Category: Sketchbook (Page 1 of 3)

Bread: Found images

23 January 2024 / Michael / 0 Comments

Looking and thinking about ways consumerism is represented/appears in visual culture, I have been attracted to photographing advertising imagery, signage and particularly images whose purpose is to give a particular look and feel to retail establishments without focusing on particular brands. As I began thinking about how to photograph bread and my first experiments took a forensic, frontal approach, I noticed images on Supermarkets more and more. Invariably, this imagery is designed to suggest quality and entice the consumer – I recognised that my own thoughts about bread were driven by these idealised representations rather than the everyday reality of the shop bought loaf.

Here are a small selection of found bread imagery that I have photographed. Finding some way to contrast these with the bread images I have been taking could be an interesting way forward for the project – reality versus representation, although the way I have chosen to photograph the bread is clearly also not real, merely a contrivance to suggest realism.

Bread: Grids

2 March 2023 / Michael / 4 Comments

Displaying the bread in grids is the most obvious way to present them in order to be able to compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the slices. Although I kept a record of the individual brands/prices of each loaf, by removing the packaging and photographing each slice individually I was struck at how difficult it was to identify each slice without my notes. (Except for the Jackson’s bloomer which has a distinctive shape.) I was also struck by the imperfections where slices have become misshapen, perhaps due to production or handling. The individual texture and crumb of each slice and the air bubbles are also something I find fascinating and an aspect that could be worthy of exploring further.

4×3 (No border)

2. 3×3 (No border)

3. 3×3 (Border)

4. 11×1 (Horizontal)

5. 1×11 (Vertical)

Thoughts:

The cropped images again work better as the slices are more uniform and consistent in their presentation. However, the scale of each slice is not accurate which is an issue with accurate representation – shooting each slice at actual size and presented in a consistent way, such as central in the frame, is something that will cause a headache at the time of shooting, but coming up with a way of achieving this could be worth the work for the end result.
The white border works better than I had envisaged – if the images were shown in a gallery setting I could imagine them being individually framed or individual prints placed straight onto the wall.
The differences in white balance and lighting in the white grid images without borders work unexpectedly well as they show an imperfection that somehow makes the grids seem less formal – the sets that attempt to show consistency and make the viewer look harder for errors that once found become distracting.
My initial thoughts are that the black background works best, however, by putting them together there are subtle differences in the background that were not easily detected when the images were presented alone and become a distraction here.

Bread: Images/First Shoot

12 September 2022 / Michael / 0 Comments

For this first experiment shooting individual slices of bread, I bought 11 white loaves from the supermarket and set about making a number of photographs to see where this could take me. I used a white and black pillow case for the backgrounds and shot handheld aligning the bottom of each slice along the grid line of my camera view finder. Originally I had intended to use a tripod but found positioning each of the slices correctly to achieve consistency difficult. This is something I will need to revisit however if I am to continue with this project as I want to maximise sharpness and detail in each of the shots.

11 loaves of white bread chosen from my local supermarket to photograph

1. White background:

Instantly I dislike being able to see the pattern of the stitching in the background of these and find the shadows distracting. There are also variations in the white balance which effects consistency. This assessment is based on a prejudged idea of wanting the slices of bread to stand out against the background and for this to be plain and lacking in distraction. The downside to this is that the images could appear clinical or sterile. The ‘mistakes’ that I detail above could be a way of negating this and perhaps something that I should not dismiss without consideration. The finished effect will depend entirely on how I choose to present the images.

2. White background – cropped:

Again I feel conflict about whether these are more successful than the images above. My initial though was that they are instantly more impactful, but the more I consider them, the more I start to consider the possibility that allowing the images space to ‘breathe’ could be important. There is also the consideration about how I show variation in sizes of each of the slices which is not evident in these images due to shooting hand held and is further skewed through cropping.

3. Black background:

Presenting the images on a black background is how I imagined they would look before shooting, however, I wanted to experiment with a white background as well to see how the slices of bread looked. These images on a black background here fulfilled my expectations – the tone and texture of the bread is emphasised by the contrasting background which allows the viewer to concentrate on the details of each slice from crust to crumb. The problems of shadows and inconsistent white balance are also negated here.

4. Black background – cropped:

Strangely I find cropping the images here less impactful than the white background – perhaps the lack of distraction with the black background allows the image to ‘breathe’ more as mentioned above.

Initial thoughts on further development:

Need to consider how I will be able to shoot using a tripod and ensure consistent composition between each slice for further attempts.
Lighting is something I need to think about more. For this initial attempt I used a cheap ring light intended for blogging combined with natural light. If I pursue this project, I envisage photographing many slices of bread which will be impossible to achieve in one shoot as I have here – having a consistent lighting set up will be crucial to achieving consistent results.
The eventual presentation of the images is also something to consider – will they be individual or on a grid? Life size or bigger, or even smaller? Again, consistency is the main thing I need to think about.

Bread (1)

6 February 2022 / Michael / 1 Comment

Bread lends itself to this project as there is a wide range of products available, from mass produced to hand made and artisan. The process and cost is highly variable for each loaf and I wondered if this would be evident when photographed. The language used in advertising and marketing is also highly evocative and has potential to be used as accompanying text or captions.

For this first experiment, I took some photographs of individual slices and also made some scans. (The bread I had in the house at the time was white bread with sourdough and multigrain batch.)

Photographs:

Scans:

Further development ideas:

Either a plain white or black background could work to remove any distractions.
A cloth background over the bread while making scans could help prevent the overexposed areas around the edges of the crust.
Lots of different bread slices put together as a grid could work. (Like Penelope Umbrico’s ‘Suns from Sunsets from Flickr‘.)
Combining image and text could be an idea, for example, the price of each slice either over the image or as a caption or appropriated text from the packaging in a similar way to Martha Rosler’s ‘The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems‘.

Commodities

6 February 2022 / Michael / 0 Comments

Empty Shops: The High Street

1 February 2022 / Michael / 2 Comments

As I brought BoW A1 to a resolution I arrived at the subject of consumerism for my dissertation. For A2 I decided to advance some of the methodology I had used in the previous assignment and begin to explore the retail landscape as it is now. I planned to visit towns nearby and photograph empty shops using my Holga camera. The intention was to begin exploring high streets in the area with the intent of primarily making these images, but also having one eye on how my body of work could progress and advance.

Below are links to separate posts of images from different shops I encountered. I have included both the Holga images and others taken with my main camera and my iPhone. The places visited were: Stanley, Consett, Gateshead, Metro Centre, Newcastle, Sunderland and Durham City: