Reading a Photograph: Alexander Rodchenko

 Alexander Rodchenko (Russian, 1891–1956).  Rodchenko announced, “I reduced painting to its logical conclusion and exhibited three canvases: red, blue and yellow. I affirmed: It’s all over.” (Nouril, 2016) The death of painting in 1921, as it was to him, heralded a new age of the constructivist movement, and this included his work in photography.  His photography 'allowed him to easily experiment with the composition of images. He framed the world from new points of view—from above, below, and at other unexpected, sharp angles—encouraging the viewer to see familiar things in new ways.' (Nouril, 2016)

Portrait of Mother by Alexander Rodchenko (1924)

What?

What is in the photograph, and what are your first impressions?

This is a portrait of a Mother, it could be Rodchenko's own Mother, as it seems to state in the title.  In this image, the woman's life-worn face fills the frame.  She looks tired, perhaps rubbing her eyes.  Not only can we see her face, but also her weathered hands and the gold ring she wears on her little finger.  Perhaps this is her wedding ring or her own mother's ring, but now it is hers, as a remembrance. She seems to be wearing a large black hat and a smart coat, perhaps made of fur.  It seems to be winter, cold and fresh.  The woman's face is concentrated, perhaps she is trying to see properly or read something, and she is taking her glasses off or putting them on. What is most important is everything about this woman, this frame is her.

Who?

Who is in the photograph? How do you feel when looking at the people in this image? 

Do you feel part of the image, or do you feel you are just looking on? 

As discussed about the woman is his Mother or perhaps a representative of all Mothers.  This close-up uses a high angle just above the subject. What does this suggest?  It could be that the photographer was just taller and caught this shot as he tilted the camera down, or it was intentional and he was 'looking down' upon the Mother.  Also, Mother herself is looking down, so the whole suggestion of the shot is looking downwards.  Looking down suggests sadness, dejection, weariness or, as I suggested previously, concentration/tiredness.  I don't feel part of this image, I feel I am looking into a private moment.  I am a voyeur; I am glimpsing a moment that would have been lost to time without this image.

When?

When was this image taken?

What does that mean in terms of historical information?

This image was taken in 1921, this was a period between to first and Second World Wars, and art was flourishing.  The Constructivists in Russia, Dadaism, Surrealism and the avant-garde, through Europe, Rodchenko, 'On a trip to Paris in 1925 he bought a handheld camera, which allowed him to easily experiment with the composition of images.' (Nouril, 2016) A new wave of art and experimentation had begun, and Rodchenko really experimented with his camera, and he often used geometric patterns, and even with people, there was a constructivist mindset.  The Constructivist manifesto stated, 'The material formation of the object is to be substituted for its aesthetic combination. The object is to be treated as a whole and thus will be of no discernible ‘style’ but simply a product of an industrial order like a car, an aeroplane and such like. Constructivism is a purely technical mastery and organisation of materials.' (Tate, 2017) These images are the product of the industrial and technological revolution.  Now, as images are just pixels, materiality has gone and as Baudrillard, what really does exist anymore? 

Why?

Why did Rodchenko take this image?

Why is the photograph important?

It is unclear why Rodchenko took this image, but he was experimenting with the camera, and this close-up really shows that he was trying to get to the heart of what the camera could reveal in a person's face.  Rodchenko did believe that photography was art and had surpassed painting. 'The Russian formalists, including Viktor Shklovsky, who was photographed with Rodchenko, called [one of their]  techniques ostranenie - or making strange.'  (Raine, 2008) The idea was that you take something familiar and then you defamiliarise it through the photographic technique. her is an example below with Pioneer with a Trumpet, look at the unfamiliar angle and we see the pattern of the man's face and the trumpet from below.  Again, like the image of 'Mother', the face fills the frame.  

Alexander Rodchenko, Pioneer with Trumpet, 1930

How?

How has the image been taken? 

What technical points can you discuss? 

How has your view changed after researching the image?

What do you now understand the image to mean? 

As discussed, the image was taken from a high angle, and the face filled the frame. High contrast of the black hat and white skin, making the details all the more poignant and drawing the viewer's attention to the eyes, darkened and worn. Rodchenko may have used a Debrie Sept camera and also a Leica  camera. The Debrie Camera, imported from Paris, included a Zeiss lens, and Rodchenko would also have used a tripod and imported film stock. 

Alexander Rodchenko is an interesting figure in Photography and after relative freedom for a while a change in the Soviet State, his work came under scrutiny for being too Western and avant-garde, and as times changed, 'Rodchenko’s output was used repeatedly to make a state-sanctioned Soviet reality visible. In the wake of this, other official commissions began to arrive, from photograph albums of Civil War heroes or further examples of Soviet prowess, from parades and gymnastic displays to parachute jumps. The state needed Rodchenko after all,' (Lowe, 2023) 

Conclusion 

Rodchenko created great photography, and without him and his way of seeing, photography would be missing a seminal and important figure who was admired by other photographers around the world.  The state-sanctioned images may have changed his output, but in photographic terms, he was one of the greats who led the way for so many others. 

References

Raine, C. (2008). Craig Raine on the Russian avant-gardist photographer, Alexander Rodchenko. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jan/26/photography [Accessed 27 Apr. 2025].

Lowe, P. (2023). Aleksandr Rodchenko’s Photography: Seeing Things Differently. [online] Izba Arts. Available at: https://www.izbaarts.com/aleksandr-rodchenkos-photography-seeing-things-differently/ [Accessed 27 Apr. 2025].

Nouril, K. (2016). Aleksandr Rodchenko | MoMA. [online] The Museum of Modern Art. Available at: https://www.moma.org/artists/4975-aleksandr-rodchenko [Accessed 27 Apr. 2025].

Tate (2017). Constructivism. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/constructivism [Accessed 27 Apr. 2025].

Reading a Photograph: Robert Frank

 As part of the photography brief, we are reading a photograph, for the class task we are looking at Robert Frank's Trolley from 1955.

Trolley, New Orleans (1955) Robert Frank 

What?

What is in the photograph, and what are your first impressions?

This is an image of a 'trolley' or bus with the people of New Orleans.  The bus is segregated, so the black people are at the black and the white people are at the front of the bus. The framing of the image is very effective as it is split into thirds.  The bottom third is just the blank side of the bus, and at the top, there is a thin sliver of the side of the bus which almost gives the impression of a cinema with the lines below and above.  The most important and largest third is in the middle and directly at the viewer's eye line. Each person is then framed again in the windows, and they stare back out at the photographer/us, now from history.  Each person with their own story. The older well-dressed lady at the front, her handbag sitting on her knees and sits straight and looks out at the view. In the next frame is a boy and a young toddler who is crying.  The boy, dressed quite smartly, holds onto the frame and looks directly at the photographer.  In the third frame, a man wearing what looks like work clothes leans on the frame and again seems to catch the photographer, and now looks directly at the viewer. The fourth frame is an older woman again, quite well dressed, looking back, perhaps she is going to work or shopping and taking the bus.  The final third with the upper windows shows reflections of the outside and silhouettes of the people within, creating an impressionist film strip along the top of the image.

Who?

Who is in the photograph? How do you feel when looking at the people in this image? 

As above the people in the image are just the ordinary people of New Orleans, the people look like they are just living their lives as it was in 1955.

Do you feel part of the image, or do you feel you are just looking on? 

I do feel part of the image, the image draws you in and I could imagine beimng on the bus.  I imagine that it is a hot day, there is hardly a breeze and the trolley is hot and sticky and it is going to be a long ride in a cramped and noisy bus.  The smell is of sweat and dust, I can imagine being in this different world.  This frame is a long way from my own life however the social issues still exist and this image was before I was born, but I can imagine this time and this image is an important historical document that transports me back and helps me to understand.

When?  When was this image taken? What does that mean in terms of historical information?

This image clearly shows segregation on the buses and 'In 1958, [Robert Frank] wrote: “With these photographs, I have attempted to show a cross-section of the American population. My effort was to express it simply and without confusion.”' (Reed, 2020).  This is a historical document and through Franks seminal book The Americans (1958) first published in France and then a year later in the United States,  American life can be seen from a different viewpoint, it is a social commentary and Frank not coming from America, he was a Swiss-Jewish immigrant,  has the advantage of seeing it from an outsiders point of view. Frank took eight hundred rolls of film to capture American life, and 'His elliptical, off-kilter style was controversial, as was his innovative treatment of his subject matter, which revealed a profound sense of alienation in American life.' (The Museum of Modern Art, 2025).  This sense of alienation really refelects Franks feeling from the outside he is an alien in a foreign land and like my impression of the image, I feel like I am inside it, I can imagine it but it is another world, a world I have never lived in, but I am also a product of that history. 

Why? Why did Robert Frank take this image? Why is the photograph important?

Frank took this image and all the other images for The Americans (1958) to express what he saw as American life at the time.  His images were unusually shot, framed and composed differently; they were not just straight shots of buildings, landscapes, people, they took a different perspective.  This shot that has been flattened almost to make it look like a postcard, the trolley fills the frame and using the frames within the frame create individual stories, not only is there segregation, but each individual is highlighted by their own frame and through this they become more human, more individual to the viewer. LadyKflo states;  'The trolley car punctuates each square window with white bars on each side, as if to say that whiteness organized this system and keeps it in place.' (Katherine, 2022) I don't believe that this statement is really the truth, I don't believe the white bars were about a system, I think the bus had what we window frames and actually Frank through these frames did highlight individuality, even through the segregated bus. 

How? How has the image been taken? What technical points can you discuss? 

This image was taken as a snapshot as the bus was moving, hence the blurred windows and moving reflection in the upper third of the shot.  The flat 2D frame and separation into three follows photographic rules and creates a shot that fills the frame and uses frames within the frame to create a really masterful shot that has stood the test of time, as we are still talking about this shot 70 years later. 

How has your view changed after researching the image? What do you now understand the image to mean? 

I think it is interesting that now we look at this through the lens of history.  At the time when it was published, it was probably not understood or appreciated, Jno Cook states; 'It was little understood and appreciated at first, and it took ten years before its influence was recognized'  (ASX, 2009).  Viewpoints change through time, and how we see certainly changes.  We all now have a more sophisticated understanding of the image only because we are bombarded by them.  Photography at this time was still young, and these images were experimental and strange to people.  Now they have become important historical documents. Frank also stated of his images, 'My photographs are not planned or composed in advance and I do not anticipate that the on-looker will share my viewpoint. However, I feel that if my photograph leaves an image on his mind—something has been accomplished.' (amer4127, 2012).  Frank wanted others to take whatever they could from his images. he was a recorder but as he said, he did not plan this; he just took what he saw in his own way.  Frank was a pioneer in the photographic field, he discovered new perspectives, new ways of seeing that he shared with us.

Conclusion 

This image is a seminal image from Robert Frank's collection in The Americans. The image now still has impact and stands up as art and a historical document.  As we look into the eyes of the people here on the bus, we can imagine being within the frame, at a different time and with different attitudes and perspectives. Times have changed, but we still have many issues still with racism in America, which is why Black Lives Matter is so important.  We are in a better world, in some ways, but we still have an awful lot of work to do.

References

Reed, R. (2020). Robert Frank. Trolley: New Orleans. MoMA One on One Series. Photographs by Robert Frank. Text by Lucy Gallun. 9781633451193 - photo-eye. [online] Photoeye.com. Available at: https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation/DT894?modal=%23booktease-modal [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

Reed, R. (2020). Robert Frank. Trolley: New Orleans. MoMA One on One Series. Photographs by Robert Frank. Text by Lucy Gallun. 9781633451193 - photo-eye. [online] Photoeye.com. Available at: https://www.photoeye.com/bookstore/citation/DT894?modal=%23booktease-modal [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

the Guardian. (2024). ‘It changed 20th-century art’: revisiting Robert Frank’s The Americans – in pictures. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2024/nov/20/robert-frank-the-americans-in-pictures-photo-book [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

The Museum of Modern Art. (2025). Robert Frank. Trolley--New Orleans. 1955 | MoMA. [online] Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/54484 [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

Katherine, L. (2022). Trolley New Orleans by Robert Frank, 1955 - LadyKflo. [online] Ladykflo.com. Available at: https://ladykflo.com/trolley-new-orleans-by-robert-frank-1955/ [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

ASX, E. @ J.C. (2009). Robert Frank: Dissecting the American Image (1986). [online] AMERICAN SUBURB X. Available at: https://americansuburbx.com/2009/01/theory-robert-frank-dissecting-american.html [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

amer4127 (2012). A Statement by Robert Frank (1958). [online] AMERICAN SUBURB X. Available at: https://americansuburbx.com/2012/07/robert-frank-a-statement-1958.html [Accessed 22 Apr. 2025].

