MODULE EVALUATION

MODULE EVALUATION

This module was one of the final assignments we were given and like the other final one, it was pretty open. The briefing told us that we basically had to produce a book of a typology of our choice. I knew of photographers collecting images of a certain object and making it into a book but I did not know that the correct term for this type of work was ‘typology’.
As this was very open it took a lot of thinking towards what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to keep it simple yet interesting so I eventually decided to look at eyes. I thought eyes were really unique and nice to photograph, I also thought it would be nice to look into the ‘Eyes are the windows to the soul’ saying.  When i started to research, i found that many people in the past had said this windows to the soul, but it has actually been investigated into and some scientists believe that eyes really could be connected to our souls!
I took my photographs, intending to find people with different eye colours to show variety. When it came to editing my photos, i decided that it could look effective to make the eye stand out. So, using the select tool, i converted my image to black and white and left the eye in colour.. i thought that this made the eyes look striking and it was good to see the contrast between black and white and colour.
Over all, this hasn't been my strongest module, as i am well aware. The idea of making a book panicked me slightly from the very beginning and i was worried that what i would achieve would not be my best. I could definately go back into this project with more time and make more of an effort to achieve a better outcome. Although, i have learned lots of new skills throughout this module; using blurb and InDesign being the main one. These are skills that i am sure will help me in the following years to come. 

EDITS

For my final images for my book, I decided to edit my photographs in this way. Using the select tool, i converted my photos into black and white but deselected the eye to keep them in colour.. I think that it looks more effective this way and the eye stands out more which is what i wanted to achieve. Like I found in my research, the eyes are always the focus of the photograph when it comes to portrait photography and it is the eye that draws the viewer in. I also like the brightness of the eyes in these photos and think that it is nice to see the contrast between the eyes and the rest of the face.

I am happy with the outcome of these photographs, but having more time i would have liked to have photographed many more different eyes.. perhaps hunt for people who have more unique and unusual eyes. 

MY EYE PHOTOGRAPHS

For my photographs, i decided that i wanted to take up close shots of peoples eyes so that the viewer can see all the intricate details that the eye holds.. I photographed eyes single and together and experimented with how close up or far away I took the photograph. I also chose people with relatively different eye colours to show variety.

EYE PHOTOGRAPHY

There is a saying which states that the eyes are the window to a person's soul. It is important to know how to handle people's eyes in portrait photography, as the way the eyes are represented in a photo can make or break the photo.  For example, Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl photo, which appeared on the cover of the June 1984 National Geographic Magazine, was named "the most recognised photograph" in the history of the magazine. This was mostly due to her piercing sea-green eyes, staring straight at the camera, resulting in a very striking and appealing portrait. (see below). Personally I love this photograph, I think it looks amazing that even though the photo has rich colours, it is still her eyes that shine through and draw you straight in.

Other eye photography that I think are impressive..

All of these have been manipulated with photoshop and I think the results are amazing! especially the last photograph. The last one is so creative and really is pleasing for the viewer, It really is unique, nothing I've ever seen before.. I feel like it might possibly be a representation of earth? water, land, sky.. 

I love this photograph of the elderly man, it's so intricate and you can see every fine detail. Also, even though the photograph is in black and white, his eyes are still the centre focus of the photograph and they shine through even though the photo is all one tone. 

I think there is so much you can do with eyes in photography. For example, the above photograph shows a person crying, which should be something that isn't quite nice to see, but it produces a beautiful outcome when edited the right way. The fact that this photo is in black and white apart from the eyeball itself makes it so effective- the eye is absolutely striking. 

I think in portrait shots, it is the eyes that sometimes make or break the photograph. If the eyes are really piercing through, inviting the viewer in and it is the clear focus of the shot, it can be the eyes that tell the story or the meaning of the photograph as a whole.

Eyes being the windows to the soul..

The eye is the window of the soul, the mouth the door. The intellect, the will, are seen in the eye; the emotions, sensibilities, and affections, in the mouth. The animals look for man's intentions right into his eyes. Even a rat, when you hunt him and bring him to bay, looks you in the eye. Hiram Powers, American sculptor (1805 - 1873) 

It has been said by many different people over the years that eyes are the windows to the soul, due to the fact that they tell so much about us. We can try to hide our real emotions as much as we like but our eyes will always give us away! Also, our eyes show us to be individuals as they are all completely different... Everyone has a different structure of lines, dots and colours in their iris.

Upon research, according to scientists, eyes REALLY could be the windows to the soul. Patterns in the iris can give an indication of whether we are warm and trusting or neurotic and impulsive, research has found. Scientists in a University in Sweden compared the eyes of over 400 people and their personalities to see whether the traits in their personalities matched the structures that appear in our irises.

They focused on patterns in crypts - threads which radiate from the pupil - and contraction furrows - lines curving around the outer edge - which are formed when the pupils dilate.

Their findings showed those with denselypacked crypts are more warmhearted, tender, trusting, and likely to sympathise with others. In comparison, those with more contraction furrows were more neurotic, impulsive and likely to give way to cravings.

The researchers argued that eye structure and personality could be linked because the genes responsible for the development of the iris also play a role in shaping part of the frontal lobe of the brain, which influences personality.

THE EYE

THE HUMAN EYE

Eyes are organs that detect light and help us to see. They do so by converting the light into electro-chemical impulses into neurons. So light basically bounces of the object we wish to see and sends the image back to our brain. Even though our eyes look pretty simple.. there are a lot of components that go together to make them up and they're all very intricate and complicated. Perhaps one of the most interesting facts, the human eye can distinguish around 10 million different colours. 

TYPOLOGIES

What is a typology?
Typology is the study of types. So photographers will take an object, say for example a hat, and simply take photographs of lots of different hats and put them together as a collection.
Written explanation from the internet i found:
 A typology is a set of categories used for classification. A typology generally has non-overlapping categories that exhaust all possibilities so that there is one category available for each observation and each observation only fits one category.
A society can be categorized using a typology of types of economy (industrial, hunter-gatherer, horticultural, pastoral, agrarian, fishing, and herding).

Typologies:

A Famous Typology:

Bernd and Hilla Becher: These two were German photographers/artists who worked as a collaborative duo. Phaps their most famous typology of work was their Cooling Towers:

 

 

 

PROPOSAL

PROPOSAL

This module required us to chose a typology of our choice and produce a book as our final outcome. I had never looked into typologies before but I know that it was quite an open project and I could do anything with it. My initial idea that came to me as soon as we were given the brief was to do a typology of eyes.. I've decided that this is quite a nice idea to go ahead with as eyes can be really interesting and unique, so I am going to go down this path and hopefully have a good outcome. 

I would like to look into the whole 'Eyes are the windows to the soul' idea because I think it is a very true statement. I think It's quite easy to find out someone's emotion by just looking into their eyes because it simply gives it away. So throughout this project, I am going to look into the human eye as a whole and find out how it works, how it's put together and how significant they are in photography. Eventually I would like to photograph many different people's eyes, in various different colours, shapes and sizes. I am hoping that the up close shots will invite the viewer to look deeper into the persons eyes. 

As I go along I will decide how I will want my layout of my book to eventually look like, currently I am imagining up close shots on a page each, maybe with a bit of descriptive writing on each page to go with them.