Within this assignment I have produced images emulating the work of my chosen photographer, which was Rut Blees Luxemburg. To enable me to produce successful photographs emulating her work I first had to do a lot of research, my initial research consisted of finding out about Luxemburg, who she was and where she is from, how she captures her photographs, the techniques and equipment that she uses to take her photographs as well as what work she has had published in books, galleries and as album covers. The initial research enabled me to gain a better understanding of her work, however there was still a lot I could learn about Luxemburg, therefore I went on to do more research on her work by choosing one monograph and finding out what the meaning was behind the work – and the book itself. From doing all of this research I understood her work a lot more, realising there was specific reasoning behind all her photographs being taken during the night, isolating herself from the rest of the world and people. The research that I did helped me to think of the type of photographs that I could capture emulating Luxemburg’s work. I first chose to focus on photographing the ground and the reflection within puddles but the images weren’t successful and didn’t emulate her work well for numerous reasons one being there was no orange-golden tint within the images like with Rut Blees Luxemburg’s. I then decided to focus more on things that tend to go unnoticed within the city, looking more for areas that were lit better. Again the photographs weren’t very successful yet they were better than before and worked a little better in emulating the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg – I just had to make the photographs a little more my own and find areas that were better lit – providing the tint from the light. Knowing exactly what I needed to do to get successful images I went out a few different times to different areas and using long exposure times creating the orange-golden tint, I was able to capture images that emulated Luxemburg’s work, finding different compositions looking for things that go unnoticed.
I feel that I could improve on the photographs that I produced for this assignment by trying to use longer exposure times which could help me pick up more detail within the composition’s – as I was only able to use a maximum on 30 seconds. As well as maybe allowing myself to think more openly about the type of photographs that I could produce, giving myself a wider variety of areas to focus on as the thought I was having were very restricted to thinking about one certain thing – as I was trying to make my photographs very similar to hers which didn’t work very well, this made me think my photographs weren’t successful in emulating Luxemburg’s work.
I have enjoyed this assignment as I have learnt a lot about my photographer as well as other photographer. All of the research that I have done has helped me to understand more about how Luxemburg’s work is captures and about her. I enjoyed being able to emulate her work as I have liked her photographs for a while but never though to do anything like this. At the start my images weren’t very successful but from numerous outings and attempts I have produced lots of different images and I am pleased with my results. I feel that nearer to the end of the assignment my photographs became more successful and better at emulating her work. I am very satisfied with my final images and I think they work well, emulating the work of Rut Blees Luxemburg.
