ASSIGNMENT 2

Photography 1

Identity And Place

Assignment 2

Vice versa

Assignment Approach

When I get access to the Teatro Accademico of Cittadella, in the afternoon, I wonder if I will have the chance to take photos of some young musicians who, in the evening, will parade their skill in a special public event called “I Nuovi Talenti” (The New Talents).

The theatre itself is a small jewel inside another jewel, Cittadella’s middle-age castle, in the north east of Italy, Padua province.

When I am allowed to enter in the backstage, two hours before the event, I have no clear idea of what I will do, but the evening before I wrote down some cues and collected some information on each musician: I realize that this preparation activity is precious in order to overcome the potential confusion of being in front of a lot of people and take photographs without an idea of where to go.

I choose then to work around two cues: focus on one musician and follow him/her all the way from backstage to the exhibition, or choose an unconventional location and a background and portray several musicians.

I am oriented more to the first cue, first of all, because I am confident that I will have the possibility to shoot both unaware and aware photos. Then because I can fulfill assignment’s requirements and take portraits in the studio (the theatre’s backstage, unaware or aware) and street (the theatre’s stage unaware).

I don’t take any decision until, once inside the theatre, I see the young pianist Filippo.

My first choice is to work around a small photo story through Filippo’s portraits, from the practicing in the backstage to the exhibition on stage.

But, anyway, I decide I will not renounce to the second project, find an unconventional location in the backstage and shoot some other portraits.

Location and technical configuration

I cannot interfere with preparation activities, time and concentration of musicians, so I am not allowed to use tripod and lights other than what is provided by the theatre’s equipment and facilities.

It will then arise an issue about the technical quality of the outcome because I am obliged to use slow shutter speed. However, from another point of view, it is an opportunity to preserve the theatre’s atmosphere and ambient.

I set up my camera with focal 24-70 mm (38-112 eq.), high iso (1600) and slow shutter speed.

I will shoot every portrait using maximum aperture (f2.8) in order to blur the background and switch to black and white.

The use of black and white will allow us to obtain grainy “old fashion” images and focus on the design made by lights & shadows.

The more, being a pianist myself, I have always associated piano with black and white. My vision of a pianist is with a black suit, a white shirt, hands on a black and white keyboard and a black & white piano score.

Filippo

I selected five images that, as a set, describe the path from the practice-time, directly on stage but in an empty theatre, all the way to the concert, in public.

Image 1 is taken from the backstage, toward the pianist (back point of view), while he plays for practice on stage.

Filippo is not aware of my presence since I haven’t talked with him yet.

Image 1

I then approach the pianist directly on stage and engage with him, explaining that I am not there to document the event but to develop a small story through portraits.

It is not easy to make Filippo understand that my aim is to obtain “fresh” portraits, so I have to shoot a number of portraits where he has a cliché posture and he is definitely not himself.

The more, musicians and stage performers are mostly prone to act while they play, and this has been the main issue all along that evening.

Image 2 is the “freshest” I could obtain: it is like Filippo notices my presence and reacts with a bit of surprise.

Image 2

After some “aware” portraits, I walk away and pretend to focus on other musicians. In reality, I shoot some photos from the piano’s front.

In image 3 I could catch a particular moment of pianist’s practice, while he tries to get inspiration looking up, but at no particular point on the theatre’s upper backstage.

Here I take advantage of the theatre’s illuminations so that Filippo’s face is well illuminated and his eyes blink because of the catchlight.

Image 3

It is now time to go on stage, in public, and play the real.

In image 4 Filippo waits for the speaker's introduction, a few seconds before going on stage.

For this image I chose to use another camera, a micro 4/3 with a larger aperture (f 1.7) and a shorter focal length (10,7 mm, 21 mm eq). By this solution, given the short focal length, I obtain a good depth of field, no matter how large the aperture, so that we can have a clear view of part of the theatre between the curtains.

This is my favorite image, providing that it keeps a clear meaning while it is in the sequence: from the previous image, we know that the subject is a pianist, that he is in the backstage, and he looks to the stage.

Image 4

As a worthy closure of the sequence, Image 5 is the last step: Filippo’s public exhibition.

I had to work a bit in postproduction in order to increase background exposure and allow us to see spectators.

Image 5

Reflection

In the first period, I honestly admit that I struggled to find out a good idea to develop: I had put a lot of energy in previous exercises and it sounds I could not easily get out of this hole.

Then, when in the location (the theatre), I realized that I could develop a story around five portraits, and the outcome came out.

I am satisfied with the result: I am confident I succeeded in composing Filippo’s identity with the location, assembling private and public moments in a small world (the theatre again), where we have the studio together with the street, the aware together with the unaware.

When I performed this half-a-day work, I shot another project as well: three musicians in the same background. If I have to make a comparison between the first and the second project, providing that the shooting of the second project was 100% “aware and in the studio”, the technical quality of images is superior (following contact sheet).

I am however confident that the first project, the one I chose to submit to my tutor, is more powerful and that I have translated my ideas into visual outcomes, according to assignment requirements.

I believe that technical choices, despite difficulties/limitations raised by location and context (a public event), were adequate in order to obtain good technical quality and powerful content.

Contact Sheet

Formative feedback by Tutor

Student name

Giorgio Colonna

Student number

514841

Course/Unit

Identity & Place

Assignment number

2

Type of tutorial

Written

Overall Comments

This is much more self-assured work than in your first assignment, Giorgio – well done. I’m impressed by your ability to work calmly and creatively in an unfamiliar situation and with restrictions on both equipment and time. I think this represents a considerable leap forward leap forward for you (building on elements of your previous OCA work) and this should fill you with confidence for the assignments that follow. Your enthusiasm is evident in this work; it was important that you chose a subject that genuinely interests you. Again, well done.

Assessment potential

I understand your aim is to go for the Photography Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, providing you commit yourself to the course, I believe you have the potential to pass at assessment. In order to meet all the assessment criteria, there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I have outlined in my feedback.

Feedback on assignment

· Commendable planning and preparation. You did well to gain access to this venue and to secure these privileged insights, both backstage and on-stage.

· You took a thoughtful approach to shooting, once there, coming up with two plans before following through on working with Filippo.

· Your technical knowledge allowed you to work resourcefully without lights or a tripod, to good effect. (Probably helpful that you were forced to work relatively slowly and methodically, in the circumstances.)

· It seems that you were able to work very discreetly around (‘unaware’) Filippo, and also that you found exactly the right moment to his (‘aware’) portrait at a time when he would have had other things on his mind than posing for a portrait. Great to see you extending this level of empathy towards your subject – it’s an essential aspect of portraiture and one which seems to come naturally to you.

· The images work well as a series – I agree with your decision to work in black and white, mainly because your sense of composition is strong and compelling enough to carry it off very well.

· The series has a clear narrative and says something about the creative process itself – the practice, trial-and-error and work that goes into producing a finished piece.

· You manage to convey the sense of drama both pre-performance and during the performance. Image 4 is particularly strong – very well captured and something of a “decisive moment”. Lighting, composition and subject all working extremely well together here.

· Image 5 may benefit from a slight undoing of some of the post-production – perhaps a mere hint of the audience is sufficient?Also Image 1 looks a little out of focus on your blog, but I think that could be more to do with the image compression from Wordpress(?).

· In terms of the sequence, perhaps it works in favour of the overall balance to swap imange 2 and 3 around..?

· See if you can come up with a suitable title for the work plus a brief introduction to what the work is about – I am happy to offer a second opinion here and it will be helpful towards preparing your work for assessment.

· Make tests now to see how well the images print (perhaps trying different papers) – don’t wait until the last minute before assessment if you can help it.

Coursework

· No evidence

Research

· No evidence

Learning Log

· Your learning log is currently looking quite sparse! Maybe this is to do with permissions..?

· I would expect to see coursework; research sections for reading & viewing; a journal section indicating thoughts, inspirations, tests.

Suggested reading/viewing

· Street & Studio, Ute Eskildsen (ed.), Tate Publishing, 2008

· Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, 1956 – important sociological twentieth century text on everyday ‘performance’ of ‘identity’

Summary

Strengths

· Good rapport with subjects

· Confident approach

· Range of shooting styles

For Development

· More evidence of creative process – contact sheets etc

· Contact sheets may hold the key to transforming this into more of a series

· Coursework is an important part of the learning package

Reflection on Tutor's feedback

I was pleased to see that my work was appreciated by my Tutor.

The technical difficulties when taking pictures on stage and backstage are many, and some cannot be solved without pushing one's equipment to the limit.

The use of flash is absolutely prohibited: even if allowed, the use would be limited by the location and the atmosphere of the stage would be ruined. It is, therefore, better to make the most of the light/shadow effect of the ambient light and renounce to resolution and depth of field.

I confirm that I had to adapt to the situation, because I could not move freely on the stage and backstage, I didn't have to make any noise so as not to disturb the concentration of the artists and I could not occupy, if not for a few seconds, the routes of entry and exit from the stage.

All this forced me to improvise, push the sensitivity of the camera's sensor to the limit, and prevented me from repeating some shots to make sure I got the result.

Even if I could have used a tripod, I would still have to bring the ISO to the limit, because a musician in the act of playing moves a lot and very quickly and, unless you consciously look for the blur, the only possibility it's using fast shutter speed.

I got photos with a lot of electronic noise: I believe that this could also be an added value if I think back to when I used 800 ASA films and I got grainy photos, which have their appeal.

Photo number 1 is actually not out of focus but suffers from some factors, which all lead to having a poorly defined photo: f 2.1 and ISO 1600. This allowed me to seize the moment, photograph freehand (t 1/50) with focal length 26 mm.

The photo has a lot of noise. In the rework, I will check to limit post-production and I will check the photo at maximum resolution.

I would prefer not to invert the photo 2 and the photo 3, because the sequence 1,2,3 correctly sums up what was my path from backstage to the two sides of the stage: I arrived behind Filippo (photo 1, unaware), I manifested myself at his side (photo 2, aware), I talked to him, I asked him to continue playing while I pretended to be uninterested in him and then I took shot 3 (unaware) from the opposite side of the stage.

I agree that it is not necessary to push so much in post-production to bring out the public in photo number 5.

I, therefore, have many cues for my rework and I have to find out a title for the work.

As for the learning log, unfortunately, the problem of displaying my blog in a non-full-screen window prevented the view of the side-bar, which contains the entire learning log.

This was also the case for Assignment 1 because it is a (not so positive) feature of the product I use (Google Blogger).

Now the problem is solved through a three-lines icon that, once selected, makes the side-bar appear. I have inserted the instructions to avoid this problem on the main page of the blog.

Nevertheless I am aware I will have to enrich my learning log as much as possible: I have two researches and two readings of books I have obtained on my Tutor's advice.

Rework

From Back To On Stage