Assignment 4: Submission

PDF document with the submission.

Submission images

 

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Brief

Revisit one of the exercises on daylight, artificial light or studio light from Part Four (4.2, 4.3 or 4.4) and prepare it for formal assignment submission. Create a set of between six and ten finished images. For the images to work naturally as a series there should be a linking theme, for instance a subject, or a particular period of time.

Submission notes

I chose to develop further the idea of Exercise 4.2, as a way of showing how the lighting conditions affect our perception of a subject while documenting typical situations in a bus stop. Both objectives would work together, one feeding from the other, to provide a study of light’s impact on photography and how it applies to a documentary work.

Even though my first idea was developing the available artificial light exercise I changed my mind after I took some dusk photographs for inspiration. One photograph, actually the first one of this assignment, made me think on how interesting can a bus stop be. After briefly considering different ideas I decided that it’d be interesting to document that particular stop and its situations throughout the day.

Process

I took the photographs for this assignment over a period of 5 weeks at different times of day. I considered using film but digital was much more convenient considering the different light conditions I was going to photograph. I tried to have a similar framing for all the photos taken from the same perspective but if the situation required something different I didn’t hesitate to change the frame to improve the image, as in photo number 9, where I thought it would be better to take a wider shot to include the way the artificial light shaped the trees. I also took images from other angles and even from a bus, but they just didn’t make into submission. I finally ended up with over 200 photos from where I selected the final 9.

As for the editing, my main concern was having a varied enough selection of photographs, specially regarding light. Additionally, I wanted the photographs to be reasonably original and to communicate something. Each image had to be different and to tell a story. Besides, all of them had to work together to offer a more complete document of the subject. I decided to not include many different perspectives and instead get visual diversity through the different situations. That included not only the people waiting but the buses that stopped or even the absence of everything, something that could be a powerful element. Basically, the editing was a refinement of  situations until I was left with the most interesting or the most expressive ones.

References

There’s two photographers mentioned in Part 4 whose work helped me on the conception and execution of this assignment. Even though neither of them could be considered a direct influence on this work they both provided me with ideas. Sato Shintaro‘s images are a great example on how to photograph an urban location at night, working with available light. In the other hand, Sally Mann‘s work is fundamental to understand how to transmit through the use of light.

Another two works were important to this work. Looking for Lenin is composed of photographs where the relationship between subject and space can be used to communicate. In my case, the subject and the physical space wouldn’t change  between photographs, but the lighting would. Finally, Kosmos Train‘s use of available light to create a mood was really inspiring, besides the fact that it’s basically great photographs of people in and around transport, something directly related to this work.

In addition, after I decided on the approach I did a quick search on other photographers that have documented bus stops before. They aren’t such an usual subject but there’s some interesting works from which I would highlight Richard Hooker’s Bus Stops, a series of photographs of London bus stops. An interesting documentary work about London’s diversity and how people behave in this kind of public spaces. It’s an obvious example of how to make a series with a clearly sociological side on it. Besides, it’s a great visual reference to know how to best photograph bus stops and people around them.

Personal reflection on the assignment’s creativity

The exercise I chose to develop asks to photograph a subject at different times on a single day with the purpose of observing the light. I decided instead to expand further this idea and photograph the subject for an extended period of time in order to not only study light but to also see how it can change our perception of the subject. I consider my approach can be understood as experimentation and development on arguably rigid rules. The original exercise could be understood as a technical one and I tried to develop it into a study of visual communication.

Moreover, I wanted this photographs to tell something in a way that defines my personal voice. That’s why I chose to do a documentary work. I chose that bus stop not only for its visual appeal but because I believed it could be used as a starting point to tell a few little stories that could work together to make the subject deeper and meaningful. The selected photographs weren’t chosen just for their aesthetic value but for what they could communicate.

It’s true that the final results are quite similar to Richard Hooker’s work, at least in a visual sense. Nevertheless, while he shows tenths of different bus stops around London to document the city’s diversity I fixed my view in the same bus stop. I’m not aiming to do a sociological work but to develop storytelling from an aesthetic starting point, exploring both the conceptual and the technical facets at the same time. The way a photograph shows us particular subject can deeply change how we read it, and I think I achieved it in this series.

Contact sheets

Assignment 4: Editing

I took the photographs for this assignment over a period of 5 weeks at different times of day. Once I considered I had enough material for the assignment I selected from the more than 200 photos I took until I had these final 14.

