Category Archives: Contextual Research

M1 – Contextual Research

GDPR

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The EU General Data Protection Regulation

Working within a school and taking photographs for the school has necessitated considerable time and effort put into the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). On 25 May 2018 the current Data Protection Directive 1995 (Directive 95/46/EC) will be replaced by the GPDR meaning that the management of all information and data (including images) will change.

The GDPR aims primarily to give control back to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. The rights of privacy rights of individuals are protected more robustly, and there are three articles of the legislation that are of particular relevance:

  • The right to be informed (articles 13 and 14) You must be clear about the context of how the photos are being used. For example you could not use photos for social media if permission had only been given for printed brochures.
  • The right to access (article 15) Individuals have the right to access their personal data (photos) on request, and receive confirmation regarding how these are being used.
  • The right to erasure (article 17) Individuals have the right to request photos be removed from websites, social media or future versions of printed materials.

If photos feature children under the age of 18, full written parental consent must be given.

For group shots the permission of parents / school may be sufficient.  However elements that may identify an individual child such as a school badge should be avoided to ensure safety.

References:

Bibliography:

Influences

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Having worked heavily in black and white photography as an A-level student, many of my influences stem from that field.  The most significant concept that I adopted was one of candid photography – I detest having to take portraits or staged group shots, but love capturing decisive moments that may appear to be portraits.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Cartier-Bresson liked to be in the middle of things, absorbed by events.  He was a ‘human interest’ photographer who benefitted from the use of a new generation of lightweight Derriere-la-Gare-Saint-Lazare-Paris-1932-Henri-Cartier-Bresson (low res)camera such as the Ermanox and the Leica.

He would capture ‘the decisive moment’.

“We are passive onlookers in a world that moves perpetually.  Our only moment of creation is that 1/125 of a second when the shutter clicks.”

One of my favourite Cartier-Bresson images, Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, about which I wrote during my A-Level exam, depicts a motion-blurred bulky man lurching into the wet, being mocked by a sprightly figure leaping lightly on a poster.

Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris 1932 © Henry Cartier-Bresson

Ansel Adams

A childhood living on the rugged edge of Dartmoor and many months of my undergraduate years spent on geological fieldtrips in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland led me to an appreciation of the works of Ansel Adams.  ansel-adams-redwoods-ball-creek-flat-ca (low res)His obsessive attention to detail where composition is concerned, combined with the most majestic of locations blend to form landscape photography perfection.  However, it is his depictions of Redwoods that most resonate with me, reminding me of break time at my junior school where we used to run around the three enormous Redwoods within the school grounds.

Redwoods, Ball Creek Flat, CA 1960 © Ansel Adams

David Bailey

For as long as I can remember, David Bailey has been the photographer whose work I have most admired – perhaps strange for someone who does not enjoy the process ofIMG_5146 ce (low res)2portrait photography.  So well know are his iconic works from the 1960’s that they need little mention, but his bromide print of Michael Caine taken in May 1965 is probably my preferred well-known Bailey portrait.

However, having sent his children to my Father’s school, Bailey was generous enough to photograph each one of the staff, as a thank you for their help and support in educating his children.  Thus my choice Bailey portrait is of my Father, sitting in his study.

Charles Price 2000 © David Bailey

John Swannell

As a life-long fan of David Bailey, my admiration of John Swannell’s work is hardly surprising.  having assisted at Vogue Studios, Swannell then spent four years assisting mw11200 (low res)David Bailey before setting up his own studio.  From there, he never looked back, working for many magazines, including Harpers & Queen, Vogue and Tatler; producing numerous ‘celebrity’ Christmas cards, and photographing al the leading members of the British Royal Family.

While so many of his images are exquisite in composition and appearance, a particular favourite of mine is  one of his portraits of his former mentor David Bailey.

David Bailey 1970 © John Swannell / Camera Press

The Photography Show 2018

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Away from the exhibits…

The Photography Show always provides opportunity for experimentation with the assorted photographic sets.  I stepped away from my normal practice to shoot Panasonic’s Formula E car:

Canon have yet to announce their full-frame mirrorless body, so I was drawn more to their display of flowers:

Technology moving on…

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120MP APS-H sensor Canon

In 2010 Canon first revealed that a CMOS sensor was under development with a pixel count equivalent to the number of photoreceptor cells in the human eye. At approximately 60x that of Full HD, it would have a resolution of 120MP. By 2015 this was a working reality on display at CP+ Camera & Photo Imaging Show, designed for rather more industrial applications: monitoring, video production, aviation and space.

The 29.2mm x 20.2mm sensor contains 120 million pixels at 2.2µm pixel pitch, and is capable of 9.4fps – a video resolution of 13.2K that would eclipse current 4K standard!

Canon have at last released a short feature on the sensor’s capabilities:

 

 

Tutees in Photography

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As a schoolmaster, it is always a pleasure to follow the progress of former Tutees.  It is usually difficult to imagine what they might do with their lives when they leave your care at the age of thirteen.  I am particularly proud of those who have succeeded within the field of photography:

Alex Barron Hough – Creative Production Director, TIGI

Alex B-H - Football Goal lrAlex’s involvement in photography started off the other side of the camera, modelling for catalogues.  (I suspect he will not forgive me for posting an image of him aged 12, from the Argos catalogue), but it was not long before he was working for TIGI Linea, becoming the face of their Bed Head for Men range.

Alex B-H (1)At the same time, he was developing the photographic skills that had first interested him at school, finding himself working both in front and behind the camera as a photographic assistant.

Today he is a routine fixture photographing backstage at Fashion Weeks in London, Paris, Milan and New York and is the Creative Production Director for TIGI UK, but he has also spent time in the recent past as the official photographer for The Who.

Rick Findler – Photojournalist

war_rickWith photography seeds sown at school, Rich (I have always known Rick Findler as Rich) developed an interest in photojournalism, with a particular penchant for conflict photography.  His work regularly features in leading publications and featured in the February 2018 RPS edition Journal.

I always enjoy receiving telephone calls from Rich which are often requests for help: lending a camera lens; sourcing ‘exotic’ hardware for his trips, such as respirators, military spec. laptops, etc., or perhaps  providing advice on some of the military hardware he has photographed.  In return, I am always fortunate enough to be included in a small group of friends and family who receive daily field reports from him, detailing and illustrating his work when he is out of the country.

Rich also works with The McLellan Practice as a school’s speaker on Conflict Photography from the Front Line.

X-Ray photography

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 SPECIATION – Still A Camera

Photographer Kent Krugh’s project Speciation is a series of X-ray photos of cameras that provides a brief history of photography, as told through the evolution of the camera.

“This work uses x-rays to explore the micro-evolution of cameras and is a metaphor about the limits of evolution,” Krugh writes. “While form and media may have changed, the camera is still a camera: a tool to create images by capturing photons of light.”

While the basic concept of what a camera is and does has not changed, the outward appearance and inner workings have, and Krugh’s images offer a look into the wide range of camera designs that have appeared over the years.

“While making these x-rays, I have been surprised and astonished by what I found inside the cameras,” Krugh says. “[A] camera is still a camera, though tremendous diversity exists.”

31-Canon-AE1-00131 Canon AE1 2018 © Kent Krugh

18x24-typology-1.0-2000x1500-72dpi

Speciation of Cameras 2018 © Kent Krugh

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

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Marcio Cabral’s winning photograph disqualified

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Night Raider © 2017 Marcio Cabra

Brazilian photographer Marcio Cabral won the “Animals in Their Environment” category for the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest with his photo titled “The Night Raider”. The photo showed an anteater at a termite mound, captioned:

For three seasons, Marcio had camped out in Brazil’s Cerrado region, on the vast treeless savanna of Emas national park, waiting to capture the termite mounds’ light display. Click beetle larvae living in the outer layers of the mounds flash their bioluminescent “headlights” to lure in prey – the flying termites. Out of the darkness ambled a giant anteater, oblivious of Marcio in his hide, and began to attack the tall, concrete-mud mound with its powerful claws to reach the termites deep inside.

After the award was announced, an anonymous source noticed a remarkable similarity between the stuffed anteater found at one of the entrances of the same national park and the one featuring in Cabral’s photograph.

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Photo courtesy Natural History Museum

The National History Museum, enlisted the help of five scientists to investigate. The team comprised two mammal experts and a taxidermy specialist at the NHM, as well as two external experts (one in South American mammals and one specifically in anteaters).

After comparing the anteater in the winning photo with the stuffed on at the park, all five scientists independently concluded that the two were exactly the same anteater: the two anteaters are strikingly similar, but many of the more prominent features and similarities are actually shared among all anteaters. It’s the tiny details that the experts concluded to be too similar.

They “all reached the same conclusion that there are elements in overall posture, morphology, the position of raised tufts of fur and in the patterning on the neck and the top of the head that are too similar for the images to depict two different animals,” the museum wrote.

After “careful and thorough investigation,” the National History Museum announced that Cabral’s photo has been disqualified and the photographer has been stripped of his prize.  The photo will also be removed from the contest’s exhibition and tour.

Cabral continues to strongly deny that photo contains a stuffed anteater and it is important to point out that while there are striking similarities between the two images (and anteaters), there are also notable differences: the stuffed anteater has a large white patch of fur on its front leg, not evident on Cabral’s photograph, for example.

Read the Natural History Museum’s web statement HERE.

So big is the news of this story that it has even made it onto Conan O’Brien’s late night talk show: