PHOTOGRAPHY

The research for this was an interesting method of research as whilst I did analyse photographers I also analysed a filmmaker and his visual style.

EDGAR WRIGHT

My initial idea for the brief was to photograph alcohol and give each photo a different meaning and I looked to one of my biggest inspirations in filmmaking for a way to visually represent alcohol in an appealing way. The filmmaker is Edgar Wright, director of Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, particularly ‘The Worlds End’. The World’s End focuses around a group of estranged friends completing a pub crawl in their hometown and has some very visually appealing shots of alcohol. The Director of Photography for that film was Bill Pope.

Edgar Wright uses dramatic lighting cues and symmetry to make the shots of the five pints look dramatic. His use of light centred around the alcohol gives the pints a whole new meaning and shows they are the focus of the shot. I took some inspiration from this in a few of my final products.

RICHARD BILLINGHAM 

Another inspiration in the brief was in the early stages when I knew I wanted to focus around alcohol but I didn’t know how I wanted to portray that. I looked at photographer ‘Richard Billingham’ and his 2000 piece ‘Ray’s a Laugh’. The series of photographs focuses around his father, who was a raging alcoholic. These photos portray his father in various stages of alcoholism and it partially inspired me to photograph my family whilst we drank but when I read further into his project I was turned off by the idea.

NIGHTHAWKS – EDWARD HOPPER

When thinking about this a painting immediately popped into my head. ‘Nighthawks’ by Edward Hopper. Nighthawks is a 1942 oil painting by Edward Hopper which portrays three strangers sitting in a desolate diner late at night. The painting to me looks like a photograph someone took from outside of a diner of a bunch of strangers because it looked visually appealing. Despite the fact that barely any of the frame is filled there is enough within the frame to tell a full story.

RICHARD AVEDON 

Continuing with my research I stumbled upon an American photographer called ‘Richard Avedon’. He does a lot of portrait photography and makes every photo look pure, all of this photos are in black and white and that interested me because I wanted all of my photographs to be pure and in the moment as opposed to rehearsed and staged.

Two portraits of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tilda Swinton.

JOACHIM SCHMID

The first photographer I researched into was Joachim Schmid, a photographer who’s worked with found photography since the 80’s. Schmid worked mostly with old discarded photographs and often would piece them back together like a puzzle, the photos followed no consistent theme as they were random photos he would often find.

I eventually decided against this because I imagined it would be too difficult to go routing through bins to try and discover old photographs and charity shops may not accommodate.

BARRY ROSENTHAL 

The next photographer I looked at for the found photography brief was Barry Rosenthal. Rosenthal collects rubbish discarded from the residents of New York and turns them into inspired pieces of art work.

I liked the look of Rosenthal’s work so tried to incorporate it into my own work.

PABLO PICASSO

For this brief I started with one of all the time great artists; Pablo Picasso. Some of Picasso’s work were known to be appropriations of pre-existing paintings and works of art with his own spin on them. Examples of this are littered all throughout his works.

I liked the idea that one of the greatest living artists made irregular works of art based off of original paintings so I used this as fuel for my creative fire.

SHEPARD FAIREY 

A more recent and rather interesting example of appropriation in modern photography would have come through 2008’s Obama ‘Hope’ poster situation. When Obama was running for president in 2008 street artist Shepard Fairey appropriated a photo of Obama and edited the design and wrote ‘Hope’ on it to mirror the Uncle Sam ‘America Needs You’ type posters. Originally the Obama campaign denied any affiliation with it as the photograph had been ‘perpetuated illegally’. In the end the Obama campaign endorsed the poster after it’s mass success and popularity.

It’s interesting that something as simple as this which was changed so little could fall into the category of fair use so I will consider this in my final design stage.