Over the summer I visited the Photographer's gallery in Oxford Street where I explored the exhibition "How to win at photography". This exhibition demonstrated how photography and play go hand in hand as it looked mostly at the concept of video games and social media. I enjoyed it as I think there was a nice balance of technological pieces as well as portraiture photography and prints of landscapes and objects and it really makes you think about the process of something so instantaneous as a video game. It was also interesting to look at some of the portraits done by some of the photographers that I look at later on in my project such as Cindy Sherman.
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Cindy Sherman - Untitled 1975These images really stood out to me. I really like the composition of the image and the mid shot of the woman. Her posture and facial expression also adds a certain mood and makes her appear tough and strong which stereotypically was not associated with woman in the 70s.
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These images by Cindy Sherman are part of the VERBUND COLLECTION. In order to emphasise the pioneering work done by the female artists of the 1970s, Gabriele Schor came up with the concept of “Feminist Avant-Garde”. This focal point includes almost 600 artworks by 85 artists. They make a theme of their bodies, question the diktat of beauty, and deal with the construct of female identities.
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Cindy Sherman- Untitled 1975I also found that this image grabbed my attention. The composition of the image makes it vert theatrical and dramatic which I really like. The photo almost looks painted as its very orchestrated and elegant.
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This statue is of the Greek Goddess of War and Wisdom, Athena. Athena had control over all aspects of public life from the Military, justice and politics to the arts. She was viewed as an emblem of strength, intellect and order and therefore continues to be placed on government buildings, law courts, military insignia and universities around the world. This specific statue of Athena shows her wearing a helmet and heavily robed, with a breastplate, embellished with Medusa's head, symbolises Athena's power to conquer evil. Looking at Athena was very interesting and earning more about the impact of her power and how she was worshiped by many.
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This dish is thought to be decorated by Ekif women from the Cross River area in Southern Nigeria. The engraving is said to be showing a female figure with a fishtail holding a purse, a comb and perfume bottles, objects related to wealth and beauty. The figure is Mami Wata, the spirit of water and wealth. She reincarnates through visions, dreams.
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Cindy Sherman has worked with the construction of identity, playing with the visual and cultural codes of art, celebrity, gender, and photography. She was a prominent artist in the 70s and was one of the influential photographers of the group Pictures Generation who responded to the mass media landscape surrounding them with both humour and criticism, appropriating images from advertising, film, television, and magazines for their art. Sherman was always interested in experimenting with different identities. she produced a series of untitled Film Stills where she would put on different outfits and costumes and photographed herself in various settings with deliberately selected props to create scenes that resemble those from mid-20th-century movies.
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'The Kiss' by Naf SelmaniThe colour works really well here as well as the colours contrast so it makes the man more prominent in the image so you focus on both elements of the photo.
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Craig WhiteheadWhat I really like about Craig Whitehead's images is that he uses colour with itself to create a certain effect, like how he uses two opposite colours; the blue and the orange surrounding it. It sections out the images into the background and foreground.
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Craig WhiteheadWhilst this image should be dreary because of the rain, the different splashes of bright colours add some interest to it and makes the image more exciting to look at.
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Lee Friedlander is an American photographer and artist that most prominent works were created in the 1960s and 1970s. Friedlander explored and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," with many of his photographs including fragments of store-front reflections, structures framed by fences, posters and street signs. What makes his images unique is that many are asymmetrical and instead focus on merging the images of the foreground and background with a reflection. Friedlander was inspired by previous photographers; his photography follows in the tradition of documentary photography as practiced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank.
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I found these images by Craig Whitehead very interesting to look at for my stand of "Reflection". In particular, I like the image of the reflection in the rain, I think the silhouette of the person is so clearly outlined and prominent it creates another setting purely due to the layer of water, like another perspective. The upside down photo of the right side up reflection adds another dimension to the image which I find really interesting. The second image is similar in a sense to Saul Leiter's work (who we looked at previously) with the dash's of colour and the refection in the windows. I like the addition of the minimal colour in an otherwise quite plain and monochromatic setting or background.
