Juxtaposition

4th March 2013

I noticed a large advertisement poster in the village advertising a fast food product. Whilst reading around the subject of juxtaposition and thinking about how to illustrate it, I considered using a group of teenagers at one end of the advert as a real life juxtaposition. A suggestion had been made by the fast food company that the product being advertised was thick. I had a couple of ideas – one to add a chair and a school student with a table of books and one with a group of hoodies. I planned an evening for taking the picture, and on double checking that day it had been changed. Unable to find the same advert locally, I decided to abandon this idea for the time being and move on.

I thought about taking mountain biking which is one of my hobbies and using juxtaposition to illustrate navigation (map, sat nav, signpost and a rider, or rider, kit and wooden obstacles). Another consideration was my bike on the bike rack taken with a wide angle lens. I some time looking at a collection of mountain bike magazines and and on line mountain bike articles looking at how other photographers and advertisers showed juxtaposition. I discovered that certain adverts used juxtaposition in processing such as an advert for energy bars and tablets in relationship with a rider and a trail.( P114 Nov 2011 What Mountain Bike?) A  blurred rider cycling through a subway was juxtaposed with a picture of a light with words which linked the two related subjects. (P89, What Mountain Bike?December 2011) A couple of tyre manufacturers used tyres as an object in relationship to a workshop and mechanic or rider and trail. (Page 2 and 3, November 2011, What Mountain Bike?, P34 February 2012, What Mountain Bike?) Sat navs were also illustrated by juxtaposing them with a map or trail riders and words. With some of the adverts I studied, if the words were removed, the pictures lost meaning.

The only two photos I found illustrating juxtaposition was of a bike with its front wheel missing (being repaired) and the person mending the wheel was visible through the large frame of the bike. I thought the picture was too small in the magazine to take in the whole scene.( P12 What Mountain Bike?)The other was of a trail post (with event tape on it) dominating the foreground with a rider on a trail in the background. (P21 Mountain Biking Skills)

I decided to illustrate a book using called “White Peak Mountain Biking The Pure Trails” written by Jon Barton. It is pocket sized book with a square photo of a rider on the front and a title separate from the picture. I use it if I am planning a ride further away from home with more challenging terrain than Sherwood Forest.  As well as guidance notes, the book contains routes and suggests using an Ordnance Survey map as a back up as most route books do. As a start for what to include in my photo, I made a list of what would be essential to take on a ride.

I planned to use a map and thought a helmet, gloves or water bottle would work well. I originally laid the map flat on the floor and grouped objects onto it. The map served as a link for the items. However, this looked a little flat. After taking a few pictures, I abandoned this idea and experimented with repositionioning the map. One advert had a map which had been unfolded  slightly and still kept its diagonal lines. I liked this idea because it added strong lines to the picture. I thought about taking this idea and setting the shot up outside using the ground to link the items. On positioning the map though, the wind started to blow the map around so I had to bring the outside in.

One consideration was whether to work in portrait or landscape. With a wide angle lens, it was easier to work in landscape because I had more room to spread the objects out. On reviewing my picture, I decided to use portrait and crop into square because it would fit the book better. A wide angle telephoto lens was better at compressing the objects together. I settled on a 24-105mm lens after trialling a 10-20mm lens.

I had thought natural light would work outside because the book was about being outside. After experimenting with natural light, I tried tungsten light and diffused tungsten light. Tungsten was not powerful enough and left a reflection on the helmet.  An off camera flash lifted the lighting, made the subjects brighter and allowed the colours on the map to be visible. I experimented with bouncing the flash off the ceiling, and decided it was better if I used a piece of white card positioned opposite the flash and bounced the flash off the card.

 

Landscape orientation using natural light (detail of map lost, colours more subdued)

I started using a black helmet, green bottle, blue buff, green buff, black gloves, blue gloves and realised early on that the choice of colours was important to link the picture. Thinking back to the colour project, I could see that the blue gloves and orange flint was working better than the red helmet and orange flint because the colours were complementary.

 

F22 3secs ISO100 28mm flash white balance

The picture I created tells the reader that it is a book about cycling, because I used a cycling helmet, riding gloves and map which are all related to riding and linked them together using an element of the outdoors. By using universal equipment rather than specialised equipment such as body armour and a full face helmet, the picture is aimed at a wide group of riders. The map is folded in such a way that it tells the viewer that there is more to ride than the little bit they can see.
 
References:
P114 What Mountain Bike?November 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P89, What Mountain Bike?December 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
Page 2 and 3,What Mountain Bike?November 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P34, What Mountain Bike? February 2012, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P12, What Mountain Bike?December 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK
P21, Photographer Joby Sessions, Mountain Biking Skills, SP2 03 2011, Future Publishing, Bath, UK