Work Record 2

Plans for Shoot

For this shoot, I plan to experiment with the topic option 'writing'. This is because I am still indecisive on what topic I will choose for my final project, between 'writing' and 'circles and curves'.
After this work record, I will hopefully be able to decide what topic I will further for my final project.
The shoot for this blog will be recreating my research photographer's work style (from the exam brief) and see if I can excel in this style of work.

Research

Nancy Hellebrand analysis in 'Discussion of exam paper' blog post.
Now that I'm experimenting with the topic writing, I am using the photographer Hellebrand that was referenced in the exam brief since her works seems the most directly linked to the topic writing.
I have further analysed her work in my blog post 'Photographer Research - Nancy Hellebrand'.

Image bank

All these photos are pieces from my research photographer Nancy Hellebrand. I selected these photos because these are the pieces from her small personal portfolio 'Handwriting'. All photos are closeups of messy lettering and joined words that are impossible to make out. The words seem to hold no meaning, the composition is very simple and it's lacking in any life; this can suggest removal of emotion and personal disconnection being expressed in writing. The messiness of the handwriting can present childhood and how simple it truly is with the composition, but with one of the photos, it appears matured in writing since its all joined together and lined up neatly. Other photos can suggest something intellectual, say science or maths linked since the letters appear more like symbols trying to figure something out; this can be supported since Hellebrand explains these were captured during her teaching years in Yale university.
I will attempt to recreate Hellebrand's work by capturing writing of my own from my past and currently, and also others writing in closeup shots.

Contact sheet

These are all the raw photos for my writing shoot.

Best Photos

These are my best raw photos for this shoot that I selected.

Photos that require improvement

These two photos I believe do not present the recreation of Hellebrand's work as I intended. For the first photo, the shutter speed is at 1/60, aperture at F5.6, and exposure at ISO 200; flash was also used to better expose the lettering. The main issue with this photo being the amount of negative space around the signature. There isn't anything else surrounding the signature besides a section of a drawing to the left, leaving a lot of space to the right of everything. This makes the photo appear bland and lack any character at all really since there isn't enough to interpret. Further ahead with the experimenting section I did attempt to crop this photo to remove the negative space but it left the photo still bleak and characterless. If I were to retake this photo, I'd potentially angle it so the drawing next to it is better visible, and remove the negative space at the right of the photo.

For the second photo, the shutter speed is at 1/60, aperture at F5.6, and exposure at ISO 200; flash was also used to better expose the lettering. The issue with this photo is the lack of being close to the writing, there being an area where the paper hasn't even taken shot. This lacks a recreation of Hellebrand's work since it isn't close enough. Hellebrand's work is simplistic and removes any reality of the real world, by only capturing the lettering. By this photo revealing that this is a book and exposing the outside world from the writing, it brings more reality. If I were to retake this photo I would get closer to the writing so it removes the reality of the photo, making it only have a focus on the writing and its meaning.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My Ideas

My intentions for this shoot was to recreate Nancy Hellebrand's work from her personal portfolio 'Handwriting', where she captured close-ups of different words and lettering. She captured areas that were impossible to read or fully understand without context or more of the photo. They lack emotions but they are able to suggest history and character, with their different styles in lining and structure, but the lack of anything else removes the emotions. I believe I was able to meet this style and intention to an extent since I present different handwriting styles and contexts with the words presented in frame. I was unable to capture as close to the words as I wanted since my lens wouldn't focus to something so zoomed in, if I was able to I would've been a lot closer when capturing the lettering.

Reference to best photos

 This photo could suggest an organised and structured person, due to the neat spacing between the words and sentences. It can also suggest someone expressing their feelings or desires from an event, with the 'grab a drink' section. The words presented suggests this is someone writing in their diary, conveying youth to this person.

 This photo presents a cluster of scribbles and numbers. This conveys emotion of frustration and hopelessness, as if what this person has wrote frustrates them and they give up on what it means for them, because of it potentially negatively effecting them, or a lack of understanding towards it. The numbers can suggest a level of intelligence towards the writer.

This photo presents childhood and innocence. The obvious childlike writing and drawing that doesn't accurately represent what it's meant to be, coneys a nostalgia of being so carefree and oblivious to the outside world.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

Use of Camera

I used my Nikon D3400 DSLR camera for every photo taken; a tripod seemed unnecessary for these photos since I'd simply be getting close up to writing. The camera was set to manual mode, shutter speed at 1/60, aperture varying at F3-6, and exposure at ISO 200; I also used flash since it better exposed and revealed the lettering. No specific techniques felt necessary since the photo recreation is relatively simple. 

Shoot Process

For this shoot, I found my own personal pieces of writing in an old notebook, since this seemed to suggest a history theme personally and makes the writing in the photo seem less forced and more authentic. I also got a young family member to write whatever she wanted for me to photograph, this was to make my style in writing presented better diverse. I would find what I felt would look best captured and would zoom in as close as possible to get a closeup shot just like Hellebrand would and simply captured the writing.

Experimenting

The only thing I thought could be good to test was cropping the photos so they appeared more zoomed in, like Hellebrand's work, since my camera couldn't zoom in as far as I wanted.

Firstly I select the 'crop tool' so I can crop around my photo.

 Then using the tool to crop around where I want the photo to become whole.

This being the complete photo, it being more zoomed in similar to Hellebrand's work.

 Further practice...

With the angling I chose to capture the lettering, cropping the photo makes it difficult to simulate Hellebrand's work since her photos are straight angled to the writing; so the cropping wont be used for this specific shoot.

Final Pieces

Hellebrand's work is heavily contrasted and lacks any saturation, so I edited my photos to further recreate her work.

I firstly removed all saturation from the photos by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+U.

 Then I used an adjustment layer of 'levels' to bring out the black lining deeper and have the paper appear white rather than grey toned; this increasing the tone contrast.

This is the complete photo after edits.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My research into Nancy Hellebrand has helped me to further understand how far I can go with the simplicity but also complexity in denotations of writing. Hellebrand suggesting history and different levels of intelligence, also presenting different characters and stories of people that we've never even seen but can imagine. Hellebrand leaves the viewer to interpret the work themselves and create whatever story they want, I find this admirable and it has inspired me to further create work with the topic writing.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

I believe I successfully met my intentions for the topic writing, the photos presented different forms of writing and all suggest a different story or character, similar to Hellebrand's work. These are my final pieces.

Progression

Overall, I feel my ideas and creativity can work a lot better with the topic writing than the topic circles and curves. I own a higher creative drive with this topic and believe I could incorporate a lot more things with writing, hopefully incorporating portraiture since I feel that is my strong suit in photography. I have decided that I am going to further in the topic writing and will focus on it for my final pieces.