Assignment 5: Daydreaming While at Work - Photograph 1

For the first photograph I started off by taking the photograph (1a) that would eventually be used within the 'main' photograph (1b). I included the person who would be daydreaming at work within this smaller photograph so that the viewer of the photograph could make the connection between the 'main' photograph and the photograph within the photograph. I would try to keep this consistent with the other photographs for this assignment so that a theme was apparent, where it could be seen that each person featured in their subordinate, daydream photograph.

1a - the photograph within photograph 1b

   I took a picture of what the subject and I agreed would be typically what they'd like to be doing at 'work'. In this case, it was actually taking photographs.

   Then I printed the photo I'd just taken at a big size (A3) and placed it in a scene which showed how the person was at 'work' (he was a retired photographer). This brought up a separate, potential issue. In some cases the subjects weren't actually at 'work' but were retired or studying. This did blur the line of what 'work' should consist of, which I found interesting but not problematic. The person remained daydreaming but the workplace was instead just their home or a study space.

   Then I carefully set up the scene so that the person was in their natural 'working' environment, which in this case was my subject sitting behind a desk with his collection of cameras he had used through various years in his career as a photographer. So, technically he wasn't at work, but rather in an environment he spent much time in nowadays.

   When I had the subject posing how I wanted, I asked him to smile gently so that his expression was one of contentment but also slightly wistfully reminiscent - because he was daydreaming of the picture within the picture (that I had placed to his left).

1b - the final photograph

   I decided to keep him centrally placed in this shot because of the very interesting foreground, which consisted of the various cameras he owned. I was satisfied that this worked well, with the paintings and furniture in the background creating a nice fall off.

Bibliography for The final image

Antoni, J. (2009), Inhabit, Photographs. The Photographers' Gallery, London.

Bainbridge, S. (ed.) (October 2013), British Journal of Photography, Volume 160, Apptitude Media Limited, 9 Beaumont Gate, Shenley Hill, Radlett, Herts, WD7 7AR, UK.

Bate, D. (2009), Photography: The Key Concepts, Bloomsbury Academic 2012, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B, 3DP.

Bielaski, J. (2014), Jonathan Bielaski - Environmental Portraiture [Online] Available at: http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/ (accessed on 8/2/2014).

D'Oliveira, R. (2012), An Introduction to Dark Website Design [Online] Available at: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/introduction-dark-website-design/ (accessed on 8/2/2014).

DeWitt, M. (Winter 2013), Hotshoe, 186, Hotshoe International Ltd, 29-31 Saffron Hill, London, EC1N, 8SW. 

Famighetti, M. (ed.) (Winter 2013), aperture, 213, Aperture Foundation, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, New York, N.Y 10001.

Goto, J. (2013), Lovers’ Rock: An Interview with John Goto [Online] Available at: http://theoxfordculturereview.com/2013/12/23/lovers-rock-an-interview-with-john-goto/ (accessed on 2/2/2014).

Goto, J. (2002), 'Dr. Donald Meltzer' 2002 [Online] Available at: http://www.johngoto.org.uk/portraits/Meltzer/pages/Dr%20D%20Meltzer.htm (accessed on: 2/2/2014).

Jones, H. (2010), Whitespace: The Underutilized Design Element [Online] Available at: http://webdesignledger.com/tips/whitespace-the-underutilized-design-element (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Loag, C. (2012), Chris Loag Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.chrisgloag.com/2012/#/HOME (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Newman, A. (n.d.), Newman's Gift - 60 Years of Photography [Online] Available at: http://museum.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/newman/ (accessed on 12/3/2014).

Newman, A. (2006), Arnold Newman Archive [Online] Available at: http://www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com/content/portraits-0 (accessed on 12/1/2014).

Önder, T. (2014), Tuna Önder Street Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.tunaonder.com/ (accessed on 20/1/2014).

Ramos, J. (2014), José Ramos - Nature and Landscape Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.joseramos.com/ (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Roberts, S. (2013), Simon Roberts [Online] Available at: http://simoncroberts.com/?homepage=1 (accessed on 8/2/2014).

