PHOTOGRAPHY

Project Five
The Portrait and the Self Portrait

For this project we were asked to look into Portraiture and Self Portraits. Portraiture when commissioned from an artist is expected to flatter the subject and show them as they wish to be seen by others. They have been around for a long time and we know some of them for example, Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Vermeer's Girl with a Pear Earring. Self Portraits by artists as expression has also been around for a while. The artist always has themselves as the subject and in both they are recording detail, although some may not be a true honest image.

LEONARDO DA VINCI 

Painting Bio:-

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as 'the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of the art in the world'

The Mona Lisa is the most famous painting anyone will ever come across. Its been done behind an imaginary background, which is the again the concept of wanting people to see her this way. The form and structure of the portrait is very symmetrical and even, which makes it even better. There the same kind of tone across the whole image that's also interesting. Overall I think its a good portrait of showing someone.

JOHANNES VERMEER

Painting Bio:-

The painting Girl with a Pearl Earring is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's master works and as the name implies, uses a pear earring for a focal point. It is now the collection of the Mauritshius gallery in The Hague, but in 2013 has toured the United States with other works.

I like how simple and true this portrait is. Its very simple but has an effect on its viewers. Although its an fictional character that he got someone to dress up as, its still a good Portrait that you could say is how he wanted people to see her, instead of how she wants people to see her. I like the bold colours and the way her eyes seem like there glaring. It really draws your attention to the photo.

REMBRANDT

Painting's Bio:-

The dozens of self-portraits by Rembrandt were an important part of his oeuvre as a painter. He Created nearly one hundred self-portraits during his lifetime including approximately fifty paintings, thirty-two etchings ans even drawings. The self-portraits create a visual diary of the artist over a span of forty.   

Most of Rembrandt's paintings seem dark and not very well lit when looking at them, which makes me think that this is how he wanted people to see him. With an unclear shot of his whole face. This adds character to his series of self portraits which then create a narrative, almost like a visual diary of the artist as said above.

SELFIE

A selfie is a type of self-portrait photography, usually taken with a hand held digital camera or camera phone, most popular the iPhone, with its handy front camera. Selfies are often associated with social networking. In Korea the word selca, short for 'self camera' means photos taken of oneself. They are often casual and are typically taken either with a camera held at arm's length or in a mirror, and including either only the photographer or the photographer and as many people as can be in focus. Selfies that are taken and involve multiple people are known as 'group selfies'. The term 'selfie' originated in Australia in 2002 on an internet forum.

In August 2013, the Guardian produced a film series titled: Thinkfluencer exploring selfie exposure in the UK. Denoting a pathological condition: Selfieism.

MY EXAMPLE SEFIES

MY WORK
Self Portrait

'Honest' Self Portrait

I was asked to take an self portrait showing what I thought shows me in a true honest way. I feel that this images does that as when taking the image, I was in my everyday form and changed nothing different about me for the image. There is an exposure of light used and that was to enhance the image all over and give it a different effect, almost like an filter. Although I have done this I still feel as if the image is still me in a very honest way and a way in which I don't mind others seeing me. I decided to place me near the bottom right of the image so that there is almost an even ratio to me and the background which makes you focus on both. The background glow allows me, the subject to stand out more in this image. 

How I want to be seen Portrait

For the second part of this project I was asked to take a self portrait that shows me in a way in which I would like others to see me. For this one I decided to change the lighting dramatically. I wanted to create a mood/emotion for the viewer and I think I have done well to achieve that. To create this image I had all the lights off and one spot light on just below me to get this effect. I wanted it to be very dark and eerie like. I tried to pull an expression-less face but I think I have shown some sort of emotion which suggests that I'm angry or some what mischievous. Once taking the photograph I edited further to allow me to get the image more darker to set a mood even more. I did originally want the whole background of the image completely blacked out, but I thought that was a bit cliché, so I decided to allow some light though in the back. 

MY WORK
The Portrait

For this part of the project, I took a photograph of someone that I know and in an honest way. I asked the subject to be facing a side profile as I thought it would be an interesting way of showing an portrait. Also I used some lighting in this photograph and I wanted to create a slight shadow behind the subject, almost a silhouette. The subject is also not dressed in any way particular and has a normal facial expression which also shows the honesty in the image. I took the photo in black and white as I thought it went well with the character and personality of the subject. Also I think is very effective and still shows a lot of detail compared to colour images. I think that black and white images creates more of a mood rather then a coloured photo. 

Here is an image of my subject and how I wanted him to be seen. This image is also linked to my self directed project. Firstly I took a photo of my subject quite close up and face forward. I wanted to get a clear shot of his face so that it could be later on be manipulated in the way I like. Then after I decided to use Photoshop to manipulate the image to show an 'Glitch' effect. I decided to do this because I wanted to show that mistakes can be interesting and all of us make mistakes of our own through life. I also just wanted to separate areas of his face so that the audience could concentrate on certain areas and get some sort of emotion from them. I wanted to show confusion and distortion.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Project Four
Soundscape

For this project B, we were asked to look at a photograph and add a sound to it. For example something from your childhood or an photography will often evoke a memory. Also some artists use sound to compliment their artwork at times. Sound and vision are most important in how we see and interact with the world. It's difficult to re create a sound from a memory so its important to sometimes record these things. So instead of just simply recording a video, I am going to choose an photograph and re create it as a Soundscape.

JANET CARDIFF

Artist Bio:-

Janet Cardiff is a Canadian installation artist. She works in collaboration with her partner George Bures Miller. Janet first gained international recognition in the art world for her audio walks in 1995. Cardiff's installations and walking pieces are often mixed media and audio-based. She has been included in exhibitions such as: Nine Artists in the Nineties,San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern Opening Exhibition as well as a project commissioned by Artangel in London. This project 'The Missing Voice (Case Study B' was commissioned in 1999 and continues to run. It is an audio tour that leaves from the Whitechapel Library, next to the Whitechapel tube stop and snakes its way through London's East End, weaving fictional narrative with descriptions about the actual landscape.

Forest (For a Thousand years..) 2012
CARDIFF & MILLER

Materials: Audio Installation

Duration: 28 Minute Audio Loop

A remarkable thing about Janet Cardiff ans George Bures Miller's utterly captivating sound installation is how it blurs distinctions between site ans art. You enter a clearing in the forest, sit down on a wooden stump, and simply listen. Cardiff and Bures Miller's work incorporates the actual forest into an audio composition emitted from more than thirty speakers. Sometimes there is a near synchronicity of natural and meditates sounds, and its tough to discern what is live and what is recorded. 

MY WORK

Here is the image I have decided to use for the project. I work at an Tesco Extra, in New Oscott, Birmingham. It is one of the biggest ans busiest stores in the area. When going to work I hear various different sounds and voice from babies crying to married couples talking, tills beeping, as well as my fellow colleges. When at home or away from work I block out everything about it including the noises I hear. When bringing up a memory from work, I rarely remember the noises going on around me. I thought It would be interesting to record as I was going in and getting ready for work as I would like to compare the different areas of work as some parts are quieter than others. Also to show the busyness of the store itself only through sound.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Project Three
Stills and Movement

For this project we were asked to look into still images and putting them into a video as a sequence, narrative or other. When using more than one image in a sequence, it becomes a narrative. It can be traditional story telling or and abstract approach.

THOMAS DEMAND

Artist Bio:-

Thomas Demand is a German sculptor and photographer. He has been the subject of one-person exhibitions at the Musuem of Modern Art, New York and the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin and he has represented Germany at the Venice Biennale and the Bienal de Sao Paulo. Demand lives and works in Berlin. 

JAMES COLEMAN

Seeing for Oneself (1987-8), film still

Artist Bio:-

James Coleman is an Irish installation and video artist associated with slide-tape works: sequences of still images fading one into the other with synchronized sound. Often, social situations are depicted with a precision which, paradoxically, creates a narrative ambiguity. 

AN INSTAGRAM SHORT FILM

An Instagram short film from Thomas Jullien on Vimeo.

Whilst doing some research, I came across this video by someone called Thomas Jullien that I found interesting. Instagram is a Photo sharing social networking app. Its an incredible source for all kinds of pictures. He states that he wanted to create structure out of chaos. The result is s crowd source short-film that shows the endless possibilities of social media. The video consists of 852 different images, from 852 different Instagram users. I love the idea and the concept behind this video.

MY WORK

I decided to use the sequence images I had from my previous project as I had a total of 96 frames which I thought was enough. Firstly I thought I would create an GIF image to show the narrative of my images rather than a video. I did this because I find it a much more simpler way of showing my images as they are, without any edits or transitions at the moment. I will continue to work on these images and eventually create a video from them. 

PHOTOGRAPHY

Project Two
Photography and Time

When you look into Photography and Time, there's a lot of things that come to mind, for example a series of photos taken at one time or and photo that has been taken, that looks like it could of been taken years ago. Either way these images could tell a story and all have something to do with time and timing. 

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

Artist Bio:-

Eadweard James Muybridge was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. Muybridge's reputation as a photographer grew in the late 1800s. 

Speculation raged for years over whether all four hooves of a running horse left the ground. The former Governor of California believed they did, but the motion was too fast for human eyes to detect. In 1872, Muybridge began experimenting with an array of 12 cameras photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots. Between 1878 and 1884, he perfected his method of horses in motion, proving that they do have all four hooves off the ground during their running stride. Whilst working at the University of Pennsylvania, he produced thousand of images of humans and animals in motion. 

