Clayton Patterson
Clayton Patterson (born 9,1948) is a Canadian-born artist, photographer, videographer and folk historian. Since moving to New York City in 1979, his work has focused on almost exclusively on documenting the art, life and times of the lower East side in Manhattan. To this day Clayton Patterson is still alive at the age of 73 years old. Additionally Clayton is currenttly now in federal prison in united states because he was filming 2 police officers that were brutally abusing a black man who seemed to have done nothing wrong, but the officers quickly witnessed Clayton filming the act and ask to delete the footage but he refused too and then got arrested in brought daylight and is now facing charges.
For my independent project I have chosen the artist Clayton Patterson, who is a street photographer that captures images in New York city by walking around different areas and finding graphite location and posing; either by himself or with is friends. Patterson uses natural lighting in all his images to create a raw and a unapologetic images. Sometimes when it is dark and not enough light in his locations he uses the artificial light on his cannon camera ( his flash) to capture the whole image and bring out the little details to camera lens. In one of his photographs Clayton Patterson is in a noisy area and on front of an abandoned building that is covered in different colors: green, blue, black, red and white lines, while there is a group of teens standing at looking at the lens of the camera with a sudden motion. If I had to describe his images with three words it will be; trust, Knowledgeable, street smart. These are the words that first entered my mind as I witnessed the image. Furthermore the genre that is produced by Clayton Patterson is sometimes portrait and landscape depending on the angle the image is set to be and that is what I believe that creates such an naturalist image. In addition the photographs from Patterson remind me off George Legrady, Gregory Colbert and Henri Cartier-Bresson. This is because both of the artist focus on Street photography. Additionally the part of the photograph that strikes me the most interesting and captivating is always the location were Clayton Patterson captures his images because it is as even the energy and the vibe of the picture matches the background of the actual image and giving off mystery and a sense of interest to what do image is saying. If I had to ask Clayton Patterson, questions about his image I would ask what made him like the hobby of capturing images with the background of graphite and what is his ambition and goal for the images that he produces. Over and above that people who view his work will normally say that his work is well thought out of the angles and is very sophisticated to the naked eye. For my last point I have definitely learned from the artist clayton Patterson that taking an image is all about the location and dynamic angle because that is what makes the image good for the viewers to look at.
Photo-shoot planning
Contact-Sheet I
If you look above, you will see 10 full contact that equals too 274 pictures (I have taken over the weekend with one of my partner). I have circled the images that I believe to be the best ones that I have gathered by viewing them because they consist of; good composition, good dynamic angles, good focus and good natural and artificial light I am happy with that because these techniques were all my challenges to face and I have successfully accomplished these techniques. Moreover, on Saturday I walked around London trying to find graphite spots and successfully found a couple scattered around London; mostly in alleyways and famous areas for example; Ladbroke Grove, Golbourn, Portobello and Notting hill. Moving on, as you will look above at my images, I have tried to take images from the inspiration of Clayton Patterson, following the techniques he uses. In addition, For most of my images I have taken a medium range shot to successfully capture my full partners body and a significantly good proportion of the background in my shots. Also my photo-plan helped me a lot through out my photo-shoot as it walked me through the steps and techniques that I want to take. On the other hand For my photo-shoot I needed more pupils to join, as there was only 3 of us to take images from, which made us not capture all the images that I would of liked; for example a big group picture with about 10 to 15 of us in a single picture, to bring out the spirit of Clayton Patterson's images as he always varies with as much pupils in his images. Furthermore my images match the style of Patterson, because his images are all about pupil standing posing and standing on front of graphite, which I believe I have accomplished what Patterson does for his work as my images look similar to him and gives the same energy because I purposely taken images on front of graphite, like Clayton Patterson does and with pupil standing on front of the graphite to give the image more interest. So as a result I believe that my work fits with Clayton Patterson as I accomplished the key features to match his art work. Not to mention the improvements I wish to do for my redraft is too explore new areas and bring more pupils with me to my next photo-shoot. Furthermore my photo-shoot over the weekend was spectacular due to the fact that I had been inspired by my Identity artist and that I had a fun experience with my friends. For the future in my developments I will look back at my first photoshoot and take notes for my success and my improvements to develop my developments further and to make my work more successful. In addition my photoshoot went well overall in my opinion , as I used my Photo-plan regualryl throught out the shoot to help me and guid me to my success that I had planned before the shoot.
First developments
For my Clayton Patterson editing development I have edited 27 pictures and I have changed the filter to drop blue and added 15 percent noise to give my images a 80s look affect. My developments is affective as I did not over do my edits but gave them little changes and made my images look sophisticated and elegant. Furthermore I have used my photo-plan to help me edit my images and give me assurance and it has helped me and encouraged significally through out my edits to really bring out the Clayton Patterson spirit within me and simply make my work look like his work. To continue my photography that explored family relations just as my artist did. I seeked within my fist set of developments to add on a hint of detail that does not take away from my exploration of family . To do this I added 15% noise to explore a certain taint within my images . This would allow a slight blur to develop in a sense making you wonder about the joy and discomfort of family within my images .I seeked to capture a mood with in these developments too so I decided to zone in the ideal of a mood within a family environment. Which I created through a filter of drippy blue which projected a feeling of comfort . As this is exactly what I seeked to do as I admired this sense from Clayton Patterson. Carrying on I believe that For my following further developments I hope to experiment with double exposure( when you get two images onto one image and lower the capacity to make it look like there are two images in one image to give it a good look) and Mirroring technique( when you double your image on a single page and have two of the same images in different angles normally mirrored from each over to give it also a good look to the image overall. moving on for my work I went for a simple look by just adjusting the noise a little bit and cropping out the bits that does not look as effective, which gave my work a better and fresh look to the previous developments that I started with. Furthermore My work symbolizes friendship, trust and fashion. Clayton Patterson will indeed be satisfied with my work as I believe. This is because I have been analysing his work and took some tips to bring my work out more, which was the composition, the ranges of the shots and the location. The location in my opinion was the most effective and important because an image consists of the composition of the pupil's in the images, but overall the background which turns the image to be much more effective and good to look at.
Process log
Step 1: For the majority of my edits I used the noise tool to change the pixels of my work a little bit to make them look older and more appealing to look at.
Step 2: I experimaneted by mixing up the colors with the gradient tool and overlayed 2 layers over eachover to give it a better look and more in the inspiration of Clayton Patterson.
Step 3: I used with the crop tool to crop out the bits and pieces that didn't fit so well and made adjustments in the composition, while looking at a similar image from Patterson.
EDITING IN THE STYLE OF CLAYTON PATTERSON
These developments, that I have produced are in a sense of style of my identity artist Clayton Patterson. For the steps and techniques, that I had to do, were adding noise, to make my images look archaic, which I believe, really elevated ones work, to be more effective looking. I chose the RAW images, that looked pleasant to the eye, in terms of composition, lighting and dynamic range. I was going for simple edits, just like my artist does, as he brings out the youth culture from a single image. For example Patterson captures a variety of images with young adults: bringing a jubilant sense out from his work. I was inspired by him, and chose to refine my work in the same style. For the majority of my developments, I went for a collogue style, to lay out my different types of images, inspired by Clayton Patterson. If you compare my work with Clayton Patterson's work, it would be very similar, conveying the elegancy my work holds. I have edited my images in a range of techniques, such as: experimenting with distortion, experimenting with noise, experimenting with mirroring, experimenting with composition and experimenting with collages. All these photography techniques, has aided me to be at the same standards, as my identify artist Clayton Patterson, as these techniques, are best suited for youth culture, because it is a simple but modern technique and is the same style of Patterson, who inspired me to experiment in photography.
Contacts sheet II
These are my redraft photo's that I have taken over the weekend, starting from 12:45pm to 6:30pm at night on Saturday the 27th November. I and a bunch of my friends gathered together and went to Camden market and walked through the busy areas of the town to look for graphite spots and capture some images. I have taken that inspiration from Clayton Patterson to walk around a certain area to find good graphite spots. Furthermore if you look above you will see 174 images and a variety amount of different things happening. In addition I reflected on my first photo shoot and released that I needed more pupil's in my images as there was too many of 1 to 2 pupil's in one image other than 6 to 10 like Clayton Patterson does to bring a lot of attention to the single image. Secondly I improved on my ability of capturing images in different lengths of angles and I aimed for a medium shot but still took some long shots and close up shots to see what the outcome might be. On one hand I have circled the images with a red circles to indicate the images that I will be editing over the following days and what I think to be the best images on the 4 contact sheets and I have not circles the images that I believe need some improvement as there is not a lot happening and does not indicate nothing special to me. On the other hand I would say that I have succeeded with the tasks that I was hoping to capture that I did not capture As well from my first photoshoot, which was; Improvement on composition, more pupil's and exploring different parts of the London city.
Further development II
These are my Further developments from my artist Clayton Patterson as you can see. I have CHANGED a few features; for example the filters. I have used a candle light filter which gave my work a glow to it and by adding lots of noise (35%) to give my work a very olden look, the same way Clayton Patterson does for his work. In addition I have explored mirroring, double exposure and black and white to show what I have learnt over the course and to bring it together with Clayton Patterson. Furthermore, for my further developments, I went for a style of sense of Clayton Patterson, who really experiments and refines his work, by adding gradients and saturation, to spice and to tweak, his work, with vibrancy and a sense of youth culture. Moving on, this editing technique, allowed the main focus of the composition of the image to be the young pupils, which are my models for this photoshoot, to really stand out to the naked eye, and allow the viewers of my work to helps draw attention to the subject of my image and therefore, creating a powerful visual effect, that is pleasing to the 'naked eye'. In addition, these second further developments, allowed my self to really express and convey, the sort of photography techniques, that I am able to produce. I went ahead and experimented with around 20 plus images of composition, to really give guide our eyes, through a image and give the importance to the subject to rest the photo.
Further development (Mirroring)
On my right are the images that I have edited with a mirroring technique and by copying and pasting an image I would like to mirrow and then, I dragged the crop too the length of the number of how big the image was in cm. Additionally I clicked on my second image with control t and picked the middle right side and dragged it to the other side where the crop tool ended, which created a mirroring look as you can see as you hover your eyes to the right. Furthermore I have made a different look with this editing technique which I learnt in my lessons which is simple but effective, but Clayton Patterson does not do these type of edits but usually mostly collages but I went for my own look to spice up my images with the my own techniques that I have learnt and simply because I have already edited images into a collage technique for my first development and I believe that it is at its best
Further development black and white
On your left is my images that I have edited for the the topic Clayton Patterson and have edited 9 images into black and white. I have chosen the images that were edited previously on my first development and kept the edits the same, but just changed the filter to black and white for each of my development. I have found this very inspiring and catchy from Patterson as it gives a really sophisticated effect to my images. Furthermore I would say that my images have a different look on each and every one of them because for example; for 2 of my images I have instructed my friends to climb on a 13 feet building and told him to sit on the edge ( I made sure it was safe) and told him to hand his feet's off the edge and do a natural pose he would like to do. For a different image brought 3 pupils, who are my close friends and instructed them to stand on front of a drippy wall and took a significant amount of shots ( some long range, some short range and some medium range ) to have a variety of options to choose from to edit which I believe I have successfully done If you rotate your eyes to the left and browse through my work. In addition for my further development I have edited 27 images for my artist Clayton Patterson but divided them down to 9 each in separate galleries and edited 9 mirrored images, 9 double exposures and finally a folder of 9 black and white images which are on my left. On one hand I wished that I had edited 15 of each so I would of had 45 images for my further development, but I will keep that into consideration for my future artists I am currently looking for . On the other hand overall I am satisfied with the work I have finished.
