No 1. Robert Frank
Robert Frank was born in 1926 in Switzerland and is
considered to be one of the world’s most influential photographers. In his most
famous work ‘The Americas’ (1958) he pioneered a new way of perceiving the
world. His images rigidly adhered to illustrating a more clear and truthful
viewpoint that had not been shown before. The images he captured also did
not appear to be set up rather were intuitive and direct, having an almost
casual informal snapshot appearance, although considerable thought would have
gone into many of his images. He also had an unconventional style using out of
focus forms, tilted horizons, low lighting and close cropping in his images.
This gave a perception of truthfulness to his work and helped the viewer
empathise with the people in the images. I admire Frank’s work and it has influenced my
thinking of how I will express my own work as I undertake this topic of documenting contemporary life. I want
my work to appear natural and not set up so viewers can connect and relate to
the subjects there. My images will be of people in their normal working
environment and be taken in many cases as if they were unaware of my presence.
The image is taken at a slightly tiled angle, it
focuses completely on the woman in the lift but there is also another man and a
woman present but their forms are blurred, and the man has been partially
cropped out of the image. The woman appears to be unaware that her photograph
is being taken as she is looking towards the lift doors and not the camera. The
way Frank has shown this image, to make it appear candidly taken, gives it a
genuine feel as if a moment in the woman’s life has just been captured. This
adds to its true to life appeal and makes it appear authentic and not posed for
which encourages the viewer to connect and relate more with the subject. Frank
has inspired me to capture an authentic feel to my images to aid them in
connecting with the viewer.
Another aspect of Frank’s images is that he would make use of juxtaposition to capture the viewers’ attention. This is shown in his photo ‘Trolley- New Orleans’ 1955 from his ‘The Americans’ collection. It shows a racially segregated bus trolley which Frank just happened to see when he was photographing people on the street and just quickly captured an image of it as it passed by. The unusual part of this image is the sequential way the occupants of the bus are arranged by colour and by age. Starting with the older white people on the left then by the young white children in the middle, then followed by a African American man who is looking directly at the viewer, with a rather sad expression on his face. Having these images placed next to each other creates an interesting contrast and dramatic effect. This effect is more powerful as the image is a snap shot of a true moment. This authenticity is apparent even though the people on the bus are looking at the camera. While the subject of my work will not be as powerful as racial segregation I take inspiration from this idea and would like to use juxtaposition to place contrasting subjects or emotions together and do this in a way that looks real and not posed for.
Johnathan
Knowles is a photographer who is based in London and whose work specialises on
liquids, beauty and still life. He has won a number of awards for his work on
advertising campaigns which includes well-known brands such as Coca Cola,
Guinness, Rimmel and Dolce and Gabanna, he also created the ‘O2’ bubbles. In
one of his project ‘Passage of Time’ he was exploring how at various points
throughout the day light can change the way it harmonises with objects, and
used a small bonsai tree that was suspended over a pool of water to study this.
I think
the way he captures form in this project is excellent, as well as how he uses
colours to evoke different emotions. The early morning orange image is
warm and welcoming and makes me feel at peace, while the blue image overlooked
by the moon is cold and uninviting, and the dark images invoke a sinister mood.
This project by Knowles got me thinking about how just by making adjustments to
the colour I would manipulate an image to make it look like a different time of
day. Also taking this a step further I could also change the season that is
shown in a landscape image. In my own project I want to photographically
illustrate that the work undertaken at the animal shelter takes place 24hrs a day 365
days a year. Knowles ‘Passage of Time’ project inspired my thinking that I
could use Photoshop to alter images to demonstrate this. So I could alter colours
to show staff working early in the morning until late at night, I could make
images of trees around the centres grounds look autumnal or more wintery etc. This
would photographically illustrate to the viewer the relentlessness of the work
involved in caring for animals.
No 3.
Lee Friedlander
Lee
Friedlander is an influential and well known American photographer who focuses
on the visualisation of ‘the American social landscape’. He has been
photographing the urban life that surrounds him since 1948; this includes
images of cars, streets, adverts, shop fronts and televisions. His images show
the normal chaos of life but he adds a creative element by taking shots through
shop windows or through car mirrors or having poles cut through his images.
Using his fascination with transparency and reflection he has documented his
life over the last 50 years, the places he has been and the emotions he felt.
Friedlander’s success with using reflection and framing to focus the viewer’s
attention and create interest has encouraged me to also use this technique to
highlight parts of my own images. I will aim to take images looking out through
windows and try to use any naturally occurring frames that I can find such as
the trunks of trees and the wires within the kennel doors. This should draw the
viewer’s eye towards what I want them to focus on in my images.
In this image Friedlander has made use of the low position of the sun and so the side lighting it created to capture the man’s shadow completely within the circular panel he is placing against the railings. In this way the man's shadow is framed entirely within the circle and all attention is directly on him. The circle which may be the top of a table or something similar also brings a dominant and interesting shape into the centre of the shot. In the black and white image, which Friedlander always worked in, the fingers of the man’s left hand are pointing and touching the centre of the circle, so focusing further attention on the shape while his other hand supports it at the top. I like the way Friedlander has made use of framing within the shot to direct the viewer’s attention and this is something I will endeavour to do in my project work to focus attention to where I want it.
Friedlander has used framing here to focus the attention in this image. It is a view out of the front window of his car of a residential street with a number of houses and cars parked outside of them. But there are a large number of wires suspended in the air that dominate the upper part of the frame. The tall vertical wooden street poles and the wires that run horizontally across the frame connecting with the poles, all combine to frame the houses within rectangles. Then there are also a number of diagonal wires lines that lead to the houses, these are leading lines for the viewers eye to follow directing them around the image. The combination of framing and leading lines is a very effective way of composing an image to lead the viewer to where you want their attention to be, and is something that I will include in some of my images.
No 4. Jesse Freidin
Jesse Freidin is a leading
fine art photographer in San Francisco in California, whose work focuses on dog
portraiture. He has won a number of awards in the US and his work has featured
in well known magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue and The New York Post. He
has also published three books each containing a series of work including
‘When Dogs Heal’ which tells the story of how particular dogs have helped
ordinary people through difficult experiences and ‘Finding Shelter’ which
describes the experiences of volunteers at rescue centres with the dogs they
care for. Freidin’s images capture the intimate relationship between people and
their dogs that exists in contemporary American homes. They tell of the deep
bonds that exist and the stories of love and healing that springs from these
relationships and they celebrate the beauty that animal companions can bring
into ordinary people’s lives. These images capture the emotional bonds and the relationship between the person and their dog, and in my topic I also want to illustrate the bond that the staff and volunteers have with the dogs at the centre so will take inspiration from these images.
This image taken from Freidin’s ‘Finding Shelter’ series shows a volunteer at the shelter cuddling one of the dogs she cares for there. The image is in black and white and illustrates the love and affection a person can feel for a dog and the happiness they can bring you. A dog gives its love unconditionally and doesn’t expect anything back from you in return and this can make you feel very protective and care deeply for them. This is portrayed in the image by the woman’s arms surrounding and embracing the dog as if to protect them while her face is snuggling in to kiss the dog affectionately on the back of its neck. This image is full of emotion and clearly displays the love she feels for this dog.
This image is taken from Freidin's ‘When Dogs Heal’ series which tells the stories of the healing power of dogs in helping those coping with being HIV positive. In the photo the woman and the dog look completely relaxed and at ease as they sit and lie on the floor together. The way the woman’s and the dogs legs are set out in a similar manner, each pointing out to the side, gives the perception of the close bond that exists between them. Together their shape is symmetrical and this gives the impression that they are not whole without each other. It is as if the woman and the dog need each other and have a deep loving bond between them. I take inspiration from Freidin’s images and would aim to capture emotion, between the people at the centre and the dogs they care for, in my images as clearly as he has done using the various poses here.
