Discussion Of Exam Paper

The Sky

Brief

Observations of clouds and skylines have proved inspirational for many photographers and filmmakers. Stephen Shore and Edward Steichen photographed clouds at various times of the day. In the film Mistaken Memories of Medieval Manhatten, Brian Eno produced a time-lapse sequence of New York filmed in vertical format, with buildings silhouetted against a drifting atmospheric sky. In the photobook Solitude of the Ravens, Masahisa Fukase produced evocative images of birds in flight against dramatic skies.

Stephen Shore

Background Information

Stephen Shore is an American photographer infamous for his banal photrography with landscaps and objects and commonly uses colour as a basis for his photography.

Example Images

In this image wee see an empty American road surrounded by arid deserts with  clear blue sky with one cloud and a mountain range in the back ground. 

In this image we see an almost empty suburban American town with late 1950s/ early 1960s style. The sky is overcast, but it is still very sunny.

In this image we see a billboard depicting an Alaskan mountain range which lines up with the skyline behind it. There is also a yellow/ green field around it with a shabby wooden fence along he roadside. The sky is bright blue with a couple clouds.

Edward Steichen

Edward Steichen was a Luxembourgian/ American photographer, painter and museum curator , born on 27th March 1879, who belonged to the Socio- Realism Movement. He also opened the Little Galleries with Alfred Steigetz, which later became 291, after its address.  

Example Images;

In this image we see a misty city with leafless trees and a tall slender building sitting in the centre. 

In this image we see a pond at sundown/ daybreak with a group of trees surrounding it.

Masahisa Fukase

Maasahisa Fukase was a Japanese born photographer born in 1934 in Hikkaido, Japan. He often depectied domestic life with his wife Yoko Wanibe, and his visits to his parents in the village of Hikkaido. He is famous for his book ''The Solitude of the Ravens'', which the British Journal chose as the best book between 1989-2009.

Example Images;

In this image we see wispy white objects flying in front the of the camera, of which are likely fireflies, while in a field next to a forest at night/ noon. 

In this image we see a conspiracy of ravens sitting in a weltered trees during the day, with their eyes whited out and glowing. Due to the high exposure and monochrome editing of the image adds a eeriee and unsettling feeling to the image. This also may relate to the poem the Raven written by Edgar Allen Poe, and the chilling events that fold, which now leads us to relate ravens with a feeling of dread and death. Furthermore, having a silhouette with glowing white eyes is a common horror staple in pop culture to create an unsettling feeling, for example  teaser 1 for american horror story; Roanoke named sunset stroll where a family is limping in the darkness with orange sunset with whited out eyes.

Here we see a group of people walking down a dirt road in  rural area, with a heavy cloud brooding above and snow on the ground. This image also has high exposure which creates even more of a creepy unsettling feeling. Due to this exposure the snows contract with everything else creats an intresting look, espically next to the sky with its dark gray 

Circles and Curves

Brief

many photographers and artists have used circles and curves to produced imaginative and powerful work. Josef Sudek photographed shells, eggs, glasses and balls chosen for their distinctive shapes and forms, in his series of still life arrangements. Round hats, mirrors and lenses act as frames or focal points in portraits of Vivian Maier. Yayoi Kusama has used complex and intense patterns of dots and spots to produce startling installations. Produce your own response, making reference to appropriate work by others.

Josef Sudek

Background Information









Vivian Maeir

Background Information

ivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles. During her lifetime, Maier's photographs were unknown and unpublished; many of her negatives were never printed. A Chicago collector, John Maloof, acquired some of Maier's photos in 2007, while two other Chicago-based collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, also found some of Maier's prints and negatives in her boxes and suitcases around the same time. Maier's photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008, by Slattery, but the work received little response. In October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier's photographs on the image-sharing website Flickr, and the results went viral, with thousands of people expressing interest. Maier's work subsequently attracted critical acclaim, and since then, Maier's photographs have been exhibited around the world.







Yayoi Kasuma

Background Information

Yayoi Kasuma is a artist, sculptor and performance artist from Matsumoto