I was asked to look at three different photographers and their images using depth of field. Looking at three images using short depth of field and three using full depth of field.
Image 1 -Vivian Maier
Full depth of field
NY 1959
NY 1959
This photograph shows part of a street with lots of different subject areas. Because there is so much activity, I think Vivian wanted to show this by using full depth of field, rather that using short depth of field which would only concentrate on one part of the image. From this image, five different stories stand out. I don't think there's any particular class of person, to me it feels like a working class area where everyone feels comfortable with each other. When I looked at this image I started asking myself lots of different questions. What is the woman in the window to the left talking about to the couple stood outside? What are they looking at? The two women walking down the street, have they been shopping together or have they just bumped into each other? The two children to the right of image looking out the window, are they watching the other children play, wishing they could join them? The man to the left, is he waiting for someone? Or is he making sure the kids don't get into any mischief?!
Image 2 - Vivian Maier
Short depth of field
Short depth of field
NewYork (undated)
Vivian has used short depth of field on this image as she is focusing on the young child. Looking at the car to the left, this is also in view. Maybe she is trying to show that this is an upper class area? The boy doesn't seem to be that well dressed, is he being noisy or does he plan to take something? Perhaps somebody is moving into/out of the property, or maybe someone has left it there for people to take if they see something they like. The box could contain the boys things, his parents may have asked him to wait with the box until they return. Whatever the reason, Vivian knew the inquisitiveness of this little boy was a great image to capture.
Image 3 - Garry Winogrand
Short Depth of field
Short Depth of field
Park Avenue NY 1959
Looking at this image, I definitely think its the monkey has caught the photographers eye. This is why he has used short depth of field. Its not every day you see a monkey going for a drive! I also noticed that the two people in the car look very relaxed and like its the norm to have a monkey in their company!
Image 4 - Garry Winogrand
LA 1954
Full depth of field
This image has been taken in a supermarket. It almost looks like the Tesco of the 1950's as it seems you can buy everything you need in there. Garry has used full depth of field so the supermarket can be seen as a whole, right back to the shoe section. I noticed how the children are all sat round watching the television, I tried to investigate when the first colour TV's came out and if my source is correct, it was in January 1954. Maybe this is a colour television they are watching? Maybe it was easier for the kids to sit and watch the tv's whilst the parents did their shopping.
Image 5 - Lee Friedlander
Full depth of field
NY 1964
Image 6
Martin Parr
Short depth of field
Short depth of field
Unknown place/date
I had to do a double take when i first looked at this image as it looks like the dog is a part of the woman's coat! I think that's why Martin Parr took this photograph as it looks so surreal. The woman looks like shes probably got a lot of money. I wonder if hes trying to show the contrast of the fur coat (a dead animal) against the live animal she is holding. Using short depth of field really magnifies this woman and how bizarre the dog looks against her coat.
My own photographs using Depth of field
Image 1
Nicola Pass
Short Depth of field
Cheshire 2013
(dimensions)
In this image I am focusing on the angel. Even thought the background is out of focus, you can still see that its a picture of two people smiling. To the person viewing the image, I am trying to draw their eyes to the angel first, then to the background so they can see what the angel represents - A happy family home.
Image 2
Nicola Pass
Full Depth of field
Tesco Cheadle 2013
(Dimensions)
I decided to use an example of full depth of field in Tesco on a busy Saturday as like Garry Winogrand's image (4), it shows a great amount of detail. You can see the shoppers at the front of the image, right down to the back of the store where the wines and beers are. It shows lots of different subject areas, from the woman in black stopping to think if she needs to go down that isle to the man in the blue t-shirt, casually walking to where he needs to be.
Links to images:
Image 1 - http://www.vivianmaier.com/portfolios/new-york-1/?pid=212
Image 2 - http://www.vivianmaier.com/portfolios/new-york-1/?pid=216
Images 3/4 - http://gu.com/p/3fpef
Image 5 - http://www.pacemacgill.com/selected_works/artist_page.php?artist=Lee%20Friedlander
Image 6 - www.martinparr.com
Right - Firstly it is convention to refer to photographers by family name not given name. It would improve the look of your blog if toy cropped the screen shots to show just the picture, or right click and save them. Be careful of distorting the image as in the Martin Parr one, if you hold down the shift key while you are resizing it prevents this from happening. Can you please label this one as Unit 1 Photography.
ReplyDeleteNow for the more positive part. For a first critical submission this is very good. You ave avoided falling into the trap of filling it with pointless information and have concentrated on the images. If I was being harsh I could say that you describe the images quite frequently, which is unnecessary if the images is presented. What I would like to see you develop in these submissions is linking the images to historical influences, either photographers or events, or relating them to other photographers images. You could for instance relate Maier to Shirley Baker's Salford images. each time you produce one of these you increase your knowledge of photographers and it will become second nature to compare and contrast the work of others.
I enjoyed reading this.