my starting point: 'fantastic and strange'I have selected the theme 'fantastic and strange' as my starting point for the Externally Set Task. I have been researching different artists on pinterest such as Jerry Uelsmann. I have seen some of his work before, he focuses more around photoshopping pictures, to create the strange and fantastic images. Another photographer i have been looking at is Mari Mahr, I really like the way she includes fantasy and dream like sets of images, so it would be interesting to try and create some images, based around her main themes. I have been a fan of Djuno Tomsni, he has given me inspiration in past, and i think his work really fits in well with the theme I picked.
In this exam I want to focus less on creating the images in photoshop. I want to do this because, I think it will be harder to create images by just taking pictures of something, whilst making them interesting and strange. This is because even though photoshop can be hard to learn to use, I believe it would be easier to create more interesting photographs, so I feel like i want to challenge myself more for the real exam, my experimenting more with different photographic techniques. |
my pinterest account
Here is a link to my pinterest account, where I will be pinning pictures that give me inspiration and photographs that i might try to re-create.
forced perspective photography
Whilst searching on pinterest for inspiration, I came across pictures that were taken from different perspectives. They are cleverly taken to try and trick the people who are looking at the picture, to make them believe the picture looks like it is taken from the from angle. I really like this idea, and I would really like to try to re-create some of these photos. Here are a few examples, from different photographers.
my first set of images
I think my first set of images turned out well, for my first try at taking these style of pictures. I think I did well at angling the camera in the right places to make the pictures look like normal photographs. When I take my next set of images, I will take more pictures in different positions.
my second set of images
I really enjoy taking these types of pictures, because I think they are really fun, as it tricks the audiences mind. Although to improve these pictures, and make them even more fantastic and strange, I could add effects to the pictures or use photoshop.
my third set of images
I really like the way this set of images came out. One reason why I like these images, is because, this time I used the effect of black and white as well as using, two people to take the photographs for the whole set of images, which I like because it can show their relationship with each other through their positions and facial expressions. This was definitely the most successful set of images I have taken so far, however to improve on these photos, i would of tried taking pictures at different angles, to see what ones worked or not.
mari mahr
Mari Mahr was born in Chilli in 1941. In 1973 she came to London to study photographic arts and she has lived in London and worked here ever since. Mahr usually works in series, each with collections of small black and white images. She creates both remembered and invented images combined, whilst including mystery into her images for people to unravel. Her very fist exhibition was a The Photographers Gallery in London, since then she has exhibited 30 more times around the world. Mari Mahr makes 'photoworks', by combining photographs and objects, then she would re-take the photograph but include the dream like effect.
"...the creation of atmospheres of experience and memory, events and feelings beyond the edge of the picture, has remained the hallmark of her work." Tom Evans
"...the creation of atmospheres of experience and memory, events and feelings beyond the edge of the picture, has remained the hallmark of her work." Tom Evans
'presents for susanna'One of Mahr's most well known collections is called ' Presents for Susanna '. I especially liked these sets of images, because in each photo she places a different gifts over a picture of her friend as a child, then re-photographs the picture. But with the different gifts Mahr adds into the photos, it shows the friendship growing over time. Not only do I like the way the pictures were taken, but what the presents also symbolise, both of them growing up. We see a part of her personal life, which I think connects with the audience. A lot of her work tells us something, that has happened in her life. Another example of this, are places where she has visited, these memories allows Mahr to turn them into photographs.
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brassai
Brassai was a Hungarian photographer, who studied painting and sculpture at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest. In 1920 Brassai moved to Paris, where he would live out the rest of his life. His photographs made him internationally famous. In 1948 the Museum Of Modern Art in New York had a one-man show for Brassai. I have chosen a few photographs of his, shown below. I really like the way he takes his photographs, because there is a sense of mystery shown in them, for example someone's face being covered. However to create the photographs, he doesn't use a computer, he just takes the pictures when he sees an opportunity, which really stands out to me because, those are the types of pictures I would like to create.
Abigail Reynolds
In these photographs above, Abigail Reynolds uses second hand tourist guides, old books and encyclopedias to use as material to create her pictures. She then look for similarities between different pieces of materials, like the scale the pictures are printed on and the view points of the image. An example of this was a piece of work she created, made up by two different pictures in time, but of the same place, comparing the differences of the two pictures. This is done by layering the images on top of each other, then creating patterns, by cutting and folding the picture on top, so both of the pictures get merged together. I would really like to try photographs like Reynolds, but using different techniques to merge two pictures together.
"The act of folding one image into the other pushes them out into three dimensions in a bulging time ruffle"
-Abigail Reynolds
"The act of folding one image into the other pushes them out into three dimensions in a bulging time ruffle"
-Abigail Reynolds
my response
The main thing that stood out to me from Reynolds work, was the theme of old and new that comes up in lots of her photographs. I decided to try and create photographs inspired by her work, that are oh the same place and angle but from different periods in time.
Firstly I tried to find photographs, or accurate drawings of parts of greenwich park, that are in different time periods.
Firstly I tried to find photographs, or accurate drawings of parts of greenwich park, that are in different time periods.
my shoot
Iphoto
final outcome
The next thing I plan on doing, is experimenting with, different ways of comparing the two different photographs or drawings. I would like to do this, to show the contrast between the two different time periods.
experimenting With display
With these pictures of the Queens house, from different time periods, I thought that it would really work if I mixed the pictures together somehow. I thought an effective way of doing this was just by cutting each picture into sections, and including different parts of the two photographs to create one picture. I thought this was the best way to display the pictures, however The main thing I really like about these pictures is, its not really the difference in the Queens house you notice, but the differences in the background. For example in the original photo, there were no skyscrapers only some small buildings.
experimenting No.2
To create these sets of images, I took the original photos, and converted them into negatives. When I printed them out, I then went into the dark room and placed these photos on top of photographic paper. The effect this had on the final outcome, was that they came out positive, in black and white. I decided to create a collection this was, because it
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was more of an interesting process, than just turning the photos into black and white, using photoshop, or iPhoto.
One thing I really like about this set of images, is that they turned out blurry in different parts, which I really liked. I think because of that, it made the pictures strange, and makes them have a sense of mystery about them. |
As the pictures are blurred, it makes it harder to tell that some of the pictures created are drawings.
However something I had some difficulty with, was how long the light exposure should be for. I started off with exposing a picture for 5 seconds, but then I found that some came out a bit darker than I would of liked. But then I found that using |
floris neusussFloris Neususs's is a photographer who is well known for the photograms she creates. He focuses his work around studying and creating photograms, which were first exhibited in the 1960's. Since then he has then consistently explored the photograms numerous technical, conceptual and visual possibilities. Some of his photograms are based around the whole human body |
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my response
In response to Floris Neususs's work, I decided to create a cyanotype including the human body, to create an outcome that would be similar to Neususs's photograms. To create my cyanotype, I used two A2 pieces of mounting board, which I covered in Potassium ferricyanide and Ferric ammonium citrate which were both mixed with water, to create an ion salt solution. Although I liked the way Neususs only used the human body in his photograms, I decided, I wanted my cyanotype to tell the people looking at it, something about the person in the picture. As I was the person in the cyanotype, I decided to include objects that were linked to music, as I really enjoy it and I play instruments. The objects I used were; CD's, iPod, headphones and cut out music notes. One way I could of improved, was by picking heavier objects, as some moved around in the wind. However because of this, the things that moved created a ghostly outline of the object faintly. But I really liked that about the picture, because it created more of a colour range in blue. Overall I really liked the outcome of this cyanotype, as I think it is interesting to look at and it was fun creating.