Album cover
Album cover
Album cover
Emily Lee
Slow shutter
Long exposures
Alexey Titarenko
‘City of Shadows’ by Alexey Titarenko - 1992
This image is a black and white long exposure photograph taken in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The image shows a grey block of ghostly figures with only hands and feet visible at certain points along the railing. The image would most likely have been exposed for a shutter speed of around 20 seconds in order to allow time for the people in the image to move up the stairs. The fact that the hands are the most visible of all the body means that they were stationary for the longest and therefore the camera was able to fix their position when then light bounced off of them and hit the sensor.
There are visible details in both the shadows and the highlights, clipping only the very extremes. This shows that Titarenko here exposed the image for the mid tones in order to get a range of detail in his image.
In the background a building is visible, the details of which are not pin sharp, but still reasonably clear. Along with the sharpness of the foreground barrier, we can deduce that Titarenko must have used a mid range aperture of around F10-12.
The aim of this image was to show Titarenko's view that as a result of the criminal regime at work in Russia, the people had been dehumanised, turned into nothing more than wandering shadows. They had been stripped of their personality and turned into mere 'signs', the rejection of which could cost them their life. So they allowed themselves to transition from joyful people to something less than human. The series 'City of Shadows' emerged from a great desire to articulate the feelings of sorrow and grieving felt by the city's inhabitants after having been victimised for most of the 20th century. Titarenko one day took a walk through the streets of St. Petersburg that were once full of 'joyful vibrancy and dynamism' yet now deprived of the
latter, reduced to a dreary, malnourished city filled with the shadows of former people. I feel that this image is particularly effective and the grey mass of the long exposure of the people with very few details shown accurately captures Titarenko's feeling of non-reality, of phantasmagoria looking at the city he loved. In response to this image, I will attempt my own long exposures using people to see if I can achieve a similar phantom effect along with a strong metaphor to express my own feelings of exasperation with authority awakened by this image.
Response
For my own image I tried to use Titarenko's long exposure composition, capturing the movement of people on stairs. Here I used a shutter speed of 3.2" with four people in order to allow enough time for movement, ISO 50 to minimise grain in the image, and F11 to ensure that most of the image was in focus to compensate for the blur of the people. However, I feel that I should have perhaps used an ISO of around 100-200 instead as the image here is slightly underexposed.
There are some obvious similarities between the images, with the feet visible more than the rest of the body, and the steps and rail being in focus with the background slightly faded out. However in my image, I clipped the shadows which means that there is greater detail in the highlights and the darker areas melt into one. I quite like this effect as the overexposed highlights of the daylight streaming in the window at the top of the stairs creates a graduated tone of grey down the face of the wall, better exposing the ghostly figures at the top. This makes it appear as if the phantoms are emerging from the darkness and climbing slowly towards the light. To better this effect I reduced the saturation of the image, making the image as a whole exude a more eerie feeling.
The metaphor at work in this image was the feeling of dreary reluctance experience by many students when forced into an environment that becomes increasingly uncomfortable as the government continue to pressurise schools and the students in them. These young people arrive early and leave late in the day, but it does not end there with the teachers assigning work in order to prepare students for obligatory examinations that really mean nothing in the world of work that awaits them.I feel that I have effectively captured this idea in my image, with the shadow figures slowly climbing the stairs towards their daily torture.
In Lightroom I decreased the temperature, vibrance, and saturation in order to make the image seem more cadaverous through the reduction of warm, or any colours. I also lifted the shadows and dropped the highlights in order to minimise clipping.
Playing with long exposures
For this shot I tried again to use long exposure creatively, this time exploring the movement of a person. The images here keep in line with Titarenko's 'Two Heads' image with the main body of the model in focus and the head blurred due to movement in the long exposure. However, the difference between the two images lies in the speed of the movement of the model. In Titarenko's image, there are no distinguishable features in the faces, suggesting high speed movement the prevents the camera from fixing the features at any point. In my image, I used a 15" exposure, allowing 5 fixed head positions each exposed for 3", allowing for there to be apparent features in multiple places. Personally, I prefer this effect as it allows me to convey the idea of multiple personalities residing within one person. This broaches on the concept of mental health which has, of late, become a rather significant part of modern society. Additionally this image relates to the portrait of Andy Warhol by Duane Michals, which incorporates a varying degree of motion into a three stage portrait.
Despite all of the recent efforts of charities and organisations to normalise the ideas of the existence of different states of mind, there still remains a stigma surrounding the thought that illness also extends to the brain. Hence here, I created a Francesca Woodman like image in order to portray this idea. The aim here was to present an initially shocking image that, upon closer inspection, revealed a more intricate meaning.
