aditirkumar

[aditirkumar]

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[aditirkumar]

SDL: Contact Sheet Wk 11 Photo's

In this contact sheet I am playing with light and shadow, and abstract 

The red lighting is most clearly used for dramatic purposes and these are the sections.

By illuminating the scene with very less light of a single color I am actually doing some experiments with how shadows and light alter or accentuate the objects – in this case, hands and a lighter.

The red gives a considerable amount of contrast, which visually leads to even hands or walls.

This experiment is to move the understanding of light application to level beyond just providing only illumination, but embedding the atmosphere, texture and mood.

However, the architectural shots rely on this natural light to enhance on the straight lines and balance of buildings. 

approach adds depth and perspective to the picture. Lighting is clearly artificial in both types of photos. Some photos are using more bluer light sources and wanted to see what would happen if I flooded the entire image with much softer, natural light.

These experiments enabled me to study the effect that light and shadow have on the creation of emotion and the effect of a photograph.

[aditirkumar]

SDL: Contact Sheet Wk 10 Photo's

This contact sheet the pictures captured indoors and outdoors, with different subjects and under different conditions of lighting.

Some of the images, especially night scenes, are low light and street lighting. The night films provide a very motion picture kind of feeling due to the shadows and artificial lighting sense kind of like Brassaï in his night photography. The details in the dark while preventing overexposure are a primary focal point of those scenes.

In some of the indoor photos, people appear to be more comfortable and relaxed than in some of the outdoor photos which have been taken with flash or in very bright indoor light conditions. The lighting here is just right to capture the subjects while making sure that details are stricken to the face and clothing. These shots comprise relaxed seem-pretty-normal moments, which I’ve seen in black-and-grey snapshot photography 

Certain pictures have people elbow to elbow, suggesting conversation or interaction with one another make the story like photography. 

A lot of ‘normal’ close-to-home human scenes and some of the more dramatic and outdoorsy scenes are depicted with a host of different genres of light sources which give different type of mood.

[aditirkumar]

SDL: Contact Sheet Wk 9 Photo's

In this contact sheet, I’ve recorded moments that include the interactions of the individuals in my photography as well as the usual.

In the first sheet, I have more lively coloured images of flowers, clear water lakes, and large green fields, and blue skies.To enhance colouration I relied on natural light and my technique has incorporated, for instance, the use of wide angle for views and close up for items such as flowers and branches. Some shots involve people and this just makes a wonderful addition to the overall feel of calmness of the outdoor scene. 

In the second contact sheet, I was in a village-like setting, here both the wide shots and the mid shots of people against further shots of flowers and other rural structures. This followed by even lighting that is rather bright makes the environment lively, and somewhat, like a storybook.

The third contact sheet focuses in the representation of interiors, well-lit space highlighting the feeling of the rooms, and paying attention to textures like woods and stones. I used relatively more form, and balance and tried to lead the viewer’s attention with the techniques of arches and circular windows. The deep interiors offered through the windows and other openings always balance the indoor and outdoor conditions. In general, these contact sheets showcase a wide variety of nature, architecture, and people with the help of a number of techniques that concentrate on the sense of scale, details, and mood, from broad shots to closeups, taking into account lighting/angles/positions.

[aditirkumar]

SDL: Contact Sheet Wk 8 Photo's

For this contact sheet here I have used numerous techniques with a variety of subjects ranging from nature, structures and people. Most of the images are tree, water and reflection give the sense of depth and calmness of a piece. Almost all the tree and landscape clips are sweeping, and I have applied the same technique for some parts of the urban areas that people, cars and streets, snapshot type. It is amazing how such quiet, social moments can be accompanied by noise and structures of buildings under construction.

The intensity of the light also differs in the images. Some were taken when the sky was cloudy, and some were taken at noon with the sun on the opposite side of the lens, thereby providing the correct mood for the scene. When the lighting is low and diffused, the look is more laid back and blue toned while when lighting is high, the image sharp and stirring. But there is also dynamic and static imagery: birds and people in motion, water in its stillness beneath it in some shots.

Some of the things you’ll notice I’ve tried to implement include vanishing points through a path or frame through trees, which I have some palm trees and buildings shot from lower views. The inclusion of street scenes and panoramic vistas help to provide change of pace as do snapshots of certain moments against the continuum of the natural world.

The black-and-white gallery with few street shots, beautiful, calm nature and abstract images of dynamic, intricate structures illuminated with light, movement and line.

[aditirkumar]

Farah Al Qasimi- Arrival

Farah Al Qasimi’s photographic series Arrival is a series that brings a combination of bright and surrealistic tone and deals with the issues of identity and cultural alienation, individuality and collectivity. Her photographic style can be described as formalistic, though she incorporates the objects of a typical home and the surroundings of buildings, thus, making the scenes seem both familiar and foreign. Applying bright and intensive colors and simultaneously emphasizing the saturation of the light, she makes the viewer to look at the seemingly familiar things with a touch of the surreal world. Al Qasimi frequently uses a wide-angle lens to render details and depth that should be explored in the artwork. It provides her images with a more profound sense of space and density, so that each photograph is felt as a separate world, full of storylines.

Most of Al Qasimi’s work is in a documentary genre, although her approach to shooting and aesthetics is more abstract and surrealistic. Her works are well thought-out, and contain much of patterns and repetitions and are in a way a conversation between the modern and the traditional. How she composes her subjects or the focus of a particular image – be it people, objects, or even the space – is sculptural in a way where each component is important in the grand scheme of things.

Lighting is used by Al Qasimi as a tool for creating additional meaning, which is quite often tied to feelings of loneliness or stress in the brightly lit, interested and aesthetically appealing images she creates. Thus, her images are aesthetically pleasing but at the same time make the audiences feel uneasy as they draw attention to the narratives and constructs in the pictures. As a series focused on movement, transition and multiculturalism, Arrival reflects the artist’s investigations into identity and location on a deeper level, while bringing aesthetic and conceptual appeal and well-crafted designs into the mix.

I really like the color palette she used and how she staged her photos. There's something deliberate about the way each element is placed, almost like telling a story in a single frame. The colors are soft and muted, which gives the images a gentle, reflective tone. I also love how the top image overlaps with the others, almost like it's representing a memory or a fleeting moment that's resurfacing. It feels as though the past is blending into the present, giving the whole piece a deeper emotional layer. It's not just a photograph—it's an experience, capturing both what is seen and what is felt.

[aditirkumar]

Hoda Afshar -Speak the Wind

Speak the Wind by Hoda Afshar (2021) touches me very emotionally as it was not only a series of photo’s for me but rather a connection between island people in the Strait of Hormuz and the powerful winds that govern their lives. What impresses most is in which Afshar portrays these people – black and white and colour to convey the timeless, ethereal spirt. Her images are so personal they made me feel like I’m peeping through their private sphere into a realm where the elements and the actors are inextricably connected.

Of all those techniques that Afshar employs, it is the long exposure approach which I find the most effectiv. the landscapes with a sense of the otherworldly or the supernatural, or at least the elemental, as if the wind, and the sea. The movement between the wind and water is mutually restricted while the effect is still shown. It gives one the impression that the force of nature is only just beyond our grasp. It is for this reason that the portraits feel even more powerful. The backgrounds are rather obscured; this further enhances the feelings on their faces.

Where I feel impressed is Afshar’s passion for rough surfaces of the ground, is by texture. Just like their clothes, their houses, and everything around them seem to be branded with the breeze, dust, and waves. They inherited the texture of the environment they exist in, both, material and elegant.

Her photography makes the audience think about memory, tradition and spirituality.Speak the Wind gives me a rather luxurious experience of the empowering harmony of the human soul and the nature as if she conveys the feeling of inferiority of a person in the face of the storm and, at the same time, the potential of the person to withstand wind and the nature forces.

I simply want say that watching one of Hoda’s photograph I discovered the following photograph quite interesting, the one with the Quran. It could easily have been seen as controversial picture, at least as a photo that was staged; there are few instances where something as sacred as a book, let alone one as holy as The Quran,  is actually destroyed for an artistic shot. Just thinking about that makes me stop and wonder about those countless people who value and respect it. On the other hand, it might as well be the case that this Quran was picked up from the war zone as an effect of violence in the war. A part from this issue I think that is what makes the photo striking to me .

[aditirkumar]

SDL: Contact Sheet for Wk 2 mid sem Photo's

I can feel myself being drawn into the stillness and something rather melancholic about night shooting. Over ninety percent of the images depict a beach or some body of water as the main focus and both natural and artificial lighting from the sky and lights from buildings and street lamps, respectively, are beautifully balanced. The shades of grey take over this scene to give it such a rich, somber atmosphere, though the sparkling light on the water is like rays of hope in a very dark world.

The horizon comes out clearly in several scenes particularly where the failing light of evening is met by the water. It’s quite effective, that is depicting events that occur immediately before or after the sunset or sunrise respectively. That gradation of blues and blacks in the sky is incredibly soothing, and adding reflections to the water makes that effect even stronger. Using long exposures to the water must have been taken makes the reflections all the more magical and almost as smooth as glass.

I also get an additional element of emotion in these photos as there are often tiny silhouettes of people: near the water or on the sand. Sometimes, they seem so small in front of a scene that they convey this loneliness sense and reflecting mood. The fact that the subjects are so well lit against the black background just has an eerie feel to it. They sit at the corner of my visibility because of the interaction between light and darkness and yet they blend as if they are just a part of the terrain contributing to the creation of the aura of obscurity.

From a purely technical point of view, I marvel at the way the photographer has been able to exploit the low light situation to come up with a variety of textures. The sand of the sea bed is grainy when comparing to the water and that blended with the long exposures on the surface and reflections, give it an almost surreal kind of touch. The dark outlines against the backdrop of night increase the mood of the calmness and suspense, which contributes a very significant layer to conceptual mood of the pictures. It as if the night has its own hidden something, and the photos convey just that sense of serenity mixed with mystery.

[aditirkumar]

SDL: Contact Sheet for Wk 1 mid sem Photo's

Staring at this contact sheet it is tempting to be a part of the sequence of shots, which form a series of landscape pictures. Every shot presents how the different light at different times of the day alter the feelings and changing the scenery. It is very odd but the gentle diffuse light from a cloudy sky is so much more interesting than stark reds and oranges of a sunrise or the golden yellow of sunset. It’s like every time the light is different, and it seems like the same landscape is giving me a different flavor it has a personality of its own depending on the day.

It is great how compositions invite me, narrowed by the powerful foreground components such as pathways or bush patches, into the depth of the scene. When the frame is made out of branches or plants, though, it really is as if I am being given a tiny window into someone’s life and I get that feeling of voyeurism where the world is simultaneously very small and very big. The shadows and reflections are so effective and enhance the overall contrast of specific scenes to some extend that they seem surreal.

It is neither bland nor flashy: natural and earthy tones are the most dominant although there are flashes of vivid color that, to my eye, disrupt the harmony of colors. For some reason it reminds me of star filter, as if it is made on purpose to provide emphasis to some areas of the image. I also like details and there is one thing that makes these images very profound – the plants and rocks, the water that creates a touchable depth as if I can reach out and feel how the stones looked or how the leaves feel. The range of focus follows the middle ground and keeps everything the foreground, middle ground, and background in focus, and while some shots of the vegetation are nice and added for variety, the close shots of the plants placed throughout the video are stunning.

What strikes me most is the fact that this contact sheet displays the changes of mood of the landscape throughout different lights and weathers. The place looks active, as if I’ve seen one version of it, then another, each with their own kind of stealthy, potent charm.

[aditirkumar]

Jonathan Klein: Photos that Changed the World.

I believe Jonathan Klein has really nailed it about how these photos move people and even society at large in his talk titled Photos That Changed the World. I tried to watch it, and the burden of his message that images are strong, especially that they are beyond the language and culture that often words can be increased. The things that he describe are passionate and can bring emotions out of you nearly making you want to face some truth or experience a human condition. But photography in particular, this has a narrative or establishes an emotion within the context of one shot and that why makes the media such a powerful tool to prompt change.

I suppose that what impressed me most about Klein’s talk is how he underlined the things that go into a visual narrative story – the timing, the framing and the content. It refers to the PHOTOS he talks of, which capture war, famine, or injustice in a way that, they capture your emotional attention. Instead they just set up scene of contrasted and lighted and darked or people in chaos or in sadness. These images make time stand still just long enough to really feel and react to what seems like an important moment. For this I came to realize from Klein’s talk that photography, if applied correctly, not only observes a society, it also influences one  for that a picture goes the extra mile it touches hearts in ways one never imagined.

[aditirkumar]

Two Cars, One Night (Dir: Taika Waititi)

Two Cars One Night by Taika Waititi. Filmed in black and white the movie sets such a fantastic and personal atmosphere, it feels like the intensity of the night is in your hands. The absence of intensive colors lets focus on the relation of light and shade and especially on the headlights of automobiles, swirling around the two children increasing the affection between them. The very shallow depth field really got to me too. The children get isolated by cutting out their faces and making it that which stands out most with cars and the environment behind almost looking like they fade away as if only joy and the moment exist.

That is why such minimalist approach only added to the atmosphere during the whole film. Light and contrast felt like an emotional language in the way that Waititi was portraying everything on screen. Each shade, each reflection put some load to this scene and I felt how two kids get close to each other.

I also enjoyed the cinematography it was so slow and, for that reason, so very peaceful. I understood how the abundant use of full shots and long shots were able to establish the concrete environment of the parking lot as well as how it made it exclusive like the children were trapped together in this little world. The most obvious element is that the movement of the camera is quite slow congratulating the pace of their relationship transformation. It was realism I mention as their scenes with each other felt real and cautiously sweet where applicable as they never overacted.

Quite often most films are trying to complicate a simple message, but this is not the case with this movie. Nevertheless, the children are not given much say because a single look or the smallest movement has so much weight in their world. I really felt something about that subtlety. Two Cars, One Night is a gentle test to remember that most of the necessary things in filmmaking are in the small things when a director visualises one shot carefully, it can respond much louder than a deafening explosion on the soundstage.

[aditirkumar]

Using a old Fujifilm camera

The contact sheet reminds the look of older style cameras. It is characteristic of grainy textures, and the aspects where the power of flash was abused, and some images slightly overexposed. These are very much like the mistakes one got to see in the traditional films used to photograph the leaks of light, the blurry focus or the grain all brought appealing nuances to the picture. How the flash paints subjects in the dark or gives candid or night shots this certain edgy look provides the photos this certain rough and unrefined feel that puts them in parallel with those old fashioned point and shoot digital or those early editions of digital cameras where capturing a moment supercedes composing a picture.

That rawness as well as the contact sheet format which is present in this work reminds me that thirty years ago photographers used to choose their images out of the series or film proofs. You get an old-school feel in those pictures a sense of ‘snapshots’ pre-digital photography with all the clinical sharpness and brightness of today’s photography left out. And it just feels very organic and I appreciate things that feel very real and just getting genuine with people.

[aditirkumar]

Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014)

Through A Lens Darkly profoundly touched me. Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People is an intense documentary that captures the imperative role black photographers should play in defining the story of Black people in America. It really made me understand how photography became one of the means by which Blacks specially the African Americans were able to have the proof of existence, hope, endurance and agency in times where these were highly and constantly questioned and denied.

I was impressed with one of the most essential aspects that the film showed photographers who were involved in responding to Crown’s portrayal of African American women through their photographs as a form of resistance to the white representation of the black female body. It made me realise that the Black photographers’ lives and works were politics, how their practices responded to the political battle in the same way as how the process itself was fought.

It was quite enlightening to see a glimpse of the development of Black photographers from then to now. All the changes were reflected in style, focus and impact and that made me ponder on the fact that art is a part of history, not simply a representation of it. The plot that has so much feeling in it and the visual language used, is an enrichment and extension of a discourse on race in the United States, on Black history and Black art. It is a documentary movie that have given me the impression of that huge load that I have to shoulder.

[aditirkumar]

João Bernardino's

João Bernardino work as he prefers minimalistic aesthetics in his projects. His photos have no unneeded lines or disturbing elements; they simply make a subject look great and leave an impression on people. What I like about him is how he exploits the negative space to enhance the subject area and give it a balanced simple feel.

