We now move from a short history of the image to image content creation.
I am going to introduce you to Black & White photography.
This is Jessie Tarbox Beals 1870 -1942 one of the first news photographers and the first female night photogapher. We will stay in touch with these early pioneers of the image.
Her early glass plate camera gear weighed 22 kilograms. In a mans environment she paved the way for female photographers.
Photography literally means writing with light (phōs) Greek for light and (graphé) Greek for drawing or representing with lines.
A few years ago when I was living in Rome, I began working on a short documentary of how people behave with cameras. Digital photography is the worlds most global art form. This video shows some footage footage I shot of tourists outside and inside Rome's amazing Pantheon. I want you to exmine your personal relationship with a DSLR camera or the camera in a smart phone, to understand what you are really doing with a photographic device. Taking a photo is very different from making an image, we will discuss this in class.
In this current age of the Digital Image the art of Photography will be our main practical focus in Media Studies. Your personal photography will contribute to examination marks. I will be introducing you to Black & White Photography soon.
Here is a montage of shots I captured in Black & White on the streets of Rome. They are part of a Photography Exhibition 'Roma Noir' I had in Australia.
I did not use a DSLR camera, most were created on my GoPro and iPod. The lighting was inspired by the Italian painter Caravaggio 1571 - 1610. He lived a notorious life in Rome Malta, Sicily & Naples, often in duels and on the run from the law he painted many of the most dramatically powerful images of his age.
His development of the Chiaroscuro (light /shade) lighting into the more dramatic powerful technique of Tenebrism (tenebroso dark mysterious) has infuenced the cinematographic style in film noir cinema and many modern film directors.
Scene from Harry Potter
When we convert some of Caravaggio's paintings to Black and White we can see how the light highlights the drama in the scene.
In Black and White Photography we capture the power & drama of the intense light and shade contrast in a scene. Our visual attention is generally distracted by colour movement and objects. Learning to see in Black & White will give you a new peception of the world visually and help you intensify the lighting of your colour photogaphy.
Below is a short video of some Black & White images I captured in Rome.
A recent example of seeing in B&W in Playa passing under the Highway fly over. In colour its not so dramatic but in B&W it has more image power to convey light and shade in architecture and the decisive moment when a car passes.
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