3000 Word Essay

An investigation on British Culture through the medium of Documentary Photography-

Documentary style photography and specifically street style are both very interesting genres of photography, British culture is a very relevant subculture as its always going to be relevant, despite the fact that it's always changing, evolving and reappearing, this is the beauty of British culture; is that its always constantly changing due to the influences from technology, fashion, music or whatever it may be. Documentary photography is the perfect medium to capture British Culture, to me Documentary style is Photography in its rawest form, exposing and displaying the reality of the subject matter photographed, giving an honest portrayal of life and British culture in this circumstance. 

Historical and Technological Development-

The evolution of photography greatly influences my own photography. Originally, photography started with a camera called the pinhole camera, it's essentially a basic camera without a lens but with a very small aperture, i.e. this is why it has the name 'pinhole' essentially a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene goes through the aperture and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box, which is known as the camera obscura effect.

Fox Talbot's process based the prints on paper that had been made light sensitive, instead of than bitumen or copper-paper. Fox Talbot went on to change the three main parts of photography: developing, fixing, and printing. Even though an image could be made by exposing photographic paper to the light, it required very long exposure times. By accident, he discovered that there was an image after a very short exposure. Although it was not visible to him, he found he could chemically develop it into a useful negative. The image on this negative was then fixed with a chemical solution. This removed the light-sensitive silver and made the picture able to be viewed in bright light.

Then photography evolved to Large format camera's, This type of camera was used during the period of the mid 19th century, the downfall of the camera was that they were limited to long exposure times to produce images. Roger Fenton developed a process know as the  wet colloidal process. However his photography was limited to only taking pictures of stationary objects, mostly posed pictures; he didn't want to shoot pictures of dead, injured or mutilated soldiers. But he preferred photographing the landscape, including an area near to where the Charge of the Light Brigade. Despite the limiting factors of the old large format camera's, they are still used today by photographers such as; Sally Mann Simon Roberts and Alec Soth, this directly shows that within the present era, there are many benefits and reasons for using this old camera. 

Henri Cartier Bresson was a pioneer of documentary, street style photography, he was an early user of 35mm photography, he was most famous for his candid style photography in the decisive moment a concept style photography book. Bresson was one of the founding members of magnum photos, set up in Paris in 1947. The members of magnum owned and administered the whole company, it was completely self-run, it is one of the first photographic cooperatives. For all members that retain all copyrights to their own work, the staff serve a support role for the photographers.The Magnum company has had photojournalists from across the world, covering many historical events of the 20th century. The cooperative's archive entails photographs 
showing; family life, drugs, religion, war, poverty, famine, crime, government and celebrities.Bresson pioneered 

 Bresson was most famous for shooting with 35mm, however he stated his favourite camera to shoot with was a 50mm, due it's simple, discreet, easy to carry.He also favoured 50mm because of the depth of focus that could be produced, the 35mm just  doesn't have the same precision in composition, often images are too distorted. Bresson's photography style and attitude towards the way he took pictures was very simplistic, he rejected using big camera's with lots of functions and tripod's, this was due to the fact he wanted to stay as unnoticed when shooting,this helped him get the candid photography that he took.

                                                    Photographers Research-

                                  Henri Cartier Bresson - The Decisive Moment 

Henri-Cartier Bresson was a painter and photographer, born on 22nd of August, 1908 in France, he died in France on the 3rd of August, 2004. Bresson shot documentary photography, within this he focused specifically on street photography. His aim was to shoot candid photography,  A realistic portrayal of the human condition, he was an early user of 35mm and was a pioneer in street photography. A series of images that I have chosen to study below, are form a shoot shot in paris, called the decisive moment. Bresson is often referred to as the father of modern photo journalism, he formed a group of photographers called magnum.

