Week 15: Final Self-Reflection for Project 3

Tuesday, October 28, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 1 Comments

What are some of the challenges that I faced when doing this photography project?

For the photo book I did the binding myself. I did a hardcover book. It was very tedious and tricky as I did the guides wrongly for the cover page so I had to remeasure some of the guides for cutting.

 For the photographs, the main problems that I have are trying to capture people's emotions for portrait photography. Initially I wanted to do black and white photography as it brings out more of the mood of being "aged" and "historical" for the topic vanishing trades. But the bright colours of the beads for the beaded peranakan slippers stood out more when in colour. Thus I decided to print my photographs in colour in the end. As for the framing of the photographs on the photo book, I tried to maximize the photograph on the paper by giving it a visually comfortable border of around 2cm. Because if the border is too little, the photograph might feel cramped with in the frame. 


What have I learnt from this project?

I learnt how to take better portrait photography. Because for Project 1 and 2, most of my photography were still life and architecture photography and I did not have chance to explore portrait photography. In my opinion, portrait photography is still the most challenging for me. As the subject is constantly moving, I find it difficult to find a proper framing for my subject. Furthermore, sometimes I find it difficult to convey the emotions I want my subjects to portray onto the photography.

 Overall I enjoyed this project as it was a great learning experience for me. But my preference still lies in taking architecture photography and still life photography.
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Week 15: Portrait photography by Eve Arnonld

Monday, October 27, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

I chose this famous photographer as a reference for my photography project 3 as I like how she composed her subject in her photographs. It is a constant reminder for me how the expression of the face, the body language can set apart a bad and a good portrait photography.

 Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1912, Eve Arnold was the first American woman to become a member of the photographic co-operative Magnum. One of the most important photojournalists of the twentieth century, Eve Arnold had a prolific career documenting people both ordinary and famous – including Marilyn Monroe, Yves Saint Laurent, Malcolm X, Jerry Falwell and many heads of state. She covered the American civil rights movement, shot stills for more than 40 films around the world, was a contract photographer on the Sunday Times colour magazine for 10 years and published 14 books.

 Arnold once said 'What I have tried to do is involve the people I was photographing... if they were willing to give, I was willing to photograph,' 

 For example Eve Arnold's photographs on Marilyn Monroe capture her real beauty. They show her taking off her make-up and her glamorous shell, looking a little tired and fragile but far more beautiful than any of her showbusiness publicity shots. I hope I can capture my subjects in the same way in their most rawest form to portray the simple characteristics of the people in vanishing trades. A simple life but an not so usual trade.




Eve Arnold dies: 1955 Marilyn Monroe resting on bed

Eve Arnold dies: 1961 Malcolm X, Chicago

Eve Arnold dies: 1959 Actress Joan Crawford, California, Los Angeles

Eve Arnold dies: 1979 Horse training for the militia, Inner Mongolia, China

Eve Arnold dies: 1961 Dora Grubb and amateur painter at the Royal Academy of Arts

Eve Arnold dies: 1963 Father Gregory Wilkins, Nottingham

Eve Arnold dies: 1955 arilyn Monroe, Long Island, New York

Eve Arnold dies: 1979, Permanent wave, China

Eve Arnold dies: 1971 United Arab Emirates, Dubai

Eve Arnold dies: 1976 Anthony Quinn and Anna Karina

Eve Arnold dies: 1954 Bar girl in a brothel in the red light district, Havana, Cuba

Eve Arnold dies: 1952 Marlene Dietrich at the recording studios of Columbia Records


Sources: 


http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jan/05/eve-arnold-memorable-photographs


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Week 14: Portrait photography by Diane Arbus

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

For project 3 I wanted to research more on portrait photographers. One that I came across was Diane Arbus.

 Diane Arbus  (New York, 1923-1971) revolutionized the art she practiced. Her bold subject matter and photographic approach produced a body of work that is often shocking in its purity -- in its steadfast celebration of things as they are. 

