Working log-4 for Assignment three – Self-Portraiture

My last character assessment came from my friend Graham.

 

 

D800e, 24-120mm f/4 @112mm, 1/250, f/14, ISO-640.  Flash

D800e, 24-120mm f/4 @78mm, 1/250, f/18, ISO-640.  Flash. 

D800e, 24-120mm f/4 @120mm, 1/250, f/9, ISO-125.  Flash

My final presentation created from the text taken from all four statements to make the narrative for this project meant that I only needed two images from the three that I photographed.

 

Working log-3 for Assignment three Self-portraiture

My next assessment was from my friend Carol who emailed me her assessment as a word document and that I have scanned in to a JPEG.

 

 

My first image was for something to represent a metaphor in the context of, Dogged, Stubborn, Serious, Committed, Passionate, Driven, Determined, Fixated, Focussed. The idea came to me from a 1960’s T.V. show that I watched as a child, Batman and Robin, they would punch their hand when making a decision or as an act of frustration.

D800e, 105mm f/2.8, 1/160, f/3.2, ISO-125.

From left to right Burt Ward and Adam West this image was taken from the 1960’s ABC Network T.V. show, Batman.  A good pose with Robin holding his fist to perhaps suggest resolve as Batman appear to be talking on the radio.

Cynical, Sardonic, Stubborn,

D800e, 24-120mm f/4 @65mm, 1/250, f/4.5, ISO-100, Flash.

Courteous

D800e, 85mm f/1.4, 1/250, f/6.3, ISO-100. Flash

I had been puzzling over an image to be metaphorical for ‘single-minded’ and produced a couple of photos that I first thought might be suitable.

D-800e, 24-120 f/4, @62mm, 1/100 f/9, ISO-800, Flash, +3.0 EVA.

I didn’t think that this picture worked; so I didn’t use it.

These are the only two images that I felt were needed for the final presentation.

Working log-2 for Assignment Three – Sarah’s Character Assessment

Planning for my next assessment was for my wife’s character assessment of me.

Taking extracts from her assessment I began to plan

Sketching ideas I then tried putting them in to practice with a camera.  All but my last idea worked and talking it through with Sarah we came up with the idea of my hand locking a door to suggest the want for privacy.  I thought that by adding Sarah’s hand on top suggests both privacy and intimacy as well as keeping a consistency to my images by including her in the shot.

D800e, 105mm f/2.8, 1/250, f/8, ISO-125, Tripod, Timer, WB-Auto, Remote flash, -3.0 EVA, 24mm zoom, I-TTL.

This next image was inspired by a lovely photo by Nan Goldin that she called ‘The Hug’, New York City 1980.  I first saw this on the front cover of a book, Singular Images, Essays on Remarkable Photographs, edited by Sophie Howarth, that I recently purchased second hand.  (This book is currently out of print.)

  

D800e, 24-120mm f/4, @86mm, 1/250, f/13, ISO-125, Tripod,Timer, WB-Auto, Remote flash, -3.0 EVA, 24mm zoom, I-TTL.

This last image is my hand wiping a tear from Sarah’s face.

D800e, 55-300mm f/4.5-f/5.6 DX, @330mm (FX) 1/2o0, f/6.3, ISO-125, Tripod, Timer, WB-Auto, Remote flash -3.0 EVA, 24mm zoom, I-TTL.

I kept this image simple; so planning was not needed.

D800e, 24-120mm f/4 @52mm, 1/320, f/5.6, ISO-320.

I the final presentation I only used.

Sarah Mullins,”Is friendly and enjoys company but can also be quite a private person.”

Sarah Mullins, “Can suffer from low moral at times………

 

 

 

Working log-1 for Assignment Three – My father’s character assessment

For this assignment, I am tasked to create a photo or photos that are of a self-portraiture nature.  The brief is fairly loose; but I have had an idea that I first checked with my Tutor to be sure that it would be acceptable.

My idea is to explore the question of my identity,  how is my identity seen from other peoples perspective?

I have asked a couple of close friends and family to write a frank and honest assessment of my character and from these assessments I will extract ideas for creating images that represent Shaun Mullins as regarded by others.

My first assessment is from my father, Barrie Mullins.

Having been given my character assessment from my father, I started to jot down some thoughts and ideas.   Having read it through several times I divided the text into subject matter to develop.

With these thoughts I narrowed it down to three subjects to use from my father’s assessment and began to think about what each can represent.

And looked again at the text and how my chosen subjects are used in context to my fathers narrative.

‘High ability’ (“when he wishes to exercise it.”)

‘He appears to denigrate any achievements’

‘A man that one would trust’

I now began to sketch and jot down ideas.

I made the decision to work in black-and-white for this assignment and as these are ‘self-portraits,  I felt that it was more appropriate and perhaps stronger for the composition if the are all framed in a portrait format.

My first attempt was for ‘High ability’ with an idea that immediately came to me and I quickly made it without bothering to sketch it first.

However, I felt that it didn’t link to my father’s text, nor was it strong enough symbolically.  I also decided that I want to make self-portrait styled pictures that only imply my presence with at most say only a hand, a shadow or just a part of my body, etc.

