Robert Mapplethorpe Image Bank

I chose this image because I find it fascinating how one of Mapplethorpe's photographs can portray so much emotion when the subject has her eyes closed, they say eyes are the window to the soul and mind and you can always tell someones feelings through their eyes however Mapplethorpe manages to portray a huge amount of emotion through his portrait.

I chose this image because I love the way Mapplethorpe has captured his subject here; I like the way the subject is holding his cane up to the camera so that the main focus is technically on his hand and cane rather than his face. This is done by putting the cane in the foreground with the hand and the face and body of the subject in the background.

I love the way Robert Mapplethorpe  centres the photograph around the subjects facial features and focuses on the eyes. The subject is mirrored extremely evenly both left and right, the hands match and the eyes match this adds depth to the photograph. The hands down the side of the subjects face act as leading lines.

I chose to study this photograph because I love the way Mapplethorpe has used the simplicity of a portrait to convey so much emotion. Robert Mapplethorpe has cleverly made the eyes the central point of the photograph and therefore the main focus. He somehow manages to convey huge amounts of emotion purely through the eyes of his subject.

In this photo; similar to the one before this, Mapplethorpe has made his subjects eyes a main part of the photograph which again conveys huge amounts of emotion.

As with the previous photo's Mapplethorpe has focused on the eyes of his subject to convey emotion however I feel in this photo it is hard to tell what the model is thinking, her emotions seem guarded despite the open nature of the photograph, I think her arms around her neck act as an unspoken guard for her emotions so it is much more difficult to see what she is thinking.

Connecting Essay 2

The photo I have chosen to study from the internet is one of lots and lots of brown leaves up against a curb, the leaves spill out into the road in a spontaneous fashion. The inclusion of the curb by the photographer adds an element of depth to the photograph however, the curb could be used to show depth in a much better fashion by having the curb starting from one corner and ending at the other.

The photo of my own I have chosen to study is a photograph of a very small pile of leaves against a curb with focus on the patterns in the pavement. The central point of the photograph includes the leaves themselves as the main subjects. I aimed to use tone in this photograph by looking at the deep colours of the leaves and also thought about form and the shadow cast by the curb as the light is above it keeping the other side in the dark.

These two photos connect because they share a subject and also use extremely similar surroundings, colour schemes and features. They differ though in the style of shot for example, one is shot portrait and the other landscape then one is using depth where as one focuses more on other formal elements such as form, texture and tone.

Connecting Essay 1

The photograph that I have chosen to study from the internet is this one of beautiful golden brown leaves on the floor, depth is used in this photograph on a minor scale and the photograph was taken through the leaves rather than from above. The blurring of the photograph draws the attention of the viewer to the middle of the photograph and adds emphasis to the main area of the photograph.

The second photograph in this post is one I took myself, I put the camera low on the floor to take the photo through the leaves rather than on top of the leaves, the background and foreground are blurred to add emphasis to the middle of the photograph as the leaves in the centre are the main focus rather than the trees and bushes in the background or the grass in the foreground.

These two photos are very similar and connect because they both use depth to draw attention to the main subject which is leaves. Then, also in both photos the technique of blurring can be found which adds emphasis to the subject. Another similarity or connection between these two photographs is that because they both show orange/brown/golden leaves they both have sentiments of Autumn Colours.

Location and Studio Contrast Straight Images

Location 1 Edits:

Location 2 Edits:  

Studio 1 Edits: 

Studio 2 Edits :

Location and Studio Contrast Work Diary

Evaluation - Location 1 & 2
When we studied contrast on location shoots we studied it on two separate occasions therefore I have two different shoots. On the first contrast shoot I found the topic fairly easy as we had never studied contrast before therefore I noticed everything that was different and contrasting. I found contrast very difficult as almost anything can be contrasted but how its represented in a photograph is extremely important, by the time we did the second location contrast shoot I had found my way a little bit and discovered exactly which types of contrast worked best in context to our brief. Here are a few of my favourite photos from location shoots 1 and 2… 
Shoot 1: 

Shoot 2:

Progression - Location 1 & 2
A progression idea I had for location contrast was to focus on the contrast between inside and outside for example I wanted to show the contrast between the warm safety of the inside areas and the cold harshness of the outside.

Evaluation - Studio 1 & 2
When we studied contrast in the studio I had plenty of ideas what to shoot from contrasts in shoes, clothes, hair colour, eye colour etc. On the first contrast shoot I did struggle with ideas more than the second because in the first shoot I focused more on colour contrasts whereas in the second shoot I thought more about the dimensions of contrasts. Despite the fact that the brief of contrast is extremely vague I still managed to get a good amount of photographs which represented contrast. Here are a few of my favourite photographs from studio shoots 1 and 2…
Shoot 1: 

Shoot 2:

Progression - Studio 1 & 2
A progression idea I had for studio contrast was to do with colour, I had the idea of having people completely drenched in opposite colours on the colour wheel against a plain crisp white background to emphasize the contrast between them.

Walk 2 Straight Images

Autumn Colours:

Journey: 

Back of Head:

Walk 2 Work Diary

Evaluation
My photography session for Walk 2 was very similar to walk 1 in many ways because we had to shoot autumn colours, journey and back of head shots again. Despite the fact I have already shot these topics once I still found it interesting to shoot because we walked a different route therefore we had a different focus. I really enjoyed shooting autumn colours because it took me back to our formal elements study where we looked at colour and texture which in my mind are very prominent in the autumn colours topic. I also enjoyed journey for a similar reason, journey gave us the opportunity to shoot candid shots of things that should be moving for example I caught birds taking flight and cars driving on camera for this shoot. I also enjoyed back of head shots because they gave me the opportunity to focus on filling the frame of the camera which most portrait photographers do. Some of my favourite photographs from this shoot were...

Progression
For progression on walk 2 my progression ideas are the same as walk 1 in that for autumn colours I would like to try drying and hardening leaves then sculpting them and for journey I would like to focus on public transport and arrivals and departures, not just in airports as I mentioned in the progression section of walk 1 but train stations and bus stations in both privileged and unprivileged areas.

Walk 1 Straight Images

Autumn Colours: 

Journey: