Presentation Class- Skin Holes

Skin holes gives the impression of male dominance, it can be in their build, their body structure, their appearance or their stature that can make them seem bigger, more powerful and dominating. This can make some females feel intimidated making them ignore their own wants and needs just to please those of a man. Skin holes gives the sense of lonliness and self consciousness within a woman. 

Presentation Class- Favourite Song

One of my favourite songs is old-ish but i always enjoy listening to it, its a nice, calm acoustic song by Eagle Eye Cherry called "save tonight"

The Lyrics i have focused on are in the beginning of the song

"Go on and close the curtains

cause all we need is candlelight

you and me... and a bottle of wine

and hold you tonight

Well we know im going away 

and how i wish- i wish it werent so

so take this wine and drink with me

lets delay our misery"

The song is about lust and the desperation of losing them. 

 

Presentation Class-Georges Perec- A Void

This piece showcases a brilliant representation of alternative writing where not one word has the letter 'E'. This made me think what would happen if we were to just erase a letter from the alphabet, how would it effect our language, our writing and the way in which we communicate? i therefore experimented :) 

Presentation Class- Symptom Recital by Dorothy Parker

From this poem i drew a huge feeling of self consciousness, self doubt and poor body image. It gives the impression that this person feels uncomfortable and dirty in their own skin. The main lines i have focused on through my images are "i hate my legs, i hate my hands" and "i'm disillusioned, empty breasted" body image is such a huge issue in todays society which is what i have aimed to capture. 

Presentation Class- The Indigenous Edge

The indigenous edge portrays the experience of aboriginals when european settlement occured. I have therefore in my images attempted to portray the comparison between the two cultures.  

Presentation Class-Fiction

My fiction statement is "war is pleasure" therefore i went to the war memorial to photograph different types of machinery involved with war which creates so much conflict and heartache across the world

Presentation class- Non Fiction

My Non Fiction story involves visiting a farm which has been in my uncles family for over 85 years. The photographs merely represent and capture the scenic location and peaceful atmosphere 

Flash Assignments

These were produced using one of the portable lighting kits. 

The subject is lit up but separate from the background as the shutter speed was 1/80th creating little detail in the background.

This was a shutter speed of 1/30th which brings the background out brighter with far more detail. 

Flash Assignments

Fill flash 

This was done using an on camera portable flash with a Canon 40D. 

The shutter speed is 1/80th which creates small fill flash in the face and creates no detail in the background.

This was done the same as above but with a shutter speed of 1/30th which creates a detailed, well lit background.

When the subject is facing side on to the sun half their fgace has harsh lighting. the camera is turned side on with the flah facing the dark side of the subject. This shows small fill flash in this situation.

           

This is the same situation as above but with significant fill flash on subjects face. This is achieved by changing the stops on the flash meter. 

Street Photography Garema Place

The morning we trecked down Garema Place was very quiet with very little going on except for a lovely Aboriginal Man named George busking. We gave him some coins for exchange of some photos. 

Street Photography Queanbeyan

On our class trip to queanbeyan we mainly came across council workers, and a whole lot of people unwilling to have their photo taken... not that i blame them :) The shots show people living their everyday lives and epitomises the daily workings of a country town. 

Australian Documentary Photographer

As with most people my favourite living Australian Documentary Photographer is Trent Parke. I Saw his exhibition "minutes to midnight" at the cultural centre in Dubbo where i was doing a night photography workshop with Peter Soleness (Sydney Photographer). I found his exhibition fascinating with his creative use of light and slow shutter speeds. He is the first Australian to become a full member of the renowned photographers cooperative Magnum Photo Agency and is considered to be one the most innovative and challenging young photographers of his time. While working as a press photojournalist during the first years of his career, he received numerous national and international awards, including 5 gold lenses from the international Olympic Committee, World Press Photo Awards in 1999, 2000 and 2005. 

Don Burrows

As i was unable to attend the bungendore excursion i have been asked to research Don Burrows. 

Don Burrows is a classical musician who is also equally at home in the photographic darkroom as he is on stage. He has been treading the boards as a professional musician for 65 years. In 1973 the twice named Australian living treasure received the first Gold Record ever awarded to an Australian jazz musician, instigated the first jazz studies program in the southern hemisphere at the NSW conservatorium of music and was awarded an MBA. His awards though don't stop in the music industry he also won the title of Special Ambassador of Photography to children bestowed on him by the Photographic Imaging Council of Australia (PICA). 

His photography passion started at age 11 with a simple box brownie camera he then continued to combine his skills with music and photography over the next 50 years. He declares that "while music teaches us to listen and hear, 

photography teaches us to look and see" 

He has a deep passion for passing his message to young people. Much of his work displays the understanding he has of the importance for young people to express themselves creatively. One of his signature images illustrates the touching story of a young, deeply shy Indigenous girl in outback NSW playing a small flute for the first time. This is a reminder to him of his own humble single note beginning at Bondi Public School in the 1930's. He is as fascinated by people and their habitats as he is with the natural landscape, finding beauty in character and abstraction in nature. 

Extracted from http://www.bwoodworks.com.au/node/126

  

 

Ambrotype

Ambrotypes were most commonly performed by unkown photographers. The process involves creating a positive photographic image on a sheet of glass using the wet plate collodion process. The wet plate collodion process however involves creating a negative image though James Ambrose Cutting created a way of doing so as a positive image. This was patented in 1854.

How to create an ambrotype

1. One side of a very clean glass plate is covered with a thin layer of collodion 

2. It is then dipped in a silver nitrate solution

3. The plate is exposed to the subject while still wet (exposure times vary from 5-60 seconds or more depending on the amount of light available.)

4. The plate is then developed and fixed

The negative that results from this when viewed by reflected light against a black background will appear as a positive image

5. one side of the glass negative is coated with a black varnish to create this effect (either the emulsion or blank side can be coated) this adds depth to the image.

6. another plate of glass is placed over the emulsion side to protect it

7. It is then mounted in a metal frame and kept in a protective case. 

The Ambrotype was much less expensive to produce than the daguerrotype and also lacked it shiney metallic surface. Ambrotypes were often hand tinted, untinted ambrotypes are grayish-white and have less contrast than a daguerrotype. 

Richard Green- Wild Places

After seeing the Bayliss exhibition i went to see Richard Green's "Wild Places" Which was also at the National Library.

Basically this exhibition encompasses Green's 3 Passions- Helicopters, Photography and the Wilderness. The curator states that it allows us to see detail and hence fragility of such beautiful places. 

Some of the exhibition is on the first floor next to the Bayliss exhibition and the rest is on the fourth floor of the library.

The first room (downstairs) is a small enclosure, on each wall you are faced with an enormous panoramic image of a breathtaking Australian Landscape. I couldn't help but feel surrounded by the captivating images and their sheer size. They were an amazing display of craftsmanship by a very talented photographer, the use of light was fantastic giving a simplistic element to such overpowering images. When leaving this room you are greeted by more of these fascinating displays of our beautiful country. Most of these also share the sheer size as the previous ones however they give a more spacious impression as they are more spread out. 

On the fourth floor i entered the hall where the rest of the images hung only to be disappointed to see they were much smaller prints hung along the wall. These photographs were just as beautifully composed with incredible light as with the ones downstairs they just weren't able to strike the captivating feel that comes with overbearing size. 

I was disappointed with the curation of this exhibition finding it unnecessary to be split up by three levels of a large building. The work though by Richard Green was an extraordinary display and i was very impressed with his work. 

One landscape that stood out was the one with the helicopter among the scenery. Green has a helicopter license which enables him to go where others can't and using his impressive photography skills he manages to bring back a captivating experience for those who can't go to such extraordinary boundaries.

Charles Bayliss- A Modern Vision

Today i headed to the National Library to see the Charles Bayliss exhibition "A Modern Vision".

It was fantastic to see an exhibition with such historical pieces it was both photographically pleasing but also very educational. Throughout the exhibition you are greeted by documentary images, landscapes and portraits that seem to work chronologically according to the time throughout Bayliss' career before his sudden death at age 47.

Bayliss was seen as very modern in his style capturing the city (especially Sydney), its environs, leisure and the landscape. He also embraced latest technological developments mainly seen through his extensive collection of panoramas. He developed a distinctive style picturing complex compositions and effect of spaciousness (as pointed out by guest curator) 

The first shots that you are greeted with when entering the exhibition are fairly simple shots that included people, buildings and ships, a pleasing way to begin... i thought. This introduces you to the versatility in his work. 

As you follow the wall around there are a number of interesting shots of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, he documented its establishment and clearly denotes his belief in progress. I also found it intriguing to see the traditional styles of photography here looking at how far it has come, the odd blurred face can be picked when close up from movement while using a required slow shutter speed. Sharing this space too is documentary images of the genius Lawrence Hargraves as he depicts the evolution of the flying machine. 

Adjacent to these shots are a couple of samples of the few (approximately 11) photographs that were ever documented by Bayliss of aboriginals. In this time aboriginals were generically seen as 'types' rather than individuals and had no assumed future in the modern world; this is somewhat visualised through his work. He captures them in their camps beyond the margins of european civilisation and also includes some portrait style images which stood out to me as a juxtaposition compared to the rest of his work at the exhibition mainly because all the other shots including people were in large groups these were merely two people in their natural environment. The aboriginal section was enticing as it strives to develop our understanding of relations between europeans and aboriginals at that time. 

During 1886 he documented the flood of the Darling and lower Murray that had previously been suffering from severe drought. According to the curator this became one of his most memorable series. I found these images simplistic and informative truly capturing the event.

Bayliss was also interested in tourism which is foreseen in the shots of the Jenolan Caves- a huge fascination from the 1860's. In these shots he takes advantage of the delicate lighting falling on such amazing textures and merely captures the beauty of these subjects. I found these images captivating and positively accentuates Bayliss' talents as a photographer.  

Bayliss eventually established himself in a business in 1876 as a landscape photographer which remained his area of expertise until his death at 47. Intriguingly most of these landscapes were always in a short reach to Sydney- this i found disappointing as a i would have loved to have seen more of his work from around the country. Most of his landscapes were done in the form of a panorama showing his willingness to experiment with modern techniques.  

There was also a section dedicated to the transformation of Sydney which included panoramas shot from numerous angles of the city.

To add more interest than simply hanging photographs there was also enclosures that displayed books in which his work had been published. These books were very worn and old- like his photographs and extended the matter of history. 

One of the most observable aspects in the exhibition was Bayliss' obsession for water, he was clearly mesmerised in some way by its effects there were waterfalls, lakes, rivers, harbours and beaches. According to the curator "water attracted him like a magnet"

I thought this was a fantastic exhibition from both a photographic and educational point of view and found it to be very logically curated.           

Aboriginals Protest

Today after photographing people on the streets of Queanbeyan, we headed to centrelink, Braddon to photograph a protest of aboriginals against the centrelink system. We were told by a protester that it was aborigines from the Northern Territory who came for the apology by Kevin Rudd that asked them to perform this protest. it happens every month and i thought it was beautiful to see them backing up others i their culture to make a difference and have a say!