View this post on Instagram

Not sure if power point is too close to floor or if charger is just obnoxiously big. I’m going to say a bit of both #baddesign #annoying #charger #powerpoint

A post shared by Making Media (@makingmedia_) on May 27, 2020 at 9:28pm PDT

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I wanted to change things up a little bit with my last making media post, so I chose to create a Boomerang as my last required photo. I was a little unsure whether it would still be classified as a photo, however, after doing a bit of research I found that a boomerang classified as is multiple photos (normally around 20 photos) taken in a short time of 3-4 second, creating a loop. So I figured I was semi-safe.

Creating this particular post required more faffing around than I had dealt with in previous posts. I used the story tool through Instagram to create the boomerang but had to turn my phone on it’s side so that I could shoot the image I was after using the rear-facing camera. Instagram then affords the users the option to save all their media creations (uploaded or not) into their phones photo gallery. I then had to go into my phones photo gallery and use the editing tool provided by iPhone to turn the image from portrait to landscape for better viewing.

“Not all photographs or videos captured by an individual get posted to their Instagram account; not even everything opened in the app and edited as a potential post gets published.”
(Leaver, 2020. pp.42)

When uploading the imagine I chose to add the Amaro filter as I felt it gave the image more depth and made the centre of the image the focus.

 

How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?

This weeks image took more attempts before I was happy with it. The angle that it was authored on was a bit of an odd position so the phone often slipped or didn’t capture enough to the image. The boomerang is taken within 3 seconds so there was limited time to get the shot right meaning that I took about ten different shots before I was happy with it.

The caption I chose to add was:

Not sure if power point is too close to floor or if charger is just obnoxiously big. I’m going to say a bit of both #baddesign #annoying#charger #powerpoint

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?

 

The above mentioned hashtags distributed the photo across the platform, I also decided to spice up the geo-tagging and tagged it under Australia only, which I wondered if that would broaden the horizon. I also shared it to my Tumblr and Twitter accounts.

Not sure if power point is too close to floor or if charger is just obnoxiously big. I’m going to say a bit of both #baddesign #annoying #charger #powerpoint @ Australia https://t.co/DEHVRoZUL1

— Lydia Cartledge (@lydiacartledge) May 28, 2020

 

 

References:

Leaver, T., Highfield, T., Abidin, C., 2020. Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures. Digital Media and Society, United Kingdom. p. 39-74, Chapter 2 Aesthetics

2020. [online] Available at: <https://ishootphotobooth.com.au/2019/01/what-are-gifs-and-boomerangs/> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

View this post on Instagram

Liquid gold with minimal skill and effort required 👌#nespresso #nespressomachine #bonsoy #coffee #coffeetime #whitecup #soymilk #gooddesign #coffeepods #coffeepodsnespressomoments

A post shared by Making Media (@makingmedia_) on May 26, 2020 at 9:44pm PDT

How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I decided to used the in-built camera through Instagram again this week because I wanted to use the stop-start feature. Using the rear-facing camera on my iPhone XR, I moved the camera per shot to record different aspects of the coffee machine. Due to all the shots being close-ups, the square format didn’t prove as a constraint for me this week.  I was under a bit of pressure to get the shots right the first time due to the mechanics of the machine (once you press the button, coffee automatically starts to pour) so I had a clear idea of the different angles and shots I wanted to produce before I started filming which make the process easier, it also meant that I didn’t have time to re-watch any clips before moving onto the next one so I didn’t edit and delete any during the filming process.

I decided to keep the audio on as I felt that it added to the video and added a simple Sierra filter to it with no further adjustments made. I wasn’t looking for a particular feeling for the video as I was in earlier weeks so chose the filter based on what I felt was a better picture to look at.

I chose to make the cover photo the first shot because it had the most branding through it, i.e, the Nespresso logo and the Bonsoy milk in the background as I thought it would be beneficial later down the line when I wanted to distribute it further across the network.

How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Similarly, to last week, I wanted to tag another user in the post when I published it so I tagged @nespresso but it came up with the same error message. I decided to continue with the upload and once it was done I when through an alternate route to tag them through the edit portal on a published post. When I did it this way, the tag remained on the post however when I go into the @nespresso page, my post does not show up in their tagged.

As I mentioned above, I had a clear idea for the video this week and I was under pressure to get it right the first time so I only recorded one video before I uploaded. The filming time was less than previous weeks but the preparation time was more as I set out shots for myself first.

The caption I wrote was:

Liquid gold with minimal skill and effort required 👌#nespresso #nespressomachine#bonsoy #coffee #coffeetime#whitecup #soymilk #gooddesign#coffeepods#coffeepodsnespressomoments

I chose the coffee machine as my example of good design because earlier in the week I was looking at the buttons on top that have icons for single shot or double shot and I remembered a quote from Donald Norman: “Well-designed objects are easy to interpret and understand. They contain visible clues to their operation.” (Normal, 1998. pp.2)

How did you distribute the video you published on Instagram to other social media services?

The above mentioned hashtags and the geo-tagging of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia distributed the photo across the platform. I also shared it to my Tumblr and Twitter accounts.

Liquid gold with minimal skill and effort required 👌#nespresso #nespressomachine #bonsoy #coffee #coffeetime #whitecup #soymilk #gooddesign #coffeepods #coffeepodsnespressomoments @ Melbourne, Victoria, Australia https://t.co/pA8bmviXCU

— Lydia Cartledge (@lydiacartledge) May 28, 2020

References:

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York, pp. Vii-xv; 1-13; 81-87; 177-186.

View this post on Instagram

Using my Apple Watch to connect to my iPhones camera for better viewing. How good! #gooddesign #apple #applewatchseries5 #hand #photography

A post shared by Making Media (@makingmedia_) on May 21, 2020 at 7:44pm PDT

“Good designs will have it all—aesthetic pleasure, art, creativity—
and at the same time be usable, workable, and enjoyable.” (Norman, 1998, pp.xiv)

How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?

My new Apple Watch series 5 came in the mail yesterday (treat yourself covid style) so I decided to try out the camera utility through the watch itself. It connects to your iPhones camera so you can take the photos or videos on your phone but also see what you are shooting on the watch. The playback is a little delayed and I think this would work best if you were taking self-timed media or someone else was taking the photo/video and you wanted to see what they were shooting. None the less, I thought it was  a pretty cool design from Apple so I chose to use it as my topic and as a way to author my video.

 

I used the rear-facing camera with no flash and kept the camera steady as the subject being recored was small. Thankfully, Instagram updated in 2015 which meant that you no longer had to upload all photos and video in the square format. If this was still the case, the video I chose to upload wouldn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as I wanted it to be. I edited the video through the Instagram upload portal and added the filter Ludwig because I felt as though it made the browns a deeper shade which was highlighted in the screen of the watch.

I chose to mute the audio because it didn’t add anything to the content and was distracting and made the cover the last frame of the video so that hashtags that I added made sense.

 

 

 

How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?

It took a bit of fumbling around to get used to the playback on the Apple Watch so it took me a few goes before I was happy with the video. Similarly to other making media posts though, the whole process doesn’t take me longer than 5-15 mins max, from authoring to publishing. Sticking to the required theme, I made the caption.

Using my Apple Watch to connect to my iPhones camera for better viewing. How good! #gooddesign #apple#applewatchseries5 #hand#photography

I also tagged @apple in the photo itself but oddly enough, when I went to publish the photo, the error message to the left came up. Once I pressed OK and then refreshed the uploading process with the arrow icon at the top right, the post was published but without the @apple tag.

I didn’t try and tag them again.

 

 

How did you distribute the video you published on Instagram to other social media services?

The above mentioned hashtags and the geo-tagging of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia distributed the photo across the platform. If I had been allowed to tag @apple, then it would have been distributed further. I also shared it to my Tumblr and Twitter accounts.

Using my Apple Watch to connect to my iPhones camera for better viewing. How good! #gooddesign #apple #applewatchseries5 #hand #photography @ Melbourne, Victoria, Australia https://t.co/gKST2xt3vR

— Lydia Cartledge (@lydiacartledge) May 22, 2020

References:

Stinson, L., Stinson, L., So, A., Staff, W., Graff, G., Waters, M., Seife, C. and Strampe, L., 2020. Instagram Ends The Tyranny Of The Square. [online] WIRED. Available at: <https://www.wired.com/2015/08/instagram-says-goodbye-square-photos/> [Accessed 22 May 2020].

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York, pp. Vii-xv; 1-13; 81-87; 177-186.

View this post on Instagram

Recycling made easy ♻️ Yellow = recyclable waste Bright green = green waste Dark green = non-recyclable waste #bins #recycling #gardenwaste #gooddesign

A post shared by Making Media (@makingmedia_) on May 21, 2020 at 8:00pm PDT

How did you author the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?

