shoot 1

Nancy Hellebrands - Writing:

Nancy Hellebrand's Work:

 

Nancy Hellebrand's work consists of only black and white, which contrast heavily. This simplicity to the picture draws the main focus to the writing itself, rather than any colours in the notebook paper or the pen ink.

The script in her images are usually not readable. Hellebrand tends to focus on the curvature and definition of the ink. Many of her works, including the above image do not feature exclusively letters, but often a mixture of numbers, letters and squiggles.

Nancy Hellebrand's photography radiates deeply personal tones as if the letters have been written by separate individuals. This could be suggesting that the writing is by a family member or small child. This is my interpretation as the handwriting styles differ throughout her works.

It seems that Hellebrand scans her work into a computer rather than using a camera to create her work. This makes her images seem more raw and real.

I have decided to research Nancy Hellebrand's photography on Writing because It is something that I think I could develop into further ideas. Whilst capturing the physical structure of the writing itself, I could explore some deeper connotations and meanings whilst sticking to the theme and research. I think that the contrast of black ink on white paper will show the structure of the letters, and when I get to the editing stage I will saturate the colours and increase the contrast to define the ink.

Image Bank: Ideas

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I intend to take photographs that portray this style, with handwriting in a notebook. This reflects Hellebrand's work on handwriting and gives a personal feel to the images. To do this I will explore different peoples handwriting and then edit the photos to incorporate their portrait and their personal handwriting. To edit them I will start with cropping as I don't want the writing to be very readable, as Nancy Hellebrand's work focuses on the structure of the writing rather than the words themselves. I may incorporate other items such as flowers to add to the photo at a later stage and give more detail, but I initially want to focus on the curves of different handwriting styles and exploring individuals.

Shoot 1: Hellebrand

• Notebook with writing
• Illustrations
• Notes

Best Photos:

 

I believe that these photos have been successful because the camera settings such as aperture and shutter speed have enabled me to capture the handwriting in detail. These photos also allow me to crop them down into a frame that focuses on the structure of the letters, and not the words themselves. The various handwriting styles are also obvious, creating variation in the images and showing personal tones. 

Photos I won't use:

These photos didn't turn out well enough for me to be able to use. The aperture was too small or too big for these images to have been captured properly. The framing also wouldn't allow me to crop the photos and put the main focus on the writing. If I were to re-take these images, I would use the correct aperture for the lighting and try to find a better composition. As well as this, there isn't enough variation in the handwriting for the personal tones to show in these photographs. Some unintended shadows had appeared due to the lighting angle. To fix this next time, I will position the light at an angle where my camera will not be in the way, therefore creating no unwanted shadows. 

Edit Progression:

Firstly, I cropped the images down into the frame which has the most detail. I then decided to turn the image to black and white in order to mute any blue tones as the ink in Hellebrand's work is strictly black. To increase the contrast between the black ink and the white paper, I decreased the red and yellow tones in the ink.

Next, I decided to slightly increase the brightness to 5 and heavily increase the contrast to 30. I did this so the there was a bright white under a dark black, creating a dramatic contrast. I interpret Hellebrand;s work to be majorly contrasted and to look quite rustic. My work is being heavily contrasted in order to recreate this style.

After this, I opened the curves feature on Photoshop and gave the image more dimension and brightness. This made the writing stand out from the background more.

I wanted to slightly increase the exposure as there were some grey tones left in the image and Hellebrand's work is dark ink contrasted to bright white backgrounds. I increased the gamma correction to make it more defined and deepen the contrast.

Final Edits:

For this series of photographs, I wanted to have a heavy contrast between the black of the ink and the white of the paper in order to highlight the curves and shapes of the handwriting. In order to create this, I heavily edited the exposure, saturation and brightness. I wanted to do this as it reflects Hellebrand's style  of photography. For the original photographs, I used the flash on my camera for some of the pictures because it really highlighted the colour contrast, as well as having a high exposure. If I was to re-take this shoot then I would consider using a Macro Lens and try to capture the form of the ink on the paper. I was inspired by Hellebrand's work as the ambiguity of what the writing would read is enticing. This work could develop into combining writing with portraiture or landscapes, as well as exploring other types of writing. Overall, I believe that this shoot was successful in reflecting Hellebrand's style and can be comparable to her photographs, whilst also reflecting some of my own personal tones.