Sanschagrin, G. (2011), 10 Secrets to Successful Online Photo Portfolios [Online] Available at: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/01/10-secrets-to-successful-online-photo-portfolios/ (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Struth, T. (2010), Thomas Struth - Photographs 1978-2010 [Online] Available at: http://www.thomasstruth32.com/bigsize/index.html (Accessed on 8/2/2014).

Reference Page - The final image

Antoni, J. (2009), Inhabit, Photographs. The Photographers' Gallery, London.

Bate, D. (2009), Photography: The Key Concepts, Bloomsbury Academic 2012, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B, 3DP.

Bielaski, J. (2014), Jonathan Bielaski - Environmental Portraiture [Online] Available at: http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/ (accessed on 8/2/2014).

D'Oliveira, R. (2012), An Introduction to Dark Website Design [Online] Available at: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/introduction-dark-website-design/ (accessed on 8/2/2014).

Goto, J. (2013), Lovers’ Rock: An Interview with John Goto [Online] Available at: http://theoxfordculturereview.com/2013/12/23/lovers-rock-an-interview-with-john-goto/ (accessed on 2/2/2014).

Goto, J. (2002), 'Dr. Donald Meltzer' 2002 [Online] Available at: http://www.johngoto.org.uk/portraits/Meltzer/pages/Dr%20D%20Meltzer.htm (accessed on: 2/2/2014).

Guijarro, A. (2010-2013), Momentum [Photograph] In. British Journal of Photography (October 2013), Aptitude Media Limited, 9 Beaumont Gate, Shenley Hill, Radlett, Herts, WD7 7AR UK, Pages 44-55.

Jones, H. (2010), Whitespace: The Underutilized Design Element [Online] Available at: http://webdesignledger.com/tips/whitespace-the-underutilized-design-element (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Loag, C. (2012), Chris Loag Photography [Online] Available at:  http://www.chrisgloag.com/2012/#/HOME (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Newman, A. (n.d.), Newman's Gift - 60 Years of Photography [Online] Available at: http://museum.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/newman/ (accessed on 12/3/2014).

Newman, A. (2006), Arnold Newman Archive [Online] Available at: http://www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com/content/portraits-0 (accessed on 12/1/2014).

Önder, T. (2014), Tuna Önder Street Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.tunaonder.com/ (accessed on 20/1/2014).

Ramos, J. (2014), José Ramos - Nature and Landscape Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.joseramos.com/ (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Roberts, S. (2013), Simon Roberts [Online] Available at: http://simoncroberts.com/?homepage=1  (accessed on 8/2/2014).

Sanschagrin, G. (2011), 10 Secrets to Successful Online Photo Portfolios [Online] Available at: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/01/10-secrets-to-successful-online-photo-portfolios/ (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Struth, T. (2010), Thomas Struth - Photographs 1978-2010 [Online] Available at: http://www.thomasstruth32.com/bigsize/index.html (Accessed on 8/2/2014).

Trevor, P. (1975), William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool, 1975, [Photograph] In aperture (Winter 2013), Aperture Foundation, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, New York, N.Y.10001, Page 62.

My Proposed Personal Project - Assignment 5, Digital Photographic Practice - Daydreaming While at Work

I have managed to arrive at a concept for the final assignment for Digital Photographic Practice that is both feasible technically and poses what I thought was a pertinent question about society nowadays, specifically:

   What do people (in this case people personal to me) do in their own workplace when they're not working, which they would find desirable to do outside of the workplace? In other words, what do these people daydream of when they should be working?

   The reason I thought this question was pertinent was because I was aware that people's minds wander when they shouldn't and particularly nowadays, when there is so much to do outside of the workplace, this would be particularly relevant. In my experience at least, there is usually something most people would prefer to be doing and I intended to capture a person in their working environment, daydreaming of their ideal way of spending time.

   I aimed to accomplish this by including 'graphic marks on a flat piece of paper' - Bate (2009), which would be a photograph, within the 'main' frame. This flat picture within a picture would aim to serve the purpose to 'signify a 'reality'' - Bate (2009); namely to show what the person in the 'main' photograph was daydreaming of at the time.

   In order to make the picture-within-the-picture 'fit in' better, I would endeavour to use pre-existing flat surfaces and use these to place the picture-within-the-picture over or amidst, where possible . Also I would probably convert the images to black and white to keep a sense of realism, if I felt it made the picture within the picture 'belong' with the rest of the scene.

Influences for Assignment 5 and More of My Most Coherent Thoughts Leading up to Assignment 5: Personal Project

Now that I had conceived a much more concrete idea for the fifth assignment, I realised that at least subconsciously, there were a few influences that I had discovered, which may well have helped provoke such ideas that led to this one, strong idea I described in the previous post: (A Selection of My Most Salient Thoughts Leading Up to Assignment 5: Personal Project for DPP).

   One of my main influences was Arnold Newman. This wasn't surprising to me since I had looked very closely at a lot of his wide-angle environmental portraits and the aspect that resonated with me most in much of his work was the sense of depth and extra information captured around the subjects, compared to usual portraiture. He achieved this while still effectively portraying the sitter's expression.

   Another, less obvious detail I garnered from Arnold Newman was actually a quote. He said in a quote I found that: '[Photography] is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world'. I discovered the quote when researching his work and the website I found it on was: http://museum.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/newman/ (accessed 12/3/2014). I found this interesting in that it backed up my conclusions I had been drawing, where photography is simply a representation of life, which the photographer has a degree of control over. I also found this quote helpful because my fifth assignment asked me to produce a project that was personal and I decided it would make sense to photograph people close to me in order for me to create my 'own private world' - Arnold Newman.

   Two more photographers' work that influenced me were: Alejandro Guijarro's 'Momentum' (2010-2013) project and Janine Antoni's 'Inhabit' (2009) project. They both for me challenged the frame but in almost opposite manner. Guijarro actually filled the frame fully each time, with a blackboard containing equations to do with quantum physics. This made the viewer challenge what they were seeing: was it a photograph or 'real life' and how should they interpret this concept?

   Antoni, in contrast had a seemingly more conventional photograph, with a mother in the middle of the frame and lots going on around her. Relevantly though, amidst this busy frame was a picture within a picture. Inside this picture within a picture was another scene altogether. The main photograph was printed so large in the exhibition that the picture within the picture could have been a standalone photograph itself, if viewed up close. This made the viewer question the contents of the photograph: how did the picture in the picture relate back to the main photograph?

   Another photograph I stumbled across in a photography magazine (Aperture - Winter 2013) was by Paul Trevor, called 'William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool, 1975' and this again challenged the frame but also was very impactful because of the relationship between the frame and setting of the photograph, the literal frame the boy was holding and the boy himself; particularly his expression. I knew I liked this use of the frame but had been unsure how to incorporate into my own work in a different way.

   Lastly, I was reading about John Goto and found an interesting passage at: http://theoxfordculturereview.com/2013/12/23/lovers-rock-an-interview-with-john-goto/ (accessed 2/2/2014). The actual photograph can be found at http://www.johngoto.org.uk/portraits/Meltzer/pages/Dr%20D%20Meltzer.htm (accessed 2/22014). Here he digitally substitutes the window and also the painting on the wall with different things and it is carried out so well that the viewer (or at least me) wouldn't have known otherwise. I did consider digitally placing the picture within the picture  inside my main photograph but decided to manually place it in the scene at the time of taking each photograph. This was because I realised it could be placed almost anywhere in the scene realistically and look authentic.

   All of these influences undoubtedly for me changed how I approached the set of final photographs in terms of preparation and also how I conceived the main idea in the first place.

A Selection of My Most Salient Thoughts Leading Up to Assignment 5: Personal Project for DPP

I have gathered here my thoughts in preparation for my last assignment for Digital Photographic Practice. I have deliberated a long time over which theme I would start with as the concept behind my personal project. I have been juggling two most notable ideas; trying to decide which project was best to undertake. This reasoning consisted of feasibility and potential for creativity.

