Assignment 5: Tutor Feedback

During the development of the concept and images for Assignment 5 I engaged in a dialog with my tutor and so his feedback was positive with no requests for major changes to images or replacements.  There were a number of comments concerning the flatness of the images and that I might increase either the contrast or the saturation.  I will look at this as I print the photographs for assessment, I always adjust the images a little for final output.  I also think that the drop from 12/14 bits per channel to the 8 bits of JPG can result in a loss of colour fidelity in the images that is not seen on the prints.  Recently I converted some B&W images for another course and there was a noticeable change in quality.

I am now at the end of this course, just need to get everything printed and in the post for the November assessment.  It has been a great journey, I have learned more in the last 12 months about photography than in my life to date.  Wonderful course and fabulous support from my tutor

Thank You!

Assignment 5: Rework

I have now reworked the assignment text adding a tie back to Gursky to the preamble and replacing 3 of the less "Gursky-esque" photos with ones that I think make the set a more harmonious whole:

These are the images that I have pulled from the set together with their replacements:

replaced by

In many ways I think the original image was better, however, the depth in the photo contrast very sharply with the others in this sequence.

replaced by

The bin image was the only one my tutor rejected. I have replaced it with the most geometrical image I captured.  I agonized about this one, I really like it, but thought it too simple.  In fact I now think it captures the modernist stance that Gursky does in his work.

replaced by

The original image was part of a narrative that I tried to develop and did not work.  It does not have the symmetry that other images possessed and so I have replaced it with the jungle shot in the set.

The new package is on its way to my tutor, let's see what next.

Assignment 5 - Initial Feedback

Just hit a major, but not totally unexpected snag with my subject selection for the final assignment.  I deliberately chose not to select subject matter that would be suggestive of Gursky's own work, choosing instead to go with my own subject but try and bring what I have learnt from my studies to this work.

I think I may have strayed too far and pushed the limits too much.  My tutor has got back to me concerned that the examiners may not see a link between my work and Gursky's.  I am a little disappointed as I do believe that the goal of the exercise is not to copy a master, but to learn from their work and I did think that I had demonstrated that in this work.  In fact my tutor was quite positive about the images that I prepared:

I am not making any comments on each of your images which, in my opinion are of excellent quality and are redolent of the Germany and the German character that I have been acquainted with in the past and that Gursky has showed the viewer’s of his work.

I have achieved what I set out to do with the set, which was to capture the essence of a hidden German landscape.  I do not think I am being told that I have done wrong, more that the examiners simply might not get it and mark my work down.

Here is what I stated in a reply email:

First of all thanks for your very forthright comments, they were not unexpected. Whilst working on this assignment I wrestled with the same problem of how to “work in the style of” Gursky.  I wrote the essay on someone who divides the photographic world and has arguably had more of an influence recently than most any other artist.  However, at the same time one of his greatest critiques is that his influence has been too great and recently many photography graduates are copying him and producing grand but soulless work.

Initially I was going to work in the commercial heart of the city and considered working on a multi-shot basis doing some preliminary tests.  I also considered the possibility of working from elevation as he often does.  The problem both approaches brought for me was that whilst they might have paralleled Gursky’s recent visual  statements, they would have been very far from the direction I have been going, which is an increasingly intimate exploration of my city.  Throughout my landscape work I have been drawing on Gursky (and the other Düsseldorf graduates) in my own work.  I feel their influence all the time, but not in the subject matter I am drawn to, rather in the approach and framing strategies.

The Innenhof series was an outgrowth of this influence, a deliberate strategy to avoid creating large scale impressions of the city that I could not personally buy into.  What I was hoping was that I could channel Gursky’s compositional strategies into something that would be resolutely my own.

I used his early work as an inspiration, I looked at work he produced as a student and considered that against myself as a student.  One problem with Galassi’s volume is that it is considers a relatively small time span in his work, another publication “Gursky Works 80-08”, also includes earlier work he produced as a student, especially the photographs of the Pförtner, desk attendants, at German companies and photographs of his neighbourhood in Düsseldorf.  I think these can be found on the web.  In a sense I saw the Innenhof series as a parallel to the discipline the Bechers imposed on the young Gursky of photographing similar subjects again and again together with the exploration of my locale.

I also note in later work he uses a lot of floor to celing compositional strategies particularly hotel interiors.  However, as you rightly point out he is much further away from his subject and has generated a strong degree of abstraction in the images.

