John Myers

John Myers is a well known British Photographer that's associated with the likes of Martin Parr for the subject/style of his work. It's been said that Myers 'captured a generation' and captured the essence of Britain at that time.
He's also curated, has his work published and exhibited all over and now he's more focused on his artwork and what he produces as an artist not a photographer.
Myers has been featured on the 'British Photographic History' website and was interviews about his recent exhibition of his work from the 1970's at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. The exhibition's called 'Middle England'.

One of the things about British Culture or the way we lived that Myers liked to capture was how we used space, he wasn't a fan of going into peoples houses and moving furniture around he liked people to feel comfortable as well as actually shooting them in the space they'd created for themselves. Recently John Myers visited us at Burton and South Derbyshire College and we were lucky enough to see him talk and he went into detail about some of his images and publish books, series of work.  He spoke about this image and this day, he said he went to their house, took no more than 10 shots and new this was the one, because of their positioning. He said the way they sat and were together in the space was the thing for him. he liked them facing into each other and the little details, like the way they sat, him holding his pipe and even the bruise on her leg. He said he just liked how they were, together, in the space and how you can tell their a couple just by looking at the picture even though they're not touching, kissing etc.

This was another of Myers' images that he talked about. Again, his fascination was with space. He was talking about the lady in the image and how she had all this space in her living room, yet put her chair right in the corner and kind of cut herself off from everything. This is interesting to me as when you look at the image it looks like it's been so put together and like the chair and her have been placed there. Yet this is her space. I like this photo and it does remind me slightly of Martin Parr's work because of how British it is, to me. The mantle piece, the fireplace, the ornaments up at the top and even the carpet and fire itself reminds me so much of old family photos and that era in general.

Whilst taking photos, Myers realized how no one really looks at the things we see or walk past everyday if they're not in a certain style or anything else. Things like this we see everyday but no one looks at them or sees them they're just there, and blend in. Yet when you look at them, it makes you wonder, why like that, why did someone design this like that when it's something someone's going to see every day, a bit like, 'boring postcards' by Parr, this highlights the monotony of things that become part of our culture.  

Amelia Beavis-Harrison

Amelia Beavis-Harrison is an artist and curator based in Nottingham in the midlands. She set up and runs the 'Lincoln Art Programme' which is a live art commissioning body in Lincoln, she does this alongside her other projects and freelance art work.
Her art is informed and inspired by her surroundings and all the research she does links her work together whether it's a piece of art, a text based piece or a performance. The research she does involves looking into histories, myths, news articles, local stories and her work is 'informed' by situations, conservations and productions of art as well as the previously listed.
The live art she produces and performs is usually linked well to the local area and art surrounding art scenes.

Amelia also completed the 12 month challenge in 2010.
1 project. 12 challenges. 12 months - 1 challenge a month.

2010 Challenge on Amelia's Website!

"Throughout the course of 2010 challenges were submitted to be undertaken and used as a starting point for the production of art work. It aimed to test artistic practice by undertaking tasks that were in some way alien, and challenges that didn't allow for easy options and had a high chance of struggle, fatigue and failure. Although the challenges were invited to be open, many of those submitted were personal to the challengers, and relevant to the individual.

Throughout the course of the project the emphasis began to shift. Instead of selecting the most challenging each month, the challenges began to be selected with the quality of art work in mind. The project was an exploration into the collaborative act of an artistic practice, and the exploration was an opportunity to discover, take part, learn, take risks, fail and excel. The project concluded in 2011."

Amelia got people to send her challenges, once she had been sent 12 her mission was to complete these art based challenges, one per month, for the whole year. She also assessed how well she did and kept track.

Her art and the projects she takes part in have given us something to think about, whether we could do the same, make up our own or challenge each other.


Example of a challenge: 




Each challenge was posted on her website with some sort of proof she'd done it, photographs, video or audio etc. 
Here's the image that goes with her January challenge.

"January Challenge

18 points out of 576
3.125% successful. 
1.125/36 

Guests in attendance:
Steven Ingman
Next door neighbours
James E Smith
The Lady Mayor of Nottingham, Councillor Jeanine Packer

'Invite local celebrities, national celebrities, local government, local clubs and societies, local press, important people and less so, to come to your studio and have you explain what it is that you do / are doing. It will take all of your cunning and tactical skills to get people to actually come, and you can rate the exercise based on who you manage to get (ie. the mayor = 10 points, head of the local hells angels = 4 points).'"

Image of a Snowflake

This was a small fun task we were set one day, as one of our tutors, Marie, is currently doing another 365 project but this time, with Snowflakes. She will make a snowflake everyday of the year, place it somewhere different everyday and take a photograph. For this task we were shown how to make a snowflake, we then made a snowflake and photographed it in a location of our choice. When we were doing this task we were asked to think about how we photographed it, if we used a camera or our phones and how we edited the image - whether we used software on our phones or whether we used Photoshop. We also put thought into where we place the snowflake and to try and put it in an unusual place where you usually wouldn't expect to see a snowflake. 


I took images both on a camera and on my phone, this way I knew I'd be able to experiment more with how I took the picture, the quality of the picture and the editing process in general. 

This was one of the first images I took. I like the contrast of the white of the snowflake and the grey of the tarmac on the floor. I think this reflects how it is when it actually snows too as everyone comments on how the white of fresh snow looks against everything else and makes everything else seem dirty.

When I got the idea to put snowflakes in places where you wouldn't usually find them, I took these two images. They have quite a warm feel to them which I feel adds to them because of how it contrasts with the snow again.

The two images below were edits that I did in Photoshop. By upping the contrast and changing the levels/curves to make the images even warmer and the colours are now how I want them. 

Fantasy Landscape Task (Image Manipulation)

For this task we will produce an image of a 'fantasy landscape' made up of all of our own images after it's been manipulated in Photoshop. We're going to go out and take photos that will make up our final image.  We can manipulate the photo as much or as little as we like, as well as research artists/photographers that have done similar work in this style.

Research - John Goto


John Goto's an English photographer from Stockport and is best known for his photo manipulation. Goto started working with his images and computers in the 90's and has continued since. He's known for working in colour. He's now a Professor of Fine Art at Derby University.




We're able to manipulate an image as little or as much as we like. As you can see by these two of Goto's images he likes to manipulate the image a lot. In this image he incorporated aspects from different countries so you're not sure what the original image consisted of. For example in the background he included the Millennium Dome from London as well as other landmarks from the capital city. The family in the foreground create a strong contrast, in bright clothing on a gondola, something associated with other European countries, especially Italy.

Still Life Food - Research/Task

For this task we have to take a photo of food. Then we'll compare the image with another photographers still life image(s) of food. 
Before I go and take my photo we'll research an artist in that area and afterwards we'll compare and contrast the images to see how they differ and what's similar about them.


Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British Photographer that is known for his photojournalism, documentary photography and work with and collecting off photo books. He's done a lot of still life photos of food so he's work would be good to use as a comparison to our own and good to research.

Personal Statement

Here is a copy of my personal statement that I wrote and put together myself. Although I'm only just positing it I did it months ago so I could send it off with my UCAS form and apply for University before the deadline. This was a good experience as it made me really evaluate my time at the college, what I wanted to do afterwards and having a word limit made me really think about what was important to include and what wasn't.

My time at Burton and South Derbyshire College has given me a good grounding in my chosen subjects; Photography, English Language and Literature and also helped me develop skills that will be useful for further studies. For example I’ve been a course representative, a member of the student council and have also assisted the college on charity days and events in my free time.

Studying at college has been very different to the education I received at Secondary School. The college environment has allowed me to become more independent as a learner, doing more research as well as knowing how to balance different workloads and sticking to deadlines.

The Extended Diploma in Digital Imaging has been a brilliant way for me to study Photography as well as having separate assignments where we’ve been looking at different types of media, such as; film, music videos, blogs, website design, magazines and having Photoshop workshops. These different areas are where my interest lie and I enjoy combining the separate areas, this comes across in my assignments.

The variety this course has offered me means that I have experienced using a wide range of equipment, software and going work in studios as well as dark rooms. I’ve also learnt how to present my assignments in sketchbooks and on blogs; this has allowed me to record my work in different ways. These range of skills are something I hope to use at University, on a course that offers as much variety as possible, so I can expand my knowledge in different areas of Photography and Media.

My English Language and Literature A Level is something I’ve done along side my Extended Diploma. This has helped me learn how to balance work and different subjects which has improved my time management greatly. Studying this subject has meant that I’ve been able to study different types and styles of writing and improve my writing techniques. Writing is something I enjoy, I feel that this comes across in my other work as it’s always highly annotated and my research is quite in-depth as are my evaluations.

