Jewel - Bombay Bicycle Club

PhotoEssay

These are just some of the images that I have taken already for the photoessay.  I am keeping a vintage colour effect to them to try and enhance the age of the building. 

Poem

I found a poem that sums up the condition and situation of the house that I am documenting for my photoessay.  I am going to use this poem as the foundation for my photos.  I plan on using a recording of a reciting of the poem as the audio for my film. 

A sad, abandoned country house,

withers upon it's tiny hill.

What once protected, now is open,

and winds blow through it's broken window sills.

Deeded now to bird and mouse,

to spiders and to who-knows-what.

Sagging porch and empty rooms,

a kitchen wall with grease still spattered,

from someone's long-past breakfast.

laughter, cries, and prayer

used to fill this air.

And, beside this kitchen door,

children played and pattered

No more.

Ancient glass fragments, and 

something like putty on the floor,

a kettle, pieces of a shattered crock,

and "did someone throw it?" a rock.

Outside, a rusted plough, and this rubble

that might once have been a wagon,

nearer the house, lesser artefacts: 

a medicine bottle, a shoe,

like the kin of those who strove here,

scattered.

Sunset and sadness come 

as I stand among the runes,

trying to honor 

something that mattered.

Photo Essay Beginnings

Our next photography project is to create a Photo Essay film.  This is an ongoing project that lasts a couple of weeks.  However for this week we have to bring in an image that sums up the location or subject that we have chosen to study.  

My subject is an old abandoned house near my home in the country.  This house still has artefacts of the people that once lived here. In this regards I think it would be an interesting subject to study. 

Milk Run!

This is a gorgeous, short-film-esque ad, directed by Sam Peacocke for VW New Zealand. The concept is amazing and executed really well.

Barbara Kruger

This week we had to create three images in the style of Barbara Kruger's work.  Her work combines emotive black and white photographs with pithy declarations in white and red text in the font 'Futura'.  Her work resembles old propaganda posters, and creates tensions between the rhetoric of the image and the text.  

I chose to recreate this style but using the everyday object of the chair.  I used the many chairs that could be found in the university.  

Friday Inspiration - Julien Vallee

DanseDance

I love this stop motion video by Julien Vallee and Nicolas Burrows.  The video is reminiscent of how each day, we are surrounded by seemingly insignificant objects, taking them from one place to the other, or leaving them on a table for weeks, without paying any attention to them.

"We ignore or forget them, using things only when we need to, making sure they don’t interfere or inhabit our space. But what if they were not so stable and subservient? What if they could swivel, bounce or even fly. And what if they did so all at the same time? We want to imagine a place where objects could live and move, harmoniously, and of their own accord. Without interfering with each other these objects would bounce, roll, turn and cross each other’s paths."

Pinhole 2

I took some additional images in a room that was full of chairs inside the university.  I chose to do this because the sunlight coming in through the window was amazing, and there were a lot of really interesting, and constructivist like shadows being cast on the chairs.  However, if I get the opportunity to, I would like to retake some of them again, as they are very dark and you can't really see the detail that I was looking for. 

Pinhole 1

This week we were taught how to make our own pinhole cameras using a biscuit tin. Instead of traditionally capturing the image on negative film, and getting it developed, we captured it on light sensitive paper inside the tin. The image is created through a small hole in the front, centre of the tin as light passes through it.  

The photographs were taken inside the university due to the nature of the technique; the photographs had to be developed in the darkroom after exposure to light. 

These are the images I captured that came out decent.  

Origami Jewellery

French designers Claire & Arnaud have replicated the art of Japanese paper folding with rhodium-plated silver to create these stunningly beautiful jewellery pieces.

                                      

Constructivism

Our latest photography was to take a series of six constructivist inspired images that use light and shadow to describe form and composition. 

A lot of my inspiration came from the photographic works of Alexander Rodchenko.  His work was normally socially engaged and challenged formality.  He often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote, "One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again."

I decided to focus on one subject - a coil of paper.  I took multiple images of this subject, changing my perspective, and used a small torch light to illuminate distinct areas.  The final images have a steel like appearance which is conforming with the constructivist ideals.  

Happy Apple'ween!

Happy Apple'ween guys! From Gary & Hannah. I hope Steve likes it!  =]

Please Do Not Touch The Exhibitions... Thank You.

Last week we visited the GT Gallery, and Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast as part of a group project.  We documented the visual experience both individually and as a group by taking notes, photographs, and sketches of the exhibitions.  Over the 2 days we had to bring our ideas together and design an 8 page publication that displayed how we could work as part of a design team. Some of my favourite pieces were exhibited in the GT Gallery by artists Una Walker, and Justin McKeown.

These are some of the photographs that I took that day.  

Tim Flach

How can you not laugh at this photograph? British photographer Tim Flach sees animals in a completely different way. Flach shoots stylized animal portraits that look more like fine art than framed shots of your puppy. Flach “delves deep into the psyche of this enduring bond with Canis familiaris to present an exquisite study of “man’s best friend.”

Carl Kleiner

I love everything about the new IKEA book of baking recipes, Hembakat är Bäst (Homemade Is Best). Styled by Evelina Bratell and photographed by Carl Kleiner, the cookbook’s photography eschews only presenting the finished dish in favour of also capturing the ingredients in artfully arranged still life imagery. It’s a little like deconstructed food photography where intricately displayed piles of sugar, egg yolks and vanilla pods are works of art. 

Friday Inspiration - Matthias Heiderich

Wonderful, colourful, composition based photographs of Berlin by photographer Matthias Heiderich.