This was my next attempt; but I still felt that it didn’t convey the message of ‘High ability’.  Moreover, perhaps even my father’s face was not necessary either.  I moved on to another shot I had properly planned with a sketch.

This shot is for the last image, ‘A man that one would trust’.  My father is 87 and I thought about how this suggestion of trust could be manifested in an image linking my father and it occurred to me that giving my father a helping hand might work and this is the image I had in mind and I think it works.

My next image that I took was another attempt at ‘High ability’

However, I felt that this image still wasn’t strong enough and my wife didn’t like it either although she felt that the image of Sir Edmond Hillary conquering Everest was a strong symbol; so I had to organize a re-shoot with my father.  Unfortunately, despite his keenness to help, his patience is very short and due to his age he tires very easily and quickly; so he was quit challenging to work with, particularly when some of the shots I needed were challenging to make particularly as I had restricted myself to a portrait format.

During this same shoot, I also attempted to get an image for ‘He appears to denigrate any achievements’.  But again I felt that this just didn’t work.

On our next session together I had re-planned and the results for the two needed images I believe are now much stronger and meet the requirements that I was looking for.

This image is to represent ‘He appears to denigrate any achievements’ and I felt I needed to contrast praise with denial / refusal and I had the idea of simply my father clapping and with myself holding out my hands asking him to stop.  I really only wanted the hands to symbolism the sentiment, this proved more tricky that first thought and when I tried to sketch my mental idea I struggled.  I turned to my camera and fitting it to my tripod and tethering to a computer to see what the camera was seeing I tried different ways of composing the image.  In the end I decided to lay the camera of the ground looking up whilst still tethered to my lap-top in order to see and compose and take the picture.  With my father this still took over an hour to do and in the end I had to merge two photos together in Photoshop to get the desired combined poses in one image.  My kitchen skylight worked to provide a nice blank background with a faint cross which is the frame of the pyramid skylight that also is a nice subtle addition to the image.  Also, my fathers hands in the act of applauding with my own hands out stretched to ask him to stop appears to mimic the faint cross in the skylight.

By the time I had made some useful images for ‘He appears to denigrate any achievements’ my father was very tired; but my last image was fairly straightforward and easy to make as I could hold the camera in my hand and take the shot over my father’s shoulder for this image of my father holding a photo of Sir Edmond Hillary with my British and American Private Pilot’s Licences that he refers to in his assessment.

I now believe that I have three images that now work and link effectively to my fathers text creating a visual narrative.  One or two of my images may be considered strong enough to stand alone; but they all clearly gain strength as a visual narrative when seen together and are linked to the text.

Barrie Mullins, “He is a man of high ability when he wishes to exercise it.”

Barrie Mullins, “Despite success in life and work…….he appears to denigrate any achievements.”

Barrie Mullins,”A man that one would rely on and trust protecting one’s back in this dangerous world.”

I have decided to only use the second and third images in my final presentation.

Assignment III – Self-Portrait

A self-portrait of Shaun Mullins as regarded by others

Friend – Carol: “Oxford concise dictionary definition – Personality – the characteristic way in which a particular individual think’s, feels and behaves.  It embraces a person’s moods, attitudes and opinions and is most clearly expressed in interaction with other people.

Friend – Carol: “Committed, Determined, Dogged, Driven, Focussed, Fixated, Interested, Passionate, Pedantic”

My father – Barrie: “He is a man of high ability when he wishes to exercise it.”

Friend – Graham: “When you take on a task, you determine to complete it.”

My wife – Sarah:  “Is self-reflective and keen to learn.”

My father – Barrie:  “Despite success in life and work his confidence has a hard job to keep pace and instead of celebrating (boasting even) he appears to denigrate any achievements.  Always under selling himself it appears.”

My wife – Sarah:   “Can suffer from low morale at times which has a tendency to make him morose and negative however, is easily coaxed out of himself.”

My wife – Sarah:   “A true animal lover who responds well to animals as they do to him.”

Friend – Carol:  “Pedantic, Passionate, Fervent, Enthusiastic,”

Friend – Graham:   “Your primary weakness is communication – Think about what you want to say, before you open your mouth. Keep your anecdotes SHORT.  – People like to be entertained…but they don’t need and cannot absorb unnecessary detail. – You haven’t yet learned the value of silence.”

Friend – Carol:  “Interested”

Friend – Graham:   “Don’t stand too close to people, when you speak to them. Women, in particular, find this threatening and unpleasant.”

My wife – Sarah:  “Is generally of a cheerful disposition and is for the most part positive.”

My wife – Sarah:  “Is friendly and enjoys company but can also be quite a private person who doesn’t like to share his inner thoughts and feelings.”

Friend – Carol:  “Conscientious, Courteous, Loyal, Staunch, Steady, Reasoning”

My father – Barrie:  “A man that one would rely on and trust protecting one’s back in this dangerous world.”

Friend – Graham:  “You are loyal and reliable.”