For this image, I wanted to continue the use of long exposures with a different subject matter. In this instance, I experimented with the colour trails left by cars driving past. I tested my exposure, ending up with the following settings: ISO 50, F22, and 1.6" with the use of a combination of ND filters providing about a 7 stop light decrease. These settings were efficient as they allowed the whole scene to be in focus (F22 - large depth of field) which juxtaposed the blurred movement of the cars driving past. The ISO was able to be as low as 50 due to the bright sunshine. The shutter speed only needed to be 1.6" as the speed of the cars meant that they could travel though the whole shot in this time. I had to use a tripod for this shoot as is is almost impossible to get a pin sharp image without on a shutter speed any lower than 1/200 due to the shake of your hands.
'Andy Warhol' by Duane Michals - 1972
'Two Heads' by Alexey Titarenko - 1992
'Space², Providence, Rhode Island' by Francesca Woodman - 1976
In this shoot, I combined the use of long exposures with my favourite sport: gymnastics. I used an exposure time of 3.2 seconds in order to allow time for the gymnast to complete the cartwheel. Unfortunately, I had to use an ISO of 640 in order to allow the camera to include enough light in the image with the aperture of F3.5 that I used in order to diminish foreground and background distractions. The large aperture was also viable in this shoot as all of the motion was along the same plane and therefore would not cause any parts of the movement to be out of focus. These specific movements were chosen as they all contained points at which there was no motion in some part of the body and thus the camera was able to fix a position of the gymnast in the middle of the move, though still catching the gymnast whilst moving to create fluid, almost spectral lines. The above image is my particular favourite of this set due to the symmetry it presents hence making it more aesthetically pleasing.
The inspiration here was from the "vanishing souls" idea by Niko Mitsuko, using people in a long exposure to create blur. However in this image there was no desire to document the concept of death, but merely to show my sport in a different, more intriguing light. The body formations also link back to the work of Francesca Woodman and Alexey titarenko through the concealing of identity through blur. My work is also similar to Edyta Kielian's 'Dancing' series in which she photographs dancers on stage using a long exposure to show movement in her images and capture the dancer engrossed in their performance, much like how I wanted to present the gymnast in order to create a fascination with the little known sport.
'Dancers' by Edyta Keilian - n.d.
Landscape long exposures
Niko Mitsuko
'Vanishing Souls' by Niko Mitsuko - n.d.
This image consists of a long exposure of a seascape containing a slightly blurred figure. The foreground contains a bed of rock protruding into the sea acting as a solid point of the image. The rock itself is in focus, but appears not to be due to the cloud like effect of the waves washing repeatedly over it. Upon the rock stands the figure, dressed all in black so as to imitate a silhouette and create mystery surrounding their identity. The figure is blurred down the right hand side meaning that after remaining still for a long enough period of time to create a sharp focus, the model shifted to the right to produce blur and create the effect of a ‘vanishing soul’. I would suggest that the shutter speed may have only been around 8 seconds - short enough for a person to stand exactly still and remain in sharp focus, but still allow the blur of the movement of the sea. Therefore, the aperture must’ve been high (F22) with a low ISO (around 100) in order to compensate for the amount of light being allowed into the camera and preventing the image from becoming overexposed. Due to the apparent time of day that this image was taken (most probably late afternoon) it is quite likely that a neutral density (ND) filter was used to block out more of the light and allow a longer exposure at this lighter time of day.
The colour palette of the image is extremely limited, including only pale blues and greys which add to the atmosphere of mystery. However the silhouette appears to be holding a piece of red cloth in its right hand. This stark juxtaposition of colour draws the eye and allows the reader to speculate the context of the character and the reasons for which he stands where he does. For instance the colour red is
typically associated strong emotions such as love and anger and therefore its minute inclusion in the vast expanse of muted colours invokes the idea that the silhouette once felt very strongly and since then their emotions have slowly drained away.
There is a band of grey at the bottom of the image which fades upwards toward the figure, framing the image and giving it a more voyeuristic approach, as if we are viewing the scene through some sort of peephole. Furthermore, the lack of direct address in the image distances the viewer from the silhouette though still maintaining an sympathetic link through the figure’s interaction with its environment suggesting a feeling of detachment from society.
The series ‘Vanishing Souls’ is about death and is an artistic representation of the voyage that the soul takes after death. Mitsuko believes that the soul’s journey allows it to ease the pain of life and come to terms with the concepts of life and death in the world the soul once occupied. The souls wanders this surreal version of the world and soon they transcend into another. I feel that this view is accurately represented in the images via the use of blur on the figure and the almost longing stance it takes overlooking the sea of fog.
Niko strives to create photographs with aesthetic, paint-like qualities, bestowing her works with abstract, surrealist, and minimalist properties. Here particularly the paint-like qualities are accentuated by the use of long exposure on a moving sea, producing an image composed of smooth colours and lines similar to the brushstrokes made by painters. I in turn would like to create images that are reminiscent of paintings and hence will seek to use the sea to be the moving part in my photograph to aid me in creating an image containing these paint-like qualities.
'Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog' by Caspar David Friedrich - 1818
The composition of this image is more than likely inspired by Caspar David Friedrich's painting 'Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog'. There are evidently very striking similarities compositionally with both containing an almost silhouetted figure in a long coat standing upon a rock, overlooking a landscape shrouded in fog. In Friedrich's work the mist covered landscape is merely fog, whereas in Mitsuko's image she has used a long exposure to transform the sea into fog.
Friedrich's compositions are very commonly used amongst modern artists as they are remarkably simple but still create an emotional connection to the viewer. Despite being challenged for his works, Friedrich maintained that his more dramatic depictions of the natural world - involving many areas of light and dark that strayed far away from the traditional picturesque representations of landscapes - encouraged the viewer to accept the boundless power of the divine. In the same way, Mitsuko uses this composition to display ideas of the soul and its journey from one world to the next.
'Vanishing Souls' by Niko Mitsuko - n.d.
Response
35"
45"
Here I experimented with using long exposure for a sunset photograph. The use of long exposure in this context allows for a more smooth graduation of the tone created by the sun. The movement of the sun dipping down into the low cloud bank will create a minute light trail, practically invisible in the image, but the clouds touched by the slowly decreasing light are dynamically lit just enough to smooth them out. Additionally the sleek cloud formations add a more dynamic element to the photographs, making them slightly more intriguing than just the initial sunset.
This set relates back to the long exposure work of Niko Mitsuko through the use of the wave motion sea in both of our work to create a mist-like effect to add mystery to the image. In my image however the hazy sea is far less sinister, meaning only to create a feeling of serenity when the viewer gazes upon the image. Although, there still exists a feeling of serenity within Mitsuko's image among the slightly macabre aura thus further linking to my images. Evidently there is a complete lack of humanity in my images, from which evolves differences between Mitsuko's work and mine. I considered the possibility of adding a model to my image, but unfortunately due to the time of year making the time around sunset far too cold to have had a model standing still for so long - they would have had to have worn multiple layers of clothing which would have altered the lines of the body creating less natural flowing lines which I wanted to prevent in my image. I suppose however, that the more crude lines would have helped to juxtapose the person silhouetted by then sun with the natural scene around it, but for me still, it would create an eyesore on a beautiful scene. Additionally, the use of the model was made impossible by the location of the shoot. Being high up on the edge of a cliff made if much too dangerous to have a person stood in front of the camera.
If I were to re attempt a Mitsuko inspired shoot, I would perhaps focus instead on the more human element of his image thus deconstructing his composition into two individual experimental shoots.
50"
60"
In order to ensure that I achieved the exact exposure that I wanted for this image I experimented with bulb mode, holding the shutter for a variety of lengths of time so that I could visually comprehend the amount of light my camera was taking in for each photograph. Additionally for this shoot, I used an ND10 filter to help prevent too much light entering the camera as it was still particularly light at this point and I wanted to create the longest exposure possible to smooth out the sea and produce a mist-like effect. The longest exposure made the clouds softer and more visually appealing, however it allowed too much light into the image making it overexposed as a whole. It was difficult to get a correctly exposed image that did not clip out too many of the highlights, but still created a smooth sea and sky. Eventually, I used a 30 second exposure to cater for this.
'Vanishing Souls' by Niko Mitsuko - n.d.
Here I again took inspiration from Niko Mitsuko's work, but this time on the editing front. I noticed the vast areas of light in the image and how they were tinted slightly blue making the whole image colder. I tried to utilise this edit to see what effect it would have on my image. I took my original image and made both a warm and cold version of it to seethe change in atmosphere of the image. Overall, the warmer image employed more pale orange hues giving the image a more tranquil, uplifted mood whilst the colder image made use of more blue tones, making the image seem more clinical and more like Mitsuko's work.
Light drawings
Gjon Mili
'Picasso' for Life magazine by Gjon Mili - 1949
Here, the Albanian-American photographer Gjon Mili worked with Spanish artist Pablo Picasso to produce a creative portrait of the famous artist. Inside his workshop, Picasso is pictured with a light drawing of a centaur - one of his most well known art subjects. Both the drawing and the artist are visible in the image and therefore there must've been a bright light used at one point in the exposure to fix the position of the artist. We can see that this bright light came from the daylight streaming in through a window on the left hand side of the image. This is evident through the tonality on Picasso's body, his right side lit beautifully, leaving his left side to fall into the shadows.
This image was commissioned by Life magazine in 1949 as part of a series of articles focusing on famous artists. After Gjon Mili showed Picasso a series of images he had taken previously of an ice skater with tiny lights tied to her skates, Picasso gave him only "15 minutes to try one experiment". However, fascinated by the results, Picasso posed in five separate sessions eventually producing 30 drawings of bulls, centaurs, greek profiles, and his signature.
The name 'photography' derives from the greek words 'phos' (light), and graphis (stylus) and together, the phrase means 'drawing with light'. Here, Gjon Mili has created photographs that contain not only the original scene painted onto the camera by light, but an additional light drawing by Picasso captured within the workshop. There are three different types of light painting photography. The first is 'Light drawing' - a light source is seen by the camera and is used by the artist to created designs within the frame. The second, 'Kinetic light painting' - the light source remains stationary whilst the camera itself is moved to create patterns in the image. And the third 'Light painting' - a handheld light source is used to selectively illuminate areas of the image.
I personally quite like this image, but there are some improvements to be made. For instance, the consideration of the background - the plates give a cluttered atmosphere which is effective for this portrait of Picasso (there's always a messy studio behind a clean exhibit) however for my own images, I would prefer to use a much cleaner background (something like a black infinity curve). Also, I would most likely use a flash unit to illuminate the scene for a more brief period to eliminate any movement in that particular moment. Despite these personal discrepancies, it is still obvious that this image is far more advanced than many of the photographs of the time.
The first recorded image containing these 'light paintings' was Demeny's 'pathological walk from in front' in 1889. This image was created by the use of incandescent bulbs attached to the joints of an assistant and was created for the simple purpose of documenting motion, but is was the first time in history that a photography had been made to intentionally include visible patterns of a moving light source.
'Pathological walk from in front' by Demeny - 1889
Class response
For this series, the intention was to replicate the work of Gjon Mili via the use of light trails in a class situation. We worked through a series of experiments involving various subjects, light types (e.g. colours, intensities, and strobes) and patterns. These images were all of a shutter speed of 10" or 15", with an ISO of 100 or 200, and an aperture between 16-22 as the controlled variable to adjust the exposure. I needed a long shutter speed in order for the light to be able to leave an impression on the camera's sensor and form a trail and therefore I needed a low ISO due to the length of time that the light was able to enter into the camera. I then adjusted the F stop according to the shutter speed and ISO at each particular point to try and expose the image to my liking. My particular favourite of this experiment was the photograph in which the light trail was created by the use of a strobe torch positioned at the entrance of a long plastic tube that had been previously used for bubble liquid. This combination was then used to create different light drawings around a model. These two patterns (last two in the set) produced fascinated me the most and thus I intend to take them further.
In this light trail image, I felt that the pattern of the light held connotations of the aurora borealis and hence found inspiration to transform them into my very own Northern Lights. In my first attempt to create this effect I used the paintbrush tool in photoshop, using a new layer on which to paint the light to resemble aurora borealis. Despite my vigilant use of opacity and feathering I was unable to achieve the effect that I wanted, producing only a blocky mess that obscured almost entirely the model's face.
However I reattempted this edit, this time employing the use of the blending mode 'colour' which allowed me to only affect the colours of the image and not blur the lines of light as I had done previously. I then proceeded to use the paint brush tool to create a gradation of tone from purple, through blue, and into green to emanate the effect of the Northern Lights. The use of these effects contributed far more to the overall image, more clearly showing the intricate lines of light and allowing the model's face to be seen. This creates an overall more serene mood which better reflects the pretence of the Northern Lights.
Response
'Fashionably lit' by William Klein - 1962
This shoot was a continuation of the previous experiments with light drawings. In my first set of experiments, there was one image that I was particularly intrigued by - the angel wings. Previously, this shot was done with the strobe torch in the plastic tube, however, I decided to use a more simple torch to draw more defined lines of light. I used a flash unit to produce a bright flash of light to fix the model's position and then proceeded to run behind the model and draw the wings and halo of an angel. It took a few attempts to achieve the correct shutter speed to allow me the time to draw the features (15") which I consequently had to adjust the ISO and aperture to suit. I ended up using an ISO of 200 due to the darkness of the room, and an aperture of F22 which allowed me lots of leeway for drawing the wings in the right plane to be in focus. Thinking back, I probably could have used a larger aperture (perhaps F13) as the short distance of the model from the camera reduced the risk of drawing the light in such a way that it would be out of focus. This would have meant that I'd have to decrease the ISO which would also have reduced grain. However, this wasn't really a great issue as the ISO was already low to begin with.
Unfortunately after the flash fixed the model's pose, she changed the position of her head for the rest of the exposure and thus created a double exposure. The line is quite obvious through the forehead due to the backlighting of the hair by the light drawings. However I am pleased overall by the effect of the image with the bold white lines exuding connotations of purity and adding to the overall angelic feel. This image is also much in the style of William Klein's work with light drawings and fashion photography in his series 'Fashionably Lit'. Klein used bold line of light to draw attention to his images which helped in the field of fashion photography in trying to sell the clothes pictured. Klein's images are evidently far more refined than my amateur experiments, with his lines of light each placed with great precision and most probably after many more attempt than I. Also, there is a distinct lack of glare in Kleins image, showing that he was extremely particular about the kind of light he used and was careful not to leave it facing the camera in one spot for too long. In further light trail experiments, I would very much love to attempt to create more images resembling those of William Klein to try and achieve smoother lines without glare.