 

The main criterion I followed was having a diverse enough selection of photographs in terms of light conditions as to fulfil the original exercise’s requirement. Additionally, I wanted the photographs to be diverse and to communicate something. Each image had to be different and to tell a story. Besides, all of them had to work together to offer a more complete document of the subject.

I decided to not change the point of view too much and instead get visual diversity through the different situations. That included not only the people waiting but the buses that stopped and even the absence of anything. Basically, the editing was a refinement of  situations until I was left with the most interesting or the most expressive ones.

 

Assignment 4: First ideas, approach and references

My first choice for this exercise was developing the available artificial light exercise. I took some photographs around the city after sunset to help me come up with a subject and an approach for the assignment.

From these images there was one that specially inspired me. It was a photograph of a bus stop close to my house after sunset. Right behind it there’s only trees, which makes it appear isolated. Besides, the absence of people and the combination of the dark blue sky and the dim lighting was really expressive. It made me consider changing my plans. My first thought was going for a typography of bus stops at night but then I thought on not changing the place but the conditions.

Approach

I thought I could develop further the idea of Exercise 4.2, not only studying light but showing how the light conditions affect our perception of a subject while documenting typical situations in a bus stop. I wanted to see if people’s behaviours change depending the time of day and the lighting. I decided too not to use just daylight but to take photographs at night as well.

References

There’s two photographers mentioned in Part 4 whose work helped me on the conception and execution of this assignment. Even though neither of them could be considered a direct influence on this work they both provided me with ideas. Sato Shintaro‘s images are a great example on how to photograph an urban location at night, working with available light. In the other hand, Sally Mann‘s work is fundamental to understand how to transmit through the use of light, something rather important considering it was a feeling what motivated me to take on this approach.

Another two works were important to this assignment. Looking for Lenin is composed of photographs where the relationship between subject and space can be used to communicate. In this case, the subject and the physical space wouldn’t change fundamentally between photographs, but the lighting would. Finally, Kosmos Train‘s use of available light to create a mood was really inspiring, besides the fact that it’s basically great photographs of people in and around transport, something directly related to this work.

In addition, after I decided on the approach I did a quick search on other photographers that have documented bus stops before. They aren’t such an usual subject but there’s some interesting works of which I would highlight Richard Hooker’s Bus Stops, a series of photographs of London bus stops. An interesting documentary work about London’s diversity and how people behave in this kind of public spaces. It’s an obvious example of how to make a series with a clearly sociological side on it and it’s a great visual reference to know how to best photograph bus stops and people around them.

 

A3: Submission

Assignment images

 

I

2

3

4

5

6

Assignment notes

Assignment brief

• A series of 6 to 8 photographs.
• Exploration of the ‘decisive moment’, either following, questioning or opposing the traditional approach. 
• Free subject, but there should be a linking theme. 

Subject introduction

This is a brief documentation of the dominant lifestyle in a post industrial city like Manchester. Most of the jobs performed in the city centre area are focused on shopping and food industry. Modern life in a city like this basically goes around work, either in an office, a shop or a restaurant, going shopping after your work shift and go back home. This pictures are meant to provide a view on some moments of this modern life cycle, moments that go pretty much unperceived but that can encapsulate an aspect of this life style on a fraction of a second, pretty much what street photography is.

Work process

I worked with a 35mm full manual Olympus camera and Kodak Color Plus 200 film for the whole series. I personally consider 35mm the ideal medium for street photography, given its fast nature (compared to medium or large format) and its “single-opportunity” quality, in opposition to the endless uses a digital sensor gives. You have to think better each shot and you’re therefore much more aware of your surroundings, your look is piercing, as Cartier-Bresson would say.

I took the photographs in the Manchester city centre between 12 and 3 p.m. over various week days. That time of day is when the streets are busiest, with workers and shoppers buzzing from their work place to shops and restaurants. I used colour film primarily to distance my work from more classic approaches, to avoid some of the romanticisation that black and white often implies.

The edition work was quite easy, I used 3 rolls, what left me with over a hundred photographs to choose from. The selection/elimination process was led by three main criteria: is it a decisive moment? does it fit my subject choice? and does it go well with the rest of the selections while adding nuance to the documentation? I finally selected the photographs that I thought met the best all criteria and discarded the ones I considered not to be good enough or too repetitive, ending up with the final 6.

Decisive moment?

Image 1: The homeless woman covers her face at moment of the photograph while a person leaves the frame in the right side and another looks out of the frame in the left side.

