This is the first reason I was drawn to photography; the freedom and flexibility of the subject is almost unique. There are no limits to the subject of the images created in photography and no limits to exactly how they are created, leaving the freedom for an individual to explore and create in their own style. As a person, I am not incredibly extrovert as you may be expected from of some photographers who have to direct and deal with people in order to achieve their photographs. However there is more to photography then just photographs of people of objects or scene’s and that is one reason why I enjoy it.
As an individual in everyday life, I am constantly reflecting in my head as I come across different situations and have an inquisitive personality. This is one of the reasons I am interested studying photography because it is always pushing me to ask new questions and learn new skills. Before studying AS photography I had already experimented with different methods of photography alone such as using a 35mm SLR as well as digital cameras and looking into editing photos with programs like adobe Photoshop.
During my AS photography course last year I was able to increase my technical knowledge of photography which bettered the photos I took and also aided me in the analysis of other peoples work. I enjoy looking at other photographers work and taking inspiration and influence from it to help my own.
Recently one of the things I have enjoyed the most is using 35mm film in a SLR camera. I like the feeling of the entire process, from taking the photo to developing the film and then doing the print, being completely controlled and up to me. During next year I hope to develop my dark room skills and knowledge of printing to enable use new effects and techniques in the dark room. Because I feel although sometimes the quality and subject matter of the photographs that I emerge with from the dark room are not as god as the ones taken with the help of modern technology I feel this is made up for by the time and skill base it takes to be able to use the darkroom well. However during the next year I will be trying to improve the style and subject matter of the photos I take with black and white film.
Through-out last year I was able to improve my background knowledge of artists and photographers. Previously to last year I had seen documentary photographs by Martin Parr, I like the quirky style of his photographs. Parr takes documentary photographs of oddities and everyday happenings that we may see but not take notice of. However once in the form of photo we are shown these quirks, I like parrs photographs because they are not the traditional style of documentary photographs. Such as those we come across showing what could be called ‘more important events’ we are bombarded with so frequently.
When researching artists independently I came across another documentary photography called Mike O’Mealy. His style of photography is a more traditional one.
O’Mealy is a skateboard photographer for magazines and travels round the world shooting skateboarding. His documentary photographs are of scenes he comes across whilst taking photos for magazines. O’mealy is similar to par in that he shows us scenes we may not see in everyday life, I relay like the insight into what goes on behind the photos that make it into the magazines and we see this in O’mealys photos. His photos seem to quiet and meditated as well as exiting because or the feeling that they all have a story behind them. As a skateboarder it is exiting to be shown what surrounds the people skating and involved with skating from day to day.
Spike Jonez is a skateboard/BMX photographer turned filmmaker. I really like Jonez’s adverts and films because of their distinctive style. They are usually surreal and manipulated, or manipulative of the mind. For instance an advert in which a table lamp is made too look abandoned and alone so that the audience imagine it has feeling and then are told to stop thinking what the advert has been implying and pointed out that it just an old lamp, putting a humorous twist on the end of the advert.
In the next year of my photography course I will be aiming to improve how I think about my photographs before I take them, so that they are more meditated and stylised. Which has been one of my weaknesses in photographs, when taking a photo I only take into account some of the elements of the picture that would make it a good photograph. I need to think about my composition and the technical aspects of taking the photograph like lighting as this will help me to get my final finished photos to have the effect I want them too.
Also in the next year, I wish to explore different methods of taking photographs. Since I have enjoyed 35mm SLR camera I would like to look at way photographs can be taken other then by digital SLR wich is probably used the most often when anybody wants a good quality photograph. Last year I briefly touched on some alternative methods of photography when researching the history of the subject and also in lessons where I used different types of film camera. I would like to extend an improve on the foundations I created last year.
However my main aim is still to improve the thought and preparation process I go through befor taking any photograph, as this could be seen as a main weakness in my work. I find it hard to create outstanding single photographs which can capture the viewers eye and have a great impact on them. There is evidence of this in my work last year since there were not many instance where I took the time to produce a quality set of photographs that could stand alone in their own right. I feel Learning more about technical styles and techniques will help me to improve my photographs and give me the ability and desire to take better, stand alone, photographs.
I also hope to experiment with creating surreal looking photographs that take influences from people like spike jonez, Michael Gondry and photographers like Gregory Crewdson. As I am interested in looking at how people see and think about images, for instance playing tricks on the eye or creating quirky photographs. I hope extending my knowledge of other photographers will help me with this also. By the end of my A-level photography course I hope to come out with the ability, knowledge and furthered creativity to be able to create and taking good quality images and continue improving at a level where I am able to create good quality finished pieces.
I am going to aim to use this blog as a way of presenting my work, references and influences as a progress on my A2 photography course.
Mike O'Mealy
Martin Parr
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze
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