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Final 10 images

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Essay

In this essay, I will be comparing two photographers one contemporary and one historic.

Richard Avedon and John Rankin Waddell (more commonly known as Rankin) have many similarities in their work and have also done many of the same things during their careers; this is not to say that there are no differences though. During this essay, I am going to try to compare both the photographic work and the careers of two photographers. To do this I have researched both photographers, I have researched their lives and careers and their images. I have looked at similarities and differences in the photographer’s work, in style, composition, elements and equipment. For my research, I have used a mixture of books and the internet (using websites, online interviews, biographies and news articles) which are all secondary sources of information. A brief background of the chosen photographers Avedon was born in New York City, America in 1923. In 1942 after a short time at University Avedon dropped out to join the U.S Merchant Marine to study photography, he left in 1944 and began working as a professional photographer in a department store. Within a year Avedon had been spotted by an art director and was working as a staff photographer for Harper’s bazaar magazine. This was the start of a very busy and fulfilled photography career for Avedon which went on until his death in 2004 at the age of 81. Rankin was born in 1966 in Paisley, Scotland but was brought up in Hertfordshire, England. After being expelled from school Rankin tried studying Accountancy for a short while, realising this is not what he wanted to do he went on to study photography at London College of Printing. In 1991, he left college to go on and form 'Dazed & Confused' magazine with his friend Jefferson Hack. This was the beginning of Rankin's career. Fashion Avedon always had an interest in Fashion and this was no surprise given that his Father owned a department store in Manhattan and he regularly had magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and Vanity Fair delivered to their family home. Reading through magazines such as these gave Avedon the desire to try to recreate these images which were taken by photographers such as Steichen, Man Ray and Munkasci. Avedon started producing his own photos using a Kodak Box Brownie camera and using his younger sister as a model. 'When Avedon became a professional fashion photographer, fashion models were not public celebrities, their work had no prestige, and their names were not generally known' (Avedon and Hollander: 2005: p238) This is a big difference between Avedon and Rankin. When shooting fashion, it has always been common for Rankin to use famous models, this is not only due to choose but also due to a change in times. Fashion photography in the 1940s, when Avedon started out his photography career was different in many more ways than the fame or popularity of the models. Avedon created a name for himself within the industry by injecting life and colour into fashion photography that hadn't really been done before. His portraits contained smiles, laughter and action which completely went against the norm in photography for this period. This is something that obviously influenced Rankin and can still be seen in his work today. Images by both are usually very minimalist and clean looking. The first image is by Avedon and was used by Vogue for the front cover and the second is by Rankin. Portraits Avedon had always had an interest in portraiture and a unique way of doing it. When taking portraits of people Avedon used to talk about uncomfortable subjects and asked them very probing questions. This caused reactions that gave Avedon a raw view of people that wasn’t very often caught by others. His style was very detectable from the subject posing in front of a plain white background and looking directly into the camera. All the pictures were very minimalistic and almost clinical looking. In 1985, he held an exhibition called 'American West'; the exhibition consisted of 125 photos that he had taken between 1979 and 1984, he had photographed drifters, miners, cowboys and many other from the western United States. Avedon was attracted to working people and teenagers growing up in the west. This went on to be published as a book and even though it was criticised at the time from people saying it was giving a bad impression of America it is still seen today as a hugely important hallmark of 20th Century portrait photography. Most of Rankin's portraits are done with the same look of plain white background and the subject looking squarely into the camera. Rankin also has a way of bringing something very personal to his portraits and has a skill of really reflecting the model’s personality in the image but done in a different way to which Avedon did, usually by applying a quirky prop or pose. Examples of their portraits are below; the first is by Avedon and the second by Rankin. Documentary Avedon's portraits from the 'American West' exhibition are of a documentary style, the pictures are documenting the west of the United States the years of 1979 and 1981. Avedon was interested in showing the real people of this area and time, he chose to photograph workers such as oil field