composed in the middle. It was surrounded by stencilled lettering and then odd circle shapes in the background with shaded tones. The alphabets looked like they were made to look like gun bullets coming from the gun, as the gun goes against the black back drop. This then had me thinking as to why Ray wanted to twist the idea of letters as being bullets? Did he find words powerful in some sort? This photogram also had me in a deep think. The letters could of also had been moved, because they seem like they have been doubled, giving off an strong 3D effect. Ray has composed each object quite simply, as each object had a place, he hadn't used the technique of overlapping like Moholy-Nagy but the photogram has still come across as being attractive, as he used a slight range of mid-tomes and shape.

In addition,  i think that Nagy's work is clearer than Man Ray's because its not as difficult to visually guess or point out as to what it might be, and it's composed clearer.
And the high and low contrasts between the two photograms are majorly different, as Nagy's photogram focuses more on shades and tones, and Ray's is bright and doesn't experience as much shades. But overall, i like both photograms as i find them very eye-catching and they both share a mysterious story.