Henri Cartier Bresson, born on the 22nd of August 1908 was one the pioneers of candid and street photography and is also known for capturing tragic moments in time, such as the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation to the assassination of Mahatma Ghandi. He used a 35mm film and chose to never use the darkroom to adjust his images, adding spontaneity to his images and emphasised what he named "The decisive moment". The decisive moment refers to capturing a moment that is spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.
COMPOSITION ANALYSIS
Bresson heavily concentrated on compositions and the lines before taking his images. On the left, you can really see the geometric shapes, the lines and curves within the image.
RESPONSE NO.1 - SHOOTING WITH DIGITAL
In this response to Bresson's work, I shot with digital camera. In this task, I looked for ephemeral moments and just before pressing the shutter, I thought about the formal elements such as light, composition and colour. my favourite shot from this set are the first one and the second one. I like the first one because of the composition, how all the lines lead to the end of the hall and the contrast in colours however I think I could've thought more about the light on the foreground as it looks too black and the light on the right is too overexposed. I like the silhouettes of the second one and the again the composition of the picture, leading the viewer to the end of the hall.
RESPONSE NO.2 - SHOOTING WITH FILM
Contact sheet:
This is my full contact sheet of my 36 shots. I developed this in the darkroom; at first I experimented with the circled images are the images I hoped would go well but turned out very blurry. This was due to me not being on the ground when taking the images causing my hand to shake. However, with these images, just before taking it I concentrated on the lines. For example, the lines of train track, the lines of the people's legs and found the weird shapes they made really eye-catching.
Shooting for the first time with film was a little difficult as I wasn't able to see what I captured. However, I think this was a good experience. I learned to fully decide what I wanted to capture. Like Bresson, I quickly made my decisions and pressed the shutter. This did create adequate images but for the rest, it turned out blurry or too overexposed (like the circled images above). This was due to my shaky hands because I was really focused on getting the image instead of the other factors like the stillness of my hand and forgetting to adjust the shutter speed to match my surroudings. I edited these images on Photoshop to increase contrast like I did with the filters, I think these make the images more interesting because some of the lines and lines are outlined more. I think these are my best images because of the composition and the leading lines. For example, the first image has a curved line on the right and the image below it, there's about three lines that leads to the middle the two people. I really like the fifth image although it is very blurry due to my shaking hands, I think it makes the image more intimate. With the rest, I really like the contrast the shadows have created.
EXPERIMENTING WITH FILTERS
With these images I really wanted to increase the contrast because it outlines a lot of the shapes and the lights and shadows. For example, the first image has light reflecting on the woman's hair which can't be really seen when the there isn't much contrast. However, I wish I exposed the image for a little longer so the shapes and light could be outlined more.
NICK WAPLINGTON
Waplington's photography is all about taking images without any decisions. This means he doesn't think of what his images will be like before pressing the shutter; he takes it in the moment without any plans before hand. This is opposite to Henri Cartier Bresson's style as he decides what he's going to capture just before pressing the shutter. Waplington had created two books: Living Room and Weddings, He also worked with Alexander McQueen, capturing the backstage moments of his fashion shows. I really like his earlier works that he took when he was with his grandfather. The rejection to perfection and just capturing what is there makes the images really interesting to me.
Waplington describes his work here: " try to never pre-visualise what I am going to make ... I work with ideas but I am conscious that they will slowly evolve through the act of taking photographs. What I am trying to do is address this preconception and say that every and any moment works. You can take a picture of anything and it still holds resonance [...] There are no guidelines. Everything is open and everything is possible".
Things Nick learned as a photographer: 1. Take photos all the time
2. Get out there and explore 3. Take things one day at a time
WAPLINGTON'S DIPTYCH ANALYSIS
1. This diptych is antithetical in terms of colour and temperature. The image on the left has warm, orange coloured tones while the picture on the left has cold, blueish tones. Also, there's a difference in exposure - the image on the left is still but the image on the right is blurry. One thing they do have in common is the lack of activity, both images just focus on an isolated subject.
2. The difference between these diptychs are obvious: one side is full off writing and the other is an image. However, Waplington's note about his insecurity and his goals matches with the image as the subject is a person in a serene surrounding, being in a state on sentiment and wonder.I think the image perfectly visualises his feelings. I like that the colour of the writing coordinates with the subject's shirt, it creates a sort of consistency even though they are two different medias. 3. This diptych is different in terms of space. The image on the left is almost covered up by a green wall while there's a lot of space on the foreground due to the person standing near the edge. There's also a difference in shadow as the image on the right has lots of shadows casting over the subject and on the left side there's hardly any.