12 - HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Camera Obscura

fig 213 (NOT ORIGINAL PICTURE) taken from internet

Above is a temporary internet image of the "camera obscura".  This Sunday I will be going to the London photography gallery, where I will be able to take a video of the film created by a real camera obscura.

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This is the camera obscura portal at the London Photography museum 

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Living in London allowed me to visit a huge variety of galleries, from which I took inspiration. These galleries include the Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery (where David Bailey's "Stardust" exhibition was being shown) and the Photography Museum, which was part of our school trip.

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Famous Photographers

Above is the famous "Afghan Girl" taken by Steve McCurry, December 1984

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Another example of the work of Cartier Bresson: "Shanghai", 1948

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Here is a self portrait of Arno Minkkinen, 1992. The woman in the picture is Maija Sysma.

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To finish, the well known fashion photographer Richard Avedon. Above: Andy Warhol portrait, 1969, Below: Dorien Leigh with Bicycle Racer (Dior) 1949

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Steve McCurry was an assosciated press photographer, most well known for the picture "Afghan Girl". He focuses on children with colours and compositions that bring out their eyes in particular. This striking effect adds a new level of depth into each of his pictures as the children's superficial innocence is often overshadowed by the serious and often somewhat sad emotions behind those eyes. 

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Photographer Steve McCurry, most known for the photograph "Afghan Girl", often focuses on the eyes of his subjects. The eyes are always in extreme focus and in clear, striking colours, adding depth to the pictures as they convey the emotions of the main, usually very young, subject. 

I must admit that in order to achieve this effect in my exam pieces, many of them were Photoshopped lending the subjects wide, colourful eyes to emphasize the subject's facial expression. 

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My Homage to McCurry taken 30th April 2014  

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Cartier Bresson took photographs mainly from around the Second World War. Born in 1908, Bresson had a tendency to capture people in the midst of an emotion or activity, providing viewers with a snapshot into their life. Some of Bresson's most famous works, for example "Rance", 1932, are famously known as images foreshadowing the horrors of the Holocaust. 

After the war, Bresson focused on capturing the widespread relief of the public. 

Due to the price and availability of colour cameras at the time, Bresson's most famous pictures are all in black and white. 

"When you take a shot, you're halfway through a pickpocket and a tightrope walker." 

BRESSON AND FIBINNACI

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Evaluation

What Went Well: 

• I have discovered the level of influence which mathematical principles like the golden ratio hold in photography
• I have been inspired by a range of great photographers, and I tried to pay homage by creating similar images, see fig 164.5

Improvements

• I would have liked to go into more depth on the techniques adopted by some other famous photographers such as Diane Arbus and her unconventional cropping
• I would have like to have searched for some other geometric mathematical principles in these great images