Response to My Photographer's Work

Eve Arnold

For my response work to Arnold, I went ahead and used a film camera and dark room processing. I felt this enabled me to achieve the effect that I was able to. I beautified the model in my photographs with big hair and fairly heavy make up but keeping a natural complexion, like in Arnold's images. 

The image I chose to magnify and print as an individual image is the one of the model looking over her shoulder. She is positioned in the first 3rd of the image and as wearing a short dress. I chose this dress as a lot of Arnold's models tended to wear clothing that could be classed as slightly provocative but may not show everything. I like the fact that I have been able to create the same textures on the photograph from the processing but I am disappointed with the fact that I cannot process them in colour as I do not have a Colour dark room available to me. Never the less, I feel I have been successful in my response.

After I developed the images I thought responded best to Arnold's work, I went ahead and developed my work further. I did this by overlapping two images - one full body portrait, very posed and "model like" and the other one a close up portrait of the models face. The posture and facial expressions on both the images contrast each other greatly as the fully body one is smiley and her posture is very flirty whereas the expression on the up close portrait is very sombre and unhappy - possibly the true emotion of the model whilst partaking in the shoots?

I feel the emotional connotations attached to this image relates greater to Arnold's image below.

In Arnold's photograph below, Marilyn Monroe is half covered and half not, this suggests towards the explanation of the fact that the public only get to see the bit of the model which she lets people see and in fact there is still a lot left unseen - this relates to my response as the photograph in the background see's the model very posed, smiling and looking like she's enjoying herself whereas the image in the foreground show the model with a very straight forward expression and with an almost sombre look about her which hints towards the fact that models almost put this act on in front of the camera but all is not so.

Stephen Wright

This image is of a man sitting down on a bench on the high street almost as he is taking time out from the busy day to take a rest. I think the composition of this photograph was successful as the main man of the image is just off central and yet you can still tell the image is all about him. I like how the tree to the left of the image almost pushes you eyesight away from the edge of the photo and towards the centre where the main focus is. If I was to improve this image in any way I would probably use a tripod to make sure the man sat down is in complete focus and maybe even use a slow shutter speed so the other people in the image are not in focus. I would also try and cut out the sign in the background as I feel it is a huge distraction.

I feel this image was one of the most successful. It is of a moving tram and through the doors there is a man waiting for it to pass so he can cross over. I feel it was successful as the tram is actually not focused in the image and therefore showing that it was moving at the time and the man in the background is in focus and this was achieved by using a slow shutter speed.
If I was to improve this image then I would make sure that the lines in the photograph were completely straight - it seems I took the photo at an angle as the tram is travelling up a slight hill which created this effect.

There was a market on in the town centre at the time I did this photo shoot and this was one of the signs from one of the stalls. I took my shot and I was actually happy with it. Some people may think it is a unnecessary image with no meaning however they are wrong. This was a sign on display in a city in the UK - where we are facing an ever growing obesity problem. It is the whole irony of the image that I like, that the media is telling us that we need to sort it out and yet the people of our home town - those who are supposed to support us the most - are facing us with temptation and making it harder for us to fight the obesity epidemic.

This following image links nicely with the previous. It is of a man which society would say is over weight and I was stood at the stall which had the "pure duck fat" sign displayed when I took the photo. I was stood there to see the diversity of people who were to see the sign and this man was one of the them. Who can blame him for being the size he is when he is faced daily with temptations such as those discussed.
Along with this gentleman, children, elderly and teenagers also saw the sign displayed whilst I was stood there and this alone suggests that no mater what age you are, you are faced with being pulled from side to side -with the media saying one thing and the temptations of real life. a constant battle of right and wrong.

This one is of a stall on the high street and I feel the following images relate more to Wright's photography out of the ones I have selected. They document true ever day life through the streets and document people going about their own business.

This photo is in direct response to Wright's one where there are loads of people sat at a bus stop with a teenager in the middle. The only thing I don't really like about the image is that the background is so distraction with all the signs there. If I was to improve the photograph then I would definitely consider the location however an image like this is more about opportunity and the opportunity was there for me at the time so I took it.

This image is of a couple of the older generation walking through the market together and I am happy with the outcome and I think the composition of the photograph was the most successful thing about is as the couple of centre of the image - emphasising that they are the main point of the image. If I was to go ahead and reshoot this image then I would try and use less of a shallow depth of field to make the back ground in focus and the foreground not so.


the image below is of a counter in the market and it shows the two ladies working there having a conversation. This image relates more to Wright's photography as it documents ordinary people going about life itself. Just like many of Wright's photos this was an opportunistic photo and I had to take the chance to take it when I could.

To respond to Stephen Wright I headed onto Nottingham town centre, the same place Wright locates most of his work, and started taking pictures of people going about their own business around the city.

I originally took the images in black and white as I felt it helped me create the higher contrast images that Stephen Wright was able to within his own work.

Erna Lendvai – Dircksen 

These are my responses in the style of Erna Lendvai – Dircksen.

To do these photographs I used a film camera so I could get similar effects and textures as Erna Lendvai – Dircksen did in her work and I hope I achieved this.

I got a young boy to model for me looking straight into the camera mimicking the pose of the children in Erna Lendvai – Dircksen's work.

First I developed all the images I took in response to the photographer from the negatives.

I then did my first print but found it came out a little faint and too grey.

I then did a contact sheet were I tried to find out what is the best exposure time to use when exposing my images to get the best end result. 

I then chose which exposure time from my contact sheet I thought worked well and gave me the desired contrast and went ahead and did a print of one for that exposure time.

I then played around with the filters for the light processes to stop my imaging being too dark but to still keep a maximum amount of detail.