On reading the brief before starting part 2, I was instantly drawn to “Things”. I kept an open mind, however, as I looked at the examples during breaks from the exercises. On coming back to the assignment when ready to start shooting, I still felt the subject “Things” was the one to go with. I often see interesting images in everyday things, so I perhaps this is why I find it more appealing.
I find everyday tools quite amazing from a visual perspective; normal domestic tools that people have around the house, and also larger professional tools and industrial equipment such as you might find in large factories. I think something like this might be a great subject for the assignment, so will start off with this in mind and see where it leads me.

On planning the assignment I felt my first challenge was to try and get a feel for what I wanted the images to say. Do I want to show them in situe as tools of a trade, or do I want to use them to create abstract images where the object itself is almost or completely unrecognisable, something in between, or something else entirely? The fact that I’m even deliberating what I might want them to say is new to me and testament to the course thus far! I feel perhaps the best way to approach this is to get the camera out and have a play with various lenses and compositions and see what happens.

Going back to the examples and looking at Walter Benjamin’s’ “A Short History of Photography”, Andrew Langfords “Species” and Ishiuchi Miyako “Hiroshima”, I became aware that in many of the collections, the idea was to let the images speak for themselves. This was particularly evident in the images by Ishiuchi Miyako (2012) in her series “Frida” Fig 1A, Fig 2A, which I came across while researching her Hiroshima series. They are fascinating and such an amazing legacy. The images do just speak for themselves. The items are photographed on a plain background, as they are in her series “Hiroshima” (2008) Fig. 3A. I would have imagined they would come across as sterile but this is not the case, perhaps the items are simply strong enough in their own right. Having visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum a few years ago, none of the artefacts or photos needed anything to help them say something!
I loved the beauty and simplicity of Andrew Langfords images in his series “Species”. They are beautifully photographed and I find the symmetry very attractive. They are, at the same time educational and intriguing. Once again I am drawn by images of things taken from different perspectives.

The images in the photobook “Beautiful Things” by Albert Renger-Patzsch are not items belonging to famous people or artefacts from atrocities. They are just things. I took some time to look at a variety of his other photographs and was fascinated by his images of tools and industrial equipment.  Although he sees the photograph of a way of capturing a true image of an object, a study, they have a beauty that I feel is brought about by the composition, the detail, developing process and the objects themselves. Fig.1,2,3

This seems to fit well with my thoughts regarding tools being my subject for the assignment, although I am still unsure what I want my images to say.

I started to experiment with a very simple picture of an everyday tool (Fig A.) and realised that there was a lot more going on than I first imagined. Although it’s a great object or “thing” in its own right, on close up the wheel used to adjust the spanner was, in my mind, far more interesting than the spanner asa whole. This caused me to go on a search for tools that had hidden shapes and angles and that would complement this idea. I ended up with a pile of predominantly older style everyday tools (Fig. B) with a few unusual ones thrown in because of their visual complexity. I took a few shots and decided to move to a macro lens to get the shallow depth of field and detail that I wanted to capture.

I love the shallow depth of field that the macro lens gives, but found it quite difficult to get the focus right. It was easier to place the item on a mat and move it towards and away from the camera lens rather than use the focus ring.
I decided to have a play with the macro lens and some the other tools, and was quite pleased with the results (see below).
I noticed that some of them looked black and white which I found quite appealing. It seems to give an impression of “precision” rather than the rather big, clunky tools that most of them actually were. I also preferred the images that gave a sense of a purpose. For example, the cogs, springs, wheels and screw grooves all have a feeling of working instruments.
The light played an important part in the look of images and I took a bit of time changing the angle and amount of light hitting the objects. I eventually shot with natural light coming from a window to the left. This seemed to give me the best highlights and shadows (particularly on the metal parts). I didn’t pay too much attention to the histogram when taking the first set of images so there may be some issues with blown highlights or blacks. I will have a look at this when I take the next set. I also wasn’t sure about the strong orange colour in some of the images so will look for areas with no or minimal colour and see how this changes the set.

