One Square Mile: Evaluation

When I was writing my proposal I wrote that I wanted my photographs to start in the centre of Bradford and to take my first photographs on a bus whilst picking someone who was on their journey home but also looked interesting to photograph and then follow them as they got off the bus till they got to their house. But this doesn't document a square mile it only documents someone's bus journey then the distance to their home, I don't think I thought it out as much as I should have. But anyway I decided to try my idea out and this was my first photo shoot which were the test shots. I started to photograph from just outside the Bradford interchange and as I knew my model I got my subject to pose for me at times and then I asked him to keep on walking and I took photographs. I decided to use these photographs for my final images because I thought they were good. 

When it came to photographing other people I started off in the interchange and saw a woman with her child and they were rushing to go somewhere I started to photograph them because they seemed interesting, I managed to get a few good shots before I lost them. I kept walking on even though I'd lost them and soon found an elderly man with carrier bags and started to photograph him. As he was walking quite slow I had enough time to take many photographs but it wasn't until after 5 minutes I realised he was with his family which made the photographs even better. Even though he was with company my focus was still him not them. They stopped for something to eat and I was stood behind them pretending that I was looking at the menu. I then photographed them as they sat down on a bench and started eating at this point I had walked around them and still took photographs which they didn't notice. I don't think they knew I was photographing them but after they went into a shop I decided to move onto another person as I felt I had enough photographs and had followed them for a while. 

My next subject was another elderly man and I had seen him shortly after the first elderly man with his family. I didn't feel any danger photographing him because he seemed like a sweet old man and whilst I was following him he went into a shopping centre which I followed. I was right behind him and I took a photograph of him I was worried he might turn around because he might have heard my camera's shutter but he didn't he just carried on walking. After we left the shopping centre he went into lots of charity shops zig zagging across the street always looking never buying. I decided to stop photographing him and head home at this point. 

The cold didn't bother me and neither did people staring at me because I had something to do and I knew I had to so I took my mind off the cold and focused on people I also had my grandma with me because I didn't want to be alone whilst following people incase any trouble occurred. There was probably many other interesting people I could have photographed but I didn't really want to photograph young people especially girls in case they did get angry which is a terrifying thought. Some people don't like to be photographed and I respect that and that is why I tried to not photograph their face and if I did accidently then that photograph would not have used in my final images. 

Going back to my proposal I wanted people to take me in different directions of the square mile which I don't think happened I think I started off in one place and it took me to another place on a little walk. Which I did mention in my proposal saying ''After much thought I had another idea to photograph different people but instead of having all the same photographs documenting their journey on a bus to their house I would take for example 4 sets of photographs including one person (one set) walking to the bus station and another person (seconds set) to be inside the bus station walking to their bus stand and getting on their bus then another person (third set) being on the bus then getting off at a bus stop, finally one last person (fourth set) to be getting off the bus and then walking to their home.'' Even though the order of my photographs haven't turned out like that they are similar which was unintentional even though I wanted to do it. My photographs go in the order of being in one part of Bradford town, going inside the shopping centre, going to charity shops, going inside another shopping centre and then ending up in the interchange.  That could be someone's shopping trip in a day that I have managed to capture by different people. 

I think my photographs have managed to communicate a square mile not just in people's activities and interests but also the shops that are in Bradford. I didn't get all the shops in Bradford but I showed the shops that my subjects go to. 

I admit when I was first handed the project I was dreading it because I had absolutely no clue what to do and I tried not to rush myself into thinking of an idea so I could stop worrying and instead my idea came to me. I am very pleased with my work because I have learnt I can take quick photographs in the moment which when I was reviewing the street photography lesson I said it was difficult because it was so quick. I think that lesson was difficult for me because I hadn't had that much practice on it because I'm shy when it comes to photographing strangers. But when it came to taking my photographs it came naturally and easily to me instead of panicking. 

I didn't realise when I was taking my photographs but after when looking at them that I had used leading lines in many of the photographs which I was pleased with, it adds to my composition which follows the rule of thirds but also adding more focus to the subjects. From my photographers research they took their photographs in black and white which was something I wanted to replicate on all my images as well not in camera but in post production. I decided that I didn't want to have my images fully black and white because it makes photographs look flat and uninteresting. So I experimented with the saturation and found that when I had my images on -75% they had a dull black and white tone to them but there was still some colour coming through which made my images seem 3D, they looked like they were alive instead of looking flat and dead if they were fully black and white.

I wouldn't do anything differently if I had to because there was nothing that I disliked. It was a very good project. 

Conceptual Portraiture

We were asked what is Fashion Photography? 