workers and miners in their dirty work gear. He also photographed unemployed travellers and teenagers that were growing up here. In 2008 Rankin, with Oxfam, did his own documentary photography exhibition entitled Cheka Kidogo. For this exhibition, travelling to the Democratic Republic of Congo in June 2008, Rankin took photos of people that were now living in refugee camps due to fleeing conflict in area. The exhibition was to show the reality and draw attention back to the forgotten conflict of the country. Rankin then donated all the profits from his 'Rankin Live' exhibition to Oxfam. Even though there aren't many visual similarities between the two sets of photos, there is a big likeness in the reason behind both and what the photographers wanted to show with them. The main reason for both exhibitions is to show the reality of living in a certain place and time and then the life that this then creates for people. Both tried to capture and show the lives of their subjects through the people in their portraits. Erotica Both Avedon and Rankin have shot an Erotica collection. Even though Rankins seems to be a lot more extensive, you can still the similarities and influences from Avedon's work. In the pictures below you can see that the similarities are that of composition, colour, contrast and style. On the below image, you can see that Rankin has also added his own style to the picture with the way he has lit the shot and the addition of the snake. Avedon's image is also very flat compared to Rankin's image. The first is by Avedon, 1992, and the second by Rankin, 2007 A large amount of Rankin's recent work falls into the Erotica category. He has published a book that is predominantly of this nature featuring Tuuli Shipster, who was previously his muse but is now his wife. The book is a collection of erotic images of her that he has entitled 'A Photographic Love Letter'. Rankin has also published other books that contain more of his erotic images, probably his most famous one being called 'Cheeky', in 2002 he has released a book called 'Sofa Sexy' which is slightly more adventurous and daring than his other erotica work. Colour Due to the time, a lot of Avedon's photos are black and white but even as time went on and colour photography became much more desirable and available, Avedon still shot much of his personal work in black and white. This doesn't mean that he never used colour though, quite the opposite, when shooting for fashion magazines during the 60s and 70s Avedon experimented a lot with colour photography. Avedon's long relationship with fashion magazine 'Harper’s Bazaar' allowed him to try out colour as much as - or more than - any experimental photographer of the period. His palette derived from trendy colours of the time, including hot pink, which helped spread the colours through the clothing and cosmetics industry. (Marien: 2006: p354) Rankin does occasionally produce black and white pictures but most of his work tends to be in quite vivid colour. Both photographers produced a lot of portraits on white backgrounds. Even though one uses mainly colour photography and the other black and white both generally produce very high contrast, high key pictures. Rankin - 7 photographs that changed fashion For a BBC documentary Rankin tried to recreate what he thought were the 7 photographs that changed fashion. The photos were originally taken by photographers that had influenced and inspired him such as, Herb Ritts, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, David Bailey, Erwin Blumenfeld, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon. During the program Rankins goal is to expose the ways in which fashion photography uses fantasy and beauty to communicate something about reality. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gq75c) For one of the seven photographs Rankin recreated Avedon’s 1955 Dovima With Elephants for this he used model Erin O’Connor. He said he chose her for her tall frame and demeanour; this obviously matched that of model Dovima that Avedon had used for his image. Rankin produced the image in colour unlike Avedon’s original that was black and white. Even though Rankin produced a very good image I don’t think he managed to capture the atmosphere that Avedon did in his image. During the BBC documentary Rankin said about Avedon, "Classic styling with energy and creative spirit. Daring, stylish and ambitious, his pictures reflected the optimism of 50s America and turned him into the first celebrity fashion photographer.  (BBC: 2009: The seven Photographs That Changed Fashion) Avedon - 1955 Rankin - 2008 Books and Magazines Both photographers have produced many books of their photography and many of Avedon’s have been produced after his death: Both photographers were heavily involved in magazines during their careers and both predominantly about fashion, whether it be working for one or publishing their own. At the very beginning of his career Rankin, in 1991, with his friend Jefferson Hack started magazine Dazed and Confused this is still very popular and widely sold throughout the world. This was only the start for Rankin and he has gone on to produce magazines such as, RANK, Another Magazine and Another Man. Avedon was Art Director for Harper’s Bazaar at the beginning of his career and worked for Vogue, Egoiste, The New Yorker and LIFE magazine.

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This is a contact sheet from a Dance show which my the Head of Creative Studies personally asked me to shoot this event. 

Unlike the Panto shoot I was a lot more successful when it came to the shoot. I now know the mistakes I made during the Panto shoot so when it came to this shoot I was more knowledgeable about the problems and I could easily fix them if any came up. Personally i’m much happier with this shoot as one I was more dependable and I feel  I got some great shots from the contact sheets.  

Health and safety:

1.Setting up. They’re so many little risks you need to be aware of when setting up a lighting kit. Make sure you put the soft box on carefully as one false move and you can brake the bulb. Put the wires out of the way so it’s less of a trip hazard. Also put the cables in the right slots so you don’t break the setup.

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Evaluation

For this assignment, I have explored a diverse range of studio equipment which I’ve learned new techniques and I’ve gathered a further understanding of the studio. Also, I’ve used a lighting kit which was a new experience for me and I now know how to set the kit up. The techniques we learned in the studio were low-key, gel lighting, basic lighting, projection, ring flash and backdrops. The first technique I used was the basic lighting, this was quite an easy task as I know how to set up the soft boxes and I’m confident in changing the settings to create different strengths of light.

The equipment I used were:

• Canon 5D mark 2 • Canon 5D mark 3 • Canon 24-105mm L lens • Canon EF 24-70mm lens • CF cards (2GB-32GB • SD cards (16GB-32GB • CF card reader • SD card reader • Soft box • Bowens honeycomb lights • Coloured gel sheets • Coloured backdrops • Chair • Stool • Sync kit • Outdoor Lighting kit • Studio   • Tripod • Flash triggers • Heavy duty pegs

Most of the equipment stated above ^ was already in the studio the only things I personally requested was the 5D body’s and the canon lenses. The reason I asked for this equipment is that it’s specialist kit which costs a lot of money but they’re high end products which have undeniable pixel quality and great capability in low light situations.   I encountered many problems while in the studio. For instance, some of the sync cables were broken which means I either had to find other cables or use a remote flash triggers.  The bulbs got very hot as was in the studio for quite a while on some occasions, luckily there was a fan in the studio which meant I could cool down the bulbs. Most of the time the studio was booked so it was hard to find dates to book the studio and sort out models as well but I feel that I managed plan dates successfully.

The two artists who influenced me were Jake Hicks and Julia Kuzmenko.  To be honest it was mainly Jake hicks who inspired me as his work is so charismatic and undeniably beautiful. The way he portrays his models in such an alluring way. Yes, I do believe that my images are related to both Jake and Julia’s work as they both very similar.

To be totally honest I’m not pleased with my final images. The reason being was that I struggled to find ten images the reason being I personally felt that my work wasn’t good enough to finalise. If I was to do this project again I would focus on two things: number one, I would book the studio more in advance so that I would have more time think about what I was going to shoot. Number two, I personally feel that my artist’s research could have been written in more detail as well. I believe these two things were a big problem throughout this assignment and will work on these problems for the next task.    

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Girl does both.

This is my contact sheet from one of my independent shoots.

Equipment:

Canon 5D mark 2

24-105mm L lens

soft boxes

studio

What didn’t go well:

Unfortunately my model was a lot taller than me, so whenever I went for a low angled shot I would get the top of the studio in the frame. Also halfway through shooting I noticed a black strip on the image, so sadly a lot of the photographs on the contact sheet but I did manage to find out what the problem was and rectify it.     

Health and Safety: 

1: Check all equipment is working and if anything is damaged report straight to a member of staff.

2: No eating or drinking in the studio.

