John Myers talk

We had a talk by John Myers who is now an ex photographer. He went to Newcastle University and used to shoot with a 4x5 wooden brass Gandolfi film camera. In the lecture he talked alot about other photographers that influenced him to create his work in the 1970's. He explained how these photographers made him see portrait images like they were 'in a box'. The subject was in the middle of the space making it the main part of the image. August Sander, Diane Arbus and Lewis Hine are 3 photographers that influenced him for some of his images. He was explaing how he took hundreds of photos before he was happy with any of them! All of his work is highly influenced by other photographers, he likes to create work of the similar style but not the same. He also said that he never uses flash when he takes images, he likes natural light or the simple lights around the subjects. He showed us a series of portraits, t.v shots and 'boring' landscape images.
Landcape photographer influences: T.H O'Sullivan, C.E Watkins.

These are a few examples of John's work from each series of images: Portraiture, T.v , landscape. My favourite images out of these are the portrait ones as they are more interesting and have a lot more going on in the photo. The one that draws my attention to it most is with the little boy sat on the bed, as it's taken in his bedroom is gives us a feel of his personality as it's in his space. To be honest i dont know whether its a boy or a girl? I also like the other portrait because the girl is being hidden quite a lot by her coat, the only thing you can see properly is her face and legs. To me this shows the girl is quite shy and must of felt a bit nervous having her photo taken as she is also stood quite awkwardly. The top image and bottom image arent really that interesting too me, i dont really get the point of why he has taken them. It definitely gives them more of an effect in black and white as it makes them slightly more interesting as they seem older. 

Fuji film developed ideas!

Developed idea

My idea has changed for this fuji film brief as i was really struggling to get hold of models that would let me tip a bucket of water over their head! I had a big bag full of polastyreine balls so i thought i would fill up as many glasses and clear containers that i could and place them in different places around the house: stairs, cupboards, table. This was to show an extreme amount of polastyreine! I then wanted to try something different and decided to photograph the memorial graves in Burton to show extreme courage and passion to of given up their lives for their country/meaningful people being remembered.  

I have finished my film and now i'm just waiting to get it developed and see what the final outcome is. I have unfortunatley missed the deadline to send off my images to fuji film but atleast i have some to show.

Jade Birchnall talk

http://jadebirchnallphotography.tumblr.com/#about


We had a talk by Jade Birchnall who used to study photography at Burton College and is now studying photography at Manchester Met university. She prefers to use medium format film cameras so the majority of her work is taken on film. She said she 'found herself' whilst being at uni, her favourite camera, style of photography etc. She is in her last year and is getting prepared for her final show presenting all of her work. 

She is currently doing a series of portrait images of nuns and is attending their nunnery a few times a week to get to know the ladies better and gain a comfortable relationship with them. These are two images i have managed to get off her tumblr website of the series. 

Sister Catherine 

Sister Catherine used to be an professional speed skater! 

• She has also done a series about her Grandmother who is sadly suffering with dementia. She showed us a short video that she had put together with some of the images of her grandmother,brother and things relating to dementia. She went to do a photo shoot of her grandma and secretly recorded the conversation (telling her grandma it was a light reader)and she had selected parts of this playing in the background of the video. 

This is one image from the series showing some notes of what her grandma did in the day so she can be reminded of her week. As Jade was talking about her work it was nice to hear her laughing and having a bit of a joke about how her grandma forgets everything, she knows it's a series condition but there's nothing that can be done about it therefor it was great to see her coping with it in the best way she could. 

• Another set of work that Jade is working on is of elderly people in an old peoples home. She has had many visits to the old peoples home allowing herself and the residents to get comfortable with each other to make the photo shoots a lot easier and relaxed. She was explaining to us how a lot of the residents have dementia like her grandma so they may forget who she is when they first meet her again. She did a set of portraits of a selected few old ladies and gentlemen in a chair in the corner of a room as she was advised to select and area to do the photos so it wouldn't disturb, get in the way or confuse the residents. She realised after these photos were taken all of them looked very unhappy, bored and sad. So she went round again 'capturing the moment' of happy smiling faces so they could put the photos up in the home as a gift from her to say thank you. 

 

Lucia- a brief paragraph about how Jade describes the visit.  

Jade described uni as a great place to be to broaden your experiences, experimenting with different cameras, materials, techniques and finding a style that suits you. She was saying how she is now finding a place to do the end of year final show and it's entirely up to them where this is shown. This is something i'm really looking forward to doing and i can't wait to experiment with different cameras and types of photography.