Research

Chris Steele-Perkins - JAPAN.FUKUSHIMA.2012 

In this project Chris Stelle-Perkins visited the area around the Fukushima power plant 1 year after the plant melt down. He spent the trip documenting the areas around and  inside the 20km evacuation zone. 

Throughout the project Perkins documented the areas and the people effected by the fallout of the melt down. He followed police manning the road blocks around the exclusion zone, people that had been displaced by the the mass eviction and even people breaking the law by entering the zone to feed animal left behind in the evacuation. 











This project was part of the Magnum Photography 'One Year After'. This project features a collection of photographers who have documented the fallout one year after the Fukushima power plant melt down.  

Although I find this whole project very interesting, I will be focusing on the work done at night using man made light as a main light source. In this project Perkins has used man made light to show you the emptiness. Theres certain lifelessness florescent light gives of to perfect to be natural, the extreme brightens and strong single colour really give a sense of how barren and still the exclusion zone is.   

The fact a lot of these images are captured with a tripod really adds to the aesthetic of the image. A tripod is used in this circumstance to steady the camera so a shutter speed below 1/40 can be used. The long shutter speed helps capture more detail by letting the light spread and the use of the tripod heightens the sharpness. 

I really love the approach Perkins has taken with these night images. I feel this type of work looks better with a darker back drop giving more focus to the light source and the area it is illuminating.
The sad thing is that this couldn't be achieved 
easily due to the pollution in the sky due to the 
fallout.  

By photographing lights inside of the exclusion zone it gave the viewer a real sense of how 

quickly the area was evacuated. There wasn't time for turning of shop lights, the power source to the streets lights or even large light displays. 

A better example of this although not to do with the images I'm researching people also left their pets. Cats, Dogs and even an ostrich was left in the zone.  

This project features 36 images, 7 of these featuring in the 'One Year After' project 

I will be using Perkins as inspiration on my progressing project. 

 Dominic Nahr - 
3 years after Fukushima 

Dominic Nahr has documented in and around the 20km exclusion zone of the Fukushiman power plant 3 times, not long after the melt down in 2011, again in 2013 and most recently on the days surrounding the third anniversary. 

Nahr documented people morning the dead, the police and public paying there respects to people killed in the tsunami and earthquake, police divers still trying to ratrive bodies washed out to sea in the tsunami and also contract clean up teams working to tidy and de-radiate area surrounding the zone. 

Much like the Chris Steele-Perkins project I will be looking at the work done at night using man made lighting. 

This project has backed up my opinion that the use of man made light in dark images really creates a desolate feeling. I have deduced this as this style of photography has been used by two separate photographers on very similar subject matter and this has really created a strong sense of desolation and loneliness which I imagine they intended. 

I find the night images in this project very beneficial as there are certain images I really enjoy and want to duplicate. Their are also images that I don't really appreciated and that I would do differently. 

My favourite image from the series is the image above. I love the darkness of the backdrop and the fact only about a third of the image is actually lit This really emphases the illuminated area. Giving the image a really sharp bold effect as the well lit area juxtaposes the extremely dark backdrop. This is also a good example of the rule of thirds.  

But there area also images I would do differently such as the images bellow. I prefer the use of normal coloured lighting as the main light souses such as a street light. I do like smaller additions of colour from florescent shop lights of traffic lights for example but I don't like the use of a different coloured light to illuminate the whole image. Although I do like the use of red to add connotations of danger over all I feel the red takes more than it gives.The light isn't gentle enough either it takes away a large amount of the small crisp details that you see on a more natural light.  

This project features 122 images.

I will be using Nahrs work along side the work of Chris Steele-Perkins to inform and improve my current project. 

  

Patrick Zachman - 
Love in Bejing 

In 2001 Patrick Zachman traveled to Bejing one of the worlds largest city to document young couples in a city where it is hard simply being together. Family values and tradition are strong. Weddings are the main focus for couples, creating a flourishing wedding industry. 

This 48 image strong project was produced as an assignment for French Marie-Claire and published in 2002. 

