My idea is Shadows and how they are such a subtle way is showing a period of time, be it 10 mins, 1 hours or 24 hours. During our day we seem to not notice shadows that appear all over our city due to light be obstructed by other objects. You can kind of call it a contemporary sun dial. I have photographed 13 different locations around cities on where this process took place to create a beautiful visual image around the city. Next time you are walking on a sunny day try have a look around.
Just completed watching the four part series of Shane meadows 'This Is England 86'. Probably the best TV series i have watched in my life. It just shows that other programs really need to step up their game. Anyway, one of the main things i loved in this series was just the visuals & filming throughout all four programs. I took some screen shots of some favorites. IMMENSE.
This is one of my favorite pieces. Nicholas Nixon is an American based photographer, most famous for the use of the 8x10 inch view camera. In 1975, he created a project called The Brown Sisters. The series contains one portrait per year of four sisters, one of whom is Nixon's wife, always captured in the same left to right order. As of 2010 he is still contributing to the series and there are thirty-one portraits altogether. I think this is an amazing idea, especially the way he keeps them in the same positions throughout. This project has give me a few ideas on how to corporate this into my brief in regards to 24 hours & life.
Looking at various elements that take over peoples lives. Drugs, Alcohol, Sex, TV, Games them kind of things. Looking at possible capturing someone over 24 hours, each hour capturing their face after doing what they love??
Edward Muybridge was an English photographer and along with Eteine Jules Mary, they both struggled finding a suitable technique in capture moving images. Muybridge is known for his pioneering work on animal motion which used multiple cameras to capture motion. Before this though Muybridge made his name taking regular landscape pictures for clients. It was only until 1877 where Muybridge wanted to settle a question for a friend by seeing if a horses 4 hoofs leaving the ground at the same time. Muybridge successfully captured the pictures of the horse, and all 4 hoofs leaving the ground. Again muybridge, along with Eteinne, Bragagalia Brothers and Daguerre were pinnacle figures in capturing moving images over a certain period of time. This technique doesn’t really appeal to me really in regards to the brief but very interested in regards to how he came about it.
Stumbled across these pictures that have a very similar technique to the Bragaglia Brothers. Michael has captured various buildings that are currently been built and allowed his shutter speed to be kept open over numerous amount of months to capture the full extent of the building. A very clever technique, accompanied with a beautiful outcome of photography. A possible way of capturing something over 24 hours, maybe a creature or something that only survives for 24 hours?
Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre is believed to be one of the most famous people for inventing photography.
It is believed that Louis happened to come across photography by accident when he left an exposed plate in a chemical cupboard, when he returned he found that an image had developed on the plate. It is believed to be due to a broken thermometer that had caused this, but Daguerre had stumbled on something that would change the world.
Below was the first picture ever to be captured using the method found by Daguerre, although the streets do look empty, they really aren’t. Its only because of the long exposure of the moving objects that the camera would not pick them up. Apart from one man who sat down to have his shoes shined.
Justin Quinnell is one the pioneers of Pinhole Photography. He left his homemade pinhole camera open for six months to capture the Summer and Winter solstices. The lowest streak is the Winter solstice on 22 December 2007 and the highest line represents the Summer solstice, which was captured on 20 June 2008. What I love about this pictures is the blue streaks just striking across the page. This could be an idea on portraying 24 hours. But I need it to be something relevant towards life maybe?
Etienne Jules Marey was originally a French scientist and chronophotographer. Etienne is believed to be one of the pioneers of photography and cinema.Just like the Bragaglia Brothers, Etienne found a way to capture various movements of an object through one image.
In 1882 he created a way to record several stages of movement on one photo by using a chronophotographic gun. It would take 12 frames a second of the moving image and record them on the same photographic paper. He studied all animals including birds, dogs, fish and insects. In 1890 he created a book called the ‘Flight of Birds’ that showcased his work.
His method was different to the Bragaglias as Etienne’s gun was a lot different toe exposure. When the trigger was pulled the plate rotated once in a second, while the shutter opened the same number of times each second. Etienne then pointed the 'gun' at the bird, and continued to press the trigger while following the bird with the gun. The result was a plate with 12 different images set around the edge, which showed the different parts of a bird's flight. Again a very complex but ahead of its time method for capturing moving images. I prefer the style of the Bragaglias method as i like the different opacity levels of each level, where as this method just seem abit too cluttered for my liking.
The Bragaglia brothers were one of the first group of people to capture movement within a photographic process. They visually captured human movement, be it the movement on the arm or leg, walking, nodding your head or even sitting on a chair. As well as capturing the frozen image they also capture the motion in what ever was moving, rather than having that still image.
The way they achieved this was keeping the shutter speed on the camera open as long as possible while the object/human was moving. This then created the multiple images of the subject moving.
During this time, this would have been a benchmark in photographic process. It is quite crazy to see what they did over 100 years ago, compared to what we can do now. Although I do love the raw/distorted feel to the images. A good technique to show time through still images, although its very complicated to capture 24 hours in one image.
Just been checking out work from Thom Puckey & Kevin Francis Gray. Really getting into weird and wonderful sculptures and how they are exhibited & created. I think this work from both parties are really beautiful.
