Stephen Shore influence

I First looked at Stephen shores work in a lecture in uni. I didnt know really what to make out of his work other than it was sure that he photographed things as it was in america and now bacause i look at it and see that all his work has a date of histoy due to the time he taken the photograph. I think the work i done in liverpool is simular and does have a type of style to his. When taking photographs in liverpool i wasnt thinkinag about the style or the work of Stephen Shore but after paying mor attention to his photography i seen a resebalince right away.

Stephen Shore
Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975

Ryan Williams (me)

The docks. Liverpool. May 2010

The photograph i taken above has a lot more colour and tones but i can tell the to are very simular. The angle of my camera and also it is portrait view had a differnece but you can see what i mean. 

Robert frank research

Robert Frank

Robers Frank was born in November 1929 and is Jewish living in Switzerland. You could say he is renown for his American photography and film. His most known notable work is the 1958 photographic book called the americans. I find Robert Franks work quite interesting because i cant seem to put a style to his work and also in some of his photographs i cant seem to understand what it is he wants to photograph. To me i have a subject and photograph it but with Robert Frank his subject matter is hard to understand due to the composition and the way in the people and place he photographs.

Parade Hoboken

This photograph above is in his book the americans and is bably one of the most iconic visual books on American life ever. This book inspired many photographs such as Francis Bacon and Robert Mapplethorpe.

in my opinion i really like the composition and the crop. i think it is great the way the flag is taking out the persons head in the window and to my this is what makes the photograph work well.

Below is more work of Robert frank.

Untitled By- Robert Frank

This shot has a mood to it which i really like and think as a photographer it is hard to get a feeling and a mood in a shot. i like the contrast and how there is more back ground as the subject matter but yet the ladie is the centre of attention.

 untitled by - Robert frank

 untitled by - Robert frank  

Research on Ian Beesley

Ian Beesley

He was born in Bradford in 1954 and went to Bournemouth Poole college of Art in 1974 and graduated  in 1977 with a double distinction in documentary photography. Ian Beesley has been a professional photographer for over 30 years now and exhibits most of his work world wide.


One of my favourite photographs Ian Beesley done was this one.  

  Esholt

I think what i like so much about this photographer is that not only does the people who he photographs have a lot of feeling and emotion to them but its the place that the photograph is implying. The area of his photographs make the photograph to me  because of the mood and the environment that humans work under. Ian Beesley in my opinion has great powerful series of work that shows the human environment at work.

 Esholt the press house

Again this is another example of someone at work in his environment. The places that he photographs have some sort of feeling and remorse. You could say that this was meant to be staged but personally i think this photograph if it wasn't staged makes the photograph and it works for me. 

Contact print for 35mm film

Contact prints are a good way to see what photographs you have taken. You do this by using a contact board which has slides you connect your negatives to. Before i use a full piece of photographic paper i always do a test sheet of 5 second intervals. To do this you need a back board preferably A4 size. I think it is up to you in what way you do it but i got shown when i attended Southport College to start by exposing the light by 5 second interval and every 5 seconds move your black piece of card through the paper then expose the hole piece of photographic paper for 5 seconds. You can do it the other way around to.  This is what mine looked like when doing so:

5 second intervals. The darker it is the longer it has been exposed to light, so you would count up in 5's, the darker part at the top was exposed for a total of 30 seconds.

In this case i thought the best exposure time would be 15 seconds maximum exposure time.

This it the result of a 15 second exposure time.

After doing this print i drew on it showing what photographs i intend to use for the project by drawing round the picture. 

Here is another contact print of more photographs taken. I couldn't fit all the negatives in to the neg board so had to do to contact sheets.

Nots i have but down showing me what thoughts i have on the shot and also the settings i had at the time of the shot taken as a reference for me in the future.

Using different cameras

Usually i photograph most things with a Canon EOS 40d with a 17-85mm lens but I thought I would try using a 35 mm film camera called the Nikon fm3a. I find this camera great and easy to use. The nikon Fm3a has a Hybrid shutter speed control system and a aperture priority auto and also fully manual. Also has 1/4,000 second shutter speed and 1/250 second top sync speed. I think using a camera like this is really enjoyable and you can have lots of fun with it. For this project I have found it hard to keep motivated and haven't had many ideas for the places brief. I started thinking about documenting Blackburn as it is new to me and gives me a chance to see the city. 


I really like the idea you cant see the photograph until you have developed the film so you never know what the photograph is going to look like and I like that idea. Personally I think you cant get the same effect using I film camera compered to a dslr camera. Next I am going to use a medium format camera and see how I find using it and also get to grips with how it functions as a camera. 