The week, I used my iPhone XR’s camera utility to create my content. I used the rear-facing camera and found the longer rectangle format of the phones screen a lot easier to take the desired photo quickly, as opposed to the square format found in Instagram that I struggled with last week. Being an avid user of my iPhones camera, I found the whole process very efficient – just point and shoot – with minimal constraints. As it was daytime when I took the photo, there was no need for me to put the flash feature on.

I then choose to use the application, Afterlight, to edit the photo as I wanted the colour on top of the bins to stand out more. After flicking through the pre-made filters, I wasn’t getting the result I wanted so I chose to change the colouring myself.

As you can see below, I played around with different effects such as clarify, shadows (not shown), contrast (not shown) and mid-tone until I was happy with the photo. I wanted al the bin lids to stand out as they were the main focus and I also wanted to remove the green tint of the background as I felt that it blended in too much with bins, so I added the red tone underneath. The last insert below is a before and after of the final product.

“Instagram was different…because it came with filters and other simple image editing tools available in its mobile app. And this democratized making good-looking images.” (Manovich, 2016. Part 3: Instagramism. pp.4)

 

 How did you publish the photo you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I literally took one photo for this week and was happy with it. It captured everything that I was looking for in the photo – perhaps this was due to my familiarity with the iPhone camera. What took me a while to finalise was the editing process which I will admit, is not something I usually do with my photos that I post to Insta. Again, I kept the caption relevant to the required topic and captioned it:

Recycling made easy ♻️ Yellow = recyclable waste
Bright green = green waste
Dark green = non-recyclable waste
#bins #recycling #gardenwaste#gooddesign

 

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?

Tagging the above mentioned has distributed by photo further across the platform, as has the geo-tagging of Melbourne. Victoria, Australia. I also shared it to my Tumblr and Twitter accounts but chose to do it after I had posted the photo as opposed to during the uploading process as I has done last week. I didn’t find the process any harder, as long as you have already connected othersocials to your Insta account, if is as easy as a simple swipe to share it across the network.

Recycling made easy ♻️ Yellow = recyclable waste
Bright green = green waste
Dark green = non-recyclable waste #bins #recycling #gardenwaste #gooddesign @ Melbourne, Victoria, Australia https://t.co/Yaxu9ZnC9s

— Lydia Cartledge (@lydiacartledge) May 22, 2020

References:

Manovich, L. 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA. Part 3: Instagramism.

View this post on Instagram

Doors that don’t close 🤦🏼‍♀️🙅🏽 #baddesign #doorsofinstagram #handles #pushpullgrind

A post shared by Making Media (@makingmedia_) on May 11, 2020 at 9:42pm PDT

How did you author the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?

As mentioned in my previous blog, I wanted to author this video entirely through Instagrams software. Using the rear-facing camera on my iPhone XR, I found the video option worked quite well for the video I wanted to produce. Unlike my phones recording ability, Instagram afforded me the option to stop and start the recording creating a jump-cut affect with no editing required.

“One of the early defining visual aspects of the app was the square dimensions for posted images: limiting users to that shape, forcing cropping of rectangular images and encouraging either taking photos within the app or using the ‘square’ option on the smartphone camera.” (Leaver, 2020. p.45)

The square format constrained me in regards to how much of the doorway I could fit into the frame, but by moving the camera around, I was still able to create the desired content.  My biggest issue with using Instagram to author this video was that it required the user to hold down the button as opposed to pressing  once to start and to stop.

This meant that getting any shots right on the first take was a little difficult as depending on the angle I was filming from, the hand placement required on the phone proved a bit tricky. I would film each shot and then re-watch it back to make sure it worked and if it didn’t, I deleted it and re-shot it. The filming process was about 10 minutes in total which surprised me considering the video is only about 20 seconds long.

I kept the flash off as there was enough natural light and decided to keep the ‘normal’ filter on as I wasn’t looking to add any extra effects. I did try the black and white filter on but found that it was hard to differentiate between the different sides of the door. I also didn’t add any adjustments to brightness or contrast.

I kept the audio on as I thought it added to the video however after I posted it, the audio for the middle clip seemed to be muted – I’m unsure if this has been a mistake on my part or a software issue.

 

How did you publish the video you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I’ve always hated this door. As Donald Norman contends, a bad design “screams out its inadequacies” and I often find myself internally screaming at this door. I recorded the video the same day that I uploaded it and chose to caption it ‘Doors that don’t close 🤦🏼‍♀️🙅🏽’ in reference to the required topic of good and bad design. I configured the video to play automatically and added the following tags: #baddesign, #doorsofinstagram, #handles, #pushpullgrind.

