Ming Smith
James Baldwin, James Van Der Zee and Eubie Blake in Skies of Harlem, Harlem, NY, 1979
Courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery, New York
In the image I can see that it is in the street where there could be a celebration going on. They people that are in the image are blurred in a slight in which gives the image a double exposure look to it. The main light source that can be seen in the image is a young child who is holding a sparkler that is with an older person like parent or an older siblings. The composition if the image is that she has the people in the centre of the image where the rest of the space is used up the taller buildings that is in the background of the image. There can be seen some leading lines where from the buildings edges can lead our eyes to the group of blurred people that can be seen ready to celebrate something or someone. The colour tone to the image is a warm tone where it can be seen as a calming photo where there is warmth to them. The atmosphere given can be seen as a full of life where they can be seen to have no problems in the world around them. The image is like a street photograph image, where it the people being nature with themselves when the photo was taken. It was like that had o idea that they was being photographed. This one is different because it is a blurred image where they do not shoe the people face clearly to see what expressions that they have on. To be honest it does not upset my expectations of street photography as it can be a different genre in the genre itself. As different photographers would see street photography differently to to others. The image was take but a film camera because the colour that the image has would be seen on most film camera since if it was done on a digital camera that colour that are in the image would not a have a warm undertone to it as the digital would have the image in a neutral undertones with them having equal warm and cool undertones to the image.
The what that Ming Smith had created is through by chance. The image was capture through luck and chance but the way that she had set it was like having the camera on the other side of the walkway where it is closer to the road so that is odes not get in the way of the people walking. Looking in the background we can see that the sky was going into a purple-blue colour which meaning that this was taken around sun-set where the hues os the colour would mix into one colour. When Ming Smith had taken the photo, there would of have been two ways that she would get a blurred image like that is through moving here camera when taken the image or that the people in the image where moving as they may not know that they were in the image. The tools that she have used was a tripod to hold up the camera in the place to that the image could in an eye level then a low or even high angle to the image. The process may have been long since she may of have wait for the right time to take the image. There may have been some trial and error since she may wanted an image that can capture the eyes of passing people.
The way that the image makes me feel is like a comfortable feeling due to the warm tones to the image has. It gives that feeling that they are in the moment then it was just planned out. The images give that they are having a true feeling in them then having the fake ones, where they are faking the feelings that are in them. Not only they give a warm and comfortable to me but also a sense of amazement as she had captured the image in a time where not only it is pleasing to the eye for the people but how she has taken the image to get what she was looking for in the image. If I was asking her some question it would be: How did you get your image to be blurry in that way?- because the image bring a sense of curiosity as in how she did it but also why did she choose to have the image blurry. What type of camera did you use?- because the camera can affect how you take the image because each camera has a different how comes out. How much trial and error did you have?- because using other people trial and error to see how they gone wrong can be a way that you would like to do it or to have to you avoid a way that can make your image do wrong. Using some basic research I can see that with her images I can understand that she wants to take the image in the moment of time where time can not come back, so she would take the image in the moment of time where it all happens. Since the image are taking in in the moment of time, I can see that they can or are blurry since they would be moving, if I was trying to creates photos that are inspired by her I can see that I would use light like LED that has warm colours to them and use a camera whilst it was on a tripod with a timer on it so I could move in the image so it can be seen a blurry in the photo.
Photos inspired by Ming Smith
In this task I was given to take the minimum of 20 photos that were inspired by the artist Ming Smith that use the creative of the use of light. In the group I worked with we used the coloured gels to give the light a warm hues to them so that its gives the look that she has used since she used a film camera. We made sure that the image was unfocused since in her image are normally blurred with the image in the moment. In the last four image we change the light into a cool undertone due to her having blue hour sky in her images. It was difficult at first since we need a way to make the image blurry, so we decided to shake the camera when it was taking them image.
These six image are the ones that are my favourite since they have the blur in them in the way that I would like them. The images that are here have blurred in a way that you can see the person but also see a double version of them in a double exposure look to them. With these images i can edit them to have a have vivid warm tone to them like having a film camera when they take a image.