Unit 2: The Photographic Project – HOME SWEET HOME
“The idea of home has captivated and inspired artists for generations. Home can be a feeling, a physical space or a geographic place as tiny as a street or as vast a country. Home can be a memory, metaphor or a range of feelings.. Home {can be} a classroom, a workplace , and a studio, a yearning.” Lens Culture 2021
Photographic Research
Joel Sternfield
An American Fine Art colour photographer. He documented the United States of America whilst travelling in a camper van in large format in the 1970’s and 1980’s. He was revolutionary in using colour as black and white photographers were often only taken seriously. He managed to capture common people in common settings which would also uncover a wonderful motif in the ordinary scene. He would often co ordinate his use of colour and really master the use of light. His work is now held in the museum of Modern Art in New York. The majority of his work was outside using the landscape with natural light.
I love his use of colour and how its often co ordinated, there is warmth to the colour which is projected by the use natural sunlight. I am drawn into the images of the setting of the families and what their story might be behind it. His pictures were mostly open to your interpretation of it.
Jeff Wall
A Canadian photographer, writer and art historian. He has written about art history and is best known for back lit large scale cibachrome photos. Jeff Wall was renowned for his large format photographs of the mundane to the large scale complexity of a 19th century painting. He carefully stages the scenes he photographs, cleverly designing every detail to achieve his desired visual effects. Ironically, the final images would appear to be candid, spontaneous moments in mid-action.
The two famous photographs above, ‘The Destroyed room’ and ‘View from an Apartment’ were both manipulated and staged over a long period of time. I like the use of colour and sense of chaos in the ‘real life’ image.
William Eggleston
An American photographer, a strong relationship with colour in portrait and landscape of South America.
“I had the attitude that I would work with this present-day material and do the best I could to describe it with photography. Not intending to make any particular comment about whether it was good or bad or whether I liked it or not. It was just there, and I was interested in it.” William Eggleston
He experimented with colour film during the 1960s and challenged the conventions of photography by photographing the ordinary or the ugly. At the time, black and white was seen as the standard for fine art photography. Colour was seen as unrefined and was used for commercial and advertising purposes. He pushed this boundary and is now one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
I love the use of bright colours in these photos and how they are co ordinated. There is a sense of warmth again like Joel Sternfield with the use of natural sunlight.
Home – What it means to me:
Home to me is my family. My children play a strong part, their playfulness and chaos they cause creates the home I live in. Even though I now live in London, home to me will always be the countryside where I grew up as a child too. I have great nostalgia of seeing my own children do the things that I did outside in the countryside, it creates a sense of peace and happiness for me that makes me feel right at home. The outdoors and fresh air is something that is very important to me. When we built our new kitchen, in the design it was important to have the glass go all the way across so we could bring the feeling of outdoors within.
Like the photographers I have researched I want to use a lovely warmth of colour, using the natural day light and coordinate some of the colours too in the images.
I will use my FujiX100F camera with both its 23mm and with a 1.4x tele-conversion lens and concentrate again on the use of natural light and exposure on my camera. Photographing in Raw I will then use Adobe Lightroom.
Firstly in my home setting in London I experimented photographing my children candidly playing in the garden and the chaos that can come inside! Light was really important to me in these pictures.
Home Sweet Home Pictures
ISO 200 F2.8 1/900s 23mm with 1.4x tele converter
ISO 200 F2.8 1/1250s 23mm with 1.4x tele converter
ISO 200 F2.8 1/1250s 23mm with 1.4x tele converter
ISO 200 F2.8 1/1250s 23mm with 1.4x tele converter
ISO 200 F5.6 1/250s 23mm
I then had a good delve into my family portraits of myself growing up in the countryside. This to me was the feeling of home, the fresh country air the picnics and a sense of adventure.
With grandparents still residing in the countryside, we often take our own children there now. They too can follow in our footsteps. The images below represent home to me.
ISO 200 F7.1 1/850s 23mm
ISO 200 F2.8 1/420s 23mm with 1.4x tele converter
ISO 200 F2.8 1/950s 23mm
1.1,2.1,2.2 Using my FujiX100F with both its 23mm and a 1.4x tele-conversion (c. 32mm) lens I wanted to capture both a wide angle as well as close up. I generally shot in aperture priority mode, and used the exposure dial to flex the shutter speed as needed. As there was a lot of light and I wanted to use a low aperture, I needed to use the ND filter (3 stop reduction in light), as the camera’s max shutter speed is c. 1/1,000 (when aperture is wide). I shot in Raw so using Adobe Lightroom afterwards highlighted the colour, shadows and natural light more. I kept the Aperture relatively low so the focal point could pop as well as creating bokeh in the background. Like the famous colour photographers I researched I wanted to use the natural bright sunlight to create the warmth as well as shadows and highlight the colours. I made a conscious decision for my family to be dressed in similar colours to the scene (yellows and greens). Although the clothing and the picnic scene was pre-planned and set up, the photos themselves caught candid and natural moments.
3.1,3.2 In the first few photographs (by the sprinkler), this was a very spontaneous moment. My children were playing in the garden with the sprinkler, they had an idea to use their umbrellas. I noticed that they were wonderfully lit up by the sunlight (this was in the morning), but behind them the shed and fence were in shadow, so there was a strong contrast between the bright umbrellas and the dark background. The dark background also allowed the water droplets that were lit up by the sun to be highlighted. I captured quite a few pictures of the umbrellas lit up as well as the children playing together. I used the exposure dial to reduce the exposure (by increasing the shutter speed) as the auto metered exposure was too high because of the dark background. Then with Adobe Lightroom afterwards I was able to emphasise the contrast by increasing the highlights and accentuating the shadows. With my experience of playing with light and dark in photography I did the week before, by bringing the highlights down and increasing the shadows I could get a greater dramatic look. This was the first time using my new tele-conversion lens which converts the camera’s fixed 23mm lens to c. 32mm (or from 35mm to 50mm equivalent on full frame format). I love how Charlie’s hand is lit up with the drops of water around it. A week later, Charlie was playing the same umbrella game and I noticed Georgia wanting to take a photo of him on my phone, this was a cute moment, as well as reflective of the era we live in, I captured in the doorway of our kitchen.
The next picture I took was a sense of chaos and playfulness within the house, a real life moment of a kitchen really lived in. There was a lot of colour in it from the recent birthday celebrations. I used the 23mm lens to get a wider angle and standing on a stool I was able to take an aerial picture and there was lots of lovely natural daylight coming in, as it was taken in the morning. The composition worked well, as the eye is drawn into where the two children meet. The image is similar to Jeff Wall and his famous destruction room with the use of lots of colour.
The final images were taken outside in the countryside to reflect playfulness again as well as nostalgia to my childhood growing up there.
I really wanted to capture a very strong memory and feeling of home and that was a picnic in the countryside. I used similar colours in the picnic set up and what my family are wearing (colours of blue and yellow) similar to what William Eggleston captured.
Walking down to the picnic I also captured Georgia walking down the field path which was also very nostalgic and a feeling of home, the composition worked well with leading lines and the vivid expanse of green crop. I initially considered keeping the sky in focus however it worked better cropping to landscape with more on the green of the plants.
The last picture was taken when we were paddling with the children, again a real strong nostalgic feeling of home. This was my favourite picture. I thought a bridge near my dad’s house could be a good location for a picture of the children playing in the stream and it worked really well with the contrast of light and dark and highlighting Georgia playing in the water. Using a low aperture the shutter speed was needed to avoid over exposure. Like William Eggleston and Joel Sternfield there is warmth from the natural sunlight and co ordination of color with similar colours in her dress to the background. In Adobe lightroom afterwards, I increased the exposure, but brought the the highlights right down, so that the background detail was not blown out as the background in direct sunlight was so much brighter than Georgia in shade under the bridge.
4.1 Safe working procedures – The photograph taken under the bridge needed a safe working procedure. As there was a slight current in the stream I made sure my husband was close by and downstream.
Self evaluation: Throughout this project it has constantly been on my mind, looking out for what I could capture for the feeling of home. This meant being ready at all times with a camera to make sure I captured the right moment. I took as many photos as I could, at different angles, high, low and often seeking a good sunlight in the daytime. I was conscious too of what might colours might look like in the picture so this was then coordinated in the set up or clothes. In the countryside pictures I wanted the colours to be more harmonised than the ones in the kitchen chaos. I hope I have portrayed the feeling of home through the playfulness in the pictures and the nostalgia of being outside as a child and that feeling like home. Although my pictures are candid and mainly spontaneous, maybe I could have staged it more like the photographers I researched, although this can be difficult to direct with small children often at my feet! This could mean I might lose the candid playfulness but I could get a perfect composition or all the perfect colours harmonising in one photograph.
UAL Level 1 Photography 