Photography Project: Initial Ideas

 I have begun to consider ideas for my photography project this term, and so I have two ideas that I would like to explore.  The first idea comes from an exhibition I visited in London of The Face Magazine.  This was a culture magazine that ran between 1980 and 2004, it celebrated the work of 83 photographers.  Some of the photographers' work I knew really well and the images it featured are now iconic images in pop culture. The people it featured could be ordinary people in clubs or the streets and fashion models, musicians and movie stars. (Siddell, V. 2025)

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift Exhibition 20th February to 18th May 2025

The imagery is all portrait-based, so this is great as it adheres with the brief, and I could look at some great photographers' work.  I want to start by looking at the work of Ellen von Unwerth, some of which was featured in the exhibition.  Unwerth uses staged images however, she is very much waiting to see what will happen, what is unexpected so the shots she gets are surprising, glamorous and unusual. Here are two early images of Britney Spears from Unwerth.

Britney Spears (circa 2003) By Ellen Von Unwerth

Unwerth always has glamour in her images; even when they are dirty and grimy, the women are made up exquisitely.  In the first image here, the frame is filled with Britney. The use of the rule of thirds is clear with her to one side and the bend of her elbow creating shape in the image.  She looks directly at the viewer here, challenging the viewer to stare right back. The use of black and white and the lighting create great contrasts in this image.  The second image is from the top down but uses the body as a leading line as Britney is stretched out on the back seat of a car. The contrast of the dark interior and her white body, clothes and hair again work well with the light and contrast.  The elbows and legs bent create the triangular shapes that make the image really work, and this time, she looks away, and it looks as if we are walking in on a private moment. The third image is completely different, with a different look and style.  Here, she looks up, her neck lengthening her body, which is exposed through the design of her dress.  The long string of pearls draws attention to the bareness of her body.  Here, the background is blurred/overexposed, and she is in motion, so it looks like a snapshot.  

The reason I looked at these images is for my own ideas. I would like to perhaps do a series of self-portraits that look like they should be the front cover of a magazine or an album cover.  The shoot could be the series of images from that shoot, like the ones here. Or like the Mapplethorpe images of Patti Smith 

Robert Mapplethorpe, Bob Heimall, Arista Records, Album cover for Patti Smith, Horses 1975

In my second idea, this came to me in a kind of vision, so I ordered a bulk load of doll heads - unsure exactly of how I would need these...

Then it started to come to me that I wanted to create a set of 10 of the major arcana in Tarot, and I had some initial drawings of those ideas 

The doll's head will be mounted on a black backboard, and then I would place this inside a light box to photograph each 'portrait'. This could be quite creative with the heads, and I like the idea of using the tarot cards as a basis.  I think this would need exploring more, but again, I find myself back to Hans Bellmer and his deconstructed dolls.  I like this image with all the pieces; it reminds me that we are just parts that can be easily deconstructed.  The dolls Bellmer created were both beautiful and terrifying.  So strange and deformed; 'These transformations of the doll's body offered an alternative to the image of the ideal body and psyche popularized in German fascist propaganda of the 1930s.' (MOMA, 2024)

Hans Bellmer, Plate from La Poupée, 1936

I like the strangeness of this idea and would like to see how these would turn out - it would be quite a lot of work, one on each one, but it is doable in the time (I think).  I like the black and white shot I took of the heads and want to do more.  I will test this out further before making a final decision on the project 

References

MOMA (2024). Hans Bellmer. Plate from La Poupée. 1936. [online] The Museum of Modern Art. Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/92611 [Accessed 12 Apr. 2025].

Siddell, V. (2025). The Face Magazine, Culture Shift. First ed. National Portrait Gallery.

