John Delaney : Hoboken Passing

”One thing that really emerges from the images is the dense texture and detail in the backgrounds, which are just captivating as the characters ”. This quote stood out to me the most whilst reading through some of John Delaney’s work.

When looking through a photographers work, I tend look at the images first before reading the text. However, as I was going through the British Journal of Photography, I noticed the quote above.  John Delany is a photography who I recently came across whilst reading the British Journal of Photography. Hoboken Passing is the series of photographs which I have been looking at and came across the image below. The Hoboken Passing is about Delaney exploring the survivors from of a neighbourhood transition. Identity and uniqueness is what John Delaney described this as.

Looking at the image below has opened my eyes since reading the quote the John Delaney said. When looking at portraiture, I tend to have my main focus on the person in the picture rather than the background. Nonetheless, I still look at the background to help me identify more about the person who is being photographed.

The image below is simply yet interesting. The use of colour that have been shown represent the image well as it is set in an American diner. I feel that when Delaney took the image at the time, the person wasn’t prepared for their photo to be taken . However, I personally find the unexpected image can turn out better than what you’ve planned to do.

A number of images that John Delaney has taken has helped me to develop my own work and think about what I could change and do next time If I had to do another photo shoot.

Hoboken Passing: The Hoboken Originals

Reference: Delaney, J. (2012). Hoboken Passing. British Journal of Photography. 159 (1), 18-19.

John Londei

Shutting Up Shop (Late 1970s)

Like many artists, John Londei explores different area’s of photography from black and white to using the studio and photographing famous, old, young people and so on. Londei studied at the Medway College of Art where he found his passion for Photography. He is also an award-winning advertising and editorial photographer.

”Shutting Up Shop” is a series of images where Londei shot images over a seventeen year period which started in the early 1970’s. These images were based around small traditional shops but have now disappeared over the years. There are a wide range of shops featured in this series from tea shops to tobacco and flower shops. A lot of the images were taken around London but also across different regions in the UK. These photographs have been held at The National Portrait Gallery and The Museum of London as part of solo exhibitions.

Looking at the series of work which Londei created, I am inspired to recreate images similar to the one above. Vintage shops spark my interest the most when thinking about a shoot similar to Londei’s work. I feel that photographing old shops would be interesting

because of the unique antiques that are shown in the display windows. However, I also felt that photographing an employe from the shop would be intriguing simply because of how they dress for work as some places may or may not have a dress code.

Overall, Londei’s series, ”Shutting up Shop” has inspired me to recreate his images in my own way. I will be scouting for a number of locations which have vintage shops. Simple and unique is what I would describe these particular images that are related to this series.

Reference: John Londei Photography. 2013. Shops. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.johnlondei.co.uk/index.php?filename=index. [Accessed 01 March 15

Londe, J (2007).Shutting Up Shop: The Decline of the Traditional Small Shop. London: Dewi Lewis Ltd. 20-25

Midterm hand in

This week, I had to hand in my work that I have done so far for this project. For the project, our task is to have two final colour prints, alone with contact sheets and research based on six different artists of my choice. The projects theme this semester is based on Portraiture. Many ideas come to mind when looking at portraiture and how I can interpret it in my own way.

After brainstorming many ideas, I narrowed it down to three main ideas:

1) People holding an object which represents them (eg. a guitar)

2) People and their careers- work environment

3) Dressing up in peoples clothes- comparing to what they looked like in old photos.

During a group tutorials and talking about my proposal, I decided to go with my second choice which was to look and people and their work environments. Once I chose my final idea, I started looking into a number of photographers who have done work similar to my idea. I eventually came across John Londei, a photographer who did a series of images called ‘Shutting Up Shop’. This series is based on owners and employes being photographed outside of their work places. For fourteen years, he focused on this project ( alongside others) and looked at vintage shops in particular. As well as that, he photographed tobacco, tea, music and other various shops.

Using a medium format camera for the first time was quite scary ( due to the fact I had never used one before!). However, once I had done one roll of film I found it easier as I went along. Doing colour prints this time around is much more complicated than the black and white darkroom. On the other hand, I enjoy it more because I get to learn more complicated stuff, and i’ve discovered more techniques that are useful such as the use of filters.

Overall, I felt that my final two images related to John Londei’s work. I preferred one of the images to the other, but I am hoping to improve that in the future.

Timeline Task

This week, I had the task of researching two photographers ( that were chosen for me) for part of a timeline which will be presented on the walls. This timeline goes back as early as the 1800’s up until today. The photographers that got chosen for me was Nadar and Orlan who are both French artists.

Looking over my peer’s work on the wall, I realised that there were many photographers who I have never heard of and some which were well known such as Nick Knight and Martin Parr. It was interesting to discover a large variety of artists who have look at portraiture, especially those who were around in the 1800’s/ early 1900’s.  Looking at photographers in that era got me to thinking how they would manipulate their images, as they did not have photoshop or any kind of editing programme!

Another point which came to mind was the way different photographers looked at portraiture. Typically when I think of portraits, the first thing that comes to mind is a front shot of a person’s face. However, with some artists, that is not the case.  Scanning through the many artists on the wall, some images are shot from a far away point, presenting a model’s whole body rather than just the head and shoulders.

This task was interesting to take on. I was able to discover a large number of photographers who I have never heard of. As well as that, from looking at photographs from the beginning of the timeline up until today, it was fascinating to see how much technology has change and how much manipulation can be done on a image these days.

Below is an image of the timeline that myself and class created at the beginning of the week: