Mitch Epstein

Mitch Epstein's The City is a book i've been looking at recently. It is a well structured book which documents visual instances throughout New York City. It is somewhat a poetic kind of photography, it doesn't necessarily have one topic it follows many within the city.

The book itself really inspires me and my work as a photographer. Some of the photographs are posed with others natural or observational. I will now look at a few examples of Mitch Epstein's work within the book.

This is one of Epsteins photographs from his book. When I picked up the book this is the first photograph I turned to. For me I feel it is well composed and very clever. The fog in the background looks quite sinister and along with the CCTV cameras showing the image sort of portrays the fact you are being watched and gets across a 'big brother' feel.

The photograph's light is obviously ambient and the addition of the shot being on film really adds to the impression of the image. The photograph really has three main components the camera, the city below and the sea. The coastal line in the photograph also really adds to the composition. Overall the image has a really sort of sinister and clean mood to it. I feel it is a well composed and constructed image.

This is another Mitch Epstein image, it is a fantastic capture due to the simplistic nature of the image the two main colour tones really go with each other and make the image what it is. The photograph looks to have a sort of slow shutter speed which has blurred the moving handrails along with the man on the escalator. The light cast on the far wall caused by three windows also really add to the photograph for me. The image for me definitely has a smooth well constructed feel. The different lines and curves make the image what it is even without the person within the photograph it would still be a great image.

This is a photograph taken just outside of New York city, for me this photograph works due to the fact the photographer has taken a picture of the un-obvious, instead of taking a picture of the busy city that we can see in the background he has chosen to photograph the less obvious side to the city. Whilst doing this he has also incorporated some of the city's skyline in the background which really adds to the image. The photograph also has an eery feel due to the fact the twin towers can be seen in the photograph, when the photographer took this he took the image thinking most people would look at the foreground but obviously due to the 9/11 attacks modernly people's attention would turn directly to the towers. This goes to show how a photograph isn't a permanent fixture and that its meaning can change over time.

This is the last of Epstein's images I will be looking at, it is a photograph of some stairs in New York, underneath we can see train tracks along with two trains in the image. The image looks very textured and its amazing how the photographer has taken this. The structured layout of the lines work really well in the photograph and without them it wouldn't be as good. The photographer has waited for the trains to come and he has composed them well. Overall this is a great image.

In conclusion I have really enjoyed looking at this book, I will continue to look for material like this and Mitch Epstein is a photograph I want to look deeper in to. The photography is exactly the sort I like as I am really interested in film documentary photography.

Design Classics

As part of my contextual studies brief I have been asked to take a look at some classic designs for example the Leica Camera or the Juicy Salif.

For my design classic essay I have decided to write about the Mini car. The mini was manufactured by British Motor Corporation in the years 1959 up to 2000. The original Mini is an iconic object which is considered to be part of the 'swinging sixties'. The mini was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and is thought to be the British equivalent of the German Beetle.

Throughout the years there were little design changes within the mini, there were such modifications as the Cooper, Cooper S and the Clubman where the looks didn't really change. The cooper S won Monte Carlo Rally four times in a row and was disqualified one year for simply being too fast. In recent years German company BMW took over the mini brand and released new modern ranges.

The Mini was branded under the Morris and Austin name until 1969 where it became its own brand. It was then taken up by Austin again in 1980. The Mini was such a great design purely because it was so functional. It offered to many families an affordable and easy way to travel. It was shipped and sold all over the world due to the fact it's demand was that popular. It was seen as a key iconic British Icon, the car was used in the film the italian jobpurely because it was seen to be so iconic.

For me the Mini is definitely an icon which makes me think of Britain, it is up there with Fish and Chips and Tetley Tea. The patriotic Mini is something which I will always remember, they were always my favourite car as a child and I still want one now. They are definitely an asset I would love to own. The exterior and design of the mini is something that will never fail to make me smile and it makes me proud to be British.

1963 Mini Cooper S

Sources

Information Obtained from...

Wikipedia

DK Classic Cars (book)

Picture Obtained from the mini wikipedia page.

Design Classics Notes

Campbells Soup

Turned into an icon by Andy Warhol, typography and crest all provide iconic characteristics all highlighted in his prints.

Swiss Army Knife

Never Changed, Swiss engineering, made to last.

