dinner time om nom

In my previous post i mentioned people at home, perhaps whilst eating their tea.
I took a few photos during sunday dinner at home, they're unstaged and unepected.

I wanted to photograph people (my family in this case) in their natural habitat, where theyre the most comfortable doing something they wouldn't think twice about being photographed on- dinner time.


On their own they work ok, they are quite humerous. I'd like to photograph friends and other people whilst theyre at home and/or out side of home..like in a cafe or restaurant or something. Something with a different scenery, perhaps they eat differently in public?
But i took a few photographs from the waist down whilst eating their dinner, but on their own they do nothing.

But paired with the ones of them eating make a funny perspective.




I really enjoyed looking back at these photographs after wards, i really like this idea too. I had fun photographing family too. I think i might continue to photograph family and turn it into a personal sentimental piece, as like ive mentioned so many times i find it so much easier and enjoyable when i create something with sentiment in it. (sap)

Portraiture. IDEAS.

I shouldn't have dove head first into one concept, i had a few ideas at the start but because i was excited in starting this genre ive just rushed too far into it.. so im going to take a step back and consider the artists ive looked at so far.

From my post on Photographic Portrait Prize 2006'- National Portrait gallery and the other books i looked at, i had a few ideas but thought it might have been too early to have started them.



I liked the following concepts;

Photographing couples - Kiryl Smaliakov, Tom Campbell
It'd be really interesting to get an insight into as many different couples relationships as possible, i could include same sex couples too and show different dynamics of people being together. Only problem, how many people do i know who are part of a couple?

Marking an event - Rineke Dijkstra, Garth Walker 'Louise 1st birthday'
I'd like to photograph this as it'd have a lot of sentiment and emotions behind the work, not necessarily 1st birthdays but other events like birthdays, anniversaries, passing a driving test, moving into a new home etc etc. Again, i can't really count on an event coming up.. i dont know of any with the people i know, so it'd mean asking strangers or staging work...

Parents & children - Michiru Nakayama, Tom Craig
Seeing their physical differences and similarities, problems in relationships, closeness in relationships, lack of parents?

People at work/ people at home- John R. Myers '24 photographs middle England'
Seeing how differently people act whilst at work, if they're professional or not? and what are people like at home, such as when they're eating their tea?

Montage people in places - Lee Friedlander 'Los Angeles 1965'

my back of heads of other's back of heads

Back of heads.

I just photographed a few people from my family whilst i was at home one afternoon, i can tell already my heart isn't in it as i didn't even try to do a propper photo shoot.
I dont think i'll be carrying on this concept much longer. But reguardless, i took a few photos, below is my contact sheet.




I've done it in such a bad way too, i haven't even considered the background of the subject and they look really posed and staged photographs. I can't believe i actually took them, they look so bad. Its just a bit too obvious ive gone off this idea.

BACK OF HEADS.

After a more than one look at blogs and photographers ive seen a lot of photographs of back of heads.

I really loved the idea at 1st but i think i might have seen too many and gone off the idea.. perhaps. How silly of me. (Im not entirely sure why, overload i think) So im going to do a mini shoot anyway of back of heads, i wont be using film though as im only doing a few and in doing so would be a waste of money..

Ive also got a few more ideas on portraits which i'll explain in another post.

Jolijn Snijders

Jolijn Snijders

personal website. here

anastasia cazabon

http://www.booooooom.com/2010/02/15/photographer-anastasia-cazabon/

Personal website. here

I like the way her images seem to be telling a story, theres an apparent narrative but no clear story line per se. Again, i really like the colours and tones used, and the perspectives and depth of field.

lucy blagg

Lucy Blagg

her personal fickr. here



Im so in love with this second photograph, i love the lighting and the spontaneity of the photo. This is why i love film and photography! I feel quite passionate about it at this moment, booooom is amazing.
The photo above it, the 1st one is so funny, the hair style is ridiculous. Its different to the other back of head shot ive been looking at, this one is more humerous and stairical rather than the vinatge-y/serious-ey ones ive been seeing before now. The subject seems like such an interesting character.. a thought just from a photo from the back of their head. Interesting.






Again, the lighting in the photo above= amazing, i feel in awe just a little bit.

Lotte Scott

Lotte Scott

There is so many questions you want to ask from seeing the back of someones head. Theres such an urge to know what they look like. A persons face, the most identifiable characteristic of a human being, and these photographs seem to be robbing us of that. Its such an interesting concept.
I think as well though the chosen scenery aids in us asking questions. Where are they? What are they doing here? Why are they here? Who are they with?

sophie curtis

Another boooooom featured artist Sophie curtis . The reason im mentioning Curtis is like Olivia Crawford she does back of head shots, i'm going to be doing a lot of posts about back of people's heads.





and i just like this one, cos its pretty :)

olivia crawford

olivia crawford a photographer who i found on www.booooooom.com (a website i visit everyday and get a LOT of ideas and inspiration from, i'll referring to it a lot) It's a blog about photographer's/painter's/graphc designer's/illustrator's/sculptor's (etc) blogs.. so they aren't professional a lot of the time, mostly amature photographers but it gives you a great insight of contemporary photography and see whats going around today.






The reason i like her work, firstly im a sucker for film/35mm/medium format and all that. I love grainy, vintage looking photographs with a real sense of timelessness taken today. Its such a breath of fresh air when comparing them to high resolution BIG.BRIGHT.BOLD.DIGITAL 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY photography (a wee rant).
The thing that caught my eye most about her work from this blog was the behind the head portraits, ive come across a fair few from booooom and theres just something so strange and mystical about them.
Heres a link to Crawford's flickr. here

1st portraiture shoot- macro

Above are my contact sheets from this mini shoot with my macro lense. I always seem to forget how close you can get in with a macro, and how far you can focus on such a small space.. i always find it fun when shooting with a macro.

There are a few shots from this shoot that i like, although i can't really think of a meaning for them- this shoot was a small trial just to get the ball rolling really so i didn't have an intention or purpose for shooting. I think it would be interesting to do (maybe) a standard portrait of somebody and then macro shots of as many different parts of their body as possible.. some identifiable, some not. What would be interesting too is if the subject had a scar, or strange birth mark or something to make it conceptual and quite abstract.

Below are a few of my favourite shots.

thoughts on portraiture

After looking at a few varied wide range of photographers I feel that i have already changed my mind on what I previously thought on portraiture. At first i thought it would be a good starting point- which i still think, but its just that i kind of don't know where to start from.

Out of the few photographers ive just looked at, my favourite for some reason is Gary Schneider. I find the images to be quite daunting and scary, but the techniques employed and the physical attributes ive found so memorizing at the same time. The dull tones of the pieces create a deadly connotation which is quite grim, but i love the attention to detail- for example the photograph of the eyes and the ears.

I think im going to start off by doing some macro shots of arms, hands, ears, faces to start with.. just to play around and see what i make of them.

'Portraits'- Gary Schneider