Evaluation

Narrative Photography

Whilst working with a brief around Narrative Photography I have gained a greater understanding of what this actually is and I believe this is because of the research I undertook.
I believe that every photograph has a narrative but a successful narrative photograph is one that is recognised as a narrative or makes the viewer ask a question or gain an understanding or message, this does not have to be the message that the photographer intended to portray per say but maybe their own personal narrative as an individual.
   I began the project with no ideas or clues on what to do so I began by going to a place that I spend a lot of time at and that means a lot and has a narrative in itself to me and my friends. I took these photographs on my mobile phone as I was just experimenting with how this idea worked. I continued to use this initial idea of place for both Part 1 and Part 2 of this narrative project as I like idea of capturing a place as it can have a personal narrative to me as a photographer yet have a different narrative soley as a place and to other people.
For Part 1 of my project I took images at the Headland Hartlepool due to the fact I like the historic feel to the area and I find the church really interesting as it has a really eerie feel, I also have a lot of memories at this place such as my parents wedding, therefore I thought the headland would be a good starting point. I tried to portray these feelings whilst creating my imagery at the Headland, I felt my images were successful in conveying the eerie spooky side of the church yet I felt I hadnt shown my personal connection which I had hoped in my final image for Part 1 and I would do this differently if repeated. 
   For part two I was inspired by the work of Martin Parr and how he portrayed his heritage through his images in his works such as 'Think Of England' and 'Only in England' and wanted to portray my own heritage in the style of Parr. I found this more difficult as first anticipated as I didnt realised how hard it can be to make an image look aged or make it timeless. I wanted to make my images look like they couldve been captured in the 90's in Parrs times of capturing England as I like the raw, traditional feel they have and the bright bold colour schemes that every photograph has in common. 
I tried to recreate this by taking my images with an external flash on TTI so that it goes through the lens in order to ulluminate my subject to the same as the background.  This worked well but I found that on my first shoot the images were all slightly over exposed and therefore I had lost quite a lot of detail so on my secound shoot I didnt use an external flash and used my cameras standard flash on a high setting and found this more successful yet I wouldve preferred all my images to be captured with an external flash in order to undergo the same process as Parr, therefore if I was to do it again I would experiment more with a  different external flash to see if I could create photographs with the correct exposure.
I used Lightroom to edit my photographs and I found this really successful as it is a simple layout and easy to import and export photographs. On the majority of my images I have increased the clarity, vibrance, hue and saturation in order to make my images have the bright bold striking look that I intended for when creating them.
   My final series of photographs are taken in Hartlepool at beach resorts and holiday parks such as Seaton, Crimdon Dene, Seaview Houses I choose to do this after looking at work such as 'Think Of England' in order to portray my heritage through the attractions in my town like Parr did but on a larger scale (the whole of england). I found it quite difficult due to the areas being quite quiet and out of season. If I was to repeat this brief I would create a wider range of photographs to make my narrative more obvious and successful.

FINAL IMAGES PART 2

 

PART ONE : FINAL IMAGE

This is my final image for Part 1 of my narrative project, I had the hopes of portraying the Headland as a historic, interesting place that is personal to me.
I feel in this image I have captured the historic and interesting feel by having a high contrast and therefore a lot of textures that add age.
I changed the image to greyscale as I felt it looked more like a document and therefore historical.
I dont believe I captured the personal aspects of the place that I intended on capturing and therefore I will not be continuing with the Headland for Part 2

TIFFS

I was unable to produce printable tiff images on a disc due to technical problems. My images are exports from Adobe Lightroom and when trying to change to Tiff format it could not be granted access, I believe this is because of the settings on Lightroom before exporting them. I will be converting my images to printable tiffs but unfortunately this will just be as a learning curve and development to apply to my next project and will not be in time for my crit this morning.

NARRATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY - Progressing My Imagery


After shooting with a flash in day light to make my images bright in the style of Martin Parr to get the same dateless, bold, striking imagery in order to produce a series of images that similar to his portray traditional aspects of a place (for example in Parr's case 'Think of England', 'Only in Britain' and 'Life's a Beach' are the some of the works in which he shows his British Heritage through). I used Photoshop to edit some of the photos from my first shoot yet after experimenting with this I decided to change to lightroom as I found it easier to get the result I wanted, on the majority of my images I have increased the clarity, vibrance and hue in order to make my images have bold colours and stand out and be striking, this worked well in making my photos look aged and dateless I believe. The majority of my photographs were taken at beach resorts and holiday destinations around my area (The North East) as most of my inspiration had came from Parrs work and I wanted to show my heritage how other people see it whilst still keeping the influence of my research in mind.
I will continue to use Lightroom to produce my photographs as I find it easier to produce the correct style I want I only find this easier by personal opinion due to the layout of the programme but I prefer to use Lightroom when managing digitial files as it acts as a database for importing and exporting which I also find easier.

Narrative Photography

 NARRATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY

After looking at the work of Martin Parr, I decided that I would like to take imagery in his style.
I wanted to use the same idea of high contrast, traditional local photos, therefore I went out to a seaside with my digital camera.
I used a flash coming through the lens when creating all my imagery in order to make my images bright and have high clarity and that boldness that Parr's images all have.
I decided to take images at this beach resort as it is local to me and that is what Parr did in his projects such as 'Think of Britain' and 'Only in England' which I have been looking at. I wanted to portray this idea on a smaller scale and document things that traditionally make me think of my heritage and home.
I look the image (Above, Right) after looking into Parr's project 'Life's a Beach' and finding similar photographs, I wanted to recreate his imagery with my own twist to begin with to get a feel for this idea and his style of photography, before I create my own version of narrative images.

I took the photograph with the intentions of creating a bright, bold image that has no real age, so that it could've been taken now or 10 years ago.
I edited my image on Photoshop Lightroom and increased the Vibrance, Clarity and Saturation to make the image look sharp and striking.
I used the image (left) from Martin Parr's collection for inspiration as I immediately thought of this image when taking mine and although they are different the main feature is still the same.

NARRATIVE PHOTO

After taking photographs using my mobile phone at an area that meant something to me, I wanted to continue with this idea and create imagery of places that have meaning to me or has history about it.
I  decided to take digital photographs at the Headland in Hartlepool as the place is personal to myself and also has a lot of historic features.

I took the images (right) on my first trip to the Headland to take photographs. I took this image from the grounds of St. Hildas Church, I was drawn to this church because of the eerie feel I think it had and I tried to portray this through my imagery.
My image is quite high contrast and has quite a high clarity which I did because I wanted to highlight all the textures in the image, such as the graves which are eroding and make the image feel more historic and more interesting.

FINAL IMAGES

JEFF WALL PHOTOGRAPHY

Jeff Wall is a Canadian Photographer who influenced and inspired the world of art with his innovative way of thinking.
I decided to look into the work of Jeff Wall in order to gain inspiration whilst creating my own imagery.
When I think of narrative photographers, (although I think imagery and photographs are all narrative) I immediately think of Jeff Wall because, personally, I think that every piece of imagery created by Jeff Wall tells a story or makes us wonder and ask questions and make assumptions and to me, that is what narrative photography is.

This image (right) is called 'The invisible man' Wall produced this after reading the novel 'Invisible man'. He has staged an environment based on his perspective and interpretation of the book. Before researching Jeff Walls work more finely I wasn't aware that this image was inspired by a novel, yet without knowing this the photograph still tells a story and has a narrative.
The image is constructed and that is clear by the way the image is staged, as it is kind of surreal due to all the light bulbs which split the image and stand out making them a large subject and that makes us automatically ask questions. The overall feel of the image is quite busy due to the fact there is a lot going on, every area of the photograph is filled which makes it quite difficult to notice the man, he his facing away in quite neutral colours and is not in the centre of the image or the main feature, I think this works well as the image is called 'The Invisible Man'.

Martin Parr - Photographic Inspiration

MARTIN PARR   

After looking into Martin Parr's England photographs for inspiration, I realised a lot of his imagery is of food and drink . The images are all really striking because they are bright and bold and in really sharp focus. These images below would actually work as a series alone and are range of photographs from Parr's projects such as 'Only in England' and 'Think of England'. These images are all really brightly coloured but the main colour that runs through these images is red and although these images aren't intentionally a series, I am unsure if Parr intended on this red colour scheme to represent England?
The red colour scheme does have a lot of clarity and I think that the boldness makes the images look aged, in my opinion these images look like they are from the early to mid 90's just by first glance.

After looking at these images I would like to experiment with making bright, contrasty, bold images.
I am going to try this by taking photographs with a high flash through the lens to make the subject as bright as the object. I will be using Martin Parr's imagery as inspiration when creating my imagery, to go with the concept of England and representing the country through photographs

Narrative Photography, Research & Ideas.

                                  
Whilst researching photographers that would help inspire me to create my own series of narrative photography, I found it difficult to define and distinguish A 'Narrative Photographer' as all photography has a narrative and can be perceived differently by  individuals.

 Finding a starting point was difficult for me therefore I went out and took photographs on my phone in order to develop from this point. I took photographs of a place that was personal to me and hopefully portray to others this narrative. 

 After taking these photographs I looked into photographers who have also spent time taking photographs of a specific place in the hopes of developing my own idea by gaining inspiration from others.

 After looking at different photographers I decided to look at one of my favourite documentary photographers Martin Parr and his series of photographs 'Think Of England'

which documents and in my perception narrates England, I believe that this series of photographs has a narrative as you can see the way Parr has portrayed his English Heritage by documenting people and places in his imagery.

Martin Parr - 'Think Of England'

This series of photographs created by Martin Parr were produced from 1995- 1999 and were all took in England, to me the photographs portray England before the modern generation and technology and show true English Heritage and Parr has produced this by documenting people at places such as seaside resorts and in their natural environment, he also includes photographs of items such as cups of tea and cakes and English newspapers and on a whole the series does its intention and makes us think of England.

The majority of Parr's photographs in the series 'Think Of England' are really bright colours and high contrast, this makes the imagery have an over all bright feel about it and therefore to me that gives the photos a more positive feel, which makes me believe that Parr intended on portraying his country proudly.

The bright colours also make the images more dated and therefore it gives more of a historic feel to the photograph which makes it feel like it has more of history and narrative.

Narrative Photography Research - First Ideas

Today I spent my afternoon taking images (using just my mobile phone) as development towards my narrative photography project, whilst at a place I spend a lot of my free time at. I thought this would be a good starting point to gain ideas towards creating my series of narrative images.
When taking the photographs I wanted to narrate the locations meaning to me and  to portray a narrative to others that makes them ask questions about my photograph.
After looking at my photographs that I took on my phone this afternoon I think that the images work well in black and white and I think that greyscale would be effective if I were to persue this idea of reflection (for example meaningful locations). I believe these images are better in black and white cause I think that automatically makes it look more like a documentary image which makes us question what is being documented and that gives the photograph a narrative.
I believe that if I was to persue this idea I would use black and white film as I personally prefer prints over digital photographs due to the quality and tones of greyscale that can be produced when creating prints.
I am not certain I would like to develop this idea further and I am going to continue taking images to gain direction to producing my final series of narrative photographs.

Introduction into narrative photography

Narrative photography

Narrative photography is often percieved as a photograph that tells a story but after considering this generalisation, I looked at my own photographs and the photography of others; such as those who inspire me, my concept of narrative photography is a wider.

 To me, narrative photography is everywhere and can be used to provide a visual message or statement and it can also be used to visually express something such as feeling or to narrate something such as the news and happenings in the world. 

When looking at photographers for inspiration I found a wide range of different narratives in photographs from the likes of jeff wall whom creates a lot of constructed photographs to the likes of Eddie Adams a war documentary photographer. 

After researching different photographers and questioning their work, I have realised every photograph can have a narrative but everyone can have their own personal perception of what it is therefore it can be difficult for a photographer to portray their own narrative in their photographs.