"is colour not color" - Anthony Foster 2020
Introduction
For me to be successful on this module I want to aim to create 6 to 10 images to make up a body of images that responds to one of the given project briefs within the module. By the end of this, I will need to show that I have a great understanding on how colour is theoretically different to B&W photography, I will use and demonstrate technical skills, historical and aesthetic background to develop my knowledge required. Alongside this, I will need to use colour photography as an effective medium of personal photographic expression. Finally, I will take up a series of workshops to show that I can use different studio lighting to allow me to get familiar with the properties of the various forms of colour with film and digital format to be able to create a body of work that resolved colour photographs.
Colour photography theory
The history of colour photography
Photography dates back to the time of when William Henry Fox Tolbert discovered away to capture an image onto paper without it failing away however this was only done in black and white. Hence, we skip forward many years to where we find out that William Eggleston finally came up with a way of capturing not just an image but an image with colour.
This couldn’t of be possible with the help of Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell who was also Einstein’s hero and the worlds first Colour Photographer what he did was take 3 of the same images however each one had a different filter on Red Green and blue then projecting each image on to a wall and overlayed them on top of each other creating the very first colour photograph.
Willian Eggleston is an American photographer who was born in 1939 and considered the founding father of colour photography. He was influenced by the work of Cartier Bresson's idea of the ‘decisive moment’ but chose to express it in colour.
During 1976 in New York, Eggleston had an exhibition of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. The New York Times called it the "most hated show of the year", the reason why his work was so despised is that he was willing to break all and any boundaries by printing his work in colour.
It had previously been considered as idiotic and ridiculous to have any photo printed in colour, as colour images were used strictly in the realms of advertising.
On the other hand, this one exhibition, is regarded as the moment when colour photography finally was accepted as being an art form. Eggleston manages to show how the use of colour could go beyond the range and limits of its commercial origins.
He is mostly known for working during the pop art era, the same period where people like Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein practised painting. However, William Eggleston differed in his approach by using photography and he still today at age 84 taking photos and producing contemporary work.
The image below is a colour photograph by Eggleston (it's untitled 1974) of a female standing at a park shop stand looking like she is not sure on what she is wanting to get. You can tell that she is almost ready to buy something because she got money in her hand ready to hand it over.
it events that she is standing outside of a food stand that serves hot food because in the background you can make out two bottles of sauce.
The image is cleary set outside as it and only has the use of natural lighting, the lighting also gives the impression that it a late summer afternoon from the worth coming from right-hand side of the female.
this image was taken from eye level almost the same high as the female and shot close up, it had to be taken from this high it is and to be at the same level of the young girl because the audience can feel like they are part of the images and on the secen with her it a film colour images process of it. The female is the only main thing in the photo that in full focus whist the background it almost out of focusing it possible that photograph was shot at an F1.4 or F2 the shutter speed is either at 1/60th of a second or a 1/125 of a second due to not having any motion blur and if this image wasn't set up then Eggleston would of need the shutter speed to be quick so he not hanging around otherwise he might have not got the shot he wanted because then the female might have been aware that the camera was there which the end result wouldn't of had the same effect.
the main reason why I like this image is because it can easily pass as a film still that could easily be set in the same years and I love how it feels like I have just pressed pause on a film and how the shoot is framed I love the mystery behind the image like why did he pick the female to take a photograph of out of any other person? is she buying or is she just listening to the shop keeper and finally I love how simply the shot looks yet it can easily tell a story within it
Colour temperature
Firstly let's get it clear colour temperature is measured in celsius or faron height but instead in Kevin after the same person who came up with it...
The main important of colour temperature is the aooerarance if the light that comes from a light bulb different bulbs can give of a different colour temperature.
Lower the colour temperature it will produce a warm relaxing glow.
The Effect of Colour
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a good book and film that shows the use of colour as the use of red is used through the whole story, Curley's wife is described with having a red lipstick and red dress because we only know her as Curley's Wife indicates that she married where the Red here stands for love. At the start of the book, we find out that Lenny who has a mental disability he saw this girl wearing a red dress and he loved it so much that he wanted to touch it however the woman through he was going to get rapped however Lenny got scared and by not knowing his own strength he actserdintly ripped of the dress which lead to the female screaming and thinking that she been rapped. this lead to foreshadowing what going to happen later on. Curley's wife
The Bible
Through the whole bible, it was red and white it used a lot white which was used to peace and pure after the flood where Noah build an ark and after the 40 day and night of rain was over Noah sends a raven ( known to be black). He sent the bird out and it never came back so he sent out a dove a bird that known to be white it went out but then came back with an olive branch and give them hope that the flood is over and things can start going back to normal.
White is used as an example purely because it is a colour that is can be easily stained and show any mistakes.
Red is normally used to highlight important things and dangerous things because red is one of the main colours that stand out and catches the human eyes when it is seen. Throughout the bible is used to symbolises sacrifice, life and death it is also often used for the imagery of a sacrifice and shown from the Love and blood that came from Jesus.
All four Avengers Movies
all the Avengers movies and netiflxs tv show all have a uniform approach to all of the films by having the logos, posters and many scenes through out have a unique colour theme throughout for example the logos set the tone for each one and even the villains during the films was the same colour as the either the logos or the colour tones used through out. In age of Ultron we got introduce to some more main characters who main colour was red. And the sceen where the Hulkbuster is squaring up to the hulk you can see that the production team places a red hue on the during the part of the film it is clear right from the start of the seen when Hulk look at the audents you can see a red mess in his eyes and this is seen throught the reminder of the film.
