For Unit 1 I have researched many different photographers to inspire me in making my final pieces.These photographers were Dafna Talmor, Karl Blossfeldt, Saul Leiter and Bruce Gilden. Whilst researching about these photographers I have experimented with the way in which they use different techniques and tools to create their photographs and I have also looked at a range of different photographs which work in a variety of different themes. One of the photographers which I have researched was Alfred Stieglitz,his pictures stood out to me because I very much liked the way in which he used texture,repetition and line to make his pictures very different from one another whilst photographing the same subject which were clouds. Another artist which I researched was Ernst Haas and I tried to emulate his work by taking pictures with a very slow shutter speed whilst still focusing on a certain object or person to create an abstract photograph.
During Unit 1 I have investigated 3 different themes which were Abstraction, Street Photography and Fragments. My first impression of Abstraction were that the subject would not really have to resemble anything or that it would be very hard to work out what the photographs were but subsequent research has proven that Abstraction can take many forms. One of the photographers which I have researched in this was Saul Leiter as he mostly focused on abstract photography but also street photography which I had previously studied. I studied both his photography but also his paintings as they were mostly another version or reflection of some of his photographs but in a simpler and more abstract from. I then experimented by using a DSLR camera to create some Saul Leiter inspired photographs by recreating some of his photographs by painting them in his style. I then developed my response to his work by taking pictures inside and outside of school and what interested me the most about Saul Leiter was the way in which he worked with reflections, so this is what I focused on. I experimented firstly at school where I was also abe to use Photoshop to develop my pictures further and give them a better and sometimes more abstract effect.I was able to think about my ideas of reflection a little more and refine them whilst going into the center London for a school trip. I took all of my images using my Nikon D3200, I tried to make my images similar to Saul Leiters in the way which he composes his pictures whilst thinking of the formal elements.I feel that I achieved my objectives in Abstraction and I will be taking it forward in my work.
For the Street photography subject I started by watching a film about street photographers called 'Everybody Street' this really helped me to gain an understanding in street photography and was a good start to my research. This opened up some useful avenues with regards to my final piece,for example, the different techniques and cameras which different street photographers use. I decided to use both a DSLR camera and my Iphone for this project as these formats allowed flexibilty and speed of use to capture the everyday happenstances. The Iphone especially allowed me to be discreet and capture people being themselves. For this project I researched a street photographer called Bruce Gilden, I really liked how confident he was whilst taking his pictures and also how he hid his camera behind him so that people didn't know and he was able to get a very unique facial expression. I unfortunately wasn't confident enough to go out on the streets and do this, however, I did make an attempt of this within school and I think that it went rather well.
Finally Fragments. I chose this category as I felt I could be more experimental with fragments with both makings collages and using Photoshop. Firstly I made a pinterest board to find some inspiration for my final piece and to support my understanding of what Fragments could mean through doing varied research. I researched quite a few artists for this project such as Karl Blossfeldt and Michael Wolf who inspired me to make my final piece. Wolf used shadows and texture effectively and I thought they would be interesting to use in the darkroom context, whilst Blossfeldt had very interesting lines within his compositions. I also linked this project back to Abstraction as I thought that the two ideas of Fragments and Abstraction would work well together. During this project I mostly used the dark room as I made many photograms and made positives and negatives of the same pictures.
During the course of the year I have experimented with many different techniques,materials, and processes: such as cyanotypes, chemigrams, photograms, camera obscura, pinhole camera, Photoshop, Iphone apps, Ipod, Light boxes and paint. I refined and developed most of my cyanotypes,photograms and chemigrams using Photoshop,for example, to increase/decrease contrast, change their colour to create duotone versions of them.I attented a workshop with the consemptual landscape photographer Dafna Talmor, where I used old family and landscape pictures. These were taken with a film camera and to use things such as lightboxes and paint to make them more effective or to overlap the pictures to make them look more abstract and using only fragments of some.
The final outcome for my first project which was Abstraction which was a series of photographs which I took during the school trip. I felt it showed my understanding of how Saul Leiter used reflection in his work as this was a central tennant of what I tried to capture. I did not have a clear idea at first as to what I wanted to do for my final piece however after doing some research and looking at Saul Leiters work with reflection I was inspired and wanted to experiment with his ideas. I also felt that the 3 images went well with each other as the lines and textures were similar to one another, the colours also worked well together so this made the final piece stand out much more.
My final outcome for Street photography was mostly based on what I had learned during the film 'Everybody street' as I was inspired by all of the photographers which I had seen in the film and wanted to show my understanding of the whole subject rather than just one artist. I unfortunately did not have enough confidence to go out in public and take pictures of strangers, however I had successfully given it a go during school and though that it worked well. I chose the 3 pictures as I felt they represented everyday life the best.
For my last personal project my final piece had to go through many more processes than my other two final pieces. I wanted to experiment much more inside the dark room as I felt that I did not do enough in the darkroom for previous projects; I took inspiration from two different photographers whom where Michael Wolf and Karl Blossfeldt. I had already done an experiment with circles however I wanted transport this idea further into my final piece. I firstly took pictures of tree shadows as I wanted to bring Abstraction into my idea too, I then made positive photogram versions of these images using the darkroom, I refined this idea by cutting out circles from magazines and placing them randomly onto the pictures, afterwards I made a negative photogram of the positives with the circles on them.To develop this idea I cut out some more circles from both the positive and negative photograms which varied in size and placed different sized circles from magazines into the final piece as I wanted to give the final piece some colour and bring life into it.Overall I am very pleased with my final piece as I feel that it worked well with my whole project and supports my understanding.
During Unit 1 I have investigated 3 different themes which were Abstraction, Street Photography and Fragments. My first impression of Abstraction were that the subject would not really have to resemble anything or that it would be very hard to work out what the photographs were but subsequent research has proven that Abstraction can take many forms. One of the photographers which I have researched in this was Saul Leiter as he mostly focused on abstract photography but also street photography which I had previously studied. I studied both his photography but also his paintings as they were mostly another version or reflection of some of his photographs but in a simpler and more abstract from. I then experimented by using a DSLR camera to create some Saul Leiter inspired photographs by recreating some of his photographs by painting them in his style. I then developed my response to his work by taking pictures inside and outside of school and what interested me the most about Saul Leiter was the way in which he worked with reflections, so this is what I focused on. I experimented firstly at school where I was also abe to use Photoshop to develop my pictures further and give them a better and sometimes more abstract effect.I was able to think about my ideas of reflection a little more and refine them whilst going into the center London for a school trip. I took all of my images using my Nikon D3200, I tried to make my images similar to Saul Leiters in the way which he composes his pictures whilst thinking of the formal elements.I feel that I achieved my objectives in Abstraction and I will be taking it forward in my work.
For the Street photography subject I started by watching a film about street photographers called 'Everybody Street' this really helped me to gain an understanding in street photography and was a good start to my research. This opened up some useful avenues with regards to my final piece,for example, the different techniques and cameras which different street photographers use. I decided to use both a DSLR camera and my Iphone for this project as these formats allowed flexibilty and speed of use to capture the everyday happenstances. The Iphone especially allowed me to be discreet and capture people being themselves. For this project I researched a street photographer called Bruce Gilden, I really liked how confident he was whilst taking his pictures and also how he hid his camera behind him so that people didn't know and he was able to get a very unique facial expression. I unfortunately wasn't confident enough to go out on the streets and do this, however, I did make an attempt of this within school and I think that it went rather well.
Finally Fragments. I chose this category as I felt I could be more experimental with fragments with both makings collages and using Photoshop. Firstly I made a pinterest board to find some inspiration for my final piece and to support my understanding of what Fragments could mean through doing varied research. I researched quite a few artists for this project such as Karl Blossfeldt and Michael Wolf who inspired me to make my final piece. Wolf used shadows and texture effectively and I thought they would be interesting to use in the darkroom context, whilst Blossfeldt had very interesting lines within his compositions. I also linked this project back to Abstraction as I thought that the two ideas of Fragments and Abstraction would work well together. During this project I mostly used the dark room as I made many photograms and made positives and negatives of the same pictures.
During the course of the year I have experimented with many different techniques,materials, and processes: such as cyanotypes, chemigrams, photograms, camera obscura, pinhole camera, Photoshop, Iphone apps, Ipod, Light boxes and paint. I refined and developed most of my cyanotypes,photograms and chemigrams using Photoshop,for example, to increase/decrease contrast, change their colour to create duotone versions of them.I attented a workshop with the consemptual landscape photographer Dafna Talmor, where I used old family and landscape pictures. These were taken with a film camera and to use things such as lightboxes and paint to make them more effective or to overlap the pictures to make them look more abstract and using only fragments of some.
The final outcome for my first project which was Abstraction which was a series of photographs which I took during the school trip. I felt it showed my understanding of how Saul Leiter used reflection in his work as this was a central tennant of what I tried to capture. I did not have a clear idea at first as to what I wanted to do for my final piece however after doing some research and looking at Saul Leiters work with reflection I was inspired and wanted to experiment with his ideas. I also felt that the 3 images went well with each other as the lines and textures were similar to one another, the colours also worked well together so this made the final piece stand out much more.
My final outcome for Street photography was mostly based on what I had learned during the film 'Everybody street' as I was inspired by all of the photographers which I had seen in the film and wanted to show my understanding of the whole subject rather than just one artist. I unfortunately did not have enough confidence to go out in public and take pictures of strangers, however I had successfully given it a go during school and though that it worked well. I chose the 3 pictures as I felt they represented everyday life the best.
For my last personal project my final piece had to go through many more processes than my other two final pieces. I wanted to experiment much more inside the dark room as I felt that I did not do enough in the darkroom for previous projects; I took inspiration from two different photographers whom where Michael Wolf and Karl Blossfeldt. I had already done an experiment with circles however I wanted transport this idea further into my final piece. I firstly took pictures of tree shadows as I wanted to bring Abstraction into my idea too, I then made positive photogram versions of these images using the darkroom, I refined this idea by cutting out circles from magazines and placing them randomly onto the pictures, afterwards I made a negative photogram of the positives with the circles on them.To develop this idea I cut out some more circles from both the positive and negative photograms which varied in size and placed different sized circles from magazines into the final piece as I wanted to give the final piece some colour and bring life into it.Overall I am very pleased with my final piece as I feel that it worked well with my whole project and supports my understanding.