Content
Abstract
To have a record of progress during your studies at the Fotovakschool, you are required to maintain a so called Study Portfolio, containing (a selection of) the work developed as part of the studies as well as notes and other stuff.
Module Results
The study is divided into a number of modules, each of which has one or more assignments, required to pass the module. Apart from the module assignments usualy additional day assignments are also given. The results as well as the specific learnings for each module can be viewed following the links below:
- Module 01 – Basics
- Module 02 – Digital Workflow
- Module 03 – Location Photography
- Module 04 – Portrait and Fashion
- Module 05 – Studio Photography
- Module 06 – Landscape & Architecture
- Module 07 – Advertising & Product
- Module 08 – Documentary
- Module 09 – Image Development
- Module 10 – Meaning of Photography
- Module 11 – History & Quality
- Module 12 – Photography and Society
- Module 13 – Looking is Being Looked At
- Module 14 – Power of Advertising
- Final Exam Project
Notes
Miscellaneous notes of things that inspired me during my study.Interesting Photographers
- Aernout Overbeeke – Commercial.
- Alfred Horsley Hinton – Landscape.
- Alfred Stieglitz – Key to making photography an accepted art form.
- Andreas Gursky – Architecture (Becher School)
- Andrew Prokos – Landscape (City panoramas).
- Andy Rouse – Wildlife. One of the better (best?) wildlife photographers. Has a fun way of writing too!
- Anja de Jong – Architecture.
- Ansel Adams – Landcape. Regerence point for nature photography. Famous for his use of light and contrast.
- Ari Versluis – Portrait. Exactitudes.
- Arnold Newman – Portrait. People in their environment.
- August Sander – Portrait. Archive of the typical person.
- Awoiska van de Molen – Landscape.
- Bart Oomes – Product.
- Bernd & Hilla Becher – Architecture. Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie, “Becher School”.
- Berenice Abbott – Landscape.
- Bertien van Manen – People.
- Bill Brandt – Portrait. Turns nudes into (abstract) works of art.
- Bob Richardson – Fashion.
- Bob van der Vlist – People.
- Brad Moore – Abstract Architecture.
- Brassaï – General. “The master of the bizarre” (John Szarkowski, Museum of Modern Art, New York).
- Cary Markerink – Architecture.
- Chase Jarvis – Commercial. Photographer with a broad portfolio, most of which I quite like.
- Chris von Wangenheim – Fashion.
- Chrystel Lebas – Landscape.
- Claus Brandt – Wildlife. Excellent wildlife photogapher.
- Dan Holdsworth – Landscape.
- Dana Lixenberg – People.
- David Bailey – Fashion.
- Denise Boomkens – Fashion.
- Diane Arbus – People.
- Dorothea Lange – Documentary. FSA.
- Edward Burtynsky – Landscape.
- Edward Quinn – Portrait.
- Edward Weston – General. Pioneer of “Straight Photography”.
- Edwin Zwakman – Architecture. Miniatures photographed as reality.
- Ellen von Unwerth – Fashion.
- Erwin Blumenfeld – Fashion.
- Eugène Atget – Architecture. One of the earlier architecture photographers.
- Ezra Stoller – Architecture.
- Francis Frith – Landscape.
- Frank van der Salm – Surrealistic and abstract Land-/Cityscape and Architecture photography.
- Frederick Evans – Architeture.
- George Davison – Landscape.
- George Hurrell – Portrait. Hollywood portraits.
- Gregory Crewdson – Landscape. Productions.
- Guy Bourdin – Fashion.
- Hans Aarsman – Landscape & Architecture.
- Hans Eijkelboom – Portrait. Paris, New York, Shanghai.
- Hans Heus – Sports and Events.
- Harry Noback – Architecture and Interior.
- Helmut Newton – Fashion.
- Henri Cartier-Bresson – Genral. Founder of the Magnum agency and creator of “the deciding moment”.
- Hiro (Yasuhiro Wakabayashi) – Fashion.
- Hiroshi Sugimoto – Architecture.
- Horst P. Horst – Fashion.
- Ilse Bing – Documentary. “Queen of the Leica”.
- Irving Penn – Fashion.
- Jaap Vliegenthart – Landscape.
- Jacob Olie – Landscape & Architecture.
- Jan Versnel – Architecture.
- Jannes Linders – Architecture.
- Jeanloup Sief – Fashion.
- Jill Greenberg – Portrait. “The Manipulator”.
- Joel Meyerowitz – People.
- Julius Shulman – Architecture.
- Karl Blossfeldt – Nature seen as Architecture.
- Ken Hedrich – Architecture (better than architects).
- Louise Dahl Wolfe – Fashion.
- Lucien Hervé – Architecture.
- Macduff Everton – Landscape.
- Man Ray – Fashion.
- Marcel Christ – Product.
- Marcus Koppen – Landscape.
- Margaret Bourke-White – Documentary.
- Marijn de Jong – Landscape.
- Mario Testino – Fashion.
- Mark Lagrange – Fashion.
- Marsel van Oosten – Landscape. Has a very clean approach to photography, especially landscapes: everything that is in the image should count, and only that should be in it.
- Martin Parr – Documentary.
- Martine Stig – People.
- Merlijn Doomernik – Portraits.
- Michael Wolf – Landscape (Becher School).
- Michael Wesely – Landscape.
- Nan Goldin – People.
- Norbert van Onna – Architecture.
- Oliver Boberg – Architecture.
- Patrick Demarchelier – Fashion.
- Paul Strand – General.
- Peter Bialobrzeski – Landscape. Day=Night.
- Peter Henry Emerson – Landscape.
- Rafael Rivera – Landscape (aerial panoramas).
- Raoul Suermondt – Architecture.
- Richard Avedon – Icon Portrait photographer.
- Richard Billingham – Landscape.
- Rien van Rijthoven – Architecture.
- Rineke Dijkstra – Portrait.
- Robert Maplethorpe – Fashion.
- Roger Fenton – Landscape.
- Roos Aldershoff – Architecture.
- Sally Mann – Portrait.
- Stephen Shore – General.
- Steve McCurry – Portrait.
- Terance Donavan – Fashion.
- Thomas Demand – Architecture. Makes three-dimensional models look like real images of rooms and other spaces.
- Thomas Struth – Architecture.
- Todd Hido – General. Spooky.
- Walker Evans – General. FSA.
- Wendelien Daan – Portrait.
- William Klein – Fashion.
- William Henry Fox Talbot – Landscape.
- William Henry Jackson – Landscape.
Interesting Locations
- Sculpture Garden “De Pruimengaard”, Wijk bij Duurstede – Yearly exhibition of sculptures by different artists.
Interesting Websites
Photography Agencies
- http://www.billcharles.com – Bill Charles
- http://www.hazazah.nl – Hazazah
- http://www.houseoforange.nl – House of Orange
- http://www.pimthomassen.nl – Pim Thomassen
- http://www.solar.nl – Solar
- http://www.unit.nl – Unit
Miscellaneous/Information
- http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/27/us/politics/20080827-winterobama-mutimedia/index.html – Damon Winter: Following Obama.
- http://art-net.startspot.nl – Start page with links to many photographer's sites.
- http://mimoa.eu – Modern Architecture Guide.
- http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips.html – Weekly photography tip, ranging from tips for Photoshop to tips on shooting.
- http://www.luminous-landscape.com – The web's most comprehensive site devoted to the art of landscape, nature and documentary photography using digital as well as traditional image processing techniques.
- http://www.marc-en-ciel.be – Printer/paper colour profiles and other information.
- http://www.nikonians.org – Nikonians – Worldwide Home of Nikon Photographers, where more than 35,000 passionate registered Nikonians help and support each other in a friendly community with over 70 forums.
- http://www.packshotfactory.co.uk – Lots of packshot and Photoshop wizardry examples.
- http://www.photography-now.com – Current photography exhibitions.
- http://www.photoq.nl – Dutch photography news and info.