   The first idea revolved around the capturing of the vibrancy of the river Thames from evening to night. My methodology behind this would be to portray a sense of journey down or up the Thames during these 'twilight hours'. I would move further and further down or up the Thames, from bridge to bridge and as I moved further along the Thames, the time of day would apparently get later and later in unison. I say 'apparently' because I would take the photographs over a period of days, maybe targeting one bridge a day. The photographs would then be displayed sequentially offering a sense of progression through both time and space.

   The second idea was more loosely formed and basically consisted of a picture within a picture. This was primarily rooted from a previous Assignment I had undertaken: Assignment 3: Monochrome (the culmination of which could be found here ). Similar to Assignment 3: Monochrome, I would include people within at least the main photograph but I was unsure how these people would relate to the picture within the picture this time around.

   I eventually decided the second idea was more desirable for me, mostly because of the creative aspect this project would be more probable to provide. I felt this project would also be a more natural progression in relation to what I had been discovering during Digital Photographic Practice. However, the lack of 'concrete' ideas for essentially a rather basic concept based around a picture in a picture prevailed in my consciousness.

   As I began to question deeper the semantics and implications of this 'picture in a picture' idea though, I found certain qualities started to crop up. One of these was depth. By including a secondary picture within the frame (a picture within a picture) it could effectively cancel out the moment of looking at the photograph in a skeptical/reserved way because it adds depth to the image and so, at least for a moment, the photograph takes on a reality.

   The content of both pictures however, was a recurring problem because there would have to be a link between the two pictures (including the person in the primary picture) for the whole image to make sense. I could have just produced a set of photographs with the same argument as Assignment 3: Monochrome but I was quite adamant I wanted to do something (at least slightly) different.

   It was obvious to me that the principle of an environmental portrait was what I wanted to base my project on but I couldn't justify the picture within the picture being included only to add extra 'depth' to the final photographs.

   I had been reading Bate's book: 'Photography: The Key Concepts' and found an interesting passage; typified by a statement in the book: 'the graphic marks on a flat piece of paper come to signify a reality' - Bate (2009). From this I garnered: if a (flat) surface in the scene of a photograph was covered by a portal into another world (a picture within a picture), then the reaction by a typical viewer to the photograph would be interesting as it would challenge their perception of reality as they attempt to justify its inclusion in a ‘normal’ scene.

   My breakthrough idea dawned on me unexpectedly by simply reading about the definition of environmental portraiture, while I was quite stuck for inspiration. After some time researching other environmental photographers, most notably Arnold Newman, I found that although technically these type of portraits were to be of the person in their natural environment, more often than not this was in their place of work. I started to imagine some of the appropriate settings Arnold Newman decided to use for the relevant subjects, replaced by similar settings but with people who I knew well personally - at work. For the several shots I picked out from Newman's archive there were large flat surfaces, which were ideal, in my eyes, to be replaced by the picture in the picture. This notion of replacing these flat surfaces, especially since I had just read what an environmental portrait consists of made me think about what the sitter would replace them with, if at work.

   The answer to this for me was that often, they might be daydreaming about something they would like to be doing, rather than what they were actually supposed to be doing. This ideal could be depicted by me in the form of a picture within each of these persons' workplaces; as a picture within a picture.

   I thought not only was this a very strong theme, which would be visibly evident; tying the final photographs together but a theme that had a strong, sound rhetoric. This rhetoric posed a potentially pertinent question to the eventual viewer - how do people function on a day-to-day basis in their respective workplaces and what would they typically be daydreaming of while they are working (or not working)? 

A Web Gallery

I have been designing a website to display my work. I was aware before starting that many photographers are trying to get their work 'out there' as well. Therefore I decided I would try to make my photography web gallery look captivating yet minimal, at least in the way it was presented.

