AD4803 Street// Set exercise 003- The big wide O

For this exercise I looked at Eugine Richards who’s style consists of wide angle shots close up. His shots offer close and personal views to his subjects and an almost warped view in terms of body proportion and the amount of the frame we can see.

This shot by Richards shows an elderly man on a chair. He sits in a chair than fills the majority of the frame, with his arm resting on it. We can also see his wife in the top right corner looking outside as a blast of over exposed light comes through the window. Richards is close to the man but the wide frame creates a distancing feel to the image and makes the chair look much larger than it is in proportion to the rest of the room due to how close he is with a wide framed lens.

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To recreate them I used my living room. The lighting outside was quite dull so found it difficult to create a similar lighting. I tried two ways of recreating the image. The first I went close to my dad and showed my sister in the left of the frame, my aim was to captue two people in one frame using the widest possible aperature my camera could.

The second shot was closer to my sister and shows more of the room, which I thinkworksbetter in response to Richards work. The subject to the left of the frame looks big and the further away subject looks a lot smaller due to the wide frame.

The next image I am looking at shows a lady with a needle in her mouth. The camera is very close to her face with a wide aperature. The subject was probably unaware she was in the shot as she is only visible due to the wide aperature. This image shows an up close and personal insight into a vulnerable person who is doing something we wouldn’t usually see. The tension in the image is quite unsettling, this is due to the needle in her mouth, but also the wide aperature close up. The shot is unusual but a great image.

When trying to recrate the images I used a wide lens and got close up to my dads face. The result is also a bit strange and made the subject feel uncomfertable due to how close the camera was, but I gained an understanding of how to shoot portraits with a wide lens close up and what kind of result it creates.

I doubt I will use this technique regularly, but if I want to create a personal, uncomfertable kind of close up, this will come in handy.