PPR #2

PPR #2

Today I had my 2nd PPR, this time it was with Julian Hawkins. This was a very quick chat because Julian was running behind. Below is a summary of points from the talk.

• Other Sports

Image: Mark Pain

I said to Julian the only thing I’m struggling with is finding work experience. I said I was pleased with the experience I’d gained standing in for Tony Mitchell, but I need something to fill the void when the football season isn’t on. To which Julian agreed and suggested that I find other sports to cover. Summer sports like cricket, tennis, rounders, athletics, bowls, horse racing etc. Not only will this fill my time but this will let me develop new skills that other sports throw up.

• Counterculture Sports

Image: Tom Miles

Julian also felt that I should spend time documenting sports that aren’t mainstream, sports which you don’t expect much or at all on TV, so BMX or Parkour. Parkour can be both candid and staged. Another sport I thought of is obstacle course/fun runs.

• Work Experience

One thing I was nervous about but willing to chat about was a work experience placement over the summer. Julian felt that a placement on a picture desk or picture editor would be beneficial so he recommended newspapers like the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Times. I also mentioned to Julian that my mum is friends with the photographer at Sotherbys so I said even though this is a different industry to mine, should I enquire about a week or two week placement, to which Julian said I should.

It was also recommended that I look into photo-agencies or maybe even photo agents and that leads onto the next aspect:

• Advertsing

Image: Ope O

Julian mentioning to me about the chances of me considering advertising photography. I said it isn’t an area I gave much thought for but I do know it is where the money is in photography. Julian said the best way to break into advertising/commercial photography is by contacting agents of photographers. Agents only seem to be involved in advertising.

• Looking Professional

In the 2nd year, I’m going to be shoot a lot on Phase One and theres gonna be loads of location and studio shoots where models will be needed. So I’m gonna need my website and good social media feeds to show agencies that I’m kosher and help me with getting reliable models for my shoots. We were also recommended to avoid finding models through social media because we don’t want to be let down.

• Phase One

As mentioned we have loads of medium format shooting coming up in 2nd Year and because we have the POCP as well it’s been recommended that we prepare for it, there are refreshers in June that Ravensbourne are running with Flash Centre. I’m also attending a work shop next week with ex Flash Centre employee Al Simmons. This should put me in a good place for the POCP come January 2019.

Change of Direction

Change of Direction

Last week I had a discussion about my essay with one of the tutors.

My tutor felt that I should look at my topic from a completely different angle. I’m looking at how camera phones are taking over from DSLR’s. Essentially photography is coming more about technology.

When in reality it is about the person behind it. We’re commissioned because of our personal style, this is created by us, not our cameras.

So my artefact is still the ELLE Australia front cover which started this sway of mobile photography, however I’m ultimately trying to say that photography is all about the personal input, not the technology. After all Ken Rockwell said

“Photography is the power of observation, not the application of technology”

Contextual Studies Tutorial

Contextual Studies Tutorial

Below are the notes that I took from my tutorial and my group in contextual studies on Wednesday.

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In summary, I need to narrow down my artefact. The camera phone is very broad. It is used by both professionals and amateurs. I need to narrow down my artefact. I put it as “I need to focus on the camera phone as a professional camera”

So my artefact is going to be one of the front covers I used as my preliminary research. This Elle Australia front cover was the first one to be shot on an iPhone. So this kicked off the new era of photography

However the Times front covers have turned into a series and there seems to be an article about the back story and the process of these images.

My Artefact

My Artefact

I’ve decided that the artefact for my report will be the camera phone. There is no doubt that in the last 15/20 years. The advances have been astonishing. The first digital camera had a 1.3 mega-pixel sensor. We now have starter cameras at 18-20 megapixels. Some consumer cameras go up to 50 mega-pixels. We have professional camera that are surpassing 100 MP’s

But like every advance, something else advances. Gun use has led to advances in surgical procedures. Car crashes in F1 has led to traction control. The digital photography boom has led to the rise of it’s rival. The camera phone.

In 2000, the first camera phone had 0.35 mega pixels. We now have smart-phones that shoot 16 mega-pixels. Thats similar to entry-level DSLR’s. We’re seeing images which have been captured on phones which we expected to be captured on pro-cameras. Unfortunately this is de-valuing a photographer and inevitably putting us out of business.

