Studio 1

George Hurrell

 

George Hurrell

 

“I have no way of explaining. When you’re born with it, you’re born with it. That’s all.” – George Hurrell

Who is George Hurrell, growing up as a child in Covington, Kentucky, Hurrell like any other child loved to draw and paint and this was the start of his career path into art and photography. Hurrell learned how to use a camera so that he could take photographs of his art work (Paintings & Drawings) When he graduated from the Art Institue of Chicago.

In 1925 Goerge Hurrell was commissioned by a small art colony in the small coastal city of Laguna Beach, Orange County in California (now famous for its art galleries) to photograph their painters and paintings, George wanted to carry on doing art but discovered that photography was a quicker way to pay the bills.

George Hurrell’s first real client was the famous Pasadena aviatrix Florence Leontine Lowe Barnes (Pancho Barnes) the photograph Hurrell took of Barnes was for her pilot’s license not normally know for been a beauty Hurrell’s photograph changed that and he made her look beautiful.

 

Pancho Barnes by George Hurrell

 

At this point, Barnes was friends with the actor Ramon Navarro who appeared in the silent film Ben Hur and who adored the photos George had taken of her and she suggested that Ramon should have his photograph taken by George as well.

 

Ramon Navarro by George Hurrell – The New Orpheus

 

In what could only be described as good fortune Ramon Navarro was to show the photos taken of him by Hurrell to his best friends at MGM Norma Shearer  “Norma had recently read a script, called the DIVORCEE, that had a part that she very much wanted to play.  The role required her to be a sexy vamp – a modern woman.  But, up until this time, Norma Shearer was basically best known for her “all-American girl next door” image.” (Anon, 2017) the role required Norma to be a modern woman but very sexy and sultry at the same time “However, when she showed the script to her husband (Irving Thalberg, head of at production at MGM Studios at the time), he replied “Honey, I don’t think this part is for you. You are not sexy in THAT way.” Well, that really got her upset hearing this from her husband.” (Anon, 2017) so when Ramon turned up at her home with the images that George Hurrell had taken of him especially the one called ‘The New Orpheus’ and there and then Shearer decided to have some photographs taken by Hurrell, which she did, Shearer was then cast in the role for the ‘Divorcee’ for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in this role and thus beginning the career of George Hurrell as the Portrait photographer for MGM Studios

 

Norma Shearer by George Hurrell

 

Thus started the career of the legendary Hollywood photographer George E. Hurrell, who created some of the most iconic shots of Hollywood’s major stars of the time such as Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Carole Lombard, and Joan Crawford, Jane Russell, Warren Beatty and Sharon Stone.

Not only was Hurrell a great photographer but because he was an artist as well thus the two mediums come together to produce outstanding portrait work.

Hurrell is credited with creating the standard for the idealized Hollywood glamour portrait. Always an innovator, he invented the boom light and developed several—now standard—lighting techniques. Hurrell’s signature use of precision lighting, spotlights, shadows, and hand-retouching on the negatives produced romantic portraits that became his trademark style and the definition of glamour for the movie industry. This influential look became known as “Hurrell style.”

(The Walt Disney Family Museum® Disney Enterprises, 2017)

Dougie Wallace

 

Dougie Wallace

 

Rod and Robin Deutschmann

 

Rod and Robin Deutschmann

 

Primary and Secondary Research

 

Idea Generation

All the images taken for this section had to use off camera flash so we will start with the Posed or Portrait image my initial idea was to create a photograph called the photographer in which I used an off camera flash to photograph a friend shooting an image panorama of Myton Bridge, Hull Tidal Barrier and The Deep, I then thought about the work of George Hurrell and the Portrait Shots he took of the 1930-40s Hollywood actors and the kind of lighting he used to capture those images along with how he would edit the negative images to get was later to be called the “Hurrell Style“.

My firsts set of images did not turn out the way I wanted them to so I decided to shoot just a standard Portrait using a two light system one is a small led light panel with light intensity adjustment and the other being an NW985 Speedlite with a snoot on to diffuse the light. Obviously, I was not attempting to create an exact replica of a Hurrell image but just an ordinary portrait with a little light styling from the LED Panel and Speedlite to create an effect on the paneled door I shot the subject against

Explain synthesis of research and my ideas

 

Lighting Plans

 

Stage and Crowd candid light plan

Creative watch setup

Portrait lighting plan

Candid Crowd light plan

Equipment list

The hardware and software used for the shoots are listed below:

• Toshiba Satelite Netbook
• DigiCamControl (Tethering Software for Nikon & Canon cameras)
• Daminion (Digital Photo Management Software)
• Adobe Photoshop CC 2017
• Adobe Lightroom CC2017
• Nikon D7100 DSLR
• 1 x CN 160 LED dimmable light Panel
• 3 x Neewer Speedlite Flashes
• 1 x Neweer Speedlite Trigger
• 3 x Neewer Speedlite Receivers
• 1 x 12mm Extension Tube
• 1 x Sigma 50mm Macro Lens EX DG
• 1 x Nikon 18-55mm APS-C Lens
• 1 x Samsung 1Tb Portable Hard Drive
• 1 x Rogue Snoot for Speedlite
• 2 x Phot-R Speedlite Flash Stands
• 1 x Phot-R Black Backdrop
• 2 x Phot-R Backdrop Stands and Cross Bar
• 3 x Back Drop Clips
• 1 x Gold card flag
• 1 x White card flag
• 1 x Bin Liner

A Range of images from all sections

Freetown Mix at the Freedom Festival Hull 2017

 

Reshoots

Original Candid Without Flash – Test

 

Original Creative Test Shoot: With Long Exposure and Movement

 

Original Candid Shoot – African Food & Music Night at Hull Kingston Rovers Ground.

Original Shoot Candid 2

Original Shoot Candid 3

Original Shoot Candid 1

 

East Park Car Show: Flash Posed Test

 

Freetown Mix at Freedom Festival with Sierra Leone Contingent.

 

 

Reflective Statements

Posed Image:

Candid Image:

Creative Image:

Post production elements

 

Candid Image adjustments

Portrait Image adjustments

Creative Image adjustments

Final Images selection and justification

 

Creative Watch Image

Portrait Image

Candid Image

Overall evaluation

 

Bibliography

Anon., 2017. The Official Website of Hollywood Photography Legend George Hurrell. [Online]
Available at: http://georgehurrell.com/george-hurrell/
[Accessed 5 September 2017].

Child, J. & Galer, M., 2008. Photographic Lighting Essential Skills. 4th ed. Oxford: Focal Press.

documentary Hot Spots. Martin Parr talks to students about being a photographer.. 2014. [Film] UK: s.n.

Galer, M., 2006. Digital Photography in Available Light. 3rd ed. Oxford: Focal Press.

Landford, M., Fox, A. & Sawdon Smith, R., 2013. Langford’s Basic Photography. 9th ed. Abingdon: Focal Press.

Niekerk, N. v., 2011. Off-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Photographers. 1st ed. Buffalo N.Y.: Amherst Media.

Niekerk, N. v., 2013. Direction & Quality of Light. 1st ed. Buffalo N.Y.: Amherst Media.

The Walt Disney Family Museum® Disney Enterprises, I., 2017. Lights! Camera! Glamour! The Photography of George Hurrell. [Online]
Available at: http://waltdisney.org/exhibitions/lights-camera-glamour-photography-george-hurrell
[Accessed 30 August 2017].

Viera, M. A. & Stone, S., 2013. George Hurrell’s Hollywood: Glamour Portraits 1925-1992. s.l.:Running Press Adult.

 

Photographic 1

Vivian Maier

 

Vivien Maier

 

Probably one of the most famous if not infamous story’s of modern day photography is that of the nanny/photographer Vivien Maier who first came to the spot light around 2005 via a man named John Maloof who was involved in real estate and wanted to take a more active role in his local community and having become the President of  his local historical society on Chicago’s Northwest Side.

It was at this time Mr. Maloof decided that he would write a book about his local neighborhood area to try and raise its profile, this decision to become a co-author of a book called ‘Portage Park’ that would send him on a life changing journey.

The Books publishers required some 220 images of his neighborhood area of Chicago to go forward so John and his co-author a man called Daniel Pogorzelski, went on a treasure hunt to see what they could find image wise, coming to the end of their year long journey John decided to check out a local auction House (RPN) to see if they had anything of interest and sure enough he found a box containing images of Chicago from the 1960s so he bought it for the relatively small sum of $400.

And thus the Journey into the discovery of Vivien Maier began.

Who was Vivien Maier, she was a was an American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, working as a nanny on her days off Vivien would take her Rolleicord camera with her and start taking photographs of the scenes and people she came across one of the most interesting things about her work

Dr. Alec Gill

 

Dr. Alec Gill MBE.

