Emma Ford: 05 People

The title of the People brief is the Human Condition. This what makes us human. It can be social, cultural and personal. An example is the fear of death.

We have four categories for the people brief, that have to link to the human condition. These are:

Candid Photography
Corporate Portrait
Environmental Portrait
Fine art Photography

Some photographers who have photographed the human condition are:

Alec Soth

http://www.booooooom.com/2010/01/05/photographer-alec-soth/

Alex Kisilevich

http://butter-brass.blogspot.com/

Arthur Leipzig

http://www.arthurleipzig.com/photofolder/sleepingchild.html

James Natchway

http://patriciasainzderozas.blogspot.com/2010/10/war-photography-james-nachtwey.html

Lewis Hine

http://leahmichelleb.blogspot.com/2010/09/some-b-w-photographs-i-like.html

Melvin Solosky

http://leblogdesovena.com/blog/2010/07/bubble-world/

Nick Ut

http://bellespics.eu/keyword/war%20photography/

Rosie Hardy

http://www.rosiehardy.com/1145-personal-portfolio-self-portraits

Sally Mann

http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/mann_sally.php

Sebastião Salgado

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/S/salgado/salgado_mali_full.html

For this brief, we also had to use various light sources. These are:

Ambient – using reflectors (cloudy and sunny days).
Studio flash – single and multiple source (can be used on location).
Continuous – tungsten/halogen/florescent (existing light sources, such as street lighting).
Mixed lighting – combinations of the above.

These is because different lights look better on some people and not on others. To practise this a group of us practised different lights on eachother.

These experiments show how different lighting affects different people.

Candid photography

Candid photography is when the photograph isn’t staged. This is usually events where the subject is unaware the photograph has been taken. Which then create photos that are more real and honest. Here are some candid photographs that show the human condition:

Henri Carteir Bresson

http://mattsmeth.blogspot.com/2010/04/people-brief-candid-photography.html

Alfred Eisenstaedt

http://photos.codlib.com/2007/07/26/the-v-j-day-kiss-times-square/

Dorothea Lange

http://www.worldsfamousphotos.com/index.php/2007/03/21/migrant-mother-1936/

For the candid part of this brief, I did a test shoot at a train station. My idea was to capture images of people leaving and coming home. Here is a contact sheet of the photos I took:

Here is my favourite photo:

Corporate photography

Corporate photography is portraits of staff of a company and showing what the company does. Here are some corporate photographs that show the human condition:

Martin Mayer

http://www.martinmayerphotography.co.uk/corporate.html

For the corporate part of this brief, we photographed members of staff from the college in the studio. Here is a contact sheet of my photo:

Here is my favourite photo:

The expression in this photo is the best, however, the oval of light in the background is too high. Therefore, I would chose the below photo as the best.

Environmental photography

Environmental photography is when the background tells the viewer something about the subject. This can be a person confortable in their own environment of someone uncomfortable in a foreign environment. Here are some environmental photographs that show the human condition:

Horst P. Horst

http://www.horstphorst.com/

Arnold Newman

http://graphic-novel.tumblr.com/post/4398004351/nerdygirlwithacamera-oh-arnold-newman-i-am

For the environmental part of this brief, I photographed catering students at Runshaw college. I wanted to show people that are happy in their own environment. I also wanted to show people that were wanted to please and serve other people. Here is a contact sheet of the photos I took:

Here is my favourite photo:

Fine art photography

Fine art photography is when the photograph has a concept or a story behind it. Here are some fine art photos that show the human condition:

Irina Werning

CECILE IN 1987 & 2010, France

: CECILE IN 1987 & 2010, France

http://irinawerning.com/back-to-the-fut/back-to-the-future/

Man Ray

http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/ray.shtml

For the fine art part of this brief, I wanted to show the human condition by showing beliefs. I wanted to show science and religion. I did these photos in the studio, using a digital SLR and continuous lighting. I used a soft box to create the light of a lab. However, I feel that I could have used another light to light the background more, to give the image more of a clean lab look. I put them together as a diptych to show how we are human but we can believe two very different things. I also wanted to show the act of prayer. I used a flash head on continuous with a beauty dish on it and lit the model from above. This was to create a light coming down onto the model, to represent God. I used the beauty dish as I didn’t want a harsh light on the face of the model. I then got the model to pose as if she were praying and then after a few seconds hold her hands out. This was to represent that she is reaching out when praying.

Here is a contact sheet of my photos I took:

For the science photos I used the softbox as continuous lighting. I used this as I wanted to create a clean, bright look to give it a lab feel. However, after looking at the photos, I feel as if I could have put a light on the background, so the background was lighter. Here is the set up for the science photos:

For the religion photos I used a flash head with a beauty dish on. I first used flash, but I wanted to create a beam and pool of light coming down onto the model and the flash washed this effect out. I used the beauty dish so the light on the face of the model was a soft light. On the last photo of the above contact sheet, I used a snoot to direct the light more, however, this light was too harsh on the model. Here is the set up for the religion photos:

Here are my favourite photos:

For the final submission, I chose to do candid and fine art. I used my fine art photos, but for my candid I wanted to show a carer and an MS sufferer. I wanted to show these photos as a day in the life of them. I wanted to show how the carer has to do the main things for the MS sufferer; however, the MS sufferer can also do some things for herself. I felt this needed to be shown as it is not perceived as being normal. I also wanted to show the positive side of living with the disease.

I used a digital SLR camera for these photos. I used a flashgun as the light in the house wasn’t strong enough to get a quick enough shutter speed. However, the flashgun created shadows on the photo. I could have used a reflector to have eradicated the shadow.

Here is a contact sheet of my images: