Art Photography
Index Page 3 and 4 ....................................................................................... Carlos Tarrats Page 5 and 6 ........................................................................................... Miss Aniela Page 7 and 8 .............................................................................................. Oleg Dou Page 9 and 10 ..................................................................................... Alexia Sinclair Page 11 and 12 .......................................................................................... Flora Borsi Page 13 ............................................................................................... Work Proposal Page 14 ....................................................................................... F irst Photo Shoot Page 15 ............................................................................ First Photo Shoot Review Page 16 ................................................................................... Second Photo Shoot Page 17 ........................................................................ Second Photo Shoot Review Page 18 ........................................................................................ Third Photo Shoot Page 19 ........................................................................... Third Photo Shoot Review Page 20 and 21 ................................................................................................ Editing Page 22 ................................................................................................ Body Of Work Page 23 ........................................................................................... Artist Statement
Carlos Tarrats
Miss Aniela Carlos Tarrats Carlos Tarrat’s photograph is of a broken vase full of – what I’m guessing is- flowers. They are on a flat surface (probably the floor) and they are in front of a cream coloured wall. This cream coloured wall has a black block of paint on top of it and then there is a third layer of red paint or spray paint on the very top. I feel like the flowers and vase are the focal point and then you are meant to look up at the splattered wall, but the bold, bright red on the wall steals attention away from the vase. I feel like I cannot pick out any elements of design. There are no leading lines, there is not a lot of contrast between colours and the composition is really basic. The vase is in the lower centre of the thirds but this composition does not help bring attention to it. I feel like the photograph is messy. There is the broken vase and then there is the unorganised, splattered paint on the wall. The only messages/themes I can get from this photograph is destruction and to an extent death. The plant on the floor is really dried up and it just looks unhealthy. There is this kind of chaos in Tarrat’s photograph and the black and bold red colours splattered about help create that feeling.
Miss Aniela This fine art photograph is by Miss Aniela. The image is a portrait of a woman’s face covered in drawings/pictures and there is a peacock feather in her hair. The background is a dark blue that looks black and the hair of the woman blends into the background. The photograph was originally taken of the woman with no pictures on her face and her makeup was pink not the reddish colour it is now. The lighting of the photograph is concentrated on the face only because there is no need for background detail and there are no leading lines for the same reasons. The photograph relies more on the contrast of colours. The pale face of ‘Kai’ stands out from the contrasting dark background and then the colour drawings stand out from the pale face. Even the darker peacock feather in the hair stands out from the dark background. The editing done on this photograph is great. When looking closer at the photograph you can see even more detail. There are drawings in the eyes and the drawings are not just put on top of the face. The drawings are edited to have the same texture as the skin making them look like they were painted on. It would have taken a lot of time and patient to get it all done with such detail. This piece was a commercial one and it was obviously successful since it is hanging up in the assigned restaurant. I am not quite sure what message they wanted to get across but the restaurant is an Asian one and the pictures and style matches this.
Oleg Dou
Oleg Dou Oleg Dou’s photograph is of a head and shoulders portrait of a child with antlers. The child is almost as white as the white background it is standing in front of. The photograph is a bit eerie and alien-like as everything except for the antlers is white. The child’s skin, eyes and lips are all white making the child look like a sculpture. In this photograph there are no leading lines, and the composition is very basic. The image itself is simple but the contrast between the eerie white of everything and the bold red of the antlers strikes an interest. The child looks so abnormal and almost mythical compared to what we are used to which creates this interest in knowing more about it. The photograph has been edited. Oleg likes to smoothen out the skin of his models’ and he likes to make them uncannily real but fake looking all at the same time. He has changed the colour of the skin and has changed the eye shape a bit. He has also changed the colour of the pupils to make them white. Although it is white there is a little bit of a pink tinge around the child’s eyes. This little detail is what makes the boy look that tad bit real. Dou has made everything in his photograph look like a piece of art. The antlers and the child itself looks like it was sculptured by someone and then Oleg has taken the photo. To me this series has that essence of a child’s imagination. The bold red antlers stand out as a part of the surreal and because the child looks so innocent I just can’t help but to think about what is going on in the child’s head.