JOEL-PETER WITKIN

Artist Bio:-

Joel-Peter Witkin is an American photographer. His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses and sometimes dismembered portions thereof and various outsiders such as dwarves, transsexuals, hermaphrodites and physically deformed people. Witkin's complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or classical paintings. He says his family's difficulties also influenced his work. His favorite artist is Giotto. His photographic techniques draw on early Daguerreotypes and on the work of E.J Bellocq. 

His work has an old feel to it which makes it interesting, but I do find his work very weird and strange. I don't really see why he likes to create these pieces of work. I would see it as trying to compare life and death. But this is a example of how time could be shown through images. It's how the picture is taken and the meaning behind the photo. 

JOHN COPLANS

Artist Bio:-

John Coplans was a British artist. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United Sates in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and North America. He was on the editorial of Art Forum from 1962 to 1971, and was Editor-in-chief from 1972 to 1977. His photographic self-portraits challenged the taboo on ageing. 

I really enjoy John Coplans work and its obvious that his work is all about ageing which is related to time. I think its a very interesting way to look at time. Everyone can relate to his pieces of work because its a show of life and what we all go through. The pieces are put up very largely and its an effective way of looking into the detail of his photographs. His self portraits show me that over time he was accepting his body and the way it became over time. I'm very inspired by his work and in the  future I would like to work on pieces similar to this. 

MY WORK

For this project I decided to do something similar to Eadweard Muybridge's work. I took a sequence of images of someone arraigning flowers. All together I have 96 frames, but here I have only shown 20. I chose this as I think its the most effective way of showing time through photographs even though there's a small amount of time between the photographs. I chose flower arraigning as its something obvious you can see the changes in rather then someone walking for example. I had my camera on a burst setting that allowed me to take many pictures at once. I'm pleased with how these images came out and would like to create me with many frames. As I was also very influenced by Johns Coplans work I decided to take some images similar to his. 

MY WORK

Here I have photographed my younger brothers hand. He is the youngest member in my family so according to time and age, I thought it was appropriate to use him. I decided to take the photograph focusing on one part of the hand, as its the most detailed and I think I've done well to show that. I decided to take the photograph in colour because I think you can see everything much more and its a true show of what his hand actually looks at rather then guessing like black and white images. I wanted to get a lot in the frame, so that you know its a hand but it isn't clear.  

PHOTOGRAPHY

Project One

For our very first project we were asked to research and look at a an artist that we are interested in. I have to produce a photograph that emulates or parodies the work of my chosen artist/photographer. Here are a few artists that I looked in to.

Artists that inspire and influence. 

WILLIAM EGGLESTON

Artist Bio:- 

Native Southerner William Eggleston's photographs monumentalize everyday subject matter, such as motel rooms and store fronts, in eccentric, refined compositions. Each detail is important, potentially carrying beauty and mystery. The main catalyst for New American Colour Photography, Eggleston is largely credited with legitimizing colour photography (especially with the dye transfer process) as a fine art form. Teaching himself from books of prints. He began photographing his environment in the 1950s, but turned to color, then used largely only commercially, in the late 19603 Egglestons 1976 'Colour Photographs' show at the Museum of Modern Art was ground breaking for its sticking, saturated colour but also for his observational style, often deemed democratic.  

I became a very big fan of William Egglestons work ever since I came across it. In a way his work is very urban and cultural. He is simply capturing everyday scenes with a slight difference and they are very bold photographs. Although the frame is simple he catches quite a lot of detail throughout. The angles and textures add a lot to the images and I think its good how selective he is with what he wants in the frame even though some are staged. Each image makes you feel and emotion and makes you question why he chose to take that picture. What I enjoy mostly about his work is his use of bold colour. I think that makes a huge impact on the images, which is what makes them so interesting to look at. For me the images all most make me want to be in the image. He influences my work greatly and will continue to do so in the future. 

William Eggleston - Tricycle in Memphis - 1970

This is one of my favourite images by Eggleston. Again although its very simple, for me it has alot of meaning behind and has a lot of detail in if you look carefully. Firstly its a low angle, almost like a snake view making the tricycle appear bigger than what it is. In this image I see a childhood. The size of the bike shows the the joy and fun you feel when that age. Childhood memories might be missed and it suggests that when you are a child you feel a sense of pride and joy over things like this tricycle. Over all I enjoy every aspect of this image from the angles, colours and even the symmetry. 

MY WORK
Work influenced by William Eggleston..

