Final photo

Choosing between these two images became one of the hardest tasks of this project. I wanted a deep and emotive final photo, both of which these offer due to the the use facial close up and the direction of gaze. I feel that the top image contains the most emotion and depth to its expression and as a viewer you can really connect with how Mark is feeling, however, i really like the querkiness and authenticity of the bottom image due to the magnifying glass. I feel this image shows character and the eye for detail that jewellers must have and thats what attracts me to it.. Decisions, decisions, decisions..........

Black and white? Or De-saturate? That is the question

I began editing my photos, using the inspiration i got from the William's feature documentary work. I felt my work would also suit a black and white style as it would incorporate the darkness of the workshop and the emotion I am trying to portray through my subject. However, i have never been a fan of making photos black and white as i feel it can often flatten the image and take away the desired effect. Although i love to look at and appreciate black and white photography, i am never as keen when i have edited them myself.
From a lot of previous editing experience i came familiar and liked the outcome of de-saturating images, therefore, i experimented with turning my image black and white and also de-saturating the same image to compare the outcome.
In my opinion i prefer the de-saturated image so much more. By incorporating a few other tweaks in the colour adjustment I feel the image captures the rusty and dirtiness of the workshop. I also feel it adds a slightly old fashioned, unglamorous feel to the image, which in turn supports the portrayal and representation of jewellers that I wish to portray within my project.
I have shown one example of the comparison below;





Potrait, Attempt 2- Success!!

The third and what i hoped final visit to the jewellery workshop was a great success. Whilst there I managed to focus and home in on a few of the personal artifacts of Mark's that lay around the work station that I feel have a more emotive and eye catching effect to some of the previous shots of the similar artifacts. I also succeeded in capturing some great emotive and connective shots of Mark looking down the barrel of the camera that I feel will capture the attention of the audience and create a connection through the emotion within Mark's face and eyes.

Below are a few of the shots I captured;

This is a collection of some of the portraits I captured. In comparison to the initial portraits I captured, these ones create so much more of a physical connection between Mark and the viewer, and I feel by incorporating Klein's style of close up portraits to ensure the only foucs is on the subject, the shots have depth and the viewer can read the emotion within Mark's eyes and facial expressions.

Portrait, attempt 2.

After the workshop, I decided I had to re-visit the jewellery workshop in London to capturing a more emotive and powerful portrait of Mark. On the train on the way up there I was jotting down any ideas/ poses I could think of that would capture this decisive shot that I was looking for. Below are a few of the ideas I noted down;

• Slumped shots, face leaning against hand- Creating a sense of run down, tiredness of work etc.
• Crazy shots- Hands in hair, strange facial poses- Capturing the quirky personality.
• Wearing the old fashioned magnifying glasses. Authenticity / professionalism
• Facial close up, looking down the barrel of the gun with just one eye as if he was closely examine a fine piece jewellery.
• Similar to above but looking through a small magnifying glass.

These were the basis of my ideas that i would wish to experiment with and capture, whilst hoping more would come to mind when the camera was in hand.

Photos reviewed

In the last workshop we all took turns in presenting our photos and ideas to the class. I was rather chuffed and pleased that i had done the most work to my blog and also in the amount of photographs and shoots I had been on in comparison to the rest of the class. The feedback I received was positive and a lot of the class enjoyed and was intrigued by my ideas.
However, I was split between my final idea for the project. I was torn between the path of; focusing on the 'jewellery' as the subject in contrast to the state of the workshop or focusing on 'Mark' the head of the workshop, and incorporating his personal identity and character within the frames that also capture the state of the workshop.
On consoling with my tutor, we decided that the best path for the project to be effective and emotive was to follow the idea of incorporating Marks personal identity within the workshop.
The images below are a few photos that I had already captured that suited the theme, however, both me and Paul felt i would need an emotive and capturing portrait of Mark himself , looking down the barrel of the camera, in order to have an emotive and connecting image to end the project.

All above are a few examples of shots capturing personal artefacts of Mark's around his workshop. What i like about all of the images is, much like William's work that inspired me, the personal artefact that carries the meaing and personality of Mark isnt obviously and delibrately framed. I feel the fact his working tools and mess surrounding the objects cover and get in the way of them resembles the idea of the sacrifice and hard work and hours the work has over Mark, and like in this photo can sometimes get in the way of his personal life.

Above are a few examples of the shots i captured of Mark. My favourite out of the three is the bottom one, as i feel it shows Mark collaborating with his staff, however, the lightness isn't good enough to be used in my final project. I felt all of these photos were not good enough portraits that truly portrayed Mark and his personality and as none of them capture his face looking at the camera, it leaves a distance between Mark and the viewer and this isn't what I want for my final project.
A Re-shoot for more connective and emotive portraits had to be organised!

Further research into 'addiction'.

I continued to search for photographers that had captured images suiting the theme of addiction. I was under the impression i wouldn't find anyone as good as Clarence Williams, however, it was worth a try.
I came across a fashion/art photographer; David Lachapelle, who's work completely contrasted with the work of Williams but still contained this idea of addiction and the theme of 'cost of living'.
Many of Lachapelle's work involved the use of celebrities, with the focus of portraying the materialistic and consumerist values within popular culture. Unlike Williams all of his works are heavily staged and include a lot of colour, that is then increased in contrast and saturation in post production.
Below are two of his works that incorporated the idea of 'addiction'.

Many of Lachapelles work are controversial and extremely explicit which is what i feel adds to the effectiveness and iconic nature of the photos. In the bottom photo i like the combination of the bad boy image and detail that captures the smoke, however, other than that it doesn't capture the emotion or effectiveness that i am looking for. The top photo of the naked female is much more effectively taken. The pose of her eyes and no doubt enhanced post production creates the effect that they are completely white which automatically suggest she is extremely drug fueled. The enhanced used of contrast in this image also adds power, however, unlike Williams in a more attractive and almost seductive way.
Finding these images has helped show me the importance of the use of use of black and white in capturing the effect i desire and also more importantly shown me how direct portraits ,that only focus on the one individual are not remotely as effective, and are something i will look to avoid within my project.

I came across a William Klein photo that effectively clarifies my point of the importance for this style of feature photography to be busy and contain numerous subjects that surround the main part of the image.

The image is a great image, there is no doubting that, and yes it does capture a longing, depressed mood with the heavy smoke, black head piece and dark shadows, however, I feel because it is just a straight on close up of the individual it does not carry the same emotional density as Williams's work.

The effect and theme of the image is similar to the work of Williams, which causes me to share the emotion and pain of a mourning of death (that is suggested through the females black head piece) for the female. 

Cost of living/ Addiction photography research.

I began to search for inspiration through photographers who had focused on a similar theme of addiction to myself. I felt by doing this i would highlight the positive elements that i should include when thinking about my pictures and also anything that i felt i didn't like or didn't think worked towards my desired effect. I came across a journalism/ feature photographer; 'Clarence Williams' who worked for The Los Angeles Times at the time. I came across his work through finding the 'Pulitzer Prize'. The Pulitzer Pride is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City. In 1998 Clarence Williams was awarded with the prize in 'Feature photography' and below is a select few of the photos taken from his documentary on the plight of young children with parents addicted to alcohol and drugs.



This was the first photo i came across in the documentary and the emotion in the photo really struck me. I like Williams's use of depth of field in how you are initially drawn to the female shooting heroin, (which acts as a shock mechanism) and then once you look into the background the emotion and shocks builds. His clever use of the rule of thirds splits the image down the center and shows the immediate consequence of the mum's actions on the left to her daughter's on the right. The photo made me long and care for the young child and really interacts me with the documentaries focus.



I would say this is one of my favourite images taken from the documentary. Unlike the image above it doesn't carry the same emotion, however, it creates a similar shock effect. I feel this comes from the casualness of the male knocking back his beer, with no care in the world that the young boy is looking upon him as an inspirational role. This image struck me as a male myself as it creates a sense of pathos for the boy and makes the male audience question their relationship with their fatherly figure and how bad it would be if they was in this young boys position.

This image is no where near as obvious or as detailed as the above two as on first look it appears to have no really significant/ obvious shocking acts, however, Wiliams's use of a birds eye angle gives the audience the right to sit and examine the picture and pick away the subtle details that make this shot. Like many of the images the messiness and poor living conditions is emphasised in this image, however, what i feel is most effective is the fact that the two females are in the process of injection and sniffing drugs, ( notice the white powder on the plate, and also the arm tie in the hand of the female on the left) with such a casualness. If you only focused on the bottom part of this image and covered the top, the mannerism and pose of the two females creates a very social, casual, almost 'mothers meeting' sense which although there are drugs present is by no means threatening or shocking. However, as you scroll up and see the young child asleep next to them, the whole reaction of the viewer changes. I felt slightly disgusted and disturbed that such a wrong and immoral act could take place in such a casual way an arms length away from a delicate young child.



Again, not an image with obvious emphasis but the use of the rule of thirds is clever and allows the viewer to pick apart the contents of the image. It breaks the norm of a traditional father and daughter figure, as the father seems to have no care in the world that his daughter is clearly confused and depressed. The other interesting part of this image is the door. Many photographers use a doorway as a symbolism of a welcoming entry or a destined place awaiting, however, in this image the door is shut and the light is block due to the black out planks of what looks like wood. I feel Williams included the door for exactly this reason, of highlighting that this young girls life is suffocated around the consequence of her fathers addiction and their is no welcoming place for her to escape.

All of the photos within this documentary are black and white and I feel the emotiveness of the images wouldn't be any where near as effect if they were in colour. Black and white adds emphasis to the gloominess and dirtiness of all of the environments as it highlights the shadows, dirtiness and grubbiness of the walls, floor and belongings with its contrast to the light. In the two photos of the young brown haired girl, her white dress symbolises innocence and delicacy and by contrasting this with the dark, grubbiness of what surrounds her provokes a harsher, more shocking reaction than if colour was used.