Shoot 2

Photographer Research - Richard Billingham

The two images above inspired me in my second documentary shoot. I wanted to concentrate on both the good times and hardships that families, particularly married couples, face. Richard Billingham does this perfectly, he spent years shooting his mother and father Liz and Ray highlighting the good times and the bad. The images are not always perfect and are sometimes slightly blurry or the composition isn't quite right. This is a common theme in a lot of Billinghams photography shot at this time. This was relevant though as he was trying to capture the essence of his families life, living in working class, poverty England  This isn't something that will directly influence my work as i'd like my images to be clear and concentrating on composition is vital for my images to look nice. The first image depicts Liz and Ray falling out. It captures a side to their relationship that many might not see, offering the viewer an insight into their lives. The image illustrates Liz shouting at Ray in their home with a tight fist and her lips curled, as if shouting at him ready to throw a punch. Ray seems to be used to this looking mostly unbothered but slightly like this is an inconvenience. The second image is quite different and emphasis the calmer aspects of the household life, whilst Liz relaxes on the sofa most likely watching TV. Although this doesn't explicitly focus on the relationship between herself and Ray, it implies that she is an independent woman despite the marriage, as she can enjoy her own company. I will use these ideas of highlighting aspects of both my parents relationships with each other and themselves, depicting parts of their daily lives at home.

Image Bank:

The three images above are ones that I have found on the internet by other photographers that inspire me in my own work. As this shoot is going to be based in my home, I need something achievable and realistic, photographs that I could potentially replicate. The above photo's show the essence of family life that I want to capture.

Shoot 2 initial plan:

Contact Sheet

Best images:

Images that require improvement:

Whilst shooting this image the original idea was to frame my mum in the empty part of the wall behind her, however because of how bright it was outside, the window area is really over exposed and the rest of the image is far too dark so it is only the silhouette of my mums face. The image is also quite noisy with all of the mess on the sides shown behind her.

Whilst I appreciate the composition in this image with my dad framed within the space between my mum and her chair, there are some issues that I have with this image. Firstly, there are some specs in the image shown on the wall, because of marks on my camera lens, secondly the shot is slightly blurry as I was shooting at an ISO of 1600 when I should have been shooting at either 200 or 400.

There is also a spec in this image because of the marks on my camera, additionally the shot is quite blurry. This is because I was shooting on aperture priority and as this room was slightly dark the shutter speed was quite slow. Unfortunately as I am shooting documentary I don't use a tripod which can create challenges like this. 

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

When researching documentary photography I came across the well known photographer Richard Billingham who's work has always impressed me. He has inspired some of my work in the past and influenced this shoot in particular. The main aspect I adopted from his work was the subject and the way he uses the decisive moment to capture raw moments within family life. He is quite a courageous photographer who doesn't seem to be afraid of showing the world what life is like living in poverty and in a working class background. Although I don't live in poverty myself, I am from a working class background and understand what it can be like to financially struggle which can cause tensions within a marriage and ultimately a family. I made sure to include the truth of my family life like Billingham, including my parents performing everyday chores and tasks to keep the house in shape. This could be something that differs from Billinghams photography as his family are never shown to be cleaning or doing constructive thing. However I made sure to not present my family life in a glamorous way, as if it is something that it's not.

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

When taking the photographs for this shoot I used a handheld approach as usual for the style of documentary, I was shooting in aperture priority mode with the understanding that some images may appear blurred if I were to shoot in darker settings. With this in mind I made sure to start the shoot around 12pm so that I had the daylight. Without realising, I was shooting with a sensitive ISO of 1600 which affected the quality of some of my images making them fuzzy and tinting some areas green. 

 Another way I am refining my work is through Photoshop. I adjusted things such as the contrast and brightness before converting my images to black and white for the final image. I cropped the image shown above just to remove unwanted space in the image. I used tools including the curves tool, and the brightness and contrast levels to adjust everything. The black and white images are influenced by my image bank and can give an intimate feel to my shots which is why I chose to use it for a family themed documentary.

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

  

I believe my work does reflect Richard Billinghams photography to an extent with the key ideas of family values and struggles. I kept my shoot within my home like Billingham so that the viewer can get an essence of my family life not only through the relationships between the people in my images but through my home itself. I presented morals of my family life through the actions of my parents, such as keeping the home clean and tidy. This values are different in Billinghams family life which I understand, but made sure to present these ideas in the same way.

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

I am happy with how this shoot turned out, I believe it is a slight progression from my first shoot as I had strong ideas about composition e.c.t. and aimed to create a series of images that reflect my family's life and values, and their relationships with each other. I feel as though this aim has been met within my work. This shoot has given my project a good direction to head in. My ideas are still growing and being built on and next time I would like to focus in more detail on the relationships of family members. During my research I have found other photographers that do similar work to Richard Billingham and will be able to influence my work in future shoots.