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Is Truth in Photography Possible? Bringing ideals of the f64 group into the modern day studio photography Page 1

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Page 1: Is Truth in Photography Possible?deanjphotography.weebly.com/.../pursuit_of_truth_in_p… · Web viewphotography. I will be doing th is by exploring the ideals of the F64 group, incorporating

Is Truth in Photography

Possible?

Bringing ideals of the f64 group into the modern day studio photography

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By Dean Jeffries

Table of Content

sIs Truth in Photography Possible?................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

Introduction................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3

Who are the f/64 group?................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Sonya Noskowiak........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Portrait attempt one...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Portrait attempt two, Film.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7

Edward Weston.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

Still life attempt one....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Imogen Cunningham.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Portrait attempt three.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Story so far................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Final plan..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Final............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 12

Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Bibliography................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 13

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Introduction

I have chosen to study whether you can create truth in modern studio photography. I will be doing this by exploring the ideals of the F64 group,

incorporating their styles into my photography to further my own knowledge and concepts. I was inspired to do this because whilst researching the

advantage and disadvantages of shooting in RAW format. I discovered that RAW photos are the only type to be accepted by the law as evidence

because they can’t be edited and re-saved in a RAW format. To me this a symbol that what the photographs holds is the truth but has it always been

this way?

What is truth in photography?

The oxford dictionary definition of truth is ‘The quality or state of being true’ The definition of true is ‘In accordance with fact or reality:’ therefore

saying a photograph holds a lot of truth is suggesting that the image is an accurate representation of what is displayed and if we compared what was

in a photograph to the real subject then it would look the same; but what if the subject in the photograph was being fake, would that still make the

photograph true. Would that photograph be portraying truth for that moment, do all photographs only show truth for only the one moment in which

it was taken.

Who are the f/64 group?

The f/64 group is a collection of photographers who believed in taking sharp focused and well framed images. The fouundeing members were Ansel

Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston. Their first exhibits

manifesto:

“The name of this Group is derived from a diaphragm number of the photographic lens. It signifies to a large extent the qualities

of clearness and definition of the photographic image which is an important element in the work of members of this Group” [1],

This is stating that their name (F64) was chosen because that was the smallest aperture possible and therefore the highest quality possible which is

what they believed in capturing.

F64 group members are known from the California society movement, and they wanted to prove truthful (straight) photography could be its own

form of art and that it’s not only for illustration purposes. They went against the Pictorials idea where photographs were manipulated and edited in

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order to create a more painterly image rather than a photograph which records the view in a straightforward fashion. It was initially frowned upon

by the artists but by the late 20th century it was accepted as a form of art itself. The group formed in 1932 with the original seven members, whose

work ranged from Portraiture to Landscapes and beyond. They only displayed one show together which was in 1932[2]. Although the group had split

up by the 1935 there ideals had influenced the movement enough to manifest themselves the future of photography to this day!

In 1933 Ansel Adams wrote the following for Camera Craft magazine:

“My conception of Group f/64 is this: it is an organization of serious photographers without formal ritual of procedure,

incorporation, or any of the restrictions of artistic secret societies, Salons, clubs or cliques…The Group was formed as an

expression of our desire to define the trend of photography as we conceive it… [4]

I think this summarizes the F64 group really well and believe it to be an accurate description of what they were and believed.

Members were allowed to join the group for a range of reasons. Ansel Adams, who founded the group, created the ‘Zone Theory’ which allowed

photographers to perfectly expose a photograph in all lighting conditions, regardless of percentage light reflection. It was a simple system that used

the information a light meter gave in order to compensate for darker or lighter areas of the image, it was on a scale of 1 – 10 with 5 as the midpoint.

His basic rule was to expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights this was because anything below 3 or above 8 would be either over or

underexposed.

"If you don't use the Zone System, then what system will you use to know what you've got as you photograph?”[8]

Figure 1 Ansel Adams Zone theory [9]

I choose to specialise my study around f64 group photographers because of the ideals that they all believed and adhered to as I have explained

above. I think it is fair to assume that to exhibit your work alongside the F64 group you can be a photographer with any specialism, background and

technique that can exhibit their work within the ‘straight photography’ view.

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Sonya Noskowiak – Aesthetic Truth

Sonya Noskowiak (born 25th November 1900, died 28th April 1975; aged 74) realised her love for photography in 1920 but it was not until 1929

when she met, and then trained with, Edward Weston that her skills and clean style flourished. Alongside printing some of Weston’s work she

started to get clientele for her portraiture and by 1932 Sonya's' photographs were shown in exhibits all over the world, including the 1932 exhibit for

the seven F64 group members[2]. Sonya’s images stowed the influence of Weston’s, but she soon developed her own unique style. They were all

high contrast black and white photographs, mainly portraits. She stopped working for Edward Weston in 1934 and by 1935 she had set up her own

studio in San Francisco where she worked until 1965.

