My photography journey has taken me from simple selfies to photographing cityscapes and experimenting with light for portrait work. Portrait work has always held a fascination for me because these photographs convey information about the subject. It's like looking through a window revealing information about their identity. In this project I want to explore this theme further, looking at a range of photographers, each with differing styles. My aim is to use this research as my inspiration so I can produce a response which portrays identity through a range of different techniques.
The topic I have chosen to focus on is Identity and how I can capture Identity in photography. I am interested in identity due to the many ways you can show identity such as photographing people, personal possessions, buildings or even forms of art that people have created to show their identity through the art. As part of my investigation into the topic of identity I will explore many ways that I can show identity through the photographing of people and using many Photoshop techniques. A photographic technique that I will be using are playing with shadows and lights. I will use shadow and lights as in photographs are very important as they can determine what the focus is in the image and what looks dramatic. Light is important as it not only determines the brightness and darkness of an image, it also determines the tone, mood and atmosphere of the photograph. I will also be using photographers that have inspired me to investigate the topic of identity who are John Rankin Waddell, Jim Golden and David Russell.
Rankin
John Rankin Waddell is a photographer is mainly focuses on portrait and fashion photography. Rankin’s work is not the normal type of portrait photography as with a lot of his work, he lets the model choose what Rankin should do with the photograph. Rankin was born in Glasgowin 1966 and is an English fashion and portrait photographer. He grew up in Hertfordshire and while studying at Brighton Polytechnic, he realised that his interest lies in photography. So, he joined the Barnfield College, Luton, United Kingdom and later went to London College of Printing. Meanwhile, Rankin met Jefferson Hack and once they graduated, together they started a magazine titled Dazed & Confuse. In 1999, the two became the founder of a production company known as, Dazed Film & TV. It was the first to broadcast a mast-head television special, Renegade TV Gets Dazed. Rankin then in 2000 launched RANK, a quarterly fashion magazine. The Dazed Group also publishes Another Man, HUNGER and Another Magazine. My favourite part of Rankin’s work is his destroy project. In this destroy project, Rankin will take a photograph of the model or celebrity and then give the photograph back to the celebrity so that they can destroy the photograph themselves. This is a really good idea but the aspect that allows this idea to work is that the quality of the photograph at the start is at such a high standard that it allows the work of the celebrity to destroy it really easy. Rankin is so well known that he has been able to work with celebrities like Robert Downey Junior, Cara Delevingne, David Bowie, Jay-Z and many more. To make his work so good Rankin works a lot with the lighting of the photograph as he makes sure that he faces are bright. This allows the photograph to have shadows on a side of the face. Rankin also increases the contrast of the photograph to show the viewer the detail in the models face. I really enjoy the composition of his work and this is why I have took inspiration from him and hope to replicate some of his work from the destroy project. I have replicated if work by using physical destruction as well as Photoshop destruction. With the physical destruction, I have used paint and have also ripped the paper. In some examples, I also used by physical and Photoshop destruction and have presented them with a frame as I believe that it is work of a high standard and should be displayed professionally.
Jim Golden
Jim Golden is a photographer who specialises in still life and products. Jim’s passion is to show viewers what objects are like and not to show any false sense of beauty. Jim first learned his craft in the fast-paced New York advertising world, where he spent several years working as a high-end retoucher and visual effects specialist. In 2000, with a sense of manifest destiny, he packed his bags and headed to Portland. Jim is a consummate professional with 20 years of industry experience. His easy-going attitude and sense of humour ensure that clients not only receive top-quality work, but also enjoy the process. As part of Jim’s work with still life, he has done a project on collections which involves using personal items and placing them in a certain way. These items are either similar or a linked in some way. Jim likes to set up the items in a very organised way and allowing spaces between each item and letting the background be shown in the photograph. This adds a very professional look to his work. Jim Golden has worked from many famous brands due to his work being seen as exceptional. Companies that Jim has worked for are Wieden + Kennedy, McKinney, Haworth, Clorox, Simpson Strong-Tie, Soy Vay, New Seasons, Weight Watchers, Yahoo!, Sherwin Williams, Hoka One One, Reebok, Nike, Jordan, Adidas, Keen, Kinfolk, Field & Stream, Outside, Money, Sunset and Audubon Society. This would range of clients show how well known he is in the world and that his quality is deserved. This is why I have took inspiration from him and will hope to do work in a similar style of him. I have been able to develop my work and improve on it by making the photographs have more detail in the form of more personal items. I have also developed on my first piece of work by changing the background from white as white can make the photographs look plain. Instead I have used different colours and textures to make my work more of my own and have my style in it.
