The Photograph by Graham Clarke - A Review

I found the way this book was written very hard to read, and had been picking it up reading a few paragraphs and putting it down again.  This last week while our systems were down at work I had no excuse and read it through.

The first few chapters were particularly tough going, not that their content is uninteresting, I think it is more the writing style and the way the photograph through the book are analysed. 

For example take the ‘Overhead Crosswalk with Clock’ by Andre Kertesz in which some of the comments about this include:

“The builds are all encompassing but ambiguous, they are monumental presences but status remains on the surface.  The clock dominates as an icon of meaning but is also meaningless.  The rubbish, the car, the birds carry a weight of meaning never to be known”

Instead could Andre not have been trying to capture the street scene as it was to preserve a record of it.  Why do photographs have to have all these meanings behind them?  Why can’t we photography cities like this just as a record to show how they are in our lifetime, because it means something to us e.g. a route we travel frequently or just a favourite spot, something/somewhere we like.  Could it be by even saying this I’m showing how shallow I am?

If I look around my house at the photographs on display, it’s not because they have all these hidden depths, they simply mean something to me.  The display of family portraits, people that mean the most to me and that I want to keep close, holiday photographs that bring back special memories and finally the photographs I’m most proud of where I perhaps captured the scene the best I could on that day or I’ve managed to get a different take on a commonly photographed subject/place.

Back to the book, the chapters I found of most interest was the photograph as fine art, the city in photography and landscape in photography.  Images that I particularly liked and would aspire to include Pool in a Brook by Eliot Porter and Peeling Paint on a Iron Bench by Ernst Haas.  Other favourites would be Bowery Mission Breadline by Lewis Hine which I find powerful because the way the men in the photograph still maintain dignity despite their situation.  Also Circle Line Ferry, New York, by Garry Winogrand, I like that the emphasis is on the people travelling on the ferry.

Exercise 12 - Positioning the horizon

This exercise is about illustrating how the horizon divides a landscape.  I have been wanting to do this exercise for a few days now but the weather hasn’t been too great when I’ve had the time to go out.  In the end I went to the high point in Campbell  Park.

 I started off by positioning the horizon high in the frame

 Then moved it slightly further down the frame but still quite high, to put a bit more sky in the frame but not too much as it wasn’t interesting and the landscape contained more interest.

 I took one more with the horizon still in the upper section of the frame to include a bit more of the sky (*).

 The fourth image from the set has the horizon in the centre of the frame which has a very static effect.

 I then took a few images with the horizon lower in the frame, this one is with it just below the centre.

 As the horizon gets lower in the frame more emphasis is given to the sky, which on this particular day was not a good thing.

 With the horizon now much lower in the frame your eye is drawn to the detail in the sky,  In some cases I can see how this would be a desired effect but not on this occasion due to the lack of interest in the sky area.

Out of this set of images I prefer the third image (*) with the higher horizon in the frame, giving great emphasis to the patterns in the foreground leading to the pond and the statue beyond.

Exercise 11 – Balance

I chose a selection of photographs for this exercise that were taken during my recent visit to Las Vegas.

 

I found it easier to see the balance in those with distinct main elements like the one of the two statues.  It was much harder with others like the night time street view where the photograph was much busier.  Also the one of the chandelier, the sections all come out from a centre point but the angle of the photograph means you only see one section of it, so it’s more implied.

Taking a few days out

Taken a break from thinking about the course for a couple of days to get the last set of wedding photographs ready for the Bride and Grooms return from honeymoon.  Emma and Tom are a lovely couple and it was a very relaxed happy day, here a small selection of the photographs from their special day.

 Northamptons Guild Hall is in the centre of Northampton so you often get shoppers mingled in with the bridal parties when they arrive

I used a relatively small apperture to keep the bride sharp but the rest of the image soft.

There isn't much room for group shots and they had quite a lot of guest so used the step on the way out for the confetti shot - apparently someone accidentally throw a lipstick along with the confetti which hit the bride, hense her expression.

The chauffer was prepared with champagne for the journey to the reception venue

The chauffer had recommended stopping off at Delpre Abbey en route to reception which turned out to be a great location - I did a couple of the earlier exercises here.

Bride and Groom fooling around while I was setting up my camera in Delpre Park adjacent to the Abbey

Bride and Grooms first dance

Brides mum and son joined them on the dance floor

Traditional throwing of the bridal bouquet