No
5. Lewis Hine
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html
Lewis Hine was born in
Wisconsin USA in 1874, and after studying sociology began working as a school teacher using his photographic skills in his teaching methods. He had an interest in social issues and wanted to capture and record the reality of life, and was a pioneer in establishing what is now known as social documentary photography. He respectfully recorded
the arrival of immigrants at Ellis Island, as well as documenting the conditions
children worked under in the factories, so was instrumental in the setting up
of child labour laws. He also photographed ordinary people at work during the
construction of the Empire State Building, and those working in factories, textile mills
and mines. Hine captured the workers as they skillfully and
knowledgeably interacted with their machines in the factories to keep them working productively, as well as the fearlessness of the ironworkers on the Empire State Building.
He showed how the pride the ordinary person had in their work fuelled their
spirit to provide a better life for themselves and their families.
This image was taken by Hine at Rhodes Mfg. Co in Lincolnton North Carolina in 1911. The young girl works at the textile mill and has been posed by Hine part way along the rows of machinery that she works amongst. He has used converging lines in his image to direct the viewers attention onto the girl as she stands along the narrow corridor. He has used depth of field to blur the objects near the camera as well as those furthest away. In this way the viewer’s eye is drawn to the young girl as she is in focus while much of the rest of the image is not. I will try to use these techniques of depth of field and converging lines to focus attention and direct the viewers eye onto the staff and the work task they are doing at the animal shelter.
No 6. Sandesh Kadur
Sandesh Kadur was born in 1976 in Bengaluru in India and is an award winning wildlife photographer, explorer and documentary filmmaker. His work focuses on the conservation and protection of the worlds animal species and habitats and has been shown on The Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the BBC. Through his work Kadur wants to connect with people to show them places and animals not often seen so that people will realise how much they risk losing. His hope is that by showing them the beauty of the world they will be inspired to protect it.
No 7. Robert Doisneau
http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Robert-Doisneau.htmlhttps://www.robert-doisneau.com/fr/
Robert Doisneau was born was born in Paris in 1912. He was a photographer
of street life capturing images often in playful and amusing ways, with many of his
images being taken in the streets of Paris. Even though some of his images were
light hearted he always treated his subjects with respect capturing everyday
moments of peoples lives in an in-staged way. He was a humanist photographer as
well as a pioneer of photojournalism.
These images illustrate the wonderful sense of humour Doisneau captures in his images. The first image shows a rather unusual situation with the cat in the process of seemingly kissing the bird and the second image shows a classroom scene with school boys in their classroom and captures a moment where one boy is sneakily looking at another boys work while he is distracted. I would like to include some aspects of humour in my images, as there have been a number of amusing incidents that have taken place at the rescue centre and if the opportunity arises I will capture these. By including any amusing moments that take place at the rescue centre I will be better able to illustrate that it is a happy place to work even if the work is quite physically demanding.
No 8. John Grierson
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Grierson
John Grierson was born in Scotland in 1898 and was a founder of documentary film making. He wanted to make films that were based on a new concept of capturing real people in real life situations, allowing people to see into their lives. Grierson invented the term ‘documentary’ which he defined as ‘the creativity of actuality’. His first documentary was ‘Drifter’ which was about North Sea fishermen. His films often focused on poverty, unemployment and other social issues as he wanted to educate people and so create social reform by highlighting the destitute conditions working people endured. During his lifetime Grierson oversaw the production of hundreds of documentary films, and in the 1950s and 60s he moved from film documentaries to television to present the program ‘This Wonderful Life’ which introduced television audiences to documentaries.
No 9. Tom Gralish
http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/tom-gralish
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-on-the-road/112650824.html?photo_1
Tom Gralish is an American Photographer born in Michigan, who worked for a number of US news publications and is currently working for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 1985 he created a series of photographs looking at the homeless people living on Philadelphia’s streets. He spent 4 weeks during the winter photographing people living on the streets as they did not want to go to the city shelters. In 1986 Gralish won a Pulitzer Price for Feature Photography and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for his photo essay on the homeless. Gralish has a weekly column documenting everyday life in Philadelphia’s urban landscape called ‘Scene through the Lens’.
