Research

Photographers

Sarolta Ban

Sarolta Ban is a Hungarian photographer, born in Budapest 1982. He is jewellery designer but his passion and main hobby is photo manipulation. Sarolta likes to combine ordinary elements and give them various stories and their own personality, which is what I hope to emulate within my own work.

"I hope that the meaning of my pictures are never too limited, are open in some way, each viewer can transform them into a personal aspect.".

This is a quote from his website and it really inspired me and helped give me a clearer idea as to what I want my images to say and the impact they hold. I intend on taking his open-ended, thought provoking image style and incorporate it within my work. However, I do still want my photograph's to have an obvious point to them, yet still retain a sense of mystery and hidden meaning to them to entice and excite the viewer.

This image is one of my favourite images from his work. The reason for this is because I love how he has taken ordinary things and combined them to create something very mystical and beautiful.

Within my imagery I wish to create surreal scenes that establish the meaning of my idea, as well as leave room for thought to allow them to create their own stories. I want my images to be surreal, however I hope to maintain an essence of normality. The reason for this is because, dreams themselves are a combination of reality and fantasy. So, by making sure that I balance my images with the right combination of surrealism and normality I hope to add an uneasy feeling to my photograph's. This is because I am wanting to tell a story through my images of what used to happen at the places I have chosen to shoot at, yet still retain the dreamlike sense within the pictures. For instance, Sarolta Ban adds this dreamlike feel to his work in a number of ways, but two that are used throughout almost all of his image's are the way he makes the top third of foggy and the old fashioned film effect. I would like to incorporate something similar to this into my own work as I feel it will give it that artistic edge and added dreamlike effect.

Ralph Meatyard 

Ralph Meatyard is an American photographer, born in 1925 in Illinois. He had a career as an optician, however, for the last two decades of his life he worked on creating a surreal body of photographic work in Lexington, Kentucky.  He made the majority of his work during the holidays when he was mot working. His work was very improvised and heavily influenced by the jazz music of the time.

I was inspired by his work, because I love how he creates these surrealist scenes in what seems like everyday settings. Meatyard's work is very abstract and unique. I feel his work takes the normal and makes it abnormal, in my eyes it looks like he has been walking around and photographing these strange people that he comes across.

The main attribute of his work that stood out for me is his use of hidden identity. This caught my attention because I hope to use this in my own work. For instance, by removing the identity of the models in my photograph's it adds to the surreal dreamlike aura I hope my images give out.  

I hope to emulate his style into my own work, as I feel it will help to embolden my theme. I believe it will heighten the surrealism and help to detach it from reality by hiding the identities of the models. Ralph Meatyard's work is very dreamlike, the way in which it holds itself is somewhere between reality, imagination and ethereality. I feel that using the style of his work as a stepping stone for how I wish my images to look is detrimental to the overall outcome of my imagery.

Ralph Meatyard and Sarolta Ban both fit in with my nightmare side of this project, because of their dark eminence and lack of colour. Their work does not automatically, if at all inspire happiness in the viewer.

Anja Stiegler

Anja Stiegler is a German creative photographer and image artist. Her work is a mixture of surrealism and conceptualism, awakening feelings of freedom and happiness. She gets her inspriation from music and everyday life.

For me she is like Sarolta Ban with the open ended image meanings, however her work, is completely different in the emotions she encases within her imagery. For instance, Sarolta Ban's work is very dark and lacking in vibrancy, evoking emotions of curiosity, sadness and uncertainty. On the other hand, Anja Stiegler's work is full of colour, life and happiness, through her use of beautiful landscapes and elements associated with good feelings.  

These are two of my favourite images from her body of work. The reason for this being because of how, like Ralph Meatyard's work, they combine normality with abnormality. This has been achieved by taking a beautiful landscape and adding one element that is out of the ordinary.

Her work stood out for me because I feel it helps me to visualise how I will make the contrast between both of my stories clear and understandable. Like her work, I hope to enhance the saturation of the colours to portray the brighter side of the dream spectrum.

Masha Sardari

Masha Sardari is a 19 year-old Moldovian photographer based in Florida. Her work includes painting-like effects and psychologically oriented lighting to create high drama and tension. She draws inspiration from a number of childhood memories and Renaissance paintings.

Sardari's work inspired me because I love how her images are not limited to just one theme and is diverse in the range of emotions she captures within her imagery. For instance, the two photographs I picked out are so different from one another it is almost like they have been taking by separate photographers. This captured my attention as it portrays exactly what I hope my work to emulate, with my two sides of the dream spectrum. 

Her work is so varied, you can almost see how she was feeling around the time of each image. This in my eyes makes her work unique, because its almost as if you are looking into her mind through a spectacular use of colour, tone and symbolism.  

