Her Concerns by Gabriella Ariffin s3327179

‘Her Concerns’ is a small documentary about a life of an international student in Melbourne. The idea comes from my own experience and when I noticed some difficulties that many students who have to live by their own, far from their parents. In this case, we will talk about Dea Beatrice, a Communication Design international student in RMIT. The mood I wanted to capture is clean, simple and shows a little bit of isolation.

The concerns I want to show with the photographs are:
Study, personal hygiene and health, meals, communication and expense.

Documentary Series - O'Littleblood

O’Littleblood is a dark-psych band from Melbourne, Australia. Combining a love of gloomy lyrics, heavy drone noise and minimalistic structures, the band formed when Adam Bennett and Samantha Arthur decided to create a side project from their previous bands. Their songs are dark and loud, layered with swelling guitars, heavy repetitive beats and floating lyrics.

I wanted to combine staged portraits with action shots and environmental shots from when Samantha and Adam were rehearsing in this series. I wanted to mix the different styles in order for the viewer to get a sense of their music and style from just looking at the pictures. Since their music is quite dark and gloomy I decided to keep the aesthetics and colour palette dark and moody.  The band obviously had their own ideas and wishes for the photos that were taken into consideration and discussion when preparing for the shoots. The series was shot in two separate stages, the portraits were shot around Melbourne close to dusk and the action shots were shot in the band’s studio as they were practicing the night before one of their gigs.

For inspiration I had a general browse around the Internet for music related documentary photography and band photos. I found the work of Steven Bush and liked his simplistic aesthetics.  I also found an artist called Ben Blood that I liked as well that had shot quite a few location shoots with bands. I had both photographers’ images in fresh memory when I framed and positioned my subjects during the photo shoot, but not so much for the actual editing of the photos.

Rasmus N

Steven Bush Photography 2011, ‘Steven Bush Photography’, Viewed 25 September, <http://stevenbush.org/>.

Ben Blood 2013, ‘ Ben Blood – Documentary Photographer’, Viewed 25 September,

<http://blog.benblood.com/>.

Documentary Series - WIRED

by Duta Alamsyah

My documentary series is about Melbourne street during the rush lunch time. I specifically chosen Collins Street because I think there is a lot of interesting things to shoot. The mass of intelligent and fashion stylish office people, the dramatic reflective light from the high-rise buildings, it was surreal, it mesmerises me, gets my blood racing. There is so much happening on the street. I wanted to present a truer version of Melbourne during lunch/day time. I found I could clarify the image by using the harsh Australian sunlight to create deep bright and shadow areas. That searing light that is very much part of Melbourne streets.

My original plan was only to shoot and making a series of Collins Street during the lunch time using only Canon 5DmkII with 16-35mm lens on it. But as soon as the street getting crowded, I saw mass of people using their phone to call someone, texting, even playing games whilst they are eating and walking back to their office or food courts at the same time. This lifestyle fascinates me to focus shooting on people having an activity using their phone. The distortion of wide angle lens has pushed me to capture even closer to get a wider surreal look with every subject and completes the story with an extensive space in my frame.

I did not do much on the post processing because I still want the photos to have a real look to it without loosing any sense of the daylight feel. White balance and saturation are already sett from my personal customize presets  in the camera, clarity and contrast are added in the Lightroom.

©DutaAlamsyah2013

Documentary Series- The Drones.

For my documentary series I photographed the band the Drones at the Hi Fi Bar (15/9) . The Drones are a well known Australian rock band, who have been around since 1997 they have toured at Australian Festivals such as Big Day Out and Falls Festival in the past as well as worldly. 

Musicians have a very personal relationship with their musical instruments helping them to express themselves and reveal their emotions.

I planned to shoot the musicians up close choosing special moments within their performance where I felt I could show this, this was my aim I did not want to capture any other aspect of the concert and I think that I achieved what I had planned on showing within my final images. 

Outdoor Lighting

by Craig Adams, Duta Alamsyah, Monet Torino


For the outdoor lighting assignment our group travelled deep into the heart of China Town! Armed with a Canon 5D Mark ii, a 70-200mm lens and a Broncolour Mobkit with its accompanying pair of pico lights. The aim was to utilise the talented graffiti in the lane way with our model and create a series of grungy and punky, sexually fuelled images.

