Contemporary Portraiture - to select a portrait from context of Art History and reconstruct it within a modern day context.

Some of the portraits I considered -

Raphael - St Catherine

   Dante Gabriel Rossetti  - Lady Lillith

Gustave Courbet - Self Portrait, The Desperate Man

 

Meeting on the Turret Stairts - Frederic Burton

My final choice - always been a favourite of mine, a moment caught so perfectly,

so emotive and expressive, star-crossed lovers.

Models for photo shoot!

Frank - a true Knight in shining armour!

Joanne - the fair maiden!

Ran through the lighting set ups with Dara, very useful

to sort out before getting Frank and Joanne in as

quite time consuming.

Result was a soft box on the left on half power, positioned very low down and tilted up, shining difused light upwards on to Joanne's back and Frank's front

and another light with snoot attachment high up on the right

aimed at backdrop to achieve the shaft of light over Frank's shoulder.

Project Brief - Looking at urban environment - the city - the street.  Using a film slr produce min 5 shots relating to the brief title.

Prep shots with digital camera - decided to look at the street indirectly, through windows - reflections - through gaps in structures - from alleyways looking out on to street etc

Took photos using film camera in and around Listowel - first attempt very unsuccessful, struggling with apeture, exposure focus etc.

The second attempt around Limerick city, more successful - shots of reflections in water - car doors - windows, and views through structures such as fencing, bars etc.

Developed and printed and selected 7 shots for final presentation.

Learning about shutter speeds and apetures - we had an exercise to produce four images that related to slow shutter speed, fast shutter speed, small depth of field and large depth of field.

Some photographers I have been looking at:
Ralph Gibson, American photographer, was assistant to Dorothea Lange 1961-2, particularly interested in books and book making.

 Beautiful image - simple but captivating.

 Intriguing image - uncomplicated but very thought provoking.

Marilyn Bridges - American phtographer famed for her amazing black and white aerial photographs of ancient and modern landscapes.

fabulous tones and textures

Photography - to produce a personal documentary in powerpoint.

Some of the slides included in my presentation.

 

 

For CCS (Fiona) - To photograph a magazine cover and produce another cover challenging the norms of the first.

I entitled my mag cover 'Refocus' as a play on the mag title 'Look' - and used this to set the tone of the features of my mag - to refocus on what is really interesting and entertaining.  I used an image of an oil painting of a beautiful woman, without any make up, and used the suggestion of removing all the built up layers of varnish and grime from the oil painting to reveal its original state in relation to cleaning away layers of make up to reveal natural beauty.