UNIT 2 – PROJECT – PASSION
1.1 DANCE IS MY PASSION
A passion of mine has always been performing arts and dance in particular. As a young girl I had a dream of being a ballerina and this is now followed through to my daughter who wants to be on the stage. In my level 1 course my final image was a ballerina, as it is something very close to my heart that I am passionate about.
Dance to me is a feeling of freedom, an expression of emotion, an escapism, a love.
A photographer can capture that sense of freedom, of joy or sadness and can record the movement that rhythm belonging to the dancer.
1.2 Through my research I found some great photographs on the Magnum website.
Looking at all these photos what they represent to me is that dance can be found anywhere. From the inside of an opera house to the squatter villages. All are beautiful.
I went to the Victoria and Albert museum and in the courtyard there, there was a group of dancers that came together to improvise movement there..
And here is a picture I took just before lockdown (March 2020) of my daughter spontaneously dancing on the beach. The irony that that sense of freedom was just about to be taken away from us. The use of shadows and silhouettes can work well with dance photography, you can tell the emotion from just the silhouette whilst with other things you need to see the detail.
Initial Thoughts:
- If the walls could talk- I could follow the dance studio happenings inside one studio space. Or I could take a shot of a similar angle of dancers through the ages.
- I am currently in a dance class with a mix of people, similar to me, mothers wanting that feeling of freedom and performance again and an older gentleman who does it too. I could follow the people in class with a picture of them in their daily life and then one of them dancing. I could include in this too a self-portrait.
I can then research some dance photographers as well as maybe Annie Leibovitz who does portraits of ‘daily life’ or what is important/passion for the person.
Dance Photographers:
Lois Greenfield, Gordon Anthony, Barbara Morgan, Omar Robles, Jordan Matter and Rachel Neville.
Photographic Research
Lois Greenfield
Lois Greenfield is an American Fine Art and Commercial Photographer, best known for her work in photographing human form in motion. She often depicts the human motion by using dancers.
“The ostensible subject of my photographs may be motion, but the subtext is time. A dancer’s movements illustrate the passage of time, giving it a substance, materiality, and space. In my photographs, time is stopped, a split second becomes an eternity, and an ephemeral moment is solid as sculpture. My interest in photography is not to capture an image I see or even have in my mind, but to explore the potential of moments I can only begin to imagine.”
Lois started her career as a photo journalist and then got very interested in photographing dance. She then set up her own studio where she could control the lighting but could also direct the dancers in her exploration of the expressive possibilities of photographed movement. From here she then created signature images for most contemporary dance companies, and collaborated with dance companies to document their work. Lois created photo books and also worked commercially for advertising companies. Her work has been exhibited in many galleries and museums all over the world.
Lois’s photos have captured the grace and athleticism of dancers in flight.
I love how Lois really captures the motion as well as an expression. And using flowing, chiffon type clothes can emphasise this. As she is mainly in the studio she has can complete control over her lighting. I will need to work hard with the natural light I have both indoors and outdoors. Like Lois I too wish to freeze the movement with a sense of expression and passion for dance.
Annie Leibovitz
Annie Leibovitz is a famous American portrait photographer. Her work is engaging and creative. She often uses old paintings as inspiration and has been called a Rembrandt photographer. She is known for photographing people, including the queen in intimate settings or poses.
In 1973 Annie became the chief photographer for Rolling Stone and later 1983 Annie began working for Vanity Fair and she produced iconic and provocative images. Many collections of her work have been published and exhibitions of her photographs have appeared at museums and galleries all over the world.
Her style is often very staged but at the same time captures the essence of the daily life of a person if sometimes exaggerated. She uses bold colours, with a muted tone and her lighting is superb.
“When I say I want to photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.” – Annie Leibovitz
I have always been a big fan of Annie Leibovitz and have her portrait book (2005-2016). I love her use of colour and then the texture that she seems to capture too, the wrinkles in the faces. The muted tones and bold colours really appeal to me.
She really focuses on the subject and can depict their passion with the drama and mood in the picture. I like how she captures the essence and intimacy of the person.
With my dance project I have decided to follow one subject, Christine, my dance teacher. Like Annie I hope to capture the intimate moments as well as the staged moment of dancing. It will be a documentary style alongside the dance photography showing her passion for dance.
I will be doing a self portrait, showing my passion for dance alongside my home life, the process will then lead into my documentary process with my subject Christine.
2.1 Identify photographic resources 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. Influenced by Annie Leibovitz I will increase my texture and clarity in Lightroom to provide a more textured feel and like Lois Greenfield it will emphasise the movement in the dress as well as the muscles on the body. When doing a self portrait I will use a tripod and a self timer. I will need to really focus on where I need to stand/dance in the frame so I am in focus. I want to create soft muted tones like Annie so in Lightroom I can use a chrome filter.
I will be using the outside so will need to focus on the natural light I have, as well as have the correct exposure on my camera. I will need some sunlight to achieve a fast shutter speed even with a wide aperture to really focus and freeze the dance movement.
When photographing inside, as I don’t have studio lighting I will use the natural light to focus on the subject. The portrait shots I will use a wide aperture for he subject to be the main focus.
2.2 My photographic images
Home shots – Self Portrait
Dance shots – Self portrait
Home shots with Christine my dance teacher, a mother and a passion for dance.
Christine and motherhood
Christine and teaching dance
Christine – Dance is her passion
Final images
With these final images above, I would make the landscape one of Christine big at an A3 size with the other ones smaller below.
