3.2 Research
A durational space
Robert Capa
Robert Capa was a war photographer and photojournalist who risked his life many times during his career and the five wars he covered. He was the only civilian photographer to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day during WWII where he shot 'The Magnificent Eleven'. The group of photos were of the first wave of troops landing on Omaha Beach.
The photo below of the soldier crawling through the surf is one of the most iconic shots from the group of photos from D-Day.
The shot seems to be unintentionally out of focus when looking at other shots from that day that are clearer and of better quality. So what makes this the most iconic of the lot?
In my opinion this photo says it how it was on that morning of the invasion. It would have been chaotic and nerve racking. The blur in the photo for me represents how those men would have been feeling - nervous, shaky, not knowing what would happen, whether they would ever return home to their families. I can imagine that vision would not have been good due to explosions and gun fire and we can see this represented in the photo. The soldier is on his own also, which gives you a feeling of isolation or loss.
I think that the photo gives you a true look into what the war was like, it doesn't romanticise it. It was deadly and devastating.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Capa
https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/conflict/robert-capa-d-day-omaha-beach/
Robert Frank
Robert Frank is a Swiss-American photographer who created the photo book 'The Americans', which captured the country in images that were intentionally unglamorous while showing a post war American society. From a technical point of view, Frank broke many a rule by not adhering to traditional framing, focus, composition or exposure. The photo below, 'Elevator' is from 'The Americas' and captures a young elevator operator.
Here the motion blur each side of the girl is intentional. It automatically draws our focus to the girl who looks to be in a day dream, bored of work, ignored, as the hierarchy is clearly seen in this image. To me, the blur makes it almost look like everyone but the girl is stuck in fast forward. She is watching the world go by - stuck operating the elevator.
References
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-robert-franks-the-americans-matters-today
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer. In 1978 Sugimoto created the series 'Theatres' by photographing old American movie theatres.
Sugimoto captured entire films in a single still. The result? - a bright white screen that illuminated the architecture and detail of the places he was photographing.
From the book ‘Hiroshi Sugimoto: Theaters’...
“My dream was to capture 170,000 photographs on a single frame of film. The image I had inside my brain was of a gleaming white screen inside a dark movie theater. The light created by an excess of 170,000 exposures would be the embodiment or manifestation of something awe-inspiring and divine.”
In my opinion, Sugimoto's images are almost eerie and supernatural. Like the screen is a doorway to another dimension. The bright white screen draws you in and then lets you explore the interesting architecture around it. In the video I watched on YouTube he states that the people watching the film disappear along with the film itself. If I hadn't of watched the youtube video I would have thought that the movie theatres were empty throughout the film. Sugimoto also says how "too much information ends up with nothingness", which he says is an interesting concept and asks how we show this nothingness. He then says that the movie theatre is like a case that holds the emptiness.
I'd like to experiment with this concept in my own way which I plan to do in the next exercise.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY3nGoZqw9U
Gareth Davies
London based photographer Gareth Davies creates slitscan panoramic photos.
These types of images have become all too familiar over the past few years as this is something that anyone can do on their smartphones in the camera app by switching the mode to pano and steadily moving the camera from the desired starting position to the finish.
References
Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express
The opening scene from Chungking Express was shot at 1/8 second and depicts a blurred, sped up but at the same time slow motion chase scene. This is unusual in cinema and leaves the audience feeling unsettled and unsure. The imagery is difficult to follow and you feel somewhat lost while watching. You cannot make out many faces in the scene and you are left questioning what is going on.
A very interesting way to start a movie in my opinion and a great way to grab the viewers attention. The music and use of the hand held camera moving through the blurry crowd create a feeling of suspense.
References