Introduction and mood board
I have selected 'Freedom' and 'Limitation' as themes for the exam due to the depth and range of feelings and expression they offer. To initiate thinking about the themes, I decided to create a 'pinterest' board to capture the work of some artists who have produced work around the subject and allow me to develop my initial approach.
Artists of Inspiration
Adam Broomberg & Oliver ChanarinI love all the work of these two artists, especially "PEOPLE IN TROUBLE LAUGHING PUSHED TO THE GROUND". This documents the struggles in Belfast during the 1980's with a series of close up images, cropped to a circle shape with a plain square backdrop.
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Chema madozMadoz is a Spanish photographer who loves to create black and white optical illusions. I find these images simple and very effective.
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set tasks
Task One - Movement
Fast shutterspeed
Philippe Halsmann believed that people expressed their true self more when they jumped and therefore decided to take photos of famous people jumping in front of a white backdrop with a high shutter speed. Halsmann explained that “In a jump, the subject, in a sudden burst of energy, overcomes gravity. He cannot simultaneously control his expressions, his facial and his limb muscles. The mask falls. The real self becomes visible. One has only to snap it with the camera.”
My Response -
I started by taking some images outside with people jumping off of benches. This was successful, however to achieve the best look I felt there should be no distractions away from the person and their face and body shape. I therefore moved into the studio which I felt also made the subject more comfortable and open when they where jumping, especially as it was very cold outside. I really enjoyed capturing these images and had fun with the subjects. It was a very interactive experience unlike normal portraits. |
Final Images
I started by taking images of people jumping outside which did not work as well as I had hoped. The backdrop had too much going on and I felt the focus, which was so important for the theme of the series by Halsmann, was missing.
I therefore moved into the studio and used a blank white backdrop. This worked much better, highlighting the subject and really presenting their look of freedom, where all other thoughts are forgotten as they lift into the air. I really enjoyed responding to this artist as it was great fun interacting with the subject in such a dynamic way. |
Robert Longo
The Men in the Cities series made Robert Longo famous in the 1980's. Larger than life drawings from photographs of sharply dressed business people writhing in contortion, a sort of death dance of the modern era. Created between 1977 and 1983, the figures appeared trapped in a tortuous moment, limited by their daily grind. The lack of background exaggerates this idea. Despite the dynamic movements the figures are sharp with no sign of movement or blur.
My response
As with my previous response, I started outside and then moved into the studio with a white backdrop. I really enjoyed responding to Robert Longo's work as I thought it was a really excellent way of capturing people off guard. There were also similarities with Halsmann's work, presenting a side to someone unprepared for the image and therefore a true portrayal. This portrayal of a person is extremely interesting and can illustrate how people can be limited as well as being free. |
Final Images
Slow shutter speed
Francesca woodman
Although she was the model in most of her work, Francesca Woodman’s photographs do not function as typical self-portraits. Rather, she used her own image to explore the representation of gender and the relation of the body to its environment. Woodman tragically committed suicide at 22 which projects a greater meaning onto the images. Some critics have considered the images in the context of her mental health and reached conclusions that she felt trapped and was looking for a way to escape.
My response
final images
I feel that the top two images here worked very well. I was pleased with how the first one is barely visible and blends into the white as if he has just appeared from the middle of nowhere. The second one works extremely well as the face is not visible, covered by the mane of hair which is blurred and almost psychedelic.
If I was going to improve this I would want to get some more angles and different type of shots. |
task two - Half term Work
Gallery visit
Poetry of place: paul hart
I was really inspired by this exhibition and the beautiful atmospheric visual effect, it was mesmerising to look at. I especially liked the images in the fens where agriculture has exposed natural features with a beauty prominent against an empty horizon. Hart achieves an extremely poetic effect from his use of analogue black and white film and traditional dark room methods of developing the images. Hart certainly works well with landscapes and creates a very poetic feel to his images, I will definitely draw inspiration from this work.
Framing Task
Task three - breaking the structure
composition
Composition is defined as the placement and arrangement of the visual elements in the image. Ute Barth used this concept and created abnormal images where the main visual elements were just in the frame creating frustration for the viewer who therefore wants to move the frame over and see the whole of the object or the rest of the room. I found this concept fascinating and wished to explore how I could develop it in my own interpretation.
My response
Final prints
Here I thought this sculpted shape of the banister was wonderful up against the white brick work behind. although I did frame this in the centre of the image I thought it was necessary for the visual effect overall.
In all of these images I included a bit more in the backdrop than Ute did. This was to create a more pleasurable experience to look instead of uncomfortable. |
For this image I put my camera on the floor and took a random image. I thought turned out well as it is a mystery what the rusty metal object is, giving the viewer something to think about.
In the image to the right I tried to create an image of an obvious object, but not include the all of it in the image so the experience was uncomfortable to the viewer who therefore wants to shift the frame. |
Exposure
In these images, I was playing around with the ISO which is used for different levels of light sensitivity. The higher the ISO, the more light sensitive it will be in low lighting.
Darren Almond is an example of a photographer who experiments with ISO as a crucial part of his images. He took images of the ocean which where very saturated and bland, where the definition is just shown by using an ISO which was too high for the image, but I loved the effect it created.
Darren Almond is an example of a photographer who experiments with ISO as a crucial part of his images. He took images of the ocean which where very saturated and bland, where the definition is just shown by using an ISO which was too high for the image, but I loved the effect it created.
My response
With my response I decided to concentrate on close ups of plants where the whole frame is filled. I therefore started by experimenting with different ISO settings on the images shown, focusing on both plants and tree trunks as well. My favourite effect was when I used a very low ISO on the plants which gave it a very deep and rich visual.
I was also very interested on how exposure impacts direct lighting. Therefore, I experimented with a candle and a light being emitted onto a white wall which created a really cool effect whereby when exposure was very low, an eerie faint light was presented which was a cool visual effect.
Post production
Here, I edited the images by using the threshold adjustment in Photoshop and adjusted according to the particular image. This created an especially cool effect with the brick work and shadows. However, I felt the effect was too powerful of a visual effect and drew away from the actual raw image itself.
focus
ralph eugene meatyard
Meatyard would then wait two or three months before developing them (the negatives). After that interval, he was no longer able to identify the scenes or objects, he had succeeded, at least for himself, in detaching the images from a bit of reality on which they had been based.
Task four - Limiting space
Will dorner
Will Dorner has created a series where he has squeezed human dancers in the smallest unusual spaces and positions in the urban landscape, This is extremely humorous and limiting to space. I wanted to respond to this in my own way by dressing my subjects in normal clothing rather than bright colours and then edit the images in a way which is consistent with the urban landscape.
My response
This shoot was incredibly fun, finding different spots to cram the body into and sculpting it into unusual shapes. The most effective ones were those where the body was shaped in an unusual way. I decided to crop them heavily into a circle because I thought it was consistent with the theme of limiting space and worked well visually.
With my final edits i used a editing process which first converted the images to black and white, then upped the contrast heavily, lowered the brightness, cropped it to a circle and added noise to the images.
limiting space with paper
For this series of images I used a roll of purple paper to expose and hide parts of the body which limited and restricted the body and its movements. I enjoyed taking these images although it was very hard to get the paper and body into a sculpted consistent shape.
Final images
At first, when editing these images, I considered selecting the backdrop and filling it white. However, I thought this made it look fake as all the depth and shadows were removed. Instead, I cropped the image where the white backdrop finished and I thought this worked much better as the shadows remained. In addition, I put them in black and white, upped the contrast and toned down the brightness.
limiting space in with a corner
Irving penn artist inspiration
Sometime in 1948, Penn began making portraits in a small corner space made of two studio flats pushed together, the floor covered with a piece of old carpeting. To quote the photographer, “a very rich series of pictures resulted. This confinement, surprisingly seemed to comfort people, soothing them. The walls were a surface to lean on or push against. For me the picture possibilities were interesting: limiting the subjects’ movement seemed to relieve me of part of the problem of holding on to them.”
This contact sheet shows how I created my own corner in the school studio and then set up lighting into the corner, being careful to not light the whole corner and not allow shadows. I enjoyed taking these photos and responding to an amazing series which was visually dramatic.
Final image
Although I really liked the images of the artist I struggled heavily with this particular task. My subject was very tall and the corner was just not long enough to make the image work.
Another kind of life - gallery visit
This exhibition documents the lives of those who live on the fringes of society, rebels, advocators and those denying the norm of their society.