3.How did you distribute the video you published on Instagram to other social media services?

As mentioned above, I used tagging to distribute the video further across the network and I also ge0-tagged Melbourne. Victoria, Australia. I used the sharing option while in the uploading process and shared it to my Twitter and Tumblr accounts.

Doors that don’t close 🤦🏼‍♀️🙅🏽 #baddesign #doorsofinstagram #handles #pushpullgrind @ Melbourne, Victoria, Australia https://t.co/vOcRiJXGLV

— Lydia Cartledge (@lydiacartledge) May 12, 2020

 

 

References:

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York, pp. Vii-xv; 1-13; 81-87; 177-186.

Leaver, T., Highfield, T., Abidin, C., 2020. Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures. Digital Media and Society, United Kingdom. p. 39-74,

View this post on Instagram

🙌🏻 netflix is only a click away #gooddesign #netflix #remote #smarttv #cosyhome

A post shared by Making Media (@makingmedia_) on May 11, 2020 at 9:51pm PDT

 

To keep my blogs diverse, I had decided that my first two pieces of media, that I would create for Assignment 3, would be authored entirely through Instagram. I used the rear-facing camera on my iPhone XR and used the tool provided by Instagram to capture the photo.

I will admit, it was a bit of a struggle to get the shot. The Netflix logo doesn’t appear on the tv for very long so I had a very short amount of time to get the photo right. Due to Instagram only providing a square format, it was difficult to firstly get the entire remote in the shot and then secondly to keep the focus on the remote rather than the background. Once you’ve taken the photo, the software immediately takes you to the editing process but if you decide that you’re not happy with that particular photo you can go back to the camera but you will lose the previous photo. Instagram automatically saves all photos taken through its platform to the camera roll in your phone so you can get the photo back but you would need to switch over to the Library tab – it is important to note that although the photos are taken in square format through the platform, they are saved into your camera roll as a full length rectangular photo. As I mentioned above, I wanted to create this weeks media entirely through the app so I didn’t use this to my advantage which meant that it took me about five attempts before I had taken the photo I wanted.

I had taken the photo without the flash on so the photo was already quite dark but I wanted to give it more of a cosy vibe so I chose to add the Gingham filter as it softened the background features. I then altered the contrast to make the dark areas darker and the bright areas of the photo brighter, however I still didn’t have the desired affect so I then decreased the brightness until I felt I had achieved the result I wanted.

 

How did you publish the photo you uploaded to Instagram?

I took the photo the same day that I uploaded it, in fact, the whole process took me about 10 minutes. I had a clear idea of what I wanted to create and publish so choosing and editing the photo was a breeze.

I have used this remote plenty of times and not once did I think about how easy it was to get to access Netflix but as Donald Norman states, ‘good design is hard to notice’ (Norman 1998, p.1). So, I chose to caption the photo with a hallelujah emoji and a simple sentence; ‘Netflix is only a click away’. I did this in reference to the required topic of good and bad design. I also added relevant tags: #gooddesign, #netflix, #remote, #smarttv and #cosyhome.

How did you distribute the photo you published on Instagram to other social media services?

As mentioned above, I used multiple tags to distribute this photo further across the network, this means that anyone across the platform who searches these particular tags will have access to this photo.  I used the same principle when I  geo-tagged Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Instagram offers users the ability to share posts across other platforms when the content is initially being posted and also after it’s been posted. I chose to share this photo when I was posting it and I shared it to my Twitter and to my Tumblr accounts.

 

References:

Manovich, L. 2016, ‘Introduction: ‘Instagram Platform as a Medium’, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA., pp. 9-18.

Norman. D, 1998, ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, Basic Book, New York, pp.vii-xv; 1-13; 81-87; 177-186.

Who is the practitioner and when were they practicing?

 

Poppy Deyes is a popular content creator with over 1.1M followers on Instagram. She’s the sister of popular YouTube blogger, Alfie Deyes, but has gained her own legion of fans through her lifestyle blog , her Instagram and through making appearances on other creators YouTube channels. Her website mentions that she started her online journey in 2017 however her first Instagram post was back in 2014. It is likely though that she has only created content with a commercial intent since 2017.

 

 

What is the title of the video you have chosen to analyse?