3: Make sure that the wires are in a safe place.

4: When you’ve finished in the studio dump the power in soft boxes, turn off all lights, tidy up the studio, take out SD card or CF card and shut the door. 

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Gel shoot

This is my contact sheet from a gel shoot I shot.

Equipment:

Canon 5D mark 2

24-105mm lens

4GB CF card

Gel sheets

soft boxes

What went wrong:

Looking through the contact sheet I’ve realised that I put too much power in the soft box.  

Health and Safety:

1: Check all equipment is working and if anything is damaged report straight to a member of staff.

2: No eating or drinking in the studio.

3: Make sure that the wires are in a safe place.

4: When you’ve finished in the studio dump the power in soft boxes, turn off all lights, tidy up the studio, take out SD card or CF card and shut the door.

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Nadav Kander recreation. 

This is my contact sheet from the Nadav recreation. 

Equipment:

Canon 5D mark 2

24-105mm lens

soft box

4GB CF card

studio 

What went well:

I feel that I managed to recreate this image successfully in my interpretation.

What didn’t go well:

I feel that I should have spent more time on this shoot than I did.

Health and Safety:

1: Check all equipment is working and if anything is damaged report straight to a member of staff.

2: No eating or drinking in the studio.

3: Make sure that the wires are in a safe place.

4: When you’ve finished in the studio dump the power in soft boxes, turn off all lights, tidy up the studio, take out SD card or CF card and shut the door.

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Mario Testino recreation. 

This is my contact sheet from the Mario Testino recreation.

Equipment:

Canon 5D mark 2

24-105mm lens

soft boxes

studio

What didn’t go well:

Like the Kander the recreation, I should of shot more.

Health and Safety:

1: Check all equipment is working and if anything is damaged report straight to a member of staff.

2: No eating or drinking in the studio.

3: Make sure that the wires are in a safe place.

4: When you’ve finished in the studio dump the power in soft boxes, turn off all lights, tidy up the studio, take out SD card or CF card and shut the door.

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Bailey recreation

This is my contact sheet from the David Bailey recreation shoot.

Equipment:

Canon 5D mark 2

24-105mm lens

soft box 

studio

What went well:

I think the energy I brought to the shoot made the recreation successful. The reason I had so much energy was that David Bailey inspired me to do photography.

What didn’t go well:

The only I would have changed was the image setting from jpeg to raw.

Health and Safety:

1: Check all equipment is working and if anything is damaged report straight to a member of staff.

2: No eating or drinking in the studio.

3: Make sure that the wires are in a safe place.

4: When you’ve finished in the studio dump the power in soft boxes, turn off all lights, tidy up the studio, take out SD card or CF card and shut the door.

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Annie Leibovitz recreation. 

Annie Leibovitz recreation.

This is my contact Annie Leibovitz recreation shoot.

Equipment:

Canon 5D mark 2

24-105mm lens

soft boxes

studio

What didn’t go well:

I had massive problem with this shoot as one of the soft boxes wasn’t firing and sadly I wasn’t able to workout the problem.

Health and Safety:

1: Check all equipment is working and if anything is damaged report straight to a member of staff.

2: No eating or drinking in the studio.

3: Make sure that the wires are in a safe place.

4: When you’ve finished in the studio dump the power in soft boxes, turn off all lights, tidy up the studio, take out SD card or CF card and shut the door.

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These are my contact sheets from a Ring flash shoot which was lectured by Vinny. 

Equipment:

Canon 5d mark 3 

Ring flash 

24-105mm L lens

what went well:

To experiment with the power of the flash I compensated the manual settings to get a decent exposure. I had a variety of models which was great as I got different shapes and poses within the shoot.  

What didn’t go well:

I struggled to get the correct exposure when I asked my model to put her glasses on as every time I took a shot there was a green reflection on the lens of her glasses. This detracts from the image as you focus on the horrible green glare which destroys the image. Also I lost some detail on the girls hair as  I put a black back drop behind the models and they have dark hair which mean’t that their hair blends in with the background.    

