Environment- Urban, Digital Photos

These are the photos I went out and took digitally.

Environmenet- Next Steps

Looking through Brandts work I came across some work he did it London called A Night In London. I believe that these were a series of documentary photos taken around London to give viewers an insight into London. I like the way his work has a essence of 'behind the scenes'. It's like we are really getting to see what happens in the city, what the people are like, the buildings, everything. Not just tourist attractions and monuments because that isn't what the city is only about. Most people that live in London actually rarely see the attractions int here day to day life.

My next step i have decided is to therefore chose a city/town of my choice to document and then go out and take a couple digital shots just to get a feel for uban photography. Then I will then borrow a bronica film camera from my university and take a few film snaps. I want to take the digital photos first so I can get an idea of what angles lighting etc seems to work best and then hopefully my film photos will come out better because I'll hvae had a little more practice. This way i'll save money and time.

I also need to decide what story about the city/ town I am trying to tell because I need to get this across in my photos. The choice of cities/towns I have are Maidstone where i live whilst at univeristy or leeds where I may be going this weekend. I have decided that my choice of town is going to be Maidstone because if i don't get the right shots while in leeds I won't have the time or money to go back and re-do the shots. However I live in maidstone so I will have this opportunity. Also as i live here I know the area better so I will have a better idea of where to go to get the kind of shots I want. On another note these pictures of Maidstone will be a nice souvenir of my time spent in maidstone when I am older.

Environment, Urban - Artist Research

Now that I have a clear understanding of what urban environment means im now going to do a little artist research. I decided to have a look at street photography. I took out a book called 'Bystander a History of Street Photography' By Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz. 

Looking through the book I came across the artist Bill Brandt. He was regarded as the most important street photographer of his generation. His photo 'Off India Docks Road' caught my eye.   

This scene was actually set up. The three hooligans are actually Brandts younger brother and two friends. They played the scene so convincingly that a cop stopped and looked over. This showed me that  you can actually set up scenes to try to get members of the public to react in a way that you as a photographer desire. I like the way that this photo is trying to show what happens behind the scenes of a city. It is not a photo of monuments, it is not trying to glorify the city. It is a photo directed at simply showing what happens behind scenes. Although it is half set up the appearance of the police man adds an element of a naturally occuring scene because the police man does not know a photo is being taken.