Alexia Sinclair
Alexia Sinclair
This fine art photograph is by Alexia Sinclair. This image is of a European-looking lady who is half nude, lying upon a field of flowers. The part of her that is half nude is almost fully covered by a painted flower that matches her dress. The reason why I say she is European looking is because of the way her hair is up, reminds me of an older, Jane Austin or earlier style, which is more known to Europe. The lady has a feather in her hair and a fan is lying near her head. The silk dress that has puff sleeves and the pale whiteness of the woman all lead to an early European style. The plants in this photograph help bring attention to the woman. The plants surrounding her are dark compared to her brighter blue dress and her paleness, they curve inwards towards her like leading lines and there are the orange flowers that complement the blue. To me this photograph holds a lost in time look. The way the woman gazes out into the distance and the way she is casually laying upon the bed of flowers gives this feeling that she has comfortably been there for a long amount of time. I think that the image is also interesting because it is sort of scandalous. You wouldn’t expect to see a woman in such old European clothing to be so open with her nudity. Even from an artistic point of view, this kind of openness was and still sort of is, scandalous.
Flora Borsi
Flora Borsi This photography by Flora Borsi is of two young women in the nude. One of the girls is holding a gun and shooting the back of the other. Where you would expect to see blood sprays and bullets, you see butterflies. The two ladies have golden hair and they are standing in front of a white wall which is tinged yellow from the firing light of the gun. This photograph has a lot of implied symbolism. Firstly nudity is a symbol of vulnerability and the woman being shot is obviously very vulnerable. The woman holding the gun looks reluctant so she too could be vulnerable but in a different way. She is vulnerable in the way that someone innocent is forced to do something so explicit. The second main symbol is the golden colours of their hair and the butterflies. These golden colours are usually used to glorify something or to express a light beauty, but this photograph appears to be the opposite of this. This photograph reminds me of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. They’re bedtime stories that started off as really gory, but then they have been readapted to be beautiful and nice, for example Cinderella. The fairy tale started off as a tale of enslavement and greed with the gory twist of cutting feet because of said greed. Then Disney came along and decided to change it to a lighter, happy ever after story. I feel like this photograph shows a contemporary issue of terrorism and how young children are being forced and lured into doing the wrong thing. Then these children are glorified and become a part of the media frenzy. The gun and nudity represent the reality and the butterflies are trying to cover it up by making it look less explicit.
Work Proposal It may sound strange to some, but I have always wanted to turn my body into a work of art. I have dreams of tattoos that cover my whole back, but not just randomly. I vision it as a complex and linked piece of art. Being heavily influenced by Miss Aniela’s photograph Kai Face, Flora Borsi’s Artwork II and my own visions, I would like to try to photographically and digitally make my body a piece of art. I want to do a similar concept to the Kai Face in which I use images and textures to create that ‘art work’/’painting’ look, on a bodily surface. For this assignment, I will probably use myself as a model as it is easier, more convenient and the vision of tattoos I have, is for my own body. I will also be doing the shoots at home for privacy reasons. This is because I will need to fully expose different body parts, for example my back. I want to use a blank, white, background as well, because I want to highlight the body more than anything else. I will also need to play around a bit with the lighting, to see which styles look best and which styles will highlight the exposed body better. I may need an external flash and I may need to do some extra work with said lighting in Lightroom. For editing, I will try to use some of my own drawings and will use pictures from the internet to do the artwork part. I will scan in the drawings and then use Photoshop to add them to the body. I will try blending techniques and textures to try and make the drawings look like tattoos. I will also try hand colouring like I have done in a previous assignment. I may also try to do something similar to Flora Borsi’s work. Instead of just having the drawings/pictures flat and 2D, like Kai Face, I’ll try to have the drawings popping out of the body. This is to make the drawings look like they are a part of me, trying to come out to the open. The drawing and picture selection will be based on images that have a meaning to me, for example a picture of the HMAS Sydney, with smoke coming