Somewhere New to Call Home

Initial Idea:

My initial idea for my project was street photography. I was always fascinated with the genre and wanted to experiment with different lighting conditions and how they change the mood in the photographs. My first research gained me more knowledge in the field and gave me a good starting to point to begin. I also learned that street photography – or Candid Photography – records everyday life and reflects the world in the eyes and experiences of the photographer. Whilst doing this the photographer can add their own style on the genre with different compositions and post-production techniques. I looked at different artists work and this gave me inspiration on the style I wanted. I furthered my knowledge and considered academic readings which taught me the basics of photography and how a photographer brings a story into their portfolio. I began doing some early experiments into street photography where I took photos highlighting my own take on The Lanes, in Brighton. Early on I was happy with the images; however, I was inspired by the photographer Mark Power who took his creativity further and photographed his experiences which was more personal in his life. Moving to the other side of the country for University and living and adapting to a cultural change has been a huge experience in my life and I wanted to show my experiences and record my journey through the lens.

 

Experimenting with the camera:

These are some of my practice pictures I have taken around Brighton, like the North Laines and the open market, and the back garden in the house I currently live in. when experimenting with the camera. I experimented with different apertures, shutter speeds and different ISO settings. I experimented around these areas in Brighton because they are where I now consider my new home. When looking at the final project I do want to focus on these areas around Brighton, and especially the house I live in, as this is where I call my new home.

Developing the project

I decided to title my new project ‘Somewhere new to call home’ where I will be documenting what home means to me in Brighton. This change made a continuation from LM116 photographic practice project, a sense of place, in which I focused on my home town Sunderland. Although I have stepped away from the idea of focusing on street photography, I still want to incorporate the theory of it and the ideas and techniques used in street photography in my project. In my proposal, I discussed that I wanted to avoid focusing on photographing the obvious points and locations in Brighton and focus on the lesser known experiences and places of living in Brighton.

For the project, I want my photographs to have a flow where each photograph sums up its own story but collectively, the photographs will convey an overall story of my place to call home. I will still carry my initial inspiration of utilising both natural and artificial lighting as well as the colour palette. Alongside this, I will want to introduce new camera techniques and composition such as the rule of thirds, shallow depths of field with a change of aperture, and long exposures with varied shutter speeds. Ultimately I believe a good photographer and portfolio will utilise the exposure triangle to highlight different moods and capture emotions.

Lastly, my post-processing will be very minimal as I want to keep my photographs as close to the real-life experience as possible. My post-processing will focus on manipulations to the exposure, the saturations and so on. I will also be showing the changes I have made and any edits I have discarded to show my development and learning in post-processing.

A few photographers have inspired me to create A new place to call home including Alessandra Sanguinetti, Mark Power and Jonas Bendiksen. Each photographers work will be analysed below. I have also looked at a couple of readings by Patricia Prieto-Blanco and Dondis and Donis A.

 

Artist Research

The Passing of Time: Alessandra Sanguinetti Goes Home

When researching daily life, I came across Alessandra Sanguinetti and her inspiring collection ‘The Passing of Time’. Her project focuses on home but also ‘represents a familiar space’. Sanguinetti shows a series of photographs showing her childhood house and exploring the different aspects, the ‘nooks and crannies’. Sanguinetti describes how she has two homes; one is her ‘childhood home in Buenos Aires, and the other is in California’ where she currently lives. In her childhood home, nothing has changed in the 40 years since she left and she explains that her project “isn’t a reflection of her childhood, which was a happy one, but more of a goodbye to it.” This collection is initially a goodbye to her childhood so that she can come to terms about how many years had passed since living in that home, and how her parents are now in a vulnerable state compared to how they were whilst growing up.

After viewing and taking inspiration from her project, the flow of photographs works well together because of the photographers colour palette and choice of lighting. All her photographs are well lit using natural lighting and I would like to have this consistency throughout my photographs.

When viewing one of Sanguinetti photographs, the natural lighting is what we notice first (Dondis, Donis A – Chapter 2 – Composition: the syntactical guidelines for visual literacy), the lighting is what sets the mood of the photograph. Furthermore, the colour palette of the project is brown which helps the photographs flow from one another. The colour palette of this collection connotes old fashioned photographs, photos that could be timeless and signifies ‘The Passing of Time’; these factors have inspired me for my own project.

Magnum Photography – Alessandra Sanguinetti

Mark Power – leaving home

I looked at and took inspiration from Mark Powers collection ‘Leaving Home’ which is part of a Magnum home collection. This collection was inspired by a change in Powers family dynamic, following his daughters depart to University in London. The photographs showcase a range of images of his family home, everyday life and the preparation for his daughters move to University.

After watching Mark Powers video on the Magnum photos project ‘Home’ I learnt that the book was going to be shown around the world. So, when he was piecing together his project, he wanted to photograph his home, not necessarily Brighton (where he lived). Powers described how he did not want to photograph Brighton’s main attractions such as Brighton beach because this was too obvious and just showed Brighton, not the actual places that he described as home.

Powers work has inspired me in my project to not photograph the obvious, I don’t want to show a collection of photographs what everyone will predict. Another thing that has inspired me is the fact that the photographs have been taken around Brighton, which is where my project will also be based.

This inspired me because in my project I don’t want to photograph the obvious,

Magnum Photography – Mark Power

 

Jonas Bendiksen – family home

I looked at Jonas Bendiksen’s collection from Magnum photography called ‘Family Home’, where he presents a ‘moving portrait of a growing family’. The project highlights a variety of “life” photographs of his family. The collection could be described as ‘home is where the heart is’ (Howard, E. (2018). This collection was part of a ’Home collection/book’ by Magnum photographers and focuses on Bendiksens’ new baby.

Jonas describes photography as a language, he states that photography is an ‘extension of himself’. The photographs in the project are ’blissful’, which shows his baby and the typical small things associated with his baby such as a spilt bowl of cereal. Bendiksen writes “These are some of the most important pictures I’ll ever take.”; these are pictures on which he can look back at in 20 years.

Bendiksen’s project has inspired me because of how they document Jonas’ life, capture his everyday routine in the family home and how he utilises the camera to document this period in his life. The photographs portray what home is to him in a natural way, which is what I would like to portray.

Magnum Photography – Jonas Bendiksen

 

Alex Majoli – A Place to Call Home

From this collection, I have learned that Alex Majoli photographed three different places that he called home. He described that “At the end I found myself searching for memories, anchors, reasons of a journey”. Ellie Howard, the writer, describes that “Over the years we live somewhere, our understanding of a home’s timespan is more likely to be cyclical, repetitive and sometimes chaotic. It holds our memories, fears and desires: assembled like furniture and surrounded by mental clutter”. Majoli’s project is part of the ‘Home’ collection by Magnum Photography,

This has inspired me for my own project because I believe that home can be chaotic and even though it may be more than one place, it can all hold a lot of different memories. His project shows the places where he lives and how he is continuing the search for the place that he calls home.

Majoli’s collection has further inspired me because they show ‘home’; they portray his home and his life in that home. The idea of home and the idea that my project is about moving to a new home and establishing life is what drew me to Majoli’s work.

The pictures from his collection are simple, but effective. From these three pictures, I like how the photograph of the envelopes has a black background so that all the focus and attention from the audience is drawn to the main subject – the envelopes.

The middle photograph is interesting to me because it looks like a hob on an oven and shows what life is like in the kitchen, and the same for the third photograph of the sink. Each of these photographs shows us a story, and even though we may not know what happened, we use our imagination to picture the home life experiences of Majoli.

The colours in Alex’s project work well together because there are a lot of neutral colours with slight pops of colour. I also like how bright the images are. I think that for Alex’s collection is a mix of natural and artificial lighting. Alex’s collection of photographs has given me inspiration, for working on my own project through his use of simplicity.

Magnum Photography – Alex Majoli

 

Emma and Rich – Brighton Street photography

Although my portfolio isn’t entirely based on street photography compared to my original idea, I still have taken inspiration to explore the photography genre when taking my photographs around Brighton.

This portfolio is taken and composed by a couple called Emma and Rich, who explored Brighton on one bank holiday Sunday. Their photographs have been described as telling a unique story and making memories which will last forever.

I find the pictures in their portfolio very interesting because they are candid photographs. The people in the photographs are completely un-aware of the fact that they are getting their picture taken, which creates the setting and story. I also admire the colour palette throughout the portfolio as the consistency, I think, helps to create a portfolio in which the photographs comprehend with each other.

As mentioned, the photographs are taken around Brighton, which was also inspirational; but these photographs are taken in the summer period making use of the longer light hours, and busyness of the town, whilst mine are taken in winter. The photographer has done well in capturing a story around Brighton in the summer period and I wanted to showcase my home – in Brighton – throughout the winter, highlighting my home in the shorter days and making use of the artificial lighting, such as streetlamps.

