Task 1: Single Photograph
Selected Image:
For reasons, I'm not quite sure myself, I've always been interested in prison mugshots. Perhaps, it has to do with the history of the camera and how different groups of people viewed photography. Lecturer Liam French has stated, that the camera was "a tool for documenting reality" (Davidson, 2017). Law enforcement at the time took this opportunity to take photos of convicted criminals of all kinds and use them as a form of warning to the common people. A warning that these are what criminals look like and these types of people should be avoided. Naturally, this would lead to various forms of segregation, false claims and other such negative consequences that come from class divides (French, 2015).
With all that being said, the main focus of my research was to look at the history of the camera and photography and explore the practical side of photography that most people wouldn't really think of, just to show that there are more sides to the medium than just those with artistic intent (quite ironic that I plan to take these aspects and do something 'artistic' with them)
Works Cited
Davidson, S., 2017. Captured and Exposed: The
First Police Rogues’ Gallery in America. 1st ed. St. Louis: Missouri
History Museum Press.
French, L.,
2015. Most Wanted: Cameras, Criminal Justice and the Persistence of Vision.
[Online]
Available at: https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2015/06/22/most-wanted-cameras-criminal-justice-and-the-persistence-of-vision/
[Accessed 17 April 2024].
Now, there are quite a few elements in this image that have been cobbled together from various reference points. As I mentioned earlier, my frame of mind was to somehow expand on the concept of prisoner mugshots, however after learning of the full history I decided my concept would centre around the mugshot of a man who had been wrongfully imprisoned. I also took slight inspiration from Angelina Jolie's 2014 film Unbroken, which takes place during World War 2 and focuses on the wrongful imprisonment of a US athlete.
The photo is in monochrome and the model holding the spitfire plane are supposed to be nods to the Second World War. The model has a ladder between himself that is casting a shadow directly onto his body, this is to emulate prison bars, showing how he's trapped and separated from the outside world, in this image expressed through the plants on the right side of the frame. This separation is further emphasised through the position of the light within the photo. The model can barely fit within the white space created by the natural lighting, having to find ways to adjust himself within the white and fight his way through the ladder. The plants in the black space do not have to conform to a certain shape, they are free to grow as they wish, even slightly entering the models' confined space.
In this section you have to mention and then give reasons for your creative decisions and tools:
Camera:
I used the Canon EOS 200DII. My main camera is the Canon EOS 550D, however, I was encouraged to use the 200D by a senior of mine simply for its ease of use, as the 200D has an adjustable touch screen, which allowed me to completely focus on how I wanted to frame my shots and experiment with angles I would not be able to usually due to the fixed screen on the 550D.
Lens:
For this task, I decided to stay very basic when it came to my camera equipment so that I could focus on showcasing my creativity. For this reason, I decided to stick with the 18-55 mm kit lens that comes with the 200D. The selected image was shot at a focal length of 30 mm.
Lighting:
As I was outside there was a more than adequate amount of natural light that I used to light my subject along with using a handheld LED light for fill.
Black and White or Colour:
Black and white was used during this task, this was done to follow a World War 2 theme, but most importantly I wanted to focus on clarity and contrast, for this reason, I had decided that shooting in black and white would be the best option.
Angle:
I have taken a low-angle shot.
Aperture:
I had set my aperture to F8, as that was the most suitable considering our shooting environment.
ISO:
ISO was set to 100.
Editing Software:
I used Lightroom to slightly adjust the contrast and the shadows within the image to make sure the distinction between the blacks and whites was as defined as possible.
