Mersedes vs Samara

Just before Easter holidays I went to studio to practise some my ideas. My daughter suits the role of Samara perfectly as I hoped as she can be really scary and really sad in the same time, what looks very impressive on photographs as whether alive or dead though, creepy little girls have become iconic within the horror genre. 
With sunken eyes, perfect hair, and always the same style of going-to-church dress, the image of the creepy little girl has become standardized, but the fact that it still remains creepy while being so familiar is a testament to its ability to strike a deep psychological chord with the audience. In many ways the creepy little girl is the flip side of the silent witness character. Both imply that young children know more about their surroundings than they let on, but where as the silent witness can’t communicate... the silent witness represents the purity and innocence of childhood, the creepy little kid represents all the cruelty and selfishness that children are capable of.

The horror genre has become popular amongst its audiences throughout decades. This phenomenon of evil child phobia has dominated the horror cinema landscape since the beginning.  A phobia which can be traced back to the movie “The Bad Seed”, where a seemingly innocent and friendly little girl perpetrates a series of murders. The release of this and further projects into the 70‘s like “The Exorcist” (1973) struck fear into the hearts of audiences around the world, the most frightening factor being the lead role of the child, possessed by the devil shocked and stunned but left audiences wanting more and so Samara from The Ring.

The role of the child as the demonic figure in a horror film has become increasingly popular that's why I probably wanted to create something similar and familiar into photographs of my daughter.

I'll start my story from the chair fallowing images of my daughter as Samara still living...to be continued...

Loretta Lux

 

There’s always been an unsettling connection between children and the genre of horror in culture. The number one goal of the horror genre is produce fear in the audience - children suit that kind of role perfectly. Looking at the artist-photographer - Loretta Lux, surreal portraits of young children moment of fear is captured perfectly by combination of still life painting and digital manipulation.

Lux’s main subject matter is children of various ages in choreographed poses and with accentuated features. Provoking questions about our views on childhood and ideals of beauty, Lux’s images create scenarios of isolation and distance.

Loretta Lux was born in 1969 in Dresden, Germany, and was introduced to art at an early age. Her childhood museum visits made a profound impression on her, and, not surprisingly, it was the images of children that especially caught her interest. She trained as a painter at the Munich Academy, and her time-consuming technique is more related to painting than to photography. Like a painter, she arranges forms and colours in her images, digitally creating cohesive compositions from staged photographs with carefully selected models, costumes, props and backdrops.  A single image can take several months to produce.

Loretta Lux’s photographs are not portraits in the traditional sense. 

Lux is a former painter who brings an understanding and passion for form, shape, and colour to her current work.  Her strange and magical portraits of children have turned into a signature work.  

With digital technology Lux has been able to recreate such portraits over and over again, making the process of construction:

 - First arranging the model in real life, choosing her clothes and posture, and then taking a photograph of the child. 

- After taking a photograph, Lux transfers the data to her computer.  

- On the computer she strips away the background and replaces it with quiet settings- grassy fields, abandoned buildings, indiscriminate sky- from her personal stack of paintings and pictures.  

- Then, she erases any objects that crowd the picture; thereby, making the child appears part of the work. 

- Finally, Lux digitally manipulates the appearance of the model and the background, changing colour scheme, enlarging the model's eyes and hands.

So it’s not surprise it’s could take a while to produce such a work.

My own photographs won’t be involving that amount of manipulation, for a very simple reason…I’m not to skilled for that kind of art yet. But it’s very helpful to gain some ideas of this kind to help me realise my own.

 

As you can see in mine it’s no much about art as more about portraits, even manipulated it’s hardly the same as Loretta’s. But getting closer that’s was my idea to get at least same impression.

I really wish to become more original with my own style and trademark, as these days to be something you have to be in the right place in the right time with the right original idea.

Research on Loretta Lux was really interesting she seems like a really talented and creative artist especially because she takes both new and old media and combines them to produce her work - photos of children producing something really ordinary - really unique. It reflects her style, because it seems like once she's done with a piece, it is not just any photo of a child. Her style has something about it that set her pieces apart from other ordinary photos of children.

http://trendland.com/portraits-by-loretta-lux/#

http://www.lorettalux.de/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretta_Lux
http://www.yossimilo.com/artists/lore_lux/
http://www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/lux_loretta.php

RESEARCH

PART 1 (Location Photography - Landscape)

Michael Freeman

In order to understand how to capture the beauty of the world around you have to take some advantage of professional photographer Michael Freeman, who with many years of experience can learn how to frame the perfect shot.

Michael Freeman - professional photographer and author, with more than 100 book titles to his credit, was born in England in 1945, took a Masters in geography at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and then worked in advertising in London for six years. He made the break from there in 1971 to travel up the Amazon with two second hand cameras, and when Time-Life used many of the pictures extensively in the Amazon volume of their World's Wild Places series, including the cover, they encouraged him to begin a full-time photographic career.

Capturing the scene before you - be it a natural landscape..a dramatic cityscape or a majestic wild animal, can be a daunting prospect. Unlike portraiture or still life, you have very little control over the scene before you so you need to draw on other skills to get a professional result.

M.Freeman in his works giving everyone tips and advice on all aspects of outdoor photography, from how to photograph shots of birds in flight to capturing the Atlantic Ocean crashing into a lighthouse. Because in order to photographing natural landscapes you need to know how to deal with various types of sunlight and weather and how to make them work with you in creating memorable results.

