Brutalism
Brutalism is a architectural style made in the 1950s and is known for it's massive size with rigid, blocky shapes, usually formed in an abstract way and made using poured concrete. It's name comes from the French "beton brut", meaning raw concrete, while also having the wordplay of "brutal", referring to how the people in England felt when it was introduced. It's structure, consisting of unusual shapes and patterns, is a main feature that defines the Brutalist style, usually compared to what would be found in a dystopian landscape or fantasy.
Simon Phipps
Simon Phipps is a photographer who has worked for over 20 years documenting Britain's rebuilding after the events of WWII, and is best known for his work photographing the brutalist architecture. He has numerous collections including "New Brutalism", "Brutal North". "Concrete Poetry", "Finding Brutalism", and "Brutal London".
Here are some of his works:
Here are some of his works:
We were tasked to take photos of buildings that have concrete structures, this is my response:
Best edits: Line and Perspective
Best edits: Negative Space
Best edits: Form and Shape
WWW: The colour and tone of the images are similar to that of Phipps
EBI: I could've taken pictures of more of the structures to try and better convey the scale and structure
EBI: I could've taken pictures of more of the structures to try and better convey the scale and structure
Thomas Danthony
Thomas Danthony is a French artist who started his studio in London in 2012 and moved it to Barcelona in 2020. His works range from painting whatever he wants on canvases to commissions accepted from international clients. His work can be seen in many places, such as book covers, magazines, posters, murals, and global advertising, while also having published several works, both as limited edition prints and artists books. He has had many collaborations, and worked on a project called "The Brutalism" which worked with Black Dragon Press to show off the brutalist architecture in London
Here are some of his works:
Here are some of his works:
We were tasked to make a response to his works using photoshop. Here are my results:
WWW: I feel like I mimicked Danthony's style very well, especially in the left image
EBI: I could try to make the lines straighter
EBI: I could try to make the lines straighter
Thomas Kellner
Thomas Kellner was born in 1966 and studies Politics, economics, art, and sociology at the University of Siegen. He received the Kodak "Young Talent Award" in 1996, the "Award of Excellence" from the Pingyao international Photography Festival and the "Düren County’s Fine Art Award" in 2009, as well as the "Award of Excellence" at the 2nd International Industrial Photography Festival and was part of the "Critical Mass Top 50" in 2016. He has travelled to many places in the world for solo exhibitions including Germany, Russia, Australia, China, Poland, France, Brazil, Denmark, and the USA. He is a German fine arts photographer who creates images that make the viewer question what they see, and tries to change their interpretation of the world around them. His architectural works are unique in the fact that he tries to show multiple perspectives of the same building at once, by splicing and combining film to form images like this:
We were tasked to mimic this style to make our own images, here are the results:
WWW: They turned out very similar to Kellner's style
EBI: I could've taken full pictures of buildings to make the effect better
EBI: I could've taken full pictures of buildings to make the effect better
How To:
Step 2:
Duplicate the image
Step 3:
Turn the image slightly so it's crooked, stop whenever you'd like
<--- Remember to make it the bottom layer!
Step 4:
Expand the image as much as you need, try to make sure not to leave any gaps
Step 5:
Copy a blank contact sheet like this one
Step 6:
Paste it into photoshop and expand it to cover the image that you chose, making sure it's on the top layer
Step 7:
<-- Select the magic wand tool
Step 8:
Select all the white spaces and delete them, allowing it to show the image underneath
Step 9:
Highlight the spaces where you want to change to the skewed version, pick around half and try to spread them evenly
Step 10:
Switch to the middle layer
Step 11:
Delete the highlighted parts to show the image underneath, creating this effect
Step 12: Enjoy the finished image
Bracketing
Bracketing is a type of photography technique where you take a picture of the same image multiple times, but change the settings on the camera each time. The benefits of bracketing, while it may seem useless, it can help find what settings best fit the environment you're in. For example, which exposure is best for photographing into light.
We were tasked to take pictures of St. James' Church and the Everyman Cinema, and bracketed by changing the exposure with each picture. We held down the aperture/exposure compensation button and used the main wheel to move from between -5 to +5. Here are the results:
We were tasked to take pictures of St. James' Church and the Everyman Cinema, and bracketed by changing the exposure with each picture. We held down the aperture/exposure compensation button and used the main wheel to move from between -5 to +5. Here are the results:
We were tasked to edit these images in the style of Nicholas Kenny Sitton, here are the results:
WWW: I feel like I managed to mimic his style very well
EBI: I could try to edit them so there's no white gaps/areas around the circles
EBI: I could try to edit them so there's no white gaps/areas around the circles
Myoung Ho Lee
Myoung Ho Lee is a photographer born in 1975 in South Korea and creates photos of natural landscapes, highlighting a specific element (usually a tree) with a plain white background (sometimes lit with coloured light) to make it stand out, and so you can better see it's structure unobscured by the environment around it. These pictures are taken with the cranes and are very expensive to do, and so are only taken a few times a year. Here are some examples of his work:
We were tasked with creating responses to his work, but on a smaller scale, by using white card/paper. This is the result:
Best Images:
WWW: I feel I took a lot of good pictures (Both close up and with background) and managed to get a lot of detail in some of them. I also feel like I captured some images that resembled Lee's work.
