Elina Brotherus

Elina Brotherus - Le Miroir, 2000

This series of the photographers reflection slowly appearing is really intriguing. At first I thought they were all the same photograph, but then realised the condensation on the mirror disappears. Alot of Elina's photographs explore female, and male form, and how they appear in their surroundings. 

Elina Brotherus - Nu Endormi, 2003

I think this is a really strong portrait, the way she is lying naked, natural, in the rolling natural landscape, although these things fit together, I feel as if there is still contrast, in her bold image at the bottom of the photo, then the landscape fading away behind her. To me it also shows how small we are compared with the massive world we live in, I get this from the amount of landscape you can see, and then Elina lying there, looking as if she's asleep, calm.

Elina Brotherus - Horizon 8, 2000

Elina Brotherus - Horizon 7, 2000

In the book there are then a series of landscape photographs, these ones are about half sky, some of them are only showing a small slither of land at the bottom on the frame. These photographs are pretty bleak, but the textures are really incredible. At first glance these two photos look of similar material, although the top one seems to be a soft mossy, grassy area, and the other a hard rocky, sandy beach. I really like how the second photo just fades off into the distance, I'm not sure if it's the sky or the see.

Photos: Scanned in from book: Elina Brotherus, The New Painting, Next Level & Creative Scape 2005

Tom Hunter - Recreating Paintings.

Since seeing Tom Hunter's work in the Charlotte Cotton text we read, I really like his work and wanted to look further in to it. This first photo being the recreation of 'Ophelia'. His photo is titled 'The Way Home'. I get the idea this young lady must have been on the way home, when something bad happened, but you're given any clues as to what. It's as if you just see one clip from a story, and it's left to you to decide what going on. You can tell from looking just over the hedge that it's been taken recently, he wasn't tried to hid the houses, or what looks like a metal fence, it's not like he'd tried to make his photograph look old fashioned.

Tom Hunter - The Way Home, 2000

John Everett Millais - Ophelia, 1852

The next photograph by Hunter is 'Woman Reading a Possessions Order', there is a baby lying on the bed, she's stood in front of the window.This is a recreation of Johannes Vermeer's painting, 'Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window', this two girls are stood in the same position, and the surroundings are pretty similar, although in Vermeer's painting, there is no baby, just a basket of fruit on the bed.

Tom Hunter - Woman Reading a Possessions Order,  1997

Johannes Vermeer - Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,  1657-9

You know the girl in Hunter's photo is reading a possession order, but it's unknown to us what the girl in Vermeer's painting is reading, perhaps a letter from a loved one.



Photographs:
http://www.point8.org/4_Articles/53/tom-hunter-performative-portraits
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophelia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window

Two Photographs I Took Today.

A friend of mine and I were looking to find some sort of beachy area around Southampton, I went online, and found this place called Weston Parade, so we took a picnic, went over the Itchen Bridge and went to see what it was like.

My own - Slipway, 2012

Throughout the day I took quite a few photographs, and we found lots of pretty shells. This was one of my favourite photos, luckily there weren't many people around, so I didn't have to worry if anyone got in the frame. I really like the diagonal of the slipway stopping in the middle of the frame, and how the clouds seem to have a diagonal line down the middle, I like how the sunshines coming through the clouds, and the different tones of orange and green amongst the beach. 

My own - Seagull, 2012

I also captured this photograph of a seagull, I love the clouds come in from one side, and he's flying between the clouds, not on top of them. I like the softness of the blue and the white, and then the boldness of the almost silouetted seagull.

Alex and Ben - My First Colour Prints.

At college I'd used and printed with medium format film, but I'd never printed colour film before. I was really looking forward to it, as I prefer to work with film than digital from what I've done so far. I set the camera on a tripod in my bedroom at halls, and used the daylight coming in the window. I photographed some of my  friends, I wanted them to look natural so tried to keep talking to them to take their attention away from the massive camera pointing in their faces.

Alex, 2012, 10x12in

Being in the colour darkroom is very weird, I couldn't see a thing for about twenty minutes. You just have to keep making noise so no one walks into you and vice versa. But after several test strips I started to see people coloured people.

Ben, 2012, 10x12in

I'm very very happy with how these have come out for my first go. The only thing is they don't seem to be completely in focus, I think this is because I wanted it to look natural after I'd focused the camera, they'd move slightly, moving out of focus.

Photos: My own

Sarah Moon

I found this book containing photographs by Sarah Moon, she's a French fashion photographer and film maker, but has moved away from fashion photography. I particularly like these two photographs, you cannot see either of the models faces, but just what they're wearing. They're bold and well contrasted in black and white.

Chanel, 1993

Dior, Marie Claire Bis, 1990

I think her work is more about the moment thats captured rather than the subject, or the identity of the subject, alot of the photographs are a little out of focused, blurry and layered up as the image has been caught. They all seem to have parts cut off, peoples face, the top half of they're bodies, half of animals as if the indentity isn't ment to be known, they're all very mysteryous.

I find Sarah's work really beautiful, and I can't wait to discover more in the future.

Photographs scanned from book: Sarah Moon, Thames & Hudson Photofile, 2009