Further Developments Double Exposure
On your right you will see 9 double exposure images that I have gathered from my last edits which are on first developments, but have tweaked my work with a couple of new techniques I have seen in class. For the first technique that I have changed was the filter as I kept the filter to be a candlelight CUBE, which is an option in the filter settings. Moreover I added another filter over my current piece, which was called Smokey and gave my images a very 80s look which went well with Clayton Patterson's work and made my work to look like his as I wanted too. My work resembles brother hood love and loyalty in the group. Furthermore I would say that If Clayton Patterson viewed my work for any reason I hope that he would say that it is in the style of his work and made a great effort in tryin to take inspiration from his work. In addition the way I edited these images on my right by using the rectangular marquee tool and outlined the bits of the images I would like copying with control c and and control v to paste the images. Furthermore for the majority of my images I have switched my images vertically ( upside down) and then used a tool to blend both of the images together and make it as one as you can browse on your right and see the end results of my editing techniques that was used to create my work in the style of Clayton Patterson.
Highlighting Success
I have chosen these pictures to be my highlighting success because every single image you can see that is on this section has met the standers of Clayton Patterson and has the same appearance of his work and my best edits I believe to be. Additionally these images consists of good composition, good dynamic range, good location and background, and good techniques used by capturing the image and editing them in class. Furthermore, for my highlighting success (The achievement, that I was trying to accomplish) I chose the bits of images, from each section of development, that I have experimented with and visualized the most successful images, that have turned out with adequate photography techniques, that I have intentionally applied. Moving on the reason, why I have chose these developments, are because, it conveys the description of youth culture - the cultural practice of members of this age group by which they express their identities and demonstrate their sense of belonging to a particular group of young people - which I my self was hoping to accomplish, which I successful did. The main reason, why I have chosen these developments, are for instance: the successful composition, guides our eyes through a photograph and gives importance to the subject in relation to the rest of the photo. Composition through flow, direction, and visual balance, helps drive the story behind your image and grabs your viewer's attention. the successful dynamic range, which determines how much detail one can capture within an image, and the greater the range. A high dynamic range typically means that more detail in both highlights and shadows can be captured. Therefore, these are the main points, why I have chosen my artist Clayton Patterson, for identity, to explore the nature of youth culture and the importance of it, through developments, that I have created in the style and sense of his work.
Hand made work in the style of Clayton Patterson
For my edits in the style of Clayton Patterson I gathered my edit images I had uploaded to my site and then printed those out on A4 pieces of paper and then cut some certain images out and then stuck them on a solid color, which was on an A4 piece of paper. Then I used glue to stick them on and then used duck tape to give the same visuals and effects of Clayton Patterson and make my hand made images sophisticated, while they still consisted of numerous of techniques.
Moving on, while I was piecing all my bits of printed out images together I came across an idea I had seen from my artist Clayton Patterson, which was to stick landscape images on a A4 piece of paper to be the background and for the pupils to be cut out with scissors and to overlayed on top with duck tape to focus the attention on both of the images and to really give a different aspect to my other work and the journey it took for all the pieces of my work to come together.
For my GIF's development's I have added 5 to 10 images on top of each over, while saving those images individually. I then came across a website called GIFmaker.me, which allowed myself to upload my save images to convert them into GIF's in a click of a button. When they were developed I experimented in the speed loop and the frame of the image to complete the look of my art. Furthermore I experimented with the speed of my images switching to another image, which allowed all of my pieces of work to be seen in a decent amount of time and allowing any one who views my work to see all the details in my GIF's.
My GIF that is in a portrait frame consists of 5 developments and set to a 50% canvas size, and making the animation speed to be 500 milliseconds, so you will able to see all my developments in under 5 seconds. Furthermore the main reason why I have experimented with my GIF animation to be as a portrait frame is because it conveys Clayton Patterson's famous art pieces that are all mostly in the same frame size.
Refining with GIFS
For these developments, that were inspired my my artist Clayton Patterson, I completed two following GIF's in the style of his work, with all of my previous developments that I have also completed in his style and vibe of work. I am really pleased and jubilant on how these GIF's turned out, as they were exactly what I had in mind, which I believe makes my work, look very much sophisticated, as I refrained a development, that I have already completed before, but just in more detail and more focusing on the key photography aspects.
