Final Photographs

The Editing Process

The final edit of my photographs will have to be a very considered and thought about group of images which help to put across the job of the twenty first century industrial workers.

I started by getting together contact sheets of the over 700 photographs from the 4 shoots. I had a rough idea of which photographs I was going to choose however I made it a big thing that I was thorough in my edit to enable me to create the strongest set of images possible. I then started to edit down and pick out my favourite images from each scene that I photographed, looking for image quality, focus, content and overall suitableness.

In terms of the editing of the chosen 13 final images, I found that I did not have to do much hard manipulation other than simple levels, tone, brightness etc. I tried to do all of this hard work on the other side of the camera instead of in photoshop. 

The Picture Story

As Jason keep rightly reiterating, there are several structural must haves when it comes to any picture story. These are as follows:

• The hook shot
• The establishing shot
• The medium/ environmental shot
• The detail/ close-Up shot
• The portrait shot
• The gesture/ exchange shot
• The closing shot

It is very important when considering each shot for the set of final photographs, so that the story flows well and can be read easily by the viewer. It is not to say that the above guide cant be added to or adapted because it can and in many circumstances it often is.

Captions

I have been asked to include captions for each of my photographs inorder to create more of a story, of which would fit into a magazine/ editorial piece. In most editorial features there will be images which relate to the story, these images will more often than not have captions.

Captions are are a very important part of a magazine feature, they can help to describe the relevant image in a few words giving an informative summary of it.

I will try to show some of the humour within the metal work factory due to this being such a large part of what I saw whilst photographing and speaking to the workers. These captions will help to back up the humour that is apparent within some of the images but will not take away from the serious message that I am putting across.

Below are my captions:

Image 1- Bill 62 & Phil 51

Image 2- “I engrave my name on all of my tools”

Image 3- “The technique has remained the same for decades”

Image 4- “We still interact with the machines”

Image 5- “Patricia does all of our book work”

Image 6- “Cast Iron Anvil”

Image 7- “Over 1200 degrees”

Image 8- “Mind the sparks!”

Image 9- Safety Gear

Image 10- “Prioritizing is essential”­­

Image 11- “The world is health and safety mad these days”

Image 12- Bill “milk no sugar” Phil “milk one sugar”

Image 13- Bill-“You do more eating than you do working, Phil”

Note

I have, if not obvious, decided to stick to one of the briefs that I proposed to Jason and Karin due to the fact that I can get more involved in just one project rather than juggle two projects for the one assignment. I will come back to the 'Hands' proposal in my own time as it is a project I am interested in greatly. The route that I chose to pursue is the metal work photographs, as can be seen in my blog.

Thomas Ruff Machines

During the second shoot that I did at the forge, as well as building a better report with the men who work there, I also saw different potential routes to go down for the assignment. One of these potential paths was influenced by the work of Thomas Ruff, a photographer who recontextualizes images originally taken from an industrial pattern book. He reworks the images so that the end result is a hybrid of pre-existing photographs.

Below are examples of his work.

Whilst walking around the metal work factory I noticed an abundance of machines similar to that in Ruffs photographs, I obviously subconsciously photographed these with the images of Ruffs in my head helping me when setting up the photograph. Below are a few of these type of photographs that I took whilst at the forge, these are still very ruff and I have planned to rephotograph these machines on a white back drop.

I can see that there is much room for improvement in these photographs but I am using these purely as inspiration/ the basis for future photographs.

August Sander

The thing that I like about Sanders work is the pure dirty truth about them, they show hard working labourers. I want to try and capture a part of this in my photographs, which I intend to be fairly similar to these images. The similarity to my images is that his photographs are all taken in the labourers work place, as will mine.

Herb Ritts

Herbert Ritts was an American fashion photographer who concentrated on black and white photography and portraits, often in the style of classical greek sculptures. He took many photos of famous actors, models, and more.

The above chosen photographs show workers in a stereotypical way in my eyes, his work glorifies the jobs which although he is showing the works in a good way, it also denotes something that isn't true. This is in contrast with the work of Brian Griffin where he actually takes real engineers and workers and places them in positions that praise them, however there are similarities between the work of Herb Ritts and Brian Griffin.

Jasper White

This isn’t the first time Jasper White has featured in the BJP – we ran his Man sheds project, a study of Australian men’s most private spaces, in February 2011. His latest personal project, Bird Cages, is another spin on personal space, this time tracing the rooms within rooms of pet birds in Barcelona.
My personal favourite set of Mr Whites photographs is the one titled 'Sheds'. The familiar setting in his work give for an interesting spectacle which I can relate to, to a certain extent. This recollection is something that draws me into the image. There is so much that one can read into them.

 What he has to say about the 'Sheds' set- "I’ve recently completed a project shot in various locations throughout Australia that takes you into the private world of working men’s sheds. These sheds are the personal retreat of their creators, filled with the various ephemera of their lives and interests. Viewed as a whole, each shed becomes an extreme focal point of human individuality in what could be described as the barren wasteland of rural Australia. The shed frames an individual portrait of its creator, and this visual impact of the unusual and the unpretentious is what I find so interesting."

Below are several images from this set.

Project Proposal No.2- Brian Griffin

After working extensively for Rosehaugh Stanhope, photographing the construction of Broadgate in the City Of London, Brian Griffin was commissioned to photograph a Broadgate subject of his choice. At the time he was mourning the loss of his father through industrial pollution. He believes he has always treated the worker with dignity and on this occasion photographed the worker not unlike a Knight lying in state in some cathedral.

Lying In State- The tradition in which a coffin is placed on view to allow the public at large to pay their respects to the deceased. It traditionally takes place in the principal government building of a country or city.

Brian Griffin had been a big part of my research and inspiration throughout the project and the work that he has produced has helped me to see the hardship of the industrial workers both past and present.

Project Proposal No.2- Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was an English mechanical and civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards, the Great Western Railway, a series of steamships including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship and numerous important bridges and tunnels. His designs revolutionised public transport and modern engineering.

In terms of the project, due to the time that Brunel was inventing and creating, it was around the same time that photography had come into its own and had started to become more utilised in the UK. This enabled him to photograph each of his projects which helped him to keep visuals for archive uses. There are several iconic photographs on Brunel, the most well known photograph being of him stood looking proud and powerful infront of a huge chain, shown below.

I intend to use this photograph as one to recreate my own, in terms of the composition and stance of Brunel. This lending itself to the praise that todays engineers would not be where they are without the great engineers that have been.

Project Proposal No.1 Personal Space

Project Proposal No.1 Research

Psychology- An academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviours. Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases and by many accounts it ultimately aims to benefit society.

Sociology- The study of society. It is a social science which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity.

Personal Space- The region surrounding a person which they regard as psychologically theirs. Most people value their personal space and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space is encroached. Permitting a person to enter personal space and entering somebody else's personal space are indicators of perception of the relationship between the people.

Differences In Countries Personal Space- Body contact and personal space in the United States shows considerable similarities to that in northern and central European regions, such as Germany, the Benelux, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. The main difference is, however, that Americans like to keep more open space in between themselves and their conversation partners (roughly 4 feet compared to 2 to 3 feet in Europe). Greeting rituals tend to be the same in these regions and in the United States, consisting of minimal body contact which often remains confined to a simple handshake. In 1966 anthropologist Edward Hall identified four different zones of personal space Americans like to keep around them.