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{UNIT 57: ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHY} CONCEPTUAL FINE ART, DOCUMENTARY & CULTURE /TRAVEL PHOTOGRPAHY JENNIFER

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{UNIT 57: ANALYZING PHOTOGRAPHY}

CONCEPTUAL FINE ART, DOCUMENTARY & CULTURE /TRAVEL PHOTOGRPAHY

JENNIFER

RACHEL BARAN 1. Rachel Baran – 20 year old self taught conceptual

photographer

2. Stumbled on the genre when she collated all the photos she had taken in high school and uploaded them to Flickr and decided to emulate the works of other photographers

3. All her images are inspired by her and those around hers personal experiences

4. She takes portraits and uses herself as the model then edits them on Photoshop to add detail that makes them image seem surreal

5. She uses photographs to portray extremist alter egos of herself that are surrounded by their own surrealist world

6. Her photography is an extension of herself, which is seen through her editing style – it seems to change every time because it is dependent on which music genre she listens to whilst editing

7. She also draws inspiration from curiosity - "I do try to tell stories with every one. I love making the impossible appear possible, and hopefully believable.“ - being a psychology student she applies what she has learnt about the human brain to her photography and tries to manipulate what is thought

8. At the moment she is doing photography as a creative outlet and is not getting paid but now and again is commissioned for projects

9. She explains the purpose of her work as creating thought provoking images that speak to human psychology - “ a way to get them thinking, wondering and feeling”

10. Her work is being showcased on book covers, personal galleries and clientele

Conceptual Photography?

• Conceptual photography is an application of photography that is staged in order to represent a concept or idea

• The images can range from being clear or very abstract• They can be conceptual of the artists political views, social

commentary or emotional outcry

“ALL MAD PEOPLE WEAR SUITS”

Rachel Baran , as a photographer has the tendency to photograph pictures with a very disturbing or pressing underlying issue. This seems to be her over all theme -she already identifies herself as someone who creates pictures based on past experiences – to me this maybe one of those memories but she has represented it in an extremist way. She is the main subject in this photograph - and she seems to represent a typical American “house wife”, the underlying theme is very dark and graphic. This seems to be where she wanted the viewer to be focused on.

Aside form it being graphic she has made it so that yes its very graphic but , that’s all the viewer can see – making it so they have to use their imagination as to what has happened. She's achieved this by cropping and framing it accordingly. As for the color scheme – she has chosen a house that is very monochrome in color which contrast with bright red, blue and green. Its very expressive in the emotion that it is conveying – I believe she's portraying how she feel some people are. Mysterious. She has also made it so that the space between her and the door way is very tight – it could be representational of the space between keeping a mystery to you but also being open. As she herself is always the model in her photographs, she must have to direct where to capture the right photo – the vantage point to this photograph is on the doorstep of this house.

RACHEL BARAN -CRITICAL EVALUATION

Her work is hauntingly beautiful and is abstract enough to let them mind race and come up with its own concepts. Something that attracted me to her work was the use of different techniques and styles – some seem like they could be happening whilst others are completely out of context. She has already stated that she draws inspiration from her and those around hers lives, even though they are specific to one person they can be easily interpreted into somebody else's life. She is able to use her images to create a world apart from our own where she can become show her extreme alter egos.

Overall I'm mesmerized by Baran’s work and how she is able to translate what is happening in her head to create a concept that can manipulate the mind of her viewers and how she is able to create a new alter ego for herself every photograph.

OLIVIA BEE1. Olivia Bee – 19 year old American photographer who

dabbles in different forms of photography – she like any other teen was influenced by chronicling her teenage years

2. She took a photography course at 11 and was fortunate enough to be discovered by converse and was featured on their advert campaign at 14 – by 15 she was professional

3. She also used flickr as a creative outlet

4. She draws inspiration from Annie Leibovitz, Nan Goldin, Ryan McGinley and Terry Richardson

5. "I strive to capture the ordinary, in an extraordinary way. Life is beautiful, perfect, and cinematic, if you look at the right moments. It's not always an accurate summary of life in general, but it is those specific moments that make it worth living anyway.”

6. She describes her style as “the dreamy seventies” but leans towards documentary

7. Olivia has been commissioned by Nike, Converse, Teen Vogue, Vans, Hermes, Adidas, Fiat and Subaru and more

8. Her work has been showcased in magazines, newspapers, websites, clientele, publishing houses and personal albums

9. She wants to cross over into videography and directing

Documentary photography?

• Is a synonym for photojournalism• It’s the art of documenting what happening in real

time• Used to chronicle significant moments in everyday

life• The aim is to produce truthful, objective, and usually

candid photography

“ROYAL BLUE”

Olivia bee as a teen is obsessed with chronicling her teen years in hopes they don’t slip away - this picture was part of a series of photographs she had taken on holiday with a group of friends. As an independent photographer she has no themes that she normally sticks to as her projects vary but one things is evident, she has great interest in using photography as documentary – to me this photograph represents the euphoria of being on holiday.

The entire focus of this photo is the sky rather than the subjects who are very contrasted in size to the sky. The colors in the photograph are warm and inviting – blue – a color you would definitely see on holiday. Also the color itself is representational of a lot of different emotions – its associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, expansiveness, inspiration, trust, heaven and sensitivity. The colours also create a gradient. She uses a vantage point that must have been yards away from the people on the balcony but must have had to be cautious of the framing in order to achieve what she had wanted. She's used the space between the sky and the subjects to create an emotion and because of the way the photograph is framed the people almost seem abstract compared to the rest of picture.