Although being at college has helped me develop a style with my Photography, there is not just one area or type of Photography that I enjoy overall. I like my work to have a lot of variety.  I do like producing series, however; things that are all related to the same thing and follow the same theme, even if all the images are very different.

Attending college has given me more confidence and made me more out going as a person; being a part of the council, having public speaking training as well as being an ambassador has contributed towards building my confidence. I’ve also volunteered my time to help with college open days and other events. I’m now much better as working as part of a team because of all these things and working in groups due to doing tasks with members of my Photography class, however, I still feel able to work by myself and am confident enough to do my work alone.

    

My main aim is to go to University to study photography and different areas of media, to gain knowledge and experience as well as have different opportunities. I think University is the best place to get all of these things and it would be something new, exciting and challenging to do that I hope would help me have a career in this area in the future.

There’s a lot I like to do in my spare time, as well as photography I have a passion for music and am lucky enough to go to see bands preform live on a regular basis. I also take the opportunity to incorporate those two things by taking photos whilst I’m there; and have been asked by several local bands to come and photograph them. I also enjoy going to galleries and was able to go and see one of Steve McCurry’s exhibitions. I love the style of his work and that he’s a photojournalist, this is something I really admire about him as I have a strong interest in writing as well as photography. I love to travel and see different places too, last year I saved up and travelled to America for two weeks and was able to see lots of different areas.

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a famous English photographer who's done some really, what could be considered, strange, exaggerated or out there work. Some images have been described as grotesque where as others are everyday scenes that could be classed as 'dull' or 'mundane' especially when you look at his 'boring postcards' and 'bored couples'  series. He has become one of the most well known Photographers of the last few decades.
We're going to do a task in which we'll go out and take an image or several images and put them together as a final piece that will have been inspired by and influenced by the work of Martin Parr. Before I went out and started taking photographs I decided it would be a good idea to look at some of Parr's work and decide what elements of his style I wished to incorporate in my own work. 
Here are a few images that influenced my idea and the work I produced for this task, I want the images I've chosen of Parr's to really show and represent my thought process behind the whole thing.

This is from Parr's 'Boring Postcard' series. I like how he's taken something that's meant to be exciting (part of a Holiday) and turned it into something dull, mundane and where everything looks the same. Martin Parr himself said he thought the series was 'mildly humorous' in an 'ironic' sense. I wanted to use the style he'd used here, take photos of a range of the same objects (that are all different, like the beds in this are all different) I think the repetition made this image work for Parr and I hope it'll make my stronger as a final piece.

This image is from one of Parr's series/ photo books 'Bored Couples'. Again I was looking at his use of looking at things and taking photographs of something and making it look so average and mundane no matter what the subject is. Although some people might consider these photographs boring I think again that once they've been put together they become very interesting. Although I really like this one, even on it's own. I think it captures a moment that wouldn't usually be caught on camera as couples would usually be seen smiling or posing at the camera, even candid shots of couples are usually of them looking more happy or together, by holding hands or embracing etc.

I chose to include this one because of the colours in it. The images I've previously shown have been of Parr's have been quite dull and flat in colour which has made the image look bland and boring, this however is the complete opposite it's bright, vivid and makes the whole thing look more interesting and vibrant. This image feels warmer and more summery in general in comparison to the others. A lot of Parr's work is really bright and garish though so I thought this was something I should really include in my work.

This was my final image that I produced for the task. I took inspiration from the postcard image I posted for this task, I took photographs of different types of the same mundane thing. When I thought about it, I never really look at my feet or other peoples feet when I'm walking or going somewhere, especially when I'm in town or city areas because of how dull, dirty and plain the concrete floors/pavements are and I never really look at peoples feet shoes. When I thought about it I decided to do a series of peoples feet/the floor they were stood on at the time, then use the same technique that Parr did and put them all together as one. Not only did I use repetition to produce work in the style of his I made sure that I used something that might be considered boring or un interesting. I then put the images together in Photoshop sizing them and using the grid to make sure they were all exactly the same size. I then altered the colours, contrast and curves a lot to get this affect. I wanted to make it really garish and vibrant, words that have been used many times to describe Parr's work. Overall I'm happy with what I created and my final images that were intended to be in the style of Martin Parr using things that have influenced me from his work and using subject, colour and repetition when thinking about creating the image as a whole.