Tuesday, September 9, 2014
| 2 | 09.10 |
• In class discussion of Class Blog topic
• In class shoot with 4x5 and 35mm size cameras
• Swing, Tilt, Shift, Rise and Fall introduced
• How to use your exposure meter
• Tour: Darkrooms
For next week:
• SHOOT: AT LEAST 2 more images to add to the two we shot in class.
• READ/ REVIEW: Handout of Chapter 17 “Using the View Camera” and Chapter 4 “Exposure”
• READ/ANSWER QUESTIONS: Class Blog discussion topic
• BRING: Negatives you shot in class and outside class to develop in class
• BRING: Negative sleeves, B&W printing paper
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| 2 | DISCUSSION TOPIC |
- Due Sept 17th before class -
Take a look at some of the photographs in Richard Avedon's series "The American West" shot in the late 1970's-early 1980's using an 8'x10' camera. (Similar to our 4"x5" cameras but with negatives 4 times as big!)
http://www.theavedonfoundation.net/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=7&a=0&at=0
then
Read this article written by one of Richard Avedon's assistants during his "American West" series shoot.
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0406/wilson.html
(this link will take you to a "forbidden" page. Click once in the address bar and hit Enter, then the page will show up. I'm not sure why. If it doesn't work for you let me know)
then
Take a look at the behind the scene images of the shoot(s)
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0406/av01.html
(this link will take you to a "forbidden" page. Click once in the address bar and hit Enter, then the page will show up. I'm not sure why. If it doesn't work for you let me know)
then
Leave a brief answer for each of these questions:
1) How did Avedon end up pursuing this project?
2) What did he do to prepare for the project? How did he find his subjects?
3) How did the use of a large format camera effect Avedon's interaction with his subjects?
4) What kind of set up/lighting was used?
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Hi. None of the links are working for me. The bottom two say "forbidden"
ReplyDelete1) How did Avedon end up pursuing this project? After being the first photographer to appear on the cover of Newsweek, he was approached to do a project that consisted of bringing him to the “American West.” This project allowed him to photograph men and women of the American West and construct a new perspective of the West.
ReplyDelete2) What did he do to prepare for the project? To prepare for this project Avedon held a test shoot at the Texas for the Rattlesnake Round-Up, in Sweetwater.
How did he find his subjects? Avedon found his subjects through introduction letters and persuasion. He wanted to capture subjects that expressed his ideal of the human condition. He wanted to tell the story of the hardworking men and women in an unforgiving landscape.
3) How did the use of a large format camera effect Avedon's interaction with his subjects? Due to him using a large format camera, he was able to capture really sharp information of his subjects. He also wanted to have eye-to-eye intimacy with his subjects without the camera being in the way. He had to assume that he pictures were capturing the experience, their attention, mood and the overall moment.
4) What kind of set up/lighting was used? A white seamless paper was used to isolate subject from environment. In his words, to remove distractions.” He shot in the shade using the light available to avoid harsh shadows and highlights of sunshine that would dominate their faces. The shaded light allowed his subject’s emotions to appear and the hot weather allowed him to have subjects with lesser garments of clothing, compared to New York winters that he was used to.
1. Avedon was contacted by a fellow photographer named Mitch Wilder, who was the director of a museum in Fort Worth, TX called Amon Carter Museum, and by Bob Wilson, an advisor at the same museum. They were interested in a project with the concept of photographing those who decided to migrate west in America, the same way their ancestors made the choice to migrate west to the United States from Europe.
ReplyDelete2. I feel like there may have been a bit of a mental preparation for him, not just what equipment to bring, where to set up shop, who to photograph, etc. The mental aspect for me was him realizing he wanted to get a wider, deeper perspective of the people who make up the central part of the USA and consciously thinking about how he wanted to represent them, even if only knowing he did not want to romanticize them.
Avedon found his subjects by going to various places/events like Rattlesnake Round-Up or to coal mines and local churches, etc., set up his camera and white back drop and he and Laura Wilson would look for people to photograph. Though I feel like that kind of set up would be more likely to draw people to you.
3. Because the technicalities of a large format camera are so involved, you can’t just take a quick shot of your subject like you can with a 35mm. Large format requires a photographer to spend a lot of time with their subjects. I think that allows the subject and the photographer to become a little bit more familiar with one another, if possible. You are forced to look at your subject more and they are also fully aware that they are being photographed. Perhaps that way, for the subjects, there’s no wall being put up emotionally/mentally and they are able to reveal themselves more than if they were unaware. And also using the white back drop stripped away any other context, so all you see is the person standing before you and can focus solely on them and their person.
4. For lighting, Avedon used natural light, specifically in shaded areas to avoid harsh shadows and because of its “neutral quality.” Further allowing the subjects' selves to come through rather than the viewer being told where to look/focus. The viewer would have to take them all in as a result.
1. Avedon, after spending forty-plus years in New York, felt ready when Mitch Wilder offered to fund an expedition, six years in advance, to photograph the West as Avedon saw it. Avedon was also given authority to pull the prints he didn't think were up to par seemed to seal the deal.