 I feel that for portrait photography there is an agreement to risk trust and acceptance of each other between the photographer and the subject. For Diane Arbus, she was interested in them for what they were most specifically. She did not want representatives of philosophical positions or life styles or physiological types, but unique mysteries. Her subjects surely perceived this, and revealed themselves without reserve, confident that they were not being used as conscripts to serve an exterior issue. They were also doubtless interested in her. 

 What I like about her portrait photography is that there is a powerfully individual presences that exist in her pictures that transcend the abstractions of role. Her subjects were often seen with disguises, costumes to conceal from the casual viewer a more intimate truth.



Identical twins, Roselle, N.J. 1967
Untitled (6) 1970-71
Teenage couple on Hudson Street, N.Y.C. 1963 


Child with a toy hand grenade in Central Park, N.Y.C. 1962 
'''
Boy with a straw hat waiting to march in a pro-war parade, N.Y.C. 1967 


A young man in curlers at home on West 20th Street, N.Y.C. 1966 
Diane Arbus


Sources: 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/evelyne-politanoff/diane-arbus-photography_b_996233.html


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Week 13: Corner Portraits of Cultural Icons by Irving Penn

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

Since my final project will be focussed on portrait photography of people in vanishing trades, I wanted to research more on photographers who do portrait photography and try to learn from them. One example that I found was corner portraits of cultural icons by Irving Penn. 

 Irving Penn is one of the most prolific photographers working in the 20th century and one of the most famous fashion magazine photographers of his era. Irving Penn shot this series of minimalist studio portraits back in the 1940s and ’50s that were celebrated for capturing the personality behind the celebrity.

In portrait photography there is something more profound we seek inside a person, while being painfully aware that a limitation of our medium is that the inside is recordable only so far as it is apparent on the outside. The starkness of the setting, the low-key lighting, the subtle choreography of pose and gesture that both hints at the interior life of the subject.

 I will try to apply this for my project by getting my subject to pose for me, and I hope to achieve their personality through their poses with their tools of trade. It could be a sense of pride in their job or even expressing their love for their trade. 


Irving Penn, Marcel Duchamp, New York, 1948. 



Irving Penn, Georgia O’Keeffe, New York, 1948.



Irving Penn, Truman Capote, New York, 1948.



Irving Penn, Martha Graham, 1948. 



Irving Penn, Salvador Dalí, New York, 1947. 



Irving Penn, Marlene Dietrich, December 23, 1948. 



Irving Penn, Spencer Tracey, New York, March 23, 1948.



Irving Penn, Igor Stravinsky, New York, April 22, 1948.



Irving Penn, Gypsy Rose Lee, New York, 1948. 



Irving Penn, Joe Louis, New York, February 15, 1948. 


Sources: 
http://flavorwire.com/211107/irving-penns-fantastic-corner-portraits-of-cultural-icons/





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Week 13: Self-Reflection for Project 3

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

What are some of the challenges that I faced when doing this photography project?

 The street barber that I was photographing was shy and not very willing to look at the camera or pose for the camera. 

 There were many vehicles who were parking illegally and I had crop them out of the frame at the street barber place. 

 I had to go back and reshoot for the peranakan beaded slippers series as the Ms Irene Sng (the sister of the owner Robert Sng) did not really liked me to photograph her, but she told me to go back the next day as her brother was usually the one doing interviews or appearing in photographs. 

 I had to arrange the tools of the trade for the peranakan beaded shoes to take photograph, I was not prepared for that.

 I am also having some trouble thinking of a title for my project and also how I would design the book cover.
What is the concept for this project?

 My concept for this project was to photograph vanishing trades in Singapore. The idea is that the jobs have very few people who are doing it at the moment and they have no successors to taked over them. Bother the street barber and the peranakan shoe-maker are very passionate about their jobs and they would do the trade as long as they can.
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Week 12: Singapore International Photography Festival 2014 (SIPF)

Tuesday, October 07, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

Singapore International Photography Festival




The Singapore International Photography Festival 2014, with the theme of The Infinity, celebrates the endless possibilities that ideas and collaborations can bring. It is the first time that I am going for the SIPF and I visited 3 of the exhibitions this year at the Deck, National Museum of Singapore and Chapel Gallery at Sculpture Square.

