The Saatchi Gallery
The Saatchi Gallery held an exhibition in order to celebrate 50 years of The Sunday Times Magazine. The exhibition displayed a range of prominent photographs by photographers of our time like David Bailey, Richard Avedon and Sam Taylor-Wood. I found the exhibition interesting as it covered a wide range of issues from political to social while maintaing an interesting aspect to every picture. I was inspired by many of the images featured in the exhibition as some of them related to my idea for the exam ‘Combinations and Alliances’. For example, taking simple, studio based, portrait images to capture the idea that we as humans are allies to each other, however with in the human race there remains a combination of different people, I wanted to show this through the medium of photography.
Tony Blair by Nigel Parry Amy Winehouse by
Terry O’Neil
I like these images because I feel they capture the characters personality and image through one picture. I will experiment in doing this, taking a range of portrait pictures while experimenting with ways in which I can portray the models personality.
A lot of the photography featured in the exhibition was documentary photography. I was also fond of this idea, as I have never explored it before. Some of the photographers were able to capture certain situations, which were fascinating due to their spontaneous characteristics. However, some photographers documented stories with in their photography, for example, Ken Griffiths who took one picture every month of the year to document an elderly couple growing crops in their ‘English Country Garden’. These images were interesting as they were not only able to capture their crops growing, they also managed encapsulate the variation of English weather throughout the year thus determining the couples clothes and over all image. The image is below.
A lot of the photography featured in the exhibition was documentary photography. I was also fond of this idea, as I have never explored it before. Some of the photographers were able to capture certain situations, which were fascinating due to their spontaneous characteristics. However, some photographers documented stories with in their photography, for example, Ken Griffiths who took one picture every month of the year to document an elderly couple growing crops in their ‘English Country Garden’. These images were interesting as they were not only able to capture their crops growing, they also managed encapsulate the variation of English weather throughout the year thus determining the couples clothes and over all image. The image is below.
I also liked the way in which the images were displayed, almost like a sequence. The light was also nice as there is light shining through the back, illuminating the subject. This was also the same as an image of Jean Shrimpton by David Bailey.
The image below is also an example of documentary photography as it captures the attempt of the assassination of the President, Ronald Reegan. The photographer has captured a momentous moment in history, which was fortunately captured on camera. The feeling of horror is also portrayed through the image.
‘Shooting the president’ by Michael Evans