Artist Profile: Annie Leibovitz

American born photographer Annie Leibovitz began her career working as a resident photographer for the newly launched magazine, Rolling Stone. She worked for the magazine for 10 years and helped shape the defining characteristics of the rolling stone magazine cover.

 

Leibovitz is known for capturing intimate moments on film or one second stories as some may call them as one glimpse brings the viewer into another world, time and place. Leibovitz has received the prestigious award the Photographic Societies Medal of Centenary in 2009.

 

 

The photo featured above is one of the photos Leibovitz is most known for. It is a photograph she took of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, this was the last professional photograph taken of Lennon as he was devastatingly shot 5 hours after it was taken. This photo made the front cover of the Rolling stone magazine that month as a tribute to the late Lennon.



 

 

What I like about Leibovitz's photography is her ability to recreate mystical, magical moments using soft tones and busy scenes to draw the eye into different corners of the picture to discover something new. I love her recreations of Disney scenes the best. They remind me of the childhood books and movies I used to read and watch and take me back to that magical place. Her photographs have striking similarities to renaissance art works with their velvety tones and shadows, rich colours and extravagant settings. These are trademark characteristics of many Leibovitz's works.  

 











 

 

 

Making a Contact Sheet, Using the enlarger & Print Processing

1. Set up the enlarger with the lens and negative carrier properly installed

2. Set a contact printing frame under the enlarger, open the lens up and adjust the enlarger so that the light covers the whole contact printing frame with some to spare

3. Put in a contrast filter -  for our class work we used 3 - into the enlarger and stop down the lens to the right amount of light (its generally to stops down from the highest number)

4. Turn off the enlarger

5. Cut a strip of en-exposed photographic paper about 6cm wide

6. Put all of the film strips glossy side up in the printing frame and the photographic paper directly under them.

7. Turn the enlarger on and expose the paper for 3-5 second to begin with

8. Create a 1cm strip along the edge of the exposed paper with a piece of dodging paper for 3-5 seconds

9.Move another 1cm and expose the second strip for another 3-5 seconds

10. Do this another 3 more times and turn of the enlarger

11. Take the paper out of the contact printing frame - leaving the negatives behind- and process the exposed paper

Print Processing:

1. Look at the clock , the developing time recommended is 1.30 to 2.00 minutes

2. Using the developer tongs flip the front edge of the paper into the developer and quickly push the whole paper under the liquid

3. Immediately start to agitate the developer with the tongs or by lifting the edge of the tray

4. Continue to agitate for the full 1.30 or 2.00 minutes

5. With the tongs lift the paper out of the developer and let the liquid drain into the tray for 5 seconds

6. Drop the paper into the stop bath and agitate for 30 seconds

7. Remove the paper and drop the print into the fixer

8. Move the print around in the solution for 2 minutes

9. Drain the solution off the print and toss into the wash bath

10. Leave to soak for 2-3 minutes then put the print through the electric dryer

How To: Develop film

Begin by winding the film on a reel in a dark room and place inside the canister with the lid on securely.

1. Mix the film developer and establish the proper developing time:
 Mix the film developer ID11 with equal quantity of water (1:1) - if you are processing one roll of film use 150mls of water and 150mls of developer and if you are processing two rolls mix 250mls with 250mls developer

Take the temperature of the mixed film developer to determine the films processing time

2. Developer:
pour the mixed developer into the canister and agitate for 15 seconds, stop and tap the bottom of the canister and let it sit for 30 seconds to help get rid of any bubbles that may settle on the film whilst agitating.

 - pour the developer down the sink and continue onto next step

3.Stop-bath:
depending on what type of film you are developing -refer to information charts for the quantity of stop-bath needed to add to the canister. Agitate this mix for 30 seconds

4.Fixer:
Pour the subjected amount of fixer for your film into the canister and agitate for 3-5 minutes.

At this stage in the developing process you can lift the film reel out of the canister to inspect the quality. If milky or purple in colour then replace inside the canister and agitate again for 2 minutes

-pour out the mix when finished

5.Hypo-Clear:
pour the hypo-clear mix into the canister and agitate for 2 minutes

the hypo-clearing agent chemically neutralises the residual fixer remaining on the film- water alone won't clear the fixer residue

6. Wash:
place the reel with the film on it into a washing cylinder- wash the film in the cylinder for 5-10 minutes

7. Drying the film:
unravel your film from the reel and wipe the water off it using your fingers. Place the film into a drying cabinet with a peg attached to the bottom to keep it straight.

8. Finished!
Finally cut your dried negatives into strips of 6 and place them into your neg-sheets

The 10 Golden Rules of Lomograhy!

Lomography is a type of photography which came about through experimentation with a Russian camera, Lomo LC-A,  which produce sensational images which feature bright colour, deep saturation and vignettes which frame the shot beautifully, hence the term Lomography.

The 10 essential rules of Lomography!

1. Take your camera everywhere you go
2. Use it any time – day and night
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
4. Try the shot from the hip
5. Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible
6. Don't think (William Firebrace)
7. Be fast
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you captured on film
9. Afterwards either
10. Don't worry about any rules

 

www.lomography.com is the place to go to buy your own lomo LC-A camera as well as specialised film, and connect with other photographers from all over the world and share your photos. Some of the picture above are images taken with a lomo LC-A camera but using the double exposure techniques to create elements of depth in various shades overlapping each other.

One camera that I have on my wish list is featured on www.modcloth.com the Diana F+ which also takes photos in the style of a Lomo LC-A camera. This one is $109.00 for a limited edition corked casing.

Artist Profile: Sally Mann

Sally Mann is an American born artist who is largely recognised for her works in black & white photography. Mann's career ignited when she began photographing her young children and gradually she broadened her scope by branching off into photographing landscapes with undertones of death and decay.

I had not heard of the work of Sally Mann before watching a documentary based on her journey in photography, however, I was instantly drawn to her ability to capture the seemingly simple moments in life and turn them into everlasting images of profound power and beauty. One of my favourite pictures by Mann is 'At Warm Springs' 1991, from the collection Immediate Family....

 

This picture is of one of Mann's daughters. I find it absolutely beautiful how the light frames around her head like a halo. The expression of calm and peacefulness on her face is so beautiful and in essence is the reason this is one of my favourite works.

One aspect of Sally Mann's career which I find intriguing is her past experiences with controversy surrounding her work. When Mann realised her series Immediate Family (1992) it featured 65 black and white photographs of her three children , all under the age of 10, spending their summer at the family's cabin along the river. Many of these photographs explored typical childhood activities such as skinny dipping in the river, playing dress-up's and board games and so on. However, upon the release of this series many slammed Mann for child pornography, one of Mann's images of her 4 year old daughter was censored with black bars over her eyes, nipples and pubic area. Mann responded to the controversy saying that these images reflect what  mother sees in her children, mothers will see there children, sick, happy, sad, bloodied and even naked.

 There will be peoples who look at these images and be shocked by the rawness and realness it reflects. however, myself  & many others appreciate Mann's ability to capture the beauty, integrity and innocents of the human body,aspects of childhood and life.