Here are some suggestions we came up with:

• Advertising/Commercial
• Showing a lifestyle
• Posed and Set up... Sometimes not
• Glamorous 
• Communication / Propaganda
• Artificial 
• Celebrities

But there is no such thing as fashion photography it is categorised as portraiture photography. 

Tim Walker's fascination for photography started when he worked on Cecil Beaton's (also another fashion photographer) archive as work experience before attending university. After graduating he worked as a freelance photography assistant then moved to New York working as a full-time assistant to Richard Avedon. When he returned to England his attention was focused on portrait and documentary work for UK newspapers and then shot his first fashion story at 25 for vogue. Tim walker is best known for his larger than life sized props. 

I chose these three photographs out of many of his works because they show how much effort and hard work is put into each photograph.

Tim Walker's photographs push boundaries because he has an enormous idea and then has to convey his idea to his crew set such as hair and make-up artists, fashion stylists/ costume fitters,  set designers and builders to build his life sized creations but also to the models who will be involved.

Nick Knight produced his first book whilst being a student at Bournemouth. Nick was then asked to photograph a series of portraits for i-D magazines 5th anniversary issue which then led to Marc Ascoli liking his images so much that he hired Nick Knight to shoot Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto's catalogue. This was his first fashion photography and since then has worked for many recognizable agencies such as Swarovski, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and many more. 

Nick Knight's work pushes boundaries because it may look like a lot of post production work is done for his images such as adding bits to the photograph but he does it mainly in camera for example the photograph of the lady with two circles of light on her, this photograph was produced by having two lights focused on her and having the rest in shadow. 

Another reason why Nick Knight's work pushes boundaries is because he pushes technology but embraces it he can explore more possibilities and the structures of a photograph.

David Bailey  started off as a photographic assistant at the John French studio and a photographer for John Cole's Studio. Then he was hired as a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine in 1960. During the 60's David Bailey, Terence Donovan and Brian Duffy created 'Swinging London' which captured the different cultures. The three photographers were known as the black trinity as they socialised with royalty, actors and even musicians which heightened their status as celebrities. 

The "Swinging London" scene was reflected in his Box of Pin-Ups pictures of 1960s celebrities including The Beatles, Mick Jagger, Jean Shrimpton, Andy Warhol and even the East End gangsters the Kray twins. 

 

David Bailey pushes boundaries because instead of photographing the clothes he captures the personalities and the characters of his subjects. 

One Square Mile: Final Images

My final images for One Square Mile. 

One Square Mile: Editing Images

To edit down my images I looked through all the photographs I took and then wrote down the names of all the images I liked. From those images I viewed them all again and crossed out the ones I didn't like until I ended up with the same amount of photographs for each person that I photographed. 

I wanted at least 5 photographs for each but no more than 10 but after taking my test shots we were asked to show our best 5 images but I couldn't choose exactly 5 I had chosen 8 to show. From those 8 images I then decided that was how many photographs each person would have. 

It was hard to edit down to just 8 images for some because I had taken over 45 images per shoot and I liked quite a lot of photographs. 

One Square Mile: Shoot 2 & 3

My second photo shoot was on the 24th of November. My location was Bradford Town on a Saturday around 1 O clock as that is when most people go to do some shopping or meet with their friends and in general Bradford town is most busy. 
I wasn't photographing someone I knew this time, I decide to follow someone from the Bradford Interchange and photograph them along their journey. 
I also decided not to be alone when photographing people in case any trouble arose such as people not liking me taking photographs of them and then telling me off. Luckily no one did.  

I decided to take my photographs in the style of all the people I researched such as Sophie Calle for following the people for ages and photographing the sucjects when they go into shops, Sally Mann for centering her subjects to add more focus but also Geneva Wrona for hiding the subject and letting people find the person.

 

Here are my final images that have all been edited in the same way - turning the saturation down to -75%.
I noticed that when I was desaturating my images that images taken inside were not the same tone as the outside so I had to desaturate them more. 

Person 1

Person 2

Person 3

My third photo shoot was on Wednesday the 28th of November. Again I started to take my photographs in Bradford but I decided to follow my grandma around instead of following another stranger. I also chose to photograph someone I knew to balance the amount of people I had photographed for example 2 strangers and 2 people I knew. 

Editing process:

As these images had already been desaturated by -75 I also desaturated them some more. For the man I desaturated his images inside by -26 and for the lady I desaturated hers by -20 although on one photograph I had to do it at -33 because it still wasn't the same tone as the others. 

Here are my contact sheets from both my photo shoots.