Change of concept.

After banging my head against the original concept, and being left with a bunch of images that really did not embody a 'space' I have chosen to further develop the concept introduced in my previous post.

The location for this concept is the the kelburn campus. The concept explores these buildings after hours, comparing  the designs of the different areas, w.r.t size,lighting and signage. In particular the gradual reduction in size and lighting as one moves from main thoroughfares toward the back corridors and less used exits. Throughout this journey is the constant visual aid of the illuminated exit sign, my concept focuses on the prominence of this sign. The lighting and breadth of the main entrances and passageways diminishes the exit sign, but as the lighting is reduced and walls close in, the fact that the exit sign is a light of its own becomes more apparent.


I guess that's an alright first draft of concept :D

Idea Development

To get it out of the way.... The Miniworld:

I am scraping the initial plan to contrast the buildings under construction with nearby buildings, preferring to focus on the abstractness of the textures instead. This means the photos which only contain the single build + sky will be more fitting.

On a side note, had a look at photographing a different concept: the symbolism of the green exit signs throughout the cotton building. The transition from front entrance to back is interesting, each image is more shadowy than the last.

Construction Photos

Due to the closeness of buildings in the city I found it hard to frame shots which contrast the construction covered buildings, with nearby finished buildings without getting lots of irrelevant things in the shot. Similarly getting far enough away from buildings to get nice horizon lines, like the photos in the research post, diminished the contrast I hoped to make.

Flickr Construction Set.

Since these are not the final photos to be used in this project I have reduced their quality so I don't fill up the flickr account (lol).

Research and proposal.

Research:
Browsing magnumphotos.com Jonas Bendiksen, Ian Berry and Raymond Depardon stuck out for me. These artists all utilized various techniques to enhance contrast.

Jonas Bendiksen made clever use of light, using not only brightness and shadows, but warmth to break up the image into more geometric shapes.

Reflections embellish the underlying black/white contrast, also hinting at metaphor in that the reflections only occur in the grave.

Bright glowing light acts as the source of the white foot prints, adding extra life and movement to the photo.

The warmth and clarity of the road creates heavy contrast with the cold colors and busy construction of the shacks.

Ian Berry uses more subtle contrast to highlight differences in ideas, or to provoke thought about the subjects. These photos often uses human subjects, contrasting their abstract features with other objects in the frame.

The escalators give a feeling of the process of travelling, combined with the human subjects causes the view to  ponder on their destination. The youths idle optimism and the elders weariness is an interesting counter point to the thin slice of buildings shown.

Similar to the first photo we have a contrast between the two subjects of this photo, the lower cases struggle vs the upper classes nonchalant stride.

Instead of a contrast, the lines in this photo give the impression that the old lady is traveling toward her death, in the likeness of crucified Christ. This link allows the viewer to extrapolate detailed feelings for the old lady, for the photo gives her the appearance of calm.

Raymond Depardon combines some of the above techniques to create abstract, almost simple, photography.

Both these image are similar to Jonas's work, using light to stylize the image and bring out the contrast. Instead of allowing this contrast to create interesting shapes, Raymond utilizes contrast to emphasize particular subjects, in these cases a line of camels and a parked car.

Comparing different subjects to one another and/or inanimate objects in a manor akin to Ian, Raymond draws the viewer into the moment. Once drawn in, this style of composition invites further consideration as to the depth of the relationships displayed.

Proposal:
Throughout wellington a number construction and deconstruction projects are underway. The aim of this project is to allow the viewer to see the contrast, in color, texture and shape, between areas and buildings which are being worked on. Furthermore, underlying this contrast is a relationship in time between buildings that are complete and those nearby that are not.

The contrast in color arises from differences in purpose. The bright oranges attract attention to inform, pale blue and whites mask the construction process whereas, the colors used elsewhere are generally more aesthetically pleasing.

The textures and shapes in construction are heavily utilitarian and repetitive in nature, whereas the shades in complete buildings are bold and unified.

*This proposal is a work in progress...

DSDN 144: Panorama.

I failed a bit whilst taking these shots and ended up botching my manually created panorama...

Good thing Photoshops auto panorama feature knocked my attempts out of the water! =)
Although I did end up fixing a few things in the auto version, most notably the downward slant as shown in the left of the manual version.

Automatic + fixes:

Full manual: