Week Nine: Personal Project Progress

Untitled Two 

After using the same camera for five years, the idea of changing the static features of my Nikon FG was not one I was overly willing to take on.  I honestly wasn’t aware that these settings could be altered and that they would bring more to my work. By changing the lens on my camera and exploring the mechanical deception that can occur from altering the ISO of the camera compared to the film it holds, has truly allowed me to perceive my work before releasing the shutter in a completely different manner.

Learning to push film was the most enlightening. As someone one who prefers to create an image containing a strong contrast between black and white, pushing film has allowed for me to add an additional characteristic to my signature work of taking photos of people. I noticed an increase in the amount of grain in the photos that I have been developing that were taken on four hundred ASA film, but pushed to eight hundred ASA. For me, by discovering this method of “fooling” the film, I have grown within the field of shooting inside a location, which I never used to do. I was quite biased in only shooting outside with natural light. I have expanded with using artificial light sources, especially with the change in ISO of the film, and the products have produced an even larger amount of detail.

Untitled Three

Switching the lens on my camera, was in all honestly, incredibly eye opening. After shooting my last four rolls in China Town and surrounding areas in Manhattan, I have never seen a clearer difference in camera perspective. I have used the same lens for the past five years on my 35mm camera, but after shooting two rolls right after another, and doing the switch for the third roll, I wasn’t aware on what a wide-angle lens would provide for one singular image. The images, Untitled Two, Untitled Three and Untitled Four, were all taken using a Nikon 24mm lens. The wide angle provided by this lens allowed for me too not only have my focus, a human subject, in the frame, but also provide a large amount of detail in the surrounding environment of that subject. This concept behind these images taken with my wide angel lens is the core concentration of my personal project. 

Untitled Four

After exploring the unfamiliar territory that comes with the Asian culture and the distinguished cosine that is sold in their markets, the stranger’s assignment has allowed for me to grow as a photographer. After only shooting portraits of individuals that I know and are not only comfortable around me, but I am also comfortable around, pulling away to photograph a stranger has given me an entirely new vantage point towards to individuals that I pass on an every day basis.

I felt that after expanding my photographic eye in the first Asian market that I went to, which can be seen in the image, Untitled One, I should continue with this common theme. Not to objectify this culture, but to understand and explore it from an outside perspective. While in China Town, with the use of the wide angle lens and going in and out of shops, butchers, and fish markets, I was able to take away images of the regular routine of this culture not only for the workers, but also the patrons.

Untitled One

I am not exactly sure where to go with my project. I am slightly stuck on making progress. I now have a large collection of images surrounding the Asian culture that are displayed in a very broad and spacious outlook. However, I feel if I go back to China Town I will just be taking the same, pre-existing images again. I could switch from this wide framing, containing a person, and attempt to get closer portraits with an additional lens I have, a Nikon 135mm. However, I was greatly enjoying straying from my norm and extending my singular viewpoint that is present within all my past photographic works. The image, Untitled Five, is what has me stuck. I am absolutely in love with this photo. To me it displays a wide angle of an environment, which is a key component to my concentration. However, it does not contain a subject. I wonder if I should continue down the path of the style that is being depicted in Untitled Five, or try to continue with exploring the Asian Culture that I am so foreign to me.

Untitled Five