Response 11
'Wanderer Above a Sea of Fog' by Caspar David Friedrich - 1818
'Fashionably lit' by William Klein - 1962
For this shoot I created a set of images containing light trails in a similar fashion to Gjon Mili. After my experiments in the dance studio, I took the light trails outside and played with different light formations. I used the Dartmoor landscape at sunset both for the fact that it would be dark enough at this time to allow a long enough exposure for light trails and in order to replicate the darker compositions of Caspar David Friedrich's landscapes. I wanted here to use a great volume of light lines as the main focal point of the image in order to create a feeling of awe at the power of nature again linking to Friedrich's views. The power of light is arguably the most incredible feat of the natural world and therefore the use of it here in this way imbues the image with an overwhelming sense of wonderment at the things this world can do.
Setting wise in this shoot, I used a shutter speed of 20" to allow long enough to run out from behind the camera and draw enough lines of light to create a large central feature. My aperture was small (F22) in order to allow as much as possible of the scene to be in focus to link to Friedrich's landscapes. Consequently, my ISO was low at 100 in order to compensate for the length of time the shutter was open for and the resulting amount of light it let in to achieve a correctly exposed image.
I feel that these images combine the work of Friedrich and Klein thought the use of bold light trails in a dramatic landscape. The light trails here are possibly less in the style of Klein due to the varying thickness of the lines, however I prefer this effect as it creates more intricacy and makes the image more my own. The landscape is similar to Friedrich's, but is lacking a little in moody colours. I may revisit these images with a Friedrich inspired mood edit.
Fibre optics
Attempt 1
This was my first attempt of the use of a fibre optic lamp to produce miniature light trails to accentuate facial features. I began this experiment in a class demonstration led by my teacher, in which he brought the concept to our attention. From there, I later attempted the process of dragging the fibres of the lamp across my own face in order to recreate the images and experiment further with using light trails in my images. However, due to the lack of manual focus on my lens, I struggled greatly with focusing on my face and therefore was unable to produce any images that I liked. In defeat I decided instead to photograph the light trails created by the motion of the individual fibres of the lamp, creating a firework-like effect. Using an exposure of 2” F10 and ISO 200 (focus on a shorter exposure as the movement of the fibres wouldn't take long and a longer time may have resulted in overexposure - ISO 200 to allow the lights to been seen well by the camera, and F10 to suit the amount of light in the image) I also played with the compositional rule of thirds by placing the centre of the light on the left hand side. Use of this rule makes the images seem more appealing to the eye, however the fact that the images do not quite conform to the rule gives them a mildly unsettling feeling of unfamiliarity and confusion which is intensified by the dynamacy of the light trails. Despite this, the calm colours of the image overpower any feeling of uncertainty and make the image feel more serene overall.
The eye is drawn to the overexposed centre of the image as it is the lightest part of the image. This makes the viewer see it as the central point of the light and possibly even come to associate it with the shape of a flower which is a well know example of the golden ratio, thus making the images more aesthetically pleasing.
In my next attempt, I hope to use a lens with a manual focus feature which would allow me to more easily create my images and perhaps experiment with the use of different patterns/different parts of the face to produce more intriguing images.
Attempt 11
Light drawings are not merely limited to the use of a torch in motion in an image. Although it does look extraordinary there are many other ways to create great images with light, one of these being the use of everyday items such as a fibre optic lamp. Taking inspiration from Gunnar Heilmann's images, I attempted to create my own fibre optic faces. Heilmann is an expert in the art of light drawing photography. He uses many methods to create incredible light painting portraits, however the images that captured my interest the most were those created by a fibre optic lamp. The way that he used the delicate light lines produced along with the way he used the colour of the light to illuminate the face and create a portrait image was truly awe inspiring, so I decided to have a go myself. Using a shutter speed of 13" (to allow time for the drawing) an ISO of 50 (to reduce grain) and an aperture of F4.5 (to narrow the pale of focus to draw the viewer to the eyes of the model), I began by dragging the fibre optic lamp across the face to create the intricate lines as seen in Heilmann's image. Although, I did notice that Heilmann keeps the eyes closed in the image which does add a feeling serenity, however I was intrigued by the possibility of the reflections of light in the eyes and therefore chose to keep mine open. After using the entire face, I narrowed my focus to just one eye (and dropped the shutter speed to 6" as it was a smaller area to cover) to see if I could accentuate it through the use of the light trails and to further examine the reflections the light produced.
