Before my test shoot I was able to get my hands on some expired Polaroid Type 55 film, this was great for allowing me to see the shot framed up and to judge my exposure. My initial concerns about the 8x10 Deardorff camera not focusing was heightened after looking at the polaroids during the shoot. The polaroids were overexposed making it hard to judge critical focus, I assumed that it was because the film was expired.
Once I got the film back my suspicions were confirmed the film was out of focus, was indeed soft. The image gallery (Fig. 1-6) on the right has the polaroids and the final image along with a cropped in version of it. The focus appears to be just in front of Mark, my subject. This is unfortunate as I went ahead and shot my first subject with the camera before I got the film back from the lab, so I am hoping that the images will be in focus and this was just a anomaly.
Reflection
This location is one that I would like to use, I like the background but I will position the subject in the centre of the roadway instead of offsetting them like I did with Mark. This centring of the subject is something that photographer Spencer Tunick does in his work, within his Individual Nude series, see Fig. 2, he uses of linear perspective to draw our eye up to the subject’s face by placing the subject at the vanishing point of the image, dead centre horizontally. His use of linear perspective reminds me of classical painting he is a photographer that recreates Renaissance-style paintings in modern settings throughout his work (Independent, 2008). The use of linear perspective and the vanishing point are most evident in the work of Raphael, his School Of Athens (FIg. 8) is a great example of this and Caspar David Friedrich’s The Wanderer is a great example from the Romantic period. These works remind me of the work of Urban and Phimester, (Fig. 11 & 12 below), two images I have been inspired by.
Another element I quite like from this test shoot is the vine on the column, it has also has a classical feel and helps further remind me of the work of Julia Margaret Cameron, her images of costumed people posed in landscapes and natural light (Artspace, 2013). The use of foliage is most evident in my favourite image by Cameron Ponoma, (Fig. 9). I think the use of foliage can help offset the urban concrete environment of the background and I do really like that the top of the frame is open, but not completely it has that sense of freedom but is enclosed which was what I am looking to do within these images.
Citations
Artspace (2013). Meet Julia Margaret Cameron, the Cindy Sherman of the Victorian Era. Available at: https://www.artspace.com/magazine/contributors/see_here/julia_margaret_cameron_cindy_sherman_of_the_victorian_era-51588 (Accessed: 05 July 2019).
Artsy. (2017) Caspar David Friedrich Wanderer above the Sea of Fog 1817 [Online image]. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-unraveling-mysteries-caspar-david-friedrichs-wanderer [Accessed: 21 July, 2019].
Independent (2018). I stripped for Spencer Tunick. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/i-stripped-for-spencer-tunick-920804.html [Accessed: 20 July, 2019].
Phimester, S. (2017) Jacqueline [Online image]. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sandyphimester/36817501613/ [Accessed: 25 July, 2019].
Machinski, J. (2019) Mark Test Shoot Polaroid 01. August 2019. Unpublished.
Machinski, J. (2019) Mark Test Shoot Polaroid 02. August 2019. Unpublished.
Machinski, J. (2019) Mark Test Shoot Polaroid 03. August 2019. Unpublished.
Machinski, J. (2019) Polaroid. August 2019. Unpublished.
Machinski, J. (2019) Mark Test Shot 01. August 2019. Unpublished.
Machinski, J. (2019) Mark Test Shot 01 Close UP. August 2019. Unpublished.
My Modern Met (2018) [Online image]. Available at: The Story Behind Raphael’s Masterpiece ‘The School of Athens’ https://mymodernmet.com/school-of-athens-raphael/ [Accessed: 22 July, 2019].
New York Magazine (1999). Julia Margaret Cameron, Ponoma, 1872 [Online image]. Available at: http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/art/reviews/138/ (Accessed: 05 July 2019).
Phimester, S. (2017) Jacqueline [Online image]. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sandyphimester/36817501613/ [Accessed: 25 July, 2019].
Urban, A. (2017) Michelle [Online image]. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alex833/36373592033/ [Accessed: 24 July, 2019].