Flann O'Brien - At Swim-Two-Birds

Brief

Penguin Books are looking for a new image to feature on the cover of At Swim-Two-Birds. Our brief is to take a photograph that captures the spirit of the novel which in the words of Anthony Burgess. 'assaults your brain with words, style, magic, madness, and unlimited invention.'

The new image must be shot on Fujifilm Professional or Consumer film and must fit the new Modern Classics jacket layout.

Breif

We are required to produce a A3 Digital Portfolio Image (300 dpi) with an accompanying 'Research file'

This assignment is 'FAMILY' which requires us to investigate the world of our close family members, and to respond to any of these words:

INTRUDE, AGE, REVEALING, VOYEURISM, CHILD, PRIVACY, SOCIAL, CLASS, CULTURE

Ideas.

I am happy we have been given this assignment now as this weekend I am going on a family weekend to Wales for my uncles 50th birthday. I plan to take my pictures then, as all my family will be there and is a perfect opportunity for me to photograph my close family members as they are all going to be there.

Research

Richard Billingham

We all have photographs somewhere close to hand, but as the world of photography became increasingly introspective, subjective and confessional the door to family life, usually closed, was kicked wide open. The very private was becoming very public.

Artist Richard Billingham didn't care about how his family ought to look when he turned his gaze on them and their situation at the heart of working class life in Thatcher's Britain. Nor was he concerned about photography when he was living with his father Ray. He was simply a would-be painter in need of a patient model

He took so many shots that the family stopped noticing and the result is that they are portraited without artefice. His photos were first shown in the barbican art gallery, london 1994 entitled 'who's looking at the family'. Two years later

these selected images feature in billingham's book, 'ray's a laugh', published by scalo, 1996.

What I did

As i was going on a family weekend to Wales this is when i wanted to photograph my family. Half way on the journey i realised that i had forgotton my camera! I was really annoyed with myself because this is where i wanted to take me pictures. I therefore improvised with my dads digital camera creating snapshot images, this is why i researched Richard Billingham as I think his images have a snap shop style to them which i could get inspiration from.

I have decided to use the world CULTURE. I want to use this word to show the culture of my family.

CULTURE - the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc

My Pictures

My Image

I was so annoyed with myself for forgetting my D4O as i wasnt able to take the pictures i wanted to. In the end i just decided to do a collage, although it isnt very technical i thought it would probably be the best time to do one would be in this assignment as it is a family assignment, about the people you love and who are important to you. I think i am able to put this accross well with a collage and i enjoyed making it, it was fun. Although i researched Richard Billingham it I havn't copied his work as i dont really like it, but I have taken inspiration from is work, i have also photographed the way my family really are, i wanted to show this because this is why i love them. I think Richard Billingham portrays his mother and father in a bad way, I didnt want to portray my family this way, i wanted to show there fun lovely scense of humours which i think that i have with this picture. I am not particually happy with the image i came out with because i wanted a 'photograph' not a 'collage' but as i had to take the pictures with a digital camera and wasnt really sure what pictures i wanted to achieve i think it is okay. Next time i will not forget my camera.

Research - Olivia Parker

Brief

This assignment is 'SIGNS OF LIFE' which will require us to investigate the world of fine art / Photographic 'Still Life', we must respond to one of these words.

DEAD, FRAGILE, BROKEN, DELICATE, OLD, MEMORY, TIME, PLACE, STRUCTURE
Artist Research

Olivia Parker began her career as a painter, she self taught herself photography in 1970. Her photographs are inspired by Dutch art. Her first book 'Signs of Life' featured simple images. A perfect white orchid, a pair of baller slippers, pea pods sitting on a counter.This set of work is exclusivly black and white, using large format cameras 8 x 10 up to 12 x 20, then turned to poloroid and cibachrome materials and returned to painting and creating preperations and background materials for her individual images. All her work is composed and shot on copy stand.

Olivia Parker has had more than on houndred one-person exhibitions in the United States and abroad and her work is represented in several major private and museum collections.

Her perfectly lit work explains their venerability, making very beautiful images. I think her images look very feminine, and innocent. I am really fond of them, i like the simility of the white in the images, making them look so elegent. Her photographs ask viewers to continually evaluate their meaning by never truly defining where the eye comes to rest.

For this assignment i want to respond to DELICATE


DELICATE - exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing.

My idea

I want to photograph what i consider delicate or fragile objects, i plan to photograph a pearls on a white sheet in the style of Olivia Parker. I am going to photograph the object on a white peace of paper next to a window to create the same kind of style as Parker. I think her images look very pretty and feminine and i like this that is why i picked delicate and fragile for my still life project.

My Images

How i created my images

I set my camera to the 'A' setting, i created a narrow depth of field by setting my f stop to 5.6 as this is the lowest it would go on my camera. I lay my pearls on a pillow case by my kitchen window as i felt it was the best place for light in my house. It was a dull day, so i set the I.S.O on my camera to 400. I messed around to see what kind of picture i wanted to create, still trying to copy the style of Olivia Parker. I used a white peace of paper to try and bounce some of the light onto the pearls. I like the images i turned out with although they are not as vibrant as Parkers work i think they will look successful once theyve been Photoshopped.

My Final Image

This is my final image, i picked this image as it was my favourite of my set of photographs and had positive comments from my class mates. I messed around with the levels and contrast and came out with this image. Unlike Olivia Parkers work mine has more colour to it which i decided to keep because i felt it looked better than purely black and white.

I like the way the pearl flows through the picture like a line that blurs. You can see a slight reflection in the pearls which i also like, although it was not intended.

The lense has focused on the front of the image which allows you to see the texture and fibres in the material the pearls are layed on which i think is nice. I also created a black border around the image to copy the style of Olivia Parkers work, i think this looks effective on my image and i like that is isnt a plain black border.