Sunday 31 October 2010

Reality Research: Cindy Sherman

Untitled Film Still (#66)


Cindy Sherman is an American photographer, film director and model. She is most famous for her conceptual portraits, these are the images that I have been looking at for my project. A lot of her photographic work looks at the role of women in society and the media. Practically all of her work is self-portraiture which ties in nicely with my approach to my Reality project.


When Sherman graduated from State University College Buffalo she moved to Manhattan, NYC to start her art career. She bought a loft and began taking photographs of herself, the images she took in this loft are the images which are labelled 'Untitled Film Stills'. In the series of film stills Sherman dressed up with different make up, wigs and costumes to recreate B-Movie film stills. 


A B-movie is a low budget film which genre changed through the years depending on what was popular; often B movie's are associated with arthouse and pornographic films. Some say that her images are not self portraiture as she only plays with the elements of self-portraiture. The Cindy Sherman website states that 'Sherman plays a type -- not an actual person, but a self-fabricated fictional one.' In a way this is what I plan on doing in my work but to create a portrait is to convey a person, which is what I shall be doing. I shall be creating the members of my family through myself. The work relates in the way that Sherman creates the movie stills through props, wigs, make up etc. and also how she puts herself in a specific place but the ways she creates fictional archetypal characters is not similar to me.


Another way Sherman depicts that these images are not self portraits and portrayals of Cindy Sherman is by using the 'Untitled' captions. When portraits are of people usually they would have the name of the person they are portraying. Instead of this Sherman leaves the decisions down to the viewer. When you see a portrait with no name you don't know who it is. By doing this there is no connection, it also gives the viewer the chance to make up their own ideas of what the image is from and who she is trying to represent through herself.


Her Film Stills work gained her attention and from the images she got the chance to have her first solo show in New York at an exhibition space called The Kitchen. The show was called 'Rear Screen Projections' in relation to how she had shot the images - on a slide projected background in her studio space in Manhattan. 



The image above it one of Sherman's film still images, I have chosen this image as I feel it most realtes to what I have found out about her work in the way that the portrays archetypal characters through her imagery. Highlighting issues such as the role of women/ feminism. In this image is Sherman or the character she is playing doing the washing up. In the foreground out of focus you have the saucepan and in focus is Sherman and her washing up liquid, plates and her. She is looking away from the camera which suggests there is something outside of the frame going on but it is left ambiguous as to what she is looking at.





Tuesday 26 October 2010

Public Enemies: Leo Regan

So I had a 3 hour gap today and after a hungover trip to tesco I decided to spend my time wisely by going to the library at uni. I was suppose to be looking for an image to write an analysis on so I started flicking through some photography books. After a few books I came across this one called 'Public Enemies: Leo Regan'. On the front cover of the book is a nazi symbol and a skinhead talking to his little girl, most likely telling her a story. I'm not really sure why this book caught my eye, or why the images did because the culture of the skinheads is quite an extreme view, one which I don't believe in. But there was something about the images. The images I found amazed me, the main ones of interest I have included in this blog. 

Half of the book is pictures and the other half of the book is writing. There is an introduction to the book by a writer called Nicholas Mosley; he starts the book off by describing who the people in the images are and what skinhead culture actually is and what it means to be a part of the skinhead society. As you carry on reading there is an Authors Foreward and then an introduction to the characters in the images. At first I looked at all the pictures (as you do!) but after looking at them I wanted to know more so I started reading the book from the beginning.

I think my favourite part of this book has got to be the interviews section. It contains paragraphs of responses of the characters in the images, simply talking about their culture and life. What I found when reading the interviews was that the images fall into place, its almost as though some of the images match up with the words of the interview, quite clever really. Some stories are shocking, others not so much but what I find most interesting is the way the photographer started the project and the way it progressed, along with his friendship with them.

In the authors foreward Regan states that the idea of the book was originally going to be a magazine article but after tagging along with and making friends with some 'hardcore right wing' activists he carried it on for a few more years... The images in the book were all taken between 1990 - 1992. The result I feel is fantastic; the book overall is a simply put together social documentary of skinhead culture. If your curious or just fancy finding out something different then its certainly worth a look. Another interesting point about the writing and the images as you might see from the images below is that they are in a way set into different sections. In the interviews it talks about how when people see skinheads they walk across the road etc. but this book looks right into the way they live, in a very nosey way. Almost big brother documentary. The sections I feel the book is split into is social, domestic, political. When you look at the images there are a lot of factors which turn the image around and cause great contrast. 

