End of unit evaluation

When researching for my project I looked at multiple different colour photographers to inspire my work, these include:
 

• Mauren Brodbeck

• David Parfitt

• Dennis Pedersen

• Leo Acker

• Martin Parr

• Vivian Maier

• Harry Callahan

• Hayley Warnham

and the final photographer I researched was Dan Annett, who inspired my final piece and my last response to the colour theme.

From studying their work I learnt that there are multiple different ways of displaying colour within photography to catch the attention of a viewer which does not always mean that simple ideas are overlooked. I also learnt that due to there being such a wide variety of colour photography it is difficult to capture the attention of a viewer based on the colour in the photograph alone.

I found this out as I studied the theme of colour photography and I originally began my project looking at how colour photography has changed throughout time. This consisted of looking at different techniques within photography and looking at different styles of composition that I could use within my own work.

When first deciding about the topic of colour photography I planned to photograph obvious colour where the focal point of the image was entirely on the colour alone, however through my work I lent to exploring both obvious and subtle ways of displaying colour. Aswell as this, I intended to use a variation of models to highlight the differences between colour photography with different focal points and how a photographer changes their style of photography based on what they are photographing, e.g. the different styles used for portrait shoots and still life, however towards the end of this project I focused my photography on still life work.

When creating my photographic responses to the topic of colour photography I tried a variation of shoots including minimalism, still life, portraiture and some landscape photography. I picked these techniques to express my ideas as within each of these techniques bold and subtle colour can be expressed, for example, there can be colour photographed within an urban setting that is displayed in a bus or a structure that is part of everyday life or a photographer could enhance and manipulate the settings to expose a bold area of colour and reduce the amount of colour within another area.

Within my own colour photography I used a minimalist high key style of photography to display most of my work as it enabled me to be able to easily photograph vivid and understated colour. I also completed some location shoots throughout my project to show the comparison between the different types of colour photography that can be displayed. This led to me travelling to two urban cities to highlight the colour that individuals witness within their day to day life that seemed interesting to me, but seemed unnoticeable to other individuals as they see it everyday.

When looking at these different ways to display colour I was also inspired by advertisement photography which helped me to show how advertisers highlight the assets of a product to help manipulate the colours and technique within the photography to make the product as appealing as possible.

To create a different style of shoot within my work I used a confetti balloon to show the dispersal of colour throughout the viewpoint of an image, e.g. from the centre of the photography to the entire area that is seen.  This also included a clear contrast between the white background which had no colour and the multi-coloured small pieces of confetti that were being dispersed. In order to take the attention off of the focus of the colours I used a model to help show that colour can be shown in a more subtle way as most viewers of the photographers focus on the expressions and reactions of the model to the balloon being popped.

Throughout experimenting between the differentiating types of shoots I began to realise that I enjoyed displaying clear colour within photographs but with everyday still life. This led to me focusing on this as although there is a clear amount of colour within the photographs, it still has slightly less of an impact than one clear area of colour within an image with minimal colour elsewhere.