I found this unit (Part three) very interesting, informative, and as always discovered things about photography, photographers, art and and about myself! I had never really thought about images as windows or mirrors and found it fascinating to see how much of these ideas were in my photos quite unconsciously. Trying to do this the other way round seemed far harder than it should have been, but I think this was down to me not quite knowing what I wanted to show and what part of me or my personality I wanted to show reflected in the community. This seems to be a theme for me and although I am very prepared to be open minded about what I find when I start taking shots, I do need to be firm about what I want the images to say – even if that changes over time. I think this will help and great deal moving forward.

I am also finding the idea of coming back to images more and more helpful. It really does allow a fresh look and the appearance of things that couldn’t be seen originally. Time is an issue with this method, but it is definitely worth doing.

I am really enjoying researching other photographers and during this unit when I was researching editing images for a series, I ended up listening to Spike Lee taking about the way in which he goes about some aspects of his film making. It was fascinating and gave me a bit of a different perspective. I am discovering photographers that I never would have come across and learning a great deal by reading and watching their methods and processes.

Because I have always hated taking “portraits” I have seem to have stayed away from looking in any detail at portrait photographers. I have my favourites such as Annie Leibovitz and I love looking at her portraits. I had never spent time going into her methods or processes for shooting, editing and processing and really wish I had done this earlier. I also discovered a wonderful Boston based photographer called Tyler Mitchel who also creates amazing portraits. I found his explanations of what he was trying to achieve in his images very helpful. This is an area I struggle with and tend to be either far too literal or far too subtle. I looked at some of his images first and then listened to him taking about the idea behind them. When I analysed my feelings and thoughts when I first looked at them, there is no doubt at all that it worked. Quite amazing! (Fig 1-3)

Fig.  1 Tyler Mitchel

“My take on men can get specific. I’m usually always with groups, especially black men. I’m trying to unlock some sort of freedom with them in certain portrait sessions. In this picture, which was cast in England, the five men are gathered together and blended into the landscape and also create a landscape of their own. That speaks to freedom within the group. It was nice because they all formed a shape of unison. There’s one boy turned toward the camera with that silver chain. The other four boys have more optimistic body language. His is more stern or repressed with the chains around him, which are, of course, such an important symbol. It causes you to think about the idea of bling, and posturing and dress and fashion with jewelry in the black community. This picture relates to “Topanga” in that way” Mitchel (2019)

Fig. 2 Tyler Mitchel

“I knew I wanted to make something that was about visualizing unity, but I also wanted a break in that at the same time. The two boys are both Senegalese. I was looking to create a unified image of them, styling them together with one blazer supporting each other. The element of the jacket also ties into my fashion work. Their emotions and their expressions were also totally intentional in terms of making sure one had this look of disdain and the other had a more optimistic look of freedom. This shoot was great because it was the day after I did a very embarrassing commercial shoot, so I was like, “I need to just go make something right now that I really, really care about.” Mitchel (2019)

Fig. 3 Tyler Mitchel

“This one is similar to “Safety Blanket” in that is has a very protective vibe to it, and also because of the orange workers’ coats. This was on a fashion shoot. The subject is actually my best friend, who had twin girls about a year ago. I had also photographed her while she was pregnant. This was our first photo shoot with her twin girls and her boyfriend. I knew I wanted to make this specific American family portrait. It was taken in Howard Beach, which if you know anything about Howard Beach, you know about some of the race riots that were going on in that area in the 1980s. So that’s the subtext. But, again, there’s that same focus on togetherness, family, comfort, caution, safety. All those things for young black families” Mitchel (2019)

Bibliography

Figures 1-3
Nytimes.com. 2022. Tyler Mitchell Wants to Make You Feel Good (Published 2019). [online] Available at: <https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/us/tyler-mitchell-interview.html&gt;
[Accessed 15 April 2022].