Research: 5 Photographers + Street Photography

Thomas Sullivan: 
Biography Comment: "I capture the emotions of the present as they happen." These images focus on the energy of the moment as captured in the quotation.
Sequence of sporting images capturing movement.  

Runners provide the line of sight from left to right; runners kept in the middle third of the photograph.

Baseball captures the movement of the sliding player and defenders arm; middle third of photograph.

Footballers framed in centre third but this time thirds are vertical rather than horizontal; movement captured.

Single golfer again framed in centre third of image; posture reflected in the tree.

Basketball: focus on a single player but you are aware that others are on court; again centre third but this time left-side third is the crowd & right-side third is opposition. The movement is captured through her line of sight.

Young baseball player: image captured in bottom half of the image; movement captured through posture & line of sight.

Sequence of events photographs:
These are all staged groups like the typical "family photograph". The challenge is getting everyone in the group looking in the same direction and not blinking. With the exception of the second group photograph, these images have the faces in the top third of the photograph and in a line. The second group photograph uses the background to act as a frame; plain background with a complex group.

 Nick Turpins:
 Biography Comment: "I go to the busiest public places to discover something very personal and private." All of the images offer a sense of imagination; a feeling that you can understand the feeling behind the photograph. The final photograph of the young couple kissing by the fountain is an idillic image.

Group of images below are staged using a single "model" in a setting. The thirds split challenges the picture as these are both horizontal and vertical; especially the subject standing on the bridge. The youth on a bike uses a grafetti wall to capture the mood.

The next group are more natural images using the plain wall lit by sunshine and shadows. The lady positioned in the middle offsets the man-made materials. The 2 workmen mirrored by the 2 business men walking in opposite directions portrays an interesting image. There is movement but the subjects are crisp as opposed to the 2 ladies sitting and talking whilst the pigeons are in flight and blurred.

The car shots capture two distinct images on a theme; people and cars.  The left image may be set up with the driver perched on the bonnet whilst the right image captures a moment in time. The use of the car colour is important as it is opposite to the background therefore emphasising the difference.

This photograph of a young couple hugging by a fountain captures the tenderness of the moment. It captures the moment in time; the fountain acting as a calm background framing the couple.

Martin Parr:
Biography Comment: "His work takes a critical look at modern society, specifically consumerism, the idea of family and relationships and food." His "witty approach to documentary photography."
I have chosen four themes to depict the variety of Parr's "street photography". These echo the comments stated in the biography and depict the era, the fashion, the way it actually was.
The pair below are images of streets showing people within a concrete environment. The left image uses the road signs to provide different angles against rectangular buildings & emphasises the flow of movement in the roads.

The cluster below capture people within groups. The foreground is crisp whilst the background is blurred thereby focusing attention on the "lead person". There is movement within each image forcing your eyes to move around the subject material.

Specific images have been captured; the doughnut, interlocked arms and a programme on a television. Martin Parr uses black & white to portray an old-style television thereby emphasising age and the era.

The last chosen image is of Martin Parr standing in front of a board of photographs. You can not see the specifics of the individual photographs but it provides a techni-color background to offset a darkly clothed "dull" individual; loud and vibrant against a bored viewer.

Ian Tindale:
Of the many Tindale photographs I have selected four themes; namely rail, buildings/man-made constructions, queing people and finally an individual person in the mist. These themes echo some of my own photography and will form some of the themes that I will develop during the course.
Rail travel offers an interesting context to capture both individuals and movement. These images offer distance and naturally draws your eye along the length of the carriages, across the rail network through overhead gantries and bridges, and down the platform using the natural lines of the station and platform.

By using delayed shutter speed can be captured; in this case using black and white. By involving passengers the real themes of rail travel comes alive; the isolation, chaos, cramped conditions may be portrayed. There is the drawing of the eye through the carriage but the lines are by no means crisp as with the station platform as feet and baggage fill the central isle. Personally, I feel the use of colour adds a real sense to these images enhancing the chaotic nature and variation inside the carriage.

 

 Tindale uses man-made structures and light to great effect in the next group of photographs. The eye is drawn up the escalator, through the underpass along the canal side (especially using the individual silhouetted against the light background), aoong the rigid, steel-like lines of the tower block and through the tunnel light by flourescent lighting. There is always a point of focus in these photographs but an additional level of detail that complicates the image; be it reflection, the stairs of the escalator or the construction of the tunnel.

 

The final two images use this single point of focus plus the detail to complicate the image to great effect; but these images are quite different. The queing people down the side of a dark non-descript building  offers both the focal point and the complication. Alternatively an individual walking in the mist is totally opposing the first image but still offers both the single point of focus and the degree of complication. In this photograph the individual is the focal point enhanced by the trees lining the field. It is also these trees that offer the detail and degree of complication.

Paul Russell:
Biography Comment: "I was trying to make it like a painting where you can see the different parts but then you also see the whole of it".  Russell also said that he was "interested in examining how human behaviour is effected by our environment."

 The first two images capture the event; an individual leaning backwards in an attempt of taking a photograph of something above them. The indivual is positioned within the right third of the image and through the line of plants or the barriers a line of movement is drawn across the picture.

 This next pair of photographs captures human behaviour and the environment. The man peering around a corner forces you to ask what or who he is looking at. Your focus is drawn into the image by way of the brick wall and the column of people walking away from you.
Two women watching a fairground or show ground depicts a summers' day, hot and sunny, a family event.There are multiple points of focus (the dog, the husband sunbathing, the cigarette) but these are all in the middle third of the photograph.

 The cluster of three small images have a feeling of being staged but they could be spontaneous; that particular moment in time. The elderly lady facing the camera is the opposite of the younger girl looking over the bay.


 

The individual positioned behind a column makes you want to move to the side to get a better view of who they are and what they are doing.




  What is the group of people lined up for? This image does raise the question as to whether it is staged especially as the five individuals are decreasing in height and increasing in the level of movement as you look from right to left across the photograph. A clever photograph but it does not feel natural for me!


 As the theme is "staged photography", the image below of a single man sitting on the window sill looking out of the window is very powerful. The individual is positioned in the bottom right corner of the image with the dark area mirrored by the heavy dark picture top left. The centre of the image is flooded by intense light; a powerful and thought provoking image.

In contrast the next picture offers movement and energy; commuters and tourists in London. The movement is captured by the people walking in opposite ways behind the two key women. The glance of the lady on the right draws your focus but there is also a question being asked; "What is the lady on the left saying and what is she holding in her hands?" Natural colour sets the scene and for me would not work if it was a black and white image.

My final image appears to be a natural event and portrays a couple sheltering under an umbrella feeding the pigeons. There is light; not quite sun but signs of shadows. The sky behind them is heavy with rain clouds offering a powerful backdrop and silhouetting the tall buildings. There is weight and energy in the storm clouds whilst the foreground offers peace and calm.