My wife – Sarah:   “Gentle natured, sensitive to the needs of others. – Passionate about justice, has a strong moral code – Is fiercely loyal. – A generous disposition and shares with others.”

Friend – Carol: “Reasoning, Measured, Pedantic, Serious, Stubborn, Single-minded, Cynical, Sardonic, Questioning.”

My wife – Sarah: “Is patient but doesn’t suffer fools.”

My father – Barrie: “Socially he is very discerning of people in general, which in one sense is good, but he does not suffer fools gladly and appears to have little compassion for the frailties in many, if not most of mankind.”

Friend – Graham: “You have high moral principles and you stick to them…sometimes too stubbornly…the world is not black and white.  But you are extremely trustworthy.”

 

Surrey Artists

Emelyn Hill – Surrey Artist.

 

Yesterday, whilst out taking a walk with my wife, we paid a visit to an art exhibition being held by one of our neighbors who is currently taking part in a County wide art festival of open studios (Surrey Open Studios).

The artist’s studio that we visited belonged to Emilyn Hill.  By coincidence, I knew this lady through my dog walking; but hadn’t known until now that she was an artist.  Her work is very good and very interesting.  Influenced by surrealism and cubism she has done a lot of work turning famous painting in to three-dimensional sculpture then re-arranging it and re-painting it.  Her work is very varied as can see from free her brochure and postcard.  Sadly she is now in late stages of MS which is restricting her physical abilities; but she is still working, producing smaller pictures and painting on to furniture.

my wife and I both agreed that Emilyn Hill’s work was truly inspiring.

 

Art and Photography

I have just finished reading this book which was on my courses list for recommended reading.  Art and Photography has been edited by David Campany, published by Phaidon and covers the subject of contemporary photographic art from mainly the 1960s till the late 1990s.   Campany has divided the book in to topics:  Memories and Archives; Object object; Traces of Traces; The Urban and the Everyday; The Studio Image; The Arts of Reproduction; Just Looking; The Cultures of Nature.  He begins his book by explaining what he means for each topic title with the theory and history.  When I started to read this book I had read half way through this introduction section before I realized that it was best to read each part of the Introduction section along with the topic chapter itself as much of the introduction was referring to photos found in the relevant section in the book and reading the intro in conjunction with the section made more sense.  Some of the artists are illustrated and discussed two or three times in different topical sections dependent if their work has crossed over.

A useful book for consulting for ideas and for reference.

Photography a Concise History

I have just finished reading this book Photography a Concise History by Ian Jeffrey, published by Thames and Hudson.  ISBN: 0-500-20187-0.  This book was first published in 1981; so the history only goes up as fay as 1979 and is typically biased towards black-and-white images.  I guess partly due to the attitude towards colour photography at that time and also most amateurs and artists who may be reading this book would have predominately been working in black-and-white anyway.  Jeffrey sums up in the last lines of his book that he felt that American photographers were producing more diverse and interesting imagery than their European cousins at that time (1970s).

Interesting book for timeline of development of photography for mainly Europe and America the rest of the world is hardly mentioned.  Early images are linked to the technical development of photography but this thread appears to be is lost by the 1920s and the development of the Leica.  However, very little is mentioned about Japan’s development of cameras or examples of artists work using any.  Interestingly by the time this book went to print most professional and amateurs were all using Japanese cameras.

A book to keep for reference.

Exercise – Analysis of an advertisement image.

This is an advertisement that I scanned from Home and Antique magazine, published November 2015.  It is an advertisement for a wood-burning heater / stove which is at present a popular and trendy home accessory.  This image has been made in colour with what appears to be a warm colour temperature balance.

To the left we have our product the stove, in use, with a stack of neatly cut and arranged logs underneath providing an interesting design what otherwise would be an empty space under the stove and implies convenient and useful storage.  The stove’s chrome handle has been set at a slight angle; so as to be easily seen to imply ease of access  to the stove for adding additional fuel.  The stove stands against a grey wall that contrasts the warm orange and yellows of the flames with the cold but elegantly stylish grey coloured wall.

To the right of the stove we see a record-playing turntable on a small table that visually links the product with an idea of a modern fashion for the Retro and this message is re-enforced by the male subject who appears to be sitting on the floor with a pair of stereo headphones around his neck and a vinyl LP in his hands.  The vinyl record he holds is also a visual reference to the advertisement’s text referring to the ‘Crackle’ and Pop in the anchoring text along with the reference to ‘soundtrack’ and ‘sound from a real fire’.

The text helps to bring together all of these elements in to the audiences psyche.  The manufacturer appears to have carefully composed this image to suggest that their customers are connoisseurs of good taste and by owning their product they have added value and quality to their home and standard of living.  The use of the record player and LP helps to advertise a feature of their product that they believe to be a strength but can not easily be conveyed by either photo or text which is the gentle sound of the burning logs that would can enjoyed as background noise to a warm and cosy room.

This composition was created for the audience that would typically buy this magazine, an affluent middleclass customer who would have an interest in this type of product to complement their taste in antiques and the retro.  The advert also suggest a younger customer, perhaps one that will be spending their money on home improvements.