My personal project is based on my personal interest in the Japanese Martial art of Jitsu. I have been involved in Jitsu since 2004, attaining an Blue Belt grading and currently involved in supervising and promoting the Junior Jitsu club in Preston, which my son is a member. I want to make a body of work that has a Japanese influence and use camera techniques to create some kind of abstract art. LO1 Kenna found a passion for the arts which led him to art school. Kenna studied painting then went onto photography. Kenna later went on to the college of printing and started work as a photographer and artist. Kenna first visited Japan in 1987 to exhibit his work which was described enigmatic, graceful and hauntingly beautiful much like the Japanese landscape. Over the following years he traveled throughout the entire country constantly taking photographs. These photographs featured in Kenna's book Japan. Kenna 's photographs are often made at dawn or in the hours of darkness with exposures up to 10 hours long. Kenna has said "You Can't always see what's otherwise noticeable during the day - with long exposures you photograph what the human eye is incapable of seeing. It is the black and white light and dark that I find appealing the simplicity and clarity of his images. His subjects of barren trees in a winter landscape have inspired me to combine this look with silhouettes and marital arts. I initially tried a few practice shots of a jitsuka using samurai sword. There is also the allure of movement in the dark clouds. Mariusz Szmerdt is a polish painter who paints using traditional Japanese methods and by doing so preserves old principles and natural order for painting using only traditional tools made of good species of natural material. Szmerdt talks of his paintings and where he draws his inspirations from. "The inspiration for my paintings is space, both around us and the one that arises in our mind. A free space of the present, past and future. From it, ideas arise, image topics, moods, emotions and the passion of creation are born. \ R \ nThe images are for me the opportunity to make contact with the viewer, who through its observation and visions becomes not only the recipient, but also the artist.Through individual thoughts and feelings of everyone, the common energies and feelings are combined, creating a different picture each time, individual for everyone, full of expression and various forms." sumi otoshi The initial photoshoots started to bring results however arranging further photoshoots was proving difficult. It became increasingly difficult to arrange times that would be suitable for everyone to take part. Due to the nature of the activity it was difficult to arrange photo shoots without the use of the dojo or floor mats. With these constraints I started to explore other avenues that would suit my creative ideas. Aerial fitness and Aerial skills is another area of sports and fitness I have had some involvement as a photographer and having a partner who is an aerial practitioner. Whilst considering Aerial fitness as a possible project I arranged a photo shoot with a Local studio in Accrington and produced a number of images. Whilst I and the artists were pleased with the results and the final images I didn't think they were any different than those regularly seen as industry standard for this type of photography. I wanted my images to not be just of a person on a pole showing off a pose or technique , I wanted my images to be of something to have a story or a theme a collaboration between artists. To progress my ideas I looked for further influences from a number of artists like Isa Hirano and her use of abstract swirls in her Japanese Calligraphy style paintings with splashes of colour. In much of Hirano's work I see the flow of the brush and consider replicating the swirls and swishes with fabrics. The straight lines resemble bodies with limbs at various and unusual angles much like a person on an aerial pole. Hirano Describes her art by saying. " My art is not a product of forced practice, rather what I really feel is that the things that naturally catch my eyes and things I hear are channeling works of art through my body." MichelAngelo considered to be one of the most well-known artists of all time. Michelangelo was a sculptor,painter,architect and poet of high renaissance. Of his many works the Sistine chapel in the Vatican is one of his most well known. Many of the paintings in the chapel are of aerial figures hanging in clouds. The painted figures are bodily detailed defined in physical stature. The figures are unclothed dressed only in colourful flowing fabrics covering their modesty. Each of the paintings depicting a biblical like narrative or story about something. As I worked through the ideas and influences for this project I can relate to the artists I researched like Hirano. She says "My body of work is not forced, ideas flow unhindered and becomes a creative collaboration between photographer and aerial artists. Also Michelangelo's narratives with bare bodies and colourful flowing fabrics in the heavens. LO2 Aerial skills are practiced using different apparatus which include Poles , hoops, silks, poles and silks and cubes, each piece of apparatus requires a different set of skills, level, poses and techniques. I made arrangements to photograph some aerial students at a local studio in leyland. This was a scoping exercise to study poses, movement , lighting and background and requirements for future shoots. I identified that although it was a relatively a large space, without the use of a backdrop it would be difficult to lose the background whilst using bare speedlights and umbrellas. A telephoto lens would be useful to compress the shot to help loose some of the background whilst using a small aperture but would need to be wide enough to cover the aerial techniques. Taking forward the influences,concepts and ideas from the artists I have researched, I arranged another Photo shoot with the aerial artists at their studio in Accrington. The studio is very spacious and the artists are very accommodating to be photographed. The difficulty is the white walls and curtains and no backdrop large enough to cover ceiling to floor. For this shoot I had 2 aerial artist to work with I had no specific instructions for the artists but wanted them to be upright to start with and left them to decide clothing/ outfits they should wear. This was going to be a practice shoot to develop ideas with the use of fabrics and lighting. I purchased some fabrics specifically for this shoot. In order to get the fabrics moving I used 2 large domestic fans and a garden leaf blower. Photographic equipment used. Nikon d610 nikon 24 -120mm f4 speed lights x3 light stands Rouge flash bender attached to speed light fitted to camera. Tripod From this session after some post processing in lightroom and photoshop I was able to produce the following images. I considered these images successful but still not quite where I wanted to be with them in that they needed to more about something. I discussed my images with my tutor and came up with a theme of mythology. I looked at several images and drawings from various artist depicting different versions and interpretations of mythological characters. I wrote up some notes about which characters would be most suitable to photograph and the also cast the relevant aerial artist for the character. There was also a requirement to find and purchase or make suitable accessories to go with each character if required. For the 1st shoot I pre-arranged for 2 aerial artists to act as Athena on the silks and use the cube for pandora's box. Equipment used : Pentax 645z medium format, 55mm f2.8 speedlights x4 softbox tripod whilst setting up for this shot I could not get enough light inside the box to light the model. I had with me a glass globe light shade I had purchased for use with another character. I fashioned the globe so that I could fit a speed light inside. and used that to a good effect to light up the inside of the box and model. Once I had the lighting where I wanted it,I started to shoot the model. Due to the angle of the cube and the height of the model the models head was obscured by one of the bars. The cube and the fabric was adjusted and we then continued achieving some interesting and successful images. 1/125 f9 ISO 200 The second character shot during this session was Athena on the silks. I took few practice shots to get the best positioning which resulted in some successful images. The following week I shot again at the studio in Accrington. This time I had 3 characters to shoot. Aphrodite, Medusa and Eros. Equipment used : Pentax 645z 55mm speedlights x4 On this shoot I forgot my tripod and had to shoot freehand, which resulted in some unuseable good shots do to things being outside the frame like hands and feet. The models were made up into their relevant characters and their poses discussed to adjust lighting to suit with the resulting images. Taking some advice from my tutor I tried again with Pandora's box. The purpose was to try and shoot the image completing the story of Pandora's box. So rather than just having hope left inside the box the attempt was to make an image with both evil and hope in the image. For this image I arranged to shoot at the studio in Leyland. I had two models to play the parts of Evil and hope using the Cube. Having already tried this set up with one person the set up was a little easier to accomplish. The cube was set at angle so that the person in the box could be seen and the 2nd person could be seen climbing out. The globe light shade was used again with a speed light inside. On this shoot I was able to use 2 500W Studio flash units with 7in reflectors with grids, One speed light on light stand. Pentax 645z 55mm lens. Tripod. leaf blower. The left studio light was set high to illuminate the model on top of the box. The 2nd light was set to illuminate the right side of the box and fabric. The globe light was set to light the model (hope) inside the box. A speed light was set behind the box to provide some rim light to the models and to illuminate the fabric. LO3 After final processing using lightroom and photoshop these are my final 10 images for submission to complete this module. For the clouds and stars background I used a couple of images that I have previously taken. I shot the green fabric on its own to create a background for one the images. The images have been shared with the models who have posted them onto their respective social media sites. The relevant image have been hosted by Halo aerial fitness website. http://haloverticalfitness.com/ Hosted on my gallery that I have with Preston photographic society. https://www.prestonphotographicsociety.org/james-randolph.html
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