 

Dr. Alec Gill MBE is not a professional photographer, he studied for his BSc in Psychology at Hull University, he started taking photographs of Hessle Road in 1971 starting with the trawlers and then moving onto document the people of Hessle Road, because that is what he seems to have been more interested in presumably because of his psychology degree.

Alec Gill had taken some 6,000 images from 1971 and in conjunction with Paul Beriff also a renowned photographer and director a show was put together for the Hull City of Culture 2017

 

Visited St. John the Baptist Church on St. George’s Road to see if the exhibition was still on but it sadly closed on the 3rd of September.

Arctic Corsair

Hull Maritime Museum

St. John the Baptist Church (Fishermans Church)

Hessle Roaders Exhibition

Hessle Road Murals

Lillian Bilocca

Primary and Secondary Research

Visited Hessle Road to see the works themselves, and visited other places such as Zeebeedees yard for Trawler Men’s Memorial, Hull Pier and Marina for other statues and monuments, visited Dr. Alec Gill’s Facebook page visited St. John the Baptist Church to see the exhibition. Local newspapers for information also visited the Hull History Centre for some background information on the story of Hull’s trawlermen

Ideas Generation for my images

The idea of doing a documentary piece like came about from an idea to do with how architecture in Hull was reflecting the maritime connection and after hearing that the Hull City Council wanted new builds in the City Centre to reflect this (how true this is I do not know as I have been unable to confirm it.

Evidence of this does seem valid as when you look at some building or street furniture there is a nautical theme in their design for example St. Stephen’s shopping center has a metal structure shaped like the bow of a ship extending out over the main entrance to the building.

 

Bow shaped roof on St. Stephen’s Shopping Centre

 

There is also the BBC building in the Rose Bowl in Queen’s Gardens again the top of the building resembles the bridge of a ship.

 

BBC Building – Queens Gardens

 

 

Other images that I originally looked at were one of the Side Trawl, Trawler the Arctic Corsair and a small sculpture of a Cod Fish again relating to the fishing industry in Hull which ended in about 1983/84.

Arctic Corsair

Cod Fish

Synthesis of research to my ideas

 

 

Technical Information

 

Post-Production Elements

Used Adobe Camera Raw and Adobe Bridge

 

A Remembrance Message

Trawlermen’s Memorial

Icelandic Voyage Sculpture & The Deep

Merchant Navy Memorial

Untitled Fishermen’s Statue Hull Marina

Poseidon/Neptune

Lillian Bollocca Mural – Anlaby Road

St. Andrew’s Dock Mural – Hessle Road

Fishing industry Mural – Hessle Road

Fishermen’s Mural – Hessle Road

 

Final Image Selection

Memorial Message

Trawlermen’s Memorial

Icelandic Sculpture – Voyager

Untitled Fishermen’s Statue

Merchant Navy Memorial

Poseidon/Neptune Protector of Seamen

Lillian Bollocca Mural

St. Andrew’s Bullnose Mural

Fishing Industry Mural

Fishermen’s Mural

Overall Evaluation

Software Used for Images

 

 

 

Portrait Pro 15

Rich Wiles

Irene Kung

From the examples shown below you will see that Irene Kung has a unique way of working with her images which she processes in Photoshop and creates these lovely directed light on subject images The Buildings and The Trees are from her first and second books respectively called ‘Irene Kung: Trees‘ and ‘Irene Kung: The Invisible City‘ of which I have the latter which is a stunning collection of her architectural images.

The images above are all black with what is a beam of light hitting the subject in a specific place but Irene also works with images that are a lot lighter than this but look just as stunning and in black and white as well ‘Trees light, Dark and Black & White‘.

Of Swiss decent Irene Kung started off as a painter and she achieved success early on in her career as an artist who’s technique was based upon that of “Etruscan, Roman and Renaissance frescoes” In recent years Irene Kung has expanded her repetoire into photography. creating some of the most visually stunning images of Architecture, Fruit Trees and Animals by using her own dramatic and unique style which sets her work apart from mainstream contemporary photography.

Irene Kung – The Invisible City

Irene Kung – Trees

 

Kungified Image

St. Mary the Virgin Church, Hull

The above image is an attempt to re-create the style of the photographer and artist Irene Kung and not be an exact copy of how she does her work which as a piece of art is stunning. I have also been looking at how to manipulate light in other photo editing packages as well such as Krita, DXO Optics Pro 11, Affinity Photo and On1 Photo Raw to see which one works best so experimenting with them was quite interesting images representing these test will follow shortly.

