Final blog

The blog is now drawing to an end as we have to create a different one for next semester. I do not want this one to disappear completely so have decided to link it to my new blog, so that I can compare the two at the end of the year. Should be interesting!

I searched on the internet for some sites related to editorial photography and took a screenshot of the pages which I have shown below. Some of them might be worth checking out on a regular basis. 

Until next time then...! 

http://www.epuk.org/

http://www.commercialphotographersnetwork.com/

http://www.photographersdirect.com/ 

 
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/EditorialImages

  

Cross platform project

This was a cross platform project carried out with UTA in Finland involving the Interactive Digital Media and Journalism depts at Uclan, centred upon the theme of 'impact of recession' and the economy. I emailed John Mills re the project who put me in touch with Andy S and I ended up meeting up with Jake Ryan and Hannah Carolin who were both post-grad students. They were in Rossendale and were working on a story about the economy and market traders. It has recently been published in the press that some of the Rossendale markets are under threat of closure and they wanted to visit some of them, interview the patrons and get a gist of how the locals felt about the potential threat.

There was a slight blip when we arrived in that they had not contacted the managers of the market directly and when the film camera appeared, the traders were obviously curious as to what was going on. I had mentioned that I would probably need to get permission to take photographs, the culmination of which was that the manager was contacted and in turn, he called the press officer from the council. Though she gave permission for the project to go ahead, she also advised that a certain etiquette was needed before undertaking such a project in a public space. I felt happier that we had permission to interview, take photos and film but it was a waste of 45 minutes stood outside a smelly toilet! C’est la vie!

The organisation to participate in the project was a bit up in the air as apparently there were no photographers available and the journalists had in the main, been taking their own photographs as no one knew what was going on. I had been unable to attend the initial meeting but did get a response from John Mills very quickly, so ended up helping out with the story on the markets in Rossendale, though this was mainly due the nearby location of the project. I would be more than happy to work on another project and they have my phone number so I will see what happens tomorrow.

I took some photos of the market, but because of the initial delay and deadline that the journalists had to stick to, I probably only had around 15-20 minutes to get the shots. In the ‘real world’ though, the situation would be very similar and deadlines would have to be kept to, so it wasn’t such a bad experience. I was able to briefly adjust the raw files and convert them to jpegs when I got home, then quickly upload them to Jake and Hannah for the 4pm deadline. They responded by saying that the photos were ‘amazing’ and I know they certainly weren’t that, but it was good to be able to help out and work on such a project. 
 

© Andrea Percival

Barnardos Project

Met up with the group who are participating in the photography project under Elaine Gansler, the Barnardos Team Leader and photographers, Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor at Rochdale Youth Centre last week. I had met most of the children and young adults who were taking part in the project already, but there were a few new faces. The idea of the meeting was to set up the lighting kit against a graffiti painted wall at one end of the room and get all of the kids to act both as the photographer and the subject. We wanted to allow them to decide who they wanted to photograph, how they wanted them to pose and to basically compose the shot themselves. The idea was that they experience what it was like to be both the subject and the photographer and compare the two experiences.

Some of the kids were more physically able than the others so we had to find the most suitable way in which to allow them to participate fully in the technical side of photography, ie behind the lens. It was mainly a case of adjusting the tripod on the camera and holding the camera at an angle so that they could look through the viewfinder in order to compose the shot. All of the children who wanted to take photographs were able to do so relatively successfully. The main thing that held them back was inexperience in using a professional camera, but with a little encouragement, they were able to communicate with their subjects and get them to stand in a variety of poses for their shots. By the end of the session, some of the kids wanted to take more photographs but time was a factor and we had to bring the session to a close.

We all gathered together before finishing off to evaluate the session. We wanted to know what the kids thought of their experiences both behind and in front of the camera. Some preferred to be subjects, others enjoyed taking the photographs and they were able to communicate their ambitions for the project and what they hope to achieve from participating in it. I have no photographs as yet to support these sessions as children are involved and I would need to get parental permission to use their images. I hope to document the sessions visually at some stage, when the kids feel more confident with me. The project is due to finish in March when the photographs taken by the group, will be exhibited.

10 Second Painting

This is a small video I created some time ago, using a series of 40 photo stills in which a work of art was created! Well, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration and I am still clearing up the paint splashes weeks later but hey, it was my first attempt. The artist has work on Deviant Art under the name Snofi, but I think he actually just enjoyed making a mess more than anything! Using iMovie, it took me a while to suss out the speed of the individual clips in order to determine the total video duration, but I got there in the end. Ok, so it is only 7 seconds but what's a few seconds between friends and anyway, 10 seconds sounds better! I want to experiment with timelapse movies in the future, so watch this space!

