UNIT ONE EVALUATION.
During the whole of unit one I used pinterest to research many of my images and to find new photographers. One topic this was particularly useful for was the personal projects of fragments. When we were given the selection of themes to choose from, fragments really stood out to me, as I felt inspired by the word. This topic called into question the ideas of ‘Conventional photography’ and how we can turn these rules around. A conventional image has certain traits such as being in focus, being of a single object, having only one exposure. We expect photos to have a square or rectangular border acting like a window into a real scene. Changing the presentation of an image by fragmenting it reminds us it’s not real and is only a 2d piece of art. Therefor fragments completely turns these rules on their heads by cutting up and merging different images. Idea I am most interested in is changing the framing to ones of crystal like shapes, made of triangular sections of other images. I developed my ideas by searching for images that I believed linked to the ideas in my head. One of my first ideas was to cut up and distort numerous images at different angles of the same object. I then went onto pinterest to research images and found one of a fox. This was the inspiration for my first piece. I was unable to find the artist who created the piece but it inspired me to look at combining multiple images. I found the image closely linked to the ideas of cubism as it showed one object from a combination of images to explore certain features in more detail, questioning the way it looks normally. From there I continued to distort and manipulate the images I had taken, to create gem like structures using different interlocking triangular shapes. This led me to create a final piece with the outline of a rock with a gem like pattern inside. The image I put inside the frame was one made up of multiple images layered together. I did this as it followed the cubist ideas of representing something from more than one angle and in more that one single image.
One photographer who inspired my work greatly was Merve Ozaslan, during my year 11 mock. I was inspired and interested in the messages her images convey. Her collages call into question the relationships and balance between nature and humanity. Her view is one, which expresses the fact that we are all part of nature and this reflects clearly in her works. She injects vibrant and beautiful colour into the bland and mundane city landscape, brining natural beauty into dull city life. With my theme being the natural world I was able to explore and develop these ideas throughout the topic. Whilst on a trip to the photographer’s gallery I took lots of images of the city. I focused on buildings and man made objects such as statues, which I would be able to use later on in my works. The photos I took whilst in London were very successful and were the ones I used for my final piece. I had Ozaslan’s ideas in my head whilst taking my photos, which helped me to select scenes that would look interesting once manipulated. I took her ideas and developed them to create my own idea. I chose to create two sets of images, one a natural scene with unnatural images placed into it, and one of an unnatural landscape with nature placed into it. I wanted to produce two sets that would juxtapose each other’s base ideas, yet link visually. I created three images for each idea and after consideration on how to present them, printed them onto post cards. I thought of this as the base images were taken in London and Dorset, both two popular holiday destinations. The Dorset images were the ones I created first. As the images I used were from my own holiday, I thought it would be lovely to create my own personalized post cards. I loved the idea of making something so personal and meaningful to me, yet being in post card form, could therefor be sent to anyone in the world, sharing with them my treasured memories in art form. I find it interesting how the images would mean something completely different to me, than from how the receiver of the post card would view them. I used a canon selphy printer to print my images with. I absolutely fell in love with this machine and found it so exciting to watch my images being printed colour, by colour. The inks in the printer were old ones, which further added to the vintage feel that I had already tried to create whilst editing the pictures, which gave them even more character.
One process I found incredibly interesting was creating a camera obscura. An artist whom I found particularly inspiring throughout this was Abelardo Morell. I think his photos are so mesmerizing and fantastically beautiful. The detail and beauty of the outside world his images capture is completely stunning. I found the process of creating a camera obscura absolutely fascinating and couldn’t wait to try it out myself. Firstly I created a small one inside a cardboard tube using a black card base, and a sheet of greaseproof paper for the image to be projected onto. I was captivated by how you could capture a part of real life for yourself that only you could see. After the initial excitement of creating my own basic projection I wanted to capture it. The quality of the small cardboard obscura was quite blurry so I decided to make a bigger, clearer one. I then decided to use my room to create my giant camera. I covered the windows in black bin liners and cut open a small hole to allow the light in. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the little amount of light in the room but once they did it was completely amazing. Being in a room with an image of the outside world being projected onto the wall upside down was so surreal yet so peaceful. Sitting watching the trees sway in the wind was simply beautiful. I took a picture of the image on the wall using my DSLR camera. I experimented with multiple exposures ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minuets. As the exposures we so long, to prevent it becoming a blur, I attached the camera to a tripod to keep it in place. I found that the longer the exposure, the clearer the image came out. I probably could have even tried exposures of 10 minuets. If I were to improve it, I would have picked a sunnier day to make it so that the images would have been even clearer. It was incredibly rewarding to sit in a camera that I had created and watch the sun move across the wall. It taught me allot about the basic workings of a camera and just how important light is to making an image. I also think it helped my understandings of how to expose a photo when using a digital camera, especially in dim lit spaces.