Photography Project: Studio Portraits

 Yesterday we went to the photographic studio to take studio portraits. In the studio we used continuous lighting with a four light set up.  We took black and white and colour photographs and we used a black backdrop and a white backdrop.

We used the model Billie and a variety of poses for different composition.  Once I complete the shoot I created contact sheet on Photoshop.

We started with a high key set up on a white background.  The model was wearing colourful clothes and this should have been bright and sharp images. The first image I has chosen to show is this medium shot below

In this image the F-Stop is F4.5 so the aperture is wide open and the image should be clear and sharp.  With the lighting here the shutter is only 1/80 which is quite slow and actually the image is soft and really more light was needed to make this much sharper. I could have improved this image by over exposing slightly and this would have also increased the shutter speed or I could have added extra physical lighting or changed the ISO to 800 (however this would have added more noise, so not a good solution). 

We looked at lots of poses prior to the shoot and this shot by David Bailey has some similar ideas 

It is also a medium shot and uses rule of thirds, Bailey's image uses natural light and the hallway to frame the model.  In my shot there is a clean white background and the colour lifts the image to make it bright and clean.  In Baileys shot the domestic environment is more low key and the black and white changes the mood and feel of the image with the woman alone in the house.  My own image is very much like a classic fashion shot, the model's identity is unimportant.  Baileys shot is obviously far more compelling.   

The next shots I chose were these two sitting poses one in black and white and one in colour - this is partially so I can decide which works better as a shot and to think about the sharpness and lighting in the shots.  

The setting were exactly the same and again these images are soft and the shutter speed slow.  The exposure compensation is overexposing slightly and I think this really needed to be slightly less over exposed and more light added through physical lighting or I needed to be closer to the model to ensure that the shutter speed was higher.  I preferred the black and white but this does need work as I explained here. 

I looked at these shots by Bailey and the sitting pose here uses the bend of the leg and the arm to create the triangle shapes that really make this shot work.  The image is sharp and if my shot over less over exposed and had deeper shades and tones it would have looked more like this in terms of the look of the image. 
 

The next photograph was a seated pose on a box, this pose worked quite well and filled the frame with the triangular shapes and rule of thirds.

On the photograph the shutter was a little slow at 1/30 but there is no blur but it is a little soft.  It is slightly overexposed at +1 exposure compensation but overall this is okay - I would have changed the settings slightly to ensure the shutter speed was higher if I did this again  - I could have changed to Shutter priority.

The image above has some similarities in poses in the  seated position with her hand touching her hair and similar shapes to fill the frame 

The last one I will share here is another seated position , I liked the elegance of this pose, again a little soft but the positioning of the models arms and legs worked well to create a rule of thirds low key shot

The setting here are again a slow shutter making the image softer than I would like.  It was on -2 exposure compensation to ensure the blacks came out black and the shot was low key.  The high contrast of black and white is good and works well here.

Similar idea in this pose however this one is grey shades so the contrast is less stark but the full body shot with the legs taking centre stage and rule of thirds is what we were aiming for in our own shot. 

Reflection

As I was teaching, again I was just doing test shots so these all need adjustments and in a real shoot I would taken far more images and adjusted the setting further to ensure crisper cleaner shots overall. There is a good mixture of poses and low and high key shots here and as a practice it is satisfactory.  In my own work I will be taking far more time and care over the process as this will ensure better shots.

Photography Project: Natural Light Portraits

 Today we were looking at the portrait in class and different compositional techniques and different ideas about the portrait and what it means.  We looked at shots by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson, shots from Life Magazine, Bill Brandt, David Bailey and Annie Leibovitz.  I was most interested in the Life magazine images and so i went to the archive online and found this from 17th March 1972.  The article was titled 'Dropout Wife'  so I couldn't resist and this was about a woman who left her family to pursue her career and left the children with their Dad. This was at the time of the second wave of feminism and the story was about her life and attitudes.  The Photographs here by Michael Mauney.  I really liked the images and the story and i shows the importance of expressing different point of view of the time.  the photographs make this stronger and more relatable.  

'Drop Out Wife' (17th March 1972) Life Magazine

In class we then went out to take natural light portraits with our model Billie. I took around 300 shots and I started with e the setting of aperture priority F4.5, ISO 200.  These are the contacts from the shoot. 