Behind the scenes:
2.4 Assess the photographic project
Through my initial research of dance photography what I discovered was a sense of passion, joy and strength within the photographs. Focusing close to home I decided to document my dance teacher Christine and her passion for dance. I am always drawn to the social and portrait photography, and photographing outside of my nest of a home and my children would be a brilliant challenge for me. Like Annie Leibovitz style I really wanted to capture the essence and character of Christine for her passion for dance as well as being a mother.
Initially I started the project doing a self portrait and my passion for dance. This gave me an opportunity to develop my ideas for Christine starting with a home shot and then dancing in Richmond Park. Gong to Richmond Park I could then do a reccy and seek out where was best for light and composition.
In Richmond Park I had my Tele lens converter lens on my fuji camera at the widest aperture of Fstop2 and placed it on a tripod and self timer of 10 seconds. I made sure there was some sunlight coming through the trees where I placed myself so I could have enough to freeze the action. I would put a stick in the ground or focus on a tree and then I would place myself there for the camera to try an focus on me. It was quite difficult to achieve the best focus and if I had a black back drop in a studio this could have been easier, however I wanted to be outside for the feeling of freedom. Placing it on continuous focus helped get the focus on me and freeze the moment of dancing. I was happy with my portrait shot of leaping into the air where the focus is on me. And in Lightroom I was able to adjust the shadows and highlight and increase the texture and clarity so you could see all the ruffles in my dress moving to emphasise the movement like Lois Greenfield does. For my home shots I wanted a darker feel to the outside dance shot. I placed my camera with a self timer on the stairs again on AV priority and a wide aperture so I would pop out in the shot. With a dark backdrop and some light coming through the window, it highlighted me.
Now I had explored ways of photographing at home and outside in the park I could focus on my main subject, my dance teacher Christine. Starting at her home, I used the natural daylight coming through the kitchen French doors. I wanted her to be captured as natural as possible, relaxed and happy. In order to achieve this I spent the morning with her so she was relaxed. Using my tele converter lens again on the fuji camera and Av priority F2.8, I think what made the pictures work well was the lovely use of natural day light coming through the window. In Lightroom, I adjusted the exposure slightly and increased the texture, so like Annie Leibovitz it really captured the real person and her in her home.
As well as the home shots I wanted to capture Christine as a mother and teaching dance. This would be a bit more challenging, as there wouldn’t be so much of an opportunity to stage the shot. This time I mainly used my 23mm lens on my Fuji camera so I could capture a slightly wider shot and then crop if needed. For the motherhood shots, I wanted this to be as natural and candid as possible. I took the opportunity at nursery picnic in the park to capture these moments. There was natural sunlight that day, I used a wide aperture for the portrait shots. I particular love the facial expressions on her son Thomas and how as a mother she is keeping it together with love for them. I preferred these photographs in black and white as I felt it expressed the emotions more with less distraction on the background.
The next stage was photographing Christine in the dance studio and around the love of ballet. I had a short period of time photographing her teaching children ballet. I made sure I crouched low in the corner of the room so I could get a wide shot, as well as a good composition, I focused on Christine’s face, as wanted her to still be the main focus. In lightroom afterwards I increased the texture and clarity slightly to get the sense of movement on the ballet tutu’s ect and I preset to a chrome effect, I wanted to bring in the softness of pink in the dance clothes shots. For me that soft pink colour is how I remember ballet classes growing up. I used a wide aperture to focus just on Christine, however I maybe could have increased the ISO slightly with twice as much shutter speed to stop the blur on the little boys hands in the class. Perhaps with photoshop too (which I need to explore further) I could remove the bag and fire escape sign so the picture is cleaner to look at.
Finally I wanted to capture Christine dancing in the freedom of outside and nature. The first day we went to Richmond Park, there was not enough natural light coming in to freeze the action and get a clear shot. We waited a few days for a sunnier day to get some natural light in the shot. Using my 23mm lens on the Fuji shot I was hoping for enough of a wide shot to get the scenery and sense of drama. I kept the aperture wide at F stop 2.8 and a fast shutter speed of 1/1250s. In lightroom afterwards I decreased the exposure slightly and increased the texture and clarity and stuck with the preset of chrome for a slightly muted colour tone like Annie Leibovitz again. I was really happy with these shots and how the natural light and shadows really emphasised her muscle tone and creases and ruffles in the dress emphasised the movement. Her facial expression captured a relaxed feeling of love and passion. My favourite image was the landscape one, I love the sense of drama and passion with the use of the big tree and tree trunks. I experimented with changing the profile shot and cropping to square which worked too. Maybe for further development in the profile shot I could have masked the background of the outside to a black effect so it would look like a studio effect like Lois Greenfield so more emphasis is on Christine, however doing this I would lose the freedom of being outside and the beauty of it.
The final images chosen was the landscape one of her dancing outside. I would make this big to show the sense of drama and movement. Alongside this big image I would have the soft pink tone pictures which show her teaching as well as her dressing her daughter and passing the passion of dance down to her.
Shooting in Raw has made a big difference as I could work with photos more afterwards. I was apprehensive at first with the challenge of photographing other people rather than my own family, however I surprised myself with my confidence that I could do it and thoroughly enjoyed the process.
3.1 As I would be photographing people in a pubic domain, I made sure I had their permission to do so. When photographing myself I used I tripod, I made sure this was not in anyone’s way and when I was near the deer, I didn’t get too close to scare them. In Richmond Park we made sure we were in a space where we were not in people’s way. As we both danced in bare feet outside, we cleared a patch of sharp sticks stones out of the way before leaping.
UAL Level 1 Photography 