My Project - Culture

My Project

When I first started this project I wanted to focus on the differences between local well off and looked after areas and local deprived/neglected areas. Once I had chosen what I wanted to do I decided to look at other documentary photographers and other streets photographers, I looked at photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martin Parr and Robert Frank. After I looked at other photographers and saw how they did street photography and documented things I went out and started taking photos myself, while taking photos I tried my first idea but I changed my project to mainly focusing on deprived/neglected areas, I changed my project slightly because I felt if it was focused on one certain topic but had hints of other topics, in this case it was deprived/neglected areas with hints off contrast with new, looked after areas, people would be more interested and focus on the photographs. Now that I knew what photos I wanted to get and what my project was 100% going to be I went around Nottingham and surrounding areas.

My Inspirations

While doing this project I looked at different photographers who specialized in street photography and documentary photography, I looked at people famous photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martin Parr and Roberto Frank, the most important thing i looked at with these photographers is how they create emotion in the photos and how they tell a story, for example a way I think they do this is the use of light and shadows and the angle the photo is actually taken at. I didn’t just look at photographers which were famous and well known I also looked at photographers who weren't as well known for example a photographer on lens culture called Faisal Al Fouzan who did a project called Kuwait City-Friday Gathering which involved contrasting the similar things I wanted to focus on, he photographed slums and poor areas in Kuwait and in the same photos he would add modern and new buildings, the biggest thing I looked at is how he added other topics to the main photos, how he framed certain things and how he made it so you understood the message he was trying to get a cross.

Portraits - Henri Cartier-Bresson
  
  

Even though my project doesn’t have any portraits in, this inspired me because viewing photos of people exaggerates emotion and showed me how important emotion in photos are, I also like it because usually when documenting something photographers get photos of people, buildings or anything which is to do with what they are documenting but Henri Cartier-Bresson has just used people’s faces from around the world.

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British photographer born in Surrey, while looking at his work I was inspired by more than one pieces of his work, two in particular were a book called Benidorm 1999 and a book called A Fair Day.

Benidorm 1999

  

I liked Benidorm 1999 because the photos are documenting what it is like there but because of the style there in they also add humour which interested me even more. I also like the fact that Martin Parr did the whole project not only in colour but made sure that the photos where filled with bright, exciting and eye catching colour which is completely different compared to other documentary photographers.

A Fair Day

  

I like A Fair Day because Martin Parr has documented Ireland in a traditional documentary way but like Benidorm it also has hints of humour for example the photo on the left above, but even though there are hints of humour the majority of the photos are serious and focus on actually documenting.

The Americans - Robert Frank
  

The Americans is a project which Robert Frank is most famous for, it was a project that was published in May of 1958 and is now considered a classic. It explored what American was actually like without the influence of the media. I liked this project and got inspired by it because the main focus was the division between culture, race and wealth in America at that time, which is something I found interesting, I also like the project because of the style of photo, Robert frank uses a low light which I though exaggerated the feeling and message that the photo was trying to get across and even though it exaggerated all of the photos give an honest view of what is happening.

Kuwait City - Friday Gathering by Faisal Al Fouzan

   

I liked these photos and found them very inspirational because the main focus is the deprived/poor areas but in some of the photos there are hints of other ways of living for example in the middle photo above the main focus is the deprived/poor things but right in the middle is a mirror which is showing a reflection of a new expensive skyscraper. I like how the photographer hasn't done this is every photo though for example in the first photo he has just focused on the main thing which is deprived things.

If I were to do this project again

If I did this project again instead of using a 55mm lens I would choose to use a 35mm lens, I would do this because after do my research I have found out that a 35mm lens is much better at capturing detail, this would be good because I wanted as much detail in my photos and I wanted the final outcome to have a lot of information and emotion in them. The 33mm are also smaller than the 55mm lens which would have been better if I wanted to get photos of people as it would have been more discreet, which would make the images much more natural.

Contact Sheets

My Final Photos

1.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/14

Shutter Speed- 1/15 sec

ISO- 400

The main reason I had these settings is because there was a lot of light bouncing off of the light main focus in the photo and into the camera, I didn't want the wall to be over exposed because I wanted to capture detail and textures, to improve the detail and make them stand out a bit more I have my shutter speed on a low 1/15. I didn't use any filter because I feel I got enough detail and contrast without the use of one.

