A2 Graphics Essay Photoshop has enabled the impossible to happen in photographs. Explain how artists have pushed boundaries between reality and the impossible. I have chosen to explore this essay title. I find it fascinating that artists who use Photoshop can achieve the effects they do and can push the boundaries between what is real and what isn’t. The artist’s way of working provokes thought towards the audience, as they question how and why the artist has done a certain piece of work. You often find that digital manipulation is far more successful than hand-made manipulation. When you compare an artist like Taylor Silvia Grav compared to Batool Moazzen-Showghi, who creates collages etc. the work Grav creates is more realistic, Due to the tools and software people can use for their imagery. In my essay I will be studying and looking into different artists that use narratives work and I will try to analyse the impossible within photos created by these surrealists and illustrators, and whether or not the artist has achieved a professional outcome that looks realistic even though we know that it is impossible for it to happen within reality. The first artist I will be studying is Taylor McCormick. McCormick has only been using software such as Photoshop for a few years but has gained some talent and experience whilst creating her images, which has intrigued me in how she creates them. Within McCormick’s work, she mainly uses 2 or more images and blends them together to create her work. Using Photoshop to put these images together into ways, which we could never create in reality. I will also be looking into Silvia Grav’s work, an artist that uses black and white imagery within her manipulations, her work is also very similar to McCormick, as both artists try to break the boundaries being pushed within photo manipulation, but both artists share a different message within their work. I believe that looking into Grav’s work it will allow me to gain a deeper understanding towards narrative work in connection to photo manipulation as Grav’s work hold a darker and deeper meaning, and her work shares more of her emotions and thoughts., she quoted ‘On the other hand, the necessary motor to start making a photograph, will always be pain. I need to lean on it. This can get quite insane if it is the kind of work that feeds you. It’s a kind of vicious circle: To make photographs I need pain, the pain makes me find relief, and I only find this relief by making photographs.’ Another artist I will be studying is Gary Neill. I have chosen to study Gary Neill, as he is an illustrator, who uses Photoshop to illustrate his opinions and thoughts. I found that to study an illustrator instead of another surreal artists would allow me to widen my knowledge of different types of narratives, as Neill’s work is completely different to McCormick and Grav’s. Neill isn’t different in the sense of expressing his emotion and opinion but does so in a less ambiguous and mysterious sense. This range of thoughts and ideas from my artists will be beneficial for my essay as it will allow me to compare the different techniques each artist uses and will allow me to compare the final products and work they produce. A narrative to me is a story told through words or visual effects whether they be photo manipulation, typography or an illustration. A narrative has to have meaning behind it otherwise it isn’t story, the meaning behind the narrative is meant to question its audience, create mystery, especially within photo manipulation. Narratives within graphic design are usually shown as visual pieces, that have an ambiguous meaning and create questioning for the audience, but can have very obvious meanings, it all depends on what message the artist’s is trying to pursue.
Taylor Marie McCormick I have chosen to look at McCormick’s work as I find it fascinating how she has been able to break boundaries between what is real and what isn’t, and the range of ideas and thoughts she creates within her many pieces of work. She creates mysterious and ambiguous pictures within her narrative images that really do make the reader think and ask questions to why the artist has done this in this way or what were her intentions or what was her message. McCormick uses her incredible Photoshop skills and techniques to portray her images and creations, not only to good effect but also to the point of making us believe they are just normal photographs. An important technique she uses is setting up her camera to take two images that are the same, except one will have a person within them, with these two images she is able to combine them by deleting certain objects and overlaying the images together. Taylor McCormick was born on the 14th of September in 1993 in Edgewood, Kentucky. She moved away from her hometown from an early age and she is now a freshman at College where she is currently studying photography. She has been taking pictures for her artwork for 4 years and has done shots for magazines, local businesses and has done graphic design for her local theater groups. She has also done fine art photography that she has managed to sell as prints internationally. During her career she has won both local and national awards for her work.
The images I have chosen to study are two of McCormick’s more surreal and dream-like images, as I believe these two images really push the boundaries between what is real and what isn’t and really shows the power of Photoshop and what you can achieve with it along with other software. The two above images show a dream like scenario between the woman floating in mid air and the other woman sleeping whilst the pillow floats, the artist is trying to use these pieces of work to express her beliefs and emotions, or maybe her desires and dreams, hence the dream like sense we gain from her images. We also gain the sense of a dream like scenario when we look at the background, as the image itself seems quite secluded, with nothing around, which could refer to McCormick’s dreams with her being alone in her own fantasy, and how she wishes the impossible scenarios to the naked eye could come true. The photos are mainly focused on the person in the image, with the scene and setting calming the image to allow us to focus and ponder upon what is happening within the image.
