Week 1 Shutter Practitioners.

                                      Francesca Woodman.

Francesca Woodman is a very famous photographer for her dark and spooky imagery. All of her photos are in sepia and black and white. Francesca committed suicide in 1981 at a young age of only 22 years. I find Francesca's work very moving considering the fact that she was struggling with depression though out the time of her photographing. Francesca uses long exposure times in her most of her photographs a good example is the third photo below. Quite often her subjects are motion blurred and blend into the surroundings.

Through the eyes of ghost- Francesca Woodman

The first photo gives me chills because when I look at that I see someone hanging, there is no rope but I see the chair that looks as though she kicked it away when she jumped also with the way her face is hidden behind her arm gives me an indication of suicide. The composition in this photo is perfect, both the chair and the young lady are both off center and are diagonal from each other. This photograph is from Francesca's photo series "Through the eyes of a ghost".                                                                                       

Angels are among us- Francesca Woodman                            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The second Photograph is from Francesca's photo series "Angels are among us". This image is beautiful because for me it juxtaposes the other photograph of the young woman hanging. I love how the wings drape beautifully off the ceiling and the young girl is dancing perfectly in the middle of them making it look like her wings. 

Francesca Woodman- Untitled

The third photograph relates back to my images that were taken on a longer shutter speed so that the subject becomes blurred and the background is in focus also her subject is spinning around just like the photograph i took of Tracy spinning around in front of the trees. The dress is a nice contrast with the dark grungy wall in the background, I also like how the subject is centered but I feel the photo would have looked even more beautiful if she was more to the side and Francesca took the photo from further back.

Neil Leifer

Neil Leifer begun photographing in 1960 as a teenager, his photos were quite often seen in nationally recognised magazines. Neil became a photographer for different companies including Sports illustrated, LIFE magazine and Time Magazine. When Neil left Time magazine in 1990 his photographs were still being published on over 200 covers of Sports Illustrated, Time and People magazines. In 2006 Neil received the prestigious Lucie award for achievement in sports photography and then in 2008 he received the Britton Hadden Lifetime achievement award for his contribution to Times Magazine. Neil Leifers photographs capture the action, showing the facial expressions and body action of the sports stars. He manages to capture those priceless moments of pain,excitement and anger. For Neil to freeze action he would need a Shutter speed from 1/150th -1/1000th of a second. 

Muhammad Ali - 1965 world heavyweight title fight at
St. Dominics Arena. Lewiston, Maine 25/5/1965

I love this image because this is when Muhammad Ali got his first round one knockout. You can see the adrenaline pumping,  Neil froze the action perfectly. This photograph reminds me a lot of the photograph i took of Tracy when she was jumping off the chair, big facial expressions and you could even see her collar bones jutting out because of the force of her jump just like you can see Muhammad's muscles popping out because of the Adrenaline and power of the punch.

Julius Erving dunks against the Denver nuggets
at The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3/9/1977

I quite like this image because Neil has shot it from a lower angle making Julius look more powerful and strong as he dunks the ball. Yet again Neil has frozen the action showing the strength of Julius and showing every detail of his body including the beads of sweat on his legs and face. I feel this image would have been even more powerful if you could not see the other player behind Julius, I feel because you can see that player it takes away the impact of how high Julius is actually jumping to dunk the ball. Maybe if Neil shot it from a different spot the photo may have been even more successful.