Photography Open Thread
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper Photograph: public domain photographer unknown
Friday Photography
This is the fourth of an ongoing series about everything to do with photography. This week's post is a little different. It takes a look at connections and influences within the visual arts world.
On the practical side of things I've included three videos made by Boston University covering composition, lighting, and exposure.
Last week SnappleBC made the excellent suggestion of putting up a thread for a week long photography assignment. I will post the assignment here and then repost it as a separate essay for photographs to be uploaded to.
Please post any photos, comment about anything or ask any questions about photography (If I don’t know the answer someone here probably will)- Please treat this as a photography open thread.
Blade Runner and Nighthawks
Introduction
We photographers can be an insular bunch. We tend to get engrossed in what we do and think that photography is the center of the visual universe. Of course this is not true as while photography is now usually considered an equal of the other visual arts it is not superior to them.
Cross fertilization is an essential part of the creative process and art benefits most when ideas from different disciplines come together. This post takes a connection between two great pieces of art as a jumping off point with this in mind. The two artworks in question are the painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper and the movie Blade Runner. Ridley Scott, the director of the movie, was heavily inspired by the Hopper painting when creating the mood which pervades the movie. Apparently he would wave a reproduction of the painting around when things weren’t going in the visual direction that he wanted. Other visual influences cited by Scott, for Blade Runner were Moebius and French science fiction comic magazine Heavy Metal along with a chemical plant on Teeside, UK., and Hong Kong 'on a bad day'.
Wilton chemical plant. Inspiration for Blade Runner
Photographer: Ian Britton (license cc 3.0)
Obviously neither Nighthawks or Blade Runner are photographs but they are both relevant to photography. Hopper’s city scenes were very sparse, very minimalistic and he seemed to approach painting with a photographer’s mindset. He would leave objects out of his scenes and paint only what was absolutely essential. In other words he would declutter a scene in the same way a photographer does. In addition to this minimal approach to subject matter he also used light in a very deliberate manner, to create a very definite atmosphere, usually of loneliness and alienation. Uncluttering scenes and the use of light to depict mood are the basic tools of photography. As for Blade Runner, there is little that can be said about the quality of the visuals that has not already been said. Blade Runner is one of the very few movies that can be paused at random and that the resulting image would be one that I’d be happy to hang on my wall. People do not get to make art of this quality without possessing a superb photographic eye.Here is a video of the opening scene - one of the most iconic in movie history.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fu7jN2_2pE]
(the scene proper starts at 3.05)Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick was the author of the book that Blade Runner was based on: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Dick had a deep distrust of all things Hollywood but Scott persuaded him to view a twenty minute test real featuring the movies opening and special effects. The author was blown away to put it mildly.
Let me sum it up this way. Science fiction has slowly and ineluctably settled into a monotonous death: it has become inbred, derivative, stale. Suddenly you people have come in, some of the greatest talents currently in existence, and now we have a new life, a new start. As for my own role in the BLADE RUNNER project, I can only say that I did not know that a work of mine or a set of ideas of mine could be escalated into such stunning dimensions. My life and creative work are justified and completed by BLADE RUNNER. Thank you..and it is going to be one hell of a commercial success. It will prove invincible.
Cordially,
Philip K. Dickhttp://dangerousminds.net/comments/nothing_matches_blade_runner_philip_k...
This is noteworthy because it is rare. How often can one human being visualize something dreamt up by another human being so accurately? Bear in mind that Dicks had a reputation for distrusting Hollywood intensely and not holding back when expressing his artistic feelings.
On seeing the test reel Dick asked Scott if he had read The Man in the High Castle and commented that the opening shot was derived from it. Scott went on to make the recent TV series based on the novel.
My influences [for The Man in the High Castle] were, at the time, from kind of the loneliness of Edward Hopper. He’s one of the great American 20th century painters, but I think he paints a very strange sense of time in his stillness. He paints stillness, doesn’t he? I had used him to envision some of Blade Runner, way back when.
Ridley Scott
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/06/ridley-scott-man-in-the-high-castle...Unfortunately Dick died just before Blade Runner was released so he never got to see a version of the completed movie.
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper has done as much to define the American visual landscape as any other artist.
Film critics have recognized Hopper’s moody, shadowy visions in the stage sets of film noir and the backdrops of Hitchcock movies. Literary critics have spotted his suspended or suspenseful narratives and themes of alienation and quiet desperation in the fiction of Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, Joyce Carol Oates, Grace Paley and many others. And that’s not counting the generations of painters — and advertising image makers — who have wrestled with his influence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/arts/design/01fink.html
The above quote is taken from an NYT piece about an exhibition which showed several of Hopper’s paintings and sketches alongside the work of eight photographers. The question of whether the work of Hopper influenced the photographers is left open by the person that staged the show, photography dealer Jeffrey Fraenkel, but the implication is definitely in his writing. The photographers involved were and are all very well known, Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Harry Callahan, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander and Stephen Shore. The whole piece is worth a read.
