Out of all the photographers I liked August Sander and Diane Arbus style the most. August Sander took portraits of ordinary people with their occupation behind them. For example, this picture shows a chef and his kitchen behind him.

On the other hand Diane Arbus also took portraits but her subject was people who were more unusual and not commonly subjects of other photographers.

Mexican Dwarf in his hotel room N.Y.C. 1970

At the end I decided to imply August Sander’s style and go back to the hotel where I would take photographs of the staff with their occupations shown in the background. The difference though would be that I will not be using black and white photographs.

 However, before I went back to the hotel I called them to ask them for permission which also saved me time in case I was going to be told that this was not possible again. Luckily the manager agreed to allow me to take pictures of the staff but told me I would have to ask them individually whether they want to participate.

My project involves me takng series of pictures of a Brighton Hotel because I want to explore the difference between DayLife and NightLife at a Hotel as I find this fascinating.

However, I was able to take pictures of tidied rooms. I am not going to post all of the pictures that were taken at the shoot because there’s too many so I’ll only post those that I was particularly happy/unhappy with.

The two photographs above were taken from inside the room that I was let into looking at what people can see when they staying in that room and look through the window. I thought this ‘point of view’ picture was interesting as it’s so realistic.

After this shoot I was very lost because now I’d have to change my whole project as I cannot take pictures of untidied room therefore can’t compare these rooms to anything other than other perfectly made rooms which was rather boring and would make my project look like a brochure for the hotel.

One of the difficulties that I came across while shooting was that because the hotel was near the main road there were many cars going past, some of which were in my shot and therefore, can’t be used as it covers most of the entrance of the hotel.

Another problem with this shoot was that a few cars parked right outside the hotel also blocking the entrance. However, I’ve decided that these pictures are fine as it shows that the hotel is busy and there’s many coming to stay there or perhaps book room(s). Moreover, there were some pedestrians going by who also blocked the main entrance’s view. I managed to overcome this problem by spending more time taking pictures and coming back to the scene every so often on the same day.

After taking pictures of the hotel from the outside I went in to ask for permission to shoot inside the hotel. The receptionist told me it was more than possible but because I went on a Saturday it was rather busy so I was given the manager’s telephone number to arrange a time when I could go in for the photoshoot without disturbing anyone.

This is our presentation which was made for Microsoft PowerPoint.

Henri Cartier-Bresson
1908-2004
‘I crave to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes’

  -Regarded as one of the greatest photographers of his time, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a shy Frenchman who elevated “snap shooting” to the level of a refined and disciplined art. His sharp-shooter’s ability to catch “the decisive moment,” his precise eye for design, his self-effacing methods of work, and his literate comments about the theory and practice of photography made him a legendary figure among contemporary photojournalists. -was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the “street photography” or “real life reportage” style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed. -unsuccessful attempts to learn music,

-He owned a Box Brownie as a boy, using it for taking holiday snapshots, and later experimented with a 3 X 4 view camera. But he was also interested in painting and studied for two years in a Paris studio. In 1927, at the age of 19, Cartier-Bresson entered a private art school and the Lhote Academy, the Parisian studio of the Cubist painter and sculptor André Lhote. Lhote’s ambition was to unify the Cubists’ approach to reality with classical artistic forms, and to link the French classical tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David to Modernism. Cartier-Bresson also studied painting with society portraitist Jacques Émile Blanche. Cartier-Bresson often regarded Lhote as his teacher of photography without a camera. This early training in art helped develop the subtle and sensitive eye for composition, which was one of his greatest assets as a photographer.

-In 1931, at the age of 22, Cartier-Bresson spent a year as a hunter in the West African bush. Catching a case of backwater fever, he returned to France to convalesce. It was at this time, in Marseille, that he first truly discovered photography. He obtained a Leica and began snapping a few pictures with it. It was a pivotal experience. A new world, a new kind of seeing, spontaneous and unpredictable, opened up to him through the narrow rectangle of the 35 mm viewfinder. His imagination caught fire. He recalls how he excitedly “prowled the streets all day, feeling very strung-up and ready to pounce, determined to ‘trap’ life, to preserve life in the act of living.”

-He remained devoted to the 35 mm camera throughout his career. The speed, mobility, the large number of exposures per loading, and, above all, the unobtrusiveness of the little camera perfectly fitted his shy, quicksilver personality. -WW2 interrupted -esuming his interrupted career as a photojournalist, he helped form the Magnum picture agency in 1947. Assignments for major magazines would take him on global travels, across Europe and the United States, to India, Russia and China. Many books of Cartier-Bresson photographs were published in the 50’s and 60’s, the most famous being ‘The Decisive Moment’ (1952). A major milestone in his career was a massive, 400-print retrospective exhibition, which toured the United States in 1960.

-Photography, he insists, is too speedy a medium. He prefers the slow, old reliables–paint or ink or pencil lead–to the mad dash of light through a lens. “Drawings go further than photography,” ]#

-As a journalist, Henri Cattier Bresson felt an intense need to communicate what he thought and felt about what he saw, and while his pictures often were subtle they were rarely obscure. He had a high respect for the discipline of press photography, of having to tell a story crisply in one striking picture.

-He has said that a sense of human dignity is an essential quality for any photojournalist, and feels that no picture, regardless of how brilliant from a visual or technical standpoint, can be successful unless it grows from love and comprehension of people and an awareness of ‘man facing his fate.”

  “the decisive moment, it is the
simultaneous recognition, in a fraction
of a second, of the significance of an
event as well as the precise organization
of forms which gives that event
its proper expression.”
(1952)

“Hyères, France, 1932″

Dieppe, 1926

The photographs above are the ones that  Henri Cartier-Bresson are most famous for.

On my first photoshoot I went to take pictures of a Hotel, which unfortunately turned out to be a ‘Health Club’ therefore, I could not use the material that I had from that shoot. I was very dissapointed and immediately decided to erase the photos without uploading them onto my blog first therefore, I have no pictures of my very first shoot.

However, for my second shoot I went back to Brighton and chose a different hotel to take pictures of at night time first as it’s winter so it gets dark very early (approximately around 4pm).

My photographs came out rather blurry because it was very dark and the shutter’s speed was slower than usual which meant that it stayed open for longer. I had to keep the camera and my hands still which was a hard thing to do as it was very windy and cold. The result of this is my blurry pictures which I won’t be able to include in my project but nevertheless thought they looked interesting as the cars are going past and because of the speed of the shutter it captured the lights as they were going past.

The shooting process shall continue and next time I’ll have to go inside the hotel as well where I’m planning on taking pictures of rooms. My plan is to take pictures of tidied rooms as the ‘daytime rooms’ and untidied rooms as the ‘night time rooms’. I realise however, that firstly I will need permission from the hotel to take pictures and will explai to them my project so they’ll know that this is not going to be public and I’m not going to make any money out of it. I’ll also need at least one person to be in one of my pictures, which I thought could be one of the receptionists perhaps.

Picture taken with the flash off

Picture taken with the flash ON

Picture taken with the flash on

 Then we were told to go outside and experiment there as the sun would be muc stronger there so we could take better pictures. These are the results.

The picture above with the photographer (me)’s shadow in the photograph was aspired by photographer Lee Friedlander who also chose for his shadowto be in many of his famous pictures.

The first set of pictures were taken in Stanmer Park next to the church where we were told to just experiment with our cameras. (shutting speed, focusing, different angles etc.)

Church and clock behind tree

Church behind gate (gate's in focus)

Church Behind gate (church's in focus)

Camera on the ground Gat opening with gate being in focus

'L'

'O'

'V'

'I'

'O'

'V'

'A'

'T'

'H'

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For my main project I thought of taking pictures of ShakeAway, a milkshake shop located in Brighton. Our project is to take a series of pictures of a place of our interest and select eight of those photos along with some sound to go with it.

ShakeAway

 My other idea was to take a series of pictures of a hotel at night time and then again daytime and show the difference between the moods of being in a hotel at night and during the day time. As there are many hotels on the seafront this shouldn’t be difficult.

A Hotel In Brighton

However, I’m not entirely sure which idea I will go with as I need to do more research.