Assignment - Documentary Part1

Research


AUGUST SANDER


August Sander was a Documentary Photographer who back in 1929 created a project called Face of Our Time which was a photo book filled with pictures of men of every social class that there is. I chose this photographer as inspiration for my work because I thought that the project he did was very interesting, he took something that was quite simple and made it look really good then made a book out of it. Here are some of the photos from his project:

I think the way that these people were photographed is good because it makes it easy to read the photograph and tell the story of them. These photos show men in every social class in the time I chose 4 out of the 60 portraits in the book, which was published in the 1920s and was part of a series called People of the 20th Century. The images are all in black and white and differs from portrait and landscape, the images are quite formal and no one is pulling any facial expression or a certain pose.

Bruno Barbey


Bruno Barbey is a French photographer who is a member of Magnum. He has photographed several continents and countable world conflicts, he does not consider himself a war photographer he photographed the civil war in Nigeria, Vietnam, the Middle East, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ireland, Iraq
and Kuwait. For one of his projects that he made a book out of, he photographed Morocco where he was born. Here are some of the images:

There is a great difference in August Sander and Bruno Barbey's work, Bruno Barbey documented the country as a whole rather than just the people in it, he didn't used close-ups of people or do portraits either, in his project he shot Morocco as a whole country to show what it was like. These images were shot landscape and in panoramic view and were featured in a book called My Morocco which was published in 2003 which he made because he spent his first 12 years there, he wanted to show how important the country was to him.

http://www.thamesandhudson.com/9780500542828.html

Martin Parr


Martin Parr is a British photographer who has several published photograph books but I chose my favourite that inspired me which is called Bored Couples which is basically street-style photos of couples looking bored. Here are my favorite photos from the book:

This book was published in 1993, the images look candied and are shot with quite vibrant colors with what looks like a old film camera. Martin Parr has made a lot of books out of his work but this is the one that inspired me the most.

August Sander only used men for this project and photographed them in quite a formal and plain way, in all of the photos none of the men are posed or have any facial expressions. The way that you can tell what type of people they were is by the clothing they are wearing and the location they were photographed in, such as the higher class men were photographed in suits and  sat in a chair looking quite important where as the lower class men were photographed in the street on a stair set and in their scruffy clothes. 


Bruno Barbey wanted to show the country in which he was born in an interesting way and show how important it was to him to other people. For this book that he created he mostly photographed doorways and typical Moroccan houses but in a really beautiful and creative way. I think that the way he photographed the country made it look like a really nice place, he didn't use any particular people or poses in his photographs which makes it a sort of street style. These images tell a story well although they are quite simple and I think show what he wanted to show to other people.
I’m drawn to Morocco because, although I’m French, I spent my first twelve years there; I find smells and colours that remind me of my youth. And one should not forget that this country has inspired painters such as Delacroix and Matisse. Like Mexico or India, it’s a place where you can find the ingredients to make visual images’ – Bruno Barbey


Martin Parr created a lot of books out of his work, these images were street style photographs of bored looking couple which I thought was quite funny. The images aren't posed as I think they are candied and all the facial expressions are just bored and fed up, which is what the whole book is based on in general. All the images in the book are landscape, the colours are quite bold and the images look sort of old which could mean that the photographer used a film camera. I think these images are really good for telling a story as you can tell straight away from their facial expressions and body language that they really are just bored couples.


My own images


Evaluation


I recreated images of the photographs that I chose for my research, 3 for each artists. Here are the photographs that I took:

The images I recreated of August Sander's work I used some of my friends to sit on some steps, not posing or having any facial expressions just like some of the photographs in the Face of our Time photos. I also used a black and white effect which was also used in August Sanders work, and I also used girls in my photos like he only used men. I think these pictures are nice and show that I am trying to show my own interpretation of August Sanders work. To challenge myself more I could've used a few more other people to show different types of people in various social classes like August Sander did.


These images I recreated of Bruno Barbey's work I chose to show my interpretation of Leeds like he did with Morocco, like in his images he took photos of doorways of nice looking places in Morocco which I tried to do in Leeds. I also cropped them so that they matched the presentation of his images that are in panoramic view which I think focuses on the doorways in particular and draws your eye to them. I think these images aren't very good as they don't really capture my interpretation of Leeds and to improve on it  I could've photographed more well known things in Leeds and interesting parts of Leeds.

These images that I recreated of Martin Parr's work, I didn't recreate the images I used the subject matter of the book and photographed people around Leeds looking bored. This one was the hardest to do because whenever I found people looking bored and tried to take a photo they looked over and either smiled or moved which made the image blurry but I chose the best few out of all the ones I took. This was my favourite to do as it made me look around carefully looking for people who looked bored. These images turned out good because it shows a good interpretation of Martin Parr's project of couples looking bored, but instead of using couples I just looked for anyone looking bored. To improve this I could've gone to different places than just Leeds and if I found a nice place to take photographs or people who would have looked good I could've asked them to look bored and then I wouldn't have had the risk of people moving in the photograph.