Taylor McCormick’s work is incredibly realistic, using her camera she was able to create these images in a creative fashion which has led her to create a realistic image which we know cannot be real but still question whether it is or not. The colours McCormick uses within these pieces of work are very similar. You often find that the lighting in the images is calm, which reflect on the colours in the image, as they seem to become more surreal and calm. The outfits the protagonist’s wear within the image are both white which compared to the rest of the colours used in the background setting really allow the person to stand out from the image in a realistic manner. The background colours used are very calm and subtle, with the light drawing most of the attention of the background colours away to allow the main purpose of the image to express its self. They also are very subtle in a way to express McCormick’s view and emotion. I believe she has perfected the balance between the subtleness of the colours used in her image. They allow us to focus on what is important within the picture so that we have a clearer understanding of what the artist is trying to express. I believe that McCormick was trying to express her self-belief and desires of what is happening in the image and attempted to bring her dreams and thoughts to life. She has done this through the power of Photoshop and I believe these images are exceptionally effective when the realism of the images is discussed. As we know for a fact what is happening within these two images isn’t real but to the eye it is life like, as if someone has taken just the picture on its own without any editing. The colours play a massive part in her expressions regarding these images, as they are very subtle and calm, almost dreamlike which help us gain further insight to why she has created these images and allow us to relate to her expressions and emotions within her work. In relation to the question I am answering, I believe that Taylor McCormick’s work has really helped me gain a powerful insight to what powers Photoshop has when breaking boundaries between what is real and what isn’t. I believe that McCormick’s skills within the software also play a big part in her incredibly realistic and surreal work.
Silvia Grav Silvia Grav is a Madrid based artist who mainly works on surreal black and white photo manipulations, which hold a deep and artistic meaning. Silvia Grav’s work isn’t classed as pretty, rather that her work seems to be more creepy and dark, but the effects she achieves with her work allow us to understand why the images she creates are to the dark and creepy effects in which she likes.
I chose to study Silvia Grav’s work as her work is similar to Taylor McCormick in the sense of both artists create powerful realistic images. The difference between both artists is that they both produce completely different outcomes despite their similarity in convincing imagery. I first became interested in Silvia Grav’s work when I noticed how unique and exciting her work is due to the original creations and ideas she has. Her style of using the clouds mixed in with black and white imagery is something I had never seen before. The whole concept of her work really allows the narrative itself to behold questions upon the audience, as her work is very mysterious and when you study her work you are always asking yourself why and how she has done her chosen pieces of work., whether you ask why she has used the clouds and what purpose they serve or why the majority of her images are in black and white. I chose to look at the two images above which Grav has created, both similar but in different ways, for one image colour is used, a rare siting within Silvia Grav’s work. The other image has used blending tools to create the body of the human sitting down to become vapour or cloudy. I Chose these two in particular because these two images made me question why Grav has created these images and what sort of message is she trying to express, is she trying to share emotions and thoughts like Taylor McCormick but in a different and dark sense. Or is she trying to tell her audience what her dreams are like. Both images have been created through the power of Photoshop and this has allowed Grav to create amazing work that portrays messages whether they are her emotions and feelings or desires and wishes. Silvia Grav’s work regarding these two images are incredibly realistic in the sense that the audience is still pondering whether the images are edited or if they’re not. This sense of mystery and ambiguity within her narratives are her targets, as an artist wants their artwork to ponder on their audiences mind and ask themselves questions to why the work has been completed in this way. Both images share similarity with proportional composition, as the subject in both images is mainly central of the image. With first glance at any image our eyes normally lie center to the piece, these images then draw more attention to them as the mystery of the images is occurring around the
center. Within Grav’s images, there are many stories behind the image, I believe the messages she is trying to express lie within her emotions, and how she may feel within herself and within her feelings, her artwork to me seems like an expressions of emotion not only just in herself, but it can relate to many people of all ages, as the message behind the image could be anything the audience want it to be. With these selected pieces of Silvia Grav’s work, I believe Grav likes to create the majority of her images in black and white, as in some sense it links to her style of ‘creepy’ and ‘weird’ as when the images are in relation to its colour a certain sense of oldness and more emotion is poured into the image, without colours being used. The lack of colour allows the image itself to speak to the audience, I believe that Grav was trying to explore new ways of expressing herself and found something that works, as you find clouds are often used within her work. Within the black and white image, it seems dark; maybe this is a message Grav is trying to explain to us, through the use of colours within her work. Both pieces of work look photographic, which in hindsight allows the image to look more realistic. I believe Grav’s intentions are very similar to what Taylor McCormick’s are, as they are both expressed within surreal imagery created on Photoshop, but the difference between these artists is easily seen, with Taylor McCormick, her work mainly consists of innocent looking dreamlike imagery, with subtle colours within her images, expressing her fantasies or dreams, whereas Silvia Grav’s work is mainly black and white, that shows an original and old take on imagery, but she still makes her work look as realistic as what McCormick does. I think Grav was trying to express her emotions in what seems to be quite creepy and cynical manner, but Grav’s style of work and the pieces she creates convey a message, and really do break barriers of what is real and what isn’t.