 

Developing Processes

Cyanotype

Cyanotype is a process of creating an image on a piece of paper or cloth using a chemical solution on the medium letting it dry printing out a positive image you want, then printing it on a transparency placing the transparency over the material and putting it the sun until the image is produced on the material.

Cyanotype – Wicker Chairs

 

Cyanotype Sensitizer Fluid – £16.95

 

2 Component Set for photographic blueprints on paper and fabric

“Cyanotype is an antique photographic process distinctive for producing Prussian blue monochromatic prints. Developed in the mid-19th century, cyanotype was quickly embraced as an inexpensive method for reproducing photographs, documents, maps and plans (hence the enduring architectural term “blueprint”).

Famously, it was also used by Ana Atkins and other field biologists for indexing plant specimens—the first photograms ever made! Cyanotype is a remarkably simple process that employs two inexpensive chemicals and sunlight/UV. Prints can be made on any natural fiber: paper, cotton, silk, wool, wood, etc.”

Quick Instructions:
Jacquard’s Cyanotype Set makes DIY cyanotype printing as easy as can be. The chemistry comes premeasured in lightproof black bottles. Simply fill each bottle with water to create Stock Solutions A & B and mix the two in equal parts to create the cyanotype sensitizer. Coat fabric or paper with the sensitizer and, once dry, create prints by exposing to sunlight or UV (3-15 minutes, depending on conditions), using objects or a film negative to create an image. After exposure, prints are processed in a tray of cool water and allowed to air dry over about 24 hours; prints will oxidize to their final deep blue color. To instantly oxidize the print to its final color, submerge in a dilute bath of hydrogen peroxide after washing, then rinse and dry.

Includes:

Part A – Potassium Ferricyanide 0.8 oz/23.2 g
Part B – Ferric Ammonium Citrate 1.9 oz/54.4 g
Instructions

This set contains enough chemistry to make approximately sixty-five 8.5”x11” prints
on paper or fifty 8.5”x11” prints on fabric, depending on the absorbency of the substrate.

Jacquard Cyanotype Sensitizer Set

 

Gregory Crewdson Shoot

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson

Jeff Wall Shoot

A View from an Apartment 2004-5 Jeff Wall born 1946 Purchased with assistance from the American Fund for the Tate Gallery and Tate Members 2006 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T12219

What we are looking at doing for the Jeff Wall project ist to re-create an image similar to the one above but also try and use a technique called Tromploy which in French means deceive the eye with some of our own images below are two images that represent the technique of Tromploy.

Tromploy

Tromploy

Below are some potential images that could be printed onto foam board and placed on the blank white panel of the Hull City of Culture Stand in Paragon Station (image with the 2×2 volunteers stood either side to make it look like Tromploy windows have been created that look out into the station itself and shoot it using flash to replicate the techniques that Jeff Wall uses.

 

Blends

The images below are called blends, they are made up of multiple photographs and each one is layered on top of the previous were opacity and fill are reduced and a slight offset to create a blend of the different images the two images below are of the Statue of Queen Victoria in Queen Victoria Square and the other is a blend of five different photographs of doorways layered on top of each other with fill and Opacity altered slightly on each one to give an impression of  multi-faceted ethereal doors ways that could have been drawn with a pencil.

Doorway Blend

Queen Victoria Blend

Images used for the Doorway Blend

Festival House

King Albert Chambers

Trinity House

Ferens

Yates

Punch Bowl

Images used for Queen Victoria Blend

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria

 

Here are two images of the blends been created in Photoshop.

Queen Victoria Blend in Photoshop

Doorway Blend in Photoshop

The idea behind these images was derived from a session on the artist Idris Khan who was appropriating the work of Bernd & Hilla Becher, who photographed industrial structures and then placed them in a grid format for viewing, each image in the grid was of a similar looking structures the constant between this was the light, distance from the subject the same camera and lens were used to take the images.

Bernd & Hilla Brecher

Bernd & Hilla Brecher

So what does Idris Khan do with the appropriated work of the Becher’s, he first selects the group of images he wishes to use in the piece he is creating  and then starts layering the images together to create a piece that looks like it could have been drawn for example

Idris Khan – Gable Sided Houses

Idris Khan – Prison type gas holders

Ruth Borchard

Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017

This event takes place biennially and is currently in its fourth iteration it is for arts from both Britain and Ireland and is to celebrate contemporary art. The prize itself offers the opportunity to artist both established and new and upcoming to compete for the prize of £10,000 and the chance to have their work purchased for the Ruth Borchard Next Generation Collection 2017.