Emma and Rich have shown Brighton in a unique way, showing what it is like for the people who live in and visit Brighton on a busy day, from the people’s perspective. I will want to take a similar approach but show it from my perspective and what it means to call Brighton my home.

https://www.emmaandrich.co.uk/brighton-street-photography/

 

Alec Soth – Alec Soth Walks to Work

This project is about Alec Soth story after he decided to walk to work every day after selling his minivan, to gain inspiration from Minnesota, where he lives. Alex Soth’s work is based on the idea of “on-the-road”, through travelling and the people in which he meets. This project was part of the theme “Home” which is why Soth decided to step away from his vehicle and take pictures of his home of Minnesota on foot.

Alec stated that “My idea was simple: instead of commuting the eight miles to my studio in my minivan, I would walk to work.” He created a project on foot because he could simply discover more about his hometown that would have been left undiscovered. “Photography for me is one medium, one tool for exploring the world and my relationship to the world,” says Soth.

The project was an opportunity for Soth to look more into detail of where he lives, it was “a chance to slow down and look at the everyday delights that I normally drive right by.” Soth stated that when he thinks and talks about home he thinks of Minnesota because it is where his career blossomed, he stayed in Minnesota and didn’t want to move to another city or even country.

Soth’s work has inspired me because of the idea of how the project came together. I like the idea of walking around my hometown and taking photographs. When I experiment with the camera and I take photographs for my own project I am going to use this idea of exploration, when looking around Brighton and exploring the idea as to why it is my new home.

Very minimal post process has been used by Soth on his work as this shows the natural world through the eyes of the photographer, another reason why his work appeals to me and I want to incorporate this into mine.

Magnum Photography – Alec Soth

 

Gueorgui Pinkhassov – The Home in My Mind’s Eye

This portfolio was part of the Magnum Home project and Gueorgui Pinkhassov’s work shows the idea of home in his mind. Pinkhassov photographed his childhood home where his parents lived, and where family and friends visited.

His family home is where he took his first photographs, which were inspired by Tarkovsky, who was influenced by Pinkhassov’s style of photography. He described that Magnum photographers don’t spend much time at home because they like to travel and explore the world around them. Pinkhassov stated “My home is virtual as well—it’s in my head”, it is always a memory he will have and remembers all that exists on the house. So, when he moved into his apartment, he left it untouched as it tells a story, it is like a museum in his head. “Figuratively speaking, photography is a preservative. It stops time.” (Gueorgui Pinkhassov).

Photographs capture a moment to be remembered forever. The home project would capture memories of Pinkhassov’s home to preserve the memories of the family home. He describes that he wants to ‘freeze the time’ in his photographs.

Pinkhassov’s photographs has inspired me for my own project because of the idea of freezing time and preserving memories of the home although I will be venturing outside of the house to preserve the memories I have in my town. Also, I like way he has captured his family home by taking pictures of corners of the house, focusing on the small details that he remembers and wishes to freeze in time.

Magnum Photography – Gueorgui Pinkhassov

 

Readings

Patricia Prieto-Blanco – ‘Maria’s Bag’

Patricia Prieto-Blanco spent 18 months in Ireland, where she worked with 11 different families and in this time, she was given permission to photograph their everyday life. Patricia described that in this context ‘photography was sensed to, first, being in transformation and second to be creating a mode of action where by actors share tactic and intersubjective knowledge visually’ (Prieto-Blanco, 2016). In the 18 months Patricia, had met a woman called Maria, who had lived in Ireland for nearly a decade. Maria carried a bag around with contained: a photo camera, memory cards, recently taken photographs printed in a small 10×15 album, postcards and flyers of events related to photography (Prieto-Blanco, 2016).

Although Maria did not work in the creative industries, she still carried around photographic equipment, photographs and several memory cards which she described as ‘storage units for photographs’ (Prieto-Blanco, 2016).

This relates to my project and I have taken inspiration from her work as I am looking at daily-life photography and in ’Maria’s bag’ she carried photographs and memory cards as a ‘proof of experience’ (Prieto-Blanco, 2016), essentially documenting her life. Similar to Prieto-Blanco, this project will be documenting my life in Brighton.  In the reading Patricia also described how photographs are posted on social media to show people’s lives, people are essentially showing their daily life, which is what I want to document in my project.

http://Patricia Prieto-Blanco – ‘Maria’s Bag’

 

Dondis, Donis A – Composition: the syntactical guidelines for visual literacy

When reading about composition I have learned that ‘The results of the compositional decisions set the purpose and meaning of the visual statement and carry strong implications for what the viewer receives.’ (Dondis, Donis A., p. 3). The composition of the photographs carries the whole meaning of the photograph. Also, when taking photographs, the approach of the process of composition needs to be done with ‘…intelligence and knowledge of how compositional decisions will affect the result.’ (Dondis, Donis A., p. 3).