- http://www.photostart.nl – Central agenda for Dutch photography.
- http://www.robgalbraith.com – Digital photography news, reviews, tutorials and discussion forums for professional photographers.
Interesting Books – Photographers
- Africa – Micael Poliza, teNeues
- Brassaï, Paris – Jean-Claude Gautrand, Taschen
- Edward Weston – Taschen
- Fotografie
van de 20e eeuw – Taschen
Overview of the icons of photography of the 20th century. - In the American West – Richard Avedon, Thames & Hudson
- Life in the Wild, a photographer's year – Andy Rouse, Photographers' Institute Press
- Wanderings with a Camera in Scotland, The Photography of Erskine Beveridge – Lesley Ferguson, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland
Interesting Books – Photography
- How to Read a Photograph, Understanding, Interpreting and Enjoying the Great Photographers – Ian Jeffrey, Thames & Hudson
- Langford's
Basic Photography: The guide for serious photographers –
Michael Langford et al., Focal Press
The first book on photography that covers the basics in so much detail. It doesn't only say that things work in a certain way, but also explains them. Excellent reading!
- Wildlife
Travel Photography: A guide to taking better pictures – Andy
Rouse, Lonely Planet
A good read if you ever go on travel and want to photograph wildlife.
Interesting Books – Image Editing and Manipulation
- Het beste
van Photoshop CS3: de nieuwste en populairste techniken voor het
bewerken van foto's – Scott Kelby, New
Riders
A number of a few many used CS3 techniques. Written by the Photoshop editor, Scott Kelby. Adapted translation from “The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers”. - Adobe
Photoshop CS3 for Photographers – Martin
Evening, Focal Press.
A pretty good guide for CS3. - The
Photographer's Guide to Capture NX2 –
Jason
Odell, Luminescence of Nature Press.
Not only is this e-Book a perfect guide for Nikon's own (RAW) photo editing software, Capture NX2, it also contains very useful basic recipes for editing images as well as a host of other editing tips. Very practical!
Interesting Publications
- National Geographic – Plainly very interesting for its photography alone.
- Nikon Pro – Only comes out three times a year, but is always a good read. Apart from (new) Nikon products, it always contains a range of good quality photos from various professional photographers. Inspiring!
Exhibitions
Here are a few short reports of relevant Exhibitions I visited.
12/06/2010: FOAM, Amsterdam
Four exhibitions:
- Ari Marcopoulos – It might seem familiar. Photographs of the alternative youth culture in America throughout the last three decades. Although this was one of the reasons to go to FOAM, the photographs were rather dissapointing…
- Paul Graham – A shimmer of possibility. A number of series of photographs taken of the same scene at slightly different times and/or angles. Actually very nice!
- Hans van den Bogaard – Collectie Vrolik. Photographs documenting the “Vrolik Collection”, a series of anatomical, pathological-anatomical, zoological and teratological specimens, in a very beautiful way.
- Simon Wald-Lasowski – For your eyes only. Weird (but interesting) series of art photos around the theme “The Eye”.
12/06/2010: Oude Kerk, Amsterdam – World Press Photo 2009
This year's World Press Photo exhibition, with again some pretty good photos.
21/04/2010: Fotomuseum, Rotterdam
QUICKSCAN NL#01. First exhibition in a series QUICKSCAN NL, about the most recent developments in the photography in The Netherlands. In this first edition approximately 25 photographers and artists show their work, not older than two years and mostly for the first time on show.
Though some of the work was great, I didn't think it was all that revolutionary…
21/04/2010: Kunsthal, Rotterdam
René Burri, Retrospectief. Overview of René Burri's work. The more “graphic” the work, the more I liked it!
04/04/2010: Gemeente Museum, Den Haag
Kandinsky and Der Blaue Reiter. In the early 20th century, a group of artists caused a huge furore in the Munich art world. Calling themselves Der Blaue Reiter, the artists produced expressive, brightly coloured, lyrical paintings which were to prompt the development of Expressionism in Germany. The core members of the group were Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and kindred spirit Franz Marc.
09/02/2010: FOAM, Amsterdam
Guided tour of the Alexander Rodchenko exhibition. The extra information provided during the tour certainly had added value!
02/01/2010: Museon, Den Haag – The Wildlife Photographer of the Year
All the images of the winners, runners up, and commendations. A lot of beautiful photography.
15/12/2009: Fotomuseum, Den Haag
Sally Man's The Family And The Land is a selection of prints from five of her most famous series: Immediate Family, Virginia, Deep South, What Remains, and Faces.
Contrary to my expectation, I was very pleased and impressed by her series Immediate Family, a very open view on the growing up of her children. The use of the (by nature imperfect) collodion process really added to the “feeling” of the photographs. While this process definitely also added to the “experience” of her landscape work, I was much less impressed by it. To me, she clearly is much better at portraying human emotions. What Remains (a series on death, showing decaying bodies), though at some point pretty gross, was very good again. The collodion process, again, really added to the images' atmosphere. With the last series of the exhibition, Faces, I think she went completely overboard with the process, resulting in a series of vague “portraits”, much too vague to my liking.
09/12/2009: Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
Exhibition of the very impressing series “Oil” by Edward Burtynsky.
29/11/2009: Gemeente Museum, Den Haag
Exhibition of the work of Cézanne, Picasso, and Mondriaan, showing the development of their styles as well as the influence the had on each other (and others).
17/11/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam
Main Exhibition: Sanne Sannes (1937-1967) – Darkness & Light. Series of (erotic) images of women. Grain, long exposure, and soft focus all contribute to the feeling you are looking at images taken by a man quite obsessed. Beautiful in a way, but also quite disturbing… Interesting nevertheless.
13/10/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam
Main exhibition this time was the series “In the Shadow of Things” by Leonie Purchas, winner of the KLM Paul Huf award.
In the Shadow of Things is the story of the unusual life of Bron (Purchas' mother), husband David and their young son Jake who live in a remote house surrounded by woods and fields. Bron has suffered from mild depression for years, an illness which has developed itself into an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD for Bron manifests itself as a fear of dirt and contamination. Thus dominating her daily life heavilly. Meaning that she finds it extremely difficult to deal with the demands of normal household things. Even though the family has moved house twelve years ago, most of the boxes still remain packed and sealed. On top of the boxes, piles of clothes, bags and other things have gathered over time, rendering much of the house unusable.
This all Purchas photographed in a highly personal and emotional manner. The vulnerability of family members (including the photographer herself) is apparant in many of the images. The use of projections, photographs and sound and film recordings from the family archive all add to the impact of the exhibition.
Simply put: very impressive! And while sometimes I do not see why a series/photographer was awarded, this series really is good. The images really tell a story and are clearly taken by a photographer; not only does she show an eye for pleasing compositions, she also makes good use of (camera) techniques such as depth of field, motion blur, etc. All to the greater good of making an, emotional, impact.
30/09/2009: Noorderlicht International Photofestival, Groningen
See Noorderlicht website for more information.
01/09/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam
- Massimo Vitali – Monumental (in size) photographs of large groups of people enjoying mass tourism.
- Gerda Leo – Photographien 1926-1932.
- Kim Boske – Mapping
30/08/2009: FoMu, Antwerp (Belgium)
The Antwerp Photography Museum is a great visit. Do take your time though as you'll need it if you want to see everything they have on exhibition (and you most likely will!). Today they had a number of exhibitions:
- Old pictures taken by amateurs and professionals in the 1930's
- “Baghdad Calling” and “Why Mister, Why?” by Geert van Kesteren
- The winners of the Canvas Photography contest
- The film of my life, a selection of old images from the VRT archives
- Nick Hannes' Red Journey
- “Theatres of the Real”, a number of short series by contemporary British photographers
As you can see, plenty of beatiful, inspiring, moving things for the beholder. We will certainly be visiting the museum the next time we visit Antwerp!
08/08/2009: De Pruimengaard, Wijk bij Duurstede
Another visit to the yearly exhibit at the sculpture garden in Wijk bij Duurstede. This time, especially the works of the German scrap metal artist (and musician) Diedel Klöver, caught our attention.
13/07/2009: Taigh Chearsabhagh, Lochmaddy (North Uist, Scotland) – Erskine Beveridge
Overview of the work of (amatuer) photographer Erskine Beveridge who documented life in Scotland between 1880 and 1919.
16/06/2009: Oude Kerk, Amsterdam – World Press Photo 2009
This year's World Press Photo exhibition was a pleasant surprise compared to last year: the images were of much much higher quality!
27/05/2009: Stadsarchief Amsterdam – NY Perspectives
A small exhibition of New York Photographers showing us their view on Amsterdam. The exhibition showed work of Richard Rothman, Gus Powell, Joshua Lutz, and Carl Wooley. This last one, definitely my favourite.
01/05/2009: FOAM, Amsterdam – Richard Avedon
Excellent exhibition of Richard Avedon's work. Seeing a lot of his work together, you really understand what makes Avedon's work so extraordinary!
29/04/2009: Museum Jan van der Togt – Gerry Hurkmans
A very small exhibition of Dutch landscapes by Gerry Hurkmans.
30/01/2009: Museon, Den Haag – The Wildlife Photographer of the Year/Artic: Why Polar Bears do not eat Penguins
A visit to the Museon with two beautiful exhibitions:
- The Wildlife Photographer of the Year – All the images of the winners, runners up, and commendations. In one word: Beautiful!
- Arctic: Why Polar Bears do not eat Penguins – Images of the nature and wildlife at both poles, shot by nature photographer Jan Vermeer.
03/12/2008: FOAM, Amsterdam – Helen Levit, Vivianne Sassen, Kees Sherer, Erik van der Weijde
Another short visit to FOAM. Four photographers where on exhibition this time:
- Helen Levitt: a large selection of her street photography work, pretty inspiring. I think I like the work of her mentor (Walker Evans) more though.
- Vivianne Sassen, interesting collection of photos showing another side of Africa, each photo has a touch of surrealism.
- Kees Scherer: a nice selection of his work (all originally printed by the photographer himself!).
- Erik van der Weijde: a series of (simple) photographs of Nazi-built houses. A bit weird…
21/09/2008: Naarden – World Press Photo 2008
Of most of the exhibited photos you could see why they were picked as winners or runners up. There were, however, also many pictures of which we could not figure out why these were picked. In this respect the most blatant example was the series of photos taken of Italian amusement parks. While the story behind them was to illustrate that family outings have become very commercialised over time, the images where of no special quality; anyone could have taken them.
This is something I noticed with more of the pictures shown: no special skill, timing, or “eye” required to take them. This, in a way, is a disappointment for me as I believe that good photos require skill (especially in the seeing and catching the right moment). Ah well, maybe I miss something here…
16/09/2008: van Zoetendaal and FOAM, Amsterdam
Please see my report as written as part of Module 01 – Basics.
07/09/2008: De Pruimengaard, Wijk bij Duurstede
It is always a good thing to get inspired by seeing and doing new things. With this in mind we visited “De Pruimengaard”, a sculpture garden in Wijk bij Duurstede.
“De Pruimengaard” is only opened one month a year, and
today was actually the last day. Each year they show different work by
different artists, so it is never the same.
Very interesting to see so many different styles and forms! Lots of prickling and beautiful work, and of course also a lot of boring, ugly work. Funny thing is though that when you think something is really ugly or boring and that really no one in their right mind would buy it, you find out it has just been sold…
Proves yet again that taste is, luckily, not an objective thing.
Development Plan
My Goals – Start of the study
At the start of the study, I have defined the following goals for myself andthe studies:
- Develop creativity.
- Develop the ability to capture and portray emotion/feeling/mood in an image.
- Get inspiration by seeing other photographers' work.
- Learn how to make commercial (sellable) images.
- Learn how to run photography as a business (self employed).
- Determine and develop personal style and subject.
- Learn how to quickly determine the good from the bad images from a shoot.
- Have fun!