Film Influence

My influence for the final leg of my journey at the view point of the camera is film. I was always intrigued with learning how to use film and develop it. And even when experimenting with film things have not always gone to plan. I am using film to improve my skills of composing and thinking about what I take before I shoot. This will help me improve my time stacks which I intend to continue with due to how much I enjoyed making them, with the added bonus of creating an incredible view point of the sly/world from my camera.

Alexander Rodchenko 
-Working with an orchestra
1933

Alexander Rodchenko is a Russian photographer in the 1920s . But before that he was and artist and sculptor which would have had a big influence to how he saw the world, which can be seen in how he composes his photography. A lot of his pictures have got political view behind them as well. 
This picture has been taken of people working from a roof top. It is landscape, It has been taken using film, due to the year there wasn't much choice in what he could have used. I think the black and white shows that it this work is from another time. His pictures are taken in Russia He has composed the picture to have the roof line going diagonally across the picture, which splits the picture up nicely with whats going on, on the roof and down on the ground. The workers on the ground level and the people sitting down playing musical instruments on the roof. This gives a contrast in the different types of work going on. Further more with the orchestra there you can just imagine the sounds that Rodchenko would have heard.

Barbra and Michael Leisgen- work from nemesis 1970

This is a picture by Barbra and Michael Leisgen they were trying to achieve "the recording of a natural imprint, research into the body theme and experiments with Land art." I like the way that they have composed the pictures with the horizon in the middle, and the person and a feature in a cross in the centre.They took this with film and it's slightly tinted a different colour to normal black and white which I am not sure how that has been achieved but it adds a sense that it is an old print. They set out with a purpose to capture how man can imitate the land and leave marks on the land which show that they planned out what they were going to take. This is evident in all there pictures cause of the arms of the person is lined up with the lines on the horizon. This is what I am taking from film is that I will improve my use of spending time on composing my shots.

Bill Owens - suburbia series 1972

His pictures of this time shows a typical middle class household in California in the 1970s, unlike Barbra and Michael Leisgen ,a lot of Owens pictures in the suburbia series looks like every day life, They have the sense that he was there and just took the pictures, much how I have already experimented with a film camera, He would have had to anticipate what was going to happen with all the settings on the camera.  The pictures in the series use film and is all in black and white, which gives it a more simplistic look. I think that the picture above shows what Owen was trying to capture with this section of his work. It shows a normal family in front of there car about to go on holiday with their boat. I think that using film gives pictures a more raw feel to them as , yes you can edit the pictures but it's a lot easier to get things right before you take the picture. There is a lot more thinking before you shoot not shoot 100s of pictures and end up with a few good ones that you can edit later.

I will take from film the way in which I think about taking pictures and how I will compose my shots, I will do this by doing a shoot in film first before taking the skills onto digital to improve my digital work.