What is a 'trend'?

Well firstly I'd like to investigate the definition of the word and it's meanings.

The following is taken from the Oxford Dictionary:

NOUN

1A general direction in which something is developing or changing:

an upward trend in sales and profit marginsA fashion:the latest trends in modern dance

VERB

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1Change or develop in a general direction:unemployment has been trending upwards

Origin

old English trendan 'revolve, rotate', of Germanic origin; compare with trundle. The verb sense 'turn in a specified direction' dates from the late 16th cent, and gave rise to the figurative use 'develop in a general direction' in the mid 19th century, a development paralleled in the noun.

Now for me to put this into simple terms, that I can digest. I take the above as a movement of some sort. A trend is a result of someones or somethings action.

So... If a person was to wake every morning at 07:00 then this person would have created a personal trend. This is obviously on a very small scale and only would be a trend to that person. Unless he or she had a really loud alarm clock that woke the whole street up.

In the winter the weather in England gets really cold. In fact, it's pretty cold most of the time but that's besides the point. When the weather is cold we all dress in warmer clothes. This is now a trend that effects multiple people.

So now I've understood the basics of this 'trend' thing I suppose I need to delve a little more into it and relate it to my chosen genre of photography or what I want to be when I grow up. If you've not read in any of my previous blogs, I'm studying to be a fashion photographer.

P.S. Hope you all had an awesome weekend!!

Creative Digital Production - Visual Trends

My task on the face of things seems to be a pretty one. Although once looked into deeper, the task is not a one-off but a constantly ongoing one.

To keep up to date with any genres 'current trend' is potentially a full-time job for a photographer. Not only do we have to make sure we're current but we must also anticipate what the market is going to do next.
Genre's such as Fashion or Wildlife have more definite times for change, in the way that there's Spring /  Summer and Autumn / Winter for Fashion. Also in Wildlife there's mating and migrating seasons.
This gives us a heads up for our subject change but what also must change is the style in which the images are taken.

Through this blog I will not only research the transition between visual trends when it comes to the style of image but also the equipment that is used. I will look into the taking of the photograph through to the production of the image. whether it be digital or printed.

Paul Strand

As one of the first photographers to help photography be noticed as an art form his work touched upon many genres. He moved over to moving image for a period of time but did go back to still image. Upon returning to photography, he focused on the people of the streets of New England. 

http://www.dailyartfixx.com/2012/10/16/paul-strand-october-16-1890-%E2%80%93-march-31-1976/#

His work focused on not just who walked the streets but the diversity of their class and employment.

Aaron Siskind

Aaron Siskind's work interests me due to his attention to the everyday things we walk past holding some form of beauty.

http://thephotographyfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/aaron-siskind.html

A strand of Seaweed on the sand that's landed in a particular way, a decaying wall with flakes of paint capturing and reflecting the light in ways to make it become 3D.

Things we just walk past on a daily basis and don't realise their beauty and how intricate they actually are.

This is something that could have quite a large influence on my final images for this project.

Richard Wentworth

After watching an interview with Richard Wentworth on Vimeo: ( http://vimeo.com/70104572 )
I noted some of the points that he makes about what a good gallery invites the viewer to do. One thing that he mentions in the interview is that a piece of work should get you to question it as a child does.

he says it should play about with your emotions, making you feel un-easy, joyous and share the feelings with past personal experiences.

As a sculptor, Richard Wentworth uses everyday objects to create a juxtaposition or in some cases an obvious relation that isn't necessarily obvious to us.

claudialussana.wordpress.com

 
The two images above can be viewed in a number of different ways. To a grown adult, these scenes would normally be viewed as rubbish discarded foolishly by someone. Wentworth captures these images to freeze the image so it can be looked at as long as needed to relate it to our past.

As a pre-teen a group of us used to hang around the local shops because that's what kids did then I guess. One thing we used to do was have 'Couch Day'. We would wheel one of the couches from our homes around to the shops and sit there all day with our bottles of White Lightning hidden down the sides of the cushions so the Police wouldn't catch us underage drinking. Although this mental image will differ for other viewers, it's proof that a simple photograph of the simple can cause a wave of nostalgia.

As I mentioned before Richard Wentworth has a knack of creating juxtaposition from simple items. In the above image, we see the plates as something that should be very clean because we eat from them. The drain is seen as dirty so the two ordinarily wouldn't go together. Using the drain to act like a holder or sink drainer adds humour to the image.

'Close to Home'

My Summer assignment is called 'Close to Home' and is asking me to creatively put together a series of photographs creating a narrative. This narrative with ask and answer questions of the simple things that we overlook everyday.

 It will challenge why the things we take for granted are there and what their purpose is. Maybe even what life would be like without it. Questions that seem easy to answer until you actually try.

I have decided to use my digital camera for this project because this will make life easier for me in the post production and printing of my images. Currently not having a Darkroom to hand has pretty much made that decision for me.