Black and white photography.

Inspired by Corinne Day's 'The Face' we approached portrait photography in a slightly different way, so that the subject was not posing, but answering questions while being photographed. This was to try to make the model to forget they were being photographed, to get more natural, expressive faces. We were using 35mm film cameras, and we used the darkroom to develop the photos ourselves. I enjoyed learning the process of how the film negatives are made into prints.
  I printed nine different photographs of Alex, and arranged them in a similar way to 'The Face' but I think the black background with white in between makes them look more separate, and not so much a whole artwork. I like the contrast in these photos, especially her stripy top, and her face stands out really well from the black background.


I then took the background off by cropping them on the computer, and I think this closeness makes it look more like an artwork, rather than a series of photos.

I really enjoyed working in the photography studio and darkroom, and doing the whole process from start to finish, taking the photos and developing them into an end product.

Photography Research.

Looking at different photographers work, I realised how many different styles of photography there are, and how carefully composed they are.

Loretta Lux:
     Lux is one of my favourite portrait photographers, because of the eerie expressions on the children's faces. Her portraits are very haunting and surreal. In this photo, 'Portrait of Antonia' I like the muted colours, because the neutral background makes the blue look very bright in comparison.







Imogen Cunningham:
     I like how abstract the shapes are in this photograph, although at the same time very realistic and detailed. The flowers really stand out from the black background, and the texture of the flowers is very subtle.























Sandy Skoglund:
Skoglund interested me because of how intricate her photo sets are, and how much work must have gone into the background to take just one photo. This one caught my eye because of the pattern that covers almost all of the people and items, but there are also parts that show through, like the suit, and parts left completely uncovered like the arms and legs of the women. The colours are not very varied, so you have to look closely to see all the details.