When taking photographs, we ‘create a design out of many colors and shapes and textures and tones and relative proportions; we relate these elements interactively; we intend meaning. The result is the composition, the artist’s or photographer’s or designer’s intention’ (Dondis, Donis., p. 3).

The ‘meaning of the image depends on the response of the viewer’ (Dondis, Donis A., p 4) and when looking at the idea of semiotics by Roland Barthes one could say that when a photograph is viewed we look for the signs which help to convey a meaning (signifier). A photograph could have a different meaning for people depending on how they interpret the photograph. So, through the composition of the photograph it could create different meanings.

 

Research – Brighton locations

For my project, I want to take photographs in Brighton, as it is a new place that I call home; so, I decided to do research into some of the places around Brighton which I am going to photograph. The North Laines has a large variety of cafes – vegetarian and vegan, vintage clothing shops and music shops. There is a large variety to offer at the North Laines. I decided to take photographs here because when I think of Brighton this place is one of the first things I think of. I love to explore all the shops and try the different cafes that are on offer there, so I thought that the North Laines would be an ideal place to take some of my photographs.

Brighton beach is a pebbled beach which has a promenade lined with beach huts, cafes and pubs. There is also Brighton Palace Pier, the west pier and British Airways i360. I want to take photographs of Brighton beach, as well as some of the attractions on the seafront. The west pier in burnt down 2003 and what is left is the frame of the west pier. A few years ago, more of the frame was there but it collapsed leaving what is left now. The frame has been left untouched and has become a feature of Brighton’s seafront. I want to attempt to take photographs of this because like the North laines the west pier is something which comes to mind when I think of my new home of Brighton. Brighton Palace Pier is an attract which gathers thousands of tourists a year. With funfair rides, an arcade, food stalls and bars, the dome, there is a lot to do. I want to take a photograph of the Palace Pier however, I don’t want to just take a photograph of the sign, so this is something which I am going to have to experiment. When I think of home I think of pubs, they have a homely feel. So, for my project I want to look at a couple of pubs to photograph, this should be experimented to see what would work the best and give a homely feeling.

 

Social media: 

Linked here is my Instagram account where I’ve posted photographs from previous projects and pictures from experimenting with the camera.

Instagram – gabriellecoundon_photography

 

Somewhere New to Call Home – final 20 photographs

This portfolio is about my move from Sunderland to Brighton. I have displayed 20 photographs from my new home in Brighton and the area of Brighton. All the photographs present the feeling of home to me, showing the element of comfort in a new area. After looking at my final portfolio there are some photographs I need to improve on with the lighting and composition, especially the photographs taken around my student home. I think I could of improved on the editing of some of the photographs to make them more visually pleasing to the eye.

 

References:

Barthes, R. (1977). The Rhetoric of Image. Fontana, pp.32-51.

Dondis and Donis, A. (1973). Composition: the syntactical guidelines for visual literacy. Cambridge, Mass; London: MIT Press, pp.3, 4.

Emma and Rich. (2018). Brighton Street Photography. [online] Available at: https://www.emmaandrich.co.uk/brighton-street-photography/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2020].

Havlin, L. (2020). Alec Soth Walks to Work. [online] Magnum Photography. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/alec-soth-walks-to-work/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2020].

Howard, E. (2018). Alex Majoli: A Place to Call Home. [online] Magnum Photography. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/alex-majoli-home/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2020].

Howard, E. (2018). Jonas Bendiksen’s Family Home • Magnum Photos. [online] Magnum Photos. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/jonas-bendiksen-family-home/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2019].

Pinkhassov, G. (n.d.). The Home in My Mind’s Eye. [online] Magnum Photography. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/art/the-home-in-my-head/ [Accessed 9 Jan. 2020].

Power, M. (2017). Leaving Home • Mark Power • Magnum Photos. [online] Magnum Photos. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/mark-power-leaving-home/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2019].Prieto-Blanco, P. (2016). Maria’s Bag. ACTA UNIV. SAPIENTIAE, COMMUNICATIO, pp.81-85.

Prieto-Blanco, P. (2016). Maria’s Bag. ACTA UNIV. SAPIENTIAE, COMMUNICATIO, pp.81-85.

Sanguinetti, A. (2018). The Passing of Time: Alessandra Sanguinetti Goes Home • Magnum Photos. [online] Magnum Photos. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/society-arts-culture/alessandra-sanguinetti-passing-time/ [Accessed 17 Nov. 2019].