Figure 2 Portrait of Zohmah Day, dark dress with white collar, white headband, 3/4 facial view, looking down1933 [6]

This is a simplistic photograph. It was taken in the studio with a warm filling light to illuminate the face. As is common in all of Sonya Noskowiak’s

photographs it is very high contrast and sharply focused. The image is monotone and it is clear that the clothing was chosen to emphasise this, the

neck piece is pure white which matches her hair band and to contrast that the hair is almost black along with the dress, the face is a tone lighter than

the grey background making it really stand out and draw our attention to where the focus is aimed, at the front right eye. No imperfections on the

skin are hidden to make the viewer believe this photograph is true and nothing is hidden. The photograph is trying to draw your attention to what is

off screen by following the eyes of the model. Sonya did this by positioning herself with a slight bird’s eye view and making the model look to the

side and slightly down overall persuading the viewer to not question why the image isn’t truthful and therefore assuming the image is a

representation of the truth.

The high contrast and soft-fill lighting draws attention away from the background and the very simple white and black dress blends into it. The

white hairband cuts perfectly through the hair, I think Sonya did this on purpose to draw the viewer’s eye down to face so that we consider the truth

of her model. Overall we question the meaning of the photograph but believe that it is showing the truth.

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Portrait attempt one

Based on my above review of Sonya Noskowiak’s ‘Portrait of Zohmah day’ I conducted my first photo-shoot of portraiture.

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Figure 4 Sanjay straight on look, left side lighting, 2014Figure 3 Sanjay looking up, soft lighting, 2014

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In this photo-shoot I was practising the methods Sonya Noskowiak would have perfected using different lighting positions to create or remove

shadows. It is still clear that the left side of the image is darker than the right in the background because I only had one light positioned to the left of

the subject, I did this on purpose to try and show both halves of the face. These images are not ‘straight’ images because there is clear bokeh in the

image, this is not visible in most of Sonya’s portraits.

After this photo-shoot I edited the photographs into black and white, and tweaked the colour levels to get the best results. This made me question if

editing an image itself if making the image false and therefore not a true image. The only reason I had to edit the image was because my camera will

not capture in pure monotone like film does therefore I need to have a photo-shoot on film(below) to determine if the results make me question the

truth any more than digital.

Edward Weston

Figure 5 Pepper, 1930 (35P) [5]

“To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.” –

Edward Weston

Edward Weston was a founding photographer of the F64 group, his best known collection of work was ‘Natural Studies’. He would have taken this

photograph to try and symbolise how not everything is perfect, he would deliberately use an imperfect fruit/ vegetable to do this. I adopted this

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method for my film portrait photo-shoot (above). His image creates this effect of showing the imperfection, ugly truth, of by having very strong

shadows and highlights, emphasising the smooth surface of the pepper. The highlights are emphasised by the extremely high contrast that was

visible in Sonya Noskowiak’s work. The image has no blur at all and is very hard to find the focus point, overall this image creates the feeling of

being truthful.

I will now conduct a study based on still-life using my extensive lighting knowledge to create high contrast, sharp focused image within the studio

to try and create the feeling of an image symbolising imperfections whilst still being truthful.

Still life attempt one

I

used one diffuser light to get the background light levels correct, one to provide ambient lighting and then another direct light to strength the

highlights. I decided to exhibit the colour and black and white image side by side to create the feeling that nothing is being hidden but highlight how

colour can attract a different feeling. To me the image symbolises how society tries to hide things in images but if we look carefully it is all still

there and to tell the truth we have to look closely and know what we’re looking for. Maybe it is our perception of truth that will need to change to

create a truly truthful image although I don’t believe this, it could be an alternate view.

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Figure 6 Peppers, 2014

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After this photo-shoot I feel that trying to read the story and decide what is true, is now very difficult with still-life, there is a familiarity in

portraiture which allows a more in depth view. This photo-shoot did, however, teach me the importance of how what is cropped out of an image can

make a big difference to the overall effect of the image.

Imogen Cunningham – Emotional Truth

Figure 7 Portraits of a young woman, 1939[7]

This striking image capturing the sad expression of a young woman, she used Rembrandt lighting to ‘hide’ half of the face, similar to how Edward

Weston did with his still-life photographs, but Rembrandt lighting leaves a small triangle under the eye which allows the photographer to expose the

eye meaning the emotion from both of the eyes can be captured. Portrait of a young woman, 1939 is a very powerful image, the eyes look tearful,

the skin looks textured, the tones; strong but the contrast not as high as other images from member of the F64 group. The hair and skin seems to

drift from light at the right of the image to black on the left. Overall this gives me the impression of connecting with the image, observing the beauty

by capturing the ugly.

I don't think there's any such thing as teaching people photography, other than influencing them a little. People

have to be their own learners. They have to have a certain talent

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- Imogen Cunningham

Imogen’s photograph has really affected the way I now look at truth. When I look at her image there is the expression, a natural, non-posed; true

expression that is visible in the eyes. To me it stands out, I can see her raw emotion but I want to know more! This style, unlike Imogen

Cunningham’s, creates a sense of emotional truth rather than physical truth and if I am going to capture the truth within a photograph then I need to

capture both forms of the subject.

