Photography Trip

For our photography trip we travel to London where we visited two galleries: the Institute of Contemporary Arts to view Jurgen Teller's Woo! which was located down The Mall, and also the National Portrait Gallery to see some Man Ray Portraits. I believe the theme of Tellers exhibition is to try and shock the audience with the photos he has taken of many different celebrities it unusual situations. Rays exhibition was to show case different styles of portraits, using different techniques. Both exhibitions tell a story of how to shock people and connected different techniques within different surroundings. I found that in the the Woo! exhibition that it was very random, meaning having an photo of a kitten next to a naked image of Viviene Westwood was a little strange and confusing, but I did like his quirky style. In the Man Ray exhibition, i found that all the portraits expressed different periods of time and styles, but I felt some were a little small to look at. Out of both galleries and exhibitions I would recommend Jurgen Tellers Woo! because of how shocking some of his work was and definitely catches your attention more that Man Rays. Even though Rays work was great, I feel more attracted to Tellers quirky uniqueness, this he has portrayed in many ways.    

We also took some film and digital photographers in Green Park and Trafalgar Square. Our main task was to find one photo that really interested us and write an in depth analysis about it. 
 Below are my two images that I really liked in each exhibition.  

Jurgen Teller: Woo!

This image above is called Kurt Cobain, No5 Berlin 1991. Previous to the name the model in  the image is Kurt Cobain who was an American musician and artist, best known for being in the grunge band Nirvana. The subject matter of this image is of the artist closely holding his guitar so that you cant see his face. The picture is in black and white meaning you get a lot of contrast when you look at it. The meaning of this photo is that how much music means to Cobain. The way that he is holding the guitar which shows such dedication to his music. Even though you can't see the expression in his face, concentration is the main element which you can guess, by the way that he is plucking at the strings. I think this image addresses social issues, because even though this photo shows Kurt's strengths at being an excellent musician it also could be that he feels most alive when he is around his guitar or writing songs. He's in his comfort zone. The subject matter looks realistic to me in the way that it has been shot, however there is an element of that it has been cropped so that only part of the original image has be selected. In some way this photograph relates to my theme of 'Inside, Outside & Inbetween' in the way that you can only see the exterior of what he is doing and you can't his face, meaning that his face could express a lot of emotion of sadness, concentration or happiness. You don't what he is thinking either giving you the impression that its a mystery to what he his feeling inside. Yes the photograph was framed around the photo giving it a more appealing look making you draw more attention to inside the frame.  The overall arrangement of the image is really inspiring, for many reasons. One because of the fact that it has been taken is black and white s you get more contrast going on in the picture, and are not distracted by lots of colours. Two because of the how close you feel to the musician and even Tellers photograph skills, when I look at this image, I feel that I have replaced Teller and taken the picture myself because of how close and personal the shot is. Its hard to tell if this picture is canned or planned, in some respect it is a bit of both, because Teller could of sneakily take a quick picture of Cobain playing on the guitar or he could of asked Kurt to pose. You don't really know. The techniques that Teller has used is a good use of depth of field and lighting together create a crisp image. He has also seemed to have used crop the image slightly so only part of the original picture is being displayed and and good use of contrast skills. The photograph captures the mood of emotions. I find that these types of photos, where you can see the models face at all, gives them a sense of mystery. Also this style of work, having a musician focusing on his instrument, can clearly been seen in many album artworks or posters of bands or artist to represent their dedication to what they love the most. Music. In my opinion I love this style of photography, Because it is very simplistic but work well within black and white. Again only focusing on only an element of the big picture, because you can see that all the photographer was to express is what he believe is the most captivating part of the photograph.       

Man Ray Exhibition

This photograph is by Man Ray and is called Le Baiser (The Kiss) 1929. The subject matter of this photo is presented in the name of the image. The composition of the image shows two women's faces pressed closely together with the noses and lips almost touching. The meaning of this image that Ray is trying to express is the closeness of something can be, and how beautiful a part of the body can be. Even though most people would expect to see male and female lips close together, there is some quite special about having the people of the same sex that close together. This is because you can see the definition of both females lips are really dominate and striking to look at. This image address many issues in my opinion. One being social, because of how people may reacted to seeing this image. People think its wrong to have two people of the same sex being that close to one another, even if it just is for a photo. Another life issues is cultural, only because in some cultures people think that you should be with someone from the opposite sex. In my opinion I love this work because it is really artists and captures a really unique image. In many ways this image by Ray relates to the theme because of the shadow inbetween the top lips creates a nice part of the image giving it another dimension to look at. Yes, the picture was framed with only a small border giving the photograph more definition and presents. I love the arrangement of this print because it catches your attention straight away and just focuses on the lips and nose are of both models and it works better in black and white. Even though it would look nice in colour, with having bright lipstick on the models, with it being in a negative colour you can still get the definition of it. The photograph has been planned because if the image was canned, Ray wouldn't of got the same effect as if it was planned. The techniques that I believe that Man Ray has used have been to get a good depth of field around the lip area and of course the best possible lighting to get more shadows into the image. The kiss created the mood of passion and sense of love. I think this types of photo would work well as a film cover or trying to express a poem. In my opinion I like this picture quite alot because of the amount of focus is on that section of the image. I definitely believe that it has been cropped to get this so be the main centre of attention, and it works really well. I really like the concept of having the whole of the page filled up with the photo because you a automatically drawn to the lips, then you begin to explore the rest of the shadows and the noses.  


Kurt Cobain and The Kiss differ in they way that they have been presented. The Kiss has just focused on the nose and most importantly the lips, where as Kurt Cobain, the picture has been got alot more happening it. The contrast in both of Tellers and Rays work are very different Tellers photograph has more contrast between the different textures happening in the photo. However Rays contrast is very subtle but you can still define the darkness of the lips. There is a massive age gap between Man Rays images to Jurgen Tellers. Rays artwork is very grainy compared to Tellers which are more crisp. The impacted has changed dramatically between Rays and Tellers years. This makes you wonder what if the pieces of work switched ears, would you still get the same effect on the opposite photograph? I really love both of this photographers because they display a main focal area that first attracted me to them whilst looking in the galleries, but if I had to chose one that I liked the most it would Jurgen Tellers. This is only because the image is better quality and I feel more atrrated to the Kurt Cobain then The Kiss.