It is evident that my images have not used as deep a consideration of design of light drawings, however I am still happy with the images I produced as a first attempt in comparison to a master of the art.
In my editing process, I boosted the contrast, dropped the highlights and the shadows, and increased the saturation to emphasise the colours of the light across the face. I also lifted the clarity to further define each individual line of light. Playing about with the HSL (hue, saturation, and luminance) feature in lightroom, I adjusted the blue highlights on the top left of the image to produce more of a graduation of tone across the face rather than a block of colour. I particularly like the result and feel that it links quite well with the works of Gunnar Heilmann.
'Daniel, Germany' by Gunnar Heilmann - 2017
Star tails
Tiina Törmänen
'Wanderer' by Tiina Törmänen - n.d.
This image shows a lone ‘wanderer’ in the midst of a winter tundra. In the sky lies an awe inspiring landscape of stars. The inclusion of such a large number of stars in the image makes it seem almost surreal.
By use of a long exposure, Törmänen has allowed the camera to capture the light of the stars from hundreds of lightyears away. I would estimate that the exposure time is around 30 seconds, (possibly more in bulb mode) to allow time for the stars to make an imprint on the camera's sensor. An ISO of 200-600 would minimise grain whilst still allowing the faint stars to be visible in the image, and an aperture of F22 would allow the whole image to be in focus and compensate for the length of time the shutter is open for.
Also, Törmänen uses a ‘wanderer’ as a point of foreground interest. The use of a human as the foreground interest is significant here as it allows the artist to show how extraordinarily small we are as a race in comparison to what lies above us. This hence links again to Friederich's philosophy that we are only minute parts of the universe, standing in awe of the work of the divine - which becomes overwhelmingly evident when we take a look at the night sky. Friedrich used dramatic landscapes in his paintings to present the idea that
humans are helpless against the power of nature. He was also extremely important as an artist as he did much towards establishing the concept of the sublime (the quality of greatness) as a central focus for romanticism and thus developed the movement. However, after his death, his reputation declined as the era of Romanticism drew to a close and gave way to a new era of Realism. It was only in the 20th century that his works began to re-surface and into the 21st that his reputation began to grow once more.
As a photographer from Finnish Lapland, Törmänen is situated in the ideal location for astronomy photography. Due to the minimal amount of settlers, there is very little light pollution and therefore her images remain untainted by unnatural light.
Törmänen started taking photographs in 1998, a year after she moved to Helsinki to study. Photography opportunities in the early 2000s were limited if you did not attend art school. After many rejected applications to various different art schools, Törmänen was told at her last entrance examination “You are too good for this school; you are not going to have the motivation to photograph squirrels with the rest of the students.” Consequently, she did not make it into art school.
Making a living as a chef, Törmänen documented life around her with a 35mm film camera. However, after feeling a strong desire to return to the North, she used up all of her savings to buy a DSLR camera and moved back. Beginning with nature and landscape pictures, Törmänen has since then cultivated her skills in landscape photography and transformed it into a profession.
I personally feel that Törmänen’s journey is inspiring as, despite the fact that she never made it into art school, she has still managed to pursue a career in photography and is now doing what she loves. Additionally, I am inspired by the incredible images that she takes and would very much like to attempt some of my own, following in her footsteps.
Response
I tried here to recreate Törmänen's feeling of wonder in her starscape images. I used a shutter speed of 13 seconds to allow the stars to make an imprint on the camera sensor, an ISO of 100 to reduce grain and balanced it with an aperture of F18 to correctly expose the image and still keep all the elements in focus. I used the foreground interest of a church and its gateway in order to put a scale to the stars above. These features juxtapose the size of the creations of humanity in comparison to the vast expanse of the night sky. Additionally, the use of the church forms a further link to Freidrich's ideology, the stars representing the awe of the divine with a church below showing our religious devotion to the creator.
I am pleased overall by the way that my images turned out. I particularly like the graduation of tone in the sky from lilac to navy which emphasises the bright light of the stars. However, there is present in some of my images an area of more orange light projected onto the side of the church and the gateway. This light originates from a nearby house and thus taints the image with unnatural light. Furthermore the location of the church in a small village resulted in there being light pollution in my images, however it was such at such a low level due to the rural situation that it had little to no effect on the photos overall.
In Burri's images, there is a very strong sense of connection between the stars, coming together to form a constellation. Inspired by this, I chose to create constellations of my own in my nightscape images via the use of silver thread. I stitched constellations into a printed image to link the stars together and create a visually appealing artwork.
The Matterhorn by Roman Burri - n.d.
