PHOTOGRAPHY

Project One

For our very first project we were asked to research and look at a an artist that we are interested in. I have to produce a photograph that emulates or parodies the work of my chosen artist/photographer. Here are a few artists that I looked in to.

Artists that inspire and influence. 

WILLIAM EGGLESTON

Artist Bio:- 

Native Southerner William Eggleston's photographs monumentalize everyday subject matter, such as motel rooms and store fronts, in eccentric, refined compositions. Each detail is important, potentially carrying beauty and mystery. The main catalyst for New American Colour Photography, Eggleston is largely credited with legitimizing colour photography (especially with the dye transfer process) as a fine art form. Teaching himself from books of prints. He began photographing his environment in the 1950s, but turned to color, then used largely only commercially, in the late 19603 Egglestons 1976 'Colour Photographs' show at the Museum of Modern Art was ground breaking for its sticking, saturated colour but also for his observational style, often deemed democratic.  

I became a very big fan of William Egglestons work ever since I came across it. In a way his work is very urban and cultural. He is simply capturing everyday scenes with a slight difference and they are very bold photographs. Although the frame is simple he catches quite a lot of detail throughout. The angles and textures add a lot to the images and I think its good how selective he is with what he wants in the frame even though some are staged. Each image makes you feel and emotion and makes you question why he chose to take that picture. What I enjoy mostly about his work is his use of bold colour. I think that makes a huge impact on the images, which is what makes them so interesting to look at. For me the images all most make me want to be in the image. He influences my work greatly and will continue to do so in the future. 

William Eggleston - Tricycle in Memphis - 1970

This is one of my favourite images by Eggleston. Again although its very simple, for me it has alot of meaning behind and has a lot of detail in if you look carefully. Firstly its a low angle, almost like a snake view making the tricycle appear bigger than what it is. In this image I see a childhood. The size of the bike shows the the joy and fun you feel when that age. Childhood memories might be missed and it suggests that when you are a child you feel a sense of pride and joy over things like this tricycle. Over all I enjoy every aspect of this image from the angles, colours and even the symmetry. 

MY WORK
Work influenced by William Eggleston..

MARTIN PARR

  

Artist Bio:-

Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey, UK. He got into photography because of his grandfather who was an amateur photographer. His early works in 1970 are exclusively black and white photographs. After that in 1980 he then went on to colour film. Martin Parr has created an international reputation and is best known for his projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life. His photographs offer us the opportunity to see the world from his unique perspective. These projects mainly focus on simple ans suburban life in England. At first glance, his photographs seem exaggerated or even grotesque. The motifs he chooses are strange, the colours are garnish and the perspectives are unusual. Parr's term for the overwhelming power of published images is "propaganda". But at the same time they show us in a penetrating way how we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value.

What I enjoy mostly about Martin Parrs work is the British Culture film his images show. Similar to William Eggleston who he was also inspired by, he captures simple everyday scenes of various things from beaches, sports ect. I have decided to look more into his food series: British Food. The bright colours throughout his images makes everything stand out so much more, and almost makes normal food look highly appetizing. I like the way it shows our British culture to the world, and it makes me feel like I'm part of his work. In most recent days food photography has become very popular on social networking sites like Instagram and Facebook. Picturing food could be seen as a new Social Art. Below are some images that I have taken using my iPhone 5.

MY WORK
Work influenced by Martin Parr..

This is my favourite image of mine that I have taken. I call it 'Chocolate Fantasy'. For this project I only wanted to take images of food that people would find interesting and appetising. I used my iPhone 5 to take this image which is 8 mega-pixels and still captures beautiful images. I wanted to capture the food well, but also get some detail in the background, so viewers could imagine where the photo has been taken. I took the picture at a restaurant called 'Tinsel Town', which is like a remake of an American diner. The image alone looked very detailed and bold to me, but I wanted to add something different. So I decided to add an filter/edit on my image. The edits that chose made the photo look dream like and stands out more with the light leaks that I added. I did this to make it look much more appetising and I think I did well to show this. 

Similar Images..

For all of my images I wanted to show something much more appetizing then what the actual image looked liked before. For all these picture I have used different edits and filters, I have even combined more than one together. I used these to make the images more bold and colourful and they defiantly stand out more after the edits. My iPhone automatically focuses on parts that I want it to and I think it works well. I try to get as much detail in the background of a picture, rather then just the main object that you see at first.