View this post on Instagram

Oh HELLO beautiful brownies 😍 Today’s recipe is one that we used to make almost weekly – it’s a @deliciouslyella classic and helped us to make something gorgeousss out of the two sad looking sweet potaoes at the bottom of our fridge this week. They’re quick and super easy to throw together and taste lush. Lmk if you give them a go! . Recipe: http://www.poppydeyes.com/the-ultimate-brownies/

A post shared by Poppy Deyes (@poppydeyes) on Apr 22, 2020 at 10:10am PDT

The title of the video that Deyes has posted onto IGTV is called Ultimate Brownie Recipe.

 

With the video you are examining when was it produced?

She has posted the video on the 23rd of April 2020, however, due to the editing involved and the amount of content that creators need to post regularly, they often film projects well ahead of time so it’s likely that this video was produced at an earlier time.

 

How was the video authored?

 

IGTV links to your phones internal photo and video gallery so it is most likely that Deyes has used her phone to author the video. Another tell-tale sign is that some of the footage is shot as a selfie-style where she is in shot and holding the camera herself. There is some editing in terms of shots used and only one in-video text used which suggests that she has filmed on her phone and then possibly used a seperate software such as Premier Pro, Final Cut Pro or iMovie to edit and then transferred the final product back to her phone to upload. She doesn’t hint towards whether any filters have been used but she does has her own Lightroom presets which she promotes often

 

 

How was the video published?

Deyes uploaded this video onto her Instagram profile though IGTV.

IGTV is an in-app Instagram feature that allows users to make long-form videos which means that users can upload videos that range from one minute to 60 minutes long. This was a recent update (2018) which was Instagram’s answer for longer duration, mobile-optimisted videos which Instagram has built out a monetisation option for IGTV creators, including ad revenue shares.

How was the video distributed?

Posting onto her Instagram is a form of distribution for this video. She has also referenced the recipe she used by tagging the user @delisiouslyella she has also linked her website in the caption to further distribute the video across the network. z

 

References:

Instagram.com. 2020. Poppy Deyes (@Poppydeyes) • Instagram Photos And Videos. [online] Available at: <https://www.instagram.com/poppydeyes/channel/> [Accessed 29 April 2020].

Poppydeyes.com. 2020. Poppy Deyes. [online] Available at: <https://www.poppydeyes.com> [Accessed 29 April 2020].

Techcrunch.com. 2020. Techcrunch Is Now A Part Of Verizon Media. [online] Available at: <https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/06/igtv-ads/> [Accessed 29 April 2020].

Who is the practitioner and when were they practicing?

 

Nam June Paik (1932-2006) is a Korean American artist who is considered the “Father of Video Art”.  He had his first exhibition in 1963 in Germany and continued to create video art until his death in 2006.

 

 

 

 

“Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body’s new membrane of existence.” – Nam June Paik

What is the title of the video you have chosen to analyse?

The title of this video art is Electronic Superhighway.

With the video you are examining when was it produced?

The artwork was exhibited in 1995 but the videos displayed which are on over 300 televisions, are specific historic clips that represent each state to convey his understanding of them. For example, Kansas is represented by The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Mississippi is represented through clips of the civil rights movement (1954-1968). Clips used throughout the artwork are chosen from over the 20th century timeline.

How was the video authored?

Nam June Paik ensured that technology was apart of all of his art. Paik’s Electronic Superhighway is a mammoth piece that consists of a 51 channel closed circuit video installation, neon lighting, custom electronics and steel and wood. To be specific, it comprises of 336 televisions, 50 DVD players, 3,750 feet of cable and 575 feet of neon lighting. The neon lighting is shaped into the continental U.S.A  and it’s various states.

The clips played are analogue videos onto analogue televisions  which  “exists as fixed physical objects in the world, their production being dependent upon transcription from one physical state to anther” (Lister, 2009). The transcriptions can vary from  cables to aerials and television monitors so there are various instances where the signal can be interfered with creating distortion and static. Paik used this to his advantage often.

Paik was often praised for his futuristic outlook on life and while this work is generally described as celebrating the fact that the “electronic superhighway” allows us to communicate with and understand each other across traditional boundaries, through the means of technology, it can also be argued that this particular work is posing some difficult questions about how that technology is impacting culture. For example, the physical scale of the work and number of simultaneous clips makes it difficult to absorb any details, resulting in what we now call “information overload”.

How was the video published?

The Electronic Superhighway was produced for the purpose of being art and creating discussion. Paik was big on giving his audiences a glimpse into the future. He gifted this work to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, so he presumably created this piece with the intention of it being put into a space where may people could gather and experience it.

How was the video distributed?

The Electronic Superhighway has stayed on exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum since Paik first gifted it. The museum is located in Washington and receives millions of visits a year which provides a large reach for Paik’s work to been seen. It’s also one of his more famous works so multiple articles have been written about it across the web and plenty of videos can be found on video platforms such a YouTube.

 

References:

Smithsonian American Art Museum. 2020. Nam June Paik. [online] Available at: <https://americanart.si.edu/artist/nam-june-paik-3670> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Public Delivery. 2020. Nam June Paik’s Legendary Electronic Superhighway. [online] Available at: <https://publicdelivery.org/nam-june-paik-electronic-superhighway/> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Blogs.commons.georgetown.edu. 2020. An Analysis Of Paik’S Electronic Superhighway | CCTP 802 – Art And Media Interfaced. [online] Available at: <https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-802-spring2017/an-analysis-of-paiks-electronic-superhighway/> [Accessed 20 April 2020].

Lister, M, Dovey, J, Giddings, S, Grant, I & Kelly, K 2009, New Media: A Critical Introduction, Routledge, New York.

 

Who is the practitioner and when were they practicing?

Henri Cartier Bresson (1908-2004) was a French photographer. He bought his first camera in 1931 and went on to pioneer the genre of street photography and photojournalism, viewing photography as capturing a decisive moment. Cartier-Bresson was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947 which was an organisation dedicated to chronicling world events, after the devastation of the second world war, and was named after the magnum-sized bottle of wine that the founders drank at each meeting.

 

“To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.” – Henri Cartier Bresson (1958)

What is the title of the photo you have chosen to analyse?

 

Title: Coronation of King George VI

Where: Trafalgar Square, London

When: 12th May, 1937

 

With the photo you are examining when was it produced?

This photo was produced at Trafalgar Square in London on the 12th of May 1937 at the Coronation of King George VI.

How was the photo authored?

Cartier-Bresson wandered around the world with his camera, becoming totally immersed in his current environment. As one of the major artists of the 20th century, he covered many of the world biggest events, including the coronation of King George VI as the picture above depicts.

In 1931, Cartier-Bresson purchased his first 35mm Leica, a small hand-held camera which defined the photographer’s work and Cartier-Bresson believed that all edits should be done when the image was authored. As this photo was taken in 1937, it is safe to assume he took this photo with his Leica.

Renowned for capturing the decisive moment, he didn’t have much interest in the event itself, so he kept his Leica trained on the crowds in Trafalgar Square. Many had gathered overnight so they didn’t miss the historic procession and the next morning, as the royal carriages approached, one man had slept on and Cartier-Bresson captured his blissful ignorance of the events happening around him. The resulting picture is said to mark a pivotal moment in British history: the abdication of King Edward VIII, the accession of his younger brother King George VI, and the uncertainty of war on the horizon.

How was the photo published?

This photo was taken on an analogue camera therefore it would’ve required a roll of film being loaded into the camera and when Cartier-Bresson took photos, the light interacted with the chemicals in the film and an image was recorded.    

He then would have taken his film and gotten it developed in a dark room. In the dark room, the film moves through a series of chemicals from developer, to stop bath and then fixer. This creates a film negative, which can have light shined through it in order to cast the photo onto light sensitive paper which creates a positive print. This photo was printed on a gelatine silver print.

How was the photo distributed?

This photo was first distributed when published by the popular French communist daily newspaper, Ce Soir, who were running a piece on the coronation in the papers illustrated weekly, Regards, and commissioned Cartier-Bresson to take photos of the event. Since then, it is safe to assume, as it was one of his earlier works, that it has circulated many exhibitions and more recently it can be found on the Magnum Photos website. At also appears to have been printed, with the approval from Cartier-Bresson, and actioned off for $27,500 on the website, Phillips.com.

References:

Adams, T., 2020. The Big Picture: A Comic Take On A Coronation By Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1937. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/mar/08/the-big-picture-henri-cartier-bresson-coronation-king-george-vi-1937-sleeping-man> [Accessed 17 April 2020].

Biography. 2020. Henri Cartier-Bresson. [online] Available at: <https://www.biography.com/artist/henri-cartier-bresson> [Accessed 17 April 2020].

Explain that Stuff. 2020. Film Cameras And 35Mm Photography – A Simple Introduction. [online] Available at: <https://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-film-cameras-work.html> [Accessed 17 May 2020].

Magnum Photos. 2020. Henri Cartier-Bresson • Photographer Profile • Magnum Photos. [online] Available at: <https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/henri-cartier-bresson/> [Accessed 17 April 2020].

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