Bedside Lamp

Organic Natural look, Tiffany lamp, fascination of glass and reflective qualities that the light gives off.

Rennie Macintosh Chair

Geometric, formal look. Little has changed.

Coco Channel No 5 Perfume

Fashion Designer, sold first ever mass produced distinctive perfume. Still here today.

Function Follows Form

Purpose of the object is priority – mass produced in 1920, less beautiful than the tiffany lamp. Bauhaus school. Designed for industrial production.

Leica

Simplified photography, design widely used by other manufacturers. Oskar Barnack. Revolutionary,.

Modernistic Wassily Chair – Marcel Breuer

Bauhaus Design, simple nicely styled objects

London Underground Map

Henry Beck Created this linked to elictracal diagrams.

VW Beatle

Ferdinand Porsche 1938, family car.

Tuppaware

Earl S Tuppa invented 1946, plastic product which keeps things neat,tidy and fresh.

Mini Morris

1959, low budget & cheap car. Baby Boomers saw it great as a first car.

Robin Day – pollyprop staking chair 1963

British designer. Infancy and functional. Plastic is being massively produced. 4000 were knocked out a week.

Dyson Vacuum

Invented by James Dyson, british didn’t want to engage with this.

Lemon Squeezer

The Juicy Salif – Phillip Stark

Apple Mac

Jonathan Ive- Great and Functional Design

The Genius of Photography - Photographer Review

After watching the second episode of the Genius of Photography I feel I have definitely learnt a lot more about photographers now. I have seen an insight into a different age and style of photography. The program showed me so many more different styles of photography and has really inspired me. Here are some examples of their work...

Carlos Felt

Carlos Felt was a breakthrough photographer who photographed natural and plant forms, he was an innovator of modern macro and close up photography. His photographs look really well composed and shot.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

These were the husband and wife photographic team that applied primitive methods to create their outstanding photographs of blast furnaces and water towers.

This is one of their sets of photographs, as we can see the photographs work really well, the odd shapes of the water towers mean the images all go hand in hand and they really work with the contact sheet layout of the photographs. The photographs have really nice tones and all are framed in a similar way this causes the series to really work well in a strong way.

August Sander

August sander was a key photographer that photographed people within his community. One of his most famous photographs was of a bricklayer.

This is probably Sanders most famous image, it is an image of bricklayer who worked in Sanders local village. The image works well especially the lighting which especially looks good, the fact the face of the bricklayer is lit looks really good, the bricks around his neck also really add to the image. Overall the contrast and tones of the image look really impressive.

Alexander Rodchenko

Rodchenko was a key communist photograph who took photographs for propaganda purposes, he made photo collages of certain events also. Rodchenko shot photographs in the Gulags of Russia and presented the camera as the tool of the new man.

This is one of Rodchenkos most famous images it is a photo collage that promotes freedom among the Russian people, it shows by supporting communism everybody is equal and they get a long. Rodchenko would have had to make this under direct government orders. The photograph is a collage that would have been made in a darkroom using traditional methods. The photograph looks really patriotic and I can see why Rodchenko was told to make such images.

Manray

Emmanuel Radnitzky (Manray) was a photographer from the US but spent most of his time in Paris. He used methods of photo collage and solarization which he introduced. Here is one of Man-Ray's famous images.

This is an image of a flower which has been subject to solarization, the image will have been taken and then printed in a darkroom. The print is then exposed to light for a tiny amount of time. Once this has been done the photograph is then developed. The overall image has this metallic but smooth look to it and has really nice black and white tones.

Bill Brandt

Bill Brandt was an apprentice of Manray's he grew up during the first world war and so when the second one came around he documented the impact it had on people.

This is a photograph of people affected in Britain in WW2, here Brandt has photograph those affected by the blitz and the attack on britain. He has photographed those people that took refuge in the tube stations of London. The photograph has an overall good feel to them and the tones are well fitting. The perspectives of the tube station also really adds to the image.

Sources

Some previous media was obtained on google images.

Some previous media was obtained from a book named photo box published by Contrasto, it is a collection of up to 250 different images.

A few examples of the decisive moment...

The Decisive moment is a fundamental aspect of modern photography, its roots appeared from artists like Capa and Bresson. Here are a few examples of the decisive moment...

