PORTFOLIO SPRING MIDTERM ARCH 478 // PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUAN GARCIA
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MARCH 2017
Digital Photography - ARCH 478 Before joining this class I had always liked photography and used to see it as a hobit, however now that I’m involve in the course, I consider my self at the beggining of a very long roadtrip through the world of photography. I used to see it as the capture of random and instant moments but I have now realized that it means much more than that. Photography is composition, and even when you find yourself in the most amazing moments or spaces you have to make the image happen. This process is for me, as a future architect, directly comparable to the moments when you have to make all the elements in a plan or section come toghether. The course really uplifts the level of craft I have towards the construction of imagery. With all the formulas at play can derive a specific narrative and intention. The way we analyze all the different aspects of photographic works each week is, with no doubt, working for me. I enjoy being critiziced for my ignorance, because, as I mention before, I consider my self only at the tip of the iceberg. In my opinion, photography is a field in wich you learn as you do, and I find also really satisfactory to go all over the place practicing my new knowledge. Last but not least, I very much appreciate the ability we are gaining to critically evaluate our own and others work, and think this is something we will allways take with us.
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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A 01: Parametric Variations
In order to get to know our cameras, we experimented with the four basic parameters of photography in this assigment. The MTCC is the subject of exploration. This parameters control the way light enters the camera. I got a first shot of real photography just taking the baby stept of controlling my device. I also started looking at things a little diferent than before and took a deeper look into the MTCC. I used the people and the spaces in the buiding as my experimental subjects. In the case of this assigment my misunderstanding of ISO made me use really high ones to get light and the images are very noisy. The four parameters are: aperture, shutter speed, ISO and focal lenth. The experiments were in most cases succesfull but as I mentioned the ISO was the parameter that took more time for me to understand, I didn’t do too good with the aperture in this first week either.
Aperture
1/13 s f/5,6 53 mm ISO-1600
1/2 s f/32 53 mm ISO-6400
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MARCH 2017
Shutter Speed
1/3 s f/5,6 18 mm ISO-800
1/50 s f/3,5 18 mm ISO-6400
1/80 s f/3,5 18 mm ISO-6400
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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ISO
1/2 s f/4,5 36 mm ISO-100
1/6 s f/5,6 36 mm ISO-800
1/20 s f/6,3 36 mm ISO-6400
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MARCH 2017
Focal Length
1/25 s f/5,6 18 mm ISO-800
1/50 s f/3,5 35 mm ISO-6400
1/80 s f/3,5 55 mm ISO-6400
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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A 02: Adjacent Spaces
The goal of the assignment was for us to capture images of spaces that provide a queue to a connected space. A clue to how someone may construct a particular space in their mind as they view the images. I shot in the ARC at Old Colony building in downtown, in which I knew a study room composed with a buch of subspaces. Not only the diferent subspaces help you locating yourself but also the diferent objects and lights in the images help. I tryed to aply the weekly concepts like the importance of how the floor can allow someone to imaginatively walk within the photographs or how can one’s imagination occupy the space within the image and even further explore the depth of the surfaces within the photograph.
left 3,2 s f/13 24 mm ISO-100 bellow left 3,2 s f/13 20 mm ISO-100
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MARCH 2017
3,2 s f/13 24 mm ISO-100
A 03: Sings of Life
During this week we had to capture empty spaces that reflected the histories that usually happen in there. I decided to visit the Graham Foundation, a 19th century building, that now a days serves as a creation space for a wide varity of artists, the place also hosts temporally expositions during the year. When no expositions are currently happening the place is full of sings of past events, but also you can get more into it and get the chance to see the “work in progress� of some of the most interesting artists in Chicago. I set out to record the characteristics of the spaces with how the objects may add a quality to the over-all composition of the photograph. The result was a serie of images that combine a well located frame, interesting light conditions and a few sings of life that allow you to create the story in your head. I had some color problems because of the extremely blue light from that afternoon, but I was able to fix it in post production.
