Narrative essay How does the artist use digital manipulation to address or convey powerful and creative narratives to their viewers? Digital manipulation refers to a very broad area and can be used to design many interesting and creative images or graphic designs, however I will mainly be focusing on the way the artists use digital manipulation to use absence as a narrative device. I will try to answer the question by analysing the techniques that the 3 artists use to create absence in their images in order to convey powerful messages to their viewers. I will look at the concepts behind their work and talk about the main similarities. One of the artist Andrew Lyman, creates ghost like images that portray absence of people and are supposed to be a reminiscent of memories. It links to the question because this artist uses digital manipulation to create these mysterious visuals and creatively represent past memories of others. Eva Stenram uses digital manipulation to remove the models body leaving only the leg in the image. This creates mystery as it makes us question what happened to the rest of the body, which may be the element that makes these powerful, which is also why it links to the question. Oscar Parasiego manipulates the photographs by either creating layers to distort them or using the outline of the person to reflect the environment. He tries to convey a strong message about the immigrants, through the manipulation of these images, which links to the question. All of these artists focus on getting quite meaningful and powerful messages across through their works by using digital manipulation. The concepts behind their work are all different however they link through a more visual metaphor as they all portray absence in the images. Stenram focuses on showing more feminine images. She tries to address the objectifications of the female body with some sense of curiosity and interest by erasing the rest of the body. So in this case absence is created through the disembodiment and a sexual provocation which Stenram uses to involve the idea behind these photographs, which is the sexual revolution and when women entered the workforce in the 1960s. This is a very important topic as women rights were not considered for a long time and they were expected to follow certain rules of society. Artist Andrew Lyman constructs ghostly like images by leaving just a silhouette and faint features of the people in his photographs. His work focuses on the concept of memories through time. I think that the work produced by him is very straightforward as the people in the photographs are very faint. Only some features can be seen which most likely has been done to contrast the idea of a memory being faint and the people in the memories not actually being present. There seems to be a more personal concept behind the work that Lyman chose to do, however it is still something everyone can relate to as we all have memories so this can be seen as a broad theme which he addressed due to the help of digital manipulation.
Andrew Lyman is a photographer and artist living and working in Savannah, Georgia. Pursued a BFA in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Lyman’s work has appeared on blogs such as Booooooom, I Love that Photo and Phases Mag, his work has been exhibited in galleries in Savannah and Atlanta and was recently a contributor to the Blog/Reblog Photography Exhibition at the Signal Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. He would always take pictures of himself and my friends for the internet.
“ I used photography and the internet to create an identity that I couldn't necessarily embody in public during high school. ‘ In his photographs, he uses people and makes them transparent through digital editing and uses dark nature backgrounds. The series of ‘Fleeted Happenings’ explores the transcendence of memories through time in relation to space. I think he used Photoshop to create/alter these images and make the people in the photograph transparent and conceal them with the background image. This makes the images unrealistic as the people in these images look very ghost-like. The person in the image seems to look like us as you can still some features of the face and body. However, even though it is ghostlike it still has a landscape background of a forest which still maintains some real-life elements. I am most intrigued about how these images actually have been created and put together and also what is the narrative behind all of them, do they all have the same meaning. The atmosphere created is very abandoned as these people are in empty backgrounds that have nothing around them. I think the most important part of the images is the people as they are presented to be lonely and isolated in these empty landscapes. All of these images seem to be quiet dark as the scenery is night time which adds to the atmosphere being abandoned. These photos are definitely not crowded as overall what we can mostly just see these forest like scenes and because the people are so transparent it keeps the image quite empty and clean. As Lyman explained this project is about the memories through time so I am guessing that he used the people to symbolise the memories. I think that being in this photograph could be frightening as it would be hard to understand what is real and what is not or it could be that these memories are not positive which can be odd to experience. Also being in the middle of nowhere is a scary and awful concept. His work links to the question because he manipulates the images to convey a strong message which includes absence as well as other artists work. “Consequently, this brings forth questions of life after death, life before existence, and the reality of past memory an non-tangible ‘object’.” Lyman uses these techniques as a broad metaphor for memories and raises a question whether that makes the photographs tangible. This quote also implies that his work has a broad theme where the viewer can interpret it in their own way and relate it to the main idea of memories as well as their own. This work can imply that with the help of Photoshop we can form effective images which have a variety of significant associations that link back to the main topic. Eva Stenram was born in Stockholm and currently lives in London where she received a MA for photography in Royal College Of Art. She uses image manipulation to explore photography and the transformation. She used different kind of imagery to create her work such as her family photo albums or nasa's photos from mars. In the few years she has mostly been working with pin up imagery. Stenrams most current series 'Parts' 2013 uses 1960's pin-up photographs as its source material. Pin up photography in 1960s was very popular and included photos of beautiful and sexy women, that many would display by pinning them on a wall. The images Stenram takes are manipulated digitally, erasing most of the body and leaving only a leg to be seen. This should evoke us to create the rest of the image or what is missing in the photographs which automatically creates the narrative. The result of these could definitely be seen as unreal as it does not apply to real life because of the way the image of the model is changed and cut. If a leg was actually cut off like that we would expect to see flesh and blood, however Stenram leaves us with a clean showcase of the leg and stocking that is on the model for us to revel in. These series are quite similar to her other work as they all have an ongoing theme of retro setting and very monochrome filters used.