Editorial photography

On the advise of my tutor, I am looking at editorial photography as he feels that is probably the genre of photography I should be gearing myself towards for the future. I knew that my chosen subject areas in the field were varied and I appreciated the guidance, as I was a little clueless as to where I wanted to go, I just knew what I liked. Editorial photography is described as photography used to illustrate a story or idea within the context of a magazine and I can see now from comparing editorial work to my own my work, that it is an area I should definitely consider. I looked on the internet and found several photographer's websites, some of whom I have highlighted below.
 

Ivan Terestchenko

http://www.itopus.com/Portraits.html

Born in England and educated in France, Terestchenko was a painter until the age of 30 when he became a photographer and landed an assignment with French Vogue. He regularly contributes to many international publications, including Italian Vogue and World of Interiors. He also photographed The Private World of Ives Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge. He rarely shows his work in public but four of his large scale black and white prints are exhibited in the Musée du Louvre.

© Ivan Terestchenko

Andrea Massari

http://www.andreamassari.com/

Brought up in Brazil though Italian, Massari trained as a painter but also works as a photographer. Influenced by Sieff and Avedon, he likes to photograph nature and the simpler aspects of life.

© Andrea Massari

 

Silke Mayer

http://www.imagine-this.de/editorial.html

Mayer was born in Germany and attended art school in Berlin. She worked as a photo assistant in Germany and NYC, for Hans Gissinger, Ken Shung and Terry Niefield and has done photography assignments for magazines such as TimeOut - New York, Elle, Gourmet, Instyle magazine and Toshiba. She also works on photo art and documentary video projects and is inspired by Irving Penn. 

 

© Silke Mayer

Barnardos Project

I have been asked by a couple of photographers who are also curators of a gallery, to help with a project for Barnardos based in Rochdale. It involves a group of youngsters with varying disabilities and the idea is to represent them in through photography using their own inspirations and ideas as a basis for the project. It is a long-term project but a great opportunity to be involved in something so positive. It is a collaboration between Elaine Gansler the Barnardos Team Leader and Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor, the curators of See Gallery in Rawtenstall. The support that Barnardos gives is vital in order for the children to develop. It is also a great social event for the group and way to explore a range of new and exciting experiences and opportunities.

I met up with them for the first time yesterday and encountered the most fantastic group of young kids. They were funny, eager and full of brilliant ideas for the project. It will be a privilege to work with such a creative team of young individuals. We are meeting up again on Saturday 27th November in order to get the kids to photograph each other and be photographed. The idea is to give them the experience of being both in front of and behind the camera and explore the possibilities in available to them through creativity.

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdale.htmhttp://www.barnardos.org.uk/rochdale.htm

Case study

Met up with the subject of my case study today: Tim Bradley, deputy picture editor at MEN Media Group. I had previously spoken with a journalist, Steve Kingston and a photographer working for the MEN Media, Vince Cole. I had chosen Tim Bradley as unlike Vince, whose insight was invaluable incidentally, he had years of experience and had witnessed firsthand, the changes in photojournalism over the last 20 years or so. I was pleased that I had spoken to several people working in different areas of the media as it gave me different perspectives on the whole working practice of journalism and photojournalism so that when I did speak to Tim, I was far better informed.

The eerily quiet offices of the MEN hosted both journalists and several working in the picture editorial dept. The photographers no longer had a base, victims of the massive cuts in the media over the last few years. As Tim was responsible for controlling the photography in the sixteen local weeklies and the Manchester Evening News, he had a huge responsibility. His job was to ensure that the eleven photographers were allocated jobs in and around the city and that deadlines were being met. His phone was constantly ringing and I kept having to pause the tape recorder. I realised he was busy and was just appreciative of the time that he gave me to be honest. He was a really decent fella and very accommodating considering he was obviously under pressure. I learnt a lot from him and once I have transcribed the interview he has said he will answer any further questions either over the phone or via email. 

I am also supposed to be meeting up with Vince Cole, the photographer in a few weeks to follow him as he goes on various assignments around the city so the whole experience has been really interesting and very useful.

Scout Moor Quarry Project

I found this place whist driving past one day and decided to drive up the road to investigate. 
I didn’t actually know what was at the end of the road but guessed it was some kind of construction place. Once I got to the top, I realised it was a quarry and thought that if I could get permission, it would be a brilliant opportunity to document the work carried out there. 
I found the manager, explained what I wanted to do and was advised to email him with the details. I have done just that and await a response. 

Found these images on the web: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/973923

I love the work of Sebastian Salgado and his photographs of the gold mine in Serra Pelada, Brazil I would never be able to compete with those but will use them to inspire me. Here are some of his amazing photos. 