ReplyDelete2. Avedon wandered crowded events like the Rattlesnake Round-up in Sweetwater, Texas; or drove along the interstates looking for drifters. When he found someone, he would talk to them and convince them to pose in front of a stark white background. The beekeeper photo insinuates that he sometimes wrote letters or asked for people to actively volunteer for a photograph.
3. Avedon's use of the large format camera allowed him to interact face-to-face with his subjects, making eye contract rather than winking behind a small point-and-shoot.
4. Avedon preferred the shade and avoided harsh highlights and shadows that would dominate the face, without using any strobe lights--they made the images look artificial.
1) Mitch WIlder, a photographer and the director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, convinced him a month after Avedon's opening at the Metropolitan. Avedon's work had taken him from the Civil Rights movement in the South to Vietnam for the Anti-War movement, but he considered his portrait of America to be unfinished.
ReplyDelete2) His preparation involved a test shoot in Sweetwater, Texas at the Rattlesnake Roundup. He and his assistants wandered through the crowd with his large view-camera and looking for people to photograph. Once they found subjects they tacked up a 9x12 foot piece of seemless and shot them.
Avedon found his subjects by wandering through crowds at large events, through letters of introduction, and even through chance encounters.
3) The large format camera allowed for Avedon to step away from the view finder and face the subject himself. This provided both an intimacy and a tension otherwise absent from other formats.
4) Avedon preferred open shade lighting so as to avoid the harsh highlights and shadows of provided by sunshine. He found a quiet beauty in the neutral quality of shaded light.
1) How did Avedon end up pursuing this project?
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article by Laura Wilson, Avedon's assistant while working on In the American West, Avedon was approached by the advisor, Bob Wilson, and director, Mitch Wilder of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
2) What did he do to prepare for the project? How did he find his subjects?
After working out the terms of the 6-year project with Amon Carter Museum, Avedon did a test shoot in Sweetwater, Texas at the Rattlesnake Round-Up. He wandered around the crowd with his three assistants looking for subjects. Chance, spontaneity and talking to a lot of people was involved in finding the subjects - the great beauty of randomness. The striking portrait of the tattooed prisoners was shot because a policeman overheard Avedon at a tattoo parlor and suggested he go to the Bexar County Jail to find tattoos. Avedon found one of the drifters on the Interstate 40 near Yukon, Oklahoma.
3) How did the use of a large format camera effect Avedon's interaction with his subjects?
Using a large format camera was instrumental in developing a connection and intimacy with the subject. Once the camera was focused, Avedon was free to move to the front and watch, direct and talk to the subject, creating a real and spontaneous exchange. This would not have been possible if he had to be behind the camera looking through the lens.
4) What kind of set up/lighting was used?
Avedon used a Deardorf camera with 8X10" film. The subjects were placed against a 9X12' seamless white paper and photographed in shade with available light. This put the focus entirely on the emotionality and mood of the subject as there were no distractions caused by backdrop or lighting tricks.
1) Richard Avedon had a meeting with Mitch Wilder, the director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and Bob Wilson, an advisor to that museum, in New York City in 1978. They discussed the idea of Avedon going into the heart of America and doing portraits of the people he saw there.
ReplyDelete2) Avedon prepared by going to a Rattlesnake Round-Up event in Sweetwater, Texas. He and his assistants wandered through the crowd looking for people to photograph. After that, on other occasions he would either go looking for subjects at big events or see them randomly, like finding a drifter walking on the side of the highway. People would also write to him, asking if they could be a subject in one of his photos.
3) Because Avedon was working with a large format camera, he would have to go under a black cloth to focus the image. Once that was done, however, he was free to move around and engage with his subject, making eye contact and encouraging the subject throughout the shoot, which helped him create the type of photograph he wanted.
4) Avedon's assistants would set up a 9x12 foot piece of white seamless paper in a shaded area, where only the available light was utilized. Avedon worked with a Deardorf large format camera, which held 8x10 sheets of film. These negatives were large and produced incredible sharpness and detail in the images.
1. Avedon pursued this project after meeting with Wilder.
ReplyDelete2. They prepared by having a trial shoot at the Rattesnake Round-up even in Texas in 1979. His two assistants and himself walked through the event in search of people to photograph.
3. "..he was free to move to the front of the camera to face his subject directly. Nothing was between them. This permitted him the intimacy of eye to eye contact which would not have been possible if he were holding a camera up to his face. Because he wasn't actually looking through the lens, he had to imagine the picture he was taking. Only through experience was he able to sense what he had actually photographed; he couldn't really know until a print was made."
4. His assistants would set up a a white back drop and control the natural light using different sheets.
1) Avedon maintained the right to withdraw all the photographs if, "by his own standards he failed to measure up".
ReplyDelete2) Avedon and his 2 assistants crisscrossed the West to find his subjects. They took advantage of events where large number of people would gather and search through crowds.
3) The use of the large format camera allowed Avedon to focus, set camera, then proceed to where the subject was for that intimate connection he was looking for and hoping to capture.
4) For the most part the light used in photographs was outdoors in light shade. Subjects stood in front of white seamless paper.