Throughout the project Zachman looked at many different aspect of the world surrounding, love, relationships and marriage in Bejing. I did this through documenting couples participating in mass weddings and honeymoons, live music event, clubs and bars, wedding specific photography studios but he also photographed brothels/massage parlours showing a darker more seedy side to the pursuit of love and affection.  

Much like the other artists I have looked at I am choosing to look at the work they have produced at night using man made lighting as the main light source. 

Although Zachman has shot using the same type of technique as the previous two artists he has shot in a more snapshot/street photography style unlike the two previous documentary photographers. 

I do like this style and of work and think it works very well. I have found it interesting that the style of work I didn't like with the documentary photographers I do like with Zachman's street photography. The less focused snap shots capturing multiple light sources and even the use of coloured lighting as the main light source in the image. Although I do like the snapshot style in certain images others suffer with quite a large loss of detail and possibly becoming to light. This isn't true with all of the images though, some look extremely sharp and are full of detail, such as the image above. The beautifully crisp image features perfect illumination, juxtaposed nicely by the dark upper of the image.   

You can defiantly notice a shift in the emotion portrayed in the Zachmans work compared to Perkins and Nahrs work. The atmosphere is different although he is also creating a felling loneliness and isolations he does it in a different way. He is looking at how you can be surrounded by love and life but still be lonely. Discussing the issues of commercialisation of modern love. He has used Bejing as it is quite a modern commercial city.  This is why I believe the use of red is a lot more fitting although it has connotations of danger it has much stronger connotations of love and he has used the reds to contrast the isolation and sadness in people e.g. they are surrounded by all this life and happiness but that does not automatically make them happy and full of life.

I really enjoy the approach Zachman has taken on this project. To see this technique being used in a street style is brilliant. By street I don't mean in a street as you can shoot documentary style in a street I mean the quick, snap shot style. I will be experimenting with this style soon. 

Peter Van Agtmeal - 
Superstorm Sandy, Snowstorm in hurricane ruined Rockaway and America  

At first I started looking at Peter Van Agtmeal's project about the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy, the hurricane that hit New York city in 2012. He focused a lot of this project around Queens and Rockaway as these were some of the most effected areas. He documented the wide spread destruction and the people it effected. As it was dark for a lot of the time he was shooting due to the storm and time of year a large part of this project is shot in the style I am planning on adopting for this project. He used the dark back drops perfectly, using street lights, police car lights and his own head lights to illuminate the ruined homes,flooded areas and debris strewn streets. The use of reflection was a well used addition as it not only reminded the viewer that there was also flooding but it spread  light throughout the image without using to many different light sources. 

After looking at this project and enjoying the style he employed I looked at him follow up project shot just a week later titled 'Snowstorm in hurricane ruined Rockaway' documenting the snowstorm that hit New York week after Superstorm Sandy. 

As it was also dark for a large portion of this project also Agtmeal used man made light as the light source for his images. In this project interestingly he couldn't be reliant on street lights as the snowstorm was too thick, so he used his car head lights to illuminate a lot of the subject matter. This approach works very well as it draws the viewers eye directly to the subject as the car head lights create a direct path to the subject. Street lights were used in the distance to illuminate the sky showing you how the storm was still raging. 

Coloured lighting was used perfectly in two of the images in the project, a purple light has been used in the background of one and as the main light source in another. It works perfectly not only juxtaposing the light with the dark but showing such a vibrant nice colour again such a cold and terrible scene.  

Both of theres projects have once again supported my theory that this style of photography creates a sad atmosphere. It has been employed in a slightly different sense in Agtmeals work, emphasising the lack of power and light people had (a large amount of New York experienced power failures at the time of the storm), the terrible condition the areas had been left in and the awful weather they were experiencing. 

The fact only parts of the images were lit real made the viewer focus on that area whether that be a destroyed home, a street corner total without power or an area of a debris strewn car park. The emphasis is heightened as this is all the viewer can see.  