I completed all the contact sheets both on Photoshop and on Contact sheet generator above - Photoshop contact are superior as it is much easier to read the numbers and check the images.  

In this shot the light was really good in the image with the gentle shadows of the trees on the stone and model.  This gave a kind of mottled look to the image. The aperture was wide open so this is sharp throughout and the shutter speed perfectly balanced for this shot.  I chose this shot as it uses good rule of thirds and the movement of the model as se moves her hair work well as she looks down and the sunlight hits her hair.  

I chose this shot for the low key look, its moody and sultry and this works really well with the rule of thirds landscape composition and triangle of the arm leading the viewer to the models face.  The light hitting right side of face contrasts really well the dark left side and textured stone works well as a backdrop as it does not distract from the models face.  the setting here was a wide aperture at F5.6 and fast shutter so the image again very sharp.  I have underexposed with a -1 exposure bias so create the low key look. 

I chose this image for the depth of the colours, the sun was very bright and so by underexposing by -1 I deepened the colour  as otherwise it may have looked over saturated or over exposed and detail would have been lost. Liked the pose and the angle, good sharp, clear shot

In this image again I underexposed slightly as the sun was bright and I wanted to deepen the shades and tones in black and white.  Really liked the angle and with body as leading line through the shot.  good focal length so the background drops out and the focus on the model  is perfect. 

This one I chose as it is a good rule of thirds and I wanted the river in the background, this again is nicely dropped out and softened so the focus is the models face.  In this shot she has a slight Mono Lisa smile and her look into the distance works well. 

I will finish with the shot, this has a really iconic model look to it the pose really works well and in a medium shot it is perfectly balanaced.  Again the aperture is wide and the image is sharp, with a fast shutter as it was bright sunlight I underexposed this time by -1.3, this bought out the darker shades and tones and worked very well to create a great shot. 

Reflection

I am very pleased overall with this shoot, the sunny day really helps and we managed to get some great shots.  I think the adjustments worked well.  i could have dropped my ISO to 100 but as we moved to lighter and darker areas I thought the exposure compensation would be easier to adjust and it meant more control over each shot.  We did have issues with the sun and angles so it was not directly into the camera or directly into the model's eyes!  However we worked round and changed positions as necessary.  As always some poses worked better that others but I really thought there were some great ones here.  very pleased with shots. 

Photography Project: Above & Below

 For this quick photography practice we began by looking at the work of Corrine Day and Terry O'Neill.  We were looking at the composition and framing of images by these photographers and we were particularly looking at the high and low angle shots and using rule of thirds in images and how this works. I choose this image of Kate Moss by Corrine Day as it is a high angle shots looking down on the subject.  I like this image as the background has a dilapidated wall behind which is quite neutral.  The image is in three thirds, the ground is the first third and then the model and the last third the wall.  The shot works as the subject, Kate moss, is young, and there is a naivety and natural exposure that has the spontaneity and carefree nature of youth encapsulated within the frame. 

Kate Moss (circa 1991) By Corrine Day

I then went out with group and created high and low angle shots.  I was using a Canon 700D, I set the settings to Aperture Priority and so the lens was wide open I set this to F4.  I then set my ISO to 100 as it was a bright sunny day and I checked my exposure compensation was on '0' to begin the shoot. 

Once I completed the shoot I made contact sheets on Photoshop File-Automate-Contact Sheets).

I am just to look at a couple of the shots and how they were taken to discuss whether they worked and what could be improved.

I really like the rule of thirds, the low angle and the lines from the roof.  The shot is good in composition however it is slightly soft.  This is because ths shutter speed was only at 1/50 and I needed to add more light by probably adjusting the ISO to 400.  I chose to do these shots in black and white and colour so I had different choices for curation.

This colour shot was at a high angle and the F stop was nice and wide open and this is a crisp, clean shot with lots of detail, good close up with fast shutter speed and no exposure compensation.  

I then went Photoshop and just put the two shots together on a black canvas at 300dpi.  This was to exemplify the high and low angles used in the shoot.

Reflection

I did not get many shots for this as I was teaching, and if I was doing this with a little more time I would have set up the location and subjects better and considered better composition aspects for the shots.  The final piece is okay for a practice.