Unit 1: Journeys Research

Hamish Scott-Brown

Hamish is a photographer, teacher and also the founder of photographic journeys website.

One of his photos that helped inspire my ideas for my journeys projects is a photo he had taken of a flower seller at dawn.

In the photo we can see a flower seller in a boat paddling around in a lake. On the boat we can see bright flowers. The boat also contains drawings of flower on the side of it. In the water we can see a lot of Lilypad’s as well as reflections from trees.

In my opinion, I think the photo can be used to connote loneliness due to the flower seller appearing isolated in the middle of a lake. The fact that the photo was taken at dawn also helps add to the idea of loneliness due to most people being asleep at this time. The use of the bright colours in the flowers could connote hope. The flowers help to draw the viewer in and also helps to make the photo more eye catching.

The use of contrast of the light and dark in this photo helps draw our attention to the flowers which could help suggest that the flowers are the focal point of the photo.

This photo helped to inspire me with my final idea as it shows the use of a journey on a boat. This helped to inspire me to take part of my journey on a boat around London on the river thames.

Riccardo Magherini

Riccardo is a florence based fine art photographer. Ricardo photographer helps show the movement of time.

One of the photos taken by Riccardo that helped inspire me is called Shinjuku. In this photo we can see part of Shinjuku with part of a blur as things are moving. We can also see cars moving as well as lots of people. We can also see a lot of the buildings in the city.

In my opinion i think this photo greatly shows a journey due to it showing a shadowey effect of objects moving showing they are travelling to different locations. This photo helped inspire me for my final photos as the photo was taken in a populated area with a lot of people around which helps show numerous journeys due to every person travelling to different places.

Another photo by Riccardo that helped inspire me is a photo called Shibuya. In this we can again see the same shadow effect that was used in the last photo with lots of people around. This photo helps connote sadness due to the use of the child on the right who appears to look sad. The use of the umbrella could suggest that its raining which helps again connote sadness due to rain often used to represent something sad. The reason as to how this photo inspired me is due to it being taken in a town or city which helped give me the idea of taking a photo in a city and further develop it into taking photos around the city centre.

Henry Wessel

Henry Wessel wan an American photographer who was greatly know for taking black and white photos of American West. Henry liked to describe his work as ‘work without words’

One of my favourite photos by Henry and also photo that helped inspire my final photos is a photo called ‘Richmond Bridge’. In the photo we can see the front interior of a car aswell as a road ahead which appears to be isolated. The use of the black and white in the photo helps allow us to focus on the photo as a whole rather than getting distracted by numerous colours which don’t allow us to focus on the whole photo. The fact that the photo has been taken in first person helps make the audience feel as though they are in the photo which helps bring them closer to the photo. In my opinion the empty road and having only one hand visible in the photo helps convey loneliness which could help suggest that this is the reason as to why the photo is in black and white due to it helping connote sadness. This photo helped inspire my idea of showing a Journey through the use of transport. My chosen transport was a boat which i travelled on across part of the river Thames.

Another photo by Henry that i like is a photo called ‘incidents 006’. In the photo we can see two kids who appear to be fighting outside a school. We can also see the interior of a car door window which the photo has been taken out of.

In my opinion i believe that the black and white filter on the photo helps to allow the viewer to focus of the subjects emotion state which in this photo could be both anger and sadness due to the photo appearing as though a fight is happening or one of the subjects may be getting bullied. The interior of the car window in the photo helps allow us to know that the photo was taken prior to the 2000s. We can also tell this through the clothing that is worn. This helps the viewer feel as though they have travelled back in time. The way the photo was taken also allows the audience to feel as though they are immersed in the photo making them get a deeper connection toward the photo.

This photo inspired me because i liked the idea of having people visible in a few of my photos because it helps allow us to see multiple journeys at one time due to these people each travelling to different places as well as allowing us to see the journey i’ll be documenting when taking my photos.