Newly Born Daughter (ACAB = All Cops Are Bastards) Milton Keynes Hospital

I have included this image as the first one as this is the image which starts the pictures off after the interviews and writings about the images. Its a simple image and introduces the rest of the images quite well I feel. When you look in the book the caption isn't included underneath the image like I have put it but instead you have to flick to the back of the book to find out the caption. If you didn't know what the A.C.A.B meant then you would be oblivious to the contrasting ideas which this image holds. The image I feel has been captured in a quite a romantic way in the way that the light falls on the young baby. But when you look at the other details of the image like the plane of focus chosen by the photographer and also look at the grimey details like the dirty hands and the tattoo. All of this makes for a very interesting image.

Sunderland Art Gallery

This has got to be another of my favourites, catching the people he met in a academic and arty way in contrast to the images I have selected later on of them at neo-nazi concerts and talks. The main thing I love about this image is the way its split into promenant thirds. In the central third you have the two characters, in their boots, army trousers, bomber jackets and with their shaven heads. Looking and admiring the work of art being displayed in front of them. 

Milton Keynes (Definatly one of my favourites)

Once again another image which I thought was brilliant, this time displaying the domestic side of the people he met. Almost trying to suggest that they are normal people and that everyone is different. This image is another which has the great composition. A straight on shot of the sofa, which for most is the heart of the sitting room, where most families spend a lot of their time. Above the sofa are family portraits and images of their children. One of my favourite parts of this image is the child's photograph on the wall which is slightly wonky, this could perhaps be a suggestion to someone who looks at this image without knowledge of the book that something within the image they are looking at isn't quite right.
Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes
Family bookshelf

Selling the British National Party's newspaper, The Nationalist. Milton Keynes

Displaying the flag of the South African new-Nazi party, AWB. London Underground

British National Party demonstration. Sunderland

Extract from the writing in Ragens book, the middle paragraph was the one that interested me most - about the character changing her look for her kids etc. The writing is all typed out from Ragen's recorder. He took a number of recordings about the people he was 'friends' with during the course of the project.

Propeganda Graffiti, Milton Keynes

L: Visiting the husband, boyfriend, father. London.
R: On remand in Pentoville Prison. London



Extract from the book that I feel fits in with the last images.




Monday 25 October 2010

Project Proposal... Take 2

Subject
The subject I am going to look at for my Reality project is going to be that of reality and ambition. Looking at how when a viewer looks at an image they create their own reality but also in the way that I am going to construct the images to show the reality of a person but also the ambitions. The ambitions of my family through different generations, as ambitions could one day be a reality for them. I also want to explore this as when creating bodies of photographic work I like to discover new things. So from this project I hope to learn more about my family but also generally whether there is any link through generations and also whether there are any radical changes which have been made apparent by new technologies etc.


Approach
I am going to create a series of constructed self-portraits of my own family. The portraits shall in a way be environmental as the environment is going to pay a bit part in the audience reading the image. At the moment I am still walking around trying to find a number of different locations. I plan on using a friend from LCF to do the styling and make up on me for the photo shoot. I have also asked a friend to come and assist me on the shoot to take the image. Although I am thinking about using a cable release as this would highlight that they are in fact self portraits.


Engagement


Conclusions

A flick through flickr...

Just having a look through flickr I typed in 'constructed self-portraits' to see what would come up. Many of the images were pictures of cameras in the mirror suprisingly. But I found this image below which even though it is nothing to do with my idea its a general feel as to how I wanted to compose my images and how technically I want to use flash. When I shoot I'm not going to have shadows as defined as this as I feel that dark shadows, bigger than the subject could give off the wrong connotations to the viewer.
Simular composition to this is the image below, again taken from flickr. The composition and colours are admirable. The lighting and detail in the image is something I would like to attempt to capture in my images as well.

The image above was taken on a Canon 5D Mk II, I have messeged the photographer to find out more information on the image, when I gain this I shall update this post.


Linking jobs with ambitions

So as the main part of my research I've had to do some primary research to create a mini database of jobs and ambitions of my family so that I can contrast them. For some reason even though they are my family its hard to get hold of them half the time so here's the start of my research.


Great Nan - currently retired - wanted to be
Grandad - currently retired - wanted to be
Nan - currently retired - wanted to be
Mother - currently working as a cooperate fund-raiser for a children's hospice - wanted to be a
Father - currently a financial advisor/ wibo-man - wanted to be
Uncle - currently a driving instructor - wanted to be
Auntie - currently a teacher - wanted to be
Sister - working for a charity called Kidz in London - wanted to be
Sister (2) - currently working in a nursing home/ attending 6th form - wants to be a fire fighter
Cousin - currently a housewife (if that's how you phrase it these days?!) - wanted to be a footballer
Cousin (2) - currently a tree surgeon - wanted to be
Second Cousin - just started primary school - wants to be
Second Cousin (2) - under the age of 5, may no use
Second Cousin (3) - under the age of 5, may no use
Second Cousin (4) - under the age of 5, may no use


I'm still not sure on whether to do all of them and also to perhaps look at members of my family who have passed away but to make the images slightly different to the others so there is a hint that they are not in the family any more. These are all ideas that I'm still playing with. Also whether or not I should include all of my second cousins as 3 of them most likely don't know what they want to do.


In the way of presentation I was thinking of perhaps displaying the images in the form of a family tree. Also I still plan on using square format, I am going to look into borrowing a medium format camera from uni or my friend - I shall be shooting on Portra 160NC as I have 5 films left over and am on a money saving mission at the moment, hello student life!

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Self Portrait Photographers...

So now I've changed my proposed idea a few times I should really knuckle down and start looking into photographers to gain some knowledge into the world of taking a self-portrait. I think this is one of the many areas of photography that I have never covered so I'm hoping that I'm going to enjoy it... Back to research though and I found this article which gives me a bit of a solid start on portrait artists: http://listicles.thelmagazine.com/2009/06/20-famous-photographers-self-portraits/ Another person I plan on looking at is Camille Silvy.

Silvy was French photographer from the 19th century who photographed many people from a studio in London. I went and visited an exhibition on him at the National Portrait Gallery today which was curated by an old research lecturer at my university. The exhibition was named Camille Silvy: A Photographer of Modern Life. Overall it was very interesting, especially to see such old prints being compared and displayed together on a journey which offered a clear layout of his career. His self portraits were always to experiment with his studio and to gain ideas of what he could offer his clients.
What I find so fascinating about the exhibition and his work is that it describes his techniques used and explains why things are how they are in the images. For example if you look at all of his work his subjects (including himself) are always leaning against something, this was because the exposures at this time were still very long so to ensure that he didn't waste time and come out with blurry negatives he would have them lean on something and hold still. Another thing which amazed me was that all of his work was sets which were blended in with the 'anchor' prop. It wasn't until I heard this at the panel discussion I went to on his work that I realised. Once you do realise though you can't help but notice and want to find cracks and mistakes perhaps within his works.
What I was saying in the last paragraph is evident here about the prop as an anchor - in this one its the tree. The background in this one is not so realistic but that may have been because the lady in the picture is Adelina Patti a lady who was big in the theatre at the time. So by Silvy using the dramatic background it emphasises her theatrical background. I suppose in a way these are in fact environmental portraits. Simular to the works of Fenton etc.

Other works of Silvy which interested me at the exhibition was his still life images of which there were two exhibited. The first was called 'Trophees de chasse' which traslates to 'Spoil of the Hunt'. The image in a way is still a self-portrait as on the door in the image you can see his initials and the date of the image. Later on in the exhibition is another one of his still life images, this time on a larger scale and with more detail. In the later one he uses the stereotypical still life objects like the hare, pheasant, coin etc. but then has also included mass produced items like The Times, perhaps to show how times were changing.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Post tutorial banter...

So after a lovely and fun tutorial with Tom and the gang today I feel as though I've almost knuckled down to one idea... crazy, I know! Pretty much another radical change in ideas but here goes...


Same initial idea of highlighting ambitions through the generations except now I'm going to be highlighting my families ambitions through the generations seeing as the age groups vary from 3 years old to 99 years old! Should make for some interesting costume and prop changes! The low down of the images I took before was that there wasn't enough tension and there was no contrasting point being put across by the images I tried with the road...


I'm going to now create self-environmental portraitures of my family, with me posing as my sister, mum, dad etc. I'm going to try to colaberate with a make up/ costume designer from LCF so that hopefully I'll get it done for free in return for some prints! Yippee!