In Gralish’s images on the homeless he refused to use posed images rather photographed the real true to life experiences of what these vulnerable people endure. I feel that in this image he has conveyed to the viewer the dreadful conditions the homeless live in. His work really connects emotionally with me, you can almost feel how cold, wet and hungry this unfortunate man is and how the homeless are just invisible to people as they walk on by. In the second image Gralish is reporting on a more mundane local news subject the movement of 19 pianos from a Settlement Music School into their new location at a new site. Even though this is not an overly interesting subject Gralish has made the photography attention-grabbing. He has used the geometry of the spiral staircase to draw our eye down towards the three men transporting the large awkward bulk down the stairs. This image conveys to the viewer the difficult task the men are undertaking. I really connect with his images and they will influence my own work as I try to capture that true to life feel that lets you connect with the people in them. I will also try to make my images more interesting by looking to include geometric shapes in them.
No. 10. Raghubir Singh
http://raghubirsingh.com/home_en.php
Raghubir Singh was a self taught street photographer whose work was originally inspired by Henri Cartier- Bresson (HCB) and Robert Frank. However unlike them Singh was a pioneer in insisting on using colour to present his work, this was at a time when almost all artists chose to work in black and white. Singh photographed the people and landscape of India and believed that the vibrant natural beauty, culture and spirit of his homeland would best be captured and appreciated in colour. He once told Time magazine ‘To see India monochromatically is to miss it altogether’.
Many of his images are published in his 14 photographic books. In his last book ‘A Way into India’ he used one of the iconic symbols of India, the Ambassador car in his photographs. He uses the car to tour India and see it close up, using the curved windows of the car to view, frame, reflect and divide his subjects. In the first photo Singh has used the car window to frame the boy on the right hand side of the image. This focuses attention on the boy and that he is staring directly at the photographer with a quizzical expression on his face. The image captures a brief moment in the boys life as he is wandering along this particular street in 1999. There are 6 other people captured in this image so it is full of the hustle of normal Indian street life, but within the frame the focus of attention is all on the boy viewed through the window as if he has been divided from the rest of the street and given his own distinct fragment of it away from the chaos of the street.
The second image is taken by Singh at a crowed road in Kolkata in 1987. It shows a true to life everyday occurrence on the streets of India but Singh has arranged the composition so that it is fragmented into parts. There are both near and faraway subjects in juxtaposition in the image. Our eye is drawn to the statue in the distance which is framed by the square window of the green door in the foreground, cable lines also direct and lead our eye to the statue. We also see a bus packed with people while others are waiting to get on or off it. This image captures an up close authentic glimpse of India, full of life and in all its bustling chaos, but it’s the careful composition of the image that allows us to rationally view the individual parts of this passing of normal life. I would love to be able to compose a photo as well as Singh did. In my images I will try to take inspiration from the techniques he uses to frame and divide his images so that while attention can be focuses on a particular subject the activities outside this are still captured. I will also be taking my photos in colour.
No
11. Fan Ho
http://fanhophotography.com/index.htmlFan Ho was born in Shanghai, China in 1937 and developed his style of street photography in a classical traditional way that was common in Europe at the time. His work was influenced by photographers like Robert Doisneau and HCB. However though his compositional techniques such as sub-framing, and using geometric shapes and lines may be influenced by Western work his images are culturally very different. They show the day to day life that takes place on the streets of Hong Kong so have a very Eastern outlook. During his career Ho produced an extensive body of photographic work and won hundreds of awards and competitions for his work. He was considered to be one of the most influential photographers in Asia. He additionally went on to be a successful film director and actor. In his photography he was able to compose his images perfectly, using different techniques to capture and draw the viewers attention to where he wanted it. These included using narrow depth of field to blur parts of the frame, sub framing using various geometric shapes and using perspective and scale. He was also particularly skillful in making use of light and shadow to create dramatic images.