David Russell
David Russell is a graffiti photographer and looks at how graffiti can show the identity of the artists as they show the artists passion and creativity. David Russell lives in Australia and does most of his work in his home town of Melbourne. David is an active member of the Invurt.com crew. David enjoys photographing and showing the world the beautiful street art in Melbourne as David sees the devotion that the artists have to decorate Melbourne in stunning graffiti art. Invurt is a website that provides information on street, urban, illustrative and genre defying, nu-contemporary art to readers around the world. In his work, the is different styles and different settings as some are taken during the day and some are taken in the night. This gives a real variation in work and combined with different graffiti art creates a huge collection of styles. I suspect from observing David's photographs that he does some small edits to increase the already high standard of his work. I suspect that he does this by selecting the graffiti using the quick selection tool, and then adjust the saturation of the graffiti to bring out the colour of the graffiti. This makes the colours more in your face and eye catching. I assume that along with this, he also does a simple edit to the whole image by adjusting the levels which changes the contrast in light and dark in the image and also changes the shadows. These to techniques combined with the high quality of photographs already taken mean that his work is of an exceptional standard and obvious to see that he is a pro photographer and an expert is his field of work in street photography. I hope to capture the essence of his work in my work as it is truly inspiring. The comparison between my work and David's will first depend on the quality of graffiti art in Liverpool that I can find and also how much or how well I am able to edit the photographs that I take. I am really looking forward to this project as I have a real passion for going out and taking photos of my city and especially art in the city which can range for the art of architecture to the art of street art such as graffiti.
Conclusion
Since I started the project of Identity: A Photographic study, I have development my photography skills in many different ways and have gained a new understanding of the different styles and techniques using photography. I have further developed my photography skills of portrait photography as I have shown many different styles from Rankin destroy to Jim Golden collections. I have learned that identity can be shown in many different forms and that this can be the same for many different aspects of photography. The work I enjoyed doing the most was the Graffiti work and also using the Masks. I really enjoyed doing the Graffiti work as I found the patterns and colours used by the Artists really capturing and that because there is bright colours, the potential for different Photoshop edits is high as I was able to change the colours and blend some together creating a spectrum of colour. I enjoyed using the Masks in my work as I found that they can be seen in many different ways from creepy to being used as a party item. I was also able to use the Masks to create different angles and create different styles of images. My favourite part of using the Masks was being able to edit the photos I obtained in many different ways and really being able to show my creativity when using photos of high quality. I am glad that I did this project as I have been able to further extend my knowledge and ability in photography which can be used in the future using any project that I set myself to do and because of the skills gained, I will be able to do the work to a really high standard.
Bibliography
Famous Photographers - This website includes information about Rankin and his work: http://www.famousphotographers.net/rankin
Rankin - This website includes the biography of Rankin: http://rankin.co.uk/biography/
Jim Golden Studio - This website includes the biography of Jim Golden: https://www.jimgoldenstudio.com/About-Jim/1/
Phaidon - This website includes information about Jim Golden and his work: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2013/august/21/jim-goldens-still-lifes/
David Russell Photography - This website includes information about David Russell and his work: http://davidrussellphotography.com.au/