Crowds are hard! They are difficult to control and are naturally messy and rarely organise themselves into satisfactory shapes. Annoying! The image below was taken outside a pub looking in. There is something very ‘hygge’ about looking into a warm yellow-lighted room full of happy smiling people. I like the way it has framed certain individuals mid-movement – a laugh, a sip of beer, a scratch. It is definitely a crowd and yet it is also very much a group of individuals each with their own particular story to tell. I like the quirkiness of the image with its oddly dressed people and unexplained sense of occasion – it seems to be posing a few questions. In terms of its composition, it is also a little odd and certainly does not conform to any standard rules. And yet it kind of works and it’s fun.
My second image has a similarly curious air about it – or at least that is my intention. It is evidently a reflection (I call it ‘After Lowry’) but the mystery is…. where is the photographer? Where am I? I love its distortions and the way that the 3 parts both match up and yet don’t quite. Each element of the triptych plays a part. I have slightly reduced the saturation in the post-processing to enhance mood and to allow the red of the boys tops to act as highlights. In both images I have played with the idea of voyeur in that I am not looking directly at the subject ie. the crowd of people but rather looking through a window from a dark outside or seeing in reflection. This actually gave me a greater sense of control over the images.
Jo's learning log 