I knew this was a risk and if you consider it to have failed, then I am OK with that, after all my goal as a student is to learn and mistakes often provide better lessons than continued success. 

My challenge right now with reworking would then be one of timing and subject development.  I would need to withdraw from the November assessment as I will not have enough time to develop a new concept, shoot, finalize and review before the end of September when I would need to get my work into the mail.  I would have to step back and truly consider how to develop a new concept that would align better to Gursky’s more recent work.  I did have a few ideas, working more in the commercial districts of the city studying the energy of the city. This will take several months, my basic problem right now being an average 60 hour work week.

I would prefer not to do this, of course, however, I do need to pass Landscape and want a good mark if possible.  I am struggling at the moment with Social Documentary, I am finding it hard to connect with the course and find the assignments a little uninspiring.  Thus, I want a good result from  Landscape to act as a springboard into Level 3.

So now I face a conundrum, risk the work and the examiners wrath or redo the whole assignment and go for a March submission of the course.  This is not so bad, I enjoy the work, so more of it is not necessarily a bad thing, however, I do feel that the Innenhof series is good work that aligns well with my other subject matter during the past year of Landscape.

Assignment 5: Submission

Finally I have completed the edit and submitted the photographs to my tutor.  I have used the images from the preceding post, so will only document here my submission notes.

Introduction

At first glance this assignment should be pretty straightforward; produce 12 photographs in the style of an established photographer about whom I have already performed detailed researched.  However, applying the word “style” to the complete oeuvre of an established photographer is not a simple task. Over a career exceeding 30 years Andreas Gursky’s style has evolved, he has experimented with techniques, explored concepts, and occasionally changed direction.  His current style, that for which he is understandably famous, is one of complex multi-layered composite images, containing dramatic contrast in both shadow and colour.  This is quite different to the work he did shortly after graduating from the Düsseldorf art academy, the Pfötner and studies of suburban 1980’s Germany.  Even considering his more recent work; without knowing that the photograph was a Gursky, would one naturally associate “Rhein II” with “Bergwerk Ost”, a highly stylistic flat landscape with a deep shadowy image of miners clothing?.  Both images share many attributes in their size, construction, and reference to modernist abstract art, but at the same time offer a very different visual experience.

Prior to even synthesizing a definition of Gursky’s style, a more basic question must be answered; what does it mean to produce work in the style of?  Where is my style in this equation?  To what degree should I balance my own aesthetic to that of my chosen “style guru”?  At a very early stage in the development of this assignment I realized that I could not and should not attempt to imitate the work of Gursky. So what was I to do, I was becoming concerned that I had bitten off far more than I could chew in my selection of Gursky for my essay. 

My eventual answer lay in consideration of my own style rather than that of Gursky.  I took a step back and looked at my recent work and how this has evolved during the past 2 years.  I realized that a number of key elements from the manner in which Gursky constructed his images were beginning to unconsciously appear in my own photography. 

Taking these elements and combining them with what I have learned from my conscious exploration of Gursky’s work, I have identified the following aspects of his style or approach that I want to bring to my own work:

·         Ensuring that the subject fills the frame, even completely spanning the image space

·         Making the frame a strong element in the definition of the photograph

·         Imposing a very clearly defined rectilinear geometry to the photograph

·         Creating a very distinct image plane that will contain the subject matter

·         Controlling colour in a very precise and strongly delineated manner

The realization was not to imitate Gursky’s style, but to channel elements of his image construction into my own work.  My task was to produce a set of photographs that were distinctly my own work, but at the same time infused with learning from my study of Andreas Gursky.

Having decided on a philosophical approach to this assignment, subject matter became the next question.  I needed to continue my study of the city landscape, but this time get closer.  So far I have dealt with monuments, places of worship, and park land, in essence formal public spaces shared by the citizens of the city.  Now I needed to do something more intimate.  My first thought was to study heavily used spaces, environments in which I could even imitate Gursky’s multi-layered composite image building.  Initial experiments with this technique were disappointing and not really me, so something new was needed.

Subject

An accident led to subject selection.  Our cat, Doro, managed to get herself lost; 3 days before our annual vacation to Borneo.  We searched high and low, executed a poster campaign, even delayed departure by 3 days, but no sign.  With very heavy hearts we eventually accepted the inevitable and drove to Frankfurt to stay a night before catching the 12 hour flight to Malaysia.  That morning 3 hours before the flight departed she sauntered back into our house, very hungry, but otherwise fine.  The SMS from our cat sitting next door neighbour led to a very happy and ultimately boozy journey.