In this artwork what we can see is a retro setting due to old furniture and a female's leg placed around in the old scenery. Initially this was just a photo of a model, however the body has been edited out and only a leg is left. The leg has tights on which may be done purposely for a provoking reaction. I would describe these photographs as atmospheric as the sense of absence is strong, but also very intriguing as it causes you to think and question why is the leg there and what did the photograph look like beforehand. The setting is quite spacious and free as usually there is only one piece of furniture captured in the background and there are no other objects around. I think this has been done because Stenram wanted the main focus to be on the leg rather than the setting to provoke conceptual thoughts. This accents the pin up style very well and even though it is unrealistic and the rest of the body is missing the leg still achieves to form beautiful and attention grabbing effects. The appealing composition causes to have a curious feeling as well as thoughts about why has this artwork has been created and why specifically a leg has been chosen. The difference between these two artists is that they have approached their ideas in a different way as Lyman tries to portray something that would be more sentimental and relatable to the viewer where as Stenrams work can be overlooked when trying to figure out the connection to the viewer. Her images might be seen more as weird and almost humorous as it forms an odd and unrealistic outcome. However, this could be due to their themes and styles being completely different. The narrative by these two artists is built by different things, one is based around the memories in the present while in the other one, absence is based around a more historical idea of 60’s pin ups. Even though both concentrate on the past they have different settings and are based on different intentions. Even though they're works look unlike they both include absence of something in their photographs, for example in Lyman's photographs there is people missing and only their faded features can be seen, whereas in Stenram’s images the whole body is absent and only a leg is left. They both also use digital manipulation to create these, which also have strong messages that are being transferred to the viewers. Oscar Parasiego is a Spanish multi-disciplinary visual artist currently based in Madrid. He graduated with an Honours Degree from the MA Fine Art Photography at the School of Photography EFTI in Madrid (2008) He is inspired by his move to UK from Spain and uses photography in order to reflect the mind of immigrants as they seek for stability in new countries. He uses the silhouettes of people to reflect the environment they are in to convey an idea of them becoming a part of this new place. From this we can also think that Parasiego is trying to show how we may sacrifice our true self and adapt to our surroundings in order to fit or ‘blend’ in with everything around us.
In these photographs we can see a scene, in which there is also a silhouette of a person with a reflection of the environment they are in. Most of these seem to be taken in rooms or places around a house. These create a nostalgic feeling and have an absent mood to them. I think that Parasiego has used digital manipulation to create these images to tell a story that the viewers could relate to. The artwork is representative of real life because it uses real life surroundings and even though these images are manipulated, we are still able to recognise that it is real life settings. However, the element that makes these somewhat unrealistic is the outline or silhouette of a person placed somewhere in the photograph which distorts the real image of the surrounding. We cannot see the people in these images which creates an eerie atmosphere because we can't see what they look like and what they might be feeling however, in some of these we are able to see the position they are in whether that is sitting down or standing and it can help us analyse how they relate to the environment they are placed in and what could be happening. The setting is mostly spacious as it these were taken in rooms where there isn't much around and I think because we cannot see the person and they are a reflection of what we already see it makes them appear quite empty however still balanced with the content we are shown. They conceive a ghostlike look because of the people being invisible in these photographs. I am most interested in knowing what the artist wanted the viewers to feel or think and I am also interested in why we cannot see the people. The artist appears to have an ongoing theme with his work and the similarity that sticks out the most is the places and surrounding that these photographs are taken in are all very similar as they seem to be everyday environments such as bedrooms and house rooms. He also explains that his work captures the complexity of human self-reflection. “Some of the themes explore identity, communication, emigration, death and relationships”. His artworks evoke surrealist aesthetics creating powerful and playful images, always in need of the observer to complete the journey. Most of the work he creates is manipulated and changed into something strong and innovative that is trying to get a powerful message across to the viewers. “He is currently interested in pushing photography’s boundaries and exploring the untruthfulness of photography with virtual and invisible technologies. His aim is to re-think photography in an innovative way, no longer as a 2D or frozen time instant but something else.” With all of these artists work time plays a big part as all represent different times in their imagery some focusing on the past or historical and the present. This is the key idea that links all of the artists and their concepts together - the use of absence as frozen moments of various sorts. Also the idea of time could be perceived in his images as they provoke questions whether time is passing or standing still. This also could be linked to main idea of immigration and how maybe time stops for the individual when they move to a new place where they have to learn to adapt to the new environment. Therefore, the narrative behind these images is very powerful and has various inventive concepts behind it, which is due to the help of digital manipulation.
To conclude writing and exploring these artists work has helped see how they use digital manipulation to create strong and innovative images. The element of absence has been a similarity in all of their work which was used to create a narrative. I think that the combination that Lyman and Parasiego has used is similar as they both used people and landscape photographs to manipulate what is happening in the image, and also create work which looks engaging and has meaningful messages behind. Eva Stenram has had a quite different aim to the other two artist as her images focus on having a more thought provoking and also fun outcome rather than getting a significant message across to the viewer. Even though the scenarios in these images are all different they all have similar concept of having something missing in the photograph. I believe that digital manipulation has really helped them to create strong art works which tell interesting stories by using the concept of absence in order to convey meaningful messages. These have all influenced my work as my narrative revolves around the idea of something being missing as well as memories, which are not present. The techniques used by the artist helped me to explore various ways of how I could create interesting outcomes using digital manipulation. I have also done some of the experiments in the style of artists work manually to compare both techniques to see whether digital manipulation works better and whether it forms more effective and interesting images. I have found out that digital manipulation definitely offers a broader variety of possibilities, to create interesting and creative narratives with powerful messages. I believe that it allows us to create art pieces which can inspire others to design creative designs which also have impactful effects and messages.
Bibliography: Andrew Lyman Interview with Queer ATL Photographer Andrew Lyman (November 17, 2016) by Wussy Staff. http://www.wussymag.com/all/2016/11/17/interview-with-queer-atl-photographer-andrewlyman Accessed on: 17/02/18 By Victoria Casal-Data (December 26, 2013) Andrew Lyman’s photographs Of Ghostlike Figures Captures The Transcendence Of Memory http://beautifuldecay.com/2013/12/26/andrew-lymans-photographs-ghostlike-transparentcaptures-transcendence-memory-human-form/ Accessed on: 21/02/18 Eva Stenram By Photoworks (December 21, 2015) Ideas Series Interview: Eva Stenram https://photoworks.org.uk/interview-eva-stenram/ Accessed on: 8/03/18
By Alice Simkins (September 14, 2016) Eva Stenram turns viewer into voyeur for new show http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/32831/1/eva-stenram-turns-viewer-intovoyeur-for-new-show Accessed on: 16/03/18 Oscar Parasiego By Kesh photography blog (November 22, 2016) Artist research; Oscar Parasiego- Layer Masking https://keshphotographyblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/22/artist-research-oscarparasiego/ Accessed on: 29/03/18 By photogrist (February 1, 2014)Light Beatings by Oscar Parasiego https://photogrist.com/oscar-parasiego/ Accessed on: 01/04/18