5s f/13 18 mm ISO-100
5s f/13 29 mm ISO-100
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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3,2 s f/13 24 mm ISO-100
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MARCH 2017
A 04: Now and Again
During this week you had to constantly be ready for the moment, no matter if it was 5am or 12pm you had to be there to capture the spacial moment light was creating. The task was to photograph one same space at different times and weather conditions during the week, and analyse the impact light has over the space. It was one of the most interesting exercises yet, it required access and discipline in order to achive good results. I chose to capture an abandoned baber room that is located in my friend’s appartment building. I chose this place in order tosee the efect of ligth over a simple stage. The room is located in the 17th floor of the building so it would be getting most of the lights during the day. The light enters through the window and then spreads and reflects over the diferent elements of the composition. right 1/25 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 3:35 pm
1/2 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 4:49 pm
bellow right 1,6 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 5:03 pm
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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1s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 5:05 pm
1,6 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 5:08 pm
1s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 5:16 pm
8s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 5:41 pm
MARCH 2017
1/5 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 3:00 pm
3,2 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 10:25 pm
1s f/10 18 mm ISO-100 6:48 am
1s f/10 18 mm ISO-100 7:11 am
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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A 05: Human Interest
Compare to any course I’ve ever taken before, this course forces me to approach friends and strangers in order to achieve the photographs I’ve planed. In this case the goal was to start bringing the human figure into our captures, not leaving aside all the experience we had gained in previous assigments. The human action should directly participate in the interpretation of the image. There are two ways of approaching this exercise, bringing actors into the scene or waiting in the right place in order to capture random situations of human interaction. I had seen a bunch of amazing shots using the second mentioned strategy before, so I decided to take the hard trail. I went to the O’Hare International Airport and walked all over the place trying to find interactive human situations with in an interesting space. Because of the complexity of this task, my photographs weren’t really succesfull in capturing the human interest, and probably the composition of the scene with actors would have came up to a better result. However I got to take some competent images in which there is allways presence of the people from all around the world who had to visit the aiport that day for some reason.
1/4 s f/10 18 mm ISO-100
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MARCH 2017
1/4 s f/10 42 mm ISO-100
1/3 s f/4,5 18 mm ISO-100
MIDTERM PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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A 07: Hunt and Gather
At this point we had to ignore all the things that we’ve learned in the first half of the semester and not capture photos that were elaborately constructed. We went into the world of street photography and the best way of learning is trying to imitate the masters of this typology.
left 1/13 s f/13 39 mm ISO-100 bellow left 1/25 s f/9 48 mm ISO-100
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MAY 2017
Henry Cartier Bresson, is probably the most important figure in the history of street photography and elaborated a photographic style and formulas of his own. His way of moving around and looking at things is the key of Bresson images, in which the compositions are dominated by a strong geometry usually stablised by the person and his habitat. My first Bresson shots were taken in a ski resort where I tried to capture strong geometries playing with the landscape and the people. Composing the photos with the quickness required was my first challenge but involving the people in the image was the hardest part. I also tryed to imitate his peculiar way of doing portraits.
1/15 s f/6.3 32 mm ISO-200
1/60 s f/5,6 50 mm ISO-200
1/6 s f/5,6 55 mm ISO-200
1/30 s f/8 42 mm ISO-100
1/13 s f/5,6 55 mm ISO-6400
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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MAY 2017
1/25 s f/5 18 mm ISO-200
1/25 s f/5 39 mm ISO-200
1/13 s f/6,3 55 mm ISO-100
1/60 s f/5,6 55 mm ISO-100
1/20 s f/4,5 34 mm ISO-6400
1/13 s f/8 55 mm ISO-100
1/4 s f/5.6 46 mm ISO-800
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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left 1/60 s f/4 21 mm ISO-100 bellow left 1/80 s f/6,3 49 mm ISO-100
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MAY 2017
William Eggleston was known for amplifying his subjects with colors from the everyday banal. During the week of the assignment I decided to walk arround places of Chicago where I had not been before. During this two weeks I switched to shooting in the mode of William Eggleston and Chicago’s neighbourhoods would be my version of the banal. I tried to have my camera on me most of the time photographing everything without giving it much attention. The act of shooting is just a simple snap. Nothing more. It was very interesting to see how the result of the images was dictated by the act of photographing itself. All the photos were captured only once. Every single moment or thing has potential to be a great photo if captured the right way and in the right moment. In this case the postproduction was more important than in other assigments, the combination of this and the warm low light from the sunset are some of the key points in order to get close to eggleston’s photography.
1/80 s f/6,3 30 mm ISO-100
1/400 s f/6,3 55 mm ISO-100
1/15 s f/6,3 39 mm ISO-100
1/15 s f/11 29 mm ISO-200
1/60 s f/6,3 47 mm ISO-100
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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MAY 2017
1/30 s f/16 55 mm ISO-100
1/30 s f/20 41 mm ISO-100
1/15 s f/8 53 mm ISO-100
1/400 s f/6,3 45 mm ISO-100
1/100 s f/6,3 51 mm ISO-100
1/15 s f/8 55 mm ISO-200
1/30 s f/11 25 mm ISO-100
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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A 08: Parametric variations
left 1,6 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 right 1,6 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100
Duane Michals portrays lucid and provocative stories with his images. Through simple narrative and photographic techniques he creates funny and unsual stories that take the public into the scenes. Michals uses photographic techniques such as long exposure and double exposure to communicate something more than just movement. The selection of well designed ambients and light are a must in Duane’s photography. The composition has to help the subject. I chose to abstract the spiritual moment of dreaming, a world where anything can happen and anyone can appear.
Dream Desires
Ingrid is pleseantly sleeping. For the first time since she arrived in Chicago she doesn’t feel alone, there is a presence in the room.
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MAY 2017
The presence keeps getting stronger, something is stroking her face, smells like man’s fragance.
left 1,6 s f/11 18 mm ISO-100 right 1,6 s f/10 18 mm ISO-100
They both cuddle in bed now. He says he is Pablo. Ingrid hadn’t felt this happy in a really long time.
Ingrid wakes up and... wait, who the fuck is Pablo?
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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A 09: Diverging paths
For the week the assignment was to imitate a photographer from a wide range of names or any photographer of our choice. I chosed to get into Bernd and Hilla Becher photography. This couple served as a sample to many modern photographers because of the rigor in their work. They started shooting peculiar industrial landscapes in Germany, where they were from, and then moved to other industrial countries all arround the World. I was completly astonished and atracted by the criatures they show in their photographs. I also found really interesting all the craft and preparation behind every shot. Even thought they used telephoto very long lenses, I tryed to do my best with the equipment I have. The horizon line being under the 3/4 of the object is very important in order to give character to this individual pieces. It is also required a grey sky, usually found in the early mornings of cloudy days. My subject of experiment was the industrial landscape in diferent areas of Chicago.
1/10 s f/32 39 mm ISO-200
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MAY 2017
1/8 s f/25 27 mm ISO-200
right 1/10 s f/32 39 mm ISO-100
1/6 s f/32 40 mm ISO-100
bellow right 1/8 s f/18 55 mm ISO-100
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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1/10 s f/29 34 mm ISO-100
1/10 s f/32 49 mm ISO-100
1/10 s f/32 39 mm ISO-100
1/10 s f/29 30 mm ISO-100
MAY 2017
right 1/6 s f/32 55 mm ISO-100
1/10 s f/29 34 mm ISO-100
bellow right 1/10 s f/22 21 mm ISO-100
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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left 1/8 s f/18 33 mm ISO-100 bellow left 1/250 s f/10 45 mm ISO-100
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MAY 2017
1/8 s f/18 49 mm ISO-100
FINAL PHOTOGRAPHY ARCH 478
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