Rear Window

Rear window was the American suspense crime film we watched made in 1954, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The main character, a profesional photographer, Jeff Jefferies (James Stewart) breaks his leg photographing a racetrack, and becomes confined to his Greenwich Village apartment in a wheelchair. His rear window looks out onto a small courtyard and several other apartments, and with nothing else to do he finds himself passing time by watching his neighbours, first with binoculars, later with his camera.
While keeping watch on his neighbours Jeff Jefferies thinks he witnesses a murder, and takes it into his own hand to find more out. With him being restrict to a wheelchair, unable to actually investigate anything for himself, he informs several people of his suspicions. His home-nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) his girlfriend Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) and close friend, New York City police detective, Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey)
The way the film is done is quite incredible, all being shot from inside Jeff's apartment, from his point of view and along with witnessing a murder he also looks upon suicide, broken dream and cheap death. I enjoyed this film, although it wasn't my usual choice to watch. I felt it took awhile to get into the plot, but once it got going it was an interesting film.

David Severn

David Severn is a 21 year old photographer from Nottingham, and came in to talk to us about his work. He showed us his project 'Thanks Maggie (2012)' consisting of 20 images, and each of the images he showed he could tell us a little story behind them. These two images were in his Thanks Maggie project  and are two that stood out to me.


David Coleman;

The first one of the man from the mines really stands out to me because of his eyes. Although the man in dirty his eyes look extremely clear and troubled. The story David told about this photograph was that he met the man in a cafe and they sat talking, the man told him about an explosion down the mines where a man got injured and was told he wouldn't walk or talk again. This happened to be the man he was speaking to, that he took this photo of. The expression on the mans face I feel is very powerful. This was taken on a medium format camera.


This image stands out to me more after David told us the story behind it. The man in this photograph is sat in a busy bingo hall with a beer, playing alone. David actually spoke to the man and found out that he had been coming here for years, but unfortunately his wife had recently died and this was a something they did together, so he keeps up the tradition of going to play bingo, alone. Once you know the story of this image I think it allows you to appreciate it more, as you can see straight away that the man looks sad and lonely, and now you know why. I feel this image has questions popping up in my head after knowing the story behind it. Why is this man sat alone in such a busy hall? Does he want to be alone? How is he feeling? Is he alone every time he comes here? - The image is a very powerful image alone, without actually knowing the background of this man. It isn't forced or set up, and with the old man being the only person in focus in such a busy hall you can help but keep looking at him.

The Colourful William Eggleston

William Eggleston is a 70 year old self taught American photographer, who is still taking adventurous pictures, in and around his hometown. His passion for photography began when he had his first camera at 18. When asked what he photographs William replied 'life today,' and photographed  'the ugly stuff' The photographs rarely ever have titles and he only ever takes one pictures of one thing. All the film images he printed himself and none of his photographs were ever forced, often invading peoples private space with his camera. So gently they don't always realise. His images were often cut off, giving them the feel of having something missing.
Alot of his experimental work was done on his children from a young age, where he would get them up early and make them stand for hours for his photographic purposes. William has a very different eye for things, seeing photo possibilities that not all would appreciate. 'Never take an image for granted' He was said to simply photograph nothing and claims it to be a picture, making it interesting.
In 1960 William Eggleston shot his first colour film, and it took a long time for people to appreciate his work as it wasn't something they were used to. He was also the first photographer to print none commercial images. In the early 70's a museum published Williams first colour book of his images 'William Eggleston's Guide'
This image is one of his famous photographs 'The Red Ceiling,' William considered it among his most challenging and powerful pieces, red being a difficult colour to work with. The walls are blood red, and still look wet in this photograph.
The term 'edit' didn't cross Williams mind and all of his work tells a story of his life/day. In May 1976 he has a show of his work which when reviewed people claimed it to be boring, simply because they just didn't understand it, or it was something new/different, but they later apologised. His work is now displayed all over the world in galleries and used in fashion, music and films.