REFLECTION-GCSE

REFLECTIONS

We have been learning about reflection ready for our mini mock project at the end of the year.

We have to make a portfolio about reflection and this means we have to take pictures and write a load of information.

I feel like my 50 photos would have the theme of water, mirrors and windows. I like the effect it has and I could really have fun and experiment.

I have pinned a load of pictures that I have taken an interest to which is on my pinterest page:

Ernst Haas

Just click here to see all of my fabulous pins... It has other folders which is nothing to do with reflection but just click on the reflection folder.

Ernst was born in Vienna, Austria on the 2nd March 1921. He died in New York City on the 12th September 1986. He was a photojournalist and pioneering colour photographer. Haas was uninterested in learning photography as a child. Though his father-an avid amateur-tried to share his interest. Upon his fathers death in 1940, however, Haas first entered the darkroom, learning to print old family negatives. His interest grew and he started to take his own photographs. He served as president of the cooperative 'Magnum Photos', and his book 'The Creation' (1971), was one of the most successful photography books ever, selling over 350,000 copies. In 1947 Haas presented his first exhibition at the 'American Red Cross' in Vienna, where he has a part-time job teaching photography to soldiers. Personally, Ernst Haas not only has a really cool name, but I think he's my favourite reflection photographers.

I used these pictures because my theme is going to be water, mirrors and shadows. These pictures inspire me, they keep me interested and I will be able to adapt my work from them. The pictures look like they were quickly taken but it makes it look so creative and I really like it. I have a love for nature and scenery even though you'll never see me outside. I also love animals to the point where I pretty much have every stuffed animal known to man at the age of 14.

Here is some of his work:

A01 Research

Joel Meyerowitz

Joel was born in New York on the 6th March, 1938. He is a street photographer and portrait and landscape photographer. Yes, he is still alive. He began photographing in colour in 1962 and was an early advocate of the use of colour during a time where there was significant resistance to the idea of colour photography as serious art. He is the author of 16 books. These include:

Cape Light

St Louis and the Arch

Wild Flowers

A Summers Day

Creating A Sense Of Place

Red Heads

and many more.

I chose these photos because I'm interested in nature and people. With the reflection pictures from Haas, I can put nature and people into the mix and make it fabuloussss. I also really like New York and busy cities because it interests me when you see different types of people in one place. There's also my addiction for old fashioned love, lets be honest, it's adorable.

Here are a few of his photos:

I am tempted to take my brother outside on some kind of walk so I can take pictures of him. If I want to add people to the mix I'm going to need a person right? Basically, I'm going to be taking pictures when he's not looking to make him look like he's photogenic even when he's definately not but they don't know that.

A02 Developing

For our GCSE mock project we have to take 50 photos of reflection. These are the ones I have so far.

Inspiration is the thing that everyone makes out as a big concept of anything creative. They think that all photos have a background or took ages to come up with the idea. In reality, I got a camera and decided to take a picture of anything reflective hoping it would look cool. Fortunately, most of them came out great despite the lack of creativity I actually have. It also took me over two months to finally get 50 photos which was exhausting but I'm pleased with the outcome and I think that the pictures have met my reflection standards. These photos link to the artists I have studied because they are to do with nature or people. I would have loved to have went to New York to take pictures but I'm not exactly made of money or time. Joel is one of my favourites because of his pictures of the city as one day I'd love to travel the world and take lots of pictures whilst I'm at it.

Editing-Still A02

How did I do this? I simply made it Black and White. Honestly it's not rocket science when it comes to me. I'm quite plain. This made me want to experiment more and this is what happened:

Original:

I started off by using 'Auto Colour'

I then decided to mess around and I honestly can't remember what I actually did but this is the end result:

It's now the 23rd May and we have taken a few more photos. I decided to change it up a bit and used a studio kit. Here are my recent photos:

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

No matter how much I despise editing my photos, I decided to do it again. I don't like editing because I like the naturalness (if that's a word) of photographs. However, I understand why people would want to do it. I sometimes like making it darker like the photos below. It just has a cool effect and the edit below makes my eyes shine.

Before editing:

After editing:

I ended up changing it to look quite dark and gloomy. Kind of like in the films where someone is looking outside when it's a rainy day. I like the look of the darkness in the corner then it's slowly becoming lighter. My eyes look great though. It also gives life to my freckles and I feel like the original is kind of bland where as the edited one has a bit of spark in the works.

This here is my contact sheet. Basically it's where I identify my pictures and see how many I actually have but you're meant to use it to see whether your pictures are legit or not. I have no idea how you can tell by a contact sheet but that's up to my teacher. If you're confused, people could steal reflection pictures from the internet making it more pixelated if you edit it. They want to see if you took the pictures or if you got them from the internet. Lets be honest, my pictures are no where near the ones online but they're mine and I'm proud so who cares? If you're wondering whether my pictures are real, they are. Just to inform you.

Now the pictures below are kind of reflection pictures but it's more to do with what reflects me as a person. Who I am. These pictures mean something to me and isnt that what photography is all about? These pictures are to do with family, things I like and some random pictures that I like because it's me.

Aquarium.

This is at an aquarium. It reflects me in the way that it shows my love for water and also sea animals. My brother and I are actually in the picture and I like it because it's different to what I normally do.

Mum

This is my mother. It has the sun which technically is a reflection. That's not the reflection I'm thinking of though. Mothers reflect life. They gave birth to you and even if they do something so horrific (which she hasn't if you're wondering it's just an example) you still owe them everything you have. They held you for 9 months, fed you, gave you a home and protected you. My mother is a reflection of my life.

Kids.

My teacher says that necessarily, shadows aren't reflection but it is to me. My siblings look cool and I can't lie about it. This was at the same skate park as the other picture but I feel like this one is a little more high standard. Once again, my siblings are the reflection of who I am.

Aquarium.

1/6

Final 4

These four are my final pieces. They all have people in it which is part of my theme and some kind of reflection whether thats an eye or a mirror. I like these because the effects of them almost look paranormal but they have the same black and white contrasts. Black and white are easy colours for me. They look great and give the kind of "I'm sad, just kidding" vibe. That sounds weird but I mean it has emotions and story. The world isn't always sunshine and rainbows. I like these four and they stood out to me the most so these are my final four.

Evaluation.

The theme for the project was reflection. At the start, I decided to use the theme of water and mirrors. As you can see, I completely scrapped the water idea. My final four had a theme of people, cameras and mirrors. My work changed a lot since my research of Ernst and Joel. However, I think it's changed for the better.

Everything to do with inspiration has already been said and I don't want to repeat myself.

The message I tried to give doesn't exist. My work doesn't need a message, a story or a reason as to why I did it. Photography is meant to give you freedom. What's the point of taking a picture and then having to write a whole essay about how it affects you. A photo isn't taken so you can write about it, it's taken because you want to and it's something you enjoy. I'm not giving out a message and I have no story.