 

Preliminary Research:

December 2016. Sports Illustrated front cover was shot with a Samsung.

 

 

 

September 2017. Times Covers of Hillary Clinton and Selina Gomez was shot with an iPhone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2018. My friend drove to Herne Bay to take some images and videos of a car accident for the local press. The images we’re edited, captioned and sent out. He missed the publication. Because someone sent in an image taken on a camera phone.

Sex Sells

Sex Sells

WARNING: Explicit Content

Below is a summary of the contextual studies talks all about sexual objectification.

We’re currently in a hot discussion about gender inequality. The gender pay gap. One area where there is massive inequality is representation in the creative industry, especially in advertising. Woman are constantly exploited for sex appeal and shown as objects.

This advert is a perfect case in point. Eva Herzigova is a model who is wearing lace lingerie with a caption of “Hello Boys” while staring at her pair of breasts. She seems to be frozen while moving in a sexual manner.

 

 

 

This below is the response to the Wonderbra advert.

 

 

 

Sex appeal is used to gain attention, to catch-our-eye. This is a publicity stunt where a naked Gail Porter was projected onto the Houses Of Parliament to promote a magazine poll to find the world’s 100 sexiest women. A spokesperson for FHM said “We want to up the voting frenzy for the poll and what better way than to put a nude Gail Porter on the Houses of Parliament. It is a cheeky way of increasing interest“. BBC Article

This is an ad campaign which was shot by infamous photographer Terry Richardson who has had 44,954 signatures on a petition calling from him being boycotted by companies. He is an alleged sex offender and has previously been black-listed from several companies due to allegations against him. This campaign for Tom Fords latest perfume is essentially saying if you use out perfume you will get sex in return. This is told by the bootle being placed over the vagina, in the cleavage [with the women looking like she’s having fun] and finally she will “spread her legs”.

Mentioning on from Terry Richardson. There was one photo-shoot with Kate Moss where she is wearing a pair of bikini bottoms [breast exposed] and Terry Richardson is wearing nothing. He is stark naked. He says “I don’t ask my subjects to do anything I wouldn’t be prepared to do”

This image shot by Helmut Newton is another example of sex appeal. We have a man in a suit [possible rich] in a very classy room. With two women in black silk stockings. This is shot in Paris. Maybe there both prostitutes. Once again these women are being viewed as objects. Notice how the two women are holding hands. There vulnerable, nervous, trying to help each other through it.

This is a very infamous series of Calvin Klein commercials. These commercials shot in the 90s for Calvin Kleins latest jeans were banned. Most likely because of the narrator sounded like he was grooming the models. He sounds very creepy. He definitely sounds like he is talking down to the models. There is this sense of power that he has. It turns out the lines were staged and deliberate.

Idea

Idea

Last week was my first lesson of contextual studies. This post is a summary of an idea I’ve had in my head for my report/paper.

This one of the best and one of the worst times to be a photographer. Cameras are accessible, Digital has brought photography to the masses. Not only is it available the quality has improved ten fold.

 

 

Another great and terrible thing for digital photography is phones. Phone now have cameras which if used properly, can rival images taken on a starter DSLR. We are getting cover images of Fashion magazines which have been shot on the latest iPhone. One very famous example of this advances in technology is an that a random person Karen Anvil took with her phone. On her phone of Prince Harry with his finance Megan Markel alonge with Prince William and Kate Middleton. This image was used by many media outlets and papers.

To which in many peoples eyes Anvil was exploited by the Mail for not being a photographer. The Mail Online paid her £50 to use the image. The Mail used it as a front cover. These are two different companies. So technically the Daily Mail stole the image. From what I’ve heard about the paper in the past, me and my friends aren’t surprised by this. This image beat PA and Getty to the front cover because it was the only image with all four smiling.

 

The Huawei series of phones that I use have a professional camera mode where you can control aperture, shutter speed, ISO etc. like a camera.

 

 

 

Ultimalitly this idea is exploring how the photographic industry has changed thanks to the digital age and the mobile phone. Has it enhanced, or destroyed the industry.