2. Henri Cartier-Bresson
A French born photographer, who was considered one of the
highest rated Photojournalists ever, hence him been branded
‘the father of Photojournalism’. His approach to photography
was a candid approach, like most photojournalistic images
are, due to the true representation you must communicate to
the viewer. The colours of all, if not most of his photographs,
is black and white, similar to all of the photographers of his
time. This is due to the technology and the style yet to be
established. The vast Majority of Cartier-Bresson’s pieces
feature at east one subject and it’s mostly documentary work,
as opposed to landscape style works.
An example of a busy, expressive and documentary
photograph.
3. This particular photograph
is a piece of documentary
photography, opposed to
an abstract piece.
However, unlike many
documentary pieces, this
photograph was taken
singularly, instead of been
in a set or a collection of
images. This is unusual
because the photographer
wants to convey a
narrative to the viewer.
Instead, Cartier-Bresson
lets his individual works
tell the story.
An expressive form of photography is captured here. This
means that the subjects facial features and emotions are
captured within the image. This gives more meaning to the
photograph, while raising questions, such as: Why is he
feeling like this? and what happened in the narrative before
the shot was taken?
As well as been documentary and photojournalism, this
photograph is also portrait. This is evident from the head
and shoulders only been included in the frame of the shot.
However, these 3 applications can be linked. For example,
someone's portrait could be used to accompany journalistic
works, or to tell the story itself. The documentary comes
into it if more than one image is been used as a collection
to tell the narrative.
The focus of this shot is the
main subject within the
photograph. This can be seen
from the background been
blurred out to give greater
detail to the main feature in
the image.
High key and low key lighting
is not predominantly used on
this photograph. Instead,
features of both are used. The
image is a dark and dull
image, but has a lot of light
parts, more than categorised
in low key lighting.
The colouring of the image is
monochrome. This is not a style
the photographer has used,
instead a style all photographers
used in those days. This, as
previously stated, is due to the
technology not been invented
yet.
Location, instead of studio is used for this photograph. This
is because not many photojournalism pieces are captured
in studios. This is because the news stories don’t generally
take place in a studio. This inks to the argument of true
representations must be carried out when taking
photojournalism photographs.
Unlike Cartier-Bresson’s most
popular pieces, this image is not
an observational piece. The way
4. Very little visual information is communicated to the consumer
through this photograph, which therefore concludes the image
is of a passive nature. This is because not many things within the
frame. However, this could be also regarded busy if you look in
great detail at the quantity of trees in the image. On the other
hand, the image as a whole isn’t cramped.
Unlike the examples I have found, along with Cartier-
Bresson’s other works, this image is a landscape piece.
The Frenchman was traditionally a documentary
photographer, due to him specialising in
photojournalism. Even though photojournalism does
encompass landscapes sometimes, in general, this is
unconventional to Henri’s work.
Due to this photograph
been a landscape, which is
linked to nature, organic
shape is used to create this
image. Organic shape
means natural things
creating the shapes you
see on a photograph. On
this particular piece you
see the tree making a
certain shape, therefore
demonstrating the organic
shape technique.
Trees and roads within
the photograph act as
lines to guide the eyes to
the central focus of the
image (the trees and the
main path).
High key lighting is used to capture this
particular photograph. This is because
ambient light from the on location setting
is used. Artificial light isn’t used very often
in landscape photography, instead, post-
production colour saturation and
shadowing would be added.
The photograph looks like it
goes back some distance and
looks like there is plenty of
space in the image. In this
particular example it is done
so the consumer can add
their own interpretations to
the image, which includes
raising questions, such as:
where does the path lead?
How far back does it go and
it bends at both sides, does it
split into two paths?
In terms of balance and
symmetry, this image isn’t
balanced. This is evident in the
image, which you can’t see the
exact same on one side
compared to the other.
5. Documentary photography
as well as photojournalism
are the applications used
on this photograph. The
man on the cycle makes it
a documentary piece,
however, if the cyclist
wasn’t there, this piece
would turn to landscape or
architectural. This shows
how closely linked each
application is to one
another.
A candid or an observational
image is captured here, instead
of a manipulated photograph.
As mentioned previously, this
shot is a documentary
photography piece, however,
like many documentary pieces,
it would have been nearly
impossible to take multiple
shots of the cyclist. This would
therefore mean it would be a
stand alone piece instead of a
collection, unlike traditional
documentary photographs.
This picture is a very unconventional style of taking a
photograph. The way Cartier-Bresson has taken it makes the
central focus, the cyclist, look blurred and therefore not what
the eye is drawn to at first glance. However, like mentioned in
the colour and shadow part, the cyclists black colouring,
compared to the white background makes it stand out instead.
The image is neither high key or low key lighting.
This is due to the image not been bright enough for
high key, but not dark and shaded enough for low
key lighting. However, the main focus of the image,
the cyclist, is shadowed in black to make him stand
out.
Dynamic range is featured in this photograph and is
one of the most noticeable features. You can see
that at the bottom of the photograph, the image is
dark and shadowed, where as the top of the image
is light, which is the main feature of dynamic range.
The angle which the photograph was taken is from
a high vantage point, looking down at the subject,
the cyclist. A wide lens was used for this shot, this
is to ensure a bit of the surrounding setting was
captured, not just the main feature.
6. Adrian Dennis
Commonly known for his sports photography, Adrian Dennis is a modern photojournalist, who has just been crowned sports
photographer of the year 2013. As well as sporting events, Adrian captured photographs to accompany journalistic pieces
during his time at the Independent newspaper. Currently working at Agence France Presse as a photojournalist. Like stated
above, he mainly focuses on sporting events but does photograph current news events.
Even though he himself is not known, his photographs will be recognised by millions. As you can see from the next few pages,
Adrian Dennis photographed some of the major events of last year, including Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win and Usain Bolt’s
Olympic win.
Different to Cartier-Bresson in terms of colour of photograph used. This is due to the technological restraints of cameras in the
times of Cartier-Bresson. Another difference is the subjects in the picture, Adrian Dennis tends to have a busy photograph and
stays clear of passive photography, where as the Frenchman, Cartier-Bresson, has more of a varied collection, with both busy
and passive photographs included.
7. Not a proper documentary piece but
could be categorised as one. It’s mainly a
photojournalism piece, with elements of
illustration as well. It has these elements
because it could be anchored to a
newspaper story to help accompany the
written copy.
This particular image conveys
expressive photographic features
but isn’t actually fully showing the
subjects full facial features so
can’t be branded an expressive
photography piece.
Even though this image looks
controlled, due to the pose,
it’s actually candid
photography with good
timing from Adrian Dennis.
The main/central focus of the
image is Andy Murray and the
Wimbledon trophy. This is further
clarified by the photographer,
who blurs the background to
leave the consumer in no doubt.
Lighting used in the image is
natural because of the on
location setting. Artificial light
wouldn’t have been possible to
add in this situation, unless
added via post-production
The blurred effect twinned
with the busy background
which includes the fans, gives
the image a repetitious feel to
it.
The photo suggests that the fans continue for
many more tiers, which makes the achievement
look even more greater. This is done by the
blurriness of the background and the
photographers choice of what to put in the
actual photographic frame.
A feature which Adrian Dennis
hasn’t used is various angles. If
a low vantage point would have
been used, Murray's
achievement would have
looked greater because it
would seem your looking up to
him. However, the emotions on
the subjects face wouldn’t have
been communicated to the
audience and some
effectiveness may have been
lost.
A wide lens was used for this
image because a telephoto lens
would have meant the entirety
of the background, which gives
it many good features, would
not have been captured.
8. In the Frame, Adrian Dennis
manages to depict a picture
within a picture. This is a
technique that only a few
photographers capture or
manage to capture. This type of
image shows how real and part
of everyday life athletes are.
This photograph is a
documentary image. You can
see this because it aims to
capture an event or individual,
instead of a natural
environment, like landscape
photography.
New and unconventional techniques are in place in this
photograph. This is due to this image been a candid image
capturing a posed photograph. This is very unusual in
photography, which is furthered by the blurring of the actual
image and the central focus been the camera phone instead.
The blurred effect is similar to the previous Andy Murray
example, except the picture within a picture is not captured
like this one.
The light that is available
is bright, however, not
high key lighting because
of the shadow at the
back of the photograph,
instead it’s a very well lit
photograph.
Space within the photograph
shows that the image goes
back quite a bit after the
central focus. This technique
suggests the photographer is
trying to show how many
people want to get in the
picture with one of the
greatest athletes, while
showing it’s busy and not a
passive scene. The fans are
captured in this way by Adrian
Dennis using a low vantage
point and a high angle to show
the high quantities of fans.
Space within the photograph
shows that the image goes
back quite a bit after the
central focus. This technique
suggests the photographer is
trying to show how many
people want to get in the
picture with one of the
greatest athletes, while
showing it’s busy and not a
passive scene. The fans are
captured in this way by Adrian
Dennis using a low vantage
point and a high angle to show
the high quantities of fans.
Dynamic range is used to good effect in the photograph.
The colourful and bright scene at the forefront of the
image, before going to darkness and shadowing a the
back. This is done because it adds enigma to the amount
of fans in that darkness at the back, as well as making
the bright colours stand out more at he front of the
image.
The intention of this image was
to show a unconventional style
could be very popular, thus the
image been one of the reason
for Adrian Dennis’s 2013
photography success.
9. The main theme in the image is
continuing the photography type
best suited to Adrian, a sports
photography piece.
Like his Usain Bolt
photograph, this example is
also unconventional to
photojournalism and
documentary photography.
It’s unconventional because
it’s got a high vantage point,
while taking a birds eye
view of the action.
Documentary photography
traditionally relies on
expressive photographs of
people, which therefore
means a lower vantage
point is normally taken.
Due to the nature of Adrian
Dennis’s work, as sports
photographer, candid
photographs are the norm
for this kind of field. This is
due to the subject not been
able to stage or pose while
performing the tasks Adrian
photographs.
Another unusual thing
about the composition of
this image is the lighting.
While it’s got elements of
low-key lighting, such as the
many shadows in this
image, all of the image,
including the central focus,
are all visible.
The image manages to look busy with only one
main subject in the initial photograph. Shadow is
used to great effect and allows the image to look
less passive, compared to if the image was taken
from a level ground vantage point.
What furthers the
effectiveness of the image is
the photograph could be
almost monochrome, if it
weren’t for the addition of the
bright colours added to the
central focus. It’s a real
contrast between the dark of
the shadows and the light and
vibrant colours at the centre
of the image. This photograph
also gives a good example of
dynamic range, where it
changes from dark to light,
back to dark again.
This photograph is one of only a handful that have been analysed, which can be
considered ‘concluded’. This means that the consumer can be confident that the
subjects/objects stop and don’t continue past what’s been captured in the frame.
Like in the other Adrian Dennis images, he’s left the consumer to decide how far
the crowd go up, where as in this image he doesn’t. This is done predominantly
by the vantage point been high and angled down, while all the subjects, including
the crowd, stop in the original image, instead of been cut out halfway.
10. Julius Shulman
Born in 1919 in Brooklyn, USA, Julius Shulman was to become one of the most iconic
architectural photographers of his time. With such pieces as ‘case study house #22’,
amongst others, Shulman created high quality images, most of which now reside in
Los Angeles.
After his death in 2009, many photographers gathered in the Getty Centre in Los
Angeles to celebrate his works, in the form of an exhibition. The works now have a
permanent place there, while some of his works are also featured in the Palm Spring
Art Museum, also in Los Angeles.
Julius Shulman was an architectural photographer in the early 60’s. Like Cartier-
Bresson, he had the technological constraints of black and white photography.
However, unlike Cartier-Bresson, Shulman made his photography look before it’s time
and futuristic. He mainly did this by photographic buildings that looked from the
future, while using vantage points and angles that have never been used before.
Before Shulman, vantage points were either straight on or leaned a bit. However,
Shulman changed the whole of this and instead took pictures from low vantage
points looking up and vice versa.
Also good at taking photographs at everyday object, but making them look effective,
whether it be by adding a vantage point, a busy background but a passive forefront,
or just taking the photographs at quirky angles, Shulman revolutionised not only
architectural photography, but photography as a whole.