Looking for a tiny ginger cat led me into an ever expanding circle of exploration and a very detailed awareness of the local landscape.  We live in the city grid in an area dominated by apartment blocks.  Outwardly these apartment blocks look bland and faceless but within each there is an interior space of great variety and contrast.  In German these spaces are called “Innenhof”, inner courtyards.  Ideal places for a small cat to hide in; they are very private spaces normally only experienced by people who live locally.  They provide space for parking, playgrounds for the kids, areas to relax in the sun, somewhere to hang the washing, and in the summer a safe spot to light the barbeque.

On returning from vacation I set out to create a photographic study of the Innenhof’s in my immediate neighbourhood.  This required a considerable amount of exploration and also discretion, these are shared but at the same time private spaces.  I resolved to pretend to be looking for a new apartment if challenged, using my camera to record the area for later reflection when choosing my new home.  I did not set any limit on distance; however, I was able to complete the study to my satisfaction traveling no further than a quarter mile from where I live.  The number of possible spaces to explore essentially grew with the square of my distance from home.  In all I probably explored around 40-50 different Innenhof.

The spaces I discovered varied dramatically, each reflecting the lives and wealth of the people living in the surrounding buildings.  Some spaces were virtually derelict, others pristinely groomed.  On the whole they reflected the orderliness that Germans are justifiably stereotyped with.  What also became clear was that these were transient places, I found many under redevelopment, and during shooting one local space was completely demolished, my photo now becoming a record of a lost landscape.

Practice

The greatest challenge with this assignment was my need to respect the privacy of the residents of the places I was photographing.  The subject matter, buildings and gardens, would have ideally suited my Canon DSLR coupled with a wide angle tilt-shift lens, all mounted on a sturdy tripod.  This would also have attracted immediate attention and most likely led to some uncomfortable discussions about what I was doing and why.  Germany is truly a difficult place in which to work on public photography projects.   I opted, instead, to use a small handheld fixed lens compact camera, a Fujifilm X100, a very nice Christmas present from my wife.  The fixed 35mm viewpoint of the lens worked very well for this subject.  It enabled me to create the frame edge to frame edge aesthetic I wanted and the high ISO abilities of the sensor meant I could work handheld in poor light.

Technically I had to contend with two principal problems, light and architecture.  Inside the courtyards I was working at the foot of 5 or 6 story buildings, on sunny days the contrast between sunlit areas and shadows completely obscured the detail of what I was trying to capture.  Subsequently I could only shoot when the sky was overcast, limiting the number of days on which I could work.  Fortunately, my choice of a local subject meant that I could rapidly react to good light and run out with my camera. 

The second problem, architecture, required care both when taking the images and in post processing.  If I had been able to use my DSLR I could have emulated Gursky’s very precise large format camera framing approach, ensuring that verticals remained vertical and parallel lines did not converge unless I wanted them to.  With a handheld camera I did not have this precision, but still had to be very conscious of my position relative to the building and of not tilting the camera up or down.  An Innenhof is dominated by straight lines, any perspective error would be immediately visible in the final print.  The hardest problem was ensuring that I maintained the image sensor plane exactly parallel to the wall of the building facing the camera.  At time of shooting converging vertical lines are quite easy to see, horizontal ones are a much greater challenge.  With care I was able to limit the amount of work needed in post processing and keep any perspective adjustments within limits consistent with not badly degrading image quality.

Learning

As I write this I am currently in the bay area, South of San Francisco, on an extended business trip.  I have a camera with me, but so far have struggled to take any photographs.  All around me is the sprawling US suburban landscape, so redolent of Stephen Shore, Lee Friedlander, or Robert Adams.  This is something I have dreamed of photographing many times, walking in the photographic footsteps of people I greatly admire.  The problem is that I have no connection to it; I have no relationship with what I am seeing.  The landscape appears as a random kaleidoscope of picture potential, but with no connections.

I realize is that my photographs are not individual standalone expressions of art; they are always part of extended studies.  I can no longer simply take a photograph or even admire a single photograph; I want to see a book, a series, a set of images that exist with context and narrative.  Frequently I reject a photo, individually more pleasing/impressive/structured/meaningful (pick an adjective) than the others in my submissions, because it is not part of the story or does not align graphically with the others in the set.  During my studies for this course I have developed a strong sense of the relationships that exists within series’ of photographs. 

This is the single most important thing I have learned so far and I believe it has taken me to a new place in the creation and contemplation of photographs.

Assignment 5: The final set?

It has been some time since I last took a serious look at these images.  I have to admit I am suffering a little bit of a block on this assignment.  It is not a problem of quality, it is a problem of choice and the image I want to portray.  I think I have been too concerned with telling a story, I should leave that to Social Documentary!  What I have no done is to re-assess the set of images from a more aesthetic perspective, selecting images that I like and which portray the spaces I was exploring, from tidy almost beautiful space to grubby dirty interiors simply existing to store the bins.

I am also conscious of needing to maintain that element of learning from my study of Gursky, the careful control of the frame, the carefully constructed viewpoint and the filling of the frame from edge to edge.  This set is now close to what I call final.  I hope to write up the set and get it in the mail to my tutor by the end of the week and before I head off to California.

Recently I came close to abandoning this set and trying once again to do something more in the style of Gursky's recent work, however, that just is not me.  I really connected to this study and it is an important reflection on where and how I live.

Assignment 5: Working the set

Since my last post I have spent hours sitting in front of Lightroom, flicking images back and forth, trying to decide upon a meaningful set that I can submit.  My problem, as usual, is too many photographs.

I can see a visual style emerging in the photos that I prefer, very square carefully managed symmetrical images, but occasionally broken up with something offering a different perspective or disorder.  Even once I have a set I like I am then confronted with the challenge of sequencing a process that will help to build a narrative to accompany the photographs.  I have now realized that whilst the photos must be sequenced the absolute order is not critical, each individual photo has its own story, whilst the set as a whole makes a statement.  


Here is what I currently have

  

The door opens into the set of images, it is the way into the Innenhof.  I then end with a photograph of a poster informing the neighborhood that this Innenhof will be demolished to make way for a wonderful new development, signifying the impermanence of these spaces.  In between there are loosely linked pairs of photographs.  I keep trying to pull away from the idea of sequencing in pairs, but it is too compelling to me and I think I will go with it for now.  I am waiting on some feedback from my tutor concering the overall theme, before I finally commit to the submission set.

Assignment 5: First 12 photos

This set of images is not intended as a final set or even as the direction it will eventually take.  I have selected 12 images from my first 3 shoots to demonstrate to myself that there is sufficient variety and narrative potential within the subject.

 Not a shot that I am likely to use, but an important element in why I chose this subject.  This is where I live about 4 doors down in the triangular row houses that were built in the center of this Innenhof.

 Just around the corner from my green and pleasant Innenhof is this bleak and forbidding space.  It is scheduled for a major rebuild, sad in a way as this is a good example of post war building.

 A key feature of most Innenhofs is provision of play areas for the local kids, an Innenhof is a very social space.

This almost Zen like garden provides a place for quiet reflection.  Some Innenhofs can be very elegant, clearly contrasting the grim space above.

 Whilst I have previously stated that I do not want to feature the people of these spaces, this was irresistible.

 I sincerely hope they never repaint these garage doors.

 Here there has been a major renovation creating an oddly colourful space.  As  a fellow student pointed out this is quite reminiscent of Op Art or even some Abstract Expressionism.

The engineering of an Innenhof can be quite elaborate, here a two story car park has been dug into the center of the Innenhof during a rebuild.  This very modern space is flanked on each corner by massive concrete WW2 flak towers.  Strange place, Munich.

I love this space, a maze of small gardens was filled with furniture and BBQ stations.  This is a place that looks fun to live in.  A green contrast to the more stark concrete filled spaces.

OK, this was weird, a table tennis table in what looked like an old "water feature" with a monkey statue overlooking the scene.  In the opposite direction was the same scene but this time the statue was a large dog.

In this Innehof someone has a small business running an Outlet store for climbing gear.  Closer in to the city many of the Innenhofs have business uses, often containing restaurants or cafes.

Finally not all are in pristine shape this space smelled as badly as it looked, however, a rebuild is clearly in process.  I am guessing the neighbours really do not want any intrusion with this 4m high chain link fence.

With these 12 images I have confidence that over the next few weeks I can build a good set of images that illustrate a subject I feel an affinity to.

Assignment 5: New Direction

Looking at my previous blog entries on Assignment 5, they are dated Feb 16, Mar 25, and Apr 16.  I have been thinking about this assignment for a very long time, mulling over different ideas, experimenting a little with the camera and photoshop, but most of all trying to figure out how to channel Gursky into my own work.  I started by taking his highly Digital style and trying to build my own composite images creating virtual crowds at a few Munich locations.  Whilst I could achieve some modestly interesting results, it rapidly became apparent that I would not be able to get vaguely close to Gursky's imagery, and also why would I want to?

Two aspects of this settled in my mind, the first is that I do not have access to skilled photoshop professionals,  nor the ability to command access for prolonged periods of time to significant Munich landmarks.  However, it is the second problem that finally steered me away from this approach.  Whilst I admire Gursky's complex imagery I have no desire to replicate it myself.  His subject matter and style are not my own.  I have come to the realization that it is critical for me to NOT emulate Gursky.  What I need to do is to learn from his style and working practice, then use that knowledge to improve my own photography.  I must create my own photographs in my own style building upon my learning.

So what is it about Gursky that I can bring to my own work, what elements of his style most interest and inspire me?

1. Framing: Gursky very carefully controls the edges of the frame, rarely enclosing his subjects within negative space.  The subject matter usually spans the frame.
2. Compression:  In much of his earlier work Gursky compressed the image plane presenting the subject as a series of overlapping sheets of information.
3. Subject:  In his earlier work Gursky spent much time studying German suburbia.  I do not feel a need to deliberately select the same material, but I have an interest in recording the social landscape of modern Germany.
4. Series:  Today Gursky creates one-off highly individual works of art, however, he started creating serial work, typographies, under the guidance of the Bechers.

What becomes obvious is the it is his earlier work that has the strongest influence over me, perhaps this is because the later work is beyond my current skill set.

With this in mind I have been trying to find a subject that I can apply some of these ideas to, but also one that builds upon my previous assignments.  So far I have explored Munich's parks and aspects of the inner city.  I have considered a series of images within the city center, exploring the shopping streets and entertainment districts.  This did not work for me, I could be anywhere and somehow I found it hard to add any personality to the images.

Shortly before we went on holiday in early May, our tiny mother cat, Doro, went missing creating a major crisis.  We delayed our vacation for 3 days hoping that she would return, but also realized that we could not sit waiting for ever and so with a heavy heart we headed to the airport 6 days after she went missing.  3 hours before we were due to take off, an SMS arrived from our next door neighbour and cat sitter, Doro returned hungry but otherwise fine.  We guess she got locked in someones garage or basement.  With a few tears of relief we headed off for a slightly curtailed holiday.

This event provided the idea for Assignment 5.  During the time she was missing we hunted all over our neighbourhood, putting up posters and asking local people if they had seen Doro.  As we live in the center of a city this led us to search the inner courtyard of many of the apartments nearby.  Called Innenhofs in German, these spaces occupy the center of most city blocks.  In Germany most older apartments are built in a hollow square enclosing the Innenhof.  It was only on vacation still puzzling over Assignment 5 that I reflected on what I had seen in this search.  Each Innenhof was very different, some ornate others disorderd, some peacful green spaces, others grim concrete wastelands.  Each Innenhof had a personality of its own that some how reflected the people who lived there.

So with Assignment 5 I plan to turn my eye towards the inner landscape of the city, an exploration of shared and yet private spaces, spaces that speak of the personality of the city and the people who make it their home. I may turn this into a book as I did Assignment 3, but I am secure that I can find 12 images that can tell the story of these spaces.

There is one major aspect of this work that will differ from the working practice of Andreas Gursky.  I plan to shoot this with small compact cameras, a Fuji X100 with a fixed 23mm lens (35mm FFE) and a Samsung NX200 mirrorless system camers with an 18mm lens (27mm FFE).  Both cameras have an APS-C sensor equal to or even better than that found in many DSLRs.  Innehofs are private spaces, I need to be respectful and discrete.  If I start walking around with a Canon 5D Mark II with a tilt-shift lens on a tripod I am going to attract to much attention.  If challenged with the small camera I can easily say that I am looking to move to the area and want to get some photos of different apartment buildings, this will not hang with the DSLR.  So I am stepping far away from Gursky's 5x7 view camera.

The final point I need to address before presenting some initial photography is that I accept that this is on the borderline between Landscape and Social Documentary, however, looking back I realize that most of my landscape work has a strong social element supported by a narrative.  With this assignment I am turning my eye to documenting society through the urban landscape.

I have already completed 3 photo walks in my immediate area.  This is an interesting process, I have to walk the streets actively look for entries into the building complexes.  When I find an access point (many Innenhofs are behind locked doors) I have no idea what I will find once inside.  Each Innenhof is a new exploration.  I have to move fairly quickly to avoid looking creepy, but each shot has to be very carefully lined up, parallel lines dominate the spaces, and there are a vast number of compositional options.  I typically set the camera to f/8 or f/11 and select an ISO that provides comfortable hand holding.  I cannot shoot in sun light, the contrast would be far too high, shadows hiding detail.  I must wait for overcast conditions.  The Fuji is excellent for this use as the high ISO capabilities of the sensor are superb.

Overall the feeling is one of street photography, but with space as the subject rather than people.  I am avoiding inclusion of people (except in a small number of cases) as I want the images to reflect the people through the space they occupy not there own appearance.

Assignment 4: Tutor Feedback

Wow, no revisions, no changes, the following comment from Alan was a major relief:

"You have completed an extremely well balanced account of his development.  It is carefully assembled with text and illustrations.   There were no areas I felt particularly disposed to criticise so I have just attached some views of my own to expand the subject."

I felt when I finished the essay that it was a good piece of work, otherwise I would not have submitted it, however, not knowing where the standard lies and what the balance of content should be, I was nervous.

A key question I had was around the style of writing and the balance with the content.  There has been significant debate on the student forum recently about standards for writing and reading, many people finding academic texts difficult to work with.  I have experienced this but have persevered, reading as much art based literature as I can cope with.  My understanding is growing, each book adding a little to my knowledge base.  I am also beginning to understand what might make a consistent argument in a written form, i.e. I am trying to let the work I am reading inform my own writing.

When I was a Ph.D. student we had a reference model for academic writing based upon the target audience:

B.Sc. - Bullshit
M.Sc. - More Shit
Ph.D. - Pile it higher and deeper

This was coupled with another popular saying, when unsure of your stance simply "Baffle them with Bullshit".  I do sometimes wonder if much of what is written for art students follows the same rhetorical model - if I really knew what a dialectic was I would presume this is a dialectic of confusion.  Returning to my essay, I made a very conscious choice to write in an accessible manner avoiding the pitfalls of obtuseness that much academic writing conveys.  In essence I tried to combine the rigor of academic study with a written style that would sit well in the pages of a quality newspaper.

In Alan's very detailed accompanying notes he pointed to a number of my images that already contain elements of Gursky's visual language, in particular the grounding and framing of the photographs.  Since starting this course I have become progressively more interested in the work of German photographers.  Their style, whether Dusseldorf trained or not, is frequently very structural, the image has clear symmetries and the frame edges possess no ambiguity.  I think this is meshing with a scientists desire for cleanliness and order and infusing my work.  However, I also clearly need to find my own voice, seeking influence is valuable, copying slavishly is a dead end.

As Assignment 5 builds from 4 I need to be very careful to follow this closing advice from Alan:

As I have mentioned previously, there are some characteristics in your own work that are reminiscent of Gursky’s style but I would warn against trying to create images which slavishly reproduce specific features in his work.  It may sound difficult but if you can immerse yourself in his work and then work to capture your own images without any specific features of his work in mind.  I feel sure that, because of similarities in your own style the parity with his work will emerge, naturally.   

In a couple of previous posts I have tried to emulate some of Gursky's Digital manipulations and whilst they have had a degree of success they are not me.  I rarely use Photoshop, I find that the image adjustments in Lightroom are sufficient.  If I need to significantly alter an image using the advanced tools in PS I would either re-shoot the photo or reject it.  I see myself as a photographer, not a graphical designer.  I think Alan has pinned this down well, I need to understand Gursky's world view and style and allow it to inform my work.  I must not simply try and emulate what he does.

Subsequently I am rethinking Assignment 5 and stepping back from the highly composite images I had in mind. I still plan to use some Pano merging techniques, but the creation of images through substitution of vast numbers of people is not really doing anything for me.  I am not going to do any work on the Assignment until the end of May after my vacation, so have time to think.  Currently my concept is to take my imagery into the city and document the inner areas of Munich and the flow of people in that environment.  I want to document the Munich I know and love, as a place not as a people.  This will be the final step in my Landscape study of the city before turning my viewpoint onto the people of the city.

Assignment 5: Experimentation and Art

During the writing of my essay on Gursky it began to become apparent that many of Gursky's most famous and valued images contained strong visual influence from modern art of the 20th century.  I am now reading around this and thinking about how this could be worked into my own imagery for assignment 5.  I have already discussed the stylistic cues that I need to consider, however, another avenue to work  would be to also "borrow" from modern art.  This would entail looking for urban landscapes that possess similar structure to key movements or artists.  In Gursky's case I would immediately note the following:

• Montparnasse - Richter's paintings of palettes of colours
• Rhien II - Rothko and his broad stripes of colour (although very toned down)
• The stock exchane images - The ordered disorder of Pollock
• Race Track composites - reminiscent of cubism and Picasso
• Untitled series - minimalism

Not something I necessarily plan, but worth keeping in mind.  Heading out to the Pinakothel der Moderne today to actually look at some modern art and see how it grabs me.

In the mean time I have completed my first exploratory shoot for the assignment, more a technical test of techniques that I might adopt for some of the images.  Thematically I am currently planning a series of photographs that speak to the pressures of modern urban life, the crowds, the dirt, the colour, in essence the visual cacophony of a city.  So far my assignments have skirted around the city, looking at the special spaces, parks, places of worship, and sports arenas, now it is time to engage with the reality of city life.  I suspect these will be images that most stretch the definition of what is a landscape photograph.

On Friday I spent the morning at the cities' main railway station, both inside and out, as well as on one of the bridges overlooking the lines running into and out of the city.  In each case I placed my camera on a tripod and mounted a wide angle tilt-shift lens, either 17 or 24mm depending on the location. I then exposed around 20 frames over a period of time waiting for something to happen.  Back in my office I spent several hours yesterday building composite image from the photographs that I had taken.  I was trying to enhance the sense of "business" of the photographs, very much in parallel to the techniques that Gursky's assistants use.

The first composite is of the railway lines leading into the city.  In each case I will show a first and final image in the composite.  I started with a nearly empty scene with a single train heading towards me:

Here I was trying to capture the sense of the energy of a modern railway station, the continual rush of trains in and out of the station.  What I have ended up with is what looks like a parking space for trains.  Technically this has demonstrated that I can fabricate such an image but aesthetically it does not work.  A possible thought here will be to use very much slower shutter speeds which will blur the trains, I can then merge multiple trains into composite lines of flow.  Another improvement would be to be about 10m higher up, but that is not going to work for me.  Gursky could hire a crane for the day, too expensive and I would get arrested.

Inside the station I had more success, the second image is composed of around 10 additional photos.  I did have a problem as I was nervous about my location and the use of a tripod on a station.  I did not use a remote release and so the camera shifted position, not by much, but enough to lose registry between shots, making the overlay much much harder.  In this image I have deliberately included the same person several times, in a sense a symbol of movement through the frame. This has good potential and I may return to try again.  An overcast day might also be better as I would have less contrast to deal with, although to a degree I like the areas of light and shade.

My final composite is a little less ambitious, but similar to the inside station shot.  Again I have included the same person twice, here looking at herself in the middle ground.  This image also added a further twist, the shadows and the stationary objects moved during the shoot, easily fixed, but an issue that must be considered.  This scene also contains a taxi rank, movements within which would also create both challenge and opportunity.

In all of the images I am experimenting with the multiple frame technique of Gursky with the goal of creating metaphors for modern life.  I learned a lot about the clone tool.  It was key to ensure that I had identically framed images that I then cloned between using the same reference point in each image.  I cloned fairly roughly using my tablet and pen, then in finer detail used the erasing tool to refine the edges.   None of these images are perfect, all have some issues, but as a proof of concept I am quite happy.

Next step will be to start building a list of location for similar shoots and also to consider other elements of Gursky's visual style that I can build into my shooting.

Assignment 5: Getting Started

Given that I have yet to start on Assignment 4, this is very much getting ahead of myself.  However, Assignment 5 is directly related to the subject of Assignment 4.  In my case this means that Assignment 5 is going to be a series of photographs in the style of Andreas Gursky, the subject of my as yet unstarted essay.

This has led to a few sleepless nights. Whilst I can fully comprehend the structure of an essay discussing Andreas Gursky and the impact he has had on the art world, emulating his style is very challenging.  First of all Gursky uses medium and large format cameras, then composites multiple frames together to build truly gigantic images of great complexity.  The technical challenge of doing anything remotely similar cannot be underestimated.  Secondly and more importantly Gursky's work is now almost a cliche, something art students are prone to emulating and if done badly will simply look unconvincing.

My challenge will be to channel Gursky's approach and visual style into my work, but retain the sense that this is my work.  The assignment states "In the Style of an Influential Photographer", I am going to choose to interpret that as influenced by, rather than in the style of.  So what does that mean for me.  First of all I must distill the elements that make up Gursky's style and understand what they are.  I must then find a subject that I can work with over a sustained period of time that incorporates some of these stylistic elements, but one that also drives my passion and joy in photography.

