Brief:
Revisit one of the exercises on daylight, artificial light or controlled light from part four (Exercises 4.1,4.2 or 4.3) and develop it into a formal assignment submission. The submission requirement for this assignment is a set of between and six and ten high – quality photographic prints.
Initial Thoughts – Revisiting exercises & making the decision.
I looked back through my exercises; 4.1 on daylight, 4.2 on artificial light and 4.3 – controlled light with the egg and in the following helped me decide on which exercise I would like to develop further upon.
In summary, for exercise 4.1 I researched Sally Mann who focused on family portraits and landscapes. I also looked at Eugene Atget who photographed the streets of Paris and Michael Schmid who similarly captured the streets of Berlin. You can see more on the research of these three photographers here. My images for this exercise I took on a walk to my stables. I looked at deep depth of field images (house in the middle of a field in the distance) and shallow depth of field images such as, tree bark to see how the light enhances textures. I then experimented slightly with reflections by taking a photo out of my horse lorry grooms door of the trees in the mirror. You can view this exercise in full here.
The second exercise was on artificial light, this lead me to explore the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg and Christopher Doyle. I also looked into the work of Brassai called Paris by Night. For this exercise I went out at dark (around 1900) to Charlestown harbour to see what artificial light was about and to see how this form of light would influence my images. This was my first time shooting in the dark and I enjoyed trialling something new and liked the challenge. You can see my official exercise here.
Finally exercise 4.3, the Egg and Stone challenge with controlled lighting. For this I used a hallow egg that I had removed the yolk from, as I pointed out in my exercise summary here it required some trial and error with the camera settings to allow this exercise to work effectively. I enjoyed playing around with the lighting and seeing how this created different shaped shadows in different areas dependent on where the light was positioned.
Thinking about the assignment four brief on returning to an exercise made me think more in depth about which one I would like to take further. After summarising above, the decision lead me to choose exercise 4.2 – artificial light as my assignment focus. I was mostly inspired by the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg and how she used artificial light at night to capture the beauty of water and nature around London. I enjoyed taking the night time images for the exercise and found it challenging hence why I have decided to push myself out of my comfort zone and choose this for my assignment.
I brainstormed some ideas down on paper and created a plan of action to get assignment four underway. As a result of this I want to:
- Explore night photography further by building on exercise 4.2 where I visited Charlestown Harbour.
- To further develop my knowledge and skills on night photography in the hope to achieve my topic choice.
- Base this assignment around the subject: “Harbour life by night” and show off the artificial light found around the Harbour and how this can make it a great place to capture at night time.
Research on inspired photographers & location research:
After making the decision to further develop exercise 4.2 on artificial light for my assignment, I have decided to focus solely on the use of artificial light at night time. You can see my initial thoughts here and what helped me to make my decision.
To guide me through my assignment I have researched some inspirational photographers such as; Rut Blees Luxemburg, Jan Staller, Brassai, Todd Hido and Bill Schwab. Also, I looked into some history of my location which was Fowey Harbour. I decided not to use Charlestown harbour where I photographed exercise 4.2 as there was minimal artificial light due to not being peak season and a lot of the harbour lights turned off until summer time.
My particular inspiration came from Rut Blees Luxemburg, a German photographer now living in London. I also researched her work for the original exercise 4.2 which you can see here. Luxemburg’s famous for taking photos at night time and working only with the available light from the city, she also works with long exposures sometimes up to 25 minutes to allow more light into the camera (Archer, M 2003). I was especially captivated by Luxemburg’s image of In Deeper – this image was taken when Luxemburg was watching the tide over several hours and noticed that the steps going into the Thames are visible twice a day when only the tide allows thus resulting in muddy footprints becoming noticeable (Campany, D 1999). Luxemburg’s use of artificial light helped me with choosing my subject for my assignment which is, ‘Harbour life by night’ as I found the reflections she created with the light and water interesting. Luxemburg began taking night images of London when she moved there around nine years ago and is using her images to tell the story of decay and regeneration of the city. You can read more on Rut Blees Luxemburg in my research section here.
Jan Staller:
Jan Staller is an American photographer who photographs urban landscapes and spent many years focusing on only using existing light sources to light up his photographs. As Prime, R (2003) explains, Staller likes to photography in remote spots and tends to capture objects that he so happens to come across, such as recycled objects. In 1976 Staller produced a photographic book called Frontier New York where he produced a variety of twilight photos of Manhattan (Artspace ND). I have specifically chosen this image below from his collection as I like the depth of field which leads to a spotlight, in my interpretation this made it seem like someone was coming to investigate a derelict space. I also like the reflection and the way the light beams through under the construction building. I watched an interesting video of Staller leading a lecture at Bard College at Simons’s Rock in 2017 which you can see here. I found it intriguing to hear Stallers thoughts on his photograph series and the way he processes his images too.
