Research - Linda Hackett for theme 1

taken by Linda Hackett

                                                            Taken by Linda Hackett

I was looking at a book in college class ( Contemporary Photography And The Garden) and noticed some images by Linda Hackett.  They were blurry which gave a soft look with a dreamy sort of mood. There is a sense of  happy spring time in the above and its very colourful. The blur makes your eye search out things in the scene.  I decided to experiment with some blur and some focus in search of the dreamy look....

Linda Hackett is an American who started photographing an abandoned estate garden near her home in Southampton, New York in the mid 1980's.  She exaggerates colour and plant forms in her hallucinatory type imagery where elements of light and air take on an almost phisical presence.

She uses a pin hole camera which encompases extended exposure times to record the effects of wind movement through the garden.  She often places the camera so close to the subject that it would be unrecognisable without the written descriptive.  Hackett works exclusively at dawn and dusk when longer exposure times are required and adopts a "plants eye" perspective of the garden.  Her pin hole camera distorts light to give a metamorphosis mix of the light and intense colours resulting in the production of a surrealist atmosphere.

I have taken the following shots  in the garden at dusk in the shade.  I don't think the above was taken in any direct sunlight.  Here I am experimenting  firstly on smaller objects, to try to achieve a dream like effect, before I go out and try the full scene shots.  However I do not have a pin hole camera so will try to achieve the best I can with what I have.

shutter 1/6  aperture f4.0  iso 200  focal L 99mm

These 2 images contain some sky as in Linda Hackett's but not the same lovely blue.  I have included them because I like the curves of the twigs, but they don't have the appeal overall of Linda Hacketts, they don't really work the same.  Also these are where I have focussed in  a lot closer to the subject whereas Linda's  shot more of a full scene.

                                                shutter 1/25 aperture f4.0  focal L 105mm

I used a slow shutter speed and wide aperture which helped with the blur effect to the background and zoomed in to capture some detail.

shutter 0.4  f4.0  iso 200  focal L 105mm

The above image is better where sky is not included, I think it makes for a better composition and is more colourful because of the contrasts of the flowers to the dark green background.  Whilst the flowers are bright, they do look abit over exposed in parts, and  this loses detail, which could be ok here as I did not want all the details to be apparent anyway.

None of these images are completely blurred like that of Linda Hackett's which I think is not so easy to pull off successfully.  The sun was fading when I took this shot,  and no light was on the scene at all but because it had been a bright day and was now dusk, light still caught the flowers (above image) making them look bright. The dark shadows of the conifers gave the dark background.

                                                  shutter 1/25 f4.0  iso 200  focal L 75mm

The image above is more of a scene where I zoomed out abit.  I like it in part because it is unusual.  I think it captures dreamy slightly but it has hardness with the softness, given by the form of the tree trunks. In Linda Hackett's image the darkness on the left gives some drama and I wonder if the darkness here on the right achieves that.  What I do like is the triangle view of the sprigs, and it does make me think about the image more than my close shots above, which is what Linda Hackett's did.

                                              shutter 1/6  aperture f4.0 iso 200 focal L 105mm

The above is my completely out of focus image but it is only slightly so it still does not achieve the right effect.  I gained this all over out of slight focus by moving slightly as I took the shot hand held.  It has no dreamy quality and it left me wishing it was actually in full focus because I liked the colours and composition. 

 Again it is using hard and soft materials together and I had seen images that did this by another photographer in that same book, which I will look at again during class. 

 I took all these shots hand held thinking that any slight normal blur, by movement, may help what I trying to achieve.  If I was to attempt such shots again I could use a tripod and try tapping it as I released the shutter, but overall I think I need to use a slower shutter speed and move the camera around more.  I had had my camera set on a single centre focus point thinking this would also help make less of the scene in focus, but then I did focus with this centre point, in all but the last image, so this would not be the answer to achieve an overall blurry image either.

Other images I took:-

These images show some blur and some clarity in each just as my above ones do, hence still not achieving that overall blur look that looks correct.  However I do hope to capture the effect I am effect with digital manipulation later on:

                                                 shutter 4.0 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 105mm

shutter 1/8 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 75mm

                                             shutter 1/12 aperture f4.0 iso 200 Focal L 75mm

This is the cover of the book I have taken inspiration from in college class, Contemporary Photography And The Garden, Deceipts & Fantasies... where a group of artists in the mid 1980's turned to gardens as a subject for their photography.  It holds a wide range of artistic images whereby gardens are reflected upon as  sites of lyrical beauty and luxurient atmosphere to show them in a dark visual metaphor for the manipulation of nature.