One thing I liked in this project that I haven't been keen on with my other research artists is the use of a lighter sky. A number of the shots have been taken at dusk or dawn, I think this gives a sense of hope to the images. The use of a lighter sky works well as the bottom half of the image is usually so dark with the lack of power there isn't much light at street level so there is a juxtaposition between the street and the sky. This works a lot better in a city setting. In the more baron Fukushima images the ground was a lot lighter so blended with the sky, making the whole image quite light. 

The sharp boldness never syses to amaze me. I think it has something to do with the vibrant sharpness of the lights used and the juxtaposition of the light and dark. Everyone of these images that are executed in the right manor with the right amount of light and te right angle comes of with the surreal sharpness that I love. I will be trying to achive this level of sharpness in my images for this project.

Agtmeal's 'America' project also uses this style of shooting. Even though this series dosen't have a specific message the images give of a similar sad and eary feeling (See the two images directly bellow). 

I will be using Agtmeal's work as a key inspiration for my own project. 

'America'

'Superstorm Sandy 

'Snowstorm in hurricane ruined Rockaway' 

Robert Low - 

London/New York  

Robert Low is an architectural photographer from the Birmingham, England. He has documented the architecture of cities such as London, New York, Rio De Janeiro, Sydney and Shanghai. 

Low's work consists of documenting shapes, patterns lines and repartition in the architecture surrounding him. Not only focusing on building's, shooting any form of architecture underpasses, bridges, sculptures. Although buildings are his man subject matter. 

I chose the work Low's did in London as the subject matter is similar to the architecture at my disposal. His London project consists of 48 images both in colour and black & white. The use of desaturation works extremely well on certain image giving them a more industrial and sheer look, in some cases making the subject look sharper. 

Saying this I do really like the images that use the colour of the buildings such as the image bellow. Colour can add freshness and life or alternatively show how grimy and rundown the material is. Showing how dirty the stonework or glass is.  

At first I thought Low's work only focused at close up snippets of the architecture around him such as the images bellow but after I looked through his portfolio I realised there was much more to his work, its about the patterns and shapes in architecture. Looking at leading lines and repetition in the structures around him. 
Squares and lines are the main theme he follows, this is quite an obvious choice as these are the shapes most buildings are made of but he captures it in such a way that the images don't just look like parts of buildings but works of art. Especially the close up black and white images some of these look like graphics piece instead of a normal images.   

I also looked at Low's New York project. This projects subject matter was similar to that of the London project which is why I chose to use it although it might not have been my favourite of his project but it relates to my surroundings well. 
(The three images bellow are from the New York project)



 

I really love the simplicity of Low's work.  
The themes he follows and his subject matter is so everyday but in such an unusual and interesting way. 

I will be using Low's unusual approach to architectural photography in my current project. I will be using his mixture of colour and desaturated images while capturing my work. 

'London' 

Chris Steele-Perkins - 

I Shot Norman Forester  

While looking at Chris Steele-Perkins project documenting the exclusion zone around the Fukushima power plant I stumbled upon another project of his 'I shot Norman Forster'. In this project Perkins was commissioned by the architectural foundation to photograph Norman Fosters buildings (the Gherkin, Fosters city hall, millenium bridge and Wembly stadium) in a modern and fresh fashion.  

This project features 26 images.

Perkins has taken a similar approach to architectural photography that Robert Low has but with a bit more imagination. Perkins images seem to have a more enthusiastic of the moment look, they are shot with a street photography style apposed to the more formulated documentary style work of Roberts Low's. Perkins seems to be photographing the architecture as part of life and part of the city by using people and other aspects of the world around him. Where as Low's work focuses on the buildings as an solo entity not attached to anything else. 

The fact Perkins has used a more street photography style in his work and has chosen to incorporate other elements not just the the architecture really livens up his work. It makes the pieces more interesting to look and really adds another dimension to the images. The use of people adds an element of life that really supports some of the images but the use of other buildings, structures and nature are my favourite addition. They give the work that life that isn't apparent in Low's work.    

I will defiantly be using Perkins inspiration for inspiration in my on going project.

'I Shot Norman Foster'