Mary Ellen Mark

Mary Ellen Mark was a photographer who prided herself on her street photography and was best known for her photojournalism and documentary photography, among much more.

The Guardian collected a few of Mary Ellen Mark's "legendary photographs" to present an article commemorating the photographer after her death in 2015.
The article features this statement:
The award-winning photographer, who has died aged 75, was famed for her documentary work and intimate portraits, always regarding herself as a street photographer. 

The statement suggests that maybe you can say a lot about a person in a few short words.

Along with her street photography, she also created photo series' including self portraits, portraits of others, including celebrities such as Johnny Depp and also series' looking at her family. The photographer had so much credit to her name before she died, showing just how much she cared for her craft.

The Photographer 

Streetwise, which became a documentary film directed by the
photographers husband, Martin Bell.

Ward 81

Twins

A Week in the Life of a Homeless Family

One of the intersting things about Mary Ellen Mark is how diverse she is. It is also intersting to see that despite how varied the work is, I am still able to make comparisons to so many of her projects and series'.
While most of her work is about the human form, where she has situated and photographed the subjects is just as important. She selects her locations to compliment the subject and this is where my interest in the photographer lies.
It would defninitely be interestign to explore this careful consideration further with my own experiementation and primary photographs.


Mary Ellen Mark's website
The Guardian's article

Fay Godwin

I discovered the photographer Fay Godwin when looking at landscape artists and forms in the landscape. The photographer was suggested to me by a peer. I went on to research the artist and found her series Our Forbidden Land to be most interesting. The photo series features spaces, natural land, that features something human: be it a man-made structure or the human form itself.
My favourite works from theseries, those which stand out to me, are the following:

The ways in which Godwin photographs these locations perfectly relates to the ideas of forbidden land, suggesting isolated areas, bu mostly those which have been cordoned off. Even the self portrait of the shadow in the water has a similar idea, with the reflection unable to go further than the waters edge. 

Godwin also photographed portraits, again using black and white film. These are rather close up portraits however, almost like headshots. A lot of them do seem rather casual however, as though the photographer has caught them at a moment in their lives; captured something about the person as they going about their day to day activities and tribulations.

It is interesting to see the flexibility in this photographer, while still being able to gain a sense of her style within each of the different photo series'.

I found an article featured on the Guardian website that looked at and discusses Godwin's work and exploring her life.



https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jan/08/margaret-drabble-fay-godwin

Chris Killip

Chris Killip is a photographer who reminds me slightly of George Shaw. I know him best for his industrial portraits and I believe this is where the similarities lie.
Killip created the photo series In Flagrante.

The thing that separates Killip and Shaw is Killip's use of the human form, to compliment his industry in an oddly successful juxtaposition.
The use of young children using the estates as playgrounds, contrasted with the serious adult workers creates much more contrast, which again, only heightens the significance of the series.

"You didn't have to be a genius to realise how important it was to get in and photograph it before it all fell apart." Killip allows us to understand the fragility of both the location and the community with this statement, and his photographs only prove this further.
The images are beautiful in strange and perplexing ways. It should be discomforting to see the breakdown of a person *, but the vulnerability that Killip is able to capture makes this beauty.

*

It is certainly intersting to see how Killip captured people in the most appropriate landscape that was able to bring together every quality and characteristic of the location he selected and this is something very important to look to in my own project.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/11145782/Chris-Killip-In-Flagrante.html?frame=3064309

George Shaw

After looking at human interaction with nature, through beginning to explore my visuals from a trip to Hull, I wanted to  move onto the idea of how we interfere. This came to mind when considering The Deep. It is not so much interaction as it is interference; paying to see animals who must remain in the same tank for the rest of their lives, seeing humans pushing their faces into their "homes". I wanted to include more of this idea about how we alter the nature we live alongside.

I moved my attention away from the animals and took myself off to the man-made, looking back at the images I took at the very beginning of the project.
This led me straight to George Shaw, who works a lot with structures and also memories. I did feature Shaw in my previous project also, and still see his relevance now. Like Turner and Schiele, Shaw is an artist I seem to find influencing me wherever my projects turn.
In the post I made looking at the artist last project, I featured a video on Estate of Mine, an exhibition Shaw put on to display his home.

There is something very inspiring about the modest (possibly too much so) artist, who creates such stories and atmosphere with the locations he presents, that are so poignant to him.

Shaw uses this short documentary to explain briefly about some of the works, making them all the more appealing.

I intend to look further into the artists work again to uncover how I can work with the ideas and themes of industry.

Michael Raedecker

Michael Raedecker creates beautifully simple images, focusing mainly on very simple line, most commonly working on to canvas or linen. Raedecker doesn't just paint and draw the images however, he also sews into them in order to complete them. He will work in acrylic and use additions of thread to conclude the detail. 

The juxtaposition of the structures and the hand sewn threads make the images so interesting, as well as how they remain with the unfinished style. I am particularly fond of the third image, of how he has suggested water through the subtle gradients of coloured threads. 

This has made me consider how to work with my images from the previous post, by threading into a painting, or even into the photo itself. 

In looking at Raedecker, I also came across another artist at the same time. I found the artist as a suggested page on Instagram. Jane Carkill, who goes by the username @lamblittle produces beautifully embroidered pieces, mainly of animals, but she also paints her images. 

I was interested by her way of working, painting first and then working over the top .

Not only does this come to mind when I think of Raedecker, but it also reminds me again of Anselm Kiefer and his heavily mixed media art. 

Jane Carkill's Instagram page

It will be interesting the explore working in this manner to see what I am able to produce. 

On Location: Hull

I made a visit to Hull last weekend and took in my surroundings, exploring the location. I stopped with a friend who is at the University there so I was treated to visits to small gems I would not have found on my own and also trips to the tourist locations. I wanted to look to The Deep, with ideas of human interaction with nature, but in an obtuse sort of way. How are we really connected to the animals there when they are separated, in an unnatural environment, by thick panes of glass.
I found interest in working here, photographing and also work in my location sketchbook.
It was interesting to take myself off to a new location to explore some newer ideas.

I returned home after the weekend with new material to work with, and was interested by the ideas of developing this contrast that I found. I created studies in watercolour but had the idea of doing something more.
The following images were my favourites. I felt they were the most effective in achieving the ideas I had behind the visit.

I wanted to explore the contrast and so I feel that these are definitely the most effective images to use in order to try and achieve this. 

Schiele Study with Line

In looking at Schiele, I turned my attention to making the human figure a part of the landscape, rather than just featuring in it. I looked at line drawing again, pulling in figures and trees to make one continuous drawing across two lengths of card. I considered then drawing back Schiele, incorporating  some of his work in with my own.

First experiment, looking at the pairing of human line and
nature. 

Incorporating my Schiele fine liner studies
with another study from a photograph of
mine.

Incorporating my Schiele fine liner studies
with another study from a photograph of
mine.

The initial drawing made onto tracing paper
to sit on top of the Schiele studies.

I used the drawings featured in this post to work with on the experiments.  

Working with line and colour in a further
Schiele study from my own visuals.