Ideas from the feedback session on 14/12/11

I am interested in looking into the awkwardness of some people infront of the camera, the people being people who are very self conscious and dress well. The type of people that fit into the ever popular 'Indie' or 'Alternative' genre of fashion.
I will try to capture the preferred image when the person/ model is unaware or not posing, this is because I find that just before most people get their photograph taken are a litte or sometimes very conscious of how the look.
the two photographs that I have taken so far show the awkwardness that I mean, I am going to try and edit these images as similar as is possible to make sure that there is no distraction from the meaning of the photographs.
I will choose people who have a connection with a specific place in Manchester, the northern quarter. This is due to the fashion that is very apparent around this area of Manchester. Some area's of London have a similar feel to the northern quarter, which is due to the area's being very cheap to rent and buy. Artistic people are the reason for these places coming to life, which again is due to the cheap unit spaces available in the some what run down areas.
I have chosen to photograph infront of a specific building in the northern quarter because I believe that it sums up the fashion that I have spoken about above. The building hold a lot of character which is interesting to me. I am also going to try and find out what the building was used for if possible.

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Earlier on in the assignment, I emailed one of the founders of the guirrilla gardening movement  about the meaning of their movement, they have still yet to get back to me. I have subsequently moved on from this idea due to the fact that it is not used as much in Manchester as it is in other places in the UK.

13/12/11

The City

24/11/11

Below are some images that I took while on a 'Movember' style shoot. It was in a part of Manchester that i have never been before and whilst walking around the area I stumbled upon this run down old shop front/ building. The buildings surrounding this shop front were as you would expect a shop front, all new and shiny. This building interested me because it made me think what was it previously used as? Why did it shut down? Why hasn't it been renovated? I am going to revisit this area of town and photograph the whole of the building to try and see what it was used for originally. 

Urban Walk

Idea

I have had an idea today whilst riding through a local park on my bike, there was a wide open playing field and due to it being early morning there was mist hovering over the top of the grass. The interesting thing that I liked and the thing that caught my eye was the view of the 'Hilton Hotel' in the distance through the trees. I am going to try and capture this similar picture another soon on another misty early morning.

Movement

One thing that has appealed to me whilst looking through Thomas Struth's photographs is the use of movement in his shots, through choosing a specific shutter speed to incorporate the slight movement of passers by really makes me focus on the story the surrounding buildings have to say. I like the way that this technique emphasises that the surrounding building is dead still and in focus which makes you able to read into the history of the architecture. 

A great video that I watched on a set of contacts that Struth produced was useful to see how he thought and how he came to take the photographs that he has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1WDfMiOcSY

14/11/11

Today I decided to try my hand at urban walking, around a less commercialised part of the city about a 10 minute walk from Piccadilly Gardens, the center of Manchester.
I initially just wanted to just wak around the area looking for interesting places or sights but then I decided to take a few photographs just to document this adventure. I was looking behind the buildings, down side roads and through little paths. I noticed a very different side of Manchester with the backs of shops with bins and rubbish for example, be it only a little part of the city. Below is an image that I took which shows an old derelict building on the side of a river which is surrounded and looked down upon by the new buildings either side. I like the contrast of these two buildings and how the old structure is still there even though it is disused.

Artist Research

Eugene Atget


Atget was a French photographer who practised documentary photography on the streets around Paris. Sadly his work was only widely recognised after his death in 1927, the prime of his career being around 1890-1920 where he captured some beautiful photographs of the people and sights of the french capital. Eugene Atget had very basic equipment and had to find ways of solving this through logical paths and thought processes. Below are a selection of his photographs which really showed out to me.

I feel that the black and white really adds something to these photographs, Im not sure if it is the fact that you can read into them more or the fact that they look old, showing the change of Paris which Atget wanted to show. I think at this point in my research that I would like my final photographs to be in monochrome because as mentioned above, it really adds things to the picture which viewers are able to take in their own way.




Daniel Meadows


Meadows was a photographer who caught my eye whilst looking through documentary photographers. A very interesting way of photographing, Meadows decided to travel the UK in an old converted double decker bus, with the top converted into a living space and the botom into a darkroom. I imagine this gave  him an abundance of time to capture those crucial photographs. Below is a photograph of his bus. 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2011/nov/09/photographer-daniel-meadows-video?fb=native

The below images show some of my favourite work by Daniel Meadows.

Most of meadows photographs include people and from watching a short film about his work on his website, he took photographs of just under 1000 people in one year. I am really interested with his photographs because they have meaning and Meadows invested his whole life and a lot of time into capturing these images.




Brassai


I was told to look Brassai by a lecturer and in doing so have found an interesting artist who really appeals to me. 

I think the thing that I like about his photographs is that most of them make you ask yourself a question and you are racking your brain to think why the certain thing in the photograph is happening. This, I am sure, can be taken differently for some people because most people will have their own views on each subject in the photograph. I also like the fact that he chooses well when to press the trigger and take the picture because he has captured some story telling images, as shown above.

Architecture Photography

May be branching off a little bit here but I think this is relevant...


While researching many different photographers that I was given to look into, I had an idea that lead me to start looking into the way buildings are made. The well thought about designs behind the architecture of some of the buildings in manchester means nothing to most of the people who walk through the shopping, business or other parts of Manchester. For most people who take the same route every time they walk or pass through Manchester, they are almost oblivious to the structures that surround them, be that every day or not.
The first architectural photographer that I stumbled upon was the late Berenice Abbott, an american photographer best known for her work in New York City where she captured some fantastic shots of skyscrapers and high rise buildings. 
Abbott was highly influenced by  the French photographer Eugene Atget, after knowing Atget during his final years and from reading into his photographs, she decided to recreate what he did in Paris in New York where she thought was a place with great photographic potential. Below are some of my favourite photographs of Abbott's. 

Although not all of her work was to do with architecture, most of it was. One image which links in with psychogeography can be seen below, I like this photograph because it gives a different perspective that the usual way that people would see/ navigate over the bridge which is the main focus of the image. This is what I think is psychogeography. In a way, it seems that the bridge has just been 'plonked' there, in the middle of the natural environment which is full of tree's in what looks like winter. This could be took as a diss on the rapidly developing world, where transport takes over many things, including the nature.

Another, more 21st century, architectural photographer I have researched is British Daniel Hopkinson. Although his photographs work and show the architecture of many buildings, the thing that I dont like about this photographers work is that it lacks any creative thought in my eyes, I much prefer the work of the above photographer Berenice Abbott. I will however, include a number of Hopkinson's photographs, see below.

Initial Ideas/ Research

The brief I have just been given is titled 'The City' and from what I have heard about it, it seems like a fun and interesting topic to photographs as it is something that I have wanted to photograph more for some time now. Hopefully there will be some interesting outcomes from this assignment.
Psychogeography- From what I have read about psychogeography, my understanding is that it is the navigation from one point to another by using the more unconventional ways of doing so. 
In 1955, Guy Debord defined psychogeography as: "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviours of individuals."
Psychogeography (Year Unknown). Psychogeography – Study of the Geographical Environment. Available: http://www.psychogeography.co.uk/. Last accessed 9th November 2011.

I wanted to get another definition of guerrilla gardening so I had a search online and found an organisation who specialise in this type of gardening and have emailed one of the founders of the website. A copy of the email can be seen below.

Propaganda- A form of communicating which aims to change the attitude of a community to a certain cause other than what they already believe.