Assignment 4: Tutor Feedback

First of all Alan commented on my choice of subject and affinity towards the district of Haidhausen, I would have found this a much harder exercise had I been working in a district about which I knew very little or had no empathy towards.  A key goal in this assignment was to portray my own view of Haidhasuen, not to simply create a touristic vision designed to entice people to visit.  From the overall tone of Alan's comments, I think I succeeded, however, it was far from a flawless set of images.

My reaction to the suggestion of supplying 6 images selected from 12 was to provide 6 pairs of images each tackling a specific (loosely defined) theme.  My tutor would then if effect be in the position of a commissioning editor and have the opportunity to select between the images, or indeed reject both requesting new input.  In responding to his comments I will treat the image pairs as submitted and make any changes:

1. Entertainment

Both images passed muster and the key comment is that it would be very difficult to select between them.  I was most surprised by the reaction to the second image, I really wrestled with whether or not to submit this, as I felt it was a little too pretty, however, it was seen as capturing the essence of street life.  I agree, I just wondered.  From these comments I would stick with my first choice:

2. Street Life

Here Alan disagreed with my selection finding the second image a better choice than the first.  The first image of the fruit and veg shop was considered to be too wide angle, a closer in shot that emphasized the colour of the produce would have worked better.  My goal with this shot was contextual, the framing was selected to show the structure of a farm building in the depths of a city, however, I take the point, better framing might improve the shot

Although the selected photo from this section would be:

3. Cafes


Alan did not clearly prefer either image, but made critical observations of the composition of the Wiener cafe image, stating that there is too much negative space in the foreground dominated by the tram tracks.  He asked if I could re frame with more detail above the cafe:

I have to agree, this is now better balanced, the eye is brought to the diners and is less distracted by the tram tracks - thanks!  The other image was fine, but I will keep this one!


4. Volksbad and River

This was an interesting and perhaps risky submission, two photographs of the same building from very similar viewpoints, but with dramatically different lighting.  Everyone I asked automatically preferred the bright blue sky, however, I much prefer the softer less contrasty image taken under an overcast sky.  Fortunately Alan agreed, the softer light creates better tonality in the building and avoids distracting shadows.

This was a key learning point for me, lighting is everything in photography and the dramatic is not always the best choice.

5. Housing

These two images were very different, the first was a scene of peaceful relaxation, the second a vision of urban dereliction.  Both worked, however, Alan agreed with my choice to reject the second in favor of the first.  My photographic essay is meant to be a comment on the experience of the district and i truth Haidhausen is predominantly a comfortable place to live that has been well planned, so the first image makes the cut

6. Industry and Work

This image pair contained my favorite of the images, a bleak outlook over an industrial storage area, backed by the ever present high rise cranes.  The alternate image was a much brighter modern picture with strong vibrant colours, but losing some of the meaning that the other image could convey, so we keep my #1

In closing, I was very pleased with the feedback, it is helping me to develop a visual language and understand what works and what does not.  My biggest challenge currently is not technical or even compositional, it is understanding what makes a good photograph and how to select from wide number of photographs those that work best.  I am reading widely, particularly historical works to try and better understand how the aesthetic of photography has developed.  I am also looking at others works, currently that of German artists such as Sander, the Bechers, and Gursky.  Alan suggested that I consider Martin Parr, I do have "The Last Resort", but will take a look at other work.

Thanks again to my tutor for great feedback and helping my development, much work still to do.

Assignment 4: Submission

Introduction

The subject for this assignment, “The Place”, is the Munich district of Haidhausen.  When I first arrived in Munich in 1994, this is where I found my first apartment and transitioned from living in a small Cheshire town to dwelling in the heart of an active vibrant city.  I continued to live in the one bedroom apartment for 12 years, sharing it for most of that time with my then girlfriend and now wife, Heidi.  Subsequently I have a strong connection to the district and returning to produce the photographs for this assignment was a real trip down memory lane.  What struck me most of all was that approaching the area as a subject for a photography assignment, completely changed the way I experienced it; areas that I once took for granted, suddenly became full of character and potential, streets appeared that I had never seen before, and people changed from faceless anonymity to characters inhabiting a world I was trying to create in camera.


Haidhausen is a strip of land bordered on the West by the River Isar and to the East by the railway tracks that pass through the Ostbahnhof, Munich’s second main railway station.  To the North it tapers to a point at the Friedensengel monument to peace and in the South is terminated by the Paulaner brewery.  No more than 2km by 1km, the area contains a wide variety of architecture reflecting its long history.  There has been a settlement in Haidhausen since medieval times, however, the district is best known from more recent history as the site of the Bürgerbräukeller from which the 1923 putsch was launched by Adolf Hitler and in which the first attempt on his life took place.  Once an industrial district with housing for the workers, Haidhausen is now firmly middle class, dominated by residential and commercial developments.  Some industry remains, however, it is now best known to those living outside the district as a good place to go for a drink and a meal.


The challenge photographically was to capture the character but also diversity of the district in 6 individual photographs.  I could have focussed on a single element of the district, housing, entertainment, monumental buildings, street life, however, I felt this would have failed to meet the brief for the assignment.  As a result I am presenting 6 images that together capture a sense of place and the people that inhabit it.  6 photographs is clearly too few, if I was not working specifically to this brief I would have submitted far more, indeed I could have happily created a book with the images captured, and may yet do so for my own interest.  With a larger set I could present a much broader sense of the place.


The assignment specified that the 6 images should come from a strong set of 12 images.  In this submission I am submitting all 12 photographs in 6 pairs of images each with a thematic connection.  The rationale is that a commissioning editor would have a secondary choice, should they disagree with my primary selection.  In reality I would likely submit far more photographs and would work with an editor to select a group of images from a much larger set than this.


Having selected a bounded location for this assignment the next step was to get out and take photographs.  Over a period of 6 weeks I completed 8 separate photographic trips to Haidhausen.  My first trip was a walkabout taking several hours simply exploring the possibilities and taking candid snaps of things that interested me.  At this stage I did not expect to have any “keepers”, however, three shots made it into the final selection.  After reviewing this first set of images, I then made another 4 visits to different areas with specific ideas in mind, the railway station, industrial sites, housing areas, and so on. From this I established a group of 20 or so images that I then proceeded to refine further.  My final visits to the district each had a specific goal in mind, to improve an existing image by a change in perspective or lighting, as an example.  This led to the 12 photographs that I am presenting here.


The 6 themes capture different elements of the district, Cafés, Entertainment, Streets, River, Housing, and Industry.  There is overlap between the themes and some of them are quite loosely adhered to, but each image portrays a different and distinct element of how I see Haidhausen.  I have mixed a street photography style with more carefully constructed compositions, included a degree of landscape and selected different times of day and weather conditions.  Within the 12 images there is enough variety to present a sunny view of the district or a mix of comfort balanced with industrial landscape. I have very deliberately only used horizontal landscape framing for this assignment.  I feel that this is a better way to represent an urban environment, portrait framing could add some drama to the images, but that is not what I am trying to portray here.


In each of the following pairs of images the primary is the first photograph discussed:

1. Entertainment


Anyone living outside Haidhausen but with local knowledge will primarily associate it with being a good place to go out for the evening.  One of the forms of entertainment in the district is provided by a variety of small cinemas, one of which has shown the Rocky Horror Show every night since the day it was released!  However, Haidhausen is best known for its selection of beer gardens, small and large, great places to while away a lazy afternoon or evening.

Canon EOS 7D, 10-22mm, 22mm (35mm FF), f/4.5, 1/15s, ISO 200

I wanted to include a few images in this submission that had a distinctly “Street” look to them, this is the first.  I captured this on my first walk around exploring potential opportunities.  When I passed the front of this cinema I was struck first by the rich colour and then by the framing opportunity provided by the two trees in the foreground.  I did not want to alert the man relaxing in front of the cinema, so quickly shot the frame and moved on.  I am actually surprised by the quality of the image as 1/15s was way below comfortable hand held shooting limits.  I particularly like the depth of the image, several layers of content present themselves drawing the eye into the interior of the small cinema. The image was taken in early evening, at the end of a warm late September day.  With greater foresight I would have wanted a better camera providing higher ISO settings and an image stabilized lens.   However, this photograph paints a scene of the relaxed street life that is such a feature of Haidhausen.