The Prize is open to “all artists working or living in the UK and Ireland, of any age, are eligible to enter their self-portrait into the Prize. Works must be a self-portrait of the artist, but this may be alone or as part of a group, from life, from memory, from a photograph, figurative or abstract.” Ruth Borchard Website

What is Photo Collage

“A photo collage is a collection of pictures that are put together to make a single picture. The traditional art involved cutting pictures into pleasing shapes or trimming out specific images for placement, but digital photo manipulation opens many new possibilities, including blending images to make a seamlessly realistic picture.” www.eHow.com – What is a Photo Collage

Collage is an art form that dates back to 200 B.C.E. Japanese calligraphers used to glue together bits of paper and cloth to make paper so they could write their poetry. around the medieval period, artists and artisans began embellishing religious works using vellum made from calf skin and using gold and silver, artifacts, gems to create illuminated manuscripts.

Later on around about the 19th Century, a new medium called photography was becoming very popular and so to the photographic images that this process created and they became the popular medium for collages.

The Idea

I had was to create an ethereal image and to slowly build up the depth by adding more facial images at different angles to produce a maniacal style image which would show the torment and anxiety of depression as though the soul is struggling to exsanguinate itself from the body as you can see from the example images collected from the internet.

The image below is one of my attempts at creating a self-portrait for the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017 it was created using a photographic image taken in a studio it was then imported into photoshop where I manipulated the image using different layers and applying brush strokes using a chalk style marker brush highlighting specific parts of the image other effects used were turning a part of the image to a negative then using a square style brush create a block wall style effect produce the image below a posterised effect was placed on the part of the image visible which gives an artefact type of look and then using a highlight marker  I coloured in the beard and added a blur to give it blended look.

Positive Negative

The image below will probably be the one I would consider entering into the competition it consists of approximately 9 different layers each with a different image on and a different effect applied to those images there may also be a possibility of extending the image by placing a word cloud on a separate layer dropping the opacity and increasing the saturation of colour and selecting a blending mode. The orange colour of the images sets off against the pale background with a cloud dispersion on it and also the darkness of the glasses frame gives some definition to the images as well.

The Leonardo Da Vinci drawing of the (Madonna Study) was my inspiration and starting point for producing the image below called ‘Multiplicity’.

 

CYMK Image Idea for My Shoot.

Second Experiment (Multiplicity – My Soul)

Sepia

Cyan

Photoshop process of Multiplicity

To create this image three lights were used one to light the background, one lighting the back left of the body and a third lighting the front right, a meter reading was taken at the centre of the background were the light hit and gave me a F2.8 at ISO 100 but when this shot it very underexposed so I adjusted the F-stop to F8 first and F11 to see what results would occur the unfortunate thing was, I was working alone and that made it more difficult to set the camera up focus start the timer and then sit back on the seat in the same position as I had focused the lens on.

The lighting diagram shows the position of the Lights and subject relevant to the position of the camera. the power of the lights was adjusted between F5.6 and F7.1  with a timer range of between 4 and 13 seconds was used for the long exposures of the portraits and can show the movement of a person as they talk which in term can indicate lots of expressions.

Because this is a long exposure technique which any photographer can use there are no specific professional photographers who I can field use it on a regular basis but lots of amateurs and student photographers do so examples of their work is available online.

It is these images that I am using as inspiration for my work on the 2nd portrait I will be creating my new portrait for the Ruth Borchard competition.

Above are some examples of the long exposure process to capture movement in images it also shows what types of emotion can be captured as well.

 

On Thursday night the piece of work for the Ruth Borchard Prize was uploaded and the management fee paid, evidence will be upload later as evidence the final image for the prize can be seen below, I did actually try going round the image with a fine pencil line so that it looked like the drawing by Da Vinci (Madonna Study) which inspired me but I was not convinced it was as good as the original.

 

Second Experiment (Multiplicity – My Soul)

 

Here is the proof of sending in my entry to the Ruth Borchard Prize from Paypal.

 

Another artist who interested me was a contestant from last year’s prize called John Keane with this image using different media, the image below used an inkjet process to find out more about John Keane and his inkjet process John Keane