You may have already taken some homage photography where you’ve not tried to hide the original inspiration but rather celebrated it. Refer back to your personal archive and add one or two to your learning log together with a short caption to provide a context for the shot.
Photographs
In Exercise 4.1 Daylight I looked at Michael Kennas work and picked up on a photograph titled ‘Huangshan Mountains, Study 26, Anhui, China.’ The photograph resonated with me and had a large influence on my favoured photograph for the exercise.
For my photograph I responded to the original context in Michael Kenna’s photograph titled ‘Huangshan Mountains, Study 26, Anhui, China.’, as seen in figure 1. I took my photograph in the morning mist as did Michael Kenna to obtain an elegant dreamlike quality to the photograph. I also took this photograph in a forest, but with a different viewpoint to that of Kenna. I have differed from Kenna in the external context in that I have kept my photograph in colour whereas Kenna’s is presented in black and white. I felt that the sepia tone the morning mist cast enhanced the dreamlike state created within my photograph. With regards to the original context I have not titled my photograph but if I were to, I would probably include the location where the photograph was taken naming it ‘Morning Mist, Epping Forest’ following the same concept as Kenna naming his photographs after the location where they were taken.
My photograph
Michael Kenna’s Photograph
Figure. 1. Huangshan Mountains, Study 26, Anhui, China. 2009
Select an image by any photographer of your choice and take a photograph in response to it. You can respond in any way you like to the whole image or to just a part of it, but you must make explicit in your notes what it is that you’re responding to. Is it a stylistic device such as John Davies’ high viewpoint, or Chris Steele Perkins’ juxtapositions? Is it an idea, such as the decisive moment? Is it an approach, such as an intention- creating a fully authored image rather than discovering the world through the viewfinder?
Add the original photograph together with your response to your learning log. Which of the three types of information discussed by Barrett provides the context in this case?
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You may have already have taken some homage photography where you’ve not tried to hide the original inspiration but rather celebrated it. Refer back to your personal archive and add one or two to your learning log together with a short caption to provide a context for the shot.
Exercise
When I was researching various still life works for Assignment 4 I looked at Irving Penns’ Flower series. I was fascinated in the way he lit the flowers resulting in an elegant yet striking image capturing all the details of the flower, ranging from the translucency and fragility of the petals to the decay and blemishes.
One image that particularly stood out to me when researching Penn, was Rose ‘Blue Moon’. Not only had Penn captured the fragility of the flower, but he also celebrated its defects and decay. He did not attempt to disguise or cover this up.
Fig. 1. Rose ‘Blue Moon’ 1970
Once I decided which image I wished to pay homage to I then considered how I would respond to the image. To do this I looked back at Barretts definitions of context, as set out in his essay ‘Photographs and Context’ . In his essay, Barrett explains that there are three types of sources of information available to the viewer:
‘… three sources of information are available for examination: information evident within the picture, information surrounding the picture in its presentation, and information about the pictures making… These sources may be called the pictures “internal context, “external context” and “original context”. Internal context includes the picture, its title, if it has one, date, and maker. External context refers to the picture’s presentation environment. Original context refers to the picture’s causal environment, namely, that which was physically and psychologically present to the maker at the time the picture was taken.’ (Barrett, 1985:59)
After considering the three different types of information, I decided that I would be responding to the original context of the image, meaning that I would be looking to respond to the stylistic approach Penn took to photographing the rose.
I picked a Peony from the garden and placed this on a piece of white perspex. I then lit this from underneath to allow the light to travel through the petals, capturing their fragility and translucency. I also used a small aperture to capture the texture, detail and form of the flower. I combined this with a long exposure using the ambient light in the room to light the top side of the Peony. The ambient light originated from the light beneath the Peony, which was then bounced back by the white ceiling avoiding any shadow casts.
Final Photograph
15 sec, f22, 135mm, ISO 64
Conclusion
I feel that I have responded to the original context within Penns photograph of a rose, in that I have photographed the Peony under studio lighting, with the flower being back lit on a white surface. The Peony almost fills the frame creating a tension where your eye moves in a circular motion around the flower. I have also incorporated the stem leading you into the frame. However, due to timings the Peony’s in my garden have only just started to bloom and therefore they do not contain any decay highlighting their fleeting existence.
Citation
Barrett, T. (1985) ‘Photographs and Contexts’ In: Journal of Aesthetic Education 19 (3) pp.51–64. At: https://tinyurl.com/ydwknu6x (access 14 June 2021)
Emma Leonard - BA Hons Photography Student 