3: Moving Image Beach Brothers – FIRST

Stills from moving image:

Moving Image:

The frame begins empty, with just the waves of the sea, then Rowan and Jack in the middle walk into the frame and stand for a second, then from both sides either side I walk in to the frame. The boys stare at each other, and I stare at them, then we all walk out of the frame and the camera continue to films the water.

Equipment:

(Moving Image) Nikon D750, 24mm-105mm lens, LED location lighting, Manfrotto Tripod.

(Stills) Nikon D750, Hasselblad Medium Format, LED location lighting.

Themes/ Analysis:

For this series of moving image pieces I wanted to use both my brothers and myself. I shot on the beach as growing up in Brighton I have always had a connection with the beach, also, ironically, both me and my brothers cant swim.

I was really interested by what Jim said in a seminar, about me being a spectator when I was growing up, as the boys had an overpowering presence, I was always powerless and passive. I was often an observer of aggression. Therefore, I decided to frame myself separately from the boys, locked into a different frame and powerless to do anything to the centre frame. I also put myself looking onto the boys, observing. I put the boys in the same frame, facing each other, I wanted to hint at aggression, men often stare at each other before a fight and I wanted to create this atmosphere. I also had the boys facing away from me, unaware of what effect this could do. I wanted the themes to be subtle, so I just had all of us walk into the frame, stand, look, and walk out, silent and not effected, almost as if it was so normal and all fine, then walking away from the situation, ignoring it, not dealing with it.

I am going to reshoot this at sunrise to see what difference in light I could achieve, I would also like to line up the shots more, and centre myself and the boys more in the frame.

Photographs:

These images were inspired by my original shoot ‘Embrace’ that I made during the summer. I wanted to make the photographs more intimate, and perhaps they could accompany the moving image work in an exhibition space? While the themes in the moving image are harsh, I also wanted to show progression, and unity. Me and my brothers have experienced a lot together, and in recent years there has been a new wave of a new kind of relationship for the boys (perhaps not for me) and I want to show that in an embrace.

I have also made some of these images on medium format and will be getting them developed to see what they look like, I would prefer to have ALL photograph finals in medium format.

I am going to shoot these style portraits again, including myself in the embrace to see what kind of atmosphere this creates.

I may also try doing a moving image embrace as I talked about in my plan, I am not sure how that will work, as the moving image I have took 56 takes to get that one piece of the boys as they were laughing, however, I may ask and see what I can achieve.