In this image he uses geometric shapes created by shadows and light in his composition to frame the girl and focus attention on her. Diagonal beams of light shine down around the girl as she walks along the street. This highlights her against the dark shadow of the alley way entrance that Ho is photographing her from. The diagonal lines add the perception of motion as the girl walks towards the alleyway entrance and the viewer. The high contrast between the light and the shadow in the image make it more dramatic and draws attention to the girl. The other objects visible in the street such as the clothes drying on the clothes lines and the barrel as well as other street clutter add authenticity to the scene. An old woman is also present in the image she is sitting down and looking over towards Ho perhaps wondering what he is doing in the shadows. However all of the viewers initial focus is on the girl due to the light and the framing and you wonder why she is all alone and this adds intrigue to the image. Also she is carrying an object but it is difficult to make out what it is and this makes you curious as you wonder what it is and where she is going with it.
In this image Ho makes use of the square of light that is shinning onto the road to frame the young girl sweeping the street with a broom. The light highlights the top of her head and shoulders and allows the formation of the girls shadow that is contained within the square. This shadow creates a high contrast area which is framed by the square. There are also a number of other people within the frame but as they are more shadowed our attention is not drawn to them as our eyes are naturally drawn to highlighted areas in an image. I really like the way Ho used light in his images to add drama, motion and capture the viewers attention. I will try to incorporate the use of light to frame my subjects and to use the contrast between light and shadow to create mood and atmosphere.
No
12. Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB) was born in 1908 and was a pioneer in photo journalism and considered by many to be the father of street photography. He spent 40 years travelling around the world learning about the countries he visited, its people and culture and visually reporting on what he saw. His method of taking photographs was to get as natural a shot as possible by blending into his environment so his subjects were unaware that they were being photographed. He was also a master of composition and would study all elements within the frame looking for geometric shapes, lines, curves, shadows and highlights. He was always looking for the perfect image where all the compositional elements, subject, framing and background all came together perfectly for that split second. This he described as ‘the decisive moment’ which he explained in his book published in 1952.
HCB’s brilliance in composing the perfect image is shown in his photo taken in Greece on the Island of Siphnos in 1961. It shows a young girl who has run up some stairs and has turned the corner at the top and is about to vanish out of view. HCB has used the tall building to frame the girl and the lines of the stairs to lead the viewer’s eye up toward her, as well as the line of the wall leading down towards her. It also demonstrates his decisive moment, as the girl is in the perfect place where the eye is naturally drawn to and to have taken the image a moment before or after would have so much less effective.
This image by HCB was taken in 1932 in The Allee du
Prado in Marseille and illustrates the way he used geometry to focus the
viewer's eye into his subject in the image. If a line is drawn along connecting
the base of the trees as well as along the top of the trees, on both sides of
the man, then the lines would converge at a point where the man’s head is. This
is where HCB wanted the viewers focus to be on and so took his image with
this in mind. In this way the viewer’s eye is led through the natural lines of
the image to focus on the subject. The viewer is then able to connect
more with the man and see that he is quite alone on this rather deserted street
on such a wet day and we feel for him in his isolation. I really admire the way
HCB puts such thought into his images to use geometric lines and shapes to lead
the viewer through them and I will aim to compose my images with such
consideration. I am also particularly keen on capturing the decisive
moment in some of my shots, as this will focus the viewer’s attention on my
subjects and allow them to relate more with them, so helping me convey the
point I am trying to make.
No 13. James RaviliousJames Ravilious was born in Eastbourne, England in 1939 and developed an interest in photography after being inspired by an exhibition by HCB, and the way he documented fleeting moments of people’s lives. When Ravilious moved to live in a rural part of Devon, he was commissioned to take photographs for the Beaford Archive. The purpose of the archive was to document photographically the life, land and people in a small remote country area around Bedford. Ravilious spent the next 17 years capturing over 80,000 black and white images of rural day to day routine life including country traditions, people, farming and the landscape. Ravilious’s images captured a more intimate feeling with his subjects as he personally knew most of the people he photographed. Many of his images are documented with titles containing the person’s name, a description of the subject, the exact location and the date it was taken. His images record in an engaging and captivating way a moment in the lives of the people that care for the animals and tend the land in this small community.
