CRJ Week 2

Falmouth University MA Photography

Module 1: Positions and Practice

30/01/2023 - 05/02/2023

Week 2 - Topic 2: Methods and Meaning

30/01/2023

The first week was blur and as we move into week 2 I move to the discovering the method of one of the photographers who has influenced me greatly, Bill Brandt.

For further reading I will firstly look at the following link https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/bill-brandt-setting-the-scene with the technically correct reference to follow. My initial thoughts turn to films like Brief Encounter [ref to go here] that seem, to me at least, be incredibly beautiful.

31/01/2023

Bill Brandt’s approach to photographing English life has been described as though it was a Child’s entertainment of life in England (Jeffrey 2017). What does this say about the methods and processes he used? I need to research this more to better understand some of the finer details about this. I still see scope for discussions around beauty, meaning and definition, but I am also drawn to the idea of exploring English home, even it people and what they do publicly and privately almost 100 years later.

Process

Some of Brandt’s photos in his London at night series involved him using burn, of dodge and burn film processing fame, to create night shots from images that were taken in the day https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/bill-brandt-setting-the-scene, this intrigued me, as it fits neatly as a Segway from the week 1 topic and my ideas of beauty into this weeks topic of Method and Process. We now use Lightroom or some other piece of software to dodge and burn and create night images from the day with exposure, shadow and highlight controls. I need to better understand the difference between Method and process, but these initial thoughts are bourne out of interest and my attempted mimicry of Brandt’s work.

Jeffrey, Ian foreword in Bill Brandt. 2017. London: Thames & Hudson. (it is too late to check this for correct referencingtechnique, but I will tomorrow).