Jill Cole

Jill Cole is a British photographer who both lives and works in North Yorkshire

Cole came to give a lecture about the project she has been working and producing art work for. The project is called Photo-canopy which is in conjunction with the National Forest. The idea of the project is to produce images/artwork to reflect a moment in time as the forest evolves and communicate that to others.

Cole wanted to be involved with the project to build a coherence in her portfolio, further emphasising her own style.
Cole mentioned a few facts about the project; in 1995 there was 6% woodland cover, they hope that by the end of 2012 18% of the National Forest area will be covered in woodland. She also mentioned that over 200,000 people live within the Forest.

Before starting work for the project Cole researched the area, she started in March 2011 and found a complex and diverse area with many strands she could follow. "How much is it about the trees?" was something Cole repeated within her lecture, she commented that trees are just the spine of this project saying "change, time, layers, diversity, multiplicity, coexistence, conflict, catalyst, incomplete, embrace" are all other aspects of the National Forest that Cole mentioned to research. The main points that Cole focused on through her work were; change and conflict in Landscape and also how we have to intervene to make things natural again.

Cole usually prefers to use a Mamiya 6x7 film camera, however for this project she experimented with the use digital photography, using a Canon 5D Mark ll. Initially she planned to use the digital camera just to document the unknown area so that she knew what she was working with. Once she had completed the research she decided to carry on using the digital format as a means of creating her work. Cole thinks of what she wants to say and then finds a way to visually communicate that to a viewing audience.

Here are some examples of my favourite of Cole's work. The Birds work was not part of the NF project however I think it is some of Cole's Strongest work.

 

This is a brief description, taken from Cole's website about her work on the birds. I find the best things about these images are the narrow depth of field and strong colours. I like the focus on the wire mesh which really brings the idea of being trapped and relating that to war, being trapped in a situation where you are in danger. Another thing I really like is the detail within the image, how each feather of the birds can be seen. Some images of the birds were blurred, showing them struggling to get out of the net an although this is a record of what happened, I believe it isn't as effective as an image. 

Trip to London

Write a review on the exhibition you saw in london. It must be between 500 and 1000 words in length.

On a recent trip to London I was lucky enough to visit several exhibitions held at that time. My favourite exhibition was the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize (TWPPP), which was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery. The Prize has been displayed there for a number of years. The (TWPPP) is an open competition, welcoming entrants from a huge range of people over the age of 18. This wide range of photographers helped give a diverse and exciting viewing experience, where each portrait image was taken in an individual style. Each image was of a large scale, when walking around the exhibition I liked the uniformed, neat and clean style. White walls with single framed images of portraits. This meant that there were no distractions, I could focus completely on the content of the image rather than how it was displayed. I also liked the room in which the portraits were hung as it wasn't a long straight gallery, there were separating walls meaning I wad to walk around the gallery, turning into different spaces, every corner turned, every new wall provided interesting and eye catching material. I liked the large scale of the images, where I had to stand back and look at each from a distance, making me spend more time over them, thinking about what the images were trying to say.
Whilst walking around the gallery I began thinking about the difference between my work and the work on display, I would really like to see my images displayed in this exhibition one day. I have thought about entering it next year as I am 18.
Another exhibition that stuck in my mind was at the Hayward Gallery, the work of Pipilotti Rist. Her exhibition was titled 'Eyeball Massage' This involved lots of different work, displayed in different ways. When walking into the exhibition I was amazed by the amount of variation in the way she displays her work. The first thing I saw when I walked in was her display of pants, hanging from the ceiling and lit in the middle, this reminded me of a chandelier. This piece was very bold and drew attention, other pieces were harder to find, for example her work looking down a hole, which was located on the floor and could easily be missed if not careful. On closer look down the hole there is a video playing of Rist as if she is trapped. There were lots of fun ways of exploring Rist's work in this exhibition with work being projected in different ways and onto different things. I really like the way the viewer is more involved with this exhibition, interacting with the work, with the viewer having to lie down or bend to a small height, all of this interaction made the viewing experience more memorable. The only part of this work I didn't like was the actual content of the projections which wasn't to my taste.
I really enjoyed visiting the London galleries, it has given me inspiration for my work, firstly with the TWPPP which has inspired me to create more stunning portraits so that my work could be displayed in that exhibition. The work of Rist has also inspired me to think about different ways in which I could display my work, making the viewer interact more with my images, making my work more memorable.

Christmas Cards

For this task we were asked to produce at least one Christmas card.


I started by looking at some styles of current christmas cards. Many of these cards were animated and not actually photographs, as seen here, some of the less comical ones I do like, for example the one below which is more elegant and more similar to a style of card that I would want to produce.


Both of these images are in a style that I like, I like the use of the tree and the colour green. The image on the right is more animated, however I think I can recreate the style of the image on the left with light drawings in a studio or dark area.




Light drawings 


'Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with hand-held light sources. Light Painting Photography can be traced back to the year 1914 when Frank Gilbreth, along with his wife Lillian Moller Gilbreth, used small lights and the open shutter of a camera to track the motion of manufacturing and clerical workers. Man Ray, in his 1935 series "Space Writing," was the first known art photographer to use the technique.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_painting

Erik Knudsen-Guest lecturer

Born in Ghana to a Danish father and Ghanaian mother, Erik Knudsen is a professor of Film Practice at the University of Salford.
Knudsen is a member of the group One Day Films;
Taken from www.onedayfilms.com

About

One Day Films Limited is committed to the production and distribution of quality, thought-provoking independent films and has experience of producing a number of feature creative documentaries and feature films. Past funding partners have included the Danish Film Institute, Channel Four Television, the EU's Media Programme, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Arts Council England North West and a number of private investors.

We are particularly interested in the independence that recent developments in digital production and dissemination technologies offer and we are working towards developing an aesthetic of 'cinema of poverty' in which we explore the possibilities that poverty, in its several meanings, offers the cinematic language.

Knudsen displayed some of his work in this lecture, he showed various of his small feature films, including Vainilla Chip which was particularly inspiring and memorable. This film was following the life of an elderly man, struggling to survive after the death of his wife. Set in a small Cuban town of San Antonio de los Baños the film is very thought provoking and emotional. Knudsen manages to be close to the man without it feeling like he is intruding. Knudsen follows the man on an average day, showing him at work in his ice cream shop. It also shows the elderly man cycling to see his wife's grave, which is an emotional viewing experience. The process of the film is very simple, it appears very routine showing his structured day, the end of the film gives the impression that the whole story will be repeated again the next day. When talking about this film Knudsen said how he had spoken to the old man before filming and said how he wanted to simply record his day from the background, he also said that when the man became emotional and started crying it was a shock to him as he had not planned this at all and he wasn't expecting it. 

When speaking about all of his work, it became clear that Knudsen has been influenced by different cultures and also by poverty. It is interesting how his style of filming is very basic which often reflects the content of his film, which is also simple but powerful and thought provoking. 

When questioned on how Knudsen found his inspiration, it was interesting to hear how his lack of money enhanced his creativity. Finding that when he had the most expensive and latest technology his work was not as creative. The lack of tools and funding forced Knudsen to make the best use of the facilities he had, giving him a more creative style and thought process. 
Although Knudsen's main work doesn't connect directly to my work with photography, it is more film based, his creative minimalist style has been inspiring in my work, it has made me think about what tools I should use in my work, and rather than automatically reaching for the newest most expensive equipment I will think about using more simple tools, striving for more creative images. 

The Invention of Photography

The first permanent photograph was an image produced in 1826 by the French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. 
The word photography derives from the Greek words phōs (genitive: phōtós) light, and gráphein, to write. The word was coined by Sir John Frederick William Herschel in 1839.


Digital versus film photography has been a debate since the invention of digital cameras towards the end of the 20th Century. Both digital and film photography have advantages and disadvantages. Digital imaging dominates the 21st century photography world. It is a much quicker process than the traditional use of film. Thousands of images can be shot and saved on a memory disk with digital photography, compared to the standard 36 images on a 35mm film before it has to be processed and printed for viewing. Another advantage of using digital photography over film is the way you can view the image instantly on screen on the back of the camera. There are a few film cameras which have the same capabilities, where a digital back can be added to the camera to enable a preview. However these are not as readily available as digital cameras, which also mean they are more expensive. Digital cameras tend to have much lower resolution as the image sensor is small in comparison to that of a larger format film camera. 

There is a problem that can occur in digital photography called noise. Noise is where shadow areas of electronic images can be ruined with random pixels of the incorrect colour, this is produced by heat and manufacturing defects. Noise in digital photography is similar to grain in film photography.  Grain and film sensitivity are linked, with more sensitive films having more obvious grain. Likewise, when used at high sensitivity settings, digital camera images show more image noise than those made at lower sensitivities. It is known that colour digital photography has much less noise/grain than film at equivalent sensitivity leading to an edge in image quality.

Digital cameras are capable of much higher speeds than film, and make better photos in low light situations at night or indoors, and are more useful for ultra-fast photography. In addition, on digital cameras the speed can be adjusted at any time, quickly with a button setting, while a film camera requires changing the film to change the film speed, which is costly and takes more time.

There are many reasons for and against both film and digital photography with certain aspects of both having to be compromised at some point. At the end of the day I believe it comes down to personal preference. I much prefer working with film photography; I find that it is technically, more challenging and consequently more exciting! I find the experiments with the production of film images exciting and many times challenging. I prefer the limited shots you get working with film cameras, which makes the photographer slow down and compose the image correctly, particularly true of large format cameras, where each image is captured on an individual slide of film. I like the anticipation of the wait between taking the image and developing it onto to paper, it is far more exciting than seeing the image straight away and being able to delete it. However there are some cases, for example wedding photography, where the images need to be perfect as it is a one off experience that isn't going to be repeated, where I would use digital photography as it is much more time efficient and secure with the images being produced, it is also more cost effective, with thousands of images being stored on a memory card.

Overall I can see advantages and disadvantages for both types of image making. Commercially it is more sensible to use digital photography, however personally I would always choose the more exciting and challenging use of film photography.

Still life photography-food

Your task is to create a still life photograph on the subject of food. Compare your image to other's work.

Still life photography is the depiction of inanimate subject matter, most typically a small grouping of objects. Still life photography, more so than other types of photography, such as landscape or portraiture, gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition.

Here are a few examples of still life food photography that I found just from the internet, most of these images are very commercial based, mainly with clean and simple images lit evenly, serving a commercial advertisement purpose. 

I wanted to find some more art based photography, that fits with the brief of taking a still life food image whilst also fitting with a style that I find interesting and more challenging than the above.

Here are some images taken by Martin Parr, this style of still life food photography is very different from the style above. The image looks very unstaged in a dark room with Parr having used a flash, producing harsh shadowing on the image. I like the way the doughnut has been placed onto a menu or magazine type page, this gives it a fun childlike feel. It reminds me of an American dinner type area, whilst looking appealing this image doesn't look as professional as the images above. I like the fun aspect to this image and I like that it is different from traditional advertisement style image. 

...........Here I experimented with making an image in the style of Martin Parr. Although I have achieved a similar style of work to Parr it isn't a style that I particularly like or find interesting and challenging. 

I started to look else where for interesting still life photography, I came across Andy Grimshaw, whose work I find much more interesting. 

I started by looking at this image of fruit in yoghurt, taken by Grimshaw, although this work is still very staged with lighting and it looks like a very clean and simple image, similar to the work above which I said I didn't like, somehow this seems more my style and it is more interesting than the advertisement shots above. 

These three images are from a set of images, all of the same style, taken by Grimshaw. These are my favorite images on his website, I really like the dramatic lighting on the black background giving strong bold colours. Whilst being still life food images these images are interesting in themselves, they are exciting and eye catching. This is the style of image I want to produce.

...................

Spot the Difference

In this task we were asked to produce an image in the style of another photographer, this could be any photographer famous or not.

I started to think about what type of image I wanted to produce and thought about what I wanted in my images. I decided that I would like to create some fairy images but not fantasy, I wanted to create realistic fairy images.

When researching about 'fairy photographers' I found it very hard to obtain any information that wasn't to do with fantasy work. However I stumbled across the Cottingley Fairies which were the exact type of images I wanted to produce.

Cottingley Fairies 

The Cottingley fairies are found in a series of images (the first two being produced in 1917) produced by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, two young cousins who lived in Cottingley. The images were seen by the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who used them to illustrate an article on fairies he had been commissioned to write for the Strand Magazine. Public reaction was mixed, some believed the images to be real, others declared that they were fake. In the early 1980's the girls admitted that the photographs were faked using cardboard cutouts of fairies, copied from a popular book at the time however the fifth and final photograph caused some arguments between the girls as Frances continued to clim that this one was real, both gils also argued over the fifth, as they both claimed that they took the image.

This is an example of one of the Cottingley fairy images. The model is dressed in a floaty top with flowers in her hair, this adds to fairy feel. The pose of the model leaning on her hand, she seems relaxed and not affected by the fairies dancing around in front of her. I like the graininess to the image, which gives it an aged quality. 




I started to think about producing a Cottingley Fairy image of my own. I chose a subject with long loosely curled hair, similar to that of the subjects in the original images. I chose to shoot the images on location in a grassed area copying the style of the original images. 

This is the image that I first produced after looking at the fairy images. I really like the pose of the model, looking down onto the fairy, she looks very relaxed and happy to be with the fairy. I chose to change the image to black and white, matching the style of the original image, I also added a higher grain to the image to give it aged feel. The only thing I don't like about the image is the lack of the detail in the fairy. I actually Stuck the image of the fairy onto a printed image of the background with the subject. I think this is one of my mistakes. I wold like to do a re-shoot of this image, printing out a cardboard version of the fairy, which the two young girls did,  which may help to make it appear more realistic and similar to the original Cottingley fairy images. I think it would also look better if the image was more contrasted looking similar to the original image.