Artist Comparison

Steve McCurry

Colours of Cuba

What interests me most about this photo is the very contrasting and vibrant colour used, yet they are ironically sed in an environment that is unkept and looks dishevelled. The person in the photo is seen on the border between the 2nd and 3rd third, and due to them being a silhouette it is difficult to work out whether the person is walking towards or away from the camera. This makes the photo more interesting to me, and also creates contrast between the completely black silhouette and the colourful environment.

The photograph also gives a sense of isolation and mystery, with the person in the photograph being completely alone and shrouded in darkness. This imagery is one usually seen in horror or thriller films, and is used to help give the villain or a character a dramatic entrance or give them a sense of mystery, though in this context they seem to be an average person.

My photograph is fairly similar to The Colours of Cuba by Steve McCurry as both feature very unkept yet colourful environments (though mine to a lesser extent in terms of colour) and a single isolated person walking into the distance. 

The main difference between the two is that mine features a more modern and open environment, whereas The Colours of Cuba feels fairy enclosed, furthering the sense of isolation. s mentioned earlier, the colours in my photograph are less vibrant and more muted than the photograph taken by McCurry, despite there being more of them comparatively. The Colours of Cuba also feels a lot warmer than mine, manly due to the high saturation of colour, whereas mine seems quite cold and unpleasant.

Photograph Analysis

I think this photograph works well because of the variation in colour, and the distance the photo reaches. Without the larger buildings in he background it wouldn't have worked as well, as it would lack depth. I also like the perspective of the road and the buildings.

The photo feels very glom and unpleasant, due to the water drenched roads and the grey cloudy sky. The fact there are very few people walking around helps to give the feeling that its an unpleasant day, and everybody has chosen to drive.

The vibrancy of the colours contrasts with the dirty and dishevelled impression that the photograph gives. For an image like this a more common colour scheme would be dark browns and blacks, but instead theres orange, green, blue and red. This contrast in terms of colour and with the tone of the photo makes this really interesting to me.

The colours in this photo usually imply very different things to how they are used here, for example; green would usually be seen on plants and green grass, which would be associated with nature and summer. Blue would also be associated with clear blue skies, another common piece of imagery seen with photos during summer. Instead these colours are used in a busy photo taken in a built up and industrial environment, unkept by society and filled with our waste.

The bin bags being left by full up bins gives the feeling of a place thats been forgotten, with objects left to pile up forever.

The person walking alone down the run down and rain soaked street gives a sense of isolation. Despite the ranged colour palette it still feels lonely and cast out, sine it doesn't look to have been cleaned, and just felt to rot. The only things that are in good condition are the cars, which are also the only things that will only be there temporarily.

Its also ironic how he is wearng a high visibility jacket, and yet is completely alone, as if being ignored.

I like the contrast from the left to the right hand side of the street. Left being filled with shiny cars that have been cared for and cleaned, while the right being bare brick wall coated in graffiti, and a lamppost covered in stickers next to a pile of rubbish.

Due to the use of dramatic perspective, the image seems warped and abstract, almost as if its being sucked in. This gives the photo a sense of movement, and is fitting since the bridge is supporting a train track above. The photo almost looks like a painting in the sense that the sky is completely white, as if its part of a canvas that hasn't been painted on. I think this makes the photo looks really interesting, and it gives you some breathing room, unlike the other ones which are very full and have alot of detail crammed in.

The overgrown environment makes this photo stand out against the others, as the others focus more on the unkept and run down indstrial areas, while this on shows a glipse of nature reclaiming the environment.

Birmingham Trip Video - Version 1

The purpose of this video is to resent my final images for Documentary in a way that incorporates sound and the kind of atmosphere present in the photographs. The intention with the mix of audio is that it makes you fee like you're actually in the photograph. The audio for this was mainly recorded by me in Nuneaton town, though in this version there are some placeholder sound effects which i found on YouTube. These are to help me get a better idea as to what i need to record for the next version of the video.

The improvements i am currently woring on are:

Cut the duration of the nitial photograph in half, add a title showing the subject name and my name, lower the volume or change the audio around the photos with less people for something more ambient (no people in photographs - no people in audio), Quieten video at around 1:17 for a few seconds and replace with the sound of footsteps, have less cars / traffic audio around 2:02, add some train sound effects around the bridge photograph and add end credits - showing the source of the audio, subject name and my name.

Trip Planning

For the trip to Birmingham i plan to primarily take landscape photographs in the more industrial areas where there are factories and a lot of run down buildings. I find this sort of setting a lot more intriguing and i feel that i can take higher quality photographs if i focus on these sort of areas.

I'd also like to take photographs of large crowds of people, mainly by busy roads, from an eye level angle and from a high angle, looking down on crowds of people. I also think it would be interesting to try and capture large crowds or main roads using a low shutter speed, to show passage of time.

I plan to try and focus on areas that are fairly run down and unkept, as i feel that it would create more interesting photographs. I would also like to capture the busy streets aswell in order to create a contrast, as if its two completely different places combined into one.

Exhibition Review

During our trip we visited the Walsall gallery and looked around an exhibition of work by Mat Collishaw. 



I decided to analyse one of his photographs of crushed moths, as the amount of detail and the scale of them intrigued me. I like how they made something that we see as being so insignificant into a sight to behold. The colours were also very vibrant and strong, which contrasted very well with the black background.

The photograph looked almost like it was in space, and it was like a huge ship exploding, as all of the small pieces appear to be floating away with a completely black surrounding. This helped to exaggerate its size, and made me feel very small by comparison like our positions had been switched.

Another piece of worked that i looked at was of food. shot in low key lighting and with low saturation, and also high contrast. The use of these made the food look extremely unpleasant and as if it was off or mouldy. 

The meals are recreated meals which criminals have chosen while on death row, and serve as memorials for the dead. Though instead of the usual memorial which usually includes flowers and celebrating their life, instead the memorials are made to look extremely unpleasant and almost sickening. This is most likely because it reflects Matt Collishaws opinion of the people these photographs represent.

It is like a complete opposide to his photos of the crushed moths, as the moth photos almost act like memorials but are highly saturated with colour and are printed on an epic scale. They make something that is seen as so insignifant into a significant impact on the room they're in. Instead, with the photgraphs focusing on the meals, the memorials have impact due to the lighting and low saturation, making them look depressing - as if to focus on the impact those people had on the world instead of the people themselves, therefore the depressing look to the photograph. They almost emcurage us to look down on those people, rather than up at them, which is the case with the crushed moths.