Straight Images - Shoot 3

Research On Weegee

Weegee:

The reason I choose to look at Weegees work is because he takes photos of crime scenes, corpses and of the perpetrators. This is work that I would like to try and re-create at some point for some interesting photos. Even though he is an old photographer I still pick his photos are better than most because he took photos in New York during a time when crime was more organised which makes more interesting photos.On of the main reason I decided to choice him is because he does a lot of crime work which in features dead bodies and all of the actions and consequences of a crime. I think that this makes him a rather interesting photographer to do because he doesn't have staged images these are all from real murders.

In this photo we see he has taken a photo of a dead man who it looks like has been batted over the back of the head with something and then proceeded to collapse and bleed out on the floor. This makes the photo more interesting and also because they are in black and white you can where colours end and begin.

Here we have an image of what looks like a criminal with a face paint mask to hind his identity or to make maybe because it was a way of gaining power over his victims by installing fear in them with the mask. This is a kind of photo I like because it is very interesting and creates a creepy atmosphere.

Here we see two suited criminals in the back of a police pick-up van hiding their faces from the camera to keep their image out of the news, because of the way they are dressed, location, and the age period that Weegee took his photos we can guess that they may have been linked to a mob. 

Here we see someone has been murdered most likely drunk because of the bottle of alcohol next to them. This could have been an accident, he could have been drunk and got to close to the wrong people. 

This photographer has influenced me to try and get some outdoor shots of murders, and not just have the evidence of the tool or who could have been there but also get evidence of the person who has been killed. This would mean I would have to uses models as props as the body and have to make it look like they have been murder.

To summarise Weegees work he takes photos of criminals, and of their murder victims. This is the kind of work I would like to get. He would normally shot in Black and white which did make a more interesting photograph. He would also try to get some of the surrounding area still focusing on the body to see if he can include any more evidence in the photo of the body, for example above he also has a bottle of alcohol in the shot which makes us think that the victim was drunk.

Work Diary - Shoot Number 2

Evaluation:
In this shoot I decided to develop my own ideas of evidence by making some crime evidence bags to use as a prop for my shoot. I had a gun, three knifes, a mask, headphones, hat and scarf, and some scissors. Theses were all shot either in the evidence bag or outside next to the number one indicating that it was a piece of evidence. I did this because it bought they would make a rather interesting photo. I had a combination of out in the open shots, (shots taken at the scene of crime). I also then took photos of the same props in the evidence bags in a different area to make it seem like they had been taken form the crime and then but into storage. I thought it was a good idea to take photos of them in the bags because it isn't something that is normally seen in scene of crime photos.
In the image bellow I edited the image bellow to make it look like the knifes had blood not them. I did this with only one of the images I took because it suited it. In trying to make it look like an authentic scene. This once done by either dropping the knifes from where i was standing almost as if i had just stabbed someone them drop the knifes and run away. I also had some of the images placed because they where  more like a signature.
An example of a criminals signature is a in the bellow image. In some crime cases the murderer would leave behind an item some examples of this are the mask bellow, sometimes playing cards and sometimes they would brand the body of the victim with a tattoo a burn mark or they would cut it out of them.

In this photo we see some bloody looking knifes. The blood was added in photoshop but the placement of them was as if I had just stabbed someone with three knifes and dropped them after each stab. This was to make it seem like a more realistic shot other than a placed shot. I also decided that in this shot I would have a number next to it the same way that they do in an actual crime to indicate where there is evidence that needs to be documented and to show where the evidence is so the scene of crime investigators could easily see where the most important evidence is because of the number allocated to each piece of evidence.

This was a placed shot of a mask that I think that I will include a mask in all my work like a calling card of sort. The reason I chose to use a mask is because in some serial crimes they leave behind a placed mask to show who had been there to do the killing. This mask is essentially a calling card to show the police who they are dealing with. I think that these add to the realism of the image and make it seem more authentic and make it seem slightly more old fashioned. This makes the image seem even more creepier then normal because lots of people are afraid of stuff like this because of the way are culture is.

Progression:

In my next shoot I am going to try to get another mask but this time maybe on someone or covered in blood. I would also like to get a photo of a person holding a knife with blood dripping from both the hand and the knife it self. I also plan to have blood splatter on the floor from the knifes to make it look like more of a crime scene. I also added it in because it adds an extra layer to the image which makes it rather interesting. The reason because of that is because I think that both of them add a rather erie feel to the photos and would be a rather interesting piece of evidence for a crime. Also I think that it would be a rather interesting thing to photograph as evidence.

Here is an image I would like to get of a hand and knife covered in blood whilst it is dripping blood and if I can get a drop in mid fall like above that would be great.

Here is a gas mask on the street for evidence of a murder. I would do this but with an older type of  gas mask. For example one from the war or something like that.