Health and safety:

They’re a few health and safety aspects which will need addressing while using the ring flash setup.

1. the wiring. Make sure you setup up the ring flash correctly and ensure that it’s in a safe place so it’s less of a trip hazard.

2. Food and drink. There should be no eating or drinking in the studio as sometimes dangerous chemicals could be in the studio. 

3. Tidying up. Make sure when you’ve finished in the studio you clean up your mess, put everything back where you found it, turn off all the lights and lock the door behind. 

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This contact sheet is from a pantomime shoot that I was asked to do personally by the college. 

Kit used: Canon 5D mark 3, lighting kit, soft box and tripod. 

How the shoot went: Well the shoot didn’t go to plan at all as my colleague and I ran into a lot of problems. The first problem was that I didn’t realise that my camera was set to video mode, so that took me about five minutes to figure out. Then the remote triggers or cables weren’t syncing with the cameras, so I had to get a member of staff to help is fix it which took about 10-15 minutes and finally I couldn’t get the correct exposure. Which was really weird as I changed every setting possible, I changed the aperture, shutter speed, ISO and that still didn’t work so I went into the main menu to check if any of the settings had changed but sadly in the end I couldn’t figure it out. I have a few suspicions now of what may have happened but now i’m still now 100% sure how I came into these problems.        

Health and safety:

1.Setting up. They’re so many little risks you need to be aware of when setting up a lighting kit. Make sure you put the soft box on carefully as one false move and you can brake the bulb. Put the wires out of the way so it’s less of a trip hazard. Also put the cables in the right slots so you don’t break the setup.

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Nadav Kander

Nadav Kander shoots low-key portraits of famous people and models.

He titles his work very simplistically which is quite ironic as his images can be perceived as complex and elaborate.

All his work is from 1964- present. “When I was 13 I started taking pictures on a Pentax camera that I had bought thanks to my Bar Mitzvah, at which I remember the Rabbi had to ask me to bend down so as to put his hands on my head “. (https://www.nadavkander.com/biography)

I feel Kander’s work is about perfecting every fine little detail as from watching the documentary he stated that “I love printing in the darkroom and would spend hours in there dodging and burning prints.”    

Nadav Kander first became interested in photography as a boy growing up in South Africa. At the time, “photography was so much more a technical endeavour. You had to be on top of the craft element in order to make good work. I fell in love with these technical aspects before any notions of expression and art. It was the cameras, the beauty of the mechanics and how precise you had to be. For the first 25 years, I printed every single picture I ever took. This remains the bedrock of how I print on a computer.” (https://www.lensculture.com/articles/nadav-kander-advice-for-emerging-photographers-learning-from-nadav-kander)

His most recent works have been digitally manipulated as I saw his process of how he works in the studio by watching the documentary.

His image sizes do vary between shoots with different companies.

His work can be viewed in magazines, exhibitions and galleries.

I feel that Kander’s work is closely related to Leibovitz’s the reason being that they’ve similar styles when it comes to shooting portraiture.

Personally, I do like his work but I wouldn’t say I’m overly inspired by his work.

The work relates to the assignment as he is a portrait photographer who mainly works in the studio.

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Annie Leibovitz

Leibovitz mainly shoots fashion portraits now but back in the 70’s she was more of a documentary photographer.

In my opinion I’m not sure if she titles her work as she dosen’t have her own website or instagram. This is probably down to the fact she works for specific magazines etc. However, she has sections on websites dedicated to her with titles but I don’t belive that shes titled them.

She started working for the Rolling Stones magazine in 73, where she bacame part of the furiture throwing herself into the life style of the rich and famous of the time, whilst documenting ‘everything’ ! Ten years later she left and joined Vanity Fair again becoming emersed in her roll and producing some iconic images of the time. She still continues to be highly regarded and works to this very day at the age of 68.