Brassai:
‘I don’t invent anything. I imagine everything…Most of the time, I was inspired by my everyday life. I believe it is the most sincere and humble depiction of reality, of the most trivial, that leads to the fantastic.’ (The Art Story 2018).
Brassai is a well known French photographer and especially known for his project Paris by Night. A series of (62) photographs where he captured the good and bad sides of Paris. He captured the Operas, the Eiffel Tower, the Can Can girls however, he also captured the elderly homeless people and people digging for food from bins (France, Today 2012). What inspired me about Brassai’s work in the Paris By Night series is that he uses a variety of artificial light such as; gas lamps, sparks from a workman’s grinder and burning buildings to name a few. Paul Morand says a quote in Thorstensson, T (2016) article which explains Brassai’s night photography well: Night is not the negative of day; black surfaces and white are not merely transposed, as on a photographic plate, but another picture altogether emerges at nightfall. At that hour a twilight world comes into being, a world of shifting forms, of false perspectives, phantom planes. There is something eerie, even disconcerting, about the process. I researched Brassai as part of my 4.2 exercise which, you can see here as part of the languages of light coursework.
Todd Hido:
Todd Hido is an American photographer who focuses on suburban landscapes often taken when on long drives alone, looking at the use of natural and artificial light. His images are known to never include human figures as he likes to leave his image as an ’empty shell’ for you to fill in with your own memories and imagination (Kraft, C 2018). Hido’s recent work though has not been of lit up empty houses instead he visited places he had never been before and captured the series called the ‘Bright black world‘. He sees this project as capturing nature – mostly the climate change, something none of us can shy away from anymore and therefore this really is a great subject matter for this project (Grieves, M 2019). The images in this series reminds me that of Bill Schwab’s work, it has the same moody, fog effect to them and really gets us emotionally involved with what is happening to our world. You can read more research on Todd Hido here.
Bill Schwab:
Bill Schwab is an American photographer who is best known for his urban and natural landscapes and is uniquely known for working in foggy and murky conditions, he then edits these into monochrome images, an example of this is one of his photographs taken in Iceland called Late February Thaw (Frazer, A 2007). I find the reflection admiring and feel this adds a real sense of eeriness to the image. Schwab takes photos in the night of around Detroit as part of a ‘where we use to live’ project, his idea behind this is that Detroit is a busy city, often called by many names – some good, some not so good. He wanted to photograph it by night in a light that not everyone got to see, places that may now be inhabited. As the viewpoint art gallery (ND) claims “It’s a story about the dignity of human works, not just the fragility of our civilization, but humanity’s stubborn durability as well“.
The location which I chose for this assignment is a place I visit often and is local to me called Fowey Harbour, a very historical and valued harbour within our local community. This harbour is well known for his history of providing ships to London to defend Calais in 1347 and being a departure point for the D – Day landings in 1944 heading towards Normandy (Major Hicks B ND). Fowey harbour is known as an international trading port and has been a working port since the medieval times exporting, minerals and shipments of tin, copper and now China Clay. Its first shipment was in 1869 when the railways closed and back in 1989 it was said that 1.8 million tonnes of china clay passed through Fowey harbour making it one of the biggest ports in the UK (Fowey heritage ND). However, this has decreased now to around 750,000 tonnes passing annually due to the reconstruction of Imerys minerals. Fowey harbour is now known not only for the china clay exporting but for regatta week – a week of celebrating Britain’s biggest sailing event attracting visitors even from the Royal family (Smith, S 2018). You can see more research on Fowey harbour here.
Archer, M (2003) Rut Blees Luxemburg https://search-proquest-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/docview/214348137?pq-origsite=summon (Date accessed: 30/10/2019).
Artspace (ND) Jan Staller https://www.artspace.com/artist/jan_staller (Date accessed: 01/11/2019).
Campany, D (1999) Why Don’t We Walk Along The River? https://davidcampany.com/rut-blees-luxemburg-and-david-campany/ (Date accessed: 30/10/2019).
Fowey Harbour Heritage (ND) Heritage http://foweyharbourheritage.org.uk/ (Date accessed: 04/11/2019).
France Today (2012) Brassai: Paris by night. https://www.francetoday.com/culture/art_and_design/brassai_paris_by_night/ (Date accessed: 1/11/2019).
Frazer, A (2007) Night photography blog by Andy Frazer http://gorillasites.blogspot.com/2007/12/bill-schwab.html (Date accessed: 30/10/2019).
Grieves, M (2019) Todd Hido;s Bright Black World https://www.bjp-online.com/2019/01/todd-hido-black/ (Date accessed: 31/10/2019).
Kraft, C (2018) Todd Hido On “Homes at Night” and Illustrating Memories in Photography https://www.lensculture.com/articles/todd-hido-todd-hido-on-homes-at-night-and-illustrating-memories-in-photography (Date accessed: 31/10/2019).
