Thursday 2 December 2010

Visit to The Lucid Evidence Exhibition at the MMK in Frankfurt

Recently I visited the Lucid Evidence Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, (MMK) in Frankfurt.  The exhibition focussed on figurative works from the late 1950's to the present day.  It was very interesting and the standard of the exhibits was very high.

The two photographers that I found particularly interesting were Bettina Rheims and Nobuyoshi Araki:

Bettina Rheims

Bettina Rheims
Bettina Rheims
I found these three images particularly stunning.  The first two had been used on magazine covers such as Foto and several others.  Her portraits, mostly of women are outstanding.

Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki
Nobuyoshi Araki's photographs have a strongly ritual character, with rice straw rope used extensively.  Araki claims that his photos are liberalizing, with the young women asserting their freedom to have themselves photographed by him.

Friday 19 November 2010

Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Project: Cropping and Extending
Exercise: Cropping

For this exercise I took 3 photographs from a previous exercise and experimented with different ways of cropping the images.

What have I learned from this exercise ?

By experimenting with different cropping options for a photograph it is sometimes possible to find a more interesting image or one that has more impact within the photograph.

The original photographs along with their final crops are shown below:

4794
4794-B
I cropped the original photograph of this person waiting for a tram in Will Brandt Platz in Frankfurt so as to isolate him from the background.  The subject is typical of the bankers of Frankfurt, checking his email while he waits.

4766
4766-A
I cropped this image of the animated statue in front of the Messe in Frankfurt so as to concentrate on its silhouette.  With less of the background detail the statue is more clearly defined.

4801
4801-A
I cropped this image so as to more closely fit the frame to the subject.  The subject seems to fit the squarer frame shape better.

Photography 1: The Art of Photography

Project: Frame Shapes and Sizes.
Exercise: Vertical and Horizontal Frames.

I took the photographs for this exercise on a recent trip to the German city of Frankfurt.  I chose 20 separate locations and took a photograph of each of the locations in both vertical and horizontal format.

What did I learn from the exercise?

It is clear that most scenes can be made to work as both a vertical and a horizontal image.  The result may not always suit the subject and may not be quite as successful.  However, it is important not to get into the habit as seeing all images as either vertical or horizontal.

The pairs of images are shown below:

4758
4759

4762
4763

4764
4765

4766
4767
4773
4774

4777
4778




4850
4851



4798
4801

4792
4793

4794
4795

4796
4797

4802
4804

4805
4806

4807
4808

4812
4813

4816
4818

4824
4825

4826
4827

4838
4839

4847

4846