Artists statement

To be completely honest with you I don’t think my photo taking was very technical, it was very emotionally driven. The photos I have chosen are there because they hopefully portray a certain emotional connection between people. I wanted my photos to portray the people I love, my family and friends, in gatherings and good times that we share everyday. Most are un-posed and the subjects are usually not overly aware of the camera being there.

This brings me to one technical aspect of the photographs. I have taken most with an aperture of f/2.8 with my camera set to aperture priority, so that the remainder of the settings are automatically adjusted. This means that some of the photographs are blurred or out of focus, my justification for this comes back to a quote I read by Nan Goldin-

“I take blurred pictures, because I take pictures no matter what the light is. If I want to take a picture, I do not care if there is light or no light. If I want to take a picture, I take it no matter what. Sometimes I use very low shutter speed and they come out blurred…”

The most important reason for me doing this was that I didn’t want to use a flash in my photos, I feel that it can be very intrusive and means that the people being photographed are always conscious of the camera. I also wanted to capture the lighting in certain settings, not make it seem as though the area was well lit and bright when in fact it wasn’t at all.

I had a very productive session in class with Stu the other day. We looked at basically all of my photos i have taken over an extended period of time and narrowed them down to about 70 odd pics.

Of these i have now chosen about 34 that i think i want to make the final cut. I'm not sure if this has to be narrowed down further. I no that Stuart only wants us to use the best photos we have so I am trying really hard not to waste space but i just can't seem to narrow my choices down any further. I think i am perhaps too emotionally attached to my photos so it might be worth having a friend or family member look over them and see what they think should be included. Perhaps if i do this with a few people i will be able to find a common theme and just include pics that several people think are worthy.

I think that my "theme" has also been refined. I'm not so much going to look at smiles, as i mentioned in my last blog, but just look at friends, family, relationships and really build a story with some powerful photos.


I want each photo to show one or more of these themes that i mentioned above. So i think i will look closer at each photo i have chosen and see that they capture these things. This could be a good way to eliminate some.

Next time i write i would like to give some thought to my artists statement.

But thats all for now.

blurred/out of focus?

I think i'm finding a common theme in the photos i like! SMILES! i think especially because they are of friends and loved ones capturing the moment of them smiling and laughing really is special.


Lots of my photos are out of focus, which is really annoying but made me think about a interview i read about Nan Goldin, the interviewer asked if she does this on purpose

"Some of your pictures are blurred. You did it on purpose?
Actually, I take blurred pictures, because I take pictures no matter what the light is. If I want to take a picture, I do not care if there is light or no light. If I want to take a picture, I take it no matter what. Sometimes I use very low shutter speed and they come out blurred, but it was never an intention like David Armstrong started to do what we call, he and I, "Fuzzy-wuzzy landscapes." He looked at the back of my pictures and studied them. He started to take pictures like them without people in them."

My favorite technique is to use a low aperture, instead of a flash. This sometimes means images come out blurred, however some of the blurred photos have captured something really special to me. So I am wondering if i will be able to keep these in?