Photographer Research 4: Sam Taylor-Johnson

Sam Taylor-Johnson, born 1967, is a British photographer (among other professions) who is famous for her photographs of levitating people. She has edited her photographs in a way that would be impossible to create outside the editing process, due to the fact that many of her photographs defy the laws of physics. I have chosen to write about Taylor-Johnson because I think it is important for me to start editing my photographs in a more creative fashion, and her work could definitely inspire me to do just that. The first photograph that Sam Taylor-Johnson took that I had taken an interest in was a photo of a woman being levitated by balloons tied to her legs. Due to the improbability of this situation actually occurring, we can see that some editing has gone into this photograph. I think, however, the photograph looks entirely realistic and I would like to learn from Taylor-Johnson's work. Here is the photograph she took:

The second photograph that Sam Taylor-Johnson took that I liked is another photograph that would be difficult to take without editing software. In this photograph, a young woman is balancing on the edge of a chair, which is tilting on its side. In the eyes of the viewer, she is about to fall on the floor moments after the photograph is taken. I think this photograph is very creative, and I really like the use of form in her work, to further convince the viewer of the photograph that this situation is actually occurring and is not edited to seem that way.

The third photograph by Sam Taylor-Johnson that I thought was worth writing about was this photograph of a car in the dark. A spotlight appears to be shining over the car, lighting it up in a room of darkness. Whilst looking through all of my photographs, I noticed that the majority of them are taken during the day, in the sunlight. I therefore plan in the future to shoot at night, or at least when it gets dark and use different sources of light, such as lamps, or even the flash on my camera depending on what I am photographing.

The fourth photograph by Sam Taylor Johnson is one quite similar to the first one, except this time there are no balloons holding the woman up, making her seem as if she is floating in mid air all by herself. I think this photograph is very inspiring due to the fact that the amount of editing that must have gone into this is huge. There is nothing in this photograph to suggest that it is fake, so it has been edited very thoroughly which I would like to somehow replicate in my future work.

Just from looking at a few of her photographs, I could tell that Sam Taylor-Johnson would be an influence to me in terms of her editing skills. She has allowed me to realise that the editing in my work tends to reach a limit of 'multiple imagery', but I now intend to do shoots that include vast amounts of editing in order to reach new styles of photography. Also, I would need to think about what I am going to be editing before I take any photographs, so that I could plan it all out and have my photographs portray exactly what I need them to.

To summarise, Sam Taylor-Johnson is famous for her skills in editing photographs into unreal situations, such as balancing on tilting chairs, being suspended by balloons, and floating in the middle of a room. These photographs have been really interesting to me to look at and I am quite sure I will refer to Sam Taylor-Johnson's work in the future again when taking photographs that require a lot of editing.

Print Techniques

Black and White

Duotone

Repetition

Selective Colour

Photojoiner

Soft Focus

Photographer Research 3: Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson, born 1908, was a French photographer who was famous for his photographs of people and movement. I have chosen this photographer to write about in detail due to the fact that he links strongly to the topic I chose to work on, which is evidence. In the future I plan to take photographs of the evidence of movement and the evidence of human presence, both of which are seen in many of Henri Cartier-Bresson's work. The first example of a photograph that shows the evidence of movement is perhaps one of his most well known photographs. This photo shows a high angle shot of a man riding a bike, but the movement of the biker is blurred, therefore showing that he is in motion. I think this photograph has inspired me to think of ways I can create evidence of movement within my own work, using specific settings on my camera to make objects in motion look like they are in motion.

The second way in which Henri Cartier-Bresson has helped/inspired me in the evidence topic is through another photograph that shows the evidence of human presence, as well as the evidence of damage/destruction. This photograph was taken after a bombing in New York, and portrays the effects on the environment of such an event. This photograph has inspired me to take photographs of the evidence of damage that humans have inflicted on the planet, specifically damage that humans have inflicted on each other's environments/homes. I also think that Cartier-Bresson was trying to show the extreme side of what was occurring during the war by taking the photograph from this angle.

Another photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson shows the evidence of movement, as well as the evidence of reflection. This photograph was one of his most famous pieces, showing a man running across some puddles outside what appears to be a train station. I think this photograph is inspiring because he has managed to capture reflection in these photographs without orchestrating it, by simply taking the photograph in the right moment. I hope to capture something like this in the future of my course, perhaps showing the evidence of movement through vehicles such as trains and cars. 

The fourth and final photograph by Henri Cartier-Bresson that I will be talking about is one showing the evidence of shadows/silhouettes. This photograph depicts a silhouette of a man with an umbrella jumping in front of the Eiffel Tower, with a man and a woman standing close to each other in the background. I liked this photograph due to the fact that we are unable to see who these people are, so instead of noticing what they look like, we notice what they are doing and where they are before anything else. I think this photograph is inspiring to me because I would like to take a photograph of someone but only show their silhouette, perhaps to show the evidence of shadows/silhouettes or maybe an extension on the evidence of human presence.

Henri Cartier-Bresson has influenced me in many ways as I researched him and the photographs he has taken. As I mentioned in this post, Cartier-Bresson has influenced me in terms of creating photographs that show the evidence of various things such as movement, damage, human presence, reflection, and shadows/silhouettes. Out of these topics, I am most interested in capturing the evidence of movement, due to the fact that I think to produce a photograph that shows this in good quality might be quite difficult, and somewhat of a challenge. Also, I think the evidence of reflection might be good to capture in one of my future sessions, for I really like the photographs Henri Cartier-Bresson captured of reflection.

To summarise, Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of my favourite photographers in terms of how broad his work is, and how many formal elements there are in each one of his photographs. I will attempt to recreate some of his work in my own style in the future, whether it is within the evidence topic, or sometime in the next year, but I will definitely remember Cartier-Bresson's work and how it has changed my opinion in some aspects of what is a good photograph.

Evidence Shoot 9 (Food/Water Consumption Studio) Straight Images

Evidence Shoot 9 (Evidence of Food/Water Consumption Studio) Work Diary

Evaluation:

In this session, I decided that I would extend and improve on what I had done last session, with the evidence of food and water diminishing. To do this to the best of my ability, I used the studio. The first thing I wanted to photograph was the evidence that someone was eating a fruit of some kind, for it is very easy to see when a fruit has been eaten. I purchased an apple and returned to the studio, and took photographs of it going from a full apple to an eaten apple. When editing these photographs, I thought it would look good if I put 3 images on top of each other, as a different way to show the sequence of the apple being eaten. This is what the final image looked like after I added curves and levels and made them into one whole image:

After capturing the photographs of the apple being eaten, I decided to find a food substance that could perhaps contrast to the idea of eating fruit, making my shoot seem more diverse. I purchased a chocolate bar and decided to do something similar with it that I had done with the apple, by showing someone eating it frame by frame. When editing, I found that I had not made enough photographs to make a multiple imagery image, so I simply put it together as a sequence. 

Progression:

I have learned from this session that I need to be taking more photographs if I intend to make a multiple imagery photograph of some sort. This is because I often don't have enough for the minimum amount of pictures (9) to be classified as a multiple imagery image. During this session, I was thinking about how the apple has gone from one state to another, and I thought that in the next session, I could base my work on the evidence of age.

Computer Experiments

Evidence Shoot 8 (Evidence of Food/Water Consumption) Work Diary

Evaluation:

As planned in my progression in the last work diary, today I shot the evidence of the consumption of food and water. Firstly, I filled up a water bottle and started taking photographs of it outside, and I slowly emptied out the bottle, taking photographs at necessary stages to show the decrease in water in the bottle. I then photographed the empty bottle at the end of it. After this, I purchased a packet of sweets, of which I stacked on top of each other and, like the idea of the water bottle shoot, took away one or two sweets after a few photographs until I was left with just one.

The editing stage of this shoot took the majority of this lesson, due to the fact that I made a multiple imagery and sequence photograph of both these parts of the shoot. I think the overall photographs came out quite nicely, and clearly show the food/water being emptied/taken away, thus showing the evidence of consumption of food and water.

Progression:

In the next lesson I plan to keep within the 'food' evidence topic, but I will get closer to the objects in the studio, using lighting to my advantage.

Evidence Shoot 8 (Evidence of Food/Water Consumption) Straight Images

Photographer Research Two: Tom Hussey

Born in America, Tom Hussey is a photographer that specialises specifically in lifestyle photography. I have chosen Hussey due to the fact that his work can be linked to the 'evidence' topic, especially in terms of age, history and emotion. An example of a photograph where he has shown the evidence of memory or history is this photograph, which depicts an elderly man looking at his own reflection, except his reflection shows him many years younger, in an army uniform. This is effective use of editing due to the fact this would not be possible to create without using any effects or editing, so I can learn from this.



The next photograph that Hussey has edited in order to show the evidence of something is one which depicts the evidence of age. An elderly woman is shown to be looking in a mirror,  but the reflection that looks back at her is significantly younger and is wearing more nice-looking clothes. This depicts age due to the fact that the woman sees herself as how she was decades ago, but in actuality her appearance has changed quite a lot.

The third photograph that Hussey has produced that can link to the evidence of something occurring is one that depicts the evidence of reflection. As shown in the majority of Hussey's work, the people look in the mirror to see themselves at a younger age looking back at them. However, this is not an accurate portrayal of reflection, for they would normally see themselves how they are now, and not how they were a few decades prior to now.

The final photograph shows the evidence of age also. In this photograph , the man looks at his past self as a scientist. This photograph portrays age due to the fact that they look completely different, yet it is assumed they are the same photograph because he is looking in his own reflection. I may try and replicate such an idea.

I find Tom Hussey inspiring and influential due to the fact that I plan to do a shoot just like his, showing the evidence of age, as well as the evidence of reflection. Also, by doing the evidence of age I am also showing the evidence that someone has lived their life, leading to the evidence of history. This means Hussey has influenced me in three ways, giving me ideas for three separate shoots that I could put together as one.

Evidence Shoot 7 (Evidence of Human Presence) Work Diary

Evaluation:

This was the first session I did outside of college grounds, and I think it went particularly well in terms of how I stuck to the topic of 'evidence of human presence'. My first idea was the evidence that someone has eaten food and drank a drink, so I took photographs of dirty dishes and a put a lipstick stain on a glass. After this, I continued to find evidence of human presence in household objects such as hairbrushes, toothpaste tubes, tissues and tea cups.

Progression: 

In this next lesson, I think I shall continue on from my theme of food wrappers and empty plates, and take photographs of the evidence of eating. I could do this through taking a photograph of a full plate of food, or a full packet of some form of snack, and continue taking photographs of this substance whilst taking away parts of the food, until the plate/packet is empty. With all of these similar photographs, I could make a multiple imagery photograph.

Evidence Shoot 7 (Evidence of Human Presence) Straight Images

Evidence Shoot 6 (Evidence of the Man Made Intrusion) Work Diary

In this season, I decided I would capture the evidence of the intrusion of man made objects onto natural environments. An example of what I planned to take photographs of were drains, litter and buildings, contrasting with grass, plants and trees. I think this shoot went rather successfully for I was able to capture all of what I planned, and more (such as the snails among the litter and the benches in the middle of the grass). Here are some of the edited photographs that I came out with, along with a multiple imagery compilation of the intrusion of man made objects onto natural environments.

Progression: Continuing on from the theme of the effects of humans, next session I plan to take photographs of the evidence of human presence, possibly using objects that would be found around the home (e.g hairbrushes, dirty dishes, sweet wrappers).