High, Mid and Low Key

by Craig Adams, Duta Alamsyah, Monet Torino

The group project of high key, mid key and low key was undertaken by Craig Adams, Duta Alamsyah and Monet Torino. To develop ideas we looked at the work of Dan Winters, Richard Avedon and Leonardo Da Vinci. The studio at the university was chosen as the location to shoot the images due to the accessibility of the equipment. The versatility the working space provided us with the use of boom stands as well as interchangeable backgrounds. In an effort not to repeat ourselves throughout the report with regard to each image, a Canon 5D Mark ii and 70-200mm lens was used for each picture as was a shutter speed of 1/125 seconds and an ISO of 100. Both the camera and the lens were selected for their reputable sharpness and the shutter speed and ISO were consistently appropriate for the studio environment. 

Outdoor Lighting

Anu Kumar, Prue Stent and Amy Woodward

For our outdoor series we decided to explore the interaction between the natural landscape and the human form, using native elements derived from the immediate surroundings. The series is inspired and created through playful interactions with nature, exploring expressions of beauty in a freeform collage that slightly twists to the absurd. The interaction between the natural landscape and the organic female form that takes place presents endless opportunities for the creation of a dreamlike pseudo-reality in which any number of meanings can be derived based on the viewers interpretation.

Furthermore, we can interpret the landscape as a metaphor - the pink cliffs are of great importance and relevance to our concept. The flesh-toned, undulating surface of the rocks can both make reference to the physical female form with its peaks and valleys, and the jagged, unpredictable nature of surging emotions. The appearance of the pink cliffs are a result of external stressors; wind, water and time all causing erosion and changes in the landscape - in line with the human experience of being shaped by circumstance. 

KARINA PATTEN - OUTDOOR LIGHTING

Karina Patten 

I was inspired by Gregory Crewdson’s work incorporating HDR shooting techniques to create dramatic mysterious images where a lot of the interpretation to the storyline is left to the viewer. Drawing inspiration from some horror movies (including The Strangers), I wanted to incorporate a horror figure into the series. I have purposely left unanswered numerous questions: What happened to her? What did she see? Is she going to die? Who was the strange figure?

High key, mid key & low key

Zoe Scotland, Zak Latimer, Karina Patten & Rebecca Ransley

Our high key, mid key and low key image display the stereotypical way that society shows upper, middle and lower class individuals. We want to present three portraits displaying a professional, a youth and a homeless person in the way that they are repeatedly depicted in society. 

Lost to Discipline - Outdoor Portrait Series

The concept revolves around portraying a state of the fit human form up against the abstract environment in which challenges the idea of where ones position is in relation to fitness. Although the juxtaposition of capturing flesh and muscle within a confusing stagnant environment differentiates by the contouring details – both represent the use of strength, discipline and control in the form of artificial and natural products. But when seeing the overall images we are visually muddled up, so is the represented person feeling in a similar situation of being muddled up physically to the extent of how much fitness should be pushed? “Lost to Discipline” is about losing yourself to exercise and the attempt to balance not only the aesthetics but also the journey of sculpting of the body and deciding the personal ‘perfection’ and whether there is such perfection with such determination in mind of the beholder. Anthony AF Jones

Outdoor Lighting Portraits 

We have chosen to demonstrate an understanding of line and colour with outdoor lighting portraiture techniques. Our decision to incorporate an apparent use of the gestalt principles of perception has resulted in images that are striking and simplistically pleasing to view. Our main considerations included colour, composition, highlight, shadow and texture.

The intention with colour was to provide a bold palette that could stand individually while also appearing harmonious when viewed as a series. This has been achieved by working with two primary colours (yellow and blue) and their by-product, green.

Narrowly referencing the compositions of german photographer, Thomas Ruff. Our portraits aim to take the standard form of studio portraiture into the outdoor environment to successfully work with the challenges of a mixed lighting scenario.

Adam H, Cecille C, Kris D, Rasmus N

The Unusual me - portrait series by Gabriella A, Jie Zhong and Janjira Jatejarungwong

The Unusual me is a portrait series with a concept to create an unusual condition for the sitters. In the portraits, we do not want to expose the sitters' true personality, and actually do the opposite. From this, the results show variation of lighting set-ups and theme.

Portraits by:

Gabriella Anita Ariffin (s3327179)

Jie Zhong (s3356143)

Janjira Jatejarungwong (s3448924)