Canon EOS 7D, 17-55mm, 17mm  (27mm FF), f/4, 1/15s, ISO 800

Later on the same day I headed into the Hofbraukeller beer garden looking for a characteristic image of this element of life in the city.  A key feature of Munich are the beer gardens, this is one of the smaller ones with seating for 2,000 (the largest seats 7,000).  Seated on benches at long narrow tables, people pass the time of day, enjoying a picnic or simply a beer; drinks must be purchased, but you can bring your own food.  As beer can only be bought in 1 Litre glasses and is a minimum of 5% alcohol, there is a good deal of merriment, and almost never any violence or bad behaviour – I have only witnessed one altercation that was rapidly and peacefully resolved by the staff.  I know this beer garden well and knew that as the sun set lights hanging in the trees would create a beautiful soft light mixing with the declining day light; arrive too late and there would not be enough fill light from the setting sun to balance the lights.  This time with high ISO and an image stabilized lens I was still at the limit of a hand held photograph, using a tripod would have been better, but tricky in a place full of already quite drunk people.  I posed this deliberately to allow the wheel chair to add a commentary to the colossal amount of beer being drunk at the time.  This is not as strong an image as the cinema, however, this is a more definitive statement about the way of life in Germany and Haidhausen in particular.

2. Street Life


Whilst I set about shooting very specific locations and buildings, I also shot any scene that interested me, so ended up with a large number of shots of the streets and the people enjoying them.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24-70mm, 42mm, f/4, 1/180s, ISO 200

This photograph is of a fruit and vegetable shop that also does a brisk trade in beer.  The building is a remnant of the fact that Haidhausen was once a village not a city district, a few two story buildings still remain among the typically 6 story high apartment buildings.  I have tightly cropped the image to only include the building and retain attention on the display of produce.  In common with many of the photographs I have developed for this assignment, this has a strong horizontal framing with strong lines spanning the entire frame.  Looking at Andreas Gursky’s work has been an influence in this direction. The two bollards in the foreground are a distraction, but do present some depth. Cropping them out might improve the photograph, but at the expense of losing some of the foreground detail, the cobbled street adds to the sense of place.  I went back and re-photographed this several times, using my 24mm Tilt-Shift, but kept returning to this capture as the colour and contrast was strongest on this day.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24-70mm, 24mm, f/8, 1/20s, ISO 200

This photograph is very different, but also a street scene and a happy accident.  I was trying to find an interesting way to frame the church in the background, choosing a very symmetrical framing and playing with the perspective created by the foreground paving stones.  A small girl on roller skates shot into the frame just as I pushed the shutter button.  This added a splash of vivid colour to what would otherwise have been a static shot.  This is another of those images that I simply like and cannot easily say why.  I did hang around and even returned to see if I could improve the framing, but without the roller skater it is just a photograph of a large red brick church.

3. Cafés


A key element to the look and experience of Haidhausen are the outdoor Cafés.  Every street seems to have at least a table or two, even if it is just outside a local bakery possessing a small coffee machine.  Summer or Winter, people sit outside, all that changes is the amount of clothing they are wearing.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24-70mm, 51mm, f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 400

This is the Café Wiener Platz, very fashionable and extremely irritating with some of the least attentive staff in the history of catering – I never go there! But, it is very photogenic and a good example of what a Haidhausen café looks like.  I took many different images of this café at different times and with different framing. Once again I am using strong horizontal elements in the composition; the tram lines dominate the foreground, whilst the lines of the building make up the background.  However, the most important line is that of people sitting outside forming a number of small scenes, I particularly like the man gesturing to the lady on the right hand side of the frame.  Her body language suggests she is not listening.  Behind this line of people can be seen faces in the window looking out onto the street.  I would like to have cropped this more tightly, but would have lost the people in the far sides of the frame; the composition was dictated by their presence.

