Daniel Stier

Daniel Stier is a German Photographer who came to give a guest lecture at our college. I was not overly interested in his work but this project stood out for me, he had photographed a man who's job it was to piece together ripped up letters and notes from during the war, i just thought that this was a fascinating thing to do. His style of photography is definitely documentary as all of his images had a true story behind them. I felt that he did not have much experience in talking to large groups of people so it was easy to see that he was struggling. I think that this reflected in the way that he spoke, sometimes he may have gone in to a bit too much detail about his projects. Overall i think that some of Stier's work was very interesting but it is not really something that i would be interested in doing myself.

Jill Cole

Like Ed Swinden, Jill Cole was not originally a Photographer. She initially worked in the fairtrade industry as an agricultural economist and said that she now has a 'second life as a photographer' and considers herself to be an emerging artist who is still learning.
The images above are from a series called 'Birds'. When you first see these images i think that they seem negative, but once Jill explained the story behind them it gives them a completely new meaning. She photographed birds that were caught in a 'mist net', the birds were later removed by trained Ringers who took them inside to record data about them and but bracelets on each bird so that they can be identified. Once I understood the logic behind these images i stopped seeing them in a negative way and they suddenly seemed quite positive. The pictures of the birds caught in the next look as if they are being injured when infact they are not being harmed at all.
Jill talked about this project when she came to college as a guest lecturer at the start of our project on The National Forest, as she was doing a residency there and was heavily involved in the project.

Another project of Jill's that interested me was 'Guns', which was done back in 2007.  She produced a series of images to show how guns effect everyday life in North Yorkshire. She described this series of images as a slow documentary project and said that the images tell a much bigger story when they are supported by text.
I think that these images are really interesting as they address a very serious issue. She has not directly staged negative scenes to photograph, sometimes she has just taken a picture of words or of children playing with toys, yet they still seem negative to the viewer.
I thought that Jill Cole was very interesting and had some great work, I like that all of her projects seem to start off small and seem to develop slowly over time in to something much bigger as she learns more about the subject.

Helen Saunders

 

Helen Saunders is another quite local photographer. She also went to Loughborough University, but her images are extremely different to Ali Lomas's images. Helen creates her own landscapes by photographing different things in various different locations. I really like this idea, it is almost as if she creates her own fictional world. Some of Helen's images are very obvious in what she has done such as the second one above, but some are a bit more subtle where you don't really notice what has been changed until you study the image closely, like the first image above. 

I think that these images are technically very good in terms of the skillls she has when using Photoshop. I would love to be able to use Photoshop to this extent. It must have taken her a long time to perfect these skills as when questioned about it she said that she had never really had any lessons, all of her editing skills are self taught. Apart from the editing skills that were involved these pictures do not appeal to me massively as i think that they are all really quite dark and gloomy, i think that it might make a difference in my opinion if this was not the case. In the future i hope to develop much better skills when using Photoshop.

Ali Lomas

Ali Lomas is another local Photographer based in Burton-on-Trent, she studied a degree in fine art but specialised in photography at Loughborough University.

Her images are all very fashion based. Fashion Photography is ot something that i have really tried to the extent of her images. I really like the way she creates scenes in places such as toilets and houses. The focal point of the pictures is always the model but the props in the background tell a story such as this image. To me, this picture has an element of sadness, the food in the sink and the girl posing in a distressed way implies that this could be addressing issues such as self-esteem and the way women are often unhappy with the way they look. Although i don't particularly think that this is a great image in terms of how i see it visually and in terms of technique, i really like the well thought out story behind the image. I think that this is what makes Ali Lomas's work interesting.

When she came to visit the college, it seemed as if it was more of a casual talk than a real lecture, as it was held in a classroom rather than the lecture theatre, I think that this made it much more personal . She talked about how she got to where she is now and what opportunities she had come across along the way, none of the other guests really spoke about this much so it was good to hear what sort of things you are able to do within the photography industy, should the opportunity arise.

Rut Blees Luxemburg

 

Rut Blees Luxemburg works mainly in film - she says that this produces a more luminous image, she has an MA in Photography.

The image above is one of her well known images as it was used on the front cover of an album by band 'The Streets'. I really like that this image seems quite symetrical, the lines and rectangular shape of the building also make the picture a frame within a frame. I think that the quality of this image is great, Luxemburg uses mainly medium format film and i think that she was right to say that it gives a more luminous picture. She says that with her work, she tries to transform something which we would normally dismiss in to something enjoyable.

I thought that this guest lecture was very interesting an it sparked a lot of ideas in my head, i like that she photographs quite bland things and somehow turns them in to fantastic pictures which are visually and technically very good. This is an idea that i would like to apply to my future work. 

Julian Germain

'I met Charles Albert Lucien Snelling on a Saturday in April, 1992. He lived in a typical two up two down terraced house amongst many other two up two down terraced houses… It was yellow and orange. In that respect it was totally different from every other house on the street…. ….Charlie was a simple, gentle, man. He loved flowers and the names of flowers. He loved colour and surrounded himself with colour. He loved his wife. Without ever trying or intending to, he showed me that the most important things in life cost nothing at all. He was my antidote to modern living.’ Julian Germain, from the book ‘For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness’, SteidlMack, 2005

When Julian Germain came as a guest lecturer to our college, this is the project that stuck in my mind the most out of all of the projects he mentioned. He met this man briefly in 1992 then continued to visit and photograph him for many years until, sadly, he passed away. I just think that this project is so lovely, I love the story behind it, how the man, 'Charlie', always looked on the bright side of life and just seemed to be a wonderful and interesting man. Germain mentioned that he talked a lot about his wife and his small, terraced, colourful house was full of pictures of her. I think that this story is heart warming and it really grabbed my attention.

From this lecture I have realised that projects that are carried out over a long period of time, i.e. many years, can be very interesting and can develop great stories behind them. This is an idea that I would love to try within my own personal work.

One Minute Sculptures

http://youtube/c5o63MOmvFE

Based on this video we were asked to do a similar task where we went out in groups and made one minute sculptures using our bodies.

 I think that this was a very fun task to do, we were in quite a large group so there were more ideas going around that we could use. I think that we ended up with some quite successful images. At first I didn't really understand the point of what we were doing but once we did it and looked back at the images I realised that the idea was for the images to be something quirky and strange. Overall I think that this task was very enjoyable.