EBI: I could work on the images being in focus.
EBI: I could work on the images being in focus.
Sanna Kannisto
Sanna Kannisto is a photographer who explores the mix of science and nature in many different styles. She was born in Hämeenlinna in Finland. She started photographing in 1997 and frequently worked with scientists to compose her photos. Throughout her exploration, she had to learn how to handle the animals, and experimented by setting up "field studio boxes", which resembled a theatre and was used to better show the animals. She is shown to like challenging the structure and speed of the camera, as shown in her hummingbird series where some of the photos she liked the most were of the hummingbird being half out of the frame. Here are some examples of her images:
We were tasked with creating images that mimicked her style. This is the result:
Best Images:
WWW: Is that I got a lot of close up shots of the plants, and managed to get some interesting shots
EBI: I could try to focus the camera better
EBI: I could try to focus the camera better
Final Project - 3 strands
We were tasked in creating 3 different strands with links to structure. For each strand, we needed a rationale, a set of images, and a photographer that we linked to the images we took. I've tried to cover a range of different ideas, from interesting images to tampering with the physical photo itself, and tried to get a good range of photographers.
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Strand 1: Decayed/Ruined Buildings
For my first strand, I have decided to photograph Decaying and Dilapidated buildings. This strand is inspired by "Left London" by William Eckersley, a series of photos that were composed over a year of abandoned buildings all throughout London to show the parts of city life many don't normally see. I chose this strand to better show the lesser seen side of the Muswell Hill area, and to be able to show a side of buildings which I feel are strangely beautiful. Here are some of his works:
And here are the images I took in response:
Here are my favourite images from the set that I took:
WWW: I feel like the images show the area's decay well, and I improved the images being in focus
EBI: I could find more areas that have decay or dilapidation
EBI: I could find more areas that have decay or dilapidation
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Strand 2: Decayed Images
For my second strand, I decided to photograph images inspired by the work "Buried" by Stephen Gill. In this series, he uses resources (usually natural) originating from the place where he took the pictures. For example, taking photos of Hackney Wick and then burying the photos there. He did this to make the photos feel more authentic, as the subject itself actually had an interactive role in creating the final images. These are some of his images:
Here are the images I took:
Here are the edits of them:
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Strand 3: Structures of animal bodies
For my third strand, I decided to photograph the structure of bodies. While human bodies are interesting, I've settled on the structure of cats loosely inspired by Walter Chandoah. He is a famous cat photographer who started with a grey cat named Loco in 1949. He photographed cats (and some other animals like dogs and horses) to show how expressive they can be, and once said that "eye level is the best level" to capture images that best represent their personality. This inspired me to create a series of images about what positions cats (As well as some avian creatures) can get into, and how personality can affect their structures in different scenarios, while trying to keep to his style of mainly being at eye level. These are some of his works:
And these are the images I took:
Here are my favourite images from the set that I took:
WWW: I feel the images are good in conveying the structure of the cats and other animals, as well as keeping to the theme of how personality affects it
EBI: I could have taken more images of the cats and other animals
EBI: I could have taken more images of the cats and other animals
Development 1
For my first development, I have decided to continue Strand 1: Decayed/Ruined buildings. This is because I feel it is the strand that I feel can be developed the most, and that it will yield the most varied and interesting results. To develop, I plan to explore the rest of the building I was previously photographing to take photos of a wider variety of buildings and places within the school, with different types and levels of decay/ruin.
Here are the images I took:
Here are the images I took:
These are the best images that I feel I took in the set:
WWW: I feel I took a good variety of images representing different variations of decay and ruin
EBI: I could try to take straighter images
EBI: I could try to take straighter images
Best Edits:
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Development 2 - Final Development
In this development I am looking for more close up photos of ruin and decay in order to try and achieve more detailed photos. My inspirational photographer for this is Colin Winterbottom, specifically his Elegant Corrosion set. Corrosion is the trace of history marking it's artifacts. Winterbottom used macro-photography camera lenses to get incredible close up shots of this decay and corrosion and letting us see even the smallest details so closely that it borders abstraction. By isolating the different textures, shapes, colours and patterns of the rail yard, he can make a variety of different images where the viewer can make the context themselves. Here's an example of his work:
This is my first set:
These are the best edits from this set:
Here's my second set:
And here are the best images from this set:
Close-up shots:
Further Shots:
WWW: I feel like I took a good range of photos with good quality and colours
EBI: I could find even more variety of ruin and decay
EBI: I could find even more variety of ruin and decay