Response 11
This shoot was devoted to using a long exposure to combine both stars and light trails into one image. I drew on my previous experience in using cars for light trails to use as my focus point for the image and create leading lines that make the image appear more dynamic. This dynamic element juxtaposes the static starscape and hence produce an effective conjunction of the styles of Gjon Mili and Tiina Törmänen. In order to take these images, I positioned my tripod (used to reduce camera shake during a long exposure) on a bridge over the A30 to capture the fusion of car light trails and stars. I used a shutter speed of 13 seconds to allow enough time for multiple cars to drive through the shot on each side of the road to produce a sufficient volume of light lines. The aperture I used was F22 so that both the start and the end of the light trails, and also the stars would be in focus. My ISO was at 400 so I was able to capture the light of the stars and compensate for the light let in by the one shutter however, this did include a fair amount of grain in the resulting images.
Compositionally, I used the rule of thirds here to produce a more aesthetically pleasing image. I placed the horizon line on the bottom third line for all of the images despite changing my position on the bridge. I then later added the foreground feature of a tree along the left side covering just over the third line. I found that the images containing the most light trails were more visually attractive as it made the image lighter on the whole and helped to further contrast with the darkness of the sky.
Unfortunately due to this location being closer to a much larger settlement, the level of light pollution was greatly increased and as such is far more visible in the image. A orangey glow resides over the left hand side of the image, however this effect doesn't entirely ruin the images. Despite being a somewhat unnatural addition, the light pollution actually helps to light up the darker tree-line along the side of the road and thus prevents it from being underexposed.
Strobes
Harold E Edgerton
'Jackie jumps the bench' by Harold Edgerton - 1938
This image shows the progression of a dog (Jackie) jumping over a bench. There are multiple frames combined into one image of the different points of the dog’s leap. This makes it appear as if the creature is more of a millipede or centipede than a dog.
The photo displays a smooth arc of bright white that is the dog, contrasting with the greys of the floor and the blacks of the background. The complete blackness of the background reduces distraction and therefore the viewer is forced to focus on the foreground activity.
As the inventor of the electronic flash, Edgerton was able to capture things that had never before been seen by the human eye. Up until then, using flash in photography meant using flash powder – a mixture of magnesium and potassium chlorate – which created an incandescent controlled explosion. Edgerton created a stroboscopic light that contained a bulb full of inert gas, initially mercury.
This concept was very new in Edgerton’s photographic career as he began working on his ‘multiflash’ technique with the help of Gjon Mili in the late 1930s, producing most of his images in 1938. This new technique would have caused major shockwaves into the art community due to the fact that at the time, photography was still a very new concept and there were a very limited number of things that were able to be photographed due to the use of film and plates in cameras.
At the time, photography was very studio based and had a very rigid, laborious technique. Edgerton was interested in capturing motion in a photograph as a scientific focus rather than an artistic experiment, which was extremely different to the protocol of photography in his time period. The development of his electronic flash allowed the him to clearly portray events that took place at such a speed that they had never before been photographed and thus revolutionised the world of photography. In collaboration with Gjon Mili, Edgerton continued his original intention of using strobe to find faults in factory machinery and expanded into the disclosure of more everyday events. Mili used stroboscopic equipment in his photography, and working with Edgerton, they produced a series of ‘multi exposures’ showing motion in a single image. His key motivation was always to understand processes and then to teach others his findings.I feel that this image is incredibly inspiring considering that fact that Edgerton pioneered his own equipment in order to create it. I too am intrigued by the more scientific concept of photographing movement and would like to use the technique that Edgerton developed in order to show the movements of a gymnast. I believe that my use of the same technique will produce more modernised images and therefore juxtapose Edgerton’s photographs.
'Alicia Alonso' for Life magazine by Gjon Mili - 1939
'Golf swing' by Harold E Edgerton - 1939
Working closely with Harold Edgerton, Mili worked on utilising the electronic flash to produce 'multi exposures' that we now come to call 'strobe photography'. Within these images exists multiple versions of the subject, each frozen at different points in time by a sequence of bright flashes. Before becoming a freelance photographer working for LIFE magazine in 1939, Mili spent most of the late 30's using this rapid-fire sequence technique to produce images of the motion involved in dance, athletics, and theatrical and musical performance.
As the inventor of the electronic flash, Edgerton experimented with the use of 'multi exposures' as a scientist rather than an artist and as such cared little for the image overall, merely seeking to show never seen before movements - too fast for the human eye to discern. His images are consequently all very much meticulously planned out.
In more modern work, Edgerton's original intention of strobe as a scientific representation of motion captured in a photograph has digressed somewhat to a more contemporary, artistic approach. Artists such as Patrick Lienin and José Joaquín Aguilar López have branched into using strobe photography with people to create aesthetically pleasing compositions, similar to Gjon Mili's work.
'The stars within us' by Patrick Lienin - 2014
'The swan' by José Joaquín Aguilar López - n.d.
Response
In this shoot I attempted to use Edgerton's 'multi flash' technique to produce 'multi exposures' of my own. I began by using the Sony flash unit at a flash power 1/32 which produced images that barely showed the model against the white background. I then increased the power of the flash 1/4, but it was unable to sustain such a high power for a succession of flashes and therefore the model was much clearer, but only two positions were shown. Next I considered that it may have been the pale background that resulted in more faint figures than Gjon Mili and Harold Edgerton produced and hence I added a darker backdrop. This new background was even worse for showing the positions of the model and therefore I decided to revert back to the original backdrop. Making a compromise at a flash power of 1/8 with the white wall as a background, I managed to eventually achieve some strobe images containing faintly visible alternate positions. These images were taken with ISO 50 to make the image dark enough to make the individual strobe bodies stand out further, shutter speed 4" to allow time for the movement and aperture F7.1 to balance the exposure. I used a variety of different gymnastics movements, examining the results of having both static and dynamic parts of the body in one image - my particular favourite being the 'elephant lift' in which the gymnast circles her legs around and up into a handstand. This image is reminiscent of the work of José Joaquín Aguilar López which combines strobe photography with ballet.
I feel that this shoot would perhaps have produced clearer images if a matte black background was used (to prevent light reflections) and the model wore lighter clothing or perhaps showed a little skin around the stomach so that she would be better seen against the background.
Here is evidenced the path by which I achieved my favourite shot from this series. I began by setting off the exposure with the strobe light as an initial test to try and capture the gymnast's motion. From this first photograph I learned that I had begun the exposure too early and the gymnast did not have enough time to complete the move. To combat this, I asked the gymnast to move her legs around faster in order to get a wide range of leg positions from the floor all the way up to a legs-together handstand. Due to the nature of the movement requiring much more strength at the start, the speed of the lift was uneven and thus the leg positions were closer together at the bottom with the slower movement and further apart towards the top with the faster movement and also still not quite joined at the top. Upon seeing this image, I decided to drop my ideal of achieving such a vast range of movement as it simply wasn't possible in the time frame which I was unable to extend due to the sustainability of the flash on this power level (dropping down a level would have resulted in even fainter figures). With the next image, I set the exposure off slightly later and the gymnast was able to close hr legs in time, however the movement was still uneven. I repeated this same shot several more times, asking the gymnast to try and move her legs at a constant speed and eventually, I arrived at a shot that I was pleased with.
'Tower bridge, London' by Idris Khan - 2012
Idris Khan specialises in architectural photography, but not in the way that we are accustomed to. Taking a photograph of the same subject from many angles, Khan then bends these images together with the use of photoshop in order to produce a visibly challenging image that is much more complicated than it first appears. By layering each of the images over each other Khan creates a photograph of a stationary object in such a way that appears to be in motion. Idris Khan is a photographer well known for his ‘multi exposures’. However, unlike Edgerton and Mili, Khan creates his multi exposures in post production editing.
The similarities between these two images are quite striking. Both images arouse a feeling of confusion through the obscuring of a well known subject via the use of a multi exposure. Khan’s image is also quite inviting due to the the warm tones visible in the image (despite it being monochrome), whereas my image is colder with a stronger vignetting, focusing the eye on the slightly uncomfortable subject. Additionally, my image is taken more in the style of Edgerton and Mili through the use of a continuous strobe rather than a series of images layered over one another. However, I may yet use this technique of layering images later on in my work.
Michael Langan
'Choros' by Michal Langan - 2013
Based in Los Angeles, Michael Langan is a filmmaker with a passion for experimental animation and visual effects, producing bizarre and beautiful films that have been played at over a hundred film festivals worldwide. His films and music videos have been called "confounding and fascinating" by The New York Times, "inventive" by The Atlantic, and "eerily beautiful" by NPR. In this particular film - named ‘Choros’ - Langan experiments with the use of layering footage to resemble to work of multi exposure artists Edgerton and Mili.
Langan has dressed his model in white and lit her from one side against a dark background. I would suggest that a large warehouse has been used with a studio lighting set up on the right hand side lighting the model’s left side and letting the rest fall into shadow producing a range of tonality across the model’s body. The white dress allows the model to be more clearly seen against the dark background and the side lighting produces individual highlights drawing the viewers’ eye. Additionally, Langan uses a torchlight to
illuminate features and make them more prominent in the image. The fact that the light is more orange than the studio lighting further accentuates the features that it shines on and the slow and fluid movements allow for a more aesthetically pleasing film.
On the whole, the overlay of the footage more than 30 times at staggered intervals creates an incredible and awe inspiring piece of work. I would very much like to also create a similar short film, however I would perhaps revert to the use of a gymnast as it is a sport close to my heart and I feel that I could make and advance on my strobe images representing the sport by producing a video that shows it as beautifully as Langan’s works.