This is a photograph called V-J Day in times Square. It was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt it is an image of a US sailor kissing his girlfriend on return from the US - Japan war. The iconic photograph marks the end of the war and it shows how those affected felt. The photographer has done very well here to capture this image as everybody will have been rushing round and lots will have been happening. He has therefore done well to take this photograph, in capturing this moment he has captured the feelings of thousands of Americans at the time.

This is a photograph taken by Stanley Forman, although the image is quite disturbing it is still a piece of photographic excellence. The photograph was taken as people were escaping from a fire, unfortunatly the fire escape collapsed and a young mother and her child fell to their deaths. Forman stood there that day and photographed the happenings. He took the picture in such a way that the people were captured as they fell. This became a controversial image but Forman argued that he didn't take a photograph of the people dead. He won a pulitzer prize for this image. The photograph is well composed but rushed due to the nature of the moment. The photograph however contains the decisive moment, this is impressive considering the amount of time the photographer had.

This is a photograph taken by arguably one of the best ever photographers; Henry Cartier Bresson. This is one of his famous all time photographs. It contains all the characteristics of a perfect photograph. In the foreground we have the stairs which follow line and tone rules and they make a good photograph as it is. However the clever part of the photograph is the addition of the bicycle, snapped at the exact moment. Nobody knows if the cyclist rode through as Bresson was taking the stairs or wether or not Bresson staged the scene. The photograph shows a perfect example of the decisive moment. The cyclist has been taken at a perfect time, too early and he would have been blocked under the stairs, the image obeys the rule of thirds and is compositionally sound.

The Decisive Moment

The Decisive Moment was a photographic concept founded by Henry Cartier Bresson. He was a french photograph noted most for his candid shots. In 1948 Bresson took a series of photographs at Ghandi's funeral, he also took the final moments before china became communist. Around this time Bresson developed a skill known as the decisive moment. He created and practiced this himself.

In 1952 Bresson published a book called 'The Decisive Moment' within this book was a set amount of photographs which obeyed this rule.

"Photography is not like painting," Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

The Decisive Moment is an movement of photography which is used all the time today. I myself use it and so do many other photographers. A photograph is best when it is captured at the exact right time.

Symbolism - Artwork Examples

The Storm - Edvard Munch

The storm by Edvard Munch is a very simplistic painting at first glance. It does however have symbolic meanings. As we see in this painting there are people standing outside in a storm however the storm may also represent an argument or event which has occurred involving these people. The storm is not just physical but also an emotional thing. The figures are simplified to point of anonymity so we cannot tell who they are, we can however tell the woman in white is very innocent and caught up in this situation. We can tell this by the colour of her dress which is white. This is the natural colour of innocence. The storm is therefore connected to her and her innocence.

Green Death - Odilon Redon

This is a symbolistic painting painted by Odilon Redon. In this piece of artwork a green figure is rising out of a snake. This has many symbolic references and meanings. For example at the time the drink Absinthe was very popular and killed lots of people. Absinthe here is being portrayed by the green spirit rising out of a snake. The green death has symbolic references to intoxicated people and life styles. The picture could also resemble the suspension of regular patterns of thinkings. Overall the painting has very symbolistic meaning.

Masks Confronting Death - James Ensar

This is a painting by James Ensar. It was painted in the 19th century when symbolism was in full swing. The painting has obvious symbolistic messages. For example in this shot many masked and strange people are confronting death. This could represent bad people asking death to be killed in order to free them from their sins. They may be followers of death in the sense that they kill people, for example they may be murderers. Another meaning could be that death is represented as a good thing and that in dying we are free from the bad things in life. Death is depicted as wearing posh robes and royal clothing in order to make it look good. The masked people therefore represent the bad things in life.

It isnt just 19th century painters that used symbolism within their work. Symbolism is seen in Henry Cartier Bresson's work too. For example in this shot taken in Poland we can see lots of hidden meanings. The word 'railowsky' seen in the background is a typical german jewish word. This lets us know of the time and the troubles that were occuring. The man in the shot is also running which signifies he is running from a troubled regime or from Hitlers SS men. There are also links to the countries fate as symbolised by the broken ladder. It resembles that the country is in stalemate and that it is going nowhere. The broken wheel also symbolises mankind is breaking as the wheel was mans first invention.