I also agree with Bernardino about architecture and city environment and regarding how he describes the relation between the buildings and light. His choice of geometric patterns and sacrificing symmetry is a way of placing a structural value into his images that can be viewed. He frequently uses monochromes or low contrasting colors to accent form and texture to produce the image that to my mind has a sort of classic, timeless feel.

The thing I enjoy most about this work of Bernardino is the way he applies darkness and brightness to his photos to enhance the theme and ultimate feeling. It increases such factors as work surface texture and form; it makes the images look volumetric and symbolic. However, he also occasionally uses geometric shapes and forms, which I believe plays an actual deep interpretation and meaning in his work. His choice of elements, mostly simplicity, structural designs, and a rather refined use of light and space appeal to me as an architect.

[aditirkumar]

Alan schaller

A work that interests me about  Alan Schaller’s photography since he uses high contrast black and white as the distinctive feature of his work. His technical choice of the dark background and the beams of light have a discrete attraction to them that gives his work a wow factor. It provides his photos a dramatic look and the flow undoubtedly enhances highlight contrast, which in its turn gives brilliant depiction of the contours of the objects and subjects in the frame. As for that high contrast style, which I like very much and which is clearly seen here.

Another element that certainly caught my attention while reading Schaller’s work is that he adorns his work with geometrical shapes. He often uses a dominant stroke and shape either with reflection, architectures, or even broaden natural elements to give his images rhythmic structure. This gives them orderly and proportional looks making them eye pleasing His concentration into geometrical shapes greatly enhances the look of the photographs he takes.

What really struck me about him, however is how he employs natural light. He is able to define a certain mood and hint at the roughness of the surface and the relief of objects by means of light and darkness. They are major additions to his images because the added dimension and weight result in photographs that are warm inside, emotionally charged.

Schaller’s work that I appreciate; the other is minimalism. He uses this Bernini’s effect to capture only what one must see; it focuses our eye on the main subject without confusion of the story of the image. It’s a style I like because it does not make the viewer or audience distracted and gives an unadulterated, message for every frame captured.

Schaller has done most of his work documenting the life in urban environments. He has been great at drawing attention to the fact and recording seemingly ordinary occurrences in people’s lives. Dedication and timing are consisted throughout. he chooses rather simple environments and captures its important scenes with high level of creative thinking.

I also like the fact that Schaller has the tendency to align patterns, reflections as well as a certain degree of symmetrical balance in his capture. These add dimensions, which make his images more visually interesting and harder to understand. They add another dimension and that is something which I find interesting about his artistry.

[aditirkumar]

Galen Rowell

1940-2002

I respect in Galen Rowell’s works as an adventure and landscape photographer. Especially, among all the techniques that are applied, I would like to focus on his dynamic composition technique. Switching from foreground to background, he was outstanding in leading the viewer into the scene depth and something like a boundlessness. That tells me how he was able to paint landscapes from perspectives that seem to be both profound and provocative.

One can identify two ideas that dominated Rowell’s work – color as well as light. David was very particular with timing in shooting his pictures, choosing to take photos at those times with warm, full bodied light on the land. For brightening up necessary colors, or for attaining an increased measure of control over tonal values, the filters were employed to the extreme limit. Light and colour were important because Rowell’s needed to capture high contrasts and highly saturated photos.

Another feature in his approach that I like is practical and fast decision-making on the field. Rowell did most of his work in random unfriendly terrains, especially at high altitudes where one only gets one chance at capturing whatever one can. This flexibility, which not all his peers who shot large format chose to have, was a result of his decision to use 35mm film. And that was good for the piece because he otherwise would not have been able to capture the moment in the right spirit.

What also interest me is how Rowell put life, motion in his photographs. Even with the sky’s clouds, lighting, or people interactions, his photos were alive which made them dynamic. Of course, there is still that sense of movement that I like so much in your work; you mentioned that he brings more energy to his work. Other factors which influenced Rowell’s approach to landscape photography Stemming from his climbing background and adventures. He was able to prepare where to get the best view and determine when the weather was right for photographing movement in the scene. The technical ability in handling the camera issues of exposure for instance enabled him pass the intended message as it was. To me this is where adventure, planning and technical competency join forces and where his work comes alive for me.