Image 2: All three pair of feet are on those precise positions, relative to each other and relative to the urban elements, all of them with one foot before the other. The visual relationship between all of them would be totally different, probably not that balanced, any other second.

Image 3: The man takes a hand to his mouth as he walks under the black stain on the wall and he’s reflection projects on the wall. The reflection somehow increases the stress that the man’s position expresses.

Image 4: The man on the furthest left exhales the smoke of his cigarette as he looks at his feet, as the man on the right observes the tram arrive.

Image 5: Both women look in the same direction as they arrive at the end of the escalator each with one hand on one of the railings. If I have taken the photograph any second sooner or later they wouldn’t be looking that way or they’d have walked out of the escalator.

Image 6: The woman and the mannequin (a classic in street photography), are on balancing positions to each other while they wear completely opposite outfits (lingerie vs. winter clothing). And the lady’s umbrella is exactly lined up with the floor tiles.

A3: Editing

After spending three Kodak Color Plus rolls while walking around Manchester for a few days I though I might have enough material for the assignment. I stayed close to the Arndale shopping centre (the biggest British shopping venue in a city centre) while the city workers usually have their midday breaks. Manchester’s city centre is quite representative of what a modern city is, focused mostly in shops and hospitality and with a high percentage of office workers too. Between 12 and 3 p.m. the city streets are packed with workers having a cigarette break, Deliveroo drivers, office workers buying a meal deal in the closest Tesco and of course, people having a shopping afternoon.

After printing the contact sheets and analysing the pictures in bulk I was happy to see that a few of them could be representative enough of what this way of life is like. As I said on the previous post, an endless cycle of going to work, shopping and coming back home. After discarding every failed photo and everything that definitely wasn’t a decisive moment I ended up with 18 images that I analysed individually with two things in mind: is it a decisive moment? and if it is, is it representative enough of what I want to document?

The final 7 image selection comprises a series of moments of the day to day on a modern urban city. Beggars, smokers, shoppers, street walkers… they sound like common elements in classic street photography, but when observed in a contemporary context and photographed in colour they certainly don’t have that romantic quality one could observe in some classic work.

I didn’t realise this until the end of the editing process, but I’ve unconsciously avoided to show faces in a clear way, perhaps as a way of focusing the viewer’s look more on the collective than on the individual. There’s frozen movement on every image too, something that could be considered quite necessary in a decisive moment oriented work,  but that also helps to emphasise on the idea of the modern life as a non-stop life.

A3: Ideas and approach

• A series of 6 to 8 photographs.
• Exploration of the ‘decisive moment’, either following, questioning or opposing the traditional approach. 
• Free subject, but there should be a linking theme. 

I’ve been practising street photography for as long as I’ve been practising photography. And when I first faced this assignment I considered doing something that would still be street photography but didn’t fed on cliches, perhaps even go against the traditional approach to the decisive moment. I did some work with this perspective on mind but after showing it to fellow students and tutors on the student forum I came to realise that it didn’t really show an understanding of what the decisive moment is. Therefore I thought it’d be best to start from scratch with a new approach.

I decided to do my thinking for that new start in the Manchester Art Gallery, particularly in a room dedicated to A. Valette’s and L. S. Lowry’s paintings. Sitting on that room, I felt inspired by Lowry’s urban scenes of an industrial, dirty and exciting Manchester that doesn’t exist anymore. I decided then that the connecting thread on my assignment would be a documenting of today’s Manchester, a modern city where most of its inhabitants live in a continuous cycle of “going to work-go shopping-go home”. My intention would be capturing on a single frame some aspects of this modern life.

In contrast to Lowry’s work, that depicts on many of his paintings what could be considered as events and tended to use masses of people I decided to focus instead on individual people on simple day to day scenes, I wasn’t looking for nothing too remarkable about the context my photographs would be taken at and the intention would be using the individual as a reflection of the collective. This was partly due to the influence of photographers such as Thierry Girard, who doesn’t consider himself a journalist but a chronicler of ordinary life.

As I kind of failed to show an understanding of the decisive moment on my previous effort, I decided to just do what I consider I know well, images in the right moment and in the right place that would be representative of what I was photographing. I wanted to just chase the decisive moment, be eyes open and walk the streets waiting for the right moment to press the shutter. From the work I did before, I really enjoyed using colour 35mm film, so I decided to repeat that experience. In fact, I highly doubt I’ll use digital for any more assignments on the near future. Besides, the one time quality of film seemed more appropriate than digital media for an assignment around the decisive moment.