OLIVIA BEE – CRITICAL EVALUATION

Out of all the photographers I research – Olivia Bee seemed to stand out to me the most, firstly because her application and technique of photography is something I can see myself emulating & achieving. Her work is seamless and light hearted – the use of lens flares and soft but vibrant colors schemes add to the emotion of freedom in all her imagery. Anyone, what ever age, is able to view these photographs and reminisce about their youth and that’s what I think Olivia does the best. She is able to capture the lost moments in our youth. Her uses of framing and cropping successfully achieve in portraying the emotions of her photographed subjects. All her photographs are candidly taken meaning she has to have a watchful eye for when to achieve the best photo she can.

Overall Bee’s work is very successful in capturing emotions and moments that may have been missed by the passing eye. She is able to create a soft dreamy themed gallery of photos that demonstrated the freedom of youth.

JOEY L.1. Joey Lawrence better known as Joey L. – 25 – is a commercial/

travel photographer, director, documentarian and published author from Ontario, Canada

2. L. has always had photography in his life, he worked with his father and photo journalled his work – alongside also photographing for his band when he found that music wasn’t for him

3. In 2004 he won the DPChallege photography contest and from then on work was offered to him very frequently – resulting in him missing his graduate – he wised he would have dropped out early to further his career

4. In his documentary at visiting and photographing people from Varanasi, India – L. stated that he would rather take 5 pictures during the day instead of 500 as he wants the viewer to understand the subject, their surroundings and their individual story

5. At 16 he was commissioned to create the first ever twilight poster, this is what started him off as a free lance photographer

6. His work comes from being commissioned for different projects which include - the History Channel, National Geographic Channel, Pennzoil, FX, Nickelodeon, etc. - and personal photography like the ones from his trip to India

7. “my favourite photographers usually do two things in their images: 1) they reveal something about the subject, and 2) they also reveal something about the photographer” His photographs aim to tell the story of the individual he has photographed - for his viewers to see them through a different angle

8. His three main sources of revenue are his paid video tutorials for beginner photographers, gallery exhibitions and advertising/commercial photography

Commercial/Travel photography?

• In commercial photographer, the photographer is paid and has to work towards a brief

• The photograph may be used in different places – newspapers, magazines, corporate brochures as well as leaflets, menus, advertorials and press photos.

• Travel photography is another subsection of documentary photography – which involves documenting an area's landscape, people, cultures, customs and history.

“CULTURE CALLS”

Joey L. normally has a specific reason to be taking a picture and also how he wants that picture to affect his audience – he wants them to have an insight into their lives. During his time in India – he photographed a few individuals and captured different aspects of their lives.

In this picture in particular he photographed a guru/monk on his daily rituals. The feeling behind this picture is brought to life by the fluidity of the subjects and his surroundings – it’s a candid shot. Also the color scheme and how it puts in focus the singular subject. The way the rest of the city is in the background and is out of focus because of the deep depth of field gives the idea of him being lone and left to solitary. The vantage point of this photograph must have been from inside the water with the subject or a little higher - a boat. The positive space between the subject and the frame is equal all the way round – this may have been done with the rule of thirds in mind.

JOEY L. – CRITICAL EVALUATION

One thing I have noticed about Joey L.’s work is that he also has a discreet color scheme that is applied to mostly everything he photographs except for a few commercial shoots. He heavily uses earthly colors such as beige, maroon, navy, brown and greys. This gives his work uniformity when looked at in a collective.

The one thing that I highly appreciate within his process is how he takes the time to understand the subjects background and creates genuine relationships – especially when it comes to his own personal projects such as India. Because he has now created this bond with the subject he is now able to photograph them in a way that makes them comfortable.

Overall L. is effectively able to create genuine bonds with all his subjects which is something that gives his work something extra. Consciously or unconsciously is uses a color palette through all of this pictures which creates familiarity and uniformity

COMPARE & CONTRAST

Rachel Baran

•Conceptual fine art photography

•Uses past experiences and music genres as inspiration

•Portrays very hard hitting and dark themes in her photography

•Aims to challenge and manipulate the mind in order to make us think

Olivia Bee

•Documentary photography

•Captures lost moments in her youth

•Uses vibrant and soft colours to create a dreamy surrealist look

• Travel photography• Uses the colour scheme of

navy, brown, beige and reds to create uniformity throughout his pictures

Joey L.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rachel Baran

1. http://allureandcure.com/interview-with-rachel-baran/

2. http://diply.com/different-solutions/awe-inspiring-self-portraits-by-rachel-baran/25354/1

3. http://www.feeldesain.com/imaginative-self-portraits-rachel-baran.html

Olivia Bee

1. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/feb/24/olivia-bee-interview-photographer-hermes

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Bee

3. http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/02/rapid-rise-of-photographer-olivia-bee.html

Joey L.

1. http://petapixel.com/2013/03/03/interview-with-photographer-joey-l/

2. http://digital-photography-school.com/chat-with-commercial-photographer-joey-lawrence/

3. http://thewildmagazine.com/blog/our-world/joey-l-interview/

Extra

1. http://www.photolaureates.org/tutorial/photographyterms/