out of it in the shape of a dragon. This represents both my mother and father who are obviously a significant part in my life and the united element of it being my parents’ everlasting link. The final body of work will be a sequence of my body gradually being covered by the drawings/pictures. The first photo will be of my blank skin and then each photo after will have the drawings gradually making its way across all of my exposed skin. The last photo will then be edited to have that 3D; drawings come out of my body look. I’ll make the last photo like this because I think that if I just leave it 2D, the sequence may seem boring. I also think it won’t have as much meaning (mainly to me) as I want it to. I don’t think I have a particular message that I want to get across to others. I am just presenting a part of my inner self and showing my love for art. I think that if stretched there could be an underlying message about the stigma behind people with lots of tattoos. Some people say that tattoos are not professional and that you’ll regret your tattoos when you’re older. It’s even worse if you are between the ages 16-20. Some people avoid you because they think you are bad or a rebellious teen but I am not. While I don’t have any yet, I am someone who appreciates art and wants to engrave part of my soul on my skin. I try to constantly work hard and if my tattoos represent me, than I don’t think there is any reason for me to regret them when I am older.
First Photo Shoot
First Photo Shoot Review -Hair is better up than down -Sheet looked weird -After looking at these photographs I do feel a bit insecure, so for the next shoot I am going to see if I can have a friend model for me. I will take photos of the two of us separately and see which ones look better. Though this would mean that I have to change the artwork ideas I had previously and will need to re-think what I wanted to come out of this project.
Second Photo Shoot
Second Photo Shoot Review -Maybe try modelling without the pants on, because cropping them out limits the space. -I do prefer my friend’s photos over mine just because he has a better figure than me (in my opinion). -The tensed back, with hands on head looks good (male model pose). -There is one photograph of me that I thought looked good but it wouldn’t work with the theme -Maybe cut down on the photographs too. I will be using the same one for all 5 photographs.
Third Photo Shoot
Third Photo Shoot Review -I like these photographs. The poses are nice and the lighting is good. -The tensed back with hands on the head is still the best pose. -I thought about the message I want to conceive and I think it is on similar lines to what I had originally planned. -The artwork is now changed too and it matches with what my model likes. -The necklace and watch, may be a problem when editing.
Editing Editing To create my final body of work I used both Lightroom and Photoshop to edit the photographs. I first used Lightroom to crop the photos down so that only the back showed and then I changed the presets to black and white. After doing this I opened the photos in Photoshop. I also had a few photographs from the internet to use for the artwork/tattoos. I started off with the photo of the dragon to add to the body. I used warping tools and smudging to get the photo to fit onto the body naturally. I also lowered the opacity so that the textures from my model’s back came through to the surface. This is what gives the photographs that painted on look. I repeated these steps for all of the artwork. During the stages of smudging and adding the artwork I would save the photograph as it was so that I would have the in process look that I wanted for my body of work. Once I had finished the final product I was meant to work backwards to erase bits of the artwork so that I could save it (because I needed more photographs). But me being distracted me, closed the tab. So instead of erasing and working that way, I decided to do a quick select of only part of the dragon image, re-warp it to the body shape, fix the opacity and then save it that way.
Body Of Work Artist Statement Although I did not use myself as the model for this assignment, I still used something personal. With my model’s permission, the ‘artwork’ I photoshopped onto him was something that holds some meaning to him. I think it my project still holds that message that we should embrace ourselves and forget the insecurities. I missed out on an opportunity to show myself to a wider audience because I was too afraid of my own insecurities. We close doors on ourselves when we give in to the fear and when we are not completely proud of our work when we are not true to ourselves. My photographs look somewhat confident because my model was confident in himself, to show who he is and to show off his beauty. This is something I hope to be able to do in the future and I am sure many people will relate to that feeling. The photographs can be the wish that other’s like myself want to make real and they can be a reminder to other’s to stay true to themselves.