So a basis for the photograph... picture this for example. A standard enviromental portrait of me infront dressed in a suite to highlight my dads profession as a financial advisor but framed within a mechanics garage with a spanner in my hand... best of both worlds. I am going to caption the images 'Clive, Financial Advisor' or something along those lines to highlight that what you see isn't in fact reality at all. Its two contrasting job ambitions captured within one image.


I'm still going to use the square format and if I get inducted with the camera shop at uni then I'll use medium format as I've got a bit of Portra 160NC kicking around my fridge, but if not I'll go with my DSLR and experiment with film further on in the year.


I'll keep you posted on research, nigggght. Time for some John Mayer and a cup of green tea, LUSH. x x

Monday 18 October 2010

Test shoot!

Finally took some test shots for my project this weekend, here yaaar!




I definatly prefer the top image for the framing and closer relation to the subject. When I shoot these images properly I think I'm going to use a dab of flash to make the subject stand out more - simular to Rineke Dijkstra's work of Teenagers on the beach. I shot these on f/22 so I might knock that down a few stops too to really make her stand out - as much as the road is an important part of the image.

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” - Arnold Newman

Test shot for my first BA project, the title of the project is Reality. I'm looking at the way the viewer makes their own reality of the images they see by creating simple constructed portraits with the use of props. I'm going to create 4-10 images of the same person holding different props but framed in the same environment to show different ambitions of different people from different generations when they were young.

The idea being that the sitter can look at the images and then look closer to observe what the subject is holding to make assumptions of what they're ambition is. By me using the same person in all my shots it creates confusion so the audience don't know which is the reality.

The idea of looking at different generations ambitions when young is just a point to explore through my photography. To see if there is a direct difference over time about children's ambitions and ideas about what they want to do with their lives.

Sunday 17 October 2010

On photography

"There is the surface. Now think - or rather feel, intuit- what is beyond it, what the reality must be like if it looks this way" Sontag p.23
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Tuesday 12 October 2010

Test-shot

Quick self-enviromental portrait with square format - the images for my project will not be composed or look like this. I was just having a go at setting up elements of the photograph. In this one I moved the light so that it lit up parts of the image I wanted to highlight. In this case my 35mm Pentax, laptop, sketch book and me! The room of a messy photography student haha. I'm still toying with the idea of using black and white but not entirely sure, hmm
Another test shot but not with square format - also no audience engagement, hmm?


Post proposal tutorial...

Monday the 11th was my first group tutorial for my project reality. The tutorial was in the afternoon and my assigned tutor is Tom Hunter. I learnt quite a lot about my work, where I need to look into and also more about the abilities and ideas of my class mates.


Started out by reading the brief out and after that we had to read out as written our proposals - two things I hate doing, but will have to bite the bullet and get on with. 


The main points that came from my idea was that it needs broadening, the basic idea is there but suggestions were brought up. A suggesting was to represent abitions and realities of what a selection of people wanted to be when they were say 5 years old or 13 years old. Representing crucial ages. After thinking about ages there are 'milestone' ages so prehaps look into those a bit more. 


After coming home and moaning for a couple of hours about how horrible it was I was thinking about how I could frame my images and where to take them. 



  • Keep using the same character throughout the 4 - 6 images (but could take up to 20)
  • Use costumes and props
  • Possibly set the environment to be an open road - the idea being that by representing the different paths people could have taken if the had stuck to their ambitions though clothes the open road behind them suggests that anything could happen
  • Use captions eg. 'John (11/05/1956), age 5, astronaut' except the difference is its all the same person. Some how I'd like to encouperate their DOB as I feel it would interuge the viewer, I don't want them to get bored of looking.
  • Make the character in the images middle aged - idea that they have most likely made the career decisions so they could represent a large amount of people
  • When asking people their ambitions ask a wide age range of people to see whether they differ from generation. 
I'll add more points when I can be bummed to! Lovee xx

Monday 11 October 2010

Film

KODAK PROFESSIONAL PORTRA 400VC Film features vivid colours and high speed. Use 400VC Film for enhanced colours in low light or on-camera flash situations. The Portra Film family yields consistently rich and detailed negatives with a neutrally balanced tone scale from shadows to highlights. An emulsion overcoat and scanner friendly design make Portra Films the perfect choice for photographers and labs who scan negatives.
  • High speed ISO 400
  • Exceptional sharpness and detail
  • Core-shell crystal technology
  • Available in 35mm and 120 Roll Film
OR...