1) How are the photographs in festival presented? What choices did the curators make in the display of the works? are the photographs grouped in a certain way?

The photographs in the festival are presented in a way that each location showcases a type of photography. For example, Deck has more landscape photography, National Museum of Singapore has more portrait photography and the Chapel Gallery has more photojourlism and documentary photography. The photographs at each of the hall of a location is grouped according to a series of artists like whether the theme is about places, or people etc. The photographs themselves are displayed in many ways such as an outdoor site specific installation, or within a frame with white borders around the photographs, or mounted onto foam board.

2) Name a series that attracts you the most? who is the photograph? What is his or her work about? Explain what you like about it.

TOWARDS A NEW INTERIOR by Ang Song Nian (b. 1983, Singapore) is my favourite series of the exhibition. Towards A New Interior serves as an experimental study of space and situation which explore and exploit the conceptual space between presence and absence. With images accompanied by written accounts and a real-life site specific installation, this work seeks to draw out relations between human beings and the things around them, invoking human presence by highlighting their absence.

 I love how the curators have exhibited this series outdoor as it creates a juxtaposition between the name of the title of the series itself. However, it relates closely with his series still as when the photographs is diplayed outdoors, it links to the idea of exploring the space and situation and making use of it to show the interaction between human beings and the inanimate objects. 









3) Is there any series of photos that explores the topic of work or leisure?

Yes. Traces of time by Carrie Lam. “Trace of Time” is a visual translation of a journey that transcends the borders of time, space and memory. It attempts to impart new meanings to old photos and to document those that changed as well as those that remained. In 1979, Carrie Lam's 28-year-old mother embarked on a journey with an Olympus camera. In 2012, my 26-year-old self began a new journey that brought her back in time, following in her every footstep through the pictures she took. She went back to the same place that her mother went in the photographs and retook them with her inside them. Then she framed the photographs so that she would seem to appear at the same place with her mother then at the same time.





4) Write some of your thoughts about festival. What do you think of the festival overall. would you visit the rest of the exhibits or attend the film screenings on your own time?

I feel that the festival was very intriguing and it also gave me inspirations on other topics that I can explore for future photography projects and also it has made me fall in love with photography deeper. I would visit the other exhibitions and film screenings during my holidays. 





















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Week 12: People of the Twentieth Century by August Sander

Monday, October 06, 2014 Ching Lea Yee 0 Comments

Since for Project 3 my focus will be on photographing people at work, Ms Ho has recommended that I look into the works of August Sander as a reference for photographing people and their occupations. In this series, we can see how the tools of trades of the people were often included into the composition of the photograph in order to bring the context to the subject matter. I will be using a similar method when photographing my subjects by making them pose with their tools of trade. I like how the subject in August Sander's People of the Twentieth Century series look directly into the camera and this creates a connection between the photograph and the person viewing it. Thus, another element to note in photographing portraits is eye contact. 

 People of the Twentieth Century, the collective portrait of German society made by German photographer August Sander, has fascinated viewers from its earliest presentation in a 1927 exhibition and the controversial publication of a selection of 60 images in the book Face of the Time published two years later. Despite Sander's dedication over five decades to the idea and compilation of this portrait atlas of the German people, the project remained unfinished. Nonetheless, his photographs remain compelling, in part because he chose to categorize his subjects by profession or social class. The images are thus representations of types, as he intended them to be, rather than portraits of individuals.

 Sander believed that society was organized into a hierarchy of occupations. One section of his project is dedicated to the skilled tradesman, including master craftsmen, industrialists, technicians, and inventors. Subjects associated with intellectual or "white-collar" labor were usually photographed indoors in three-quarter-length poses, while master craftsmen were portrayed in their working environment with the tools of their trades. Portrayed as he emerges from the dark basement of a building, the coal carrier in the image above belongs to the lower ranks of labor and is symbolically associated with the bowels of German society.



















Sources: 
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/sander/


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