LO2: Photographic Genre and Style

LO1 Photographer Analysis: David Hockney

David Hockney

Genre/Category:

David Hockney's work fits into the genre of social reportage, he uses many techniques in his work to make it more interesting than a basic photo you would typically see in the same genre.This photo is of two people talking, this shows that it is social reportage as it's a photo of social life.

Analysis/meaning:
This photo is a collage of Polaroid's, the way he has done this is by taking numerous photos at different angles, distances and times, and then positioned them in a portrait structure, this is because Hockney usually works with a theme of cubism. Some of the Polaroid photos are also either farther or closer than the rest. I think he has done this as the viewer of the photos can look at each one, mainly the central photos as a point of interest and see something different in each one whilst seeing all of them together as a collective is still interesting, as the whole collective of photos is very different to one that would be just a singular photo of two people standing and sitting. I think it is also like this to show movement and life in his photo as a collective. In my opinion this image is very different to ones that are in the same genre as this, as Hockney has presented it in a unique way that you don't usually see.

Purpose:
I think the main purpose of his photos are just to capture life in the moment as the way he does the photos are photos I wouldn't really see in a newspaper, he may also not be doing this for a client to promote a product or event.


LO1 Photographer Analysis: Duncan Philpott

Duncan Philpott

This photographer had presented to us in the UTC Sheffield about his work.

Genre/ Category:

His chosen genre of photography is action and adventure sports, this is shown clearly by the collections of his portfolios full of photos all based around sports and action. This photo is obviously related to the genre as the model, Steve Peat, is a downhill mountain biker and is wearing his helmet what he wears during downhill mountain biking.

Analysis/ Meaning:

In this photo Philpott has took a picture of Steve Peat, a professional downhill mountain biker, the photo has been taken and then most likely edited to be in monochrome, this is used to great effect as the use of the lighting makes the face expression and detail within the photo stand out. Philpott has also used depth of field by making the background completely black whilst the lighting lights up the face and helmet so you can obviously see Peat, this is different to the usual technique of making the background out of focus whilst the foreground in focus. The lighting and depth of field both work together to make Steve Peat look like he's coming out of the darkness, by using monochrome and using the lighting to emphasise on his expressions, it connotes that he is a mean and ruthless biker, which the client might of wanted, to show that he isn't a biker to be messed with. There's also the fact that Peat is central to the photograph, this being the point of interest technique, and as I said the background is fully dark too, which makes Steve Peat stand out more, this helps makes Peat the point of interest every viewer will look at first as there's nothing else to look at. 

Purpose:

Duncan Philpott has worked with many companies and people such as Hope Technology, Red Bull, Nike and Steve Peat, the target audience for this picture may be fans of Steve Peat and they know what he is like in the downhill competitions, the purpose of this photo and most of his work is to promote himself and also complete the brief from a client the best way he can. Another example of Philpott's work that had a purpose was to promote bike parts by a company, this meant he had to do something practical which was to actually go out and do the photo shoot whilst he and friends used the bike parts on their bikes, this was a great way to promote the product through photography.