Introduction

I was (am) quite stumped by this assignment, and had difficulty in nailing down a topic or theme to explore. Although I have researched quite a fair amount of documentary photography, the idea of producing two sets of images telling different versions of the same story proved arduous. For different reasons I felt fatigued with my photography and in comparison so did my desire to progress my coursework. I decided to put my camera down for a few weeks after spending many hours researching, practicing and studying technique, styles and artistic content. I have tried to widen my technical ability as much as possible, a little bit of everything approach, in order to make me a more accomplished all round photographer. Whilst this can be justified there is nothing like having an idea and just running with it, good or bad, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I had taken great inspiration from Daido Moriyama and in particular his book “How I take photographs”. I admired they way he approached his work, executing stunning street photography with only a compact camera to hand. This made me think (and dust off my Canon Lumix) that maybe I was (am) missing the point. I sometimes become entangled in a search for perfection, tight editing coupled with sharp, well composed images. But I wanted to forget all that and just take images. Art isn’t meant to be perfect is it? This isn’t a competition in the local photography group. I want my photography to be fuelled by passion, adventure, the unsettling, the abstract, raw emotion. I want my photography to come from within. With that in mind (and the current pandemic) I settled on the idea of taking some obscure photographs in my home. Studying form, lines, feelings and exploring angles. I put my sigma 105mm on my D800 camera body as I wanted to get close to my subjects, making them unidentifiable almost and then taking them as a “normal” image, in a more portrait like fashion. A set of images telling two stories. I liked the idea of creating something that is initially hidden in the subject, unveiling scenes of mystery that go unnoticed amongst us. I had spent a bit of time looking into macro photography and with my idea of studying form this became the basis of the assignment. I worked with natural light, which on the day was poor, but abandon to the wind, I decided to use slower shutters, I want worried by a bit of blur or camera shake, I almost wanted that. This set of images was about wrong being right and also fulfilling the brief whilst continuing a level of artistic investigation.

Contact sheets

Final images

Reflection

On reflection of my images, I am relatively happy with the final outcome and have achieved mostly what I have set out to do. I have used minimal editing procedures in Lightroom, the majority in the basic panel. There is a many things wrong with these images, focus points, lack of sharp focus, noise, poor light, but they have given me an interesting look into both macro work and portraying the same image in different ways.

Image 1

I love the inherent beauty of this shell, and would like to think the first image shows this whilst hiding enough information from the viewer to cause a level of uncertainty. The second image captures the shell in almost all its glory. I chose to edit this image in colour for obvious reasons. I have a particular enjoyment in photographing things up close, far from being astute in macro photography, I find the way the camera captures such detail fascinating.

Image 2

I’ve come to like tis image, it seemed to come to life in the editing process, being transformed into this dark, minimalistic image. I also have a real interest in minimalism, and love the stark contrast in these types of images. To me this image has mystic, intrigue and a suggestion of time. I doubt the reality of what the subject actually would be immediately apparent adding to the sense of mystery. I edited the image to enhance the contrast between light and dark which I hope also enhances the spherical shape of the subject. The second image being the blind and door from which the blind hangs, and I like the result, particularly in monochrome.

Image 3

Its strange that in camera this shot was my favourite image but perhaps now a fairly average shot. I love the way light and subject is reflected in glass and water and wanted the image to show the intricate nature of the subject. I think the image would look great with a face behind the glass being reflected through the individual shapes in the glass. The second image is a portrait of the carafe which I now actually prefer to the first image, there is something I really enjoy about this sort of vernacular photography. It really enhances form, line, shape, texture whilst evoking so much more emotion that just looking listlessly at the more obvious nothingness.

Image 4

An image of candle wick that could be more evocative with the presence of more “wick”, but still quite a dark and intriguing take on the subject. Image 2 again is a portrait of the bottle which I really like against the backdrop of the window. I love the way the curves of the bottle work with the lines of the window frame, suggesting tension and arguing for prominence in the image.

Image 5

This shot was hard work! It was an opportunist shot as a money spider ran along the path of the windowsill, but I like the result. Far from being a macro shot, the spider is magnified nonetheless, with the first image suggesting movement and coming out of nowhere, making a tiny spider look quite scary against its solitary backdrop. Shot 2 obviously suggests stillness with the little spider looking ready to pounce. Poor quality detail but still quite remarkable that the camera can pick up such a small subject.

Image 6

Another study of form here, but who could really lay claim to knowing this is a shell? The curves bend beautifully across the frame, with a nice amount of detail being captured in the focus point. It could be argued that a larger depth of field would benefit the shot, but light was not my friend and lead me to open up the aperture as much as I could whilst getting close enough to the shell. Image 2 is a portrait of the shell which seems to enhance the natural ambiguity of the shell and its shape.

Image 7

Could this be part of the human anatomy? I love the way the lines disperse across the frame almost replicating an X-ray. This image feels alive. A lack of sharpness and camera shake but still a nice exploration of composition and how lines work within an image and what they create. Shot 2 is shot of the whole plant, again in black and white, I really like how the centre piece of the plant stands out against the slightly darker structure of the plant and its leaves.