From what I had discovered taking the first set of images, I am going to seek detail without much colour and parts of the tools that give a sense of purpose. I also noticed that for some of the images the area in focus was slightly away from where I wanted it to be, so I will have to be more rigorous. After taking a few more test shots, it was clear that I was getting some blown highlights. Using a diffuser helped to smooth out the light on some of the metal surfaces as visible in Figure C and D:

In his series “Welles Garage and Machine Shop”, John Leuba uses the tools and machines to create abstract images.
“In the shop there is so much too look at – wonderful shapes, curves, lines, tones, light reflecting off the machines, details hiding in shadows. It starts to become abstract” John Leuba (ND).
I am beginning to realise that I am attracted to both the abstract and sense of purpose in these objects, which appears to be what is evolving in my own images for this project.

One of the things I was unsure of in my own images was colour. Although most of them were giving an impression of black and white, one had a very strong orange colour. I came across an image by Jim Laurence that made me wonder wether this might not be the distracting element I first thought. His image of lab pipes with intermittent blue and orange controls and a yellow line on the floor was very striking. I think I need to make sure I don’t just dismiss the colour element! The colour draws the eye to the centre of the image allowing it a place to land before following the pipes and lines into, and around the rest of the frame.

Looking at work by all these photographers, and in particular John Leuba, I wondered if the depth of field was a bit too shallow and perhaps I needed to bring a bit more of the tools into focus.

Final Images

Spiral

Cog

Screw

Plane

Screw head

Spanner wheels

Screw driver

Jigsaw

I placed the images as a set (see below) so that I could show them together as a series. I wanted  to give a sense of “purpose” in an abstract image. I didn’t want the viewer to know exactly what the purpose of each object was, just that there was one! I wanted the images to be interesting, familiar and perhaps a bit mysterious without being completely unrecognisable as man-made objects. I think I have achieved this in part, but perhaps need to come back to the images when I’m less absorbed in them to allow me a fresh perspective.

I really enjoyed this assignment even though it was very challenging. I found focusing very problematic but stuck with moving the object rather than using the camera. I decided to go with the strong colour for one of the images but I’m not sure it works. It still seems to stand out from the others. But I do like it as an image in its own right. I included a bit of colour in some of the other images to try and balance it out, but I’m not sure this has succeeded.
I was also aware that the images may appear too similar but I don’t think this is the case. I do think they work as a set (first time I’ve ever said that), which I think is because of the similar subject matter, camera settings and composition.

On reviewing my images and reading through the assignment I realised that I hadn’t come back to my thoughts on depth of field and how much of each object should be in focus. Having another look at Albert Renger-Patzsch’s images I found one that really emphases the different purpose and take on the objects (Fig.10,11) He wanted them to be images that were a study of the subject and therefore wanted detail and clarity. I wanted them to be less of a study and more abstract in their nature, whilst giving a sense of purpose.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Assessment Criteria points

• Demonstration of technical and visual skills:
  Technically I think the images are OK. I managed to deal with the focus and lighting issue to a satisfactory level. I spent a great deal of time composing the shots to fit my own brief and believe they show a certain amount of visual awareness, design and compositional skill.
• Quality of outcome
  I’m still getting used to writing things up in the blog so I’m not sure how coherent my presentation is. I think this is something I need to work on and will endeavour to do so. I do think I communicated my ideas well enough, but I might need to organise my thought processes in the blog in a better way (not sure what that might be yet).
• Demonstration of creativity
  I’m not really sure how creative I have been! I think selecting everyday tools to create abstract images is quite imaginative but seeing images in everyday tools and the like is normal for me. I did experiment with different settings and lenses until I got the type of image I wanted.
• Context
  I feel my reflection and research was satisfactory. Critical thinking ? I think so but I await feedback on that one!