Within my own work I hope to incorporate this strong contrast of imagery so that the viewer's can easily differentiate between the two separate stories of my work. I also want my work to arouse different emotions. For example, nightmares  are associated with fear, sadness and darkness, whereas, normal dreams are associated with, surrealism, the unknown, happiness and so much more.

Post-Mortem Photography

Post-Mortem photography was extremely popular in the Victorian-era and was one of the first genres of photography. It came about after the invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 when people's memorialising habits changed. Instead of having expensive and not so lifelike paintings, people chose cheap, higher quality photographs.

Around the Victorian era there was a high childhood and infant mortality rate. In some cases, this was the only photograph that depicted the whole family together.

The deceased is visually portrayed as being in a deep sleep or arranged to appear more lifelike, making these images highly surreal. Adults were often posed in chairs or even braced on specifically designed frames, as seen in this photograph to the left.

The lifelike appearance was enhanced by either propping the eyes open or painting eyes onto the photographic print.

This work inspired me because in a way it is like my idea. In the Victorian times these photographs were a way of documenting the history of families, capturing the passing of their loved ones. Like this work I want to capture the passing of time, the history of a place. In these images the ghostly spirit and essence of the deceased is captured, I want to recreate this to help bolster the narrative of my imagery. This sort of photography fits in with my nightmare story as the history of it is very dark, just like that of Bodmin Jail.

I would like to emulate the style of this photography into my nightmare sequence by the use of editing techniques in post-production. For example, I will want to give my images that old fashioned daguerreotype type look, so I plan on using a couple texture layers and gradients to give off this effect.

 

Location Research and Planning 

Dingle's Vintage Fairground

Dingle's Vintage Fairground is my first choice location for this project, mainly because we have a trip planned to go there during the project. It also offers the perfect scene for my normal dream story, due to the happy memories surrounding it, bright colours and overall vibrancy of the place. Not to mention the rich history it has, with rides dating back to one-hundred and fifty years old. The fact that we are going there for a class trip is a great incentive as not only does it offer cheap travel, I also have a large range of models to use for my shots. This appeals to me because it means that the cost and hassle of the shoot will be down to a minimum. 

The costumes that I intend on getting are two clown costumes, with masks. For everyone else in the shot I want to have them wearing plain white plastic masks. The clown costumes will have to be bright and vibrant to add to the emotions I am hoping to convey. I do not want the clown masks to be too plain nor too garish as I want them to be surreal yet not too distracting from the rest of the image.

The shots that I want to capture are with the clowns standing guard by the rides while the other people in the shot are blurred due to the long exposure. This is to symbolise the clowns being bound to the fairground whereas the others are just distant passing memories. I want to create a narrative of four or more shots, portraying how time has past yet the spirits of the people still linger there, eternally bound.

I have worked out that I will need around ten models for this shoot so, I am going to make sure that I ask and confirm ten people from within my class are able to take part in my photo shoot. I want the two clowns to be taller and of a bigger build than the others within the shot to make them dominant.
The fairground is inside and I want to take a few long exposures so I will need both a cable release and a tripod to ensure I do not have any camera shake.

Bodmin Jail

Bodmin Jail is where I want to shoot my nightmare story as it is the perfect place to set my scene, due to its dark history and association with executions, which were carried out inside. Unlike Dingle's Vintage Fairground, I will have to arrange my own transportation and locate my own models. I plan on using five models in total, four to be prisoners and one to be the executioner, this means that I will need two drivers as there will be six people in total. I want the executioner to be taller and more dominant than the rest of the models so his presence stands out among the rest. I will leave early in the morning to make the most of my time there and have as much light from the sun as possible because it will be very dark within the jail.

The costumes I envisage getting will be old fashioned stereotypical chain gang outfits for the prisoners with maybe some handcuffs and a noose each to add to the story line. For the executioner I will get the model to wear all black clothing and a balaclava as well as covering him in a black sheet to act as a cloak. The reason why I want him to be wearing all black is because I plan on editing him in Photoshop so that he looks like the misty, ghostly presence of death.

I want to capture a range of shots that depict the prisoners waiting to be taking by the executioner, being taken to the gallows and then a shot to symbolise them passing. I have not yet seen inside Bodmin Jail however, I have researched into it online and I am aware of an execution pit that they have there and the naval which an ideal place for the majority of my shots.

I have budgeted for the cost of petrol money, costumes and entrance fees at being just over one hundred pounds.  Like Dingle's I will be shooting with a long exposure so to ensure I have no camera shake and maximise the detail within the shots I will use both a tripod and a cable release.