Straight Images - Multiple Imagery

Robert Mapplethorpe Video Notes

• Born in New York in 1946 and died of aids in 1989.
• Went to the Pratt institution of Art where he met Patti Smith, they lived together she was a life long friend .
• Known for his portraits ( mostly black&white) on many album covers etc.
• Documented Manhattans Gay
  
  
  community which he was  a part of, this work was seen as controversial
• Questions frequently asked ; is it pornography or art? did he do it to shock?
• Born catholic so only came out as gay to his mother
• Took flower pictures only to get money and flower photos are the 2nd best seller
• His portraits were simple with good lighting
• Mostly photographed the rich and famous

• his work challenges the limits of acceptability
• He did it for selfish reasons as he wanted to see it not to shock
• He is the one who selects the photographs not the client who pays for them
• Clients do not get to see the contact sheets only the shots which he pics
• When he got his nipple pierced he got it filmed by Sandy Pally.
• Lived in suburban america which was a safe environment with no excitement
• At 16 he started art school training and moved to Brooklyn
• Patti Smith & Robert lived together during the 70's 
• Wasn't self destructive but exploratoive . Always positive
• Naive, started with portraits, still lives and sexuality
• Religion only slightly affects his life
• Uses his friends for his work
• Famous for his controversial sexual photos 
• He retains feeling of watching porn when he captures his pictures
• He captured aggressive sexuality pictures
• He knew what the audience wanted to see
• He led the community and his work reflected it
• Robert never victimised people, only captured what was already out there.
• John Miltion - Society has the right to look at everything in society, the people in his photographs were his friends they trusted him
• His work is a statement of the time we live in and our priorities 

Work Diary - Walk 2

This shoot is slightly different to the others was we went on another group walk from the college up to Netswell pond. We had to capture more images under the same themes from walk 1 which were autumn colours, a sense of journey and back of heads. 

This is one of the photographs i took for my sense of journey, it captures a bin, bench. and the multiple paths which represent that in life there will be times to rest, times to get rid of the rubbish in your life that you no longer need and the paths represent that there is multiple ways in which we could go and we have to choose which path is best for your journey in life. 

I like this back of head photograph, because it focus' on Chloe's head and blurs out Alex's. I think that this photograph would be good if Gracie wasn't in the background also taking photographs, i like it because it would also capture the blurred out underpass had it been  clear view.

Progression- If i was to re-do this walk i would try and capture more autumn colours because i feel that the contrast of colours is good, when i shoot contrast i will try and include this element into my work. I feel that this photograph take by the Guardian Camera Club, it shows a good contrast of colours as well as being based upon autumn colours. 

Work Diary - Contrast Location 2

This was our second session of going on location and take photographs of contrast. This was simple but not as easy as it was the first time round. Although i wasn't struggling for ideas it was hard to gain a lot of images which were different to the ones which i took in the session before 

This is one of the photographs which i took from this shoot, i really like this picture because it is simple and contrasts the leave with the pavement. I also really like the colours of the leave as they are a mixture of orangey reds. 

                                                              

I also took a couple of pictures of automatic doors as it shows open & close contrast. I feel i captured this motion extremely well as there is no blurring or people getting in the way. 

Progression - If i was to re-do this session i would capture some more conceptual contrasts as i feel that they create a deeper contrast. This photograph was taken by Lisa Holloway, it is showing a contrast of age, as it is showing an old hand against a babies hand. I feel that this is a good example of some of the contrast that i would like to capture in future shoots.

Work Diary - Contrast Studio 2

These are some of the photographs from my second shoot of Contrast in the studio. I feel that it was still hard to think of a variety of ideas but the photographs  do differ from the other people in  my group.

This is an image of my 3 models which is showing the contrast in hair colour, it doesn't look very easy to see the contrast as the lighting is extremely low in the studio so that is something which i would change if i was to re-do this shoot. 

I like this photograph of Molly & Alex because it captures fun expressions whilst capturing a gender contrast and a height difference. This photo is also extremely dark so it ruins the effect of the photograph. 

Progression - If i was to re-do the shoot i would make sure that the lights are bright in order to avoid this dark look which is on all of the photographs from this shoot. whilst researching contrast photography, i found several photographs which had one specific item in colour and the rest is black and white. I like this effect because it makes the contrast between the colored part and non colored part more prominent. This is an example from the internet.I like the use of selective colour when using contrast and it is something i wish to incorporate into my work.

Work Diary - Contrast Studio 1

For this shoot, we had to come up with visual and conceptual ideas of contrast and then photograph them. This was difficult because it was hard to come up with different ideas which people in the group hadn't previously used in order to gain some originality. 

This is one of the photographs which i took from this shoot, it is showing the contrast of hair colours of Connie and Scarlett, this photograph could be improved by having a better composition on it as it is showing some of the white background paper roll at the top. 

This is another photograph from my shoot which is showing the height difference between my 3 models. This photograph would be good if it had the rest of Josh' head in and if the models were further away from the background as they are too close so it has made a shadow which does not look as good as it would if there was no shadow. 

Progression - If i was to re-do this shoot i would try to take more photographs because i did not take a lot and they were not that great photographs so i did not have a good selection of photographs to pick from. A photograph i found online which was taken by Mitchell Wapner shows a contrast between the colours and outfits of the model with the background. This is an example of what i would like to do in my own future shoots as i feel that contrasting of what people wear is very effective.

Work Diary - Mapplethorpe Studio

In this session, we were continuing with our Mapplethorpe inspired work, i thought that this session was a lot harder because we were using a camera on a stand and i found it difficult adjusting the camera so it was in the right position and it was also hard finding different ideas to take photographs. 

This is one of my photographs from this session and this picture of Molly shows me how my work needs to be improved, it may be an up close shot but the orientation of it cuts out the hair so if the camera was portrait then it would have better composition. 

 This photograph of Chloe i feel is more similar to Mapplethorpe's work as she has got  a very simple facial expression and although i like the photograph there is a lot of excess background on the left and upper parts of the photograph.

Progression - If i was to re-do this session i would try and use more models in order to gain a wider variety of images which relate to Mapplethorpe's work, i would also work on my composition as i feel it still needs some more work. This is one of Mapplethorpe's photographs, he is using two models and he is contrasting their skin against each other and the back ground. I would like to use more than one model in my work as i feel that Mapplethorpe's use of two models has a greater effect than just one.