Research - Peter Hoffman

I stumbled upon a photographer called Peter Hoffman recently. His work is commenting on consumption and the sparseness of clean water.  He creates beautiful psychedelically coloured images by spraying his negatives with petrol after he shot the film, setting fire to them(!) and then extinguishing them before they are destroyed.

Here is a link to his website

http://www.peterhoffmanphoto.com/index.php/short-works/fox-river-derivatives/

Portraits of Psychedelic Bands/Artists

I thought I'd have a look at portraits of psychedelic (or sub genre related) artists out of interest and to see what the general poses were. I have only chosen portraits with the subjects making eye contact with the camera so I can compare them to my own that I took at the festival.

After looking at these photographs in comparison with my own taken at the festival, I have come to the conclusion that there is an air of confidence and cockiness almost that comes across through the way that people are holding themselves. It seems as though they are sure of how they want to stand and be perceived by onlookers and the viewers of the photographs, almost as if they don't care. The photographs above that stand out to me and those I would compare to the poses held by the festival goers are the top three of Anton Newcombe, Syd Barrett and Brian Jones as they seem very confident in their stances.

Research - August Sander

August Sander was a German photographer best known for his portrait and documentary work. Sander photographed people from all walks of life, such as a nun, a baker, a gypsy and even Nazis. He is quoted as saying "we can tell from appearance the work someone does or does not do; we can read in his face whether he is happy or troubled."

I really like the portraits of his where the subject is looking at the camera as they feel more personal, like you can get to know the subject through making eye contact. 

Research - Diane Arbus

I love Diane Arbus's work as she always managed to capture unusual people within her portraits. All her subjects an something interesting look to them and that there is a story to be told for each person. More often than not, looking at her photographs makes you feel uncomfortable which I think is due to the intense stares that her subjects give. 

I find the compositions of her photographs visually interesting as the subjects don't appear to have been directed in any way and it seems that they have control of how they are posing. They also seem to be around or shot in a place that has some relevance to the subject, i.e. the quite glamourous older woman below is sat in an expensive looking French chair.

Festival Portraits

I decided to go to a psychedelia festival in Manchester last weekend and took my camera along so I could take some photographs of people in the crowd with the intention to somehow combine with another image.
I didn't want to force people to pose in a certain way so I gave them no direction whatsoever. I asked their permission to take a photograph for my project and briefly explained that it involved me taking photographs of the psychedelic community. I am pleased with the portraits and I think that they work well, although I am not too keen on the backgrounds in some of them. I was made aware that I may need to crop a bit more out from the top as there is quite a bit of room.
My friend also featured me on his radio show so hopefully I can gain a little more publicity from that and can gather more subjects to photograph for my project.