2.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/22

Shutter Speed- 1/25 sec

ISO- 400

The reason I had to have the camera on these settings is because the sky was overcast but was very bright because the sun was shining though because it was bright the camera had to be on a very high aperture to capture the detail in the sky and to make sure that I caught the detail on the tops of the buildings which were being over powered by the brightness of the sky. Because I wanted contrast in the photo I used a blue filter which darkened the lower part of the photo and the dark bits of the buildings on the left.

3.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/11

Shutter Speed- 1/200 sec

ISO- 400

Even though there was a lot of light bouncing off the snow I set the camera at F/11 because I wanted a lot of light to be let into the camera, I wanted this because I though if everything that’s bright would work well if it was contrasted with everything that’s dark for example the grass where there’s no snow, the bottom of the house where it meets the floor and the top of the house where it meets the cloudy sky. The shutter speed was set at 1/200 because it bought out just a bit of detail in the darker shades.

4.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/11

Shutter Speed- 1/60 sec

ISO- 400

The shutter speed was on 1/60 because I was very close up to the building and there wasn't much light being let into the camera, I still kept the aperture on an average setting because I wanted the white grating to stand out against the brick wall. Because there was very little light as well I only needed a bit of light to make all the details of the wall and pipe stand out.

5.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/11

Shutter Speed- 1/125 sec

ISO- 400

I used an aperture of F/11 because I wanted the white building to blend in with the dull sky almost like its invisible, because it’s on this setting that’s what it does. I had to set the shutter speed at 1/125 because I wanted the building to almost be invisible but at the same time I wanted the detail of the broken windows and the scaffolding to stand out.

6.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/11

Shutter Speed- 1/125 sec

ISO- 400

I have the shutter speed on 1/125 because in this photo it was more about capturing details of the rails which were is the foreground the main focus which was the building in the middle and the sky with was in the very background of the photo. I set the aperture on F/11 because I wanted the rails to be dark, the building to be slightly lighter and the sky to be the brightest thing in the photo.

7.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/11

Shutter Speed- 1/80 sec

ISO- 400

The camera is on these settings because I wanted there to be a large contrast between the old derelict building and the new building, the shutter speed was 1/80 because it was very dark and over case but I also wanted it to still be dark so I captured some of the details on the building on the left. The aperture was F/11 because I wanted all the white pieces on the new building to immediately stand out, I also wanted contrast on the graffiti in front.

8.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/11

Shutter Speed- 1/10 sec

ISO- 400

I have set the camera on these settings because I wanted to capture the details on the wall by letting a lot of light into the camera and making the dark feature on the wall stand out, also on the smashed window I wanted the middle of the window to stand out against the smashed glass which as reflecting the light. If I was to take this photo again I would have done this on a higher aperture to capture a lot more little details on everything in the photo.

9.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/10

Shutter Speed- 1/80 sec

ISO- 400

I have set the aperture at F/10 because I wanted to make the church the main focus even though it’s in the background, because it’s the main focus I wanted there to be a lot of detail and information coming from it. I have set the shutter speed at 1/80 because I wanted to make details from the sky stand out but not enough to take the first focus away from the church.

10.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/8

Shutter Speed- 1/200 sec

ISO- 400

I have set the aperture to F/8 because it was a long shot there was a lot of information I wanted to get into the photo, i also wanted some lighter feature to stand out more for example the white hand rails in the middle of the photo, I want these to stand out because I want these to lead the viewers eyes to the main focus at the back. I have set the shutter speed to 1/200 because there was a lot of light being reflected into the camera from the wet ground and i wanted to capture the detail and create contrast.

11.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/8

Shutter Speed- 1/125 sec

ISO- 400

I have set my camera on an aperture of F/8 because I wanted the top of the building to blend in with the sky but still contain detail for the viewer to notice, I set the shutter speed at 1/125 because like some of the other photos I wanted the dark graffiti to stand out and wanted it to be able to be readable by the viewer to make them feel a connection with the photo.

12.

Camera Settings:

Aperture- F/8

Shutter Speed- 1/200 sec

ISO- 400

Like photo 10 I have had to set the aperture on a low setting because there was a lot of information I wanted to capture, I also didn't want a lot of detail in the brighter things I wanted them to be duller and plain which is why I decided to slightly over expose it. I set the shutter speed at 1/200 because I still wanted to capture a lot of the detail form the wet floor and the little damages which have been made to the space. I also did this photo in this style because it’s the other side of the white railings which is featured in photo 10.