Here are some photographs i taken in Blackburn:


This photograph was taken on my way to Preston and at the time I was on a double decker bus. I love the tone of this picture and also the slight reflection from the glass. It was a lovely day for taking photographs because it was really sunny. Again this photograph was taken on my Nikon Fm3a and I used Ilford HP5 400 ISO and black and white film. Before I exposed this picture I had to make a contact sheet that shows me the good to the bad images. I did this by doing a contact sheet of my negatives. In the dark room you have to make solutions up in to three trays. The first solution is the development and your negative goes in the tub for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. From there you have to pore away the development and then pore 1000 ml of water in the bottle. The water has to be room temperature of 20c. To make sure the temperature is right you pore 900 ml of cold water and 100 ml of worm water and with your thermometer it will show up red where it gives you a reading. The tub with the water in stays in for a further 3 minutes. After that you pure away the water and put the fix in the tub for a further  time of 5 minutes.    

This photograph below is from the same negative shot on the same film camera and I really like this shot because of the texture of the grass and the contrast used. I also like the simpleness too. I think it is a good photograph that represents time in away no one thinks about. We all die eventually and we never think about it. In the processing room I used an enlarger that exposes light on to the negative which then shines down on to the photographic paper. From lots of test sheets and patients I eventually exposed the light for 15 seconds maximum and the test sheet I did was on a 5 second interval. I used Ilford photographic paper with a matt look and think with this image above worked really well. I don't think glossy paper would of looked as good because in this case i was after tones and contrast also i was thinking about the subject and just felt it would of suited the matt paper better. 

Here is another picture i took on the same day.

Places Research. Walker Evans

Walker Evans (1903 - 1975)

Walker Evans is an American Photographer and is best know for documenting depression and Farm Security Administration. Walker Evans used a large-format, 8x10-inch camera. Walker Evans quoted  his goal as a photographer was to make pictures that are "literate, authoritative, transcendent" I found this information on wikipedia.

Evans's photo of Allie Mae Burroughs, a symbol of the Great Depression

Coca-Cola Shack

shoeshine stand

What i like about Walker Evans work is that the photographs all look flat and don't look 3d at all, like the shoeshine stand photograph and the Allie Mae Burroughs photograph.

Places. The Alien or Foreign enviroment

This photograph was taken in Berlin at 11:43am Berlin time. Berlin is a hour ahead of us so really it was taken at 10:43am. My camera settings was at a ISO of 500 f. stop of f4 and was taken on a canon eos 40d 17-85mm cannon lens. I decided to put this photograph in the Alien or Foreign environment because on the day of taking this photograph it seemed quiet and everyone was in bed from partying all night. I didn't get much sleep the night before this photograph was taking because i didn't get back to the hotel till 5. The day this photograph was taken i got up at 8 (9 in Berlin time) to explore berlin. That morning i didn't see anyone around until l i  got feather in to the city. When i seen this park i said to my self , I can't capture this mood in a photograph but thought i might as well take a picture.

I taken this shot below in colour originally but felt it would of been a better photograph in black and white.

I was looking to get a mood and a old look in this environment. When taken this shot i had to wait for 10 - 15 minutes to get this shot because there was a lot of tourists and they kept getting in the way. I dont thing this photograph would of been as good with someone in the shot.   

(Barcelona) Canon eos 40d 17-85mm

The City or the Urban Sprawl (Berlin) & (Slaughter farm)

This was taking on the streets of Berlin. This shot is one of my favourite photographs taken in Berlin. I have on the photograph three watermarks because i don't want my work getting robed. I put this car images in to the City or the urban sprawl because i think the street i was in and the city i was in was very urban at times. Sometimes in Berlin i felt scared and intimidated sometimes because of some of the situations i get my self in to. As a photographer i always try to take a photograph and capture the mood and atmosphere in the image. This was taken with the canon eos 40d 6mm lens.

This is the same car but with a different lens. I used a canon eos 40d and had a 17 85mm lens.

I really like the dirty look and the graffiti in the back ground. i have another shot like this one but was taken in barcelona. I really like trying to photograph things this way because i love the colour, composition and the urban look about it. 

Berlin Canon eos 40d 17-85mm

(Barcelona) Canon eos 40d 17-85mm

This Photograph below was taken in a weird place in Berlin. To get to it i had to go thought a flat and all of a sudden i was in this very strange place with surreal statues of animals and aliens. 

(Berlin) Canon eos 40d 6mm fisheye

More photographs taken in the same place as above.

Slaughter farm (set)


I thought i would put my slaughter farm photographs in this category because it defiantly felt on the day really serial and unusual.


My photojournalism photography. I must say these photographs are disturbing and is not for the faint hearted. This is documenting what goes on and how people let it go on. The place i photographed didn't want me to disclose any information and i agreed. I must say this is one of my best sets and is as close as i have ever been to the dead. I want to be a photojournalist and think the more i document work like this then the easier it will be in the future.

You can see more of my work by clicking this link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29539633@N03/sets/72157622752123722/