I will evolve my thinking about this over time, however, I plan to work on the essay and the photographs in parallel, the rationale being that I will be better able to write a critique of Gursky once I can translate his visual language into mine.  This might delay my essay into April, not sure about that, but it does bring forward the start date for my Assignment 5.

With this in mind, what does Gursky's style say to me now:

1. Symmetry - Most of Gursky's work exhibits distinct symmetries, either horizontal reflectional symmetry or multiple translational symmetries.  By this I mean that many frames contain strong left to right lines or are composed of large numbers of similar repeating objects.  Rhein II or the shoes on shelves are examples of left to right symmetries, whereas the many shots of masses of people have the translational symmetries.
2. Complexity - Although some of his images are very simple, most are very busy, very complex
3. Colour - More recent work uses very deliberate and bold colour, this can be through strong contrast, saturation or even selective removal, but a clear decision has been made
4. Precision - Gursky does not wander the streets with a hand held camera and allow serendipity to drive his decisions.  He plans every photograph very carefully and demands complete control over the shots 
5. Post Production - Although not a visual style in itself, the way he creates his art strongly influences the visual statement.  Recently he has exploited digital technology to create final images that combine multiple individual photographs, sometimes very overtly, at other times with amazing subtlety.

If I bring that back to myself, it means that I need to look for very strong geometrical material, exhibiting richness in colour and complexity.  In other words a city.  Munich.  Well if you had read any other part of my blog, you would have seen this coming.  Thus far I have taken my camera into 3 distinctly different areas of Munich, starting with the Olympic Games site, then focusing in on the Jewish Quarter, and most recently exploring the green space that is the Englischer Garten.  I want to finish my course by tackling the downtown area, the equally beautiful and grimy inner city.  This is a colourful, complex, ever changing, ever moving place, replete with visual material, but not the easiest place to work.

This weekend after my weekly jaunt around the Olympiagelande, I headed into the city to play with some ideas based around this theme.  The area I chose was around the main station, very colourful as well as very dubious, typical european blend of red light district, cheap hotels and small shops/cafes.  Whilst my first example image has nothing to do with the theme, I thought it quite funny and wanted to post it here

They did not come out of Sexyland, but they look like they did!

OK, back to my exploration of ideas.  The concept I have in mind is a series of photographs at street level or elevated if I can get access of rows of buildings typical of Munich.  These should exhibit strong symmetry and interesting content.  For my exploration I had a FF camera with a 16-35mm zoom, not ideal for this, the following required a great deal of perspective management, but again this was a conceptual process, not a final shoot.

The previous two photos exhibit the in close compressed view that Gursky sometimes shoots, there is no sky, the buildings should look endless.  An option here might be to extend the photograph by adding additional rows of windows via photoshop.  Maybe shooting at different times from the same place so that the windows show variation.  Dusk may make this work better.

Another possibility is the above here the bicycles and taxis are the repeating form standing against the banality of the 1960's edifice of the main station behind.

The final shot has the strongest potential, this is the front of the station with tram tracks running along the bottom of the frame.  This is a strongly horizontal image with symmetry only broken by the cars and street furniture. 

Taking the final shot as an example, my current thinking would be to return with a tripod and my 17mm TS/E lens which will enable me to correct for perspective.  I would then plan to take maybe 20 identical shots over a period of an hour or so watching how the constellations of people and cars inhabit the space in front of me.  I could then fill that space by cloning to and from the various photographs to create a single composite image that brings together a multitude of people in the same photograph.  A similar technique could work in several spaces that people move through in the city.  I would also like to try this in the station if security permits.  One idea will be to use the main station as a subject creating several large photos with multiple frames.  One aspect of the TS lenses is that by shifting left and right, up and down I can move the image circle by 12mm, not much, but compared to a 36x24mm frame this doubles the image size converting my 35mm FF 5D2 into a 42MP almost medium format camera.  There are issues in doing this, but it expands my possibilities.

So  have a start and an initial idea for this work, I now need to build out the concept and plan the photographs.  That will be a major difference for this sequence.  Each final photograph will have to be scouted, with test shots and then decisions made about time of day for lighting or weather conditions.  I may need permission for some potential shots.  The biggest question will be one of coherence, essentially avoiding this becoming a set of technically interesting but unrelated photographs.  That is the part that still bothers me about this exercise.