A ISO 400 high speed film giving images with extraordinary depth and dimension, DELTA 400 PROFESSIONAL provides an almost unrivalled combination of speed and sharpness with a width of tonal range that retains subtlety and detail. The liberating speed of DELTA 400 PROFESSIONAL allows fast action to be frozen, great depth of field, excellent results in low lighting conditions, the freedom of a handheld camera and yet still provides the fine grain and level of detail normally associated with ISO 100 films.

Prehaps just try both?! Next task is to find somewhere that sells films cheap... in London?! Bugger!

Project Proposal...

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” - Arnold Newman


There are many quotes addressing the point of photography and reality, most of them named 'Photography vs. Reality' many people beileve that captured images are in fact reality but yet others argue that a photograph is simply an image which expresses someone elses reality; this is the theory that I agree with. From all genres and aspects of photography images are composed by different people in different ways, for example holiday 'snaps' are taken in different ways, some take them straight and as they are but others may slant the camera to make things look surreal. In the fine art and conceptual photographic world images are composed and designed to highlight points about all kinds of ideaologies. A quote from Susan Sontag's 'On Photography' states this: "To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed" this quote I feel sums up how people photograph things when they have a camera in hand. This is why I believe that the photographic world is in fact not reality at all but instead just an idea or ideal which the photographer makes for themselves. This point also reflects how I feel about the viewers of the images, when people view images everyone has a different opinion of what they are looking at and whats going on in the images. For example the image below, which could be seen and read in many different ways.


Vanitas (2010) - Trudy Furini (http://www.flickr.com/photos/snowqueen77/)


In the image is a skull, candle, shell, money, egg and books. The reality of this image is that is whats there but allegoricry the image is looking at a much wider subject area, the reality of the image is life and death but it all depends on how you look at it. The point I'm trying to make is that the reality of an image is what you make of it, leading onto my ideas for a proposal.

In my project reality I am going to create 4 - 6 enviromental portraits of the same person but placed within different enviroments, clothes and styles to confuse the viewers. The idea being that the images shall look like normal enviromental portraiture images except the difference is the reality of the images are warped because they are completly constructed. One of the images I compose may be the true reality but it will not matter as the idea of creating false portraits is to allow the viewer to create the own 'reality'.

I plan on creating my portraits to a square format, either using a 6x6 medium format camera or if I have no access to one then 35mm camera with images cropped down to give the similar effect. I believe that when creating portraits, using a square frame evens the image out, in comparison to using portrait 35mm. My images are going to be constructed similar to the works of Lother Wolleh who created amazing linear portraits which incorporated elements of architectural photography as well as well thought out, precise image composition. He is one of the main inspirations to this project, with the way his portraits capture something about the person he’s photographing and also the way he uses the environment within the image to guide the viewers eyes into the centre where the person would be standing.
            Technically I plan on shooting on location with as I said either a 35mm or 6x6 camera, whether or not I shall be using flash shall depend on the lighting conditions of where I end up shooting my images. In the way of what film I shall use I plan on using a film with ISO400 as I feel its the film best of most lighting conditions. I shall be using ISO400 but whether to go for colour portraits and use Kodak Portra 400VC or to create tonal contrasting images with the Ilford Delta 400 film is something I am still thinking about.

 

Friday 8 October 2010

Beer, beer we want more beer

In tut country drinking beer but I've run out of rizlas, uh ohhhhh!

Hannah Roberts

Sent from my iPhone

More Wolleh!

Just found a website with lots more Wolleh images on, loving them! Some are colour too, interesting! http://www.lothar-wolleh.de/english/index_art_1eng.htm


Plantage Worker 1, Spain (c.1973)

Plantage Worker 3, Spain (c.1973)
Field Worker, USSR (no date)
Plantage Worker, Spain (c.1973)


All images from his 'People of Labour' series.


Again you can see the way he has carefully composed the images into vertical and horizontal thirds, framing the subject into the enviroment of the portrait. For exampe with the plantage worker images he has carefully framed the worker within his work (the tree behind them). With the image of the field worker he has not framed her but instead whats interesting is the way the trees behind the lady almost mimic the shape of her and her head-dress.


More black and white images I've come across:


Wosgen I, Katholicos of Armenian-Georgian Church, USSR (1969)
Monk, in Russian-Orthadox Cloister at Sagors, USSR (1969)

Cardinal before St. Peter's Basilica, Rome (c.1962-65)

Franciscan Monk, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome (c.1962-65)
Priest, Portugal (1969)

Simular to this after thinking I want to create framed portraits of one person but change the reality of each image. Almost like different characters in a film or book except each image shall be the same person, dressed differently and in a different enviroment. The idea being that any person can look at the images and make their own reality but they will not infact know which is the true reality of the body of work. The work should make people assume which is something that many people do these days too quickly. It takes something like 3 minutes to judge a person roughly and this judgment usually will make you decide whether that person is going to be a potential friend, enemy or just nothing and its all thanks to human fear and a lot of us fear everything but mainly the fact of the unknown. By looking and judging someone without talking to them is fear, fear to go and introduce yourself. I want my project to teach me how to compose images as carefully as Wolleh but also to show a series of enviromental portraits which confused and make the viewer think about. I plan on changing each image through costume, style, props and enviroment.


More Research...

Another great example of how composition of images make the sitter look down the image to the subject. Although Hine did not compose his images as carefully as Wolleh - mainly due to the fact that he was in fact under cover shooting the images secretly. It was because of these images that Hine took that child labour was highlighted and abolished in the US. The images were taken on a medium format camera at waist level.

Hine's images link directly with reality and how what you see is what you get. His documentary/ photojournalist approach to these images changed the child labour industry. These are an example of how images of the reality of the world can get help. Linked closely to this I feel is the images which charities use and those of which charities have used in the past. One that pops into my mind straight away being the image of the 'Migrant Mother' by Dorothea Lange.

Here is where the questioning of photography and reality come in again. This image was supposedly suppose to be a documented image of Lange's journey for the FSA (Farm Security Administration) during the Great Depression in the 1930's. The image of the 'Migrant Mother' became the face of the Great Depression it was and still is the image which everyone remembers from that dark era. When people in America at the time saw this image they started giving money - it was the face of the depression and FSA charity.

In the image you can see there is 3 children, Lange said that she spotted the family whilst driving through the country and quickly got out to tatke the picture but other images from Lange's collection suggest otherwise. In fact in the other images the woman has many other children - if people had seen that she had more than three children would they have been as generous? Also before Lange worked for the FSA she was trained as a portrait photographer which is evident in the image above through the composition and the way the Mother is holding herself. So is a completly set up image photojournalism/ documenting. So many believed this image to be the reality but it isn't so are there images which are reality or not? My argument with this image would be that people could make a reality out of this image as there probably would have been people in this situation in the era of the Great Depression but whether it was right to make money from a constructed scene or not is the question. Below are the other images from Lange's shoot with the Mother.

On photography - Susan Sontag

"Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in it's acquisitive mood." p.4


"To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed."p.4


"Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire" p.4


Remember & read tomorrow!
Hannah Roberts
Sent from my iPhone

Before I sleep...

Have a phantom sheep, photo I took early last year. Enjoy, goodnight!



Thursday 7 October 2010

Photography and Reality

“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” - Arnold Newman


So I just started my BA photography course and I've been set my practice brief which has the title 'Reality'.  What is photography's relationship with reality? I can take the brief any way I want to and use any way and any format of camera to express the title but how? I need to research into it and the first quote I've looked at is the one above from environmental portraiture artist Arnold Newman. Questions the brief highlights include:


What is the role of the photographer?
What responsibilites or objectives might it include?
How and why are decisions made about photographic image making?


Quite a broad subject area to cover. So far I know I want to use medium format 6x6 and create a body of portraits but contextually and conceptually is what I need to research. What makes images real and does the image have to be reality? In a way when one person looks at an images they make their own reality within the image so do they strictly speaking have to be reality? The one image I would like to base my images on is one by Lothar Wolleh's 'Selbst' meaning self-portrait  below. He took the image in front of Petersdom in Roma in 1964.



The composition of Wolleh's work is always precise and designed. This is the effect I want my portraits to eventually portray. The portraits 'portray' something about the subject in the image but the main influence from his images is his linear and Bauhaus like composition of images. Like in the image about I find it fascinating how all the lines in the image automatically make the sitter look at the man in the centre. All lines and shapes lead your eyes straight into the portrait. Then you get to the precise framing of the man within the building. The image is so carefully divided into compositional thirds both vertically and horizontally. My ambitions with portraiture would be to combine the great works of Wolleh and the amazing work of Richard Avendon whose portraits manage to capture the personality of the sitter. Anyway, rant over, heres some other images of Wolleh's which are just simply amazing.

Konrad Klapheck (1970) - Lothar Wolleh

Henry Moore - Lother Wolleh (his last portrait)