Editorial Magazines

Editorial Magazines;

When looking through some editorial magazine i chose to photograph some of the images that most stood out to me. Here is a spread of images which really interested me of norwegian teenagers. What i like most about the images is the colours and tone and the way they look as though they could have been taken on coloured film. This intrigues me as working on coloured film is what i am to do for this project. I like how coloured film gives an almost retro feel to an image. 

http://larsbotten.com/gallery/nouvellevague-spur-magazine/

This is probably my favourite image for several reasons. I like how it has been taken at night, the street lamp creates a lot of interest to the image, i would really like to explore night time photography myself especially on the streets much like some work by a former student i have blogged about previous to this post. What strikes me most about the image however is the bold contrast between the bright red of the building and blue of the sunset sky. Again i feel the camera used to capture these images give the images a really retro feel, so i feel these bright colours work well with that. 

The use of black and white and coloured imagery being put together is something which i find really interesting. Its not actually something i would immediately think to do myself however this double page proves how well it can work. Both images are of similar subject matter but create many different thoughts and feels about the images, this is something which i really like. 

tin houses

Second shoot exploring the extra ordinary 'tin houses'

Paul Grahem research

Paul Grahem

Documentary and Editorial photography

Paul Grahem is a documentary photographer, work of his that particuliary stood out to me was his project called 'troubled land.' Here Paul Grahem documents land which he see's as 'troubled'. The reason i was drawn to this work is because it is similar to the work i have been aiming to create myself within the north east. 

What i think makes this image most successful is not the focus which is the 'beware' graffiti, but the way in which the fore ground and sky looks so bleak and dismal. The gloomy sky and colours of the buildings in the distance really add to the importance of the word "beware" graffitied on the wall. The colours also create a harsh contrast in comparison to the graffiti. 

This image just looks like something i could re-create very easily myself. i like how the image is taken from a straight on view, as the land really speaks for itself. i think the image sums up the title of the project really well. i like how true and real the image looks and feels, its taken straight on and point blank gets to the point of what the photographer is trying to say. This is definitely something id like to re-create myself. Its an image that has really got me thinking of places near to where i live that are similar to this; 'troubled land'

The images look as though they have been taken on a film camera. Ive already shot 3 rolls of coloured film on my 35mm camera so i am waiting for those films to be developed. I much prefer using a film camera when out and about taking photographs on the street as the camera is smaller and quicker to use and more discrete than a large digital camera. I also much prefer the effect of film photographers, especially when capturing images of 'rough' areas. 

Trip Report

Baltic Museum

Daniel Buren

This is an exhibition id be wanting to see for a long time. Obviously i understand Daniel Buren is not a photographer however i knew how amazing this exhibition looked, and couldn't wait to take photographs of it. Obviously from a photographer point of view the reflects and coloured lights in the first room was what i enjoyed photographing more and worked best.

Photographer research/ Inspiration

Adrian Clarke.


Through recearch around this subject of north east mining villages and general poverty i seem to be interested in i have come across the photographer Adrian Clarke. I found Adrians work on an online article publish by the guardian. Adrian started photography back in 2003...

http://www.adrianclarke.net/http1_www.adrianclarke.net/Home.html

"Since then I’ve been concerned with issues of deprivation and social injustice and their psychological costs. I’ve usually, though not always, accompanied my pictures with interviews with my subjects, with the result that my work has been used as a form of consultation with groups that are hard to reach and whose voices are rarely heard. My work has appeared in newspapers and magazines both in this country and abroad as well as being exhibited widely around Britain. Often it has been used to highlight and raise awareness of particular areas of social injustice or need. It has been used by organisations such as the Home Office and the National Health Service to inform policy and to encourage debate."

This small introduction on his website basically sums up him as a photographer and what his work consists of. This is exactly why i have took such an interest to his work, he has pretty much the same interests as what i have, however i am only just starting out. 

The article i read by the Guardian is called...

"The end of the tracks?

What is happening in the former pit villages in the north-east of England? Photographer Adrian Clarke hears the personal stories of those left behind and of their battles with drug and alcohol addiction, poverty and violence."

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/sep/01/drugsandalcohol.uk

So far in my Editorial project i have captured images in Blackhall colliery and Trimdon Colliery. I just feel such a huge fascination with these colliery villages which i have been surrounded by all my life. They are the kind of places most would not give two thoughts about, but as Adrian Clarke goes to show, there are some extraordinary people and things going on within these places. I find the colliery villages visually interesting just to look at, such as the run down shops and back alleys and they people you see on the streets living their every day lives. What i like about Adrians work and what inspires me is how he's looking further into the concept of the villages, he's looking into the lives of individuals. I would really like to do a project myself like that of Adrian Clarkes "Gary's Friends, 2006"

The difficulty i can see with being able to produce a project like this myself is the barrier of knowing and being able to find out such incredible stories about people in the villages. As Adrian explains, he often places writing with his portrait images, which are the stories these people have told him about their lives. 

The full stories by the people are on the Guradian article however i will place some small quotes below each image as i feel in this case the images make more sense and give more of an impact with the story with them. Adrians work describes exactly what Richard one of our tutors first told us editorial photography was. "Imagery for the written word." I actually read the full article before then visiting adrians website to look at the images, it felt amazing to then put faces to the incredibly extraordinary stories i had just read about these peoples. 

Gary Crooks 2006

"1990 was a bad year for me. I was 15. I was doing armed robberies and all sorts, and I was drinking and taking speed and acid. There were rival gangs in Bearpark and around the other pit villages, and there were fights with fists and crowbars and worse. Once, a group came to our house armed with broken paving stones. Someone even shot at me with a shotgun. "

Zoe and Angie Watson, 2006

Gordon Weir 2005

 "I left school at 16 and did a tree surgery course. I was given a trophy at the end of the year for being the best student and then I got a job in Northampton where I lived in a bedsit. That was when I began drinking because there was nothing else to do. I came back up here and got a house in New Brancepeth with my girlfriend."

Gary Willis 2006

All of Adrian Clarkes projects follow this kind of structure of portraits of North East people along with their personal stories. Another project Adrian did is

"The teenage pregnancy rate

This project took place between June and December 2007. The aim was to focus on a group of people who are usually addressed merely as a statistic - the teenage pregnancy rate. All of the subjects of the portraits and interviews come from the North East of England, and  most of them live in the Tees corridor."

 this again goes to show the vast difference writing or a story and make to an image. 

"I found out I was pregnant during the year I came out of care. I was 16. I don’t know who the father is. Either the midwife or my GP must have told Social Services because they organised a meeting to discuss what would happen to Rachel."

"I’ve known Amanda since she was a child but we became close when she was 13 and we began having a relationship when she was 14 and I was 15, just before Pyper turned one. People abused us for a while for having a gay relationship. They called us all the usual sorts of names, but it has settled down now. There are other gay couples with children around here, so it’s not as though we’re that extraordinary."

shoot

North East, Extra-ordinary;

I am interested in capturing extra ordinary sights and scenes in the north east of england. Ive recently done a shoot of some houses in a village near where i live. These houses are what we in this area call "trimdon tin houses." the houses were built around the 60's and are seen as quite a rough area of the village to live. I find them so interesting to look at because houses like this don't get built anymore. The abstract colours of green and yellow and the fact they're literally made out of tin just has to be one of the weirdest things I've seen when it comes to housing! I intend to revisit this area and get some better images but here are some from the start of me looking down there.