This image shows the workers making do with what they have at hand to be able to transport an injured sheep. They have put her in a tin metal bath, and are dragging the bath along the ground. This image illustrates the physical demands that are required when working with animals. I will try to find a situation which illustrates this in my own work for this topic.
No 14.
Grace Chon
http://www.gracechon.com/+portfolio/lifestyle/1/thumbs
Grace
Chon is a photographer who focuses on lifestyle portraits of people together
with their pets. As a former award winning art director and designer who worked
in the advertising industry she is able to use her talent in this area to
capture special moments in the relationships people have with the animals they
share their lives. She lives and works in the Los Angeles region of the US.
I really like the relaxed style Chon captures in
both of her portraits shown above. The viewer can really see and feel the
loving relationship the owners have with their pets. How they like to be in
each other’s company and the affection they have for each other. I also like
the way she has used a narrow depth of field to blur the background so that all
our attention is on the dog and the person. She has also used close cropping to
give the image a more intimate feel. In my project I will be showing the
interaction the workers have at the rescue centre with the dogs there, several
volunteers come every week to interact with the dogs and let them run about and
get some exercise. I would like to be able to capture the joy that the
volunteers experience when interacting with the dogs they come to visit, this
relationship in many cases has been built up over many months or even years for
some of the longer term dog residents. I will use close cropping to give
my images a more intimate feel and blur the background of any portrait images
to give the subject more focus.
No.15. Helen Levitt
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/helen-levitt?all/all/all/all/0
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/helen-levitt?all/all/all/all/0
Helen Levitt born in Brooklyn in 1913
was a street photographer who started taking images of street life in New York
in the 1930s. Then in the 1970s she was one of the first street photographers
to change to working in colour. Her humanist viewpoint makes her images of
everyday urban life engaging and gives them a unique quality. She manages to
capture her subjects in an intimate way that is full of warmth, humour and
tenderness. Her work is both skillful and artistic capturing her subjects and
the character of the neighbourhood they live in.
No
16. Barbara Kruger
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kruger.html
Barbara Kruger was born in 1945 in New
Jersey, US and combined her skill as a graphic designer with an interest in
poetry and narratives to create her unique collages. She took photographs she
found in mass media publications like newspapers and magazines, and overlaid
words and phrases onto them. Often these were confrontational phrases that
explored social and human issues such as feminism vexations, consumerist
culture, personal autonomy and corporate power. In her collages she used cropped
black and white images and placed her text in red, white and black text bars
onto these. Kruger used the images with their aggressive captions to provoke
and criticise so that they evoked a response from the viewer and challenged
their viewpoints, so questioning their beliefs. She also used pronouns in her
statements such as I, you and they, so that it was unclear who was speaking.
All these points made her work eye catching and thought provoking.
In this portrait of Hitler, Kruger has placed text saying ‘If you don’t control your mind someone else will’. But some of the words are written much smaller so at first glance it reads ‘you don’t control your mind’ so implying that people don’t have any say in setting their own beliefs. This is the opposite of what Kruger believes and she is controversially saying it to empower people to stand up against those who would supress and try to control other people’s rights and beliefs.
Kruger’s powerful collages really inspires me as she takes an image and by simply adding text to it can change it completely. Her thought provoking text challenges criticises and provokes the viewer and it is very effective in getting her message across. Kruger’s images have encouraged me to try to create a physical image combining a text message with my own photos to connect with viewers about animal rescue centres. I will put a lot of thought into the phrase that I will use to try to encourage viewers to adopt a 'second hand' dog at a centre rather than breed a new puppy when so many others already need a home.