Photographers like Larry clark and Ellen Mark have emerged themselves in different communities around the globe who are seen as misfits and abnormal in their societies. The amazing thing with all these images is the rawness of the images the subjects you would think are modelling their expressions and outfits however it is so real.
Task five - Pushing photos boundaries
Damage
Painting - Gerhard Richter
I feel that these particular images work really well as the line of the paint from the brush follows the horizon and does not ruin the original image, the colours are not completely overwhelming and bright.
My Response
I really enjoyed taking the paint brush to these images and putting my own interpretation on them. As a development from Richter's work, I only used black paint and started by experimenting with the elliptical shape in the first image making it the only visible part apart from the subject. I thought this worked well as it limited the view and made it feel restricted and cramped. With the next image I made a black circle again, however this time I did not paint the whole image. The final image was my favourite. I took the same idea of covering certain parts of the image and made only the skin visible which I thought created a cool tangled and sculptural effect. |
Burning
Lucas simoes
I appreciated the idea of this and thought the effect was really cool, however I feel the colours are partially overwhelming and fake especially as they are so bright against the rest of the image. However, I felt inspired to develop it in my own way.
My response
With my response I produced an acetate of this image, burnt the actual acetate and then started experimenting in the darkroom which I thought created a really cool effect. I burnt the acetate in particular areas on the wallpaper of the image as to make them seem natural and at one with the image. The other effect was the scratches and splurges which also gave the image a cool harsh and weathered look consistent with the burns.
strands
Strand One - Freedom and/or limitation through post production
This strand was very influenced by the previous set tasks, focusing on painting and cropping images to restrict certain parts of the image. The type of images which I enjoyed the most were when they where restricted by geometric shapes. I have created a range of images, each row a different series from two different photographers. The first series is by Henrietta Harris which are completely painted, however the portraits are based on portrait photos. In her most inspiring and memorable portraits, hands, faces, brains, glaciers seem to float away from each other, reminding viewers of those moments when your body is present but your mind drifts away to another place far away from reality. The next series by Broomberg and Chanarin is called PEOPLE IN TROUBLE LAUGHING PUSHED TO THE GROUND and documents the troubles and normal everyday life of Northern Ireland in the 1980s. The last row is from the same artists however using different methods of concealing parts of the image.
Response 1
In this first response I wanted to create a very powerful, minimalist image. I therefore started to think about which part of the face conveys the greatest expression and meaning; the eyes.
As a result, I took a series of portraits against a dark grey backdrop which meant that the black line would not look completely unnatural. Then, on Photoshop, I created very thin black lines which covered the eyes. This created a very unsettling effect where you expect to look into the subject eyes but cannot. I feel this is a very powerful and force whereby you to try and fill in the gaps and guess what this persons eyes are like. |
response 2
With these images I wanted to create a similar effect however, rather than using Photoshop, I used a black piece of card to randomly cover certain parts of the face. I feel this created a really strong effect, especially on the bottom left image where it created a really interesting scary expression. The mouth is hidden, letting your imagination run free to project different facial expressions. What will he look like with a smile? a laugh? or a sad expression?
Response 3
In this development, I wanted to get away from portraiture and explore a different medium. When it was snowing in the evening I was fascinated by the visuals created by the snow, especially the lights which you can see in these images. The top left one where the lights from the car are misty and dominating the simple yet mesmerising image. In addition, the windows in the bus are misty leaving dark outlines of the subjects within. This is very mysterious and reflects the mood of a cold, snowy, weekday mood. With these images I used the elliptical tool to crop the images into a perfect circle which worked well alongside with the simple eerie aesthetic.
strand Two- freedom in nature
Many city dwellers think of rural and natural settings as places of freedom, a break from the confines and chaos of the urban environment. This theme fascinates me and I wanted to create a beautiful visual representation of nature to capture the feeling of freedom people associate with it. I hope to explore many different methods of achieving this effect.
Response one
Firstly, I wanted to concentrate on the view often seen when looking up at the natural canopy of the trees where the branches and trunk contrast perfectly with the melancholy grey sky. These images present the freedom in nature by evoking a feeling of liberation caused by the organic twisting shapes of the branches contrasting perfectly to the sky where there are short break of visible space. This is especially true where the trees come together and a clear winding line is created in the sky. When editing these I first placed a black and white filter on, then upped the contrast and adjusted the brightness appropriately and finally I added a slight offset in order to create a misty aesthetic.
Response two
For this response I wanted to individually capture three common elements of nature in similar ways; trees, water and fields. I also wanted to capture a very beautiful setting which made the viewer feel free among nature.
Inspired by paul hart
This work from Paul Hart inspired me greatly when capturing my response. The black and white, slightly misty feel, really moved me as a viewer. The images were very poetic and sombre.
Trees
In this response, I tried to isolate the trees against the plain grey sky, highlighting the beauty of each tree and particularly the structure of the branches and overall symmetry. The black and white and misty look created a really blank, yet beautiful image where a sense of freedom is evoked by the non chaotic setting.
Water
With the water images, I tried to lower my camera as much as possible to capture the mesmerising tree reflections in the water. This worked really well with the birds where I tried to capture the precise moment they were sat at the centre of the images.
Field
When capturing the fields it was hard to single out the whole field without having one of the other elements involved with the image. However, I felt that the poetry of the images was very strong, showing where the hills intertwine, presenting paths for your eyes to follow and wonder.
DEVELOPMENT 1
For this next response I continued on a similar idea, however I combined it with the work completed in the post production phase of the second stand where part of the image is blocked. Only part of the image can therefore be seen with the rest out of sight, restricting the viewer and allowing their imagination to flow. I feel this created a beautiful effect where the image and setting is unclear.
I feel the saturated slightly misty black and white adjustments I have been making to these images is effective. However, I wanted to try and capture some more natural images which had some colour.
Sunrise in nature
For these images I woke up at 5:30am to catch the sunrise in my local woodland and wanted to capture the effect of the sunlight diffusing in-between the trees, spreading light. Although I did like the rich greens, slightly highlighted by the sunrise, I preferred the effect created by the prior images creating a greater sense of freedom.
Strand three - freedom and/or limitation in social constructs
selected artists in order of images, Bruce nauman and john Baldessari
Bruce Nauman created a series of images very early in his career focused on very literal presentation of an idea. For example, someone eating some bread and jam, however the bread is cut to shape letters spelling "word". This therefore creates a visual representation of "eating your own words." The next artist is John Baldessari who takes images which are very small and random however, he then shows them to people and asks them to say the first word which pops in to their head. He then hand writes this onto the images. I feel these create a really cool, almost comedic visual impact.
Development 1
artist inspiration - Clunie Reid
Clunie Reid retakes photos and then writes onto the images. This almost makes the original focus of the image just another object. She explains, “It’s about the amount of information you have in an image,” thereby implying your interpretation is enhanced by the post production. I want to take inspiration form this work and try to capture expressions and sayings and the placing writing and scratching on the printed images.
To plan for these images I asked people what common expressions they use or hear most often and then came up with a visual representation of them. I took the images on a film camera, however, during the processing and printing a happy accident occurred where horizontal lines appeared on the images which I feel gave an authentic used look. In addition, to add to the personality of the images, I asked people to write the expressions onto the images and then damaged the writing slightly with a white tipex pen. The expressions in order are," I'll eat my own hat", "neck and neck", "spill the beans" and "my cup of tea". I really enjoyed coming up with a way to represent these and finding out from people the expressions they use and hear was an engaging process.
Development 2
Artis Insperation - John Baldesssari Blasted allegories
For Blasted Allegories, Baldessari arranged a series of photographs on a board to organise images as one would words in a sentence, playing with syntax and rhyme, destabilising models of construction visually and linguistically. The stills depict various objects, stills from films and television, and bits of pop culture. His work is humorous, juxtaposing visual jokes with seemingly straightforward text to obfuscate direct meaning. I took this as inspiration and wanted to create a series of ominous images cropped and zoomed in and then use word association to try and create some sort of story with the images based on the first word in peoples head when seeing the images.
This second response was also a very engaging process whereby I scanned in images, mainly from social occasions like a holiday to Barcelona, summer in the park, festivals, carnivals all taken on film, and produced contact like strips of images which where all zoomed in and cropped and then printed. I then used word association and saw what response I got from people when first seeing these different images. I then asked them to write the word on the images creating a very personal visual effect.
Development 3
For this development I used colour and more 'day to day' objects in order to see the most common response I had from people when first seeing the image. In the first case I used vinegar mixed with olive oil which most people responded to with the word "blood". An empty vase caused people to respond with the word "flowers", then an upturned empty glass triggered the response of "empty", and finally a piece of sand paper to which most people said "grit".