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« Prenez-soin de vous » "Take care of yourself" in french, is a project Sophie created after her boyfriend broke up with her over a latter in 2007. The letter ended with "take care of yourself". As a response to this, she sent her break up letter to around 100 women to gain perspective and to try and understand and process this letter fully. She went to countless women in different professions; Mothers, psychologists, anthropologists, psychiatrists, composers, singers, philosophers. The goal of this awkward request is to comment, dissect, analyse, and elaborate on this break-up letter in order for the artist to be able to move on at her own pace. She then took photos of these women reading the break up letter and capturing their reaction. This series of photos was made into a book, a collection of these images. this project opens up ideas about love and heartache, love and intimacy, and identity. Sophie Calle explained "I received an email telling me it was over. I didn't know how to respond. It was almost as if it hadn't been meant for me. It ended with the words "take care of yourself" and so I did. I asked 107 women chosen for their profession or skills to interpret this letter. To analyse it, comment on it, dance it, sing it. dissect it, exhaust it. understand it for me. Answer for me. It was a was of taking time to break up. A way of taking care of myself"
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Calle’s secretive photography project began on her return to Paris in the late 1970s, when she decided to follow strangers through the streets while aiming to reacquaint herself with the city. She followed one of her Parisian subjects, Henri B., on his trip to Venice. She met this subject at a party when he disclosed to her that he was moving to Venice. Sophie then decided to move to Venice and follow him around, documenting all of his movements. Suite Vénitienne was the resulting book, first published in 1979 and re-released this month in collaboration with Siglio. She phoned hundreds of hotels, even visited the police station, to find out where he was staying, and persuaded a woman who lived opposite to let her photograph him from her window. |
Sophie Calle "Suite venitienne"
Intentions: she followed this person for the pleasure of following them, not because they were interesting. She was aiming to acquaint herself with the city. |
I took inspiration from Sophie Calle's method but aims to use this to gain a better understanding of the person's identity through examining their day to day life.
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Dryden GoodwinDryden Goodwin is a British artist based in London, best known for his intricate drawings which are often combined with photography and live action video. This particular project I am looking at is called "Cradle". The gradual increase of magnification of the photographs allow the viewer to examine in depth the intricacies of the scratched line. In each of these works, the subjects are caught at a candid moment of focused thought. The deep and moving atmosphere of these moments contrasts with the mundane nature of the urban context they are in. The gesture of mapping their faces makes the image more intimate as we're looking more in depth to the structure of the face. The web of lines forms a cradle to hold their particular features and expressions. These markings are an attempt to elevate the individuals above the street in which they have been spied. |
"Cradle" |
Mr Chamsi-Pasha. In 2006, comedians Owen Powell and Alex Horne produced a project where they were challenged to meet a person from every country of the world that live and work in London. At the time there were 192 countries officially recognised by the UN. Owen and Alex failed in their task by a margin of three, but helped prove to the world that London is one of the most culturally diverse cities out there. Dryden Goodwin captured this portrait of Mr Chamsi-Pasha who represented Syria. Goodwin said: "In my portrait of Mr Chamsi-Pasha my hopes were to portray first and foremost a strong notion of dignity and history. With the photograph I took and chose to work with, it was the sense of Mr Chamsi-Pasha’s face, his composure, a sense through his demeanour and his intensity of gaze, conveying a richness of his life and the culmination of his years of work and life experience. I felt a responsibility making this image, in light of the volatile and tragic events still unfolding in Syria and his home city of Homs, affecting his family. I hoped to create an image imbued with reflection. The drawn lines over the surface of the photograph are undertaken with a reverent touch that attempts to reach in and beyond the image, to represent the energy and life force, to draw out detail and empathy, connecting with a person’s physical appearance with the suggestion of the complexities of the inner world." |
Dryden Goodwin "Cradle"
Goodwin intended to show how the web of lines form a cradle to hold their particular features and expressions. These markings are an attempt to elevate the individuals above the street in which they have been spied. |
I took inspiration from Goodwin's aims and intentions as well as method to try to map out a stranger's facial features in an attempt to understand them in more depth and get a sense of their identity through facial expressions.
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In this task, I wanted to use the same technique of gradually increasing the magnification of the image to gain a further understanding on the greater context of the photo. As I did this, the image became, what initially was quite a spacious street portrait, quite a noisy, pixilated image. I find it interesting exploring other aspects of the photo as the final image is not even remotely crossing your mind when you look at the first image. This concept really allows the viewer to look at the bigger picture and look outside of the box.
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Daniele Buetti is a Swiss visual artist. He works with a range of different creative mediums such as photography, sculptures and drawing. In his series "Looking for Love", he worked on pictures of supermodels from journals and magazine, drawing tattoos, and scratching adhesions on their printed skin. “Light, no doubt, is the most seductive and the most magical of all the media,” he said. “Flashing, colourfully sparkling spots enthral us like moths drawn to the light. This simple, indeed crude trick allows me to lead the observers very close to the work.” Daniele Buetti communicates through his artwork, dealing with issues in today’s consumer society.
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Amy Friend "Dare Alla Luce"
She aims to comment on the fragile quality of the photographic object but also on the fragility of our lives, our history and touches on the concept that all are lost so easily. |
Amy Friend used a method that I found very interesting and wanted to replicate. I would say that Friend's work has the biggest influence in my developing work through both her intentions and method.
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To create this work, I used inspiration from my first development where I looked at work by Sophie Calle. I followed my friend around Alexandra Palace making it appear like she didn't know where the camera was and then eventually she would turn around and look into the camera. This would produce a set of photos where I gradually got closer to her. I then put these photos together and used Amy Friends technique of poking holes into the image to bring her figure to life with light. I started smaller on the image where she is further away and then gradually connect the images and make the hole bigger when we reach a close up portrait of her. The aim was to use light as a symbol of life as I am able to manipulate it with the image by taking it away, adding it, increasing the intensity or the shade. I am pleased with the result of this development, to improve it however, I would like to try another less noisy setting where the background doesn't distract from the focal point and allows for the figure to be more prominent. The final image below is the photo on the light box after poking the hols through. I am very pleased with the result of this final image as it's almost like you are discovering more and more about her the closer you get. Furthermore, I enjoy how the images are all separate but joined together by the dots. |
Line
Leading lines are lines that point you into the frame, towards the subject. In addition to lines that lead in to a composition, you can have multiple lines that converge into the frame, or towards the subject. Converging lines can be the edges from numerous buildings or trees, or any group of edges pointing towards the middle of the frame from all sides. |
Shape and form
The main difference between shape and form is that things with form are three dimensional, having height, width and depth. The more interesting the form, the more interesting the image. |
Value
Value refers to how light or dark something is in a photograph. It refers to the shades of white, black, and grey. My photographs are taken at night meaning that my images are relatively dark so that when I later poke holes in the images, the light has a big enough impact. |
Space
The way you put forms and shapes together occupies space within a frame. This arrangement is the composition and also leaves empty or “negative space” around and between other forms. This negative space can become an interesting compositional element as well.When you’re looking for a shot, especially in urban areas or with portrait work, not only are the forms within the frame important but the space that isn’t occupied by these forms can be just as poignant. |
Colour
Colour is comprised of three parts: hue, value, and intensity. The 'hue' is simply the name of the colour (e.g. red, blue, green, etc). The 'intensity' refers to saturation (how bright and pure the colour is), while the 'value' refers to luminosity (how bright or dark the colour is). |
Continuity
Continuity refers to how the shapes and lines within your image work together to lead from one to the other. The end of one shape should lead directly into the next shape or shapes. Continuity describes how the objects within your composition flow from one position to the next. |
Duane MichalsDuane Michals is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text. His impact in the photography industry began in the 60s which was an era heavily influenced by photojournalism. Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. This particular sequence series called "chance meeting" I find very interesting. I think the
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In this task I was mainly focusing on the composition of the image. The background of my last development was quite busy and could take away some of the attention from the flow of the light dots and the individual herself. Furthermore, the camera is in a different angle in all 4 images which can be distracting and also disturbs the harmony of the photos together. I wanted to work on this in the studio and see the result with a consistent background and camera positioning. I am pleased with how the images turned out and how they look when assembled together. However, I do still want to include the element of distance and walking towards the camera so that I can vary the sizing of the whole to complement each figure.
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