Final Evaluation
The exam question that I chose was unexpected perspectives. The exam
brief explained unexpected perspectives as, looking at the world from unusual
viewpoints, so I found the question interesting because, unexpected
perspectives are just an unusual viewpoint of an object, so my work could have
based on anything I wanted. When I originally started working on the question I
was going to base the majority of the shoots on household objects. However
after doing research into some photographers that I could link to unexpected
perspectives, I decided against household objects and went with the concept of
unexpected perspectives or buildings and architectural work. That’s why I based
all of my shoots within Central London, because I knew of some interesting
buildings that I would be able to capture unexpected perspectives with.
With
my first shoot, even though I did prepare with a mind map so I knew what type
of angles I could use that would count as unexpected. I wasn’t really sure with
what I was doing so I was able to capture some good photographs but compared to
my later shoots the firsts shoot was not the best. Gradually throughout the
shoots I found that I had started to take common photographs in each of my
shoots, low angled photos, and so my work started to look more cohesive and
flowed nicely. I found that when I went out on a shoot I would think of what I
needed to improve upon or develop from the previous shoot. So if this
development was taking photos from a certain angle I would make sure that I
took them. So I think that by me trying to improve upon aspects in the previous
shoot in new shoots, added to my work being very cohesive, because ultimately I
was trying to make each shoot better than the one before it. One aspect that I would have preferred to
include earlier was the use of a tripod. Due to me basing my work in London, I
would normally shoot on a weekday so generally the areas that I would shoot in
would be very busy because of business people who work in the buildings I would
photograph. So, I decided not to use a tripod for my preparatory shoots.
However, for my exam shoots I knew that I really needed to improve upon using
tripod to help me take even better quality photos, so I took the photographs
for my shoots on weekends which allowed me to use a tripod easily.
(Shoot 2)
I
think that Alexander Rodchenko and Ernst Haas had a great amount of influence
in my work. Towards the start of the project I found that mostly Alexander
would influence my shoots. This is because when I researched Alexander Rodchneko
I was mostly influenced by the way he would take photographs that were relevant
to unexpected perspectives, because he would take a lot of photos from either
high or low angles. And so within my shoots I started to mostly use low angles
for my photos because I thought that a low angle with a building looked good.
After I had started to take low angles I learned how to properly frame photos
with low angles and so I think that those photos were the most suitable for
when I’m taking photos of buildings because its convenient, as high angles
looking down onto a building is not very common or easily accessible to me, so
I settled with low angles. With Ernst Haas’s work, I used his works influence as
more of a further development into unexpected perspectives. This is because I combined
the element of reflections into my edits, which allowed me to further develop and
refine my work. Within my shoots I would fins that I would have a couple of
photos with reflections in but I never really captured images that had full buildings
in the reflections of other buildings until I got to my exam shoots.
The edit
isn’t the exact same as Ernst Haas’s photo but the concept of reflections is
based on his work, and so when I do look at both of the photos I do think that
they are similar because of how in Ernst’s photo the building is seen twice and
the same in mine. To make the connection of influence closer I could have tried
to create an object in Photoshop that represented a mirror so that the two half’s
of the building weren’t joined. However Ernst’s work was only an influence for
these types of mirror edits that I created and so I still wanted to have my own
creativity on it. Also these edits helped me to bring together the concept of
reflections and unexpected perspectives.
In conclusion
I think that due to the influence of both Alexander Rodchenko and Ernst Haas, I
was able to refine and develop my work by using both of their artistic
influences and combining it to create my work. For example the edit above was
taken from a low angle, which was influenced by Alexander, and it’s a mirror
reflection that was influenced by Ernst. I think that by basing my question of
unexpected perspectives on buildings and architectural work allowed me to
explore different angles and perspectives that I wouldn’t normally include
within my photography and I think that by using similar angles within each of
my shoots, my body of work is cohesive.
