Brief 2
“Antique”
For this brief I’ve decided to base three images that I have taken around the theme of still life objects. Through different research and experiments with different objects, including rocks and everyday off location items, I’ve decided that my best possible option for taking pictures is of old style still life pieces. My pieces include; a pocket watch, an antique spoon and outdated coins.
Research Material /Influences:
In relation to my influences, I didn’t really have many other than the idea of old items throughout recent history, also the idea that I could relate them back to my past and family’s history was an interesting idea. Even though I could have gone out and been smart about my images, I wanted to pick items that were both nice to look at and give them a quality to how I could make them more special, and in relation to all these specific items, I can say that they came from my family’s past, which makes them more special to me.
Niko Vass:
I found Niko’s word during initial research into the still life brief and found that his style of photography conveyed specific actions to which I wanted to set my own. I really like Niko’s attention to detail especially on smaller objects and items, was well as the purity of the items he shoots. His range of multiple shots of Pocket watches really helped my work by giving me much to think about whilst exploring and testing my own found objects. I found it interesting to see how in some of Nikos photographs, he seems to focus more the framing and lighting to a photo, more that the quality of the photograph itself. It almost shows more beauty of the images he’s trying to shoot by making us as the viewer appreciate the photograph more by focusing on the details of the picture. Here are some pieces of Niko’s work that I took influence from.
Peter Zentjens:
I looked at Peters work simply because of his style. His mood lighting fits his images perfectly and most if not all of his images tend to be of outdated items that fit especially well with my own because of the similar time period. Looking at peter’s work influenced me a lot, especially in relation to lighting and framing because I could replicate his own work my own found objects. How Peter keeps all of his images in shot to create a nice crisp picture was also something I took influence from, simply because I knew it would work and would create a nice photograph especially when replicating this effect across all three of my images. Peter Zentjens ongoing set up and continuous flow has really influenced my pictures and I believe that his simplistic approach yet attention to detail in his photography is something I may try to replicate in my own. Here are some images that I took influence from.
Process:
In relation to research material I decided to base all the objects I’ve taken around the theme of family just as much as they actually are simplistic still life photography pieces. The first image in that of a pocket watch seemed like a good idea because of the intricate and delicate craftsmanship of the piece itself. The piece works well with light as is a very easy and interesting item to take a picture of simply because of how complicated and detailed the piece is.
The second still life image is that of a very old antique spoon passed down through generations. Even though the item has a backstory, its not needed through how well the item works with the camera, its almost as if the camera itself tells the story. I used this piece because I believe that its simply interesting to look at and its also a easy and interesting piece to take a picture of.
The third picture is that of a few old style coins. The coins themselves carry a backstory buts its just interesting to understand that they were once used as currency. The coins also work really well with the other pieces. Each piece has its own purpose and are all completely different items. but I like how even though they are unalike, they are very similar at the same time because of there history and timescale.
Final photos and Triptych
Evaluation:
I really enjoyed working on this project and developing my pictures. The still life brief gave me the opportunity to learn about the cameras I was using and allowed me to play around with different shots and frames to gain a better picture. I see this brief as an “Experimental stage” to my photography work even though I new what I wanted for the outcome of my final photos from an early stage, the process still required a lot of patience and experiments with different lenses and positioning’s. This task was my first true camera brief that required planning and time to take a good photograph and I believe that my images lived up to my expectations. I would have liked to experiment with more simplistic and basic imagery to try and take something every day and make it interesting through my photography, but in relation to what I ended up shooting, I’m happy with my choices. I never planned on taking the perfect photograph in relation to framing or quality, but felt like adding a slight grain to my work may allow my images to be perceived more appropriately due to the time period of my still life objects. I also believe that my progress shows from my first brief in that of appropriation photography to the point where my images now seem a lot more though about and professional from a technical level. Overall I’m happy with the quality of my work as well as the flow to my pictures. I think that my imagery does define “still life” within photography and my images work well with each other to create almost an collection of old style, still life objects.
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