Assignment 2 submission

As with my previous assignment, I designed a print-style document to present this work.

Brief

On OCA photography courses you’ll often be asked to submit a series for an assignment. Like the examples in Project 2, a series should reflect a single coherent idea, even though the individual photographs will be unique. For this assignment you’ll make a collection of photographs using a combination of lens techniques that you’ll decide for yourself. Your tutor will evaluate the series in terms of its technical skill but also on how well the assignment works as a whole.

Create a series of between six and ten photographs from one of the following options, or a subject of your own choosing: crowd, views or heads. Use the exercises from Part Two as a starting point to test out combinations of focal length, aperture and viewpoint for the set. Decide upon a single format, either vertical or horizontal. You should keep to the same combination throughout to lend coherence to the series.

Introduction to the subject

As I was considering different themes for assignment 2, I began thinking about the role of trees in urban cores nowadays. When I was commuting I realised that there’s some areas of the city where trees are something actually unusual, like islands of nature in a sea of concrete and bricks. And as I kept thinking on this I started analyzing the aesthetic relationship of trees and their surroundings and how we as passers don’t really think of them as nature anymore but as one more element of the urban set we live in.

I decided then to make trees my central subject and considering what I learned from the course so far, I chose a technical approach that would show the trees as isolated items surrounded by the man-made. The photographs would highlight the relationship between the natural and the artificial as formal elements and through this abstraction perhaps influence the viewer to think on the nature’s current role in our cities: decoration? remnant of past times? ecological resource?

Techniques used and their effects

So my series was set to be a collection of views of trees in urban cores as isolated elements in an artificial environment. How would I achieve this?

Firstly, influenced by straight photography’s masters like Edward Weston or Ansel Adams and by theories about exploiting photography’s inherent characteristics, I was sure I had to use a perpendicular viewpoint, to make the images formally abstract while still being realistic. Then I studied the work of contemporary photographers such as Marko Modic, Roland Fischer and Bert Danckaert, which helped me see my work precisely from a contemporary perspective. As said in the previous part, seeking abstract composition would be a way of showing an alternative view of the subject and therefore cause an alternative thinking in the viewer.

I chose to use an 85mm lens. Not only to have visual consistency throughout the series but to improve image quality and take advantage of the properties of a medium-long lens. It would bring the elements closer in the picture plane, emphasizing the desired abstract effect. I decided this after seeing how landscape photographers like Ansel Adams or Fay Godwin not always used a wide lens, to create an effect of compactness in their work. I initially thought of this work as urban landscape, just not a conventional one.

Finally, the aperture used for all the images in the series was either f/13 or f/14, I was obviously going for a deep focus situation. This references to the last two photographers mentioned too. The aim is to make images with (nearly) total focus that would make this photographs purely photographic, as opposed to pictorial, as well as trying to make equal the main elements within the frame, the natural might be in the foreground, but the artificial surrounds it and it has as much “power” as it.

Self evaluation

I think I made the right technical decisions for the established purpose. It wasn’t just a lens and aperture selection for the sake of it, I’m trying to communicate something else and I’ve done enough research to back my work with a few referents without being a rip-off, even though it’s true that this images are really similar to Bert Danckaert’s and they obviously lose when compared to them. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with my choices.

However, these technical decisions implied some difficulties. Mainly, the use of a narrow aperture plus the lack of a tripod made me increase the ISO (1000 and 1250) and reduce the shutter speed. I employed an aperture priority setting with exposure compensation in most of the photographs to avoid blurry results but that derived in underexposed digital negatives. Luckily, the use of a full frame sensor camera allowed me to fix it in post-production without significant quality loss, but the detail in the shadow areas could be definitely improved. Regardless, I should have used a tripod and in any future similar situations that’ll be the case.

I consider that as a series all images are consistent in colour and compositional elements, collectively expressing a unitary idea. I discovered Bert Danckaert’s work right after starting the production stage, but it was still really helpful during the editing. I tried to make sure all the visual elements in the selected images made sense and had visual significance. Following my tutor’s advice to let the images work on me for a longer time has definitely proven to be fruitful in terms of work refinement. The idea for this work causes some interesting questions in me that I’d like to answer working further on it, and that’ll imply improvement of the aesthetic part of my work.

Final images

Technical data can be consulted clicking on each photograph.

1/8

2/8

3/8

4/8

5/8

6/8

7/8

8/8

Link to contact sheets.

