photo story project.
assignment 00
– art reflection: Leaving & Waving –
This photo is the last photo in a series by the American photographer Deanna Dikeman. The subject is her parents red house photographed driving back home from her mothers funeral. The series is a collection of 90 photos of Dikemans parents waving goodbye in front of the house after their daughter paid a visit. The theme is relationships, specifically to parents, and the circle of life in general. The photographer communicates this through multiple images portraying heartfelt and sincere encounters with family. The majority of the pictures are captured while the photographer is sitting in the car. They are not perfect in terms of settings, composition and lighting, but the quality of the images also reflect the down to earth everyday feeling that the photographer wants to capture. The red house becomes a “character” in the series, creating a familiar relationship to the viewer. This empty photo with the garage door closed shows a huge contrast to the very first image of the series with two smiling parents. Therefore an empty driveway presents a much more powerful meaning than seeing a physical grave or the dead bodies of the parents (like som of the other photo series did). If you pay close attention to the people in the photos you can see that almost midway in the series there is a new addition to the family. By time he grows and becomes a teenager hugging his grandmother. These small details add to the whole story of how a generation comes and goes.
assignment 01
– inspiration –
Moodboard
Mind map
Essay of two photographers
Tim Franco
Tim Franco is a French Polish photographer born in Paris in 1982. He lived in Shanghai for a decade where he documented the urbanisation of China and its social impacts. For fire years he worked on a photo series of the rural migration of the fastest urbanising city in the world, Chongqing, which turned into a book called Metamorpolis. During this project Franco developed his own style with analog photography as well as implementing a minimalistic style in documentary photography.
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Franco's style of editing is desaturated color and soft light. It seems like he takes most of his pictures on overcast days. I really like his minimalistic style of composing a picture. I chose this photographer because the work with Metamorpolis is somewhat how my vision of my photo story project will look like. I really liked how he has portrayed the contrast between urban and rural areas in China even though this is not exactly the same case for the community gardens here.
Theodore Jung
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Theodor Jung was an American photographer (1906 - 1996). He received his first camera, of the type Brownie, when he was ten years old, resulting in a life long interest in photography. In 1934 he met with Roy Stryker, director of the photographic section of the Resettlement Administration (Farm Security Administration), which made Jung photograph agricultural projects in Maryland, Indiana, and Ohio. This was during the Great Depression and is still what Jung is the most known for. Due to his recurring technical difficulties his work with the agency ended.
His work is mostly consistent of portraits, most of them farmers, and minimalistic shots of interior and streets during the Great Depression. His work is mostly conceptual but with staged photos as well, like the portraits. It looks like Jung's preferred way of capturing images was in the hours when the light is soft. I chose Theodore Jung because he was an influence to the rural communities and the farmers during the great depression which is related to my theme.
assignment 02
– theme –
The theme of the photo series is escapism.
People tend to seek different ways of "escaping" the hustling stress of what everyday life includes for most of us.
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Some people might focus on the small things like having a cup of coffee in silence at breakfast, having a cigarette, reading a book, listen to the radio, go for a walk. There is no correct answer to how one might feel just the slightest moment of calm. Everyone has their way.
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assignment 03A
– photo analysis –
by Tim Franco
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The denotation of this picture of a Chinese man and woman in Chongqing shows how the local farmers had to adapt to the little space they were given after the construction of the worlds biggest hydro-electric power station in the world, Three Gorges dam.
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There are a few relevant semiotic signs of Pierce in this image. An index symbol in this photo are the buildings. They represent urbanization, capitalism and modern culture. The lettuce leaves represent agriculture and growth.
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The connotation of this image shows how capitalism and urbanization is affecting the lower and middle class workers letting tall skyscrapers build the way in an overpopulated country. Nature and people's livelihood is disappearing.
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The visual rhetoric in this image has the strongest use of pathos and kairos in my opinion. The photo is appealing
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to the viewers emotions (pathos) in which the two farmers look helpless for what's coming after them. The viewer can identify in the sense of knowing that a working class have no power against money machines behind the urbanization of Chongqing. This is then connected to kairos (timing) and how this is a relevant topic several places in the world. The logos (logic) in the photo is proof that China is a fast developing country knowing that the area now covered with tall glass buildings used to be areas for agriculture.
assignment 03B
– signs –
How I can apply indexical and symbolic signs in my photo project:
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What I find the most interesting about the idea for my photo project is to show the contrast between urban life (buildings, busy roads, bikes, public transportation etc.) and the nature in Amsterdam, but that is somehow already a man-made construct. However, I want to show that regardless of this fact seeking peace and tranquility is still doable in an atmosphere like that. Inspiration from Tim Franco shows me for example that I can apply symbolic signs like buildings and nature in the same photo. This serves as a specific contrast to each other. Also other objects that is associated with urbanism like construction signs, construction towers etc.​
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As a way of showing tranquility in terms of escapism I can also capture images that reflect serenity and calmness. This can be done by capturing a moment as if it were completely still (high shutter speed) and a minimalistic composition.
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In terms of visual rhetoric I think this project already has the element of kairos in which is it a very relevant theme. More and more nature is disappearing due to the increasing world population, when really what most people need is to prioritize these green areas for their personal wellbeing. In terms of pathos I want to capture the joy and the benefits of having a place you can "escape" to. Connect to nature, connect with people, connect with yourself. I think most people can identify with the desire to go a place where they feel like time stops, even just for s little bit. In terms of logos, the logic or the proof of my approach, there will (hopefully) be people I can photograph that are using the community gardens and is enjoying this. A smile will already be a visual proof.
assignment 04A
– photo analysis –
by Tim Franco
Franco does not use the rule of third in this photo. He chose his subject to appear in the middle of the frame and mindfully between the two buildings in the background. I think he made this choice to show how the farmers are torn in the middle of two different realities they have to adapt to; their life as farmers and the life in a town that is becoming the fastest growing city in the world.
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The lighting is very soft without any harsh shadows. In some places in China there is usually some fog due to pollution which makes it look like it is always a bit overcast, like in this photo. However, it looks like Franco used a flash. The light in the face of the farmer is soft but more luminescent than the rest of the photo.
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The light color is quite neutral but with a green tint and the colors overall are desaturated which is quite common to Franco's style.
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assignment 04B
– form –
When analyzing the formal elements in some of my photos there are a few things that repeat themselves.
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My biggest struggle taking photos in the community gardens was that the light was changing so abruptly. The first photos are taken around 9 am when the sun was still pretty low, the last ones at 11:30 am. Balancing the light in the shadows and direct sun was therefore a struggle. I shot with all manual settings for the whole project resulting in some over exposed photos when I rapidly had to capture a moment without given the time to change the settings. This happened for example in the photo on the left hand side. Harsh light is a challenge regardless of setting, but it could maybe have been prevented if I used Shutter speed priority.
The two photo on the right also show how the light was very hard to work with. The photo on the left side has an overexposed sky while the light on the three of them turns out quite flat and uninteresting because it is taken in the shade.
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The portrait of Brigitte also faces some technical errors in the way her hair gets overexposed and only half her face is lit up. This is something that still can work in photography, but I can't justify why I would hide half of her face for this project.
In terms of composition I tried to shoot with rule of third in mind. I always try to play around with depth of field, having some object in the foreground blur out and create a frame around my subject. When doing this and thinking of rule of thirds I noticed that I got some photos that were a bit "messy" with a lot of things happening in the photo all at once. Two examples of this is are the two photos on the right side.
This could have been prevented by standing closer and removed some of the elements of the foreground.
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In terms of composition I tried to shoot with rule of third in mind. I always try to play around with depth of field, having some object in the foreground blur out and create a frame around my subject. When doing this and thinking of rule of thirds I noticed that I got some photos that were a bit "messy" with a lot of things happening in the photo all at once. Two examples of this is are the two photos on the right side.
This could have been prevented by standing closer and removed some of the elements of the foreground.
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In terms of composition I tried to shoot with rule of third in mind. I always try to play around with depth of field, having some object in the foreground blur out and create a frame around my subject. When doing this and thinking of rule of thirds I noticed that I got some photos that were a bit "messy" with a lot of things happening in the photo all at once. Two examples of this is are the two photos on the right side.
This could have been prevented by standing closer and removed some of the elements of the foreground.
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The composition could have been a bit more interesting in some photos if I just switched the angle or perspective. This photo of the vegetable garden is a very uninteresting one. If I got down lower I could either play with depth of field by having some of the leaves in the foreground or I could have waited until Sander turned around and was facing the camera. A photo is more appealing to the viewer when there is a visible face.
Same thing goes for this photo. If I bent down and got closer I could have photographed his hand with the tool in the foreground creating lines to his face which would then be in focus. That would have been a way interesting composition. Again, facial expression is a very powerful tool to create a great photo.
assignment 05
– editing –
In my editing process I wanted to preserve most of the natural colors and hues in the photos. My reason is because I think that reflects the theme and the organic gardening that is taking place. This is a documentary photo project and I do not think it is ethically right to change the color hue of anything just to make it match each other. When I shoot in RAW format I tend to underexpose my photos a bit because I think it is easier to save photos that are darker rather than lighter if anything were to go wrong. So obviously that included playing around with some exposure and shadow/highlight editing. In addition to keeping the colors as neutral as possible I increased the temperature a bit to reflect the warmth of the community gardens.