Project Idea:
To produce portraits of my friend group using my car and the lens from a 5x4 camera to produce 20"x16" photographs on Ilford black and white paper.
I am attempting to create afrank and honest portrait ofyouth in the current labour market. The 18-24 categoryrepresent only 12.6% of the labour force, but account forover 30% of the unemployed population.
I will get my subjects to lean in to the lens as if they are leaning in to the car asking to be pickedup. I think young people on ajob hunt is relatable to the actof hitch hiking, especially in respect to temporary
contracts and apprenticeships.
Inspirations:
Ian Ruhter - http://www.ianruhter.com/
Ian Ruhter turned a van into a super large format camera and took inspirational photographs using an old technique called wet plate collodion printing.
Blacking out his van in a similar way to how I do my car he then adds a lens to the back allowing precise control of the shutter, something which I needed to take forward and apply to my car to allow me to take portraits.
Eadweard Muybridge:
The secondary influence behind my work. I had already decided to use my car and use large 20x16 in paper to create photographs. But upon watching a documentary about Eadeard Muybridge I learned that as well as his motion studies he also took photographs using what he called 'mammoth plates'.
These were 20x16 photographs - the same size as I was intending to use! The documentary explained that the camera was a self contained kit that he took around Yosemite and other areas on wheels, just as I would be doing with my car. That was it, I was definitely going to use my car to take photographs.
To produce portraits of my friend group using my car and the lens from a 5x4 camera to produce 20"x16" photographs on Ilford black and white paper.
I am attempting to create afrank and honest portrait ofyouth in the current labour market. The 18-24 categoryrepresent only 12.6% of the labour force, but account forover 30% of the unemployed population.
I will get my subjects to lean in to the lens as if they are leaning in to the car asking to be pickedup. I think young people on ajob hunt is relatable to the actof hitch hiking, especially in respect to temporary
contracts and apprenticeships.
Inspirations:
Ian Ruhter - http://www.ianruhter.com/
Ian Ruhter turned a van into a super large format camera and took inspirational photographs using an old technique called wet plate collodion printing.
Blacking out his van in a similar way to how I do my car he then adds a lens to the back allowing precise control of the shutter, something which I needed to take forward and apply to my car to allow me to take portraits.
Eadweard Muybridge:
The secondary influence behind my work. I had already decided to use my car and use large 20x16 in paper to create photographs. But upon watching a documentary about Eadeard Muybridge I learned that as well as his motion studies he also took photographs using what he called 'mammoth plates'.
These were 20x16 photographs - the same size as I was intending to use! The documentary explained that the camera was a self contained kit that he took around Yosemite and other areas on wheels, just as I would be doing with my car. That was it, I was definitely going to use my car to take photographs.
Steve Pyke:
Well known for his 5x4 portraits I checked out his work to help visualise the effect I was going for.
Sharp focus on the face dropping off at the ears. Strong separation of the face from the rest of the body and the back ground, and the ends of the nose out of focus.
The background work for this project began around 8 months ago when I first began to experiment with pinhole photography and making my own camera.
I used a variety of boxes to make cameras from a wide angle matchbox, to a large telephoto camera. I captured some great images and learned lessons about focal length, image circles and exposure times that would help me create my car camera with confidence.
Evidence of these experiments can be seen on the following links:
Well known for his 5x4 portraits I checked out his work to help visualise the effect I was going for.
Sharp focus on the face dropping off at the ears. Strong separation of the face from the rest of the body and the back ground, and the ends of the nose out of focus.
The background work for this project began around 8 months ago when I first began to experiment with pinhole photography and making my own camera.
I used a variety of boxes to make cameras from a wide angle matchbox, to a large telephoto camera. I captured some great images and learned lessons about focal length, image circles and exposure times that would help me create my car camera with confidence.
At
that point the camera was a simple pinhole camera which used a coke can
with a pin hole in it to capture images over times between 4 minutes
and 2 and half hours.
Evidence of these experiments can be seen on the following links:
This was the background experimenting for my FMP done, whilst also fulfilling the experimental photography brief. The next step was to add a 5x4 lens to have the control just like Ian Ruhter. Myself, and my tutors Kevin and Irena agreed I basically had to just improve my technique and go out and shoot for my FMP.
This is the first image I shot using the 5x4 lens:
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All had gone well but fitting the lens in to the set up was difficult and required some improvisation that I knew I couldn't rely on for every shot. I had to refine the process of turning the car in to a camera to cut down set up time and accommodate a 5x4 lens properly.
I also had to have access to at least one door of the car. Up until this point I had had to get in the car and have someone else shut me in and cover the door. Now I had corrected this I could get in and out on my own with no fears of the sheets falling off.
I did this by getting the black out fabric customized to fit specific sections of the car, and having a hole cut to fit a 5x4 lens. This meant I could easily identify which bit of fabric went where and meant that the car was now completely blacked out quickly and easily. I also added tin foil over the weaker areas that the card board didn't quite cover.The car was now completely light tight and I could continue with my project:
Road to Nowhere In Particular - A Portrait of Youth
I began creating photographs
using my car around 8 months ago to experiment with the use of large format and
pinhole photography.
Over the following months I streamlined the process of photographing using my car and added a 5x4 lens with analogue controls to allow me to capture photographs in a fraction of a second. This then allowed me to move from long exposures of landscapes to portrait photography.
Over the following months I streamlined the process of photographing using my car and added a 5x4 lens with analogue controls to allow me to capture photographs in a fraction of a second. This then allowed me to move from long exposures of landscapes to portrait photography.
My project was inspired by my worries for the future upon
leaving education in three years’ time.
I decided to photograph my peer group using my car, most having now left education for good. I have tried to make them appear like hitchhikers, as a metaphor for how many young people feel upon leaving education and looking for work, hoping the next opportunity will pick them up and take them closer to where they want to be.
I decided to photograph my peer group using my car, most having now left education for good. I have tried to make them appear like hitchhikers, as a metaphor for how many young people feel upon leaving education and looking for work, hoping the next opportunity will pick them up and take them closer to where they want to be.
Young people aged 18-24 represent just 12.6% of the labour
force in the UK, but account for over 30% of the unemployed population.
A quote from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) economic report Feb 2014 states:
A quote from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) economic report Feb 2014 states:
“While the fall in unemployment
rates across the different categories suggests that all age groups have
benefited from the economic recovery, the 18 to 24 age category has borne the
brunt of the overall rise in unemployment since 2008 […] If the increase in
unemployment has been distributed evenly across the labour force, both sets of
figures should be broadly similar.”
i.e. if unemployment were equal across all ages, the 18 – 24
category would only make up 12.6% of the unemployed.
However, the fact is that upon leaving education, young
people find themselves in competition with a large amount of graduates for a
small amount of jobs. Not only this, but their higher qualifications put them
up against 25-34 age range who not only have qualifications, but have experience.
They find themselves in a dangerous position: Not in Employment, Education or Training or ‘NEET’. This is bad.
They find themselves in a dangerous position: Not in Employment, Education or Training or ‘NEET’. This is bad.
This forces young people to have to move back home, take
zero hours or temporary work contracts, apply for apprenticeships or unpaid
internships with no promise of a job at the end, or face the stigma of having
to claim benefits, and be confronted proposals that those on benefits should work
for free for 'experience' in menial jobs.
A BBC news report in January 2014
on a study by the Princes’ Trust charity “found that long-term unemployed young
people were more than twice as likely as their peers to have been prescribed
anti-depressants. One in three (32%) had contemplated suicide, while one in
four (24%) had self-harmed. The report found 40% of jobless young people had
faced symptoms of mental illness, including suicidal thoughts, feelings of
self-loathing and panic attacks, as a direct result of unemployment.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25559089
The pages below are screen capped from the ONS website offer a more detailed view of the state of employment/unemployment:
Below are photos of the set up with the 5x4 lens attached. You can see where there is cream colored fabric attached to the white fabric at the wing mirror, this extension is cut to allow the mirror to fit between without obstructing the fabric. The circle cut for the lens is also taped to the lens plate to further stop light leaks.
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The windscreen wipers are put of the windscreen fabric to hold it securely in place.
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Here is the lens plate in position behind the fabric.
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This is a photo of the sheet pulled back revealing the lens plate, tin foil and 'holding board' to keep the photo paper in place. The shutter was released by a wired shutter cable which was inside the car.
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Here is what the image looks like projected upside down and reversed on to the white card of the holding board, the white card allowed for a bright image to be shown making setting up a lot easier.
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This image shows the subject in position ready to be photographed.
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Each shoot required the same set up and was purposely shot on days with very similar light conditions. I was relying on natural light to light the images rather than artificial light which can be seen in Ian Ruhters work.
I used a light meter (Weston Master IV) that always showed .5 seconds at f/18 which was the focal length used for each shot, so I knew the lighting was similar.
I used a light meter (Weston Master IV) that always showed .5 seconds at f/18 which was the focal length used for each shot, so I knew the lighting was similar.
I used an assistant for the shots who's job was to turn shutter ring on the 5x4 lens between T and '5' on the ring, and also wind the shutter on to allow me to set up the shot and trigger the shutter.
The depth of focus on the lens was around 1inch wide meaning the subject had to stay in the same position while the shutter was turned to make sure they stayed in focus for the image. A slight movement in any direction could alter the focus point and so I had to be quick in getting the shutter set and wound and putting the paper in place. Each subject had to wait about 5 seconds after each set up to be shot.
Richard
Lawrence
Amy
Ric
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Sham
Trav
And I even managed a self portrait:
Some shots have slights imperfections from being handled and the developing process. You will have noticed the first image is quite fogged, i cannot remember a particular point where this could have happened but it has not completely destroyed the image so I have submitted it.
The photographs of me, Sham, Amy and Lawrence had the strongest negatives and so it was very simple to make positives of them. The once of Ric was quite fast and so I did not make a positive of this image. Instead I photographed it and inverted in it photoshop and played with the curves to get an image.
The self portrait was set up and devised by myself but I had a friend inside check I was in the right position and press the shutter. The cross markings on my head are from the edge of the lens plate where there was a slight leak. It was visible on all the images but as I was much faster at pressing the shutter and getting the paper in place, the effect is not visible on the shots where I was in the car.
Overall I am happy with the results. I was learning as I was going along and know that by the end of the photos I was very confident in approaching the car as a camera and using it to produce photographs. I feel the images have got the look I was going for and my favourite three are Amy, Sham and Richard. Even though the Richard image is fogged I think his expression is more what I was aiming for than some of the others.
