Sequential Photography - research, study, and final artwork

You could say that the origin of sequential photography, as important by itself, is also the origin of cinema.

Not the Lumière brothers, but Eadweard Muybridge can be recognized as a pioneer of film.

Edweard Muybridge was an English photographer. His fame started when in 1868 Eadweard photographed Yosemite Valley in California, but today he is famous for initiating a new photography trend which is our today's topic.

Sequential Photography 1

Sequential imagery is a photographic technique of taking many following pictures in a short period of time. It can be used for a variety of reasons, ranging from showing movement of someone or something to telling a compelling story.

An actual origin story of the pictures above is interesting in itself. Eadweard Muybridge wanted to prove his friend that horses during gallop are pulling or their legs at the same time. Because of this trivial bet we now can enjoy films and TV series.

Sequential photography 2

First set of my sequential photos I took on the main square in Leicester. Then the time started I ran out of my flat and started looking for some street artists. They are always an interesting subject for photography because all of them are different. There is never the same street performance.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find any street performers that were dancing or doing tricks, but I have found a drummer which had a very interesting inverted drum. I did not have much time and because of that the composition is not the best in the following pictures.

I still think that for a half an hour they are quite good.

Panasonic G7 35mm (cropped) F1.7 ISO400 SS8000

As for my actual piece I started to think about what I wanted to convey through my photos. This university is a new start for me and from every side I am attacked with new possibilities to express myself. It is truly amazing, but also it can be challenging in the long run. I tend to think too big with my ideas and then they are starting to be unbearable for me.

This is a message I wanted to pass through in this assignment - It is good to think big, but also it is good to let go if it is too complex.

I started to think about ways I can show it. The first what came to my mind were these old cartoons in which, when someone thought of some incredible idea, then the giant, glowing lightbulb was appearing above their head. Like in Polish old cartoon - 'Pomysłowy Dobromir' (Ingenious Dobromir (name)). My version would be much more mature and dark. 

Pomysłowy Dobromir

It was a good start. I started looking for some reference photos and I found the series of photographs, captured by an American photographer Duane Michals, called 'The dream of flowers'.

Duane Michals besides creating astonishing sequential photographs, is widely known for his unusual techniques regarding photographs. He often uses multiple exposures in order to create a story with his images. His pieces often consists not only photographs but also written work and taped additional photos.

The Dream of Flowers

I really liked the idea of some sort of merging two things.

With that in mind, I started photographing.

I ended up with almost 80 images

And this is the final piece.

Panasonic G7 25mm (cropped) F5.3 ISO200 SS1"

edited in Adobe Photoshop

colour corrected in Adobe Lightroom

I am quite pleased with the final results. I think that there is a very vibrant and clear story in these pictures. 

I wanted to emphasise the danger of too many overwhelming ideas, that is why I made a transition in colours - ranging from safe green, to very dangerous red. It can be also seen in the growing number of lightbulbs on my face.

Reflecting back on these pieces I think that I should have paid more attention to the placement of the lightbulbs. While their placement in photo number one, five, and six makes sense, in others the placement looks quite accidental. It was difficult to shoot with this lights, since they did not want to cooperate. It was hard to keep them in place, and this combined with long exposure brought a lot of problems. For the future shoots of this kind I will try to attach the lights more permanently.

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References

Eadweard Muybridge:

Artsy.net. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-eadweard-muybridge-moving-image> [Accessed 8 October 2020].

Encyclopedia Britannica. 2020. Eadweard Muybridge | British Photographer. [online] Available at: <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eadweard-Muybridge> [Accessed 8 October 2020].

Duane Michals:

Dcmooregallery.com. 2020. Duane Michals - Artists - DC Moore Gallery. [online] Available at: <https://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/duane-michals> [Accessed 8 October 2020].

Duane Michals. 2020. Duane Michals. [online] Available at: <https://duanemichals.tumblr.com/post/12696417763/grottogrotesk-the-dream-of-flowers> [Accessed 8 October 2020].