Portrait attempt two, Film

For this photo-shoot I used film which was processed and scanned into digital files for ease of use. In this photo-shoot I decided to have a model

that didn’t have perfect skin or hair because most portraits, including Sonya’s, are either of people with very good skin, hair or edited to make them

look their ’best’. If people look at a photograph of a model that shows imperfections they are more likely to wonder why and I think this has really

worked in the photograph above. The entire photograph is focused and is a good representation of the truth. The model looked exactly like the

image above but it has made me realise this is how she looked for that precise moment. The next second could be different, this requires further

experimentation because it changes my whole understanding of truth within photography. It would be an emotional truth instead of a clarity of

vision.

The processing of the film and enlarging of the prints made me realise that everything I was doing in Photoshop could be done in the darkroom, you

can merge two of the images together, dodge, burn and enhance areas and contrast. This caused me to have a mixed feeling about film, the biggest

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Figure 8 Rebeca, straight view, soft fill, 2014

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problem I found with using film was trying to keep the negatives perfectly clean and clear of dust, dirt and other impurities which can spoil the

photograph and make the viewer question the truth, this has made me revert to using digital. I do not feel that there is a clear difference and the

question of truth is not affected. Only having the black and white images to use also gave me a very different impression of the image compared to

having colour and then turning it into black and white. Does colour effect what people believe to be the truth of an image?

Portrait attempt three

Figure 9 Sanjay, striking pose, 2015

This image was taken with one very weak light in a darkened studio, the exposure was longer than normal to get the full Rembrandt lighting effect.

When capturing this image I asked my model to pose a certain expression then say relax and this is when I fired the shutter. It depicts the truth about

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this person for the single second it was taken. But I cannot confidently say the image is s the truth about the model because it is only for a brief

moment. I liked the effect of Rembrandt lighting to try and express the feelings more and it showed well in the photograph above.

When looking at photographs you are always looking in the past, what was, how things were and not how they are. That’s not necessarily truth and I

don’t believe that truth in photography would be possible if we thought like this. I conclude that it is not possible to show truth about a subject in a

single photograph; but is it possible by showing multiple photographs over time?

Story so far

To summarise I have moved from believing how simple high contrast, high detail single images represent truth within studio photograph through

looking at the work of Sonya Noskowiak then developing that into still-life with Edward Weston where I realised how they meaning can be unclear

and not as focused as a portrait. Finally returning to Imogen Cunningham’s work, but realising how a single portrait can lack the depth needed to

gauge the truth. Finally I have now realised how one image cannot show truth for more than the fraction of a second in which it was taken, you

cannot understand someone and truly believe the image for just a fraction of a second view because truth changes over time but you have to believe

both the emotional and physical truth in order to believe what a photograph is representing. I now need to represent this in my final work.

Final plan

To link everything together I have concluded that I need multiple photographs taken over time so that the viewer can gauge the truth and validity of

what is being shown. I plan to tell my story through a short movie by photographing people who directly affect my life, people at school and home.

I will capture a burst of roughly 15 shots of each person in the studio including multiple of myself which will overlap the others to try and tell the

emotional story my life has been through whilst studying this course. I will capture myself using Rembrandt lighting and everyone else in normal

studio lighting. I will aim for views of the movie to understand the truth of what I have been through simply by observing my expression and that of

the people around me. I will ask all of my models to think of think of their fondest memory of me, start capturing and then ask them to relax into

their natural position, this will be when the camera is taking the burst.

Final

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZznrWPJbig

Conclusion

During this project I first experimented with very ‘straight’ and physically truthful images, researching and re-interpreting the works of Sonya

Noskowiak and Edward Weston with the emphasis on all aspects of studio work. It was during my study of Imogen Cunningham’s work that I had a

eureka moment. It marked the turning of my project from creating a very aesthetical truthful image to an emotionally truthful image, after my

Rembrandt lighting photo-shoot the idea of my final started to form. The final required me to draw on all the studio knowledge I had gained over

unit three and the Stop-frame editing I have done in unit one and two. The final Movie is a story about me, the overall effect creates a sense of

understanding the truth about me and to me symbolises so much more; it is the first time in eight years I have voluntarily taken photographs of

myself. I choose to have a slide between each person with their relation to me, this was always ‘My …’ this was to reinforce the meaning of creating

the movie and to ensure the truth is conveyed which I believe it is.

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Is truth in photography possible?

Yes, I do believe truth in photography is possible and I believe that I have created a piece of photography that represents truth on an emotional level

through the aesthetic meaning.

Bibliography

[1] http://www.filmsnotdead.com/2012/02/01/seeing-straight-group-f-64/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Group_f/64

[3] Book: Group f64. 1/1/2015 Mary Street Alinder. Page 74

[4] Magazine: Camera craft 1932. (January edition)

[5] Edward Weston, Taschen, 2001. Page 35

[6] http://libweb.hawaii.edu/libdept/charlotcoll/corc_project/images/noskowiak/jccsn3.gif

[7] http://theredlist.com/media/database/photography/history/celebrite-portrait/imogen-cunningham/012_imogen-cunningham_theredlist.jpg

[8] http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/zone.htm

[9] https://francessmithlandscapes.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/zonesystemerikheyninck.gif

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