Dimanche sur les bords de Seine (1938)

This image was taken in France, on Sunday on the banks of the river Seine in 1938. This image captures presumably a family meal taking place on the banks of a river, with an empty boat docked to the shore, This image is a fantastic documentary piece because it shows off real life for example, in France having a meal and drinking wine as a family is a big part of their culture, we presume this is their time of leisure, this therefore reflects a way of life, parts of the photo are also left out as we don't know for sure if that's their boat and why they are there etc but. The exact moment that this is taken shows off all the different individual elements within the picture and the grey, shiny tone of the river works well as a backdrop against the boat and the people, this creates contrast and therefore is an interesting image.

   Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare (1932)

                                  
In this image a man is visible leaping over the reflective surface of water, off of a ladder the rippling circles made by the ladder echo circular bands, there is another man in the backdrop, his reflection is also seen as a dark silhouette in the water, there is a poster next to the man; advertising a performer named Railowsky puns with the railway station and the ladder, which, flat, resembles a railroad track. The image connotes almost a boy-like nature and attitude of playing near industrial type things, pretending to run be a train, leaping over large puddles, but on the other hand the connotations are that of a man who desperately needs to get to work or is late for something. The is a fantastic documentary piece, it was used in the times magazine as; “The Photo of the Century”. This is among one of his most famous photographs.

                                                                Gavin Watson- 

                                                             
                                                             'Micklefield', 1981 

This image is of a young male skinhead, dressed in black jeans, crombie coat, Doc Martens and shirt holding a radio, he's walking up a steep stepped path, the image is of him the main and only subject, he is taking up the majority of the shot, with the backdrop of a road, cars and grass, it seems to be taken in a suburban working class area. The image connotes working class culture, pride in appearance and being a skinhead; the skinhead subculture is all about being proud of your cultural roots, dressing up, listening to reggae, dub, ska bands. It also connotes youth and why subcultures always start within young people, I feel this image emphasises because of the identity of it, looking iconic, relevant of the times, being different to most people, but feeling connected to people your own age who are apart of the same subculture.

                                   
This image is of 4 young skinhead boys dressed in Doc Martens, harrington jacket, crombie coat and jeans, two of the boys are black and the other two are white, this emphasises the multicultural aspects of skinheads, that people don't seem to remember, as the roots of the subculture evolved out of Jamaican influence, music such as dub reggae, and so this image shows skinhead culture is not only a white working class culture. The image connotes the allure of being a skinhead, the sort of tribe of youth, where you all dress the same, listen to the same music, and can connect with one another on the basis of image, and just look out for one another, it is ultimately a feeling of family and pride, that is something quite British. The stature of the 4 young men is quite proud and stand-off-ish with a glare and attitude of being untouchable in their skinhead gang. The image also shows off the time of the late 70's and early 80's working class Britain, where a sense of identity was much more poignant.

                                                                    
Relevance of the photographers research to my personal project-

                                                             Henri-Cartier Bresson-

This shot is from Bresson's series the decisive moment taken in Paris, this image shows the importance that the role of blur plays in photography, the subject of the bike is the main and only subject in the image and yet it is blurred, however I find the blur adds to the amosphere of the image, it puts life into the scene, and brings alive the action of the man cycling past through the old street.

The image relates to my image as for my series on  blur I decided to incorporate the movement of bikes, I shot the series in Harlow town where lots of people were passing by, with the backdrop of the town to add context to the image. I was influenced by Bresson's use of subjects when using blur in his work. The direction that my personal investigation will develop into, this sort of photography is very influential as I would like to shoot British culture, so quite urban landscape, reflective of British culture, Bresson's series was on parisian culture mainly, this sets as a mold for me to think more deeply about the conceptual significance of my personal investigation as a well as the technical skill of blur, I think this will be very beneficial to my series, also due to the atmosphere I may want to portray IE low level lighting, without flash, blur will be a massive attribute to my photography. In my image, the blur is so strong that you can barely even see the bike at all, in fact it appears translucent with the backdrop appearing vague behind the subject, which is of course very different to the photo above, however influence has still been drawn from his work.

                                                         Gavin Watson-

In this image, Watson shoots a young skinhead male, on the London underground, smiling with a cigarette in his mouth, the backdrop of the tube ceiling and hand railings are visible, the frame of the image is from the mans shoulders upwards, therefore giving a sincere image of his face. Despite the obvious connotations of what it means to be part of skinhead culture, the pride which is apparent on his face, the feeling of connection and fulfillment out of being an individual, I focused on where the image has been taken, as not only a documentary shot but the image is good example of location portraiture, the scene of the photo describes a busy,stuffy tube carriage, it captures the essence of London, the very normal scenario of getting on the underground to get to wherever you need to, be it work or just purely for the day out, the tube is a vital network for people of all ages and classes to  travel on. The image also connotes what the location portrays on the young man, where is he going ? what is he doing? He seems to be very comfortable, and we gather that he is probably a Londoner, who commutes on the tube a lot of the time. This shows the significance that location plays within the portrait.

This is an image that I took from a series I shot on location portraiture, It was inspired by Watson's use of location in portraiture, making me think and choose carefully the location and what it means to the image, the impilications it has on the subject. In my image more that anything it was trying out different locations that I thought would be effective within my personal project, I chose urban, since I wanted my  project to be on British culture, so I thought the urban landscape, would set as a gritty, raw backdrop for portraiture. Despite the conceptual ideas within location portraiture, which the picture I have taken below is lacking, apart from the fact that the environment that the subject is seen in is an everyday place she passes etc. But often the background can be quite effective in terms of contrast in sujects clothing and backdrop, colours etc, in my image, the white and black's the subject is wearing contrasts strongly with the grey, dull concrete wall, making her stand out quite strongly and appear clear.

                                                                 Future-

For my personal project I wish to study British culture, I'd like to shoot photos on a range of different ages, sub-cultures, making quite a broad, eclectic series of photos. In terms of photographic techniques, I'd definitely like to incorporate things such as location portraiture, different formal elements such as blur, and the importance of camera angles etc, these would be some of the most important to the series that I'm capturing, as it would compliment the documentary style of photography that I am photographing, all the different techniques I have learnt and experimented with have made  me understand and know what sort of a personal project I want to make.

                                                               Conclusion-

There there are many ideas both conceptual and technical that I've taken from the research study of different photographers and want to translate into  my own photography, in my personal project. Simon Wheatley is a photographer I greatly admire, and want to incorporate parts of his style into my own work; his very honest, realistic portrayal of youth culture in Britain, especially in the working class of London, not romanticising the violence and drug culture but truthfully displaying the reality of life there through a series of photographs, this is definitely something I want to strive for in my own project. Also, since I want to do a series of documentary shots, I think Bresson is the biggest influence I will be taking into my own work, as his conceptual idea about the decisive moment, is by far the most important thing when taking a good documentary shot, to be able to capture a really important part that makes an image, something that is passing by, there are no queues or chances to re-shoot, it is purely done by instinct and creative control. Also, Gavin Watson, as I his work will always remind me to think about my theme, the direction my photography is taking, to make a cohesive series of images, for example he chose to make a series all on skinheads, his focus on one particular thing, is something that makes for a continually developing and cohesive set of images. I tend for my own photographic style to hopefully develop, improve and just be creative in creating my series on British culture, finding out more about different British subcultures, and using the conceptual and technical parts of photography that I have learnt from the photographers that I have studied and the shoots on different formal elements.

Bibliography-

Historical and Technical paragraphs in order of link-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinhole_camera 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/fox_talbot_william_henry.shtml

https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/visualrhetoric/projects/individual-projects/the-crimean-war-by-roger-fenton/

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/magazine/the-disturbing-photography-of-sally-mann.html?_r=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnum_Photos

http://www.the.me/dont-just-shoot-50mm-because-henri-cartier-bresson-did-so/

Dimanche sur les bords de Seine (1938)

https://ketlensuzydbs.wordpress.com/2014/12/21/assignment-digital-photography-henri-cartier-bresson/

   1932 picture, Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare.

https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/derriere-la-gare-saint-lazare