Macdonald K (2011) Jan Stallers: Roadside attraction https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/jan-stallers-roadside-attraction/?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=5B054A5CA9273F18F27931048B0A21F0&gwt=pay&assetType=REGIWALL (Date accessed: 1/11/2019).
Major Hicks, B (ND) A brief history of Fowey harbour 1869 to the 2nd World War https://www.foweyharbourhistory.com/uploads/2/0/9/0/20909932/a_brief_history_of_fowey_harbour_chapter_1.pdf (Date accessed: 1/11/2019).
Prime, R (2003) Jan Stallers; New Frontiers https://go-gale-com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&u=ucca&id=GALE|A110919973&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon (Date accessed:01/11/2019).
Smith, S (2018) Fowey regatta – Whats on https://www.cornwalllive.com/whats-on/family-kids/fowey-royal-regatta-whats-1921260 (Date accessed: 1/11/2019).
The Art Story (2018) Brassai https://www.theartstory.org/artist/brassai/ (Date accessed: 1/11/2019).
Thorstensson, T (2016) Brassai: Paris by night https://thomasthorstensson.photography/brassai-paris-night/ (Date accessed: 01/11/2019).
Viewpoint art gallery (2017) Bill Schwab Detroit – Where we use to live https://www.viewpointgallery.org/content/bill-schwab-—-detroit-where-we-used-live (Date accessed: 31/10/2019).
Wang, S (2011) “The Photographic Articulation of the City” by Rut Blees Luxemburg http://en.cafa.com.cn/the-photographic-articulation-of-the-city-by-rut-blees-luxemburg.html (Date Accessed: 30/10/19.)
Harbour Life by Night – My chosen images:
Annotated Contact Sheets:
To take these images for this assignment I purchased a tripod as with night photography and using a slower shutter speed this results in more blur. Therefore, to reduce this the use of a tripod was essential. In helping me make my decision of my final seven for submission I went for the ones which I think best showed off the use of artificial light. I also tried not to veer to far from my subject on Harbour life at night. Some shots, for example, walking between the houses towards the harbour (image 2511) I liked but didn’t feel it would fit well within my series.
Thinking of the creativity aspect as explored in part 4, I didn’t want to just capture boats in the harbour with the risk of it being repetitive and boring the viewer. Therefore, I tried to be creative with photographing the two kayaks beside the house, the boats stacked up in the car park, the rescue boat and the boats captured from the passage between two houses as well as a deeper depth of field of the harbour looking out towards Polruan Harbour opposite.
Checking my work against criteria:
Demonstration of technical and visual skills:
Night photograph focuses on a different range of technical skills to daylight photography. Working with much slower shutter speeds for example which can result in a lot more blur. Ensuring the aperture is set low alongside the ISO to keep the ‘noise’ of the image minimal. I practised these technical skills throughout the assignment, explored them and put them into my final chosen images. My images came out as I visualised and overall I am pleased with the result.
Quality of Outcome:
The quality of my outcome, I am happy with. As you can see on my annotated contact sheets I did have moments were I needed to adjust my settings. For example, increase my shutter speed slightly when the images were too dark as well as increase my ISO which, does unfortunately make the image more grainy at times. I also submitted prints to go alongside this assignment for my tutor to check print quality ready for assessment, this was done using Digitalab so that I could ensure the quality of my prints was to a high standard.
Demonstration of creativity:
I explored creativity more with this assignment as I explained previously in my assignment I didn’t just want to go to the harbour and capture images of boats at the harbour, instead I wanted to show how the boats are stored, which boats are on standby, other forms of artificial light around the harbour other than boat light to give a few examples.
Context:
I believe my assignment portrays the context of the brief well. I decided upon an exercise to further develop, carried this out via research/practise and constructed it into a formal assignment. I chose my own subject to give this assignment more of a ‘title’ being Harbour life by Night and feel like as artificial light can give create such atmosphere/feeling this was represented in my assignment well.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
I believe my strengths for this assignment were that I took on a new challenge well considering I have never used my DSLR at night (in the dark) before. I was aware it wouldn’t be easy but as I am learning more about my camera and how to alter the settings more it was something I was wanting to explore. This assignment has helped me gain confidence and inspired me to explore night photography further. I believe, this may be because taking images at night allows me to be more free with my camera and experimental, less distractions, less people and a whole new ‘light’ to see things in. Also, following feedback from my previous assignment about revisiting a location to get a feel for the atmosphere to help build the assignment on, I already know Fowey Harbour well but I visited in the day time and twice in the night time to get more of a understanding of visually how I wanted the assignment outcome to look. I do however, wished I spent a bit more time exploring more history behind the harbour itself as I wasn’t aware there was so much war history associated with it and found this really interesting.
Heather Wade OCA Blog 