Dona Ann McAdams Caught In The Act

A photo a day

I have started shooting a photography a day to ensure I have many images when it come to term 3. I have been exploring the performance in the every day, photographing people unawares and exploring their reaction to the environment. I would love to have a series at the end that could be turned into material that could be used a choreography, the satiating point to a piece of dance about the natural performance a person makes on a daily basis.

My ideas so far...

I would like to shoot dance photographs that use the dancer as a fluid sculpture with the ability to expose dance in a light it wouldn't have been seen otherwise and to create a platform when viewing the image to the imagination of the viewer, personally considering what came before and what is to come.

Some of the key terms I wish to explore further will be:

Pre-emptive, The dancer as a sculpture, decisive moment.

The Decisive Moment

I ewas reading about this image and how the jumping man is eternally stuck jumping over the puddle and we will never see the out come of the leap. We have the ability to apply context and have a prior knowledge to read into this image and understand how it could end but, we can never know the outcome as fact. 

Dance photography relies so much on the decisive moment, it I a break down of a sequence, leaving the viewer of the image to apply a context and it leads the mind to imagine what came before and after that moment in the dance.

From a photographers perspective, it become a pre-emptive experience, thinking ahead in the dance preparing for what we don't know to be performed, ready to capture that decisive moment.

Shoot 1

This shoot was an exploration of the interaction between the dancers, their strength and the beautiful forms created by the dancers. The shapes and positions held that would not otherwise be accessible as they will quickly be lost in the sequence of the dance. This is the first dance shoot I have shot in an outdoor location, It was challenging working on a location that i had so little control over relying on the light and the anders willingness to get involved. 

Dancers: 

Charlotte Russell and Amy Hay 

Northern Dance School 

Denis Darzacq The Fall

The way Darzacq has used dance to tell a story and change the image from a dance photograph is something I have found super interesting. The dancer has been used to create a narrative and change the story, the seconds in which the photograph were taken leave the mind to fill in the context and tell the story. There is a reliance on a foreknowledge and a contextual understanding to fill in the gaps. 

Lois Greenfield

Lois Greenfield is one of my favourite dance photographers, she is so versatile and has a huge and beautiful portfolio of work. The image below I have put together as I really love the synergy between the dancers, I have only ever shot with one dance at a time in the pas and I'm really excited to work on the interaction between more than one dancer and the new dynamic it can bring to an image. Thees image are all a depiction of the strength of the dancers, the shapes they have created throughout the use of theirs bodes is beautiful. 

Lois

Bertil Nilsson Intersections

“The intersection of architecture and body is an opportunity for me to learn more about the quiet side of the city and the nature of being a performer. The performer takes on the role of a living sculpture; a soft and fluid form in an urban landscape of sharp corners and hard landings,” says Bertil.

Nilssons use of the body as a sculpture is incredibly beautiful, it is a notion I wish to explore further. Isolating moments of a dance to create a moment so beautiful and so powerful. there is a juster position with dance and photography in that dance is so fluid and fast where as photography takes that and it become as frozen still. It gives the viewer access to a moment of the dance that has the potential to be lost in the sequence. 

I also really love his use of locations, I am excite to explore dance photography on location and the interaction between the dance and the space, the creation of the theatre.

Chris Nash

Something I learnt when assisting Chris Nash was the importance of using the floor in dance photography. It gives the dancer context and emphasises their ability to jump and use the space to create beautiful dynamic dancing. With out the floor elements of the dance are lots.

I was really interest to see how Chris light the floor and used gels on the lights emphasising it in the images.

Year 3 Term 1

I am unsure exactly what I am aiming to achieve this year, I would like to work with as many dancers as possible and build a strong portfolio of dance photography along with a good base of networks and contacts that will be useful once I graduate. I am still in the process of working out what I will be shooting for my degree show, what the purpose of the work will be and how I will place it in a critical context.

TERM 3