MARTIN PARR

  

Artist Bio:-

Martin Parr was born in Epsom, Surrey, UK. He got into photography because of his grandfather who was an amateur photographer. His early works in 1970 are exclusively black and white photographs. After that in 1980 he then went on to colour film. Martin Parr has created an international reputation and is best known for his projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life. His photographs offer us the opportunity to see the world from his unique perspective. These projects mainly focus on simple ans suburban life in England. At first glance, his photographs seem exaggerated or even grotesque. The motifs he chooses are strange, the colours are garnish and the perspectives are unusual. Parr's term for the overwhelming power of published images is "propaganda". But at the same time they show us in a penetrating way how we live, how we present ourselves to others, and what we value.

What I enjoy mostly about Martin Parrs work is the British Culture film his images show. Similar to William Eggleston who he was also inspired by, he captures simple everyday scenes of various things from beaches, sports ect. I have decided to look more into his food series: British Food. The bright colours throughout his images makes everything stand out so much more, and almost makes normal food look highly appetizing. I like the way it shows our British culture to the world, and it makes me feel like I'm part of his work. In most recent days food photography has become very popular on social networking sites like Instagram and Facebook. Picturing food could be seen as a new Social Art. Below are some images that I have taken using my iPhone 5.

MY WORK
Work influenced by Martin Parr..

This is my favourite image of mine that I have taken. I call it 'Chocolate Fantasy'. For this project I only wanted to take images of food that people would find interesting and appetising. I used my iPhone 5 to take this image which is 8 mega-pixels and still captures beautiful images. I wanted to capture the food well, but also get some detail in the background, so viewers could imagine where the photo has been taken. I took the picture at a restaurant called 'Tinsel Town', which is like a remake of an American diner. The image alone looked very detailed and bold to me, but I wanted to add something different. So I decided to add an filter/edit on my image. The edits that chose made the photo look dream like and stands out more with the light leaks that I added. I did this to make it look much more appetising and I think I did well to show this. 

Similar Images..

For all of my images I wanted to show something much more appetizing then what the actual image looked liked before. For all these picture I have used different edits and filters, I have even combined more than one together. I used these to make the images more bold and colourful and they defiantly stand out more after the edits. My iPhone automatically focuses on parts that I want it to and I think it works well. I try to get as much detail in the background of a picture, rather then just the main object that you see at first. 

PRINTMAKING

Accumulate and Disperse

Artist Statement.

For this project I simply looked into the words accumulate and disperse and created my own assumptions of what they mean to me personally. Most things we accumulate in life are for a purpose, so I decided to look at how another species, birds accumulate things for themselves in their natural habitat. Birds build up nests for themselves with a range of different materials and the nest itself could be seen as a collage, sculpture and a mixed media type of art. I wanted to show this through my work building up layers with different types of prints and materials worked in on top. Feathers were also a huge interest to me as they are very delicate, complex structures on their own. So I wanted to show the use of them slightly more than the other materials. I also wanted to look at the contrast of colours whilst experimenting with my prints as I think it’s important to work with different techniques to show different things.

Artists that inspire and influence.

LILY PANG

Artist Bio:-

Lily Pang is an artist that does illustration, original paintings, printmaking and develops art products such as laptop skins, art pendants, magnets and stationary. She aims to beautify your surroundings with useful functions.

 Although she uses most of her work for various different objects, I find her bright prints interesting enough on there own. She tends to look at nature and natural forms a lot which I like and will hopefully use within my own work. The main thing that attracted me to her work mostly is the bright colours. Its very eye catching and makes you question the pieces of art more. She has used an exaggerated contrast of colours that I think work very well. There is an obvious build up from these lino prints that add to the vivid effect of colours. You can see behind the flower piece that other colours are coming through. Her work defiantly Influences mine and I will experiment with colours throughout my work, also looking how colour compares to black and white prints.

JOHN DOUGLAS PIPER

Artist Bio:-

John Douglas Pier studied Drawing at the Wimbledon School of Art and then went on to pursue a BA in product and furniture design and Kingston University, a field in which he subsequently worked for more than a decade. But his true passion is Drawing. He pays close attention to the crafting of a line and of an object, so central to John's creative education and work, lends itself particularly well to the highly exacting medium of dry-point etching. He states, this is an unhurried process developed in the 15th-century and most suitable for the artists trained in drawing. John's dry-point etchings focus on the theme of British wildlife, on the flora and fauna native to out isles, and he has a delightful touch when capturing the pose and poise of his subjects.

As my project is relatively based around the nature and lifestyle of birds it was good for me to look into the work of John Douglas as his work focuses on British wildlife. John's work defiantly shows off his drawing skills well in his pieces and I feel that etchings are the best way to show that, as a form of printmaking. His work has a huge amount of detail to it which I'm attracted to. They almost just look like drawings themselves. The fact that they are done with black ink only, still makes them stand out just like colour prints because there is so much detail. After looking at Johns work, I will attempt to create etchings and mono prints that capture a lot of detail.