Larry Sultan
Throughout the project, Sultan began to feel closer and closer to his family. By the end of it, the project had been used to strengthen Sultan relationship with his family. In particular, his relationship with his father was mended from the rocky relationship they used to have before Sultan was an adult as his father was hard on him and against his artistic path in life. During and after the project his father seemed to understand him better, bringing the two closer.
As Sultan was looking through family photos and videos, he began to realise that these photographs and videos were memories. He felt that these memories were unhappy. Although they were captured to seem happy, Sultan knew the people inside the photos, himself and his parents, and knew that these were not really happy memories. He discovered that he could reshape these memories with arranging the photographs and videos, immersing himself in them and reflecting. This way he could change the way he viewed his family and his life and resolve internal issues he had with his youth and his parents.
Taking photographs of his family, he could see them from a new point of view, through the lens. This way he could almost analyse their behaviour and see them as more vulnerable. He felt a certain guilt when. he would release photographs from this project as he felt he was exposing his parents and threatening their privacy. To get around this he began to take staged images, which he viewed to be just as truthful and genuine as photographs that were not staged. By the end of the project he viewed his family in a more positive light after feeling more included. His father said to him that the photo of his father sitting on a bed was really a self portrait, establishing Sultan's new connection and inclusion with his family.
As Sultan was looking through family photos and videos, he began to realise that these photographs and videos were memories. He felt that these memories were unhappy. Although they were captured to seem happy, Sultan knew the people inside the photos, himself and his parents, and knew that these were not really happy memories. He discovered that he could reshape these memories with arranging the photographs and videos, immersing himself in them and reflecting. This way he could change the way he viewed his family and his life and resolve internal issues he had with his youth and his parents.
Taking photographs of his family, he could see them from a new point of view, through the lens. This way he could almost analyse their behaviour and see them as more vulnerable. He felt a certain guilt when. he would release photographs from this project as he felt he was exposing his parents and threatening their privacy. To get around this he began to take staged images, which he viewed to be just as truthful and genuine as photographs that were not staged. By the end of the project he viewed his family in a more positive light after feeling more included. His father said to him that the photo of his father sitting on a bed was really a self portrait, establishing Sultan's new connection and inclusion with his family.
My Home
I think everyone’s home is a very personal space. Decorations and belongings can reflect a persons personality, passions and values and when there’s multiple people in one home, it becomes a connection of everyone. There are also subtle details within everyone’s home that we appreciate every now and again. I photographed a lot of the things I notice in my home, certain lighting belongings, my moved-out sister’s belongings almost like a footprint she’s left on the house before leaving.
After photographing and displaying all these details in my home, it makes me appreciate them all at once and enhances my feeling of comfort in my home. I’m happy with the range of different things I captured as it also represents the aesthetic of my home perfectly.
hygge- A Swedish word without translation describing a feeling of comfort and sense of safety and coziness.
hygge- A Swedish word without translation describing a feeling of comfort and sense of safety and coziness.
Delfina Carmona
Delphine Carmona, based in Berlin, produces photographs capturing subjects and objects in a still life style. Her images are static, rather than dynamic. What makes Delphine’s work so enticing is her use of light and shadow. Her career beginning and developing in the modern day could contribute to the warm, youthful and inviting nature of her photographs. Her work is very modern, clean, sharp, meticulous in aesthetic and arrangement. Even her still-lives that have more objects with a more messy arrangement are still so well thought through; she seems to perfectly understand visual harmony.
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- colourful, playful
- primary colours in the drinks are almost nostalgic, perhaps to childhood, increasing playfulness.
- main focus seems to be her use of light and shadow her hand is not in the photograph however her shadow is, letting us know it’s there while keeping the focus on the colourful drinks
- natural daylight creates a joyful atmosphere, enhancing the playfulness of the photograph
- yellowish lighting creates an atmosphere of warmth and comfort.
- primary colours in the drinks are almost nostalgic, perhaps to childhood, increasing playfulness.
- main focus seems to be her use of light and shadow her hand is not in the photograph however her shadow is, letting us know it’s there while keeping the focus on the colourful drinks
- natural daylight creates a joyful atmosphere, enhancing the playfulness of the photograph
- yellowish lighting creates an atmosphere of warmth and comfort.
I attempted to recreate Carmona’s photographic style with a range of objects similar to the subjects in her work and different settings around my school:
Overall, I think I was quite successful in recreating Carmona’s aesthetic. On some of the images I created I think I could have improved on my framing, but in others I am happy with my framing. For example the photograph of the mirror reflecting the leaves on the tree above is much too zoomed in but the glass jar with it’s shadow on the red floor is framed well.
