People

The Human Condition

Before starting this assignment I researched into what the human condition actually means I have found that there are lots of different opinions on the human condition and what it is/means here is a definition I found online.

"The human condition encompasses the unique features of being human.

It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not dependent on factors such as gender, race or class. It includes concerns such as the meaning of life, the search for gratification, the sense of curiosity, the inevitability of isolation, or anxiety regarding the inescapability of death.

The “human condition” is principally studied through the set of disciplines and sub-fields that make up the humanities. The study of history, philosophy, literature, and the arts all help us to understand the nature of the human condition and the broader cultural and social arrangements that make up human lives.

The human condition is the subject of such fields of study as philosophy, theology, sociology, psychology, anthropology, demographics, evolutionary biology, cultural studies, and sociobiology. The philosophical school of existentialism deals with core issues related to the human condition including the ongoing search for ultimate meaning."

From my research I found that the varying opinions on the human condition can be broken down into several categories:

Social: The need to impress others and fit in with society

Love: The need to partner, start a nuclear family and pro create

Beauty: This fits with social, the need to be perfect.

Death: The awareness that we are mortal influences the way we live, fear of death.

For this unit we are to look into 4 different types of people photography that show the varying techniques behind people photography.

Environmental Portrait.

Definition:  An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject's usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject's life and surroundings. The term is most frequently used of a genre of photography.

Jonathan Bielaski

Jonathan is an environmental portrait photographer, here is a quote about his works from his website

"Environmental portraiture captures the essence of a subject in its natural habitat. Every one of Jonathan Bielaski’s photos tell a story of a person’s journey. The focus is greater than the person – it’s the reality of who they are at this time in their life – the background reflecting their personality.

Sometimes all you have is one shot to tell a story. It develops before your eyes in Jonathan’s photos."

http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/

In this image it looks like Jonathan has used a portable flash unit and bounced it off of the ceiling down onto his subject, as you can see the highlights on the very tops of the metal and the deep shadows from under his helmet created by the above lighting.

This image appears to be a combination of natural light from the window to the left of the photographer with a small amount of fill light from a portable flash on camera possibly with a small soft box attached.





Techniques for environmental portrait:


Lighting subjects outdoors in bad weather

Sometimes a fill light is required for shooting portraits outdoors on an overcast day, under exposing the sky and adding a fill light can help drastically.

                                                                      Photo By sunsurfr




Alex Soth

Alec Soth (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo Biennials. In 2008, a large survey exhibition of Soth’s work was exhibited at Jeu de Paume in Paris and Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland. In 2010, the Walker Art produced a large survey exhibition of Soth’s work entitled From Here To There. Alec Soth’s first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004 to critical acclaim.  Since then Soth has published NIAGARA (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007) Dog Days, Bogotá (2007) The Last Days of W (2008), and Broken Manual (2010). Soth has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2013). In 2008, Soth started his own publishing company, Little Brown Mushroom. Soth is represented by Sean Kelly in New York, Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis, and is a member of Magnum Photos.

http://alecsoth.com/

This image shows how effective having the subject in their natural environment can be, the subject looks a lot more relaxed.  It really works how Alec has caught the reflection in the mirror behind the model in the bokeh, it gives a sense of space to the room outside of the framing of the image.

Environmental portraits can become slightly candid at times as often the models environment belongs to other people as well, for example work places, schools, parks, family homes, and other people are caught in shot in a candid way. As seen here Alec has caught a film crew in the foreground of his image.



Corporate portrait

Corporate photography is  used for business purposes to either show  a person of high buisness stature, company , or  products. This can be used for advertising, staff photos, press realeases and web sites. Photographers are usually commissioned and  will have instructions and direction to act as a brief.


Grantly Lynch
Working in London as a corporate photographer, Grantly has over 20 years
experience in supplying many of the UK's top companies with
contemporary business images.

He specialises in capturing portraits that make corporate people look relaxed,
approachable and professional.
http://www.specialimages.co.uk/blog/

The black and white tones of Grantly's imagery add a slick and professional look to the images making the people in them seem more formal, as black and white are often seen as formal colours.
Most corporate shots are shot in a portraits style with a portrait lens of around 70 - 85mm focal length to show the person in a professional way smiling but not grinning so as not to seem like cheesy holiday snaps.

My Images:

For this image I had my lens on its most telephoto setting using a standard 18-55mm kit lens on my Nikon D3000 this is around 55mm, the image is back lit with additional fill light at the front  of the model. Originally I shot my image on the wrong white balance so I corrected this in post production.

I changed the white balance from my shot to Flash and increased the temperature a little to correct my mistake

In this image I have my model on a stool slightly to the side of my camera to catch shadows on the side of her face, also facing slightly away from the camera is a more natural pose.

Image Two:

  This image was lit from the front only by two 500 watt flash's to the left and right at the front of my subject. 
The image was slightly under exposed and there were a few spots in the back drop so I cloned them out in photoshop as well as increasing the exposure. I also de saturated the image a little as I felt the original image was too orange.

Image post production

In this session we looked at the effects of lighting ratios and low and high key lighting set ups.

Fine Art portraiture:




Man Ray

Man Ray (August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976), born Emmanuel Radnitzky, was an American artist who spent most of his career in Paris, France. Perhaps best described simply as a modernist, he was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. Best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. He was also a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. He is noted for his photograms, which he renamed "rayographs" after himself.

Solarizations best show the line and figure of the female form in this imagery.

Ray-o-gram portraits show the shape of human parts and often objects that are of importance to them that may show a more abstract side to the idea of portraiture. causes us to question ''Does a portrait need to contain a physical human to be classed as a portrait?"

Here Man Ray has tried to show the comparison between the facial features of a woman with this tribal mask, the image is about line tone and shape more than the person themselves.

An interview with fine art portrait photographer Bill Gekas: http://digital-photography-school.com/interview-with-fine-art-portrait-photographer-bill-gekas

My work:

Individuality:

Humans are all individual no two of us are completely identical not even twins
so I took several images of different eye colours to comment on the colout line and shape of the eyes

Candid:
''A candid photograph is a photograph that is captured without creating a posed appearance. This is achieved by avoiding prior preparation of the subject and by either surprising the subject or by not distracting the subject during the process of taking photos. Thus, the candid character of a photo is regardless of the subject's knowledge or consent as to the fact that photos are being taken, and regardless of the subject's permission for subsequent usage such as distribution, but related to the apparent absence of posing. It is distinguished from making secret photography by the photographer usually remaining discernible to the public and not wearing cover."


Candid photography poses ethical questions on wether it is right or not to photograph people whilst they are un aware that the photographer is doing so, as legally you do not have rights to photograph them without model release forms etc. However It's results can be interesting, as the model is not posing as they are un aware of a photograph and the poses are more natural you can catch special moments, emotions and expressions through candid photography that you cannot achieve through posed photography.


Whilst researching candid photography I looked into a photographer called Walker Evans.

Walker Evans

Walker Evans (November 3, 1903 – April 10, 1975) was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera. He said that his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent". Many of his works are in the permanent collections of museums and have been the subject of retrospectives at such institutions as The Metropolitan Museum of Art or George Eastman House.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Evans

These images are from a series of subway portraits by Walker Evans  the thing I like about candid photography is the narrative it creates within the photograph in Walker Evans images questions can be asked such as "what is the relationship between these two people?"

"what are they saying to each other?"

they appear to be sharing a secret.

These individual portraits show deep emotion in each character the viewer asks who they are what they  are thinking or seeing and where they are going. I think that Walker Evans series of images about subways are very strong and interesting and i like them.

my own shots;

I went out in Morecambe, Lancashire on a rainy day to capture the people of the british seaside still trying to enjoy their home despite the horrible weather. I found that they are quite determined to enjoy their seaside and people that would usually relax on benchs on the prom had moved to relax on indoor benchs. people still tried to enjoy fish and chips even in the wet weather


more of my imagery;