One technique I have developed throughout this unit is my Photoshop skills. I think my knowledge and technical skill was really improved whilst at my work placement. I spent my time working with the digital retoucher at Dan Tobin smith photography studios in central London. It was such a great learning experience for me and I was so lucky to be introduced into the world of retouching. I learnt how to use so many new tools such as the clone stamp, which has helped me greatly since in multiple projects. I took everything on board that they taught me and I feel like that experience dramatically improved my confidence and skills on the software. I began to use Photoshop during the fragments topic to create new shapes out of images I had taken. In the beginning of the project I was using much larger less intricate shapes, however by the end I had refined these shapes into delicate crystal like outlines. After experimenting with Photoshop during the fragments unit I decided to use it for the subject of ‘The natural world’. I began to make collages combining images I had taken to fill in shapes, rather than creating my own like in fragments. This development allowed me to try different techniques on the Photoshop software. I also added filters to the images to give them a more vintage and less ‘new’ feel. I wanted to create something that did not have the obvious lines of Photoshop, but the subtlety of something that looked like it belonged to the image it was in. By constantly experimenting with a variety of edited images I was able to find a style I liked and made each image accordingly. By the end of the Natural world project I created an outcome I was extremely proud of, and greatly developed my Photoshop skills.
During the whole of unit one I used pinterest to research many of my images and to find new photographers. One topic this was particularly useful for was the personal projects of fragments. When we were given the selection of themes to choose from, fragments really stood out to me, as I felt inspired by the word. This topic called into question the ideas of ‘Conventional photography’ and how we can turn these rules around. A conventional image has certain traits such as being in focus, being of a single object, having only one exposure. We expect photos to have a square or rectangular border acting like a window into a real scene. Changing the presentation of an image by fragmenting it reminds us it’s not real and is only a 2d piece of art. Therefor fragments completely turns these rules on their heads by cutting up and merging different images. Idea I am most interested in is changing the framing to ones of crystal like shapes, made of triangular sections of other images. I developed my ideas by searching for images that I believed linked to the ideas in my head. One of my first ideas was to cut up and distort numerous images at different angles of the same object. I then went onto pinterest to research images and found one of a fox. This was the inspiration for my first piece. I was unable to find the artist who created the piece but it inspired me to look at combining multiple images. I found the image closely linked to the ideas of cubism as it showed one object from a combination of images to explore certain features in more detail, questioning the way it looks normally. From there I continued to distort and manipulate the images I had taken, to create gem like structures using different interlocking triangular shapes. This led me to create a final piece with the outline of a rock with a gem like pattern inside. The image I put inside the frame was one made up of multiple images layered together. I did this as it followed the cubist ideas of representing something from more than one angle and in more that one single image.
One photographer who inspired my work greatly was Merve Ozaslan, during my year 11 mock. I was inspired and interested in the messages her images convey. Her collages call into question the relationships and balance between nature and humanity. Her view is one, which expresses the fact that we are all part of nature and this reflects clearly in her works. She injects vibrant and beautiful colour into the bland and mundane city landscape, brining natural beauty into dull city life. With my theme being the natural world I was able to explore and develop these ideas throughout the topic. Whilst on a trip to the photographer’s gallery I took lots of images of the city. I focused on buildings and man made objects such as statues, which I would be able to use later on in my works. The photos I took whilst in London were very successful and were the ones I used for my final piece. I had Ozaslan’s ideas in my head whilst taking my photos, which helped me to select scenes that would look interesting once manipulated. I took her ideas and developed them to create my own idea. I chose to create two sets of images, one a natural scene with unnatural images placed into it, and one of an unnatural landscape with nature placed into it. I wanted to produce two sets that would juxtapose each other’s base ideas, yet link visually. I created three images for each idea and after consideration on how to present them, printed them onto post cards. I thought of this as the base images were taken in London and Dorset, both two popular holiday destinations. The Dorset images were the ones I created first. As the images I used were from my own holiday, I thought it would be lovely to create my own personalized post cards. I loved the idea of making something so personal and meaningful to me, yet being in post card form, could therefor be sent to anyone in the world, sharing with them my treasured memories in art form. I find it interesting how the images would mean something completely different to me, than from how the receiver of the post card would view them. I used a canon selphy printer to print my images with. I absolutely fell in love with this machine and found it so exciting to watch my images being printed colour, by colour. The inks in the printer were old ones, which further added to the vintage feel that I had already tried to create whilst editing the pictures, which gave them even more character.
One process I found incredibly interesting was creating a camera obscura. An artist whom I found particularly inspiring throughout this was Abelardo Morell. I think his photos are so mesmerizing and fantastically beautiful. The detail and beauty of the outside world his images capture is completely stunning. I found the process of creating a camera obscura absolutely fascinating and couldn’t wait to try it out myself. Firstly I created a small one inside a cardboard tube using a black card base, and a sheet of greaseproof paper for the image to be projected onto. I was captivated by how you could capture a part of real life for yourself that only you could see. After the initial excitement of creating my own basic projection I wanted to capture it. The quality of the small cardboard obscura was quite blurry so I decided to make a bigger, clearer one. I then decided to use my room to create my giant camera. I covered the windows in black bin liners and cut open a small hole to allow the light in. It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the little amount of light in the room but once they did it was completely amazing. Being in a room with an image of the outside world being projected onto the wall upside down was so surreal yet so peaceful. Sitting watching the trees sway in the wind was simply beautiful. I took a picture of the image on the wall using my DSLR camera. I experimented with multiple exposures ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minuets. As the exposures we so long, to prevent it becoming a blur, I attached the camera to a tripod to keep it in place. I found that the longer the exposure, the clearer the image came out. I probably could have even tried exposures of 10 minuets. If I were to improve it, I would have picked a sunnier day to make it so that the images would have been even clearer. It was incredibly rewarding to sit in a camera that I had created and watch the sun move across the wall. It taught me allot about the basic workings of a camera and just how important light is to making an image. I also think it helped my understandings of how to expose a photo when using a digital camera, especially in dim lit spaces.
One technique I have developed throughout this unit is my Photoshop skills. I think my knowledge and technical skill was really improved whilst at my work placement. I spent my time working with the digital retoucher at Dan Tobin smith photography studios in central London. It was such a great learning experience for me and I was so lucky to be introduced into the world of retouching. I learnt how to use so many new tools such as the clone stamp, which has helped me greatly since in multiple projects. I took everything on board that they taught me and I feel like that experience dramatically improved my confidence and skills on the software. I began to use Photoshop during the fragments topic to create new shapes out of images I had taken. In the beginning of the project I was using much larger less intricate shapes, however by the end I had refined these shapes into delicate crystal like outlines. After experimenting with Photoshop during the fragments unit I decided to use it for the subject of ‘The natural world’. I began to make collages combining images I had taken to fill in shapes, rather than creating my own like in fragments. This development allowed me to try different techniques on the Photoshop software. I also added filters to the images to give them a more vintage and less ‘new’ feel. I wanted to create something that did not have the obvious lines of Photoshop, but the subtlety of something that looked like it belonged to the image it was in. By constantly experimenting with a variety of edited images I was able to find a style I liked and made each image accordingly. By the end of the Natural world project I created an outcome I was extremely proud of, and greatly developed my Photoshop skills.