Surreal America
Between 21st October and 31st. I went on holiday to the United States of America. I went to Los Angeles and Las Vegas. When I mentioned this to my photography teacher. I was given a list of subjects to look out for. Next to all of them is either LA, LV or Both. These mean where I was most likely to seen them. I jumped straight into this opportunity because this was literally a once in a lifetime chance for me, especially going to Vegas with the neon lights, the desert standing up against the urban buildings. So I defiantly didn't want to waste this fantastic opportunity.
Windows and reflections- Both
Neon lights- LV
Things abandoned in the street- Both
Signs of nature admist the urban fabric- Both
The edge of the city where the desert takes over- LV
Odd details that contradict the glamour- Both
Neon lights- LV
Things abandoned in the street- Both
Signs of nature admist the urban fabric- Both
The edge of the city where the desert takes over- LV
Odd details that contradict the glamour- Both
Windows And Reflections
Whilst I was in Vegas. The first thing I attempted to photograph was reflections. I wanted to create a double exposure effect, which I could do from my room when the lights were turned on. I also wanted to capture reflections on normal windows. Especially on the tinted windows where all you could see was he reflection, however the windows where they weren't tinted but still had a reflection produced a nice double exposure effect.
Lee Friedlander
I didn't have time to research any photographers because I received the list of things to photograph just as I got in Las Vegas. However I would like to retry this photography idea. So I have decided to look at a photographer who took photos of reflections. I'm go to look at Lee Friedlander, who I looked at in my GCSE Photography Openings work.
Frieflander is an American photographer who is well known for his photos of reflections. Specially of storefronts. However I'm interested in his photos taken out of a car window, showing us what is behind the photographer. Lee Friedlander is considered to be the first photographer to take photos of what we call now 'selfies', in loads of his photos, especially the ones of the shop windows, you can see his face and body holding the camera.
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Refined Version
So I'm going to redo this idea. This time in London. I'm going to try and take photos that are similar to 2 on the right. I took these 2 photos last year during my A Level photography trip to the Barbican Centre. I really like the reflection on both of them. Especially the one with me in the reflections, it looks like a well executed double exposure.
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Neon
The next idea I attempted was a tough idea. When I was in Las Vegas, I thought I had to have a try at photographing the neon lights around Vegas. So I went to 2 streets with a contrasting atmosphere. I went to the Strip, which is the sought of glamours, famous side of Las Vegas and I also went to Fremont Street, Downtown. Which is the sought of lower end of Vegas. I was wondering if I would see different types of neon lights, different styles. For photographing these lights, I decided to photograph them in such a way where the words are brightly illuminated and stand out from the background, which we hopefully be turned completely black. Or at least a very dark colour.
William Klein
William Klein is an American photographer. Klein is mainly known for his unusual but rather successful photography techniques. I feel the 3 photos on the right are one of his weird techniques because he has zoomed all the way in on the neon lights, whereas you would expect people to not photograph neon lights like this.
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Harry Callahan
After I took these photos, I was reminded of the work of Harry Callahan, which I heard about for my creative use of light work.
Callahan tend to takes light trails photos of lights. However they aren't like the typical straight line long exposures. There more crazy, wacky photos. Callahan tends to move the camera around a lot during the exposure, which is the reason why the light trail is all over the place. As I said, I did this for my Creative use of light work in AS photography exam. So I decided to take images like this for my project. Unfortunately I only remembered these photos when I had left Vegas. So it was too late for me to do it whilst I was in Vegas with the neon lights. So I did it whilst driving down the LA freeways, on the way back to my hotel from LAX.
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Desert Dominance
In my final idea I hoped to capture the desert contrasting with the urban areas. Vegas is a city that is smack bang in the middle of the desert, so you can instantly go from a tall urban sky scraper, to a dry flat desert. I had some perfect oppourintys for this. When we were landing, I had the window seat, a perfect view to capture the building forming in the desert. Walking around the streets, seeing the sandy mountains sticking out. Also I went up the Stratosphere tower. Perfect view of Vegas, perfect for capturing the buildings change into sand.
On the ground
In the air
When we flew into Las Vegas, we landed at the perfect angle, so I put my Samsung Galaxy S5 up against the window, and captured some photos of the contrast between the desert and the buildings. Here are the best ones I got.
Terrain Vague
After I took these photos. Mr Nichols pointed me in the direction New topographics. It was a phase of American Landscape photography where the landscape was being altered. Specifically the desert of California and sometimes Nevada. These would of been photos of buildings that look out of place in the desert. This is why I was told to photograph the sky-scrapers of Las Vegas in the foreground of the Nevada desert.
I was also suggested to look at an exhibition called Edgelands, which is being shown at the Camden Arts Centre. It has photos of the urban landscape stopping and being taken over by the desert or a different landscape. However these photos were taken right on the location, rather than being taken from a vantage point, like my images.
I was also suggested to look at an exhibition called Edgelands, which is being shown at the Camden Arts Centre. It has photos of the urban landscape stopping and being taken over by the desert or a different landscape. However these photos were taken right on the location, rather than being taken from a vantage point, like my images.