Tuesday, 29 November 2011

How to make a pinhole camera:


Today we had Kevin and we made our very own pinhole camera. We had observed and used one the week previous. It was both motivating and helpful to see the construction in progress.
Kevin has asked us to bring in a shoe box or any box, cylinder that was relatively sturdy .We then drew two lines vertically across the box, both in opposite directions. Then we measured and cut out a square in the middle. After this had been completed we took both the lid and  the base and went outside, once outside I placed both base and lid on a table with newspaper and sprayed it with black spray paint. We left the boxes to dry for ten minutes; we then took them back inside and taped any possible light exposing cracks with duct tape. Tinfoil was then placed over the hole made previously on the lid. Then I created a shutter with a piece of cardboard and taped round this with black duct tape, I then place it over the hole and taped it with a hinge like effect. I then placed black duct tape around the edges of the box, where the box had been assembled, so as to make sure no light could get through. I then pierced the tinfoil covering the hole with a 2.5 sewing needle. My very own pinhole camera was complete and hopefully a success. Below are some pictures of the making of the pinhole:








Friday, 25 November 2011

While researching for an assignment I came across helmet Newton, although I had heard of him before I had never really looked at his work. I found myself first slightly shocked by the pure nudity and strangeness of some of his images but then I began to come round to liking them. Some of his images were rather genius and had statements within them,Below are a few of my favorite: I love the first image below, it was used for the cover of one of his books "Helmut Newton, sumo", Sumo means to work. I love the woman standing in this strong masculine pose, she seems so comfortable and proud in her skin and standing baring all does not seem to faze her, I found myself forgetting the nudity of it all and just being taken in by the confidence and strength in this woman.




The above picture was taken in 1975, the controversy over this at the time is almost entertaining.The two females couldn’t be dressed or should I say undressed more differently. One in a suit, hair scraped back. To go with all this a very masculine pose, the other is almost hiding behind model one in a rather elegant yet confident way and only wearing a head piece. This picture in my opinion says so much about so many different things gender equality, same sex relationships,nudity and so on.I think had this been taken in colour it would have ruined it the black and white just adds to it. Its by far one of my favourite pieces by Helmet.



Helmut by June part 1: Below is a video about Helmut and his work.