Still Life
I was inspired by Delfina Carmona to produce some still life's within an interior setting using objects in a very staged looking arrangement. I used a white shirt, a lamp and a glass jug with dried plants to create these. My aim was to experiment further with light and shadows and how these objects can obscure or bend light:
I think the photoshoot was successful in terms of capturing light and shadow. my most successful photographs, in my opinion were those that demonstrated the unique beauty of light and shadow. I think i timed each part of the photoshoot well to take advantage of the natural sunlight as it elevated the outcome of the photoshoot greatly. My favourite images are the close-ups of the shapes made on the wall by the refracted sunlight through the glass jug and the shadows of the dry plants. I find the organic shapes very satisfying and almost abstract in their obscurity from how i framed them; much unlike the other photographs which are contemporary but still quite literal in comparison.
My Family.
In extension to the photographs of things I found naturally beautiful in my home - how certain light hit certain things, items in my home and other spaces and objects i notice every so often - I got more personal with my own perspective of "home" and what that means to me. In my opinion, home is more so people rather than a space or where we live. To me, i find home in my parents mostly. Here i have captured my parents in their day to day activities. My parents are very busy people, and i have noticed during this photoshoot that i find some sort of strange comfort in seeing my parents work, perhaps because this is how i know them on most days - busy busy busy.
In my opinion, this photoshoot was quite successful. i captured a mixture of staged shots and candid shots to express the reality of how i view my parents. After this shoot, I agree even further with Larry Sultan's viewpoint on staged photographs: that they can be just as real as candid photographs in how they portray reality.
Through The Mirror/Windows
Cara Photoshoot
My sister came home from university for Christmas and I wanted to do a shoot with her as the main focus as I felt that she was missing from my postcards from home project. I felt that I had successfully captured many of the aspects of my personal life that make me feel or think of "home". However, I was missing one of the main things that make me feel at home and remind me of home, my sister.
I think the success of this photoshoot comes from Cara being herself in them instead of playing a character. This makes the photos feel more realistic to me.
Waiting For Lorelei
Olivia Arthur's project "waiting for Lorelei" explores her experience while being pregnant with her second child. Her photographs depict her complicated emotions and her feelings of anticipation while she was "waiting for Lorelei. She allows others to experience her feelings through her photography and her peculiar, dreamlike but also documental style of photos. She also photographs her partner and daughter showing intimate familial moments, she describes home as being “about the people” “about family” rather than a “house or a building” which is displayed authentically throughout this project.
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- I find this photograph to be one of the most fascinating of Arthur’s home project.
- the dramatic lighting and the baby seem both triumphant and glorious, the photograph is almost biblical in its depiction of the new baby. - I also love the juxtaposition of the brand new baby, a human in its purest, most natural form and the doctors, covered in sterile equipment, complete opposites but yet the same thing in a wider point of view. |
- I think this photograph encapsulates Arthur’s anticipation for her baby the most.
- everything in frame shows things related to the baby - cot, pregnant belly etc but not the baby itself. - shows how they are building up everything for the baby so that it can live there but emphasises the baby’s current absence. - this captures a sense of longing as she waits for Lorelei. |
Shadows and Silhouettes
I tried to capture a variety of different settings and subjects in order to broaden my final selection of photographs. Overall, i prefer the silhouettes I captured however some of the shadows i photographed also conveyed my intended ideas. I took photos from urban settings such as streets near my house and other parts of London. I also took images from interior locations. Some from friends houses, some from my own home and a few on set for a Jaded London campaign i was modelling for.
My Exhibition
In my final presentation of the postcards from home theme, I want to encapsulate everything that brings the feeling of comfort, familiarity, a feeling of safety and shelter. However, I also want to display the eerier perhaps more mysterious aspects of the environment I see and feel as home. When it comes to selecting the photographs I want to use for my exhibition, I need to select the images that showcase all of these things.
These are the first photos I have selected to be in the Exhibition. I feel that all these photos fit the requirements I wanted for my final presentation of my postcards from home project.
Editing and Sequencing
ALEX LLOVET - SUMMER'S ALMOST GONE
Although Llovet's photographs are in black and white, he still presents them in a sequence. The sequences seem to rely on shape and composition in how they can be presented successfully together.
Although Llovet's photographs are in black and white, he still presents them in a sequence. The sequences seem to rely on shape and composition in how they can be presented successfully together.
In the sequence above, Llovet seems to have presented photographs that all have natural wiggly lines. The squiggles in the tree branches mirror the wavy hair and braid of the girl, suggesting that he sees her as part of nature.
He also represents his photographs in tone as well as shape. In these images, there is a darker tone in the background with very bright focal points.
Composition seems to also be important to Lovet in terms of how he sequences. Above, there seems to be large empty looking spaces with a smaller focal point, isolating the subjects in his photos.
Here, Llovet seems to have presented Photographs that all display dots and specs
The actual order his sequences are in also seem to play a part in what he conveys through them. Here the central photographs are in focus and the external photographs are more out of focus. This not only frames the images in the centre but also amplifies their importance. The unfocused photographs also add a dreamlike quality. I interperate this as suggesting memory. Perhaps Llovet himself is presenting the focused images as memories or perhaps he is suggesting that the child in the photos is making new memories.
Overall, I think Llovet's SUMMER'S ALMOST GONE is a great example of the importance of how photographs are exhibited.