More or less all digital photography is based on after image manipulation, and very rare cases you can escape that…For me unfortunately is very painful as I am perfectionist, but well I have to give it a credit, as in various computer software’s can do something what cant be done just by capturing a scene.

A stormy sunrise over a bleak moorland scene in Cornwall

Evening in Porthelven (Cornwall)

Above you can see beautifully captured and created M.Freman`s photograph, what inspire me to try something similar. Well not on that kind of level as I can`t consider myself to be even close to that. Look at those clouds, perfect magic hour shot – intuitive done, showing peace of that calm, rising day.

Mine was taken and early evening when sun just about disappeared in clouds…scene is a bit boring, but added contrast touch and Vignette tool makes it little comforting – hopefully.

Also I try to work with Curves tool In Photo Shop – make the image look more underexposed as it originally was.

I get that idea from one tutorial site, when M.Freeman was describing techniques of low key.

LOW KEY - choosing a subject that lends itself to a dark treatment, followed by processing the file to favour the shadows and darker tones.

Quite often, the dark mood of low key is easier to achieve if you convert a digital colour image into black and white, what exactly I did — monochrome images usually withstand extreme processing or post-production more successfully than does colour and somehow they work better.

Also quite interesting for me was tutorial about The Appeal of Many.   The idea  is  to filling the frame with a large number of interesting and similar, or even identical, subjects massed together in some kind of pattern, That’s it in summary, a condensed description, but if we look at all the elements that go to make it up, there’s a surprising amount of camera work to achieve it. 

And this is what I love the most…patterns…as you can see from my previous blogs and posts I adore that kind of photography- captivate all in one frame.

Mine two last images taken in Cornwall maybe are not the best examples, but its shows the similarity of ideas from M.Freman`s Marseille - Old port or Pearl harvest.

Getting new ideas from those tutorials, inspirations from M.Fremans work was very useful  ... hope you -the reader find it too.

Below I listed his books and referenced sites what can help you.

Photography books:

• Athens (Time-Life, 1978),
• Guardians of the North-West Frontier: The Pathans (Time-Life), 1982, Wayfarers of the Thai Forest: The Akha(Time-Life, 1982,)
• Angkor: The Hidden Glories (1990,)
• The Photographer's Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos

UK (ILEX, 2007) US (2007,)

• Michael Freeman's Perfect Exposure

UK (ILEX, 2009,) US (2009,)

• The Photographer's Mind: Creative Thinking for Better Digital Photos

UK (ILEX, 2010,) US ( 2010,)

Books on Asia

• Ricelands: The World of South-east Asian Food (Reaktion Books, 2008)
• The Spirit of Asia: Journeys to the Sacred Places of the East (Thames & Hudson, 2000,)
• "New Zen, The tea-ceremony room in modern Japanese architecture" (Eight Books, 2007,) and many others

Books on Africa

• Sudan: The Land and the People (Thames & Hudson, 2005). This book was accompanied by a 70-print exhibition, mounted by, Washington DC, a non-profit public diplomacy institution, which organised the exhibit to tour the US for three years.

Books on Interiors 

• "The Source - Inspirational ideas for the home" (Eight Books, 2009,)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B11r9v6EeYY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Freeman_%28photographer%29

http://www.michaelfreemanphoto.com/

http://manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/2011/11/02/michael-freeman-low-key/

http://manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/2011/09/27/michael-freeman-the-appeal-of-many/

ASSIGNMENT 307 LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHY

 INTRODUCTION TO ASSIGNMENT

Location photography – for first time I am choosing this particular unit. I don’t see much difference from Photo image capture, apart from showing evidence of camera use, this comes with lighting skills in professional applications on location.

Rest is all more or less similar to Photo image capture, what I`ll be doing next year. 

I have to choose two main themes, produce minimum 10 images of each one, which have to be thematic and using research material produce a detailed plan - as a planning and preparation is key to success.

Same as on Level 2 main part of writing evidence will be research of other photographer`s works as a part of learning and inspiration….

I already decided what will be my one of the themes, but still not quite shore of a second one.

Themes 

Since I finished my Level 2 I was coming up with ideas to do some portrait shoots once a while and as I’m not very good at it I need more to practice. For my main subject I will choose my daughter. I have some project in my mind which I`ll be discussing later, but reason for choosing her is very simple, she’s perfect in every way, especially what I have in mind….  Also I have a little boy, but to capture him will be very difficult and very stressful. So Mersedesa will be my main model. Lots of artists, as I already looked, sometimes work with only one model for years and as a result of that they become to know this person very well, what kind of light is better, what colours, clothes, no clothes…it’s easy. So as I wanted to start with something easier and I choose my little girl. I have some images from summer when I already started to practise.

Second theme is a challenge….I was thinking to do night photography, but probably I will hold that back for a moment because over a last weekend I had a chance to visit Cornwall and come back with some good images. During summer months I already capture some sea scenery, but it’s very different from Cornwall......

 ...as you can see...so yes, probably I`ll going to have a sea scenery for my main subject in the second theme, which will be coming as a first as I already have the images.

Already borrowed couple of books from college, I can start my work properly exploring different ways of location photography and how it will affect mood of images it self.