Gary Neill Gary Neill is an illustrator who manipulates his images and photography using textured colours to create different collages and images for his work. His work is usually trying to promote a message to its audience through his unique style of work.
I chose to study Gary Neill’s work as his style of work is somewhat different to Grav and McCormick’s. Although Gary Neills work is still very surreal. His work seems to convey messages for a cause or problem relating in the world, whereas both Grav and McCormick seem to express their personal feelings, within a dream like sense. Gary Neills work first interested me with his use of colours and textures, his pictures are very clever, they seem to use techniques with the images. With the two images above, his technique is clearly shown, with the image of the man in the glass, he is trying to climb out of the bottom of the glass using the ladder, the link is towards alcoholism, Although the message expressed by Neill may seem unclear at first, it still makes you wonder what is going on within his work, and this is the reaction he wants from his work. The two images above are the two images which I have chosen to study regarding Neills work. His work is not realistic in the sense of what the above artists have done within their style of work, his work can be seen as not realistic at all, because of all the textures and different colours and shading he has used, but his work is surreal. It creates a sense of manipulation in its own way. The First image with the man and the balloon is about politicians and how their speeches are nothing but ‘hot air’, his message is trying to convey an issue about this and uses clever imagery to show it. If these images contained a background relating to his point, without the cartoon like feel to his images they would be classed as more believable that the impossible has happened, but Neill uses his own unique style to block out the backgrounds in his images, This way Neill can clearly and easily express his message in his images as they are the center of attention in his work. Gary Neill usually uses his style to express messages in his work. His work is normally expressing a message which is related to problems that are in every day life. He uses his images and creates surreal artwork in his own unique style to express his opinions on different issues that are happening worldwide. At first glance you ponder what is going on within his work, the different and ranged use of textures and colours used in Neills pieces allow the main focus to become apparent, but still are not completely clear to what they are, which leaves the audiences questioning what is going on with his pieces of work. The mood is quite serious, the textures and colours that are used are there to try and allow the focus on the main subject of the image, although the colours used are quite light, this is either a relation to the topic he is trying to convey, like the alcoholism
work, the texture colour is similar to beer, a very yellow/brown. These subtle links to the topic at hand really help the audience discover what the specific piece of work is about. I believe Neills reasoning behind his artwork is very different to what McCormick and Grav’s intentions are. Their intentions are to express their own personal opinions on themselves and their own dream like experiences whereas Neills intentions are to express his opinions on real life events that are currently an issue to himself. The difference between these artists is clearly visible, as well as their intentions, I think Neill tries to create a solution for a problem using his range of ideas and different materials to express these solutions. He tries to make people aware of issues that are a problem. In relation to the question I am answering, I believe that Neill does break boundaries between what is real and what isn’t but in his own surreal style. Unlike Grav and McCormick who manipulate their photos in a realistic manner to create an effect which could not be seen as real life. His own style is still seen as effective, as if these were created in the style of McCormick or Grav, they would look like they break the boundaries of what is real and what isn’t. Conclusion In conclusion, it is visible through the investigation of the artists I have studied that Photoshop has allowed the impossible to happen within photographs and images. A lot of these images and photographs consist of effects that could only be imagined, things that could never happen in real life. The power of Photoshop and other applications has allowed these and many other artists to express their imagination of the impossible through these techniques they have acquired. I believe it will be very hard for the techniques already shown to improve due to how believable the images and photos are in the present day. Bibliography https://www.facebook.com/taylormccormickphotography http://phlearn.com/phlearn-interviews-silvia-grav http://www.silviagrav.berta.me/ http://www.pullthemetal.com/2013/08/silvia-grav/?lang=en http://www.taylormccormick.com/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/lalasiy/ http://fstoppers.com/the-surreal-conceptual-photography-19-year-old-taylor-mariemccormick http://garyneill.com/ http://www.centralillustration.com/illustrators/gary-neill