Shoot Number 2 - Straight Images

Image Bank - Shoot Number 2

Work Diary - Initial Response Shoot

Evaluation: 
In this shoot I went out and took some initial photos of my chosen topic, which is "Evidence". In the shoot the photos taken were a wide range of photos to do with lots of things that can easily be related to evidence. The main topic of todays shoot was the evidence that it had been raining earlier on in the day and I mainly took photos that showed that it had been raining and some of what I plan to do in the future.
I decided that after this shoot I wanted to move on to scene of crime photography so I tried to find some areas round the college were it could be associated to a crime. The main thing I found that could be linked to it was I found some red and white tape which indicates an area where a person should not go. I also found some graffiti which in some case can be linked to a crime. An example of this would be a gang symbol found at the scene of the crime because it could indicator a link to the target or to the group that attacked them. I didn't find much more to do with crime after that except for some broken pipe that looked like it had been kicked and broken which could indicate an incident that had occurred. I also took most of my photos the same way a scene of crime investigator would. This style is normally a close-up of the possible evidence. I also only edited it to suit the style of the crime. This was done by making the area darker to make it seem more eire.
The other sections that I took photos of during this is mainly just any kind of evidence. The main example of this (as mentioned above) was the evidence that there was rain earlier on in the day. The photo bellow is a heavily edited photo I took of some grass which had raindrops on them.

In this photo we see that I have taken a photo of some grass. Hanging off the edge of the grass blades was some raindrops which were from the rain that had just gone. In photoshop I decided to edit the photo to make it seem more green and blue an adjusted the colour and made the area in focus more dominate then the top and bottom which I decided to make unfocused when I took the photo because it creates an interesting photo. I edited it to make it look like the grass was greener and bluer because it adds to the image and makes it a more interesting. In this photo I also decided to blur out the top and the bottom of the image and sharpen the middle part of the image. This is so the focus of the viewer is more on the middle section of the image and less of the other sections. I think this worked very well for the bottom half of the image because in the image you can see some very large raindrops hanging from the grass out of focus which I think adds to the effect of the image.

Here I found some tape and blocked off a certain area like they do at a crime scene. The reason I did this was because that is evidence that there was a crime in this place. I changed the colour and vibrance a bit in photoshop to make it look a bit more colourful and gloomy which I think worked fairly well because it creates a sort of happy gloom in the atmosphere of the photo. This is because the colours in the image are rather vibrate which means that they add to the affect of the happy gloom atmosphere.

Progression:
When I continue this I will do more photos to do with evidence found in crime scenes and photos directly related to crime which I hope to later on evolve into photos of evil stuff for example possessions demons and stuff along those lines. This is because I think that moving on to this would be rather interesting and would make more interesting photos and creating a stronger portfolio. I will start off with criminal work and then move onto the horror section.
In my next work I plan of doing some work with bits of evidence and try to re-create scenes of crimes. I also plan to make an evidence bag to put some of the pieces of evidence in and then take photos of said pieces of evidence. I think that this will be good because it is not a normal thing that they take photos of  this is because they normally take photos at the scene and rarely when they are bagged and in storage.

Here is the outline of where a body was found murdered. This is the evidence of the death. This is a rather interesting photo because it is something that is universally known to everyone because everyone knows what this means.

Also I would like to re-create the corpse of a murder victim because I think that would make a rather interesting image and also would show a lot of evidence for a crime scene because you can tell a lot from a body from a murder scene.

Discusion On Evidence

For the initial shoot I will just shoot images of random bits of evidence for example raindrops of trees and leafs on the ground and general stuff like that so I can have a wide range of ideas to then change according to how I want to continue this subject of evidence.

For my project on evidence I am going to start of with forensic evidence because I find that to be the most interesting sub-subject that is related to evidence as a whole. I am going to have it slowly evolve from basic forensic evidence, for example plastic bags with weapons in it and bits of evidence, then
slowly move over to taking photos of weapons covered in blood until i get to actually making dead bodies and take photos of re-created murder scene that I think of. This will then evolve into a more horror side of photography so that I can still keep it close to the whole murder and investigation part but have more freedom to explore the different ways of taking photos of a body and the murderer.
 

Here is a type of image I would try to start of with. It is just a
plastic evidence bag with the label "EVIDENCE".

One way I am going to approach this is by trying to create my own murder scenes and trying to make them look fairly gruesome and horrific, which will link into my second section of the project which is horror the way I plan to approach that is by ending the forensic section with a murder like scene and then moving over to the horror side.For my forensic evidence I am going to start by using basic levels of evidence to with crime and murder and then slowly moving on to an actual murder scene and take photos of murders with the props I used in evidence bags to make it look like they were collected after the final murder piece to add some clarity to it. For my final piece I am going to have a combination of both horror and forensic. This is going to be an extremely horrific murder so it can be linked into both. I might also add some fantasy elements intuit just to make it even more interesting.

This is an image of a horror murder scene
this is something that I plan to try and
do to link the horror into the forensic.

For my horror section the main focus will be zombie horror and fantasy horror. I plan to uses lots of props while I shot. The props I want to use are contact lenses and costumes less for horror and more for phycological mind games. This will be images that may not be full of horror but by looking at it you will be full of fear.

This is the type of image I would like to try and get because
it inspires fear and doubt in people who look at it. This is
because it is a fairly creepy looking photo and would be
accompanied by photos like this:

By having images like this in the shoot it would make the
above look fairly normal but because you can see what they
have done it creates an atmosphere of fear and doubt about
the main photo.

To sum up I have to main shoot ideas and will have two types of images on my blog. Forensic and murder which is from the evidence section.  Then I will have horror which is linked to the murder section of the forensic photography.