Ridley Scott named Nighthawks as an influence for Blade Runner as opposed to Hopper’s work in general. This has always seemed a little odd to me as I find much stronger echoes of some of Hopper’s other work in the movie. The following video about Hopper’s influence on cinema makes no mention of Blade Runner yet, somehow manages to nail the connection between the movie and Hopper’s vision.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52lzwXmJrYI]
Film Noir
Hopper was a dedicated movie goer:
Hopper loved the movies. 'When I don't feel in the mood for painting,' he said, 'I go to the movies for a week or more. I go on a regular movie binge.' The cinema returned the compliment by turning to him for stylistic inspiration, and film noir became his great love and the area of his chief influence. He created a world of loneliness, isolation and quiet anguish that we call Hopperesque.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/apr/25/art
The relationship between Hopper and film noir is a fundamental one to both Hopper and the Genre in general. Hopper loved noir and that translated into his works. Noir also loved Hopper and his influence can be seen in classic movies such as Psycho, Picnic, and Force of Evil.
And this is where we come full circle. Blade Runner is arguably the greatest neo noir movie yet made. Neo noir is the direct descendant of film noir and film noir owes a lot to Edward Hopper's vision.
Further reading/viewing:
Blade Runner as Film Noir/Neo Noir.
The first part is an excellent description of film noir in general while the second part looks at neo noir, Blade Runner and connects the three.
https://screensense.wordpress.com/blade-runner/genre/genre/These two short videos explain noir lighting and some of the thinking behind it. It is made for people working with motion pictures but the principles are exactly the same as for still photography.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsmVL7SDp5Y][video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzJbxCgEKdU]
An interesting noir themed photo stream
https://www.flickr.com/groups/noirstories/pool/
Photography Assignment
The Assignment
This weeks assignment is a simple seasonal one with a catch. Photograph either an outdoor flower or a plant. Now for the catch. The final image or images should be black and white. Note that sepia or any other toning is fine.
I don't want to say too much at this stage but would recommend thinking about tone and contrast and how it defines structure and form.
In your editing software use the saturation control to remove the color then experiment with increasing contrast.
These are only suggestions of course.
I will attempt this myself and post the results along with my thoughts.Where to post your images
Not here! I'll put up a new thread tomorrow specifically for the uploading of photos relating to the assignment.
A couple of thoughts
Firstly a hat tip to SnappleBC for coming up with the idea.
Secondly if anyone has ideas for future assignments please post them -all ideas welcome.
Practical Stuff
It is quite hard to find anything on the web about the practical side of photography that is not overly simplistic and very markety . These fifty minute videos have depth and do not yell at the viewer. I found them very watchable. They also cover the holy trinity of photography. composition, light, and exposure (getting exactly the right amount of light into the camera).
Compostion
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp9htMz8nZw]
Exposure
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNG5U_bpxDI]
Lighting
Finally
"The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words."
-Elliot ErwittThis is an open thread so have at it. Post photos and thoughts - anything to do with photography, however tenuously, is actively encouraged!
Comments
This is a bit early today
As I have to do family type stuff later and may or may not make it back to the computer. I'm hoping to be able to drop in at least a few times to reply to any comments. The family type stuff may well involve a few glasses of wine so we'll see how that goes.
Hope there is something interesting, useful, or ideally both in the post.
Have a great weekend
-Steve
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Thank you Steve, and especially for Hopper
From the 1930's on his paintings have an air of tragedy. I thought of him as a man who suffered a great tragedy but his bio reports that he lead a quiet life, living in the same place in Greenwich Village with the same woman who became his assistant and manager. He was a melancholy person by nature and his subjects were chosen to reflect that.
These are from several sources in Wiki.
I would also say "haunting" describes his work, they don't let go of you. "Sunday Morning" is another favourite of mine.
To thine own self be true.
I too thought that about Hopper
then came across this.
but then came across this:
but then came across this:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/jvsickle/jv-hopbi.htm
Gail Levin concludes that Hopper was bitter, frustrated, and hated working as an illustrator (I had not seen that anywhere before) before he became successful as an artist. I know that he completely sold out at least one show.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
Yay! I r famous!! :)
Or more seriously, "Yay! An assignment".
I'm looking forward to a black and white of an outdoor flower or plant. Honestly I've never even tried black & white and I don't do nature shots
This is going to be great fun. Thanks for the assignment and thanks this diary which exposes me to the "art" side of photography. Honestly, I didn't get into photography out of an interest in art. I just wanted to make a photograph of my wife that was a beautiful as the woman I saw through my deeply in love eyes. Turns out that isn't easy 
Anyway, it'll be good for me to think more about the artistic connections.
A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard
Oops - reply below n/t
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire
There is no better reason for taking up photography :)
Portrait photography is tough though. I try to simplify things as much as possible and make the session as relaxed as informal as possible. I have my camera set up in advance so the only thing I need to do is press the shutter.
I rarely ask the person to smile, just chat and pick my moments to get some shots.
Occasionally I will ask the person to smile then I take a shot and then another one immediately after -the second on is usually more relaxed.
I put the subject in the best light I can find (outdoors at sunset works well) The light will make or break a portrait.
As far as the assignment goes - thanks for the idea. I meant to message you during the week but things got really hectic. Hope you didn't mind that I went ahead with it.
There is a reason behind the black and white thing but I don't want to say too much before people give this one a shot so to speak
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.” -Voltaire