Rain, rain go away...

While writing this last post, I am currently sitting by a window, staring outside at...a rainy, miserable day. So, I thought it would be appropriate to look at a few talented photographer's rain images. 

I hope the weather changes so that I can take some photographs of the beautiful English summer (when it eventually decides to arrive!), so in the meantime - bye! :)

A Review

So, even though I have written about this particular exhibition for my Exhibition Review, I have decided to write a small piece about it on my blog. I went to see Piers Rawson's exhibition in New Milton which wa called, "Small Moments: The Human Face of Semana Santa". I have never really been into history and culture, however, I decided to look at a smaller exhibition which looked at exactly that. 


"Carrying just a single, unobtrusive camera, photographer Piers Rawson spent several days on the streets of Seville during the Semana Santa Easter celebrations.

Rawson was looking for the more intimate, human face and telling details behind the solemn outward formality and religious fervour of the Spanish Holy Week. Behind the showy theatricality and emotional intensity of the famous processions, this is a time for families, for commercial opportunities and for the display of social status."

I did enjoy the exhibition, and the work that was hung at New Milton. However, I was disappointed with the way that the exhibition was laid out. There were thirty images, all displayed throughout two different rooms. However, they all seemed very scattered with no real order. I think that the exhibition would have almost made more sense if they were in a particular order, and all in a straight line across the walls, rather than muddled and on different levels. 

However, the work that I saw was outstanding. The way that Rawson went around with nobody noticing was brilliant and the way that he composed the images is thoughtful and interesting. Although all of the images are in black and white, I do not think that was colour is necessary because he was trying to portray the way that the people were celebrating, not anything else; so I don't think that colour was important. 

Back to the Future

Wow...this is probably the most simple portraiture I have seen, but some of the most effective. Irina Werning is a photographer who loves to look at other peoples’ old photographs, but instead of just admiring the photos, she wonders how people would feel and look if they were to reenact the same photos today.

The project, called 'Back To The Future' features a series of her photographs of individuals and groups of people reenacting a photograph that was taken in their past (usually quite a few years ago).

The results are beautiful. You can tell just from one photo that a lot of work has been put into research, locations and props for each shoot – even time and money has been put towards finding the same (or similar) object in the background, such as wallpaper, curtains or costume.

I absolutely love these images, and the fact that each element of the photos are reenacted makes them even more creative and interesting. I like the way that she has chosen a variety of different backgrounds and ages of the people. This definitely makes the project more interesting than choosing a lot of the same kind of pictures. Anyway, I really do like this project and am looking into doing my own version in the near future!

365 days

Last October, Portland based 17 year old photographer Brendon Burton began an ambitious project in which he committed to creating one self-portrait every day for a year. Now, half a year later, Burton is still going strong and his Flickr photo-stream is full of beautiful and creative images that show his development as a photographer. 

When a lot of people think of self portraits, they think of a simple image showing their own face, not doing anything particularly exciting. For a 17 year old to come up with such creative images, and to display them online is really inspiring. From looking at this site, I have decided to produce my own self portrait project starting at the beginning of next year. I do not want my series of work to be boring or tedious to the viewers. I want it to portray me as a person, through the environment that I am photographed in, the clothes I am wearing and my expression from day to day; just as Burton has done here. 

But its just a phone!

I have recently been interested in looking at different styles of camera and photography. From some research, I came across a competition for the best mobile phone photograph. I was not expecting much because, personally, the camera on my phone is not the best. However, the entries for each category were well presented and well composed. My favourite would have to be the winner for the 'infrastructure' category: 

Although there were a limited number of categories, the images selected to win are really creative seeing as they were only using a mobile phone. Even though some of the images are fairly simple, I like the way that they have managed to use depth of field and shutter speed on their phones, making them look professional and interesting. 

A lot of people have recently argued that Apps such as 'Instagram' are ruining photography because there is nothing to it - you just take a photo with a click of a button, and then choose between a few filters to make the image look worthy. However, I disagree with this view, because I feel that mobile photography is a different kind of photography. People always carry their phone with them, whereas a lot of people do not carry a camera. This means that lots more people (not always photographers) have the chance to capture a moment in time, rather than think 'oh I don't have my camera with me...'

Fake

I recently read an article about an anorexic girl who strongly believes that airbrushing should be banned when photographers are editing images for the public eye. The 21 year old from Warrington suffered from anorexia throughout her teenage years and had been given 48 hours to live. She says her eating disorder was made worse by photoshopped pictures of celebrities in magazines. This made me think, why do so many girls aspire to look like magazine models? What is so good about being skinny and glamourous? Also, why is it so acceptable that so many young girls are making themselves thinner just to look like these women?

"The Home Office review Sexualisation of young people has recommended that airbrushed images used within the media should be indicated with a symbol, and that age restrictions should be introduced on 'lads' magazines'.

Unite/CPHVA Health Visitor Forum chair Maggie Fisher stated: 'These recommendations are a good way forward. Airbrushed images of models are giving children and young people a false view of how "normal" people look, and are creating a unhealthy environment where we are not valuing individuals who are perceived as "less than perfect".' I completely agree with this view, and the fact that photography is having such a big impact on young people today is almost disturbing. From smoothing skin and getting rid of wrinkles, to enlarging muscles and slimming waists, airbrushing men and women to almost ''perfection'' has become the absolute norm in the advertising media. These images don't reflect reality at all, yet from a younger and younger age, people are aspiring to these impossible bodies. 

The art of airbrushing is so simple that there is no excuse for an image to hit the front of a magazine without a little tweaking. Add a little tan, nip a little waist, slightly larger breasts and wallah! But...I think the impact of the airbrushing is not completely realized as almost every women's magazine uses it to change the way the models look. But why? What is so wrong with a natural body? I suppose it is just one of those questions that is yet to be answered...

Dramagraphies

This week, I was having a flick through 'F Stop' and the featured artist was really interesting to me. The photographer was Michel Lagarde, and his featured pieces were a series of self portraits. The reason I have chosen to blog about his work is because I found it really appealing how every single image was different to the next. He was dressed differently, in a different place, pulling a different expression. I could not help but look at every single image to see quite how much they differed. 

The creativity with Lagarde's portraits are second to none, and have really inspired me to look more into self portraits. It has shown me that taking a picture of yourself does not have to be simple and it does not have to be vain. His way of showing himself in different environments is creative and really interesting to the eye. "Talking about my work is quite difficult for me, lets just say that this project is a result of practising different forms of art and that I wanted to put together: in theatre, both as an actor and a decorator - painting, photography and the pleasure of ''story telling''. Recomposing photos where all these different forms of art are present, but most of all showing a snapshot of images in my head which have been formed since childhood." 

"It is not so much of myself that appears in "Dramagraphies", it is rather the different roles that I have interpreted as an actor. Having that distance is important as less of me project in these images rather than keeping them within me. Naturally, the images come from within me, but I am not relating my life, I am having fun interpreting them without any regard for my physical appearance, which I tend to deform more than anything else."