Canon EOS 7D, 10-22mm, 18mm  (29mm FF), f/4, 1/30s, ISO 200

From one of my least favourite places to my absolute favourite. Years ago when I worked so many hours that food shopping was a rare occurrence Dal Cavaliere sustained me.  This inexpensive but excellent family run Italian restaurant sits in a rare pedestrianized street just off Rosenheimer Platz in the heart of Haidhausen.  Not as strong a composition as the prior image, this is more illustrative of a typical outdoor setting and as such might offer a better bet for inclusion in a travel journal.  It is a pity that the girl on the bike was not fully in the frame, however, the eye contact with the man on the right makes for a thoughtful look to the image.  I have also tried to build a strong perspective with the building on the left leading the eye into the frame and thus along the street, not sure how well that worked.

4. The Volksbad and River


The Muellersches Volksbad sits on the East bank of the River Isar and is a key element in Haidhausen’s diverse architectural heritage.  Built in 1901 in the Jugendstil style, this is certainly the one of the most remarkable looking public swimming baths I have come across.  The river is also central to life in the district, its banks providing a public park and place to relax in the sun.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24-70mm, 24mm, f/8, 1/180s, ISO 200

The photographs presented so far are all close-in detailed images of life within the city streets that make up Haidhausen.  Starting with this photograph I am pulling back a little to present a wider view of other aspects of the district.  This and the next photograph are both of the same subject, but with a different treatment.  The first photograph was taken on a bright but overcast day yielding softer colours and better defined detailing of the building. I have very deliberately framed this photograph to place the baths into the foliage of the trees alongside the river.  The people in the foreground are walking on the riverbed, in winter and spring this will be water.  These figures add some scale to the photograph.  My main compositional error was to place the top of the tower too close to the top of the frame, reducing scope for changing the framing.

Canon EOS 5D2, 17-40mm, 32mm, f/5.6, 1/125s, ISO 100

Returning on a day with a clear blue autumn sky, I have changed the composition to include the bend of the river in the foreground and moved the buildings more to the right of the frame.  I greatly prefer the shot with the overcast sky, this one has too much of the postcard about it, however, an editor for a magazine might be looking for some colour in one of the shots.  I also thought it would be interesting to present two photographs of the same building, but with quite different qualities. 

5. Housing


Above all Haidhausen is a residential district dominated by apartment blocks, there are few places to live that have fewer than 6 stories.  Munich’s population like to live in flats, individual houses are much rarer than back home in England.  Rather than take a couple of photographs of interesting buildings I have tried to deliver two photographs that are more suggestive of housing and its development.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24-70mm, 34mm, f/8, 1/45s, ISO 200

A key feature of any housing development in Munich is the provision of spaces within the building complexes for people to enjoy.  This photograph is of a triangle of ground full of small chestnut trees, behind the City Hilton Hotel and in front of Number 14 Keller Strasse, my old address.  Within the space are a number of interesting structures, I think this is a modern interpretation of a temple.  I wanted to frame the shape of the structure within the canopy of the trees, the girl reading adds context making this a public space to be enjoyed by the inhabitants.  In the background can be seen the apartment buildings that bound the space.  I considered cropping some of the bottom left hand side of the frame away, but feel that the empty space in the image foreground adds to the image, it also provides space in a magazine article for text.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24-105mm, 24mm, f/11, 1/60s, ISO 400

A very different use of space; in this case empty land opposite a row of apartment buildings.  On a dreary rainy day the dereliction attracted me, but also offered an opportunity to photograph a row of apartment buildings, not normally possible in the tight confines of city streets.  I have used a narrow aperture to maximize depth of field and have allowed the foreground to dominate.  This is a deliberately bleak image, balancing the colourful cleanliness of a German city, with the post-industrial wasteland on which most of the shiny new buildings have been constructed.  Cropping the photograph to just the line of buildings and passing tram would utterly transform this photograph presenting a “nice” row of typical central European buildings.  Had I walked forward 50m, this would be quaint not grim.  This is very central to much of the reading I am doing at present around the faithfulness of photographic images.  It is frequently not what we put in the frame, but what we leave out that defines the photograph.

6. Industry and Work


With image 10 I stepped very deliberately out of the Haidhausen of bars, beer gardens and restaurants and into one of the remaining areas of unused industrial ground.  Although almost extinct in Haidhausen industry still exists in pockets as do a number of very modern office complexes.

Canon EOS 5D2, 24mm TS-E, 24mm, f/22, 1/30s, ISO 100

I now come to my personal favourite amongst the photographs submitted.  If it was not for the request in the brief for variety of subject matter and scale, I would have included far more industrial photographs.  In the southern corner of Haidhausen sits the Paulaner brewery and a storage area for empty bottles and beer barrels, behind which yet another apartment complex is slowly emerging beneath a forest of cranes.  I spent quite some time thinking about the framing of this image, experimenting with the relative prominence of the barrels, crates, and cranes.  This is the one that worked best.  I worked off a tripod, using the tilt shift lens to preserve the verticals and taking advantage of a good 24mm prime.  Inspiration comes from the style of the Dusseldorf School and the New Topographics books I bought whilst working on this assignment.  I struggle to say quite why I like this image so much.  I have worked and reworked the image and returned many times to the location, but cannot think of a way to improve it!

Canon EOS 5D2, 24mm TS-E, 24mm, f/9.5, 1/125s, ISO 200

In case my own delight in image 11 is not shared by the editor this is a brighter alternate photograph of an industrial/office area.  It is taken from a disused car park (a hole in the fence provided a useful photographic short cut) looking out over the railway lines on the east edge of Haidhausen at the newly built Deutsche Telekom offices.  As with the last photograph I have used a tilt-shift lens to preserve perspective and carefully sited my tripod for the composition that I wanted to achieve.  I have waited for a passing train to add colour and emphasize the railway line, but only in part of the frame, another shot has a complete red stripe across the shot, however, this obscured the buildings too much.  This is yet another highly horizontal frame offering layers of detail but very limited perspective.  The key decisions in the framing and choice of image rested with how much foreground to include (little in this case) and whether to include a train or not.  Without the train the image has greater colour harmony, but would miss a narrative element explaining the scene.

Assignment 4: Friday 29th October

This was my 7th and I now think last exploration of Haidhausen looking for images to include in Assignment 4.  This time rather than simply look for scenic stuff that worked with the theme I am developing, I was looking to very specifically look at 3 possible photographs, each of which would be an improvement or variation on existing images, the river bank but with Autumn foliage, the Volksbad with a soft blue Autumn sky, and a different view on the fruit stand.

Couldn't resist this one, has nothing to do with the assignment, and no matter how much I dislike highly pictorial images, Autumn is now blazing and this simply screamed photograph.

Although I have not included this bridge in my current thoughts, this is the main artery between the city and the East bank of the river.  Selecting the angle carefully all that can be seen is the bridge amongst the trees.  When Munich was rebuilt after the devastation brought by the USAAF and RAF trees were central to the redevelopment of the city:

Turning towards the Volksbad, I tried shooting into the Sun, this caused a lot of flare in the lens which I have cloned out:

Unfortunately the Sun was already too low and shadows were starting to encroach on the Volksbad, this was the best I could do:

Heading back up the hill the following two shots are of the Gasteig, firstly from the bottom of the hill and then within the building complex.  I wanted to include this building in my submission, but have not found an angle or portrayal that works for me:

Heading now into the districts heart I stopped by the church featured earlier and tries a few images amongst the residential streets:

Finally I arrived at my destination, the fruit store.  This is the best of a sequence, but on comparison with the image already selected, it is not as good, the colour saturation is poorer amongst other things.

As I stated at the start of this blog post, I think I am done now with the shooting part of this assignment,  even re-shooting existing images I am seeing no improvement.  It is time to sit back and study what I have achieved with a view to writing up the assignment.

Assignment 4: Thursday 21st October

A long day sitting in front of my desk looking out at soft golden Autumn light, deeply frustrating.  My final call of the day dragged on and the sun got lower and lower, finally it was over and I raced down to the river to try and capture the last of the evening light - too late!  The sun was already too low and all that was illuminated were the tree tops and higher buildings, not enough light for the scenic images of the Haidhausen river bank that I had in mind.  However, I made the best of the conditions and decided to focus on detail rather than the big picture, using a 70-200mm lens.

Whilst there are a couple of nice shots here, none of them really work into the theme that I am planning for this assignment and so cannot consider this to have been a success.

