Exercise 4.4: Personal Voice:
Make a Google images search for ‘landscape’, ‘portrait’, or any ordinary subjects such as ‘apple’ or sunset. Add a screen-grab of a representation page to your learning log and note down the similarities to find between images.
No take a number of your own photographs of the same subject, paying special attention to the ‘Creativity’ criteria at the end of Part One. You might like to make the subject appear ‘incidental’, for instance by using focus of framing. Or you might begin with the observation of Ernst Haas, or the ‘camera vision’ of Bill Brenda. Or if you’re feeling bold you might forget about your camera completely and think about the tricky question of originality in a different way – https://penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/projects/suns/
add a final image of your letter to your learning log together with a selection of preparatory shots. In your notes describe how your photograph or representation differs from your Google images source images of the same subject.
Exercise 4.4 Personal Voice.
Having put numerous searches for a number of images such as sunflowers, dogs and sunsets I established that Google conveyed images that resembled one another. They almost duplicated one another, due to the common factor of examples.
I took some common themed ideas and screen grabbed them to support my findings. I took screen-grabs of photographs such as sunflowers. I feel because the images shown below were easily identified the images were therefore not to dissimilar from one another. So I then googled searched for images using more descriptive text. The images were still fairly similar. Which would be the case as they are not specifically different. However, if one were to look at the creative images searched for, the results differed from the general idea of a subject.
The images below were Google’s results for
Dogs for example were taken as a standard search. All of the images were similarly standard. Dogs bouncing in landscape, green landscape in the background, and looking rather cute.
I looked at the ‘Creativity Criteria’ and the reason that dogs or other prevalent subjects are so alike – norm, is because photography is not always original and can be uninspiring. Which is fine, we are mostly going to snap comparable images as not everyone intends to be ‘creative’. The results for images such as sunsets tend to be the results that aren’t original, unless however, the photographer is creative. Sunsets tend to be characterised by reddish sky. Sunsets can differ but its the way the photographer executes a shot. One asks oneself, what effects are the cloud formations showing, are they unusual. Are they particularly remarkable? Why? Are the colours contrasting, exposures good? Are there any other things in the shot to make the overall image more desirable. What’s in the foreground?
For me the ambient lighting of a sunset gives one pleasure, a rush of happiness at the amazing natural beauty of our planet. But to capture the graduate of what my eyes see in a image is never quite justified.
I researched the images of sunsets that have ingenuity and are not all typically red sky’s, sun – low. Some photographers like Sato Shinotaro like to take snaps when the blue hues arrive before the sun setting. This can result in pinkish hues too, creating a more subtle aesthetically pleasing result. A different background to be more creative, perhaps a silhouette. Something aberrant from the usual expectation of a sunset. To be more interesting it is advisable apparently to photograph just after the sunset, the colour variation is so visually appealing too. I believe it is about experimentation and the importance of learning to develop ones skills and learning how others have been courageous enough.
Ernst Hanns
To be creative is be dissentient like Ernst Hanns. Ernst was a remarkable Austrian/American photographer born in 1904 and died in the year 1983. He was a distinguished photographer whom I greatly appreciate.
Once a president of Magnum Photos. His images were visually stunning. He captures images using colourful creativity in photography. He worked with colour and had published books with the results of his unique photography. When at the time, black and white photography was preferred for its timeless qualities. But he was fearless and that’s one of the reasons he is known to be one of the best photographers of all time.
Hanns was a photojournalist too and he had published books like ‘Reams of Light’ and ‘Grand Canyon’. He understood lighting hence why he was a success. He understood the whole process.
shutterbug.com – How Pioneering Photographer and His Hands Change the Photo world With a Burst of Colour.
Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt was a eminent photographer, famous for his landscape shots. Brandt was born in the year 1904 and died in 1983. He spent most of his life in London. Born to a German mother and a British father. He spent his most significant time in the United Kingdom.
He was also famous for portraits, nudes, and mostly well known for landscape photography. I researched his visual work on ‘sunsets’ and found sublime photographs that inspire many people because of his creativity. He was like Hanns, in that he too was to defy the traditions. Not one to take the standard sunset shot.
Brandt didn’t take standard sunset images. The one above shows various compositions to inspire others to offer one to be more imaginative.
Penelope Umbrico
Lastly I looked at the recommended work of the American artist Penelope Umbrico and her series of images ‘Suns from Sunsets’. Where images are placed together to make up a collage of images. The results are completely different from the norm. Her work is contempory, appropriation art. Appropriation art is when one borrows elements of perhaps another’s images to transform them into something different. It can be confusing to many as it raises legal questions ethical issues.
The Guardian Newspaper printed an article regarding the series, titled: the Marmite of the photography world. I personally believe that it is more a case of ethical questioning as appropriation is obviously deliberately taking images and copying them. It can be illegal, but I feel ethically more so.
Learning Log 4.4. Personal Voice. Sunsets.
I decided to take some sunsets shots and I decided to take shots that have other subject matter. I decided to take snaps of cows in the foreground, so that the sunset appears ‘incidental’. In the background homes etc…
The intensity in colour of the sunsets were visually decreased in some shots whilst intensified in various other shots.
Bill Brandt’s Sunset Shot
I feel my representation differs to the google origin of the search because I don’t perceive the images are typical of the visual images appearing on the search. However, I do see similar examples such as the one above photographed by Bill Brandt when I changed the search criteria. There are many styles of sunsets with landscapes in the background. I did see more images with interesting subject matter in the foreground. Most sunsets are shot resulting with horizons in the middle so I was mindful about taking shots in this way.
I enjoyed observing the visual experience and then trying to snap the cattle. I also made sure the background added some interest.
I enjoyed taking shots whilst moving too.
Claire Clark 