Avengers - blue
Avengers Age of Ultron - red
Avengers infinity war - Golden yellow
Avengers end game- purple
Marvel TV Netflix series
daredevil - red
Jessica Jones - purple
luke cage - yellow
iron fist- green
Mood board
Workshops
Research
written analysis of artist/photographer
Cindy Sherman - photographer
Cindy sherman an American photographer who was born in 1954 she is widely knowned as one of the most important artist in contemporary art. she has a long carea that spands over 30 years during these years she been taken upon many roles such as being the model, make up artist and hairdresser just ot name a few in all the creation of all of her work over the years she been busy making over 170 photographers. Shemans groundbreaking moment came when she did a series that brought her to place where she knowned as today this was a series that was called untitled film stills that was put together over 3 years from 1977 to 1980 this featured black and white photos collection of stereotype of females from their rolls in films from 50's and 60's.
Joker - Cinematography - Lawrence Sher
Lawrence is the Cinematographer for the movie Joker that is set somewhere between 1970 and early 1980. He wanted to recreate what the cite would have looked like back then. A big part of the city street light was sodium vapour however the use of sodium vapour lighting is no longer in use today so Sher had to recreate this by starting off with the use of a green orange gross lighting and to represent this further he need to add a blue light in the city during the day time and position in to wards the buildings during the day light hours this allowed to add some warm white on carrding floresenct yellow warm to some parts of the film when he was shooting indoors they endedup using tuntone lighting to bring a more worth tone to the scenes.
Below I have circled some images that I feel like I could easily recreate as a film still
Contact sheets
Contextual research
Darkroom Colour photography workshop
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doing colour darkroom photography is nearly enough the same as printing in black and white part from the main different is that you have to work out the different colour filter and when the paper is out the light must be out as well and you cant even work under red light unlike you would if you where printing in black and white this is because the paper you are using have different dyes it which are only work once you exposed the paper to the light once you have done and work out all the different colour blances you need you nad exposued the paper to the light from the enlarger you hen got to put the paper into light proffe box which doesn't allow for any light to pass through so you can take it and get the image develop.
My ideas
How I want to tackle this project is by looking at many different films and TV shows and try to recreate part of it as close as possible when viewing them it looks like you have paused it.
Test Shoot - Joker
Test shoot - Doctor who
Self-evaluation
Reference list
Instagram. (n.d.). dayflashapp on Instagram: So cool Check out Dayflash app An incredible video and photo sharing platform for creators . Follow @liquidverve for more daily…. [online] Available at: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CGTRBNYnkRi/?igshid=1kk9jcx0fc7z9&fbclid=IwAR1agNShWKfnRvbdHLD0q8Ta6fRZv2KYovc0Yga8gLNPg0mRQ3aBba8V6wo [Accessed 22 Oct. 2020].
Kalu, M. (2019). Is There Any Significance to Colors in the Bible? [online] Christianity.com. Available at: https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/is-there-any-significance-to-colors-in-the-bible.html [Accessed 31 Oct. 2020].
Reddit. (2013). r/DC_Cinematic - APPRECIATION: The Cinematography of JOKER. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/DC_Cinematic/comments/dn7qz5/appreciation_the_cinematography_of_joker/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2020].
Reddit. (n.d.). r/DC_Cinematic - APPRECIATION: Really liking the visuals and cinematography in the Joker trailer. [online] Available at: https://www.reddit.com/r/DC_Cinematic/comments/cwmwpx/appreciation_really_liking_the_visuals_and/ [Accessed 22 Oct. 2020].
Vanity Fair (2019). Joker Cinematographer Explains The Impact of Color in Film | Vanity Fair. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th9pG9Q6Kuo&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 22 Oct. 2020]
Pintrest (n.d.). Curley’s Wife. Pintrest. Available at: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/462463455465236386/ [Accessed 2 Nov. 2020].
https://www.timetoast.com/users/954129 (1930). Of Mice and Men timeline. [online] Timetoast. Available at: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/of-mice-and-men--68 [Accessed 2 Nov. 2020].
Widewalls.ch. (2017). A Short History of Color Photography | Widewalls. [online] Available at: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/color-photography [Accessed 1 Dec. 2020].
BBC. (2015). Scotland’s Einstein: James Clerk Maxwell - The Man Who Changed the World. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06rd56j [Accessed 1 Dec. 2020].
Eggleston, W. (2016). ROSEGALLERY. [online] ROSEGALLERY. Available at: http://www.rosegallery.net/blog/2016/9/9/photographer-william-eggleston-pioneered-use-of-colour-at-moma#:~:text=Photographer%20William%20Eggleston%20pioneered%20use%20of%20colour%20at%20MOMA,-William%20Eggleston’s%20Greenwood&text=In%20May%201976%2C%20a%20photography,%E2%80%9Csome%20sort%20of%20con%E2%80%9D. [Accessed 6 Dec. 2020].
Google.com. (2020). colour temperature - Google Search. [online] Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=colour+temperature&oq=colour+t&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i433i457j0i433l3j0j0i433j0i131i433.11094j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 [Accessed 7 Dec. 2020].
The Museum of Modern Art. (2012). Cindy Sherman. [online] Available at: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1154 [Accessed 8 Dec. 2020].
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