Assignment 4: Best so far

Now that I have 6 separate sessions completed, it is time to start to think about what might constitute my final selection of images.  The brief asks for 6 final photographs plus at least twice as many from which to make the final selection.  This had me puzzled for a while as I was not sure whether it called for 6 or 12 to be submitted to my tutor.  Clearly in the age of Digital I would select from more than 12 photographs, my problem is to stop taking photographs.  Should I submit 6 or 12?  Looking at work in other  blogs or on the student site I get the impression that people have submitted 6 images, so I shall do the same.  Currently, however, my pool of "keepers" is down to 20 or more, so much work remains.  The selection of images will also change depending upon the number submitted.  12 images offers greater freedom of expression and also the ability to vary the feel of the images.  Submitting only 6 I may need to keep them more visually coherent.  Not sure.

Currently I am thinking around a series of themes for each of the 6 images and have grouped the 23 photographs into these groups

1. River

The Western boundary of Haidhausen is defined by the river Isar.  This creates a strip of green through the center of the city and also enables juxtaposition of architecture and nature.  The river is also the site for a number of the older buildings in Haidhausen, among them the 100 year old swimming baths featured in the following photographs.

The first photograph has strength as it provides scale and more clearly defines the architecture of the swimming pool complex.  The people in the foreground add interest.  It's weakness is that the river itself is not visible.  The second photograph places the river and building into context and is a far more interesting composition, but is less visually appealing.  The third photo is a similar viewpoint to the first, but includes the river.  The weather is very different, the bright blue sky is typical of a clear day in autumn, but this is too colorful for my taste, but I suspect most people would pick this one if asked.  Doesn't mean they are right, however, what would the commissioning editor of a magazine think?

2. Cafe Culture

My next theme looks at the cafe culture of Haidhausen, a district renowned for its relaxed sophisticated bars and restaurants.

Of these the first image will be in the final selection, I consider it to be one of the best photographs I have ever taken, it works for me on multiple levels.  I also really like the second photograph, the small dramas going on at each table make form a very engaging image.  I may split this topic into Cinema and Bar.

3. Living

Above all Haidhausen is now a residential district and contains a great variety of buildings:

These are very varied images, each is of typical apartment buildings in Munich.  The first is the space between buildings, Munich is very green, the girl reading adds a small but vital point of focus.  The more I look at the second picture the more I like it, there are few places where it is possible to image a row of buildings, such a perspective is normally blocked by more buildings.  The third is an attempt at a very geometric view of one of the very few truly high rise blocks of flats in the city.  The final image is very typical of the colour and structure of inner city housing, drab is not part of the architectural syntax in Haidhasuen.

4. Industry

Whilst Haidhasuen has lost most of its industry, some remains, notably brewing, but also a number of modern office blocks add to the variety of buildings in the district:

I will find it difficult not to select the first image, the space coupled with the cranes and steel barrels is makes for a complex composition.  The second image is a straightforward view of one of my favorite companies, the Paulaner Brewery!  The third image was one I held in high regard at the start of this process, but I no longer feel it works with the theme I am building.  The final image is simply, for me, a very satisfying composition.

5. Commerce

Where people live they must also shop:

Initially I wanted to photograph some of the more modern shops, but could not create an interesting photograph, so I turned my lens to the fruit and vegetable shops that are dotted throughout the district.  In Germany people have not abandoned their local shops for the lure of the supermarket and these small businesses add much to the character of the district.

6. Street Life

The final category is a catch all for a number of different alternate themes that I was thinking through, worship, transport, people...

The first of these is very simple, but I think effective.  A little girl shoots through open space in front of an old church.  The second and third images are simple street scenes on a brightly lit day, which might be their undoing as I am turning away from bright towards muted with most of these images.  The fourth street scene is outside my favorite Italian restaurant, this might work if I take a very street approach to the submission.  The final two are transport related.  The Bauhaus one is joke in a way, the fact that Bauhaus is the name of a German equivalent to DoItAll is rather sad.

I am now starting to think that I have enough strong material to submit a set of 6 images, with a further 6 in backup, the question is which.  Organizing and editing take more time than photographing and are equally important.  At the point that I press the shutter button I make compositional and thematic decisions that might or might not create a good photograph, how I assemble a series of photographs into a coherent group adds meaning and context to the photographs.  A final comment is that I have very deliberately avoided vertical framing for this series of images, I want to present the street world which is very much a horizontal environment.