John Coplans...
John Coplans is an English photographer, writer, curator and painter. In 1984 Coplans captured self- portrait images where he took photos of different parts of his body such as feet, hands, and shoulders but excluding his head. His large black and white photographs were enlarged from 4x5 inch Polaroid images. His series of images are intended to be a response to the 'cult of youth and beauty respresented by commercial photography', his photographs can be humorous and I think that his response is intended to be a sarcastic imitation of fashion photography. The head is cropped from most of his images which would have been the main focal point on a human body. I think that Coplans' intended to do this to draw attention to the body, focusing on lines and shading. I am going to focus on the close ups of hands and feet in John Coplan work as I would like to do a photo shoot of features in the style of his photographs.
A look at his photographs...
Analysing his photographs...
This image was taken by John Coplan and shows a wrinkly hand pressed flat onto a white surface. It was taken in black and white, which makes the lines on the subject matter stand out from each other. The photograph does not fully capture the hand, cropping off the top of the finger nails and thumb this suggests that his main intention was focusing on the detail of the hand not the whole shape. The photograph is divided by a slim white line positioned horizontally across the back of the hand. This divide suggests that this image is part of a series, displayed seperatley but able to join back together. The surface of the hand is very detailed capturing the risen veins, fine hairs, and deep creases, I would like to clearly capture these features with my own photographs. Having the image in black and white enhances the lines and detail and shadows are visible which would have been harder to see if the image was in colour.
This photograph was taken by John Coplan and shows hands gripping onto knee caps. The focal point of this image is the hands gripping the knee caps as they are in central position. This image is full of texture, the hairy legs, wrinkly knees, and tight skin on the hands, all of these are emphisised in detail by being in black and white.The shadow in the middle of the image adds to the centre being the focal point as it is the darkest section and stands out against the paler shades of grey. I think that this image is trying to create the idea of having shaky knees with the hands trying to take hold. The image without the hands would be interesting and detailed, however would not have had as much character. This image has made me re-consider not just focusing on hands and feet but using legs and arms to add more detail to the compositions.