Exercise 4.4: Personal Voice
"Make a Google Images search for ‘landscape’, ‘portrait’, or any ordinary subject such as ‘apple’ or ‘sunset’. Add a screengrab of a representative page to your learning log and note down the similarities you find between the images.
Now take a number of your own photographs of the same subject, paying special attention to the ‘Creativity’ criteria at the end of Part One. You might like to make the subject appear ‘incidental’, for instance by using focus or framing. Or you might begin with the observation of Ernst Haas, or the ‘camera vision’ of Bill Brandt. Or if you’re feeling bold you might forget about your camera completely and think about the tricky question of originality in a different way - http://penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/suns/
Add a final image to your learning log, together with a selection of preparatory shots. In your notes describe how your photograph or representation differs from your Google Images source images of the same subject."
Research
John Davies - Fuji City
John Davies is a British landscape photographer known for his prints produced from high vantage points. Although his professional career began with traditional landscape images, he quickly advanced to composing images where the natural environment was in contrast with the unnatural industrial scenes surrounding it.
The images above are just a few from his series, Fuji City. Created in 2008, the series focuses on the reflection on the harmony between nature and man made industry. Each image features Mount Fuji in the background. In some images it can barely be seen. Davies has gone against the typical way of photographing the spectacular mountain and has made it almost accidental that the mountain is in the images at all. Almost making the viewer think that Mount Fuji is not the focus of the mage at all.
Although I do not really enjoy the industrial side of these images, I do however think that Davies' way of thinking outside the box to create a different look and take on photographing Mount Fuji is quite ingenious and incredibly creative.
Chris Steele-Perkins - Mount Fuji
Chris Steele-Perkins, a British photographer and Magnum photos member is best known for his depictions of not only England but also Africa, Afghanistan and Japan. He started his career as a freelance photographer in 1970 but within a year, had moved to London and was working full time taking photos with a core interest in poverty and urban issues.
Steele-Perkins spent a lot of time in Japan and being influenced by Hokusai, he photographed Fuji, a collection of views and sightings of the mountain. Not too dissimilar to Davies Fuji City, Steele-Perkins has also used the mountain in an incidental way. As if it was an accident in a lot of his shots and it just so happened to be there while capturing a scene.
Between the two photographers, Davies and Steele-Perkins, I prefer the work of Steele Perkins. His images carry a lot more colour than Davies' and show more a gesture of everyday life around Mount Fuji other than just that of industrial works.
Davies, J. 2008. Fuji City, 309. [Online] Available at:
http://www.johndavies.uk.com/f309.htm. [Accessed 14th May 2020
Davies, J. 2008. Fuji City, 106. [Online] Available at:
http://www.johndavies.uk.com/f106.htm. [Accessed 14th May 2020]
Davies, J. 2008. Fuji City, 253. [Online] Available at:
http://www.johndavies.uk.com/f253.htm. [Accessed 14th May 2020]
Steele-Perkins, C. 2001. Fields near Kawaguchiko. [Online] Available at: https://www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/earth-shortlist/chris-steele-perkins/. [Accessed 14th May 2020]
Steele-Perkins, C. 2001. Early morning shadow of Mt Fuji from summit. [Online] Available at:https://www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/earth-shortlist/chris-steele-perkins/. [Accessed 14th May 2020]
Steele-Perkins, C. 2001. Filling station near Shiraito Falls. [Online] Available at: https://www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/earth-shortlist/chris-steele-perkins/. [Accessed 14th May 2020]
Google images search for 'Sky'
Similarities in the images above:
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Colourings of each image contain blue and white
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Each contain clouds
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Different shades of blue
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Most images are taken from a low view point
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No other objects in the frame just sky
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majority are landscape
Prepatory shots
Below are my prepatory images for this exercise. I wanted to search something quite generic for the google image search, something we see everyday. This is why I chose 'sky'. By using something quite generic as my subject, I wanted to test my creativity skills and think as much outside the box as I could.
Rather than shooting the sky straight on, I thought about how else it could be captured and came up with the idea of shooting the reflection of the sky in different objects and things. Again, this is something that occurs everyday, there is always a reflection of the sky somewhere, whether it be in a puddle or window but this is not always something we take notice of due to our daily hectic lives. I wanted to take the time to look at this differently.
So how do my images differ from the google search images?
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The are all a reflection of the sky, the sky has not been shot straight on.
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They have mostly been taken from a higher view point, whereas the google images have been shot from a low view point.
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The sky is framed within a frame, for example; the reflection is in a window or a phone screen etc.
ISO 100
29mm
f/11
1/50sec
ISO 100
55mm
f/29
1/13sec
ISO 100
48mm
f/11
1/160sec
ISO 100
55mm
f/11
1/160sec
ISO 100
26mm
f/11
1/200sec
ISO100
40mm
f/4.8
1/1000sec
ISO 100
55mm
f/5.6
1/1000sec
ISO 100
22mm
f/25
1/25sec
ISO 100
48mm
f/11
1/160sec
ISO100
18mm
f/11
1/100sec
Final Image
I chose the image above as my final image as I find it the most interesting of all my prep shots. At first glance this image looks just like a close up of a pair of sunglasses. It could almost be an advert for a brand. On closer inspection you can see the mirror image of the sky - the fluffy clouds and a slight light flare from the sun by the glasses rim. Once you have inspected the clouds, you look through the sunglasses lens to examine the blades of grass that have turned an orangey brown colour.
After canvassing the main focal point of the image, your eyes start to move to the outskirts of the frame and catch the contrasting green grass to the brown and black rims of the sunglasses. You also notice how the foreground is out of focus but with the image gradually coming back into focus as your eyes move towards the middle of the image.
Reflection
I have to admit I found this exercise quite challenging. Shooting reflections was not as easy a task as I had thought. I found focussing quite a hard task and ended up using the manual focus setting on my DSLR. Once I had overcome this however, I enjoyed being creative with how I could frame the sky in different objects.
I am pleased with the final image. I think it is very distinctive to the original google search images and shows a different way of looking at things. I very much enjoy close up photography and this seems to be a trending technique of mine at the moment.