   I have been scrutinising other photographers' websites (some famous and others not so well known) and I have tried to take what I considered the 'best' elements from each site and incorporate it into my own design; refining them where possible. It would be worth noting that while I primarily was visiting these websites for ideas concerning presentation, I often ended up coming away with inspiration regarding what kind of content/categories would work best in my own web gallery. For example: http://www.chrisgloag.com/2012/#/HOME (accessed 10/1/2014), incorporated a comprehensive content sidebar and an appropriate set of categories. The content (much of which I hadn't previously considered) would include: ongoing projects (rather than just separate photographs), contact details, links to this blog, an 'About' page and possibly older projects. The categories I intended to include  myself would be: portraits, seascapes, night landscapes and nature.

   In terms of navigation, I would endeavour to keep it as simple and uncluttered as possible. This was a key principle resonating in the guides to building a photography website, which I had also been reading online. For example, http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/01/10-secrets-to-successful-online-photo-portfolios/ (accessed 10/1/2014) stated: 'Your photos are supposed to be the star of the show, so don’t clutter it up with useless design elements'. Starting from one of the most fundamental parts of the website, the theme, I decided a light theme would work better for my usage than a dark one. This was because light themes had the quality of minimalism and were also passable for looking at a variety of images/text for longer moments. In contrast, dark backgrounds were in my opinion more impactful for landscape images. For example: http://www.joseramos.com/ (accessed 10/1/2014), was an example of a nature/landscape photographers' website, which I thought worked very well because of the content it displayed). However, I felt since there was a fair number of my images that were not landscapes, a light theme would work better overall.

   One tip I found was not to use 'pure' white as the background with 'pure' black text for the content (or visa versa) but rather something in between. This was so that looking at the website didn't strain the prospective viewers' eyes: 'The first basic rule is to never use pure-white/black on the opposite color.' - http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/introduction-dark-website-design/ (accessed 8/2/2014).

   I also preferred an automated navigation system (but with a slideshow only for the home page) so the viewer was encouraged to enter  the rest of the website. Many photographers' websites followed this design trait on their homepage - a couple of examples being: http://www.tunaonder.com/ (accessed 20/1/2014) and http://simoncroberts.com/?homepage=1 (accessed 8/2/2014). However I would probably use a slow-changing slideshow speed just because in my experience the photographs had the habit of changing just when I was beginning to grasp a certain photograph's allure.

   So far as displaying the images was concerned, I imagined a simple gallery, featuring large, unchallenged photographs once opened. One reason for this was I felt, generally speaking, detail was a strength of my photographs and so a large displaying format would help to show this off. A layout trait of the website, backing up these large-displayed photographs would be that it featured generous amounts of 'white space' - a website design term that basically consists of how much 'empty' space there is between each element of the layout of the page. I read about this in an online article: http://webdesignledger.com/tips/whitespace-the-underutilized-design-element (accessed 10/1/2014) and was sure it would be a key feature to keep in mind. If I could try to make sure of sufficient white space between important parts, like the header and main photographs, I felt I could have an aesthetically pleasing website layout.

   Another website I looked at was an environmental portrait photographer's called Jonathan Bielaski (found at http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/ (accessed 8/2/2014)). While I would like to have more image separation than Jonathan Bielaski's homepage contained, again the white background seemed very professional and a good navigation system had been implemented.

   Finally, the last website I made notes about was the photographer Thomas Struth's (found at http://www.thomasstruth32.com/bigsize/index.html (accessed 8/2/2014)). With Thomas Struth's website I was impressed by how clean it looked but wasn’t too keen on the navigation system. On one hand I was inclined to look at each photograph for a longer moment because of the navigation system, where you had to click on the image itself to get back to the set. For my tastes though I would prefer my website to have a filmstrip for the relevant photos of the set beneath or behind the current selected image within the set.

   After implementing these points as well as I could I now have a web gallery up and running, with the url of: www.johnathanhallphotography.co.uk

   There still exists elements of the web gallery I would like to make more comprehensive or streamlined: for example the 'Portraits' section of the gallery could be bolstered considerably for content and the web gallery could be a bit more polished in terms of loading times for photographs and display quality on other media devices.

   However, I was pleased with the navigation within the different genres and I felt there were a few nice touches like the textured backgrounds so the viewer wasn't looking at pure white backgrounds and the sharing options evident could potentially increase the traffic to the web gallery.