 

Assignment 2: Contact sheet analysis

Following my tutor’s advice from my previous assignment’s feedback, I decided to take for this assignment a larger number of shots and let them work on me for a longer time. The 134 photographs for this assignment were taken over a period of 8 days in four walks around the Manchester city centre, mainly the Piccadilly Gardens, Deansgate, Northern Quarter and Oxford Road areas.

Images 1 to 43 were taken the first day, 44 to 76 the second one, 77 to 111 the third one and 112 to 134 the last one.

Visual refinement

The first day shots show a subject and a strategy (deep depth of focus, long focal and a straight angle) but it’s obvious that I wasn’t sure about how I should approach the theme and what elements would work in the compositions. These photographs vary from rather open views, including larger subjects such as open skies and buildings, to closer perspectives with fewer elements.

Commented print summarising the main visual elements in the series

Besides, some of these images have too much depth (considering the established visual strategy) or their compositions are too chaotic, mainly due to an abundance of elements in them not properly placed within the frame. Generally, the images that work best are those with simpler compositions, like pictures 14, 28 and specially 32. Some pictures, like 25, could have worked if it weren’t for the not “straight” enough backgrounds.

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow (1930), Piet Mondrian

When some of these examples were shown to my tutor he said they were like Mondrian paintings, more visual than conceptual. I really want to deepen in the conceptual facet of my photography but I thought that the repetition of abstract visual patterns can push the viewer to see the subject from a different perspective and as a result start thinking about its role in an urban context. Therefore, I decided to refine that visual strategy to try to reinforce that effect in the final series.

As the production stage advances it can be seen that although compositional simplicity is the most common feature I still tried to add complexity and include urban elements that could add some meaning to the compositions, for instance: lights, signage, vehicles, bins or bollards. Nevertheless, one of the lessons learned from the first walk was that too many elements could equal visual chaos, so, unless every part of the image makes sense, it won’t be included in the final cut. That’s a teaching from Bert Danckaert‘s work, make sure everything within the frame has a reason to be there.

Technical issues

I had to deal with a fair deal of technical limitations due to the chosen lens techniques. I used a minimum f/11 aperture, what reduced considerably the available light, and I didn’t own a tripod then, so the photographs had to be taken at least with a 1/50 shutter speed, to avoid handshake blur. As a consequence, I had to raise ISO to 1000 but luckily the camera employed manages higher ISOs quite effectively, so it didn’t involved a considerable quality loss. Moreover, the weather wasn’t very bright that week so there wasn’t much natural light, I used aperture priority mode but I still had to use exposure compensation to avoid excessively slow speeds.

As it can be seen in the contact sheet, all those factors left me with a rather big amount of underexposed photographs with high ISO. But thanks to the camera’s full frame sensor and the use of RAW format it could get fixed satisfactorily in post-production. Besides, due to the use of the 85mm lens I had to consider very carefully the positions I was shooting from and the distance between objects. Many pictures had to be discarded because they were shaky or because the background was far too out of focus.

Assignment 2: Brief, first thoughts, subject & approach

Brief

Create a series of between six and ten photographs from one of the following options, or a subject of your own choosing: Crowds, views or heads. Use the exercises from Part Two as a starting point to test out combinations of focal length, aperture and viewpoint for the set. Decide upon a single format, either vertical or horizontal. You should keep to the same combination throughout to lend coherence to the series.

First thoughts

From my research and work done for both parts 1 and 2 I considered really interesting the approaches that sought to develop photography’s inherent characteristics, such as its consideration as a two-dimensional plane or the employment of total focus. The work by straight photography authors like Edward Weston or Ansel Adams, Faye Godwin’s ‘Forbidden Land’ and other contemporary authors like Marco Modic, Roland Fischer and Bert Danckaert (that my tutor recommended me search after I briefed him my first ideas) made me consider the idea of a series based on straight angle views with long focals and narrow apertures, a way of seeking visual abstraction in the real world while trying to communicate a concept.

Italy, 2014

I considered briefly many ideas, but didn’t seem to be able to grasp anything. I remembered then that a few years ago, when I first discovered the concept of straight photography, I tried to copy rather than imitate E. Weston’s style. I photographed trees in the Italian city I was living at that moment and even though I obtained some nice photographs I didn’t really understood the idea of straight photography and its aesthetic points, therefore those pictures were far from what I thought I was achieving. I decided to go back to that idea now that my perception of photography was broader and deeper and try to do something more contemporary while trying to communicate something.

 

Subject and approach

I began thinking about the role of trees in urban cores nowadays. When I was commuting I realised that there’s some areas of the city where trees are something actually unusual, like islands of nature in a sea of concrete and bricks. And as I kept thinking on this I started analysing the aesthetic relationship of trees and their surroundings and how we as passers don’t think of them as nature anymore but as one more element of the urban set we live in. As these ideas were taking a hold in my mind I watched the film ‘Blade Runner 2049’, set in a future where organic matter is actually a rare and revered item, it was then when I was sure of the path chosen.

 

Concept map

So I had a technical approach, I had a subject and I had a concept. Were all three compatible? Luckily it seems they are.

I chose to create a collection of views of trees in urban cores as isolated elements in an artificial environment, to explore their role in the modern cities through an aesthetic approach.

The perpendicular view would allow me to create more abstract compositions combining urban items and trees, a different way to see objects we see every day could allow the viewer to think on them in a different way. The choice of an 85mm prime lens would allow me to take better quality photographs while at the same time it would bring closer the trees and their environment, emphasising the perception of everything being in a same plane. And a longer depth of focus would make equal every element in the frame.

From the first walk

My first walk in the city centre helped me refine the visual approach. I had a defined general strategy but wasn’t sure at all how it would translate to my photographs. I took around 50 photographs whose study helped me learn what I should include or not within the frame and what type of visual situations I should look for. Now it only lasts to keep walking and obtain a decent amount of photographs to choose from.

 

 

 

Assignment 1: Final submission

Link to the assignment in pdf designed by myself.

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF

6 to 12 photographs around the concept of ‘Y Filltir Swar‘, Welsh for ‘The Square Mile‘, concept described by Professor Mike Pearson to define the intimate connection between people and their childhood home surroundings. The work can explore further the initial concept or deviate from it.

The final set of pictures should stand as a series, complementing each other and communicating collectively through a fresh and experimental look to one’s surroundings. The photographs should communicate something about the author too.

IDEA DEVELOPMENT

I’ve been living in Manchester for two years. After a first talk with my tutor Robert Enoch, taking as my starting point the differences with my country of origin seemed like a good idea. As the research went on I decided to take one particular element of Manchester’s urban layout as my main subject. From there I developed three main concepts that are connected to each other:

– Physical discovery: A particular urban layout trough a distinctive characteristic (the alleys).

– Emotional self-discovery: The mystery and fear those alleys stood for during my first days in a new country.

– Cultural discovery: Capture society’s fast paced life and consumption through a characteristic element within the subject (inspired by Keith Arnatt, the rubbish that accumulates in the alleys).

RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION

After going briefly through the work of most of the listed artists I was provided with, I chose two of them as main references: Karen Knorr and Keith Arnatt. I chose Arnatt’s ‘Pictures from a rubbish tip’ because it connected with my initial ideas and my emotions. His depiction of decay, consumption and waste of modern times is what compelled me the most and these themes are nowadays even more prevailing. I took Knorr’s ‘Belgravia’ as a reference for my aesthetic approach. I really liked her use of black and white, the constant presence of vanishing points and the intelligent placing of every element in the frame.

TECHNICAL APPROACH

In order to leave my comfort zone, instead of using film I decided to use my Canon 5D II DSLR. All the photographs were shot in full manual mode with a Canon 50mm 1.8 fixed lens. The ISO was 800 while the aperture changed in function of what I was capturing: f1.8 for the close ups and a range of shallower apertures for the context ones.

As I started editing in Lightroom I decided to try an 8×10 format as well, I thought it enhanced the pictures’ balance. I selected 12 photographs and then I decided to take a bit further the editing, the darker look of the final pictures sticks better to my conceptual intentions. Finally, I discarded two more pictures to make the series a bit more compact.

SELF-ASSESESSMENT

I’m quite satisfied with this assignment. I’m not a big fan of post-production, but I’m overall happy with the edition work I did and at least I’ve learned some new things about light behaviour. If I have to choose the weakest part of my work it’d probably be the context pictures. I think I should have tried to achieve more unity between all of them. Regarding the project as a whole, I think that looked at through the right context it pretty much expresses what I initially intended to reveal.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

I actually think this project could be developed further in the future, deepening in the concepts but changing the geographical location. I think that connecting the particularities of an urban environment with the wastage of a unique human group is an idea that properly developed can yield very interesting results.

PHOTOGRAPHS

None of the elements in this pictures has been manipulated in any way prior to being photographed.

CONTACT SHEETS