UNIT 4 - AO1 (1/3) - Bert Hardy

For My UNIT 4 Studies, I have chosen 'Industrial Landscapes' as my theme, with this theme I am wanting to explore the world of documentary photography from three main two main time periods: Pre & Post WWI and look at the Industrial Britiain.

The first Photographer I will be looking at Documentary and Press Photgrapher, Bert Hardy. Born may 1913 & Died July 1995. Hardy began as a freelance photographer for The Bicycle magazine where he taught himself how to do photography using his first camera which was a Leica. In 1941 he was hired by the UK's largest picture newspaper, Picture Post, during which he documented and created a photographic-essay on the fire-fighters who were in the blitz. He later served as a war photographer and took part in the D-Day landings and captured the liberation of Paris.

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Here are some of my favourite photographs of his:

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One of the main themes with Hardy's work is the relationship between others & immersion, shooting with a 50mm & 35mm lens, he is able to capture his photographs with the most life-like focal length comparable to our eyes. The use monochromatic 35mm film has also enabled him to experiment with strong lighting and industrial landscapes. Ofcourse these may'll be other factors in why he's shot with monochrome film such as its simplicity and cost at the time but with this unit I am wanting to explore into these past techniques and themes just as they did back then. That is why I plan on commiting to shooting & self-developing 35mm/Medium Format film, using analog cameras for the future of this project.

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My experiments.

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So going in the theme of Bert Hardy's work I believe I have successfully reached my targets I had set myself. The photographs were part of two series; one being shot on 35mm Ilfords HP5+, the other being shot digitally with my A7R, all over the timespan of a week or so. I've been looking for moments of connection and emotion within the general public on the streets.

My favourite images from this series would probably have to be the bottom left and right images as well as the top left. As I've learnt in the past and mentioned in this article, it's generally good to stop down to around f/5.6-8 as it allows you to capture more of your subject in focus yet still have the details of the foreground in focus. In regards to the bottom left image, I had actually shot it at F/1.8, however because the lens is rather sharp and the subject was further away - it mean that the details in the foreground remained partially in focus which created a 3D-like effect towards the image and for that its probably is my favourite image out of the lot.

I also experimented with different aspect ratios with my work as you can see with the center-bottom image, As I've recently been shooting in a 21:9, cinematic aspect ratio for my short film projects. I decided it could be a good idea to experiment briefly to help find inspiration towards this new frame.

One of the things I'm really dedicated on achieving and sticking too is shooting, self-developing and scanning all of the film I shoot for this unit. I am wanting to try and place myself within the era that documentary photographers were in their stride and live use the same practises and techniques that once was commonplace among the community.