No. 17. Elena Shumilova
https://elenashumilova.smugmug.com/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75571860@N06/
Elena
Shumilova gave up her job as an architect to look after her young children and
animals on their farm near Andreapol in Russia. She took up photography as a
hobby in 2012 taking images of her children and the animals on their farm and posted
some of them online. Her portraits went viral, attracting many admirers and
have now been seen by over 60 million people worldwide. Percurean, a pet food
company asked her to take images for their advertising campaign ‘Nourish for
Life’ as they felt she captured visually the depth of a human/pet bond,
particularly with children. Her heart-warming images captures in a powerful way
the emotion that exists in this relationship and the viewer can connect with
this. Shumilova has now shown her images in many worldwide publications and runs
workshops throughout the world about how she achieves such amazing images.
In this image Shumilova has captured an image of Yaroslav, standing and looking out a window of their cottage with his large pet dog looking straight back at him from the other side outside the cottage. The boy has raised his hand as if to clap the dog but the glass of the window prevents him from doing this. The image captures the loving relationship he has with his dog as it shows that they both want to be together. The dog is looking longingly at the boy and the boy is wanting to touch his dog, you can see and feel the affection that exists in this relationship. The expression on the boy's face cannot be seen so the viewer has to fill this in themselves from their imagination, making it more personalised for them. The background reveals that it is cold outside as there is frost on the window and snow on the ground, this makes the viewer feel a little sorry for the dog being outside in the cold and this lets them empathise and connect with the dog and the boy's feeling as he wants his dog inside the cottage where it is warm with him. As the boy's face is turned away from the camera this implies that he is unaware that his photo is being taken giving the image a natural un-posed feel. This is part of Shumilova’s style to make the images look effortless as if they had just happened, however, she spends hours sketching ideas down and trying to work out the poses and gestures that work best to communicate emotion to the viewer. I am really inspired by Shumilova’s work. I like the natural way she poses her subjects to convey the emotion in the relationship I will spend some time thinking about the way I can visually convey the relationship that volunteers and staff have with the dogs at the shelter. This will include capturing moments of them playing with the dogs in various ways, giving them treats as well as the more personal moments such as hugging and petting them.
No. 18. Graeme Williams
Graeme Williams was born in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, and began his photographic career as a photojournalist working for Reuters documenting the violence and struggle that accompanied the end of apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. He has published images in many leading worldwide newspapers and magazines including Time, Newsweek and National Geographic. Williams then adapted his style moving away from his previous uninvolved documentary style of photography. His work now still has a documentary/street photography element style but he aims to capture a feeling or a mood in his images rather than just a particular event.
Williams took a
series of images on Pringle Bay near Cape Town in South Africa in 1999 which he
called ‘Two Dogs’. The dogs were on holiday there with their owner and each morning
he would take them to run on the beach. Williams photographed them as the dogs jumped
and played together on the deserted sandy beach. The image is full of mood; it
is bursting with the joy the dogs are experiencing as they run and perform
their acrobatic leaps and turns in the air. The motion of the dogs is captured
in the freeze frame image and you can almost feel the dogs landing in the sand
as they fly though the air. The
particles of sand are also captured frozen in the air as the dog’s paws disturb
them and this adds to the perception of motion in the image. The series of
images are shown in black and white and this emphasises the contrast between the
black colour of the dogs and the light sand coloured beach and so focuses
attention on the subjects.
Williams took this
image in Moenaneng Township in Marquard in South Africa in 2006. The image is taken
through a hole torn in a cloth sheet. It shows the shadows of
two young boys dancing and playing together behind a stripped canvas. The poses
of the children show that they are having fun playing together and the fact
that the viewer cannot actually see them and are only looking at their shadows makes
the moment more intimate. The boys do not know that they are being watched so
their play is completely natural and uninhibited and the viewer will feel privileged
to be able to share in this happy moment of the childhood lives. The unobserved
location of the photographer behind the torn sheet frames the children’s
shadows and therefore focuses the viewer
attention on the playfulness of the children and the happy emotions they are
experiencing. I would like to be able to capture emotion in my images as well
as Williams has, as this will allow me to illustrate the loving bond the staff
have with the dogs at the centre.
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