I believe her work is about capturing the essence of pop culture at that time point. She is the type of woman to treat her work life the same as spending time with her family.”The camera was another member of the family” She was left to her own devices, never given a brief and documented everything. Always wanting to improve an take it to the next level.

Her current images have been digitally manipulated to fit the magazines specification of size, quality and lighting. She has her own editor that manipulates the work for her.

Her image sizes vary on what shoot shes on and who she’s working for.

Leibovitz images could be viewed originally in popular magazines of the times. She has ben written about many times on popular websites and her work has been put in many exhibitions.

She was influenced by everything that was happening around her as to be a great documentary photographer you have to be inspired by whats round you to really convey the story you’re telling.

Her work reminds me of Nadav Kander as I feel that they’ve got a similar style when it comes to their portraits.

Personally I do like Annie’s as to me it screams sophistication, the reason I feel that is because she’s got the models to pose in such a way the model feels tailored to the photograph. I’m obviously inspired to reach the status she’s achieved in the photographical world but I wouldn’t really say I’m inspired to recreate her work.  

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Ring Flash Photography

 A ring flash is a circle of light flashing on your subject to highlight certain areas or bring out persons eyes in portraiture. A lot of professional photographers use it when photographing models from a distance. It really enhances the quality of photographs and you can create amazing exposures with the flash. It’s more of a professional tool as you have to experiment with it to truly understand how it works fully.

Ring flash is typically used by party photographers, photo booth shooters, and fashion photographers. The method is loved by many models and many photographers as well. However, today’s fashion trends emphasize more of a use of direct flash vs ring flash to give off hard shadows behind the subject. It is something that was made famous by photographers like Terry Richardson.

Personally I like the ring flash as it creates a cool effect on the exposure. It’s a great tool to use for portraiture and I may even invest in the future.

(last year’s work)

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Jake Hicks

What style are the photographs made in?

 He shoots fashion portraits of women while using gel photography to exenterate the beauty of the woman he photographs.

  When was the work made?

 He started in 2015 and still produces today.

 What the photographer as said about the work?

‘Being technically very proficient, and with a strong background in the pre-digital era of photography, my ability to capture dynamic visuals ‘in-camera’ without the need to rely on heavy post production photo manipulation has always made me far more adaptable on shoot day’. I’ve quoted this from his website as this best depicts how he feels towards his images.  

 How I feel about his work?

Personally I love his work as it is so beautiful and elegant.

(last year work)

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Gel Photography Research

 What is Gel Photograph?

 Gel Photography is a style of photography that uses transparent coloured materials to create a vibrant atmosphere that depicts the beauty of the model.  

Coloured lighting has been part of our visual storytelling process as far back as the 1600s, when Shakespearean theatre lights were shone through red wine to alter the colour and mood of a scene. When colour film became popular in the 1940s the process was adopted by cinema, and cinematographers would often use coloured lighting to tell a story and create a mood. For example, adding yellow and orange gelatin sheets in front of lights to simulate sunsets and sunrises. Although we no longer use gelatin sheets the name ‘coloured gels’ stuck, and stills photographers use the technique to add dramatic coloured effects to their work for a more artistic look.

The use of coloured gels in photography reached fever pitch in the 1980s, but as the colour combinations became more and more garish and visually offensive they eventually fell out of fashion. It’s only recently that coloured gels have seen a resurgence, with digital photography empowering a new generation of photographers to experiment with colour.

 What inspired me to pursue Gel Photography?

 The reason I chose to do this is because of one man called Jake Hicks. When I saw his work on Pinterest I instantly became so Fascinated in his work as his Gel Portraits are so beautiful.  

 How to do it?

 It’s pretty much self-explanatory as all you need to do is select the right Gel for you, then connect to a light source and after that you can just snap away.  

 Artists that use it

Jake Hicks

 Julia Kuzmenko Mckim

(last years work)