Trey Ratcliff (again)

This guy makes me sick with jealousy! His photographs are so good and it gets to travel all around the world!

Henri Cartier-Bresson

"For me the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means that one arrives at simplicity of expression.

To take a photograph is to hold one’s breath when all faculties converge in a face of fleeing reality. It is at that moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.

To take a photograph means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second– both the fact itself and the rigorous organisation of visually perceived forms that give it meaning.

It is putting one’s head, one’s eye, and one’s heart on the same axis."

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a french photographer. He is known for his candid style photographs. He is considered to be the father of modern photojournalism and helped develop the 'street photography' style.

He achieved his intimate photographs by wrapping black tape around his camera and hiding his camera with his handkerchief and pretending to blow his nose.

He also used fast black and white films and sharp lenses so he was able to photograph almost by stealth to capture the events.

I'm particularly interested in his work as I am looking at candid photography for my dissertation, investigating whether you can ever have a truly natural photograph.

More Trey Ratcliff Photographs

Thought I would just include some more photographs by Trey Ratcliff. I am particularly interested in how people are presented in photographs and how they react to the camera as this is what my dissertation and independent project is related to.

I love how Ratcliff has captured the character of these people and the high dynamic range style has created depth and detail as if we were looking directly at these people.

Sam Taylor-Wood, Soliloquy

I found this picture on a postcard at the Tate Modern years ago, when I went on a school trip when I was 16. I found it the other day so decided to do a bit of research and find out what it is all about. I’d always loved the style of this image, with the subject of the photography appearing as if asleep in a dark, dreamland.

Sam Taylor-Wood's video installations and photographs show human dramas and isolated emotional instances, showing tense social gatherings—people in solitary, awkward, or vulnerable moments. He often presents these psychologically charged narratives on a grand scale in room-encompassing video projections or 360-degree photographic panoramas accompanied by sound tracks.

This image is taken from The Soliloquy series with the photographs structured like Renaissance altarpieces, making specific art-historical references. This image, Soliloquy I (1998), shows the languid pose of a sleeping man, representing the dying poet in Henry Wallis's The Death of Chatterton (1865).

He called the collection Soliloquy from the name of the theatrical monologue during which an actor disrupts the narrative to directly address the audience. This state of disengagement is implied by the combination of large photographs (representing the conscious state of the subject), while the strip of smaller images shows a filmic tableau of the subjects’ subconscious fantasies.

Trey Ratcliff, Photography

Everyone must see this website if they are interested in photography. http://stuckincustoms.com/ It shows the work of photographer Trey Ratcliff.

Ratcliff's photographs are all shot in high dynamic range. The effect of this form is quite dramatic, some photos appear exactly as we would see in real life, with the image practically bursting off the page, creating a sense of depth, whereas some appear artificially three dimensional and what can only be described as magical.

HDR is a set of techniques that allows a far greater dynamic range of exposure, where we see a large range of values between light and dark areas. The aim of this form of photography is to represent a more accurate range of intensity levels found in real life scenes.

Ratcliff's images are inspiring and well worth having a look. Since seeing his photographs it has encouraged me to try working in the HDR format. The result is photographs not as I have ever seen before, with the images looking almost like a mystical view of the scene. I'm not sure if I've quite got the hang of it yet but I will post some of my examples on my blog soon.

(Have a go at zooming into the photograph of the Bangkok aerial view at night, the amount of detail is incredible!)

Jan Saudek, Photography

16th August 2007
The Photographs of Jan Saudek

Jan Saudek was born in 1935 in Prague. He is known in the West as the leading Czech photographer. His work is noted for its portrayal of painterly dream worlds, often showing nude or semi nude figures surrounded by bare plaster walls or painted backdrops. His photographs eco studio and tableaux work of 19th century erotic photographers like Bernard Faucon.

What I love so much about Saudek’s work is the conflict between reality and dreamland. His images often show a brutally natural image against an otherworldly, artificial background. I feel the contrast between these two very opposite themes is extremely effective, and creates a very intriguing effect.

Another aspect of Saudek’s work that I take inspiration from is his use of close-ups, where he focuses on a specific aspect of the human body. ‘The Days of the Sixties’ shows a close up of a female torso being grasped at by the hands of a man. He is digging his nails into her flesh. In this image we see a brutal rawness that is common of Saudek’s work. The image is so close up we can see the veins in the man’s straining hands and the blemishes on the woman’s skins as it is being pulled; it is an unabashed, honest photograph.

By using this method of zooming in, Saudek is creating the impression that he has cropped the image. It is as if the viewer is not allowed to view the whole scene but only what the artist wants us to see. However, I feel that Saudek’s close-ups do not take information away from an image but rather they exaggerate the overall feel of the photograph. I feel that Saudek’s photographs create a certain intimacy with the audience and this I feel particularly engaging.

Jan Saudek encourages me to not be afraid of creating images that are slightly obscure and conflicting. I aspire to creating the intimacy and natural feel, even though it is created in an artificial way, as shown in his images.

Travel Photography

16th July 2007
Lonely Planet Photography

Have a look at http://www.lonelyplanetimages.com/homepage.html

I’ve always used Lonely Planet guides when going abroad because of their detailed inside knowledge, but what really appeals to me is the high quality of travel photography. Even now, as I am travelling around India I am using the Lonely Planet guide, so feel this would be an appropriate blog entry.

I’m extremely interested in photography, with my main interests lying in travel photography. What particularly engages me is the various representations of different cultures that you find in this genre. I find it interesting how photographs can be constructed in such a way so that the reader can relate to them; even if the country is completely alien to theirs, they can still acknowledge similarities in human behaviour. The issue of human interest is a significant aspect in travel photography and is especially apparent in the Lonely Planet travel guides I have looked at. It seems important to show everyday people in a way that we can relate to; readers begin to understand that the people in the images are just like them, and therefore, this new, foreign country becomes less daunting and more welcome and accessible. The Lonely Planet claims that it shows “connection, travel’s most rewarding gift, encouraging appreciation of the similarities we share in a world of different culture, experiences, circumstances and environment” (Lonely Planet, One Planet).

I am currently compiling my own photography portfolio with the intention to have my work displayed in bars, cafes etc, hopefully resulting in selling some of my images. I have already entered various competitions and received positive feedback and acknowledgement. My portfolio is based on a travel theme, with images from India, Croatia, America, Prague, Malta, Greece, UK etc. and I look to the Lonely Planet guides for inspiration. By taking advice from these photographs I hope to broaden my knowledge on how to take more natural images, which truly reflect the nature of the culture.

What I find most appealing about the Lonely Planet photography is that they are not overly stereotypical of the country even if they do show some iconic, popular imagery. It’s how Lonely Planet shows the every-day, almost mundane aspects of a country which I find most inspirational; the realism in the images is what I aspire to. Lonely Planet are also not guilty of just showing the positive, ‘airbrushed’ sides of a country/culture, for example in the Lonely Planet One People publication, we find not so conventional images. For example one photograph shows Israeli soldiers having a break “between clashes with Palestine youths” (page 139, Lonely Planet (2006): Lonely Planet: One People, Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd, Victoria, Australia). The photograph is captioned explaining how “ten minutes later these soldiers find themselves in the midst of a gun battle.” In my own photography I try to take images that are not so conventional, that reflect a culture in a more abstract fashion rather than just displaying the obvious stereotypes.

Lonely Planet have published a wide range of books including ‘One Planet’ and ‘One People’, which are books dedicated only to photography. They also have a website which is devoted to the stock library. The range of photographs (by a wide range of artists) is quite remarkable, ranging from breathtaking landscapes, market scenes, architecture, animals and people. I find the images of people extremely interesting, and is the subject I feel most drawn to when taking my own photographs abroad. People are interesting subjects for photography, especially in terms of travel; looking at so many different faces, full of life and varying character, allows the viewer to have a certain empathy with the image, we can relate. The Lonely Planet images have shown me new and different ways to take photographs of people, which differ from the norm, and allow me to take more interesting images.

Lonely Planet has inspired me to strive to really capture a culture and its people’s personalities in the most natural and accurate representation possible.

Nan Goldin Photography

30th June 2007
Nan Goldin

“The complete disregard for the camera’s presence indicates its complete saturation in their lives. The subject neither notices nor seems to care that someone has been invited into their private moment.”

Nan Goldin is someone I deeply admire and her style and class of photography, something I aspire to. In a similar way to Richard Billingham, Goldin’s style appears completely natural and uninhibited.

Goldin uses an interesting technique of nearly always using a flash, deviating from her original work of only shooting in black and white. The flash has become so much a characteristic of her work that it is often referred to as the ‘Goldin Look’. This technique results in highly coloured deep hues, which show her subjects in an exaggerated natural light. One image, ‘Kenny in His Room’ shows a naked young man lying on his bed asleep, which has been created using this method of a 35mm film and a printing process called cibachrome which prints photographs from slides allowing the photographer to achieve a sharp, bright quality of colour. The effect here is that this already personal image is perhaps become even more omniscient, with the man’s skin tone being extremely clear and detailed; this is not an airbrushed image, we can see ‘blemishes’, which creates an extremely natural image.

What attracts me to Goldin is that fact that she works at an extremely intimate level, her life is her work and her work is her life. This ‘snapshot’ esque style is a documentation of her life. Goldin’s work shows a complete disregard for the presence of the camera and intimate, personal moments are often captured which gives an extremely unaffected and raw result. A particular quote from Goldin, which inspired me greatly, explained how her camera is part of her everyday life, “as much as eating, talking and sex. The instant of photography, instead of creating distance, is a moment of clarity and emotional connection for me. There is a popular notion that the photographer by nature is a voyeur, the last one invited to the party. But I’m not crashing, this is my party.” The concept of a camera being just as much a part of you as anything else is intriguing to me; the thought that one could take quality photographs of people without them even acting towards it is something I strive to.

Nan Goldin is a great inspiration to me and I aspire to take images that are natural and unaffected. By considering her work I can begin to understand human reaction to the camera and how to get past this in order to create an image that is free and as natural as possible.