White Cloth Gallery Visit

White Cloth Gallery

The white cloth Gallery is not a commercial gallery as the work is not for sale. I prefer this type of gallery because the work on the walls is much more spread out and there is one theme across the gallery, in this case black and white documentary photography, as i believe this allows me to look at each individual image and not be distracted by other work. The size of the work is also consistent so the eye can concentrate more on the image itself. The only thing I don't like about the way the work is displayed is the use of bulldog clips as they can be a little distracting however, the open plan of the gallery feel unrestricting and free to view the work in any kind of order you like.

The work displayed is by Tom Stoddard, a famous documentary photographer who has travelled to many different countries and captured a range of important historic events. There was one image in particular that really stood out for me which is part of the work “Quake…India” which is a series of photographs of the earthquake that greatly affected India in January 2001 in the town of Bhuj. 30,000 people died in the earthquake and Stoddard was able to catch the pain and suffering in his images. The photograph to the right of and old Indian woman and a cracked wall perfectly describes the suffering that took place during the earthquake. There is a link between the crack in the wall and the old woman. The cracks in the wall are similar to the wrinkles in the old woman's face which suggests that they are one and affected by each other. It expresses the idea that it is just not buildings that are destroyed but peoples lives. I believe there is a real hidden meaning behind this photograph. The composition is slightly unusual but allows the eye to flow down the crack in the wall to the old woman creating a bond between them.

Leeds Gallery Visit

 Leeds Gallery

The Leeds Gallery is located near Leeds Bus station and displays commercial work of photographs of Leeds and Yorkshire including both professional and amateur photographers work. There is quite a range of work in the gallery including Underscapes, Landscapes, buildings and bridges, rooftops, coastlines, people and objects. The gallery itself was very well lit, filled with natural light from the large windows however, this did create quite a few reflections on the prints in glass frames. The range of artists and work was interesting but, The work seemed to be quite randomly placed in some places and I felt that when looking at particular pieces of work my eye was distracted by others. 

The work that particularly inspired some ideas for my Location project was by both Karl Wilson and Graham Cook.

Karl Wilson's panorama shot "Sunset Over Leeds" captures the city just as the sun is going down. I like this particular image because it gives a unusual perspective of the city that not many people will see, also the way that some of the tall buildings scattered across the landscape peak just over the horizon suggesting how the city i still growing.

Graham Cook's work on the other hand is more about patterns within buildings and architecture identifying everyday locations we see and capturing a unique perspective on them, transforming it into art. The image that stood out for me from Cook's work was the image "The Way Home" which reminds me of Stieglitz work the steerage with the use of patterns and shapes to compose the image using the rule of thirds.

 

Flash Fiction

One Day Brief

We were each given a short 50 word story in which we had to illustrate using 4 photographs. To illustrate the story I broke it down into 4 sections and tried to illustrate each part and took a fairly literal approach to each image. The first image of the red hoody on the floor with the sweets is quite self explanatory and illustrates the red hoody and snacks split everywhere. The bag with the hair brush shows that it belonged to the blonde girl as the brush has blonde hair weaved into it, it also represents the picnic basket. Thirdly, the open gate symbolizes that the girl has gone from the park and that her location is now un-known. Finally, the image of the crow represents pity as it is a dark creature linked to sadness and possibly death.

Overall I enjoyed the project even though it took me a while to decided which location to use for my shots and how to compose them and may of worked faster on my own or in a slightly smaller group but, on the other hand the props and ideas from people I was working with helped a great deal. Not having a lot of time forced me to think fast on my feet stopping me from over thinking the shots.

He Was Away

The red hood lay on the floor, a little scuffed and dirty, as if there had been a struggle.

The blonde was no where to be seen, her picnic basket tossed on its side, the snacks split everywhere.

A pity that the woodsman was away visiting his aunt.

A pity

Nightclub Photography experiment

Nightclub Photography

Within my first week of moving to leeds i managed to get my first photography job where I actually get paid. It seems to be about who you know these days with getting work and luckily for me my new flat mate knows a DJ that needed a photographer for last friday. I accepted the job straight away as i had a few days to read up on some tips on google and that left me enough time to borrow a flash gun from the collage. I did some quick research to get me started with some of the settings and a quick crash course on using a flash gun so i was ready as i could be.

Luckily some of my flat mates were also going to the same club so i had some company and was able to save money on sharing taxi's. The taxi arrived 45 minutes late so that then in-turn made me late. Anyway it did not matter too much as i still had around 3-4 hours to get some shots.

Taking the shots

First thing i did when i got in the club was of course setup the camera and take some test shots. Im a more hands on person and like to learn from trial and error so i setup my camera with some basic settings and started with a aperture of 5.6, shutter speed of 25 and ISO of 800. The first problem I encountered was auto focusing, as there was not enough light for this to work effectively and looking through the viewfinder then manually focusing was not much easier as I could not see enough detail. The live view finder worked well but the focusing is much slower so I decided to set the focus point to 1.3 meters away and used this as a guide as to how far away to stand from my subjects. I also adjusted the shutter speed up to 30 of a second. As the night progressed I became much more confident and hope this reflected in my work as the shots near the end of the night were improved from the start.

I fully enjoyed the job as I enjoy going out clubbing myself however, drunk people can be a little annoying when your not drinking and kept asking to borrow my camera.

Featherstone Castle University Trip

Featherstone Castle Trip

Visiting the castle was a good break from the busy city and really was in the middle of nowhere. The castle itself was quite dusty and a little cold in some of the rooms however, this suited the rustic feel of the place and once the fire was going felt homely which provided a great environment to bond with other people on the course. In our first project we explored the technique of camera obscure which I found particularly fascinating and still don't yet understand how it works fully. We were able to project a reversed upside down image of the outside of our bedroom onto the wall inside by blocking all light from the windows leaving just a small hole around 5 cm in diameter. To actually capture the image on the camera it required a tripod (or a step ladder in my case) and a shutter speed of around 1 and a half minutes with an aperture of 5.6 and ISO of 1600. 

The second task we were assigned was to experiment with the flash equipment available to create ghostly and spiritual photographs using long exposure. Living in the castle itself helped to inspire my thoughts and ideas by giving a true feel of what it's like to live in an old 13th century castle. I decided to use our bedroom for shooting because all the light was stilled blocked out the windows which gave me a very dark room to work, in allowing me to use long exposures. Because the room was so dark I used a torch to light my own face which allowed me to move around the room in different positions to create the effect of a spirit. The light trail from the torch added to the idea that the spirit is moving around the room and appearing in different places.

About Me

My name is James Cray and I am currently in my first year of studying BA photography degree at the Leeds Collage of Art.

 The interest I have in photography really began by chance as it was not originally one of my choices of A-levels. I attempted A-level maths but, unfortunately after only scoring 6 out of 100 in the mock exam just before Christmas, I was asked to leave the course. So, I then decided to take up photography as I enjoyed taking the odd snap shot now and then on holidays. However, I found the subject fascinating, intriguing and from this created my own passion for photography.