Aaron Yeandle

Today Aaron Yeandle came in a did a talk about his photography. He spoke about his different photographs he had taken over the past few years. The photos he showed us the most were his images he took when he spent about 18 months travelling throughout Asia, these images showed the vast differences of the countries that he visited.

He studied at both Burton College and Staffordshire University and in his early days of photography he took images of Stoke-on-Trent. He also took images of all the Union Jack items he could find in 2012 around the time of the jubilee and the Olympics.

When talking about his trip around Asia he showed us his images of China, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, he also visited Myanmar, Nepal, India, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. I looked at all the images after his talk it showed a very vast selection of images judging by what he said he enjoyed his time and it truly helped his photography and allows you to get images you wouldn't get before.

After listening to his talk his images were really good and judging by what he said travel is a really ideal thing for photography as it shows you places you wouldn't normal visit, overall I enjoyed his talk and images.

These images show to me the vast differences in Aaron's photography the one closest to the text was taken during Aaron's journeys around Asia this image is vastly difference to the one below mainly due to the fact that the one at the bottom is mainly about Britishness and the Queen which we associated with riches whereas the photo in Asia looks like it is trying to symbolise a poor person.

The photo of the child in Asia is the more impressive to me because it is quite a striking image because it shows the area that he is in, it doesn't look the nicest place but with a car and a motorbike in the background it isn't as impressive as it could have been had they not actually been there.

This image to me displays a much richer part of life than the one above mainly due to the fact that it is about the Queen who is someone we normally associate with riches.

Bailey, Donovan, Duffy

Today we saw a documentary on Brian Duffy, which also featured David Bailey and briefly spoke about Terence Donovan. The three were all British and from London, the three were most prominent during the 1960s and worked together during this time.

David Bailey is arguably the most well known of the trio, he is also the only who is still alive. Before becoming a prominent photographer he worked with as John French's assistant beginning in 1959 though was only there for 11 months. After this Bailey went on to work at John Cole's Studio Five, before joining Vogue Magazine later on in 1960. Along with Donovan and Duffy he photographed Swinging London of the '60s, this was a culture of fashion and celebrity chic. This allowed them to be elevated to celebrity status and the trio were nicknamed "the Black Trinity". Throughout the 60s Bailey photographed some of the most well known people around including Terence Stamp, The Beatles, Mick Jagger and notorious gangsters the Kray Twins. During his less prominent years in the 70s and 80s he continued to photograph some of the biggest names in music including the likes of Alice Cooper and Freddie Mercury. David Bailey's images all have a similar style in the studio they are all quite similar to this one by this I mean the background always seems to be white and he rarely uses the lighting to darken down the background like Duffy and Donovan have done. His images all look quite interesting as he doesn't get the model to just do one simple pose he mixes it around a bit a gets his subjects to do multiple poses. This photo is quite interesting as the model isn't looking at the camera, quite a few photographers do this but they don't get the model so completely ignore the camera like this and have their model side on like this, some do but it isn't common to see. That is the main reason I like this photo Bailey is attempting something not many people would have done.

Brian Duffy was a photographer who was best known for his fashion photography during the 1960s and 70s. He began his freelance work in 1955 as a fashion artist for Harper's Bazaar. He became impressed by the photographers work at the company that he knew it was the thing for him and after beginning, he joined Vogue in 1957. After leaving Vogue in 1963 he went on to work for several other major publications including Glamour Magazine and Esquire. He was also hired to shoot the second ever Pirelli calendar in 1965, which he shot in the South of France and in 1973 he was commissioned to shoot a second Pirelli calendar, becoming one of very few photographers to ever shoot multiple Pirelli calendars. He created this calendar in collaboration with Allen Jones, a sculptor and Phillip Castle, an air brush specialist. Duffy also had a ten year working relationship with musician David Bowie, where he shot three album covers for the singer. In 1979 he promptly ended his career and began to burn his negatives, but neighbours and the council prevented this and most of his work was saved. Brian Duffy's images are quite different to David Bailey's as Duffy does use the lighting to create a darker background whereas Duffy doesn't. This image is quite interesting as it shows John Lennon posing with something but I wouldn't know what it is, the way he has used the lighting to create the dark background is really brilliant and compliments the image brilliant and is similar to the image below.

Terence Donovan was a photographer who was best known for his fashion photography during the 1960s. He began photographing the aftermath of World War II in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He was considered along with Bailey and Duffy the first true celebrity photographers due to their intense recognition worldwide and his notable work as well. He also worked for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and away from photography he was also a film maker and made some 3000 TV commercials. His filming began in the 1970s following a decade of successful photography where he became one of the biggest names in photography during the 1960s. He also directed several music videos for Robert Palmer. Terence Donovan's images seem to be the most experimental of the three as he uses many different lighting techniques in the studio as he clearly has done in this image of Lady Diana. He also uses many props in his images as well, the models also seem to be given plenty of freedom to do what they want in the images. It also looks like he goes out on location to take his portrait images a lot more than Bailey or Duffy. His images are in my opinion the best of the three as not only does he show loads of experimentation in the studio but also out on location with several images showing his incredible range in photography.

Ewen Spencer

Ewen Spencer is a photographer who has been working in photography since he left Brighton University in 1997. During the late 90s he worked photographing youth culture in London, these helped to build up his self published book Open Mic released in 2005, this was based around different underground rap clubs. He also released a follow up book quite recently. His photos he took of the music scene in London were published in Sleazenation Magazine. He said that when he shot the Grime Scene in the late 90s and early 2000s that he would shoot on film in black and white even though he would normally shoot in colour and that he would shoot around twenty rolls a night. But he was in for a shock when we would shoot the nightlife in New York when he shot twenty rolls the people he was shooting for weren't impressed with his lack of images he was expecting Spencer to shoot about 100 rolls a night.

I feel that images were meant to document the nightlife of different areas and the youth cultures in these locations as well. I feel his images show the subculture of youth very well it shows many differences and how diverse the youth culture actually is.

I have look over a fair bit of his work and I would say that a lot of his work is really interesting, looking over his work on his website it isn't all based around the same thing but around a vast amount of different projects and genres, which I find really fascinating. I feel there are a lot of strong images on his website and very few weak ones, if any at all.

His talk its self was actually quite fascinating as well he spoke about all the different photos he took and many different projects and the fascinating stories behind some of the images and the projects and how luck can also play a part in his work which is quite handy in his images.

Overall I would say that his talk and his work is brilliant and that he is definitely a photographer who is worth looking into more and finding more out about.