Development 4
With this development I wanted to bring colour into play and create a series of images using the same model in different situations and illustrating a different expression in each one. I tried to direct the model as much as possible to achieve the right expression and right framing. When editing the images I tried to make the images very vibrant and retain an air of comedy.
In this development I expended the way I illustrated and set up the frame to illustrate each of the expressions and instead of writing and scratching the images I left them in colour and tried to use the subject and object come together to make the expression not too obvious to make the viewing more of a game. However with the post production, with painting scratching and witting made the images more personal and used while at the same time making each image like a comedic riddle.
Development 5
Artist inspiration - Annette messager
These images illustrate the relationship between a man and a women using familiar, archetypal images and then placing them together to form some kind of story. This really inspired me to create a similar visual affect. However, I wanted to create a visual story of expressions in black and white, using harder, more graphical expressions.
Here, I used more then one image to illustrate the expressions. This was to increase engagement with the viewer and be more creative with the way I created the story, bringing the whole thing together. When asking people what they thought these images illustrated compared to the previous development, they found these ones much harder and more open to interpretation. I therefore feel these images more accurately capture the more complex feelings I am trying to evoke in the viewer. If I was going to improve these I would potentially add some colour tints and also post produce them to seem more personal.
Development 6
After experimenting with cropping my images to bring together an expression in one frame I wanted to take images of expressions and crop to a circular sides which combines my second strand where the aesthetic worked really well and limited the viewer.
After this development the circular cropping worked well by limiting the viewer and made the expression harder to understand however not to much so that the viewer can still understand what the frames are trying to illustrate.
Expressions after photoshop editing
After experimenting with cropping more than one image together to form the expression it was clear this method worked well with the more complex ones, like don't cry over spilt milk and here's a penny for your thoughts. however for others it wasn't necessary and was just overloading the frame. Therefore I decided to capture some more expressions using different people mixing between more than one image in the frame and not, I will edit these prints first and then after printed experiment with the different methods of post production.
These are all the final prints which I have printed in different sizes. I will then post produce using scratching, pens and other methods to create an abstract worn aesthetic as I want the images to seem used and personal echoing how many of these expressions are familiar to people. I edited the more complicated expressions using more than one image and framed them together using slashed lines, taking inspiration from Annette Messager.
Post production experiments
Next I wanted to print off the images rough and have a go at writing on them different clues to the expressions and some paint and scratching to make the prints more personal. This is mainly to get the idea of what to draw on my my final prints without messing them up.
I used many different methods to alter these images after printing them, painting, scratching, drawing with a byro and using a tippex pen to make the image more personal and more of a story and challenge to figure out the different expressions which where being presented. The processes which I thought suited the images the best was the words in tippex pen and paint also the byro patterns which I will therefore use these for altering my final prints.
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Final peice Prints
Presentation inspiration - john baldessari
This is collage done by John Baldessari which was presented excellently how it goes down illustrating a story through the different images, the way they are all different sizes and had different post production methods applied with the circles covering peoples faces and the silhouettes painted in colour. I wanted to take inspiration from this work and try and tell a story with my expressions and the post product I am going to do.
After laying out my prints in the order and format which they will be presented I could see the story, humour and challenge of figuring out the expressions coming together well. I asked some friends to try and figure out which image presented what and was pleased to see it wasn't very easy however most people nearly got them all in the end and the process was very humorous. Therefore I feel the way I had selected to present the work with the writing and painting worked to provide clues and distracted the viewer slightly in addition the collage made the images come together in unison to illustrate a story.
Final post produced prints not mounted
Here I present the final prints with have been post produced using many different methods which I found through my experimentation, the main ones where using red and blue paint and apply it through splatters, swirls and writing. Second I used white and gold pens and a tippex pen to draw the eye lines and writing on the images and finally I used scratching. This had the intentional effect of making the images more personal and relatable to people in addition it made the expressions more creative visually and gave the mind more to think about when figuring out the expressions.
Drawing, witting and painting on these images was a very enjoyable process, I spent a long time trying to create the right visual presentation which is both aesthetic and a fun challenge to find the expressions in each image. In addition with the layout I will create in the exhibition people will be able to create their own stories to fit the collage.