© Sebastian Salgado

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado4.html

Studio work

I booked the studio for the weekend, partly to get experience and partly to take some photographs for the constructed image project, based on the film Rear Window. I used a model who had some experience in the field, but I felt was confident enough to understand what I wanted and I also knew her which helped with communication. She had a good variety of dresses and I wanted to use something from the 1950s or that general era, so it was great that we found quite a few from her collection. As I had already decided on the location of my shoot and realised that it would be difficult to take a location lighting kit there and a model, I decided to shoot both separately.

The first shoot involved just the one model and on the second day I brought in another model to add to the mix. As I knew both of them, it made the working relationship much easier as I hadn’t worked with many models before and wanted both them and myself, to feel comfortable and confident at the shoot. I brought another student with me on the first day as he was very confident in the studio and I wanted to work with someone who could advise me without taking over. There is no point in letting someone else do the work, as you won’t learn from that. I didn’t feel confident enough to be in the studio on my own but didn’t think that I needed a team of people either. Not that I wouldn’t use a team of people in the future if I had a big set to arrange. 

For the first set of shots I wanted to use the infinity curve and experiment with the white background setup that we had been shown in one of the workshops. I had taken quite extensive notes and also took photos with a small camera in the workshop so that I had a visual of the layout. The idea was to eliminate shadows and get a crisp outline of the subject. In the workshop we had to use the polystyrene boards (can’t remember their exact name) in order to eliminate spillage from the lights at the back, but once we had setup the lights against the background with the umbrellas attached and one in the foreground using a softbox on the subject, we found that we didn’t actually need to use the boards. 

The whole concept of the shoot was ‘voyeurism’, based on ideas from the film and the first shots involved using a series of mirrors. At first it was quite difficult to get the angles right as I wanted to see the profile of the model looking in the mirror and also see her reflection. I did manage to achieve the right angle and was happy with the shots. I knew I wanted to superimpose the image on a background so had to ensure that the image was easy enough to crop. 

In the next shoot I used a chair that I had brought from home and again using the theme of voyeurism, took the shots. It soon became apparent that these shots were not quite what I had intended. I think that it was more about the dress that the model was wearing and the ‘aura’ that this look created. It just didn’t feel right but I continued to take the shots and also took some ‘fun’ shots at the end, with the model posing or just doing whatever she felt comfortable doing. I didn’t want the shoot to be too intensive, I wanted it to be fun too. 
The next shoot was using a snoot instead of the beauty dish, as I wanted to create a more dramatic, atmospheric look. The background setting would be the interior of a derelict property and it is dark and gloomy inside so I wanted to replicate that atmosphere in the studio shots. A change of dress and from the first few shots I knew that this was exactly the kind of shot that I wanted. These were actually my favourite shots of the whole two-day shoot. I loved the atmosphere and the model’s facial expressions were perfect. I will definitely use this effect more often as I do prefer images that have a certain atmosphere anyway and I know that I will be able to call on the same model for future projects as we seem to work well together. 

I learned a lot from being in the studio and being able to bring my own ideas into the project. The input from the models was also important and they did bring a lot to the shoot. I think that is why I wanted to use someone I knew, as I did not want to work with models I was unfamiliar with as they might not be able to give as much to the shoot and until I am more confident to work alone in a studio and take more control, I would rather work with what I know.

The next day I brought in my second model and did one more shoot for the project and the rest of the photos were just straightforward modelling shots using both the infinity curve and the purple background. The coloured background was slightly more complicated and I ended up using three lights on it and still struggled with the shadows a little. I quite like shadows on some images however and I hadn’t really intended to eliminate them all when using a coloured background. My main objective in this case was to maintain the colour of the background. I achieved this by bringing the subject forward slightly and though some of the photos were slightly darker than the others, this was due to the constant changing of models and poses. I did a meter reading each time, but will obviously have to work on this for future projects. I did enjoy the studio work more than I thought I would to be honest. I was pleased with the results and will learn from the mistakes.

  

© Andrea Percival

 

Found photography

This mini project was based on the idea of found photography. I decided to place some objects that I had acquired over the years but could not remember from where, in various places out in the open. I attached to each object a red label with the approximate date that I had acquired the object and photographed them. I used a flash and tried to photograph the object from slightly 'off' angles. I didn’t get to take many photos but intend to photograph some more, weather permitting. I want to use the same weather conditions for continuity. Here are some of them that I did anyway, plus some general scenery photos taken on the same day. Not masterpieces I know, but at least the idea is there!

 

© Andrea Percival