Unit 5 - Contextual - The Jazz Loft Project

For part of my research, I have decided to look into 'The Jazz Loft Project', a massive series of photographs taken by W. Eugene Smith. This was taken directly from www.jazzloftproject.org to give a brief explanation of what it is.

"Between 1957 and 1965 W. Eugene Smith made approximately 40,000 exposures both inside the loft building at 821 Sixth Avenue, of the nocturnal jazz scene, and of the street below as seen through his fourth-floor window. In a November 1958 letter to his friend Ansel Adams, Smith wrote: “The loft is a curious place, pinned with the notes and proof prints . . . with reminders . . . with demands. Always there is the window. It forever seduces me away from my work in this cold water flat. I breathe and smile and quicken and languish in appreciation of it, the proscenium arch with me on the third stage looking it down and up and bent along the sides and the whole audience in performance down before me, an ever changing pandemonium of delicate details and habitual rhythms.”

I thought this work was really relevant to what I plan on producing simply because of it being documentary photography, and based around music. Although I'm not set on a genre of music to focus on (if I decide to stick with just one), The Jazz Loft Project will still be a big influence toward my work. Part of this influence will be being much more open minded, not just focusing on the music, but also on the musician's lifestyles, like one of Eugene Smith's photographs below.

The photograph isn't linked to music when taken away from the set, you probably wouldn't even know it was part of the series if it was on it's own. But when shown amongst other photographs which all link together, it makes much more sense; this is something I would like to do with my work.

This is another example, the photograph isn't of anything musical, but when shown with the others, it is clear that it's part of the surrounding and part of the artists inspiration. I want to work like this, photographing less obvious and less closed minded subjects instead of being so simple about my approach to the documentary. 

I expected to series to be mostly made up of images similar to the one above. I'm not fond of this particular photograph though, mainly because of the great depth of field. I don't think the piano player draws enough focus from the viewer, it's a very 'busy' image. 

This again is a very 'busy' photograph, there's a lot going in within the frame, and a lot of distractions from the subject, some of which include out of focus lines (wires?) in the foreground of the photograph. Although, with this photograph, the character in the center has a bright white object in his mouth, drawing attention to the middle of the frame instantly. It stands out mainly because of the dark, high contrast surroundings.