Libby-Jayne Photography

Irving Penn was a famous American photographer, renowned for his portrait and fashion work. I have mentioned in previous posts that the art of portraiture fascinates me. I have previously looked at the work of Irving Penn in my academic studies, however I have found the images staying with me. Above are two of my favourite portraits taken by Irving Penn. I find the compositions interesting and the lighting very complimentary to each individual image. I love the use of direct eye contact in the first image as I find it very engaging, almost creating a relationship between the viewer and subject. I find the lighting very interesting in both of the above images, as a strong use of shadow adds depth to each image. I would like to try and carry these elements through to my future portraiture work.

My work through the summer has been most documentary (as this is a particular interest of mine). I therefore wanted to carry this through to my days out. Today, I visited Llangollen for the day, this is a small town in North Wales, a short drive away. I decided to capture a few documentary shots in the town for the day, once again shooting exclusively in black and white, and playing around with the contrast, colour balance and brightness in the editing process.

My sister Paige recently moved out of my family home (I say recently, it's been a year, but feels like yesterday!). Again influenced by the work of Larry Sultan, I decided to therefore photograph her home too. I find it very interesting how different her home is in comparison to my Grandma's. It is interesting to see that whilst each individual has different taste, similar comforts run between home to home. Once again, I decided to desaturate these images, as I believe black and white documentary images often hold a lot of depth. I also captured some portraits of my sister, as I have a real interest in portraiture and would love to pursue this in this academic year.

Influenced by my research into Larry Sultan, I decided to photograph the home of my grandma. I am very close to my grandma and therefore am really happy I carried out this shoot, as I do not have many photos of her. I decided to desaturate all of the images as I have shot exclusively in black and white in my previous documentary work. I love the high contrast in the below images, with the natural light highlighting different elements of each individual image. I particularly like how the light falls in the image of her kitchen. As well as documenting my grandmas home, I also took some portraits of her. I really enjoy taking portraits, as I believe, alike with someones home, a portrait can tell a lot about an individuals personality. I love the below portrait of my grandma as it captures the fun side of her personality that everybody knows and loves. It saddens me that she is house bound, as I would love to capture portraits of her in the studio in the future.

Larry Sultan is an American photographer, who's work concerning domestic life influenced his rise to fame. I first encountered the work of Sultan in my previous academic year, and instantly felt a connection to it. Family means a lot to me, and is apparent that his series 'Pictures from Home' that his family were very important to him too. I like how raw Sultan's images seem. It is common knowledge that he posed some of the images in the collection, however, it is difficult to identify which images exactly. I like how each image is unique, whilst surrounding the same subject, and providing the viewer insight into Sultan's domestic life. I believe that a persons home often reflects their personality, and it is interesting to look into the personalities of Sultan's parents through the series. I think it would be interesting to document some of the homes of individuals within my family, and see if their personality shines through the images.

I recently went on holiday to the beautiful resort of Halkidiki, Greece. With beautiful blue sea and soft sandy beaches, I found this was the excellent opportunity to take some photographs. Unfortunately, I did not have space to take my photography kit with me, however I still wanted to document the area. I therefore found myself taking polaroids and photographs on my phone throughout the holiday. Whilst I did take many more photographs in Greece, the above two are my absolue favourite. With soft warmth and the silhouettes of mountains in the background, I feel the images work very well together. If I was to visit Halkidiki again I would 100% take my camera kit, and photograph the area. I would also love to capture some portraits of the locals too!