Surreal ci*es
Karolina Giediminaite
As part of a move to promote up and coming young photographers, The Tate Modern is hos*ng an exhibi*on *tled construct reali*es. The exhibi*on is open to photographer's aged between 16 and 21 who have a passion for the subject and are open to both tradi*onal and digital techniques.
Thomas Hawk Thomas Hawk takes photographs of a wide range of subjects; his more intriguing work is of ci*es in an everyday view and environment that people don’t no*ce changing with the seasons because it’s a part of their everyday life. Hawk shoots his photographs from angles that are interes*ng and give the landscape a unique twist. Hawks photographs are something that can be seen in dreams and that people don’t expect to see in real life. But he captures the hazy dreamy surrounding. His work represents the same aspects and emo*ons as Salvador Dali’s pain*ng The Persistence of Memory, the only difference between Dali's work and hawks Hawk is that they used difference techniques and media to capture that is surreal and dreamy but can be a memory from a dream. The way that the photographs have been taken also creates a futuris*c look and atmosphere. However all of Hawk’s work had an interes*ng and surreal twist. Although his urban photography was more analyzed in depth and had a greater scale of side and propor*on. Hawks urban photography Is taken mostly at night to capture the busy city such as New York, London, Paris life and to show that the city never sleeps, that there is always something happening something new is replacing the old. The city is constantly evolving to meet the growing need for technology. Aerial view of ci*es reveal to the viewer how the city life can change the atmosphere comparing to country side, in the city people rarely see stars and this is because of how light big ci*es are. This highlights the issues that big populated ci*es have on the environment. The ci*es atmosphere is a lot more powerful dynamic there is con*nuous change and it con*nuously evolves. I have been mostly inspired by the idea of how Hawks sends a message out to the viewers by simple photographing an object in certain; ways, light and angle. I have also been inspired to make my photographs seem futuris*c and also how he captures the fast past of city and people in it without taking the focus off the beau*ful surroundings.
Title: Every *me I close my eyes its like a dark paradise
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter over paints old photographs such as photographs from his family portrait that should be private and he over paints them with a thick layer of paint such as oil or acrylic to add atmosphere and texture but to also hide the iden*ty or the full image. He leaves just enough of the photograph not painted for the viewers to be able to see what the picture was off. However the Image looks like its been taken out of its natural environment and placed in this very abstract and surreal landscape with the blotches of paint and the colours of it. The fragments that are visible of the image are placed in strategic areas so that the person looking at the image could assemble the whole image. The way that the paint is spread across the image could perhaps associate with the emo*ons that Richter felt while he was there . The marks could be a way of expressing the feelings and remembering them, adding them to the photograph would create a whole picture of how the photographer felt during that day, the emo*ons would also be made real and visible to others to explore and interpret in a way that suits them. I have been mostly inspired to put the emo*ons of that trip or event that the photographs have been taken on top of them to embed them with the visual reference and record them for everyone to see. I also have been inspired to take photographs and add more character and atmosphere to them by using paint and colour and texture of the paint.
Title: Firenze Date:2000 Materials: oil on photograph
Evalua*on my first idea was of taking pictures of a well known area/ landscape in London and edi*ng it to something that people wouldn't’t recognize straight away. I would edit them by changing the colours, angles and perspec*ve. This would create a surreal landscape that could represent visions of what landscape could look in the near future. I would say that the fog and the mist in the first set of photographs has created a mysterious look and gave the photos an out of this world feel to them. I also overplayed and edited different parts of images that I took to make a new never seen landscape. By doing this I created new and exci*ng landscapes. Too add to that took my second set of photographs from the air which allowed me to get a totally different angle of the same place that I had photographed prior that. It allowed me to explore the city in a different way and also to photograph it from an interes*ng angle. I have also photographed movement with in the city so that I could recreate the never sleeping and always developing urban areas. I think that I have created the feel off surreal ci*es, however some photographs of movement haven't come out the way I wanted them too, they cam out blurry and some were out of focus. I think next *me I will have to use a tripod so that they images would be in focus. Also some images have been under exposed or over exposed this is due to me using a shu[er speed that I didn’t need a tripod which meant that they exposure in some images was bad.
Timo Stammberger Stammberger photographs underground landscapes that are depict and abandoned. He photographs subway tunnels of ci*es such as Berlin, new York, Lisbon. He photographs spaces that people don’t pay a[en*on too, his work is grey, dark and bleak. The photographs don’t have any warmth or movement not like the ordinary landscape photographs. Stammberger photographs are cold emo*onless places that people would never live in. However he might also be trying to show the world that there is an underground city that is connected and that there is life there when people work there and construct the tunnels. This could be a surreal take on an underground city that never sees the light or feels the rain . Stammberger could also be highligh*ng the issue that people are cu\ng down trees and turning rainforests into ci*es, living areas, airports. Deforesta*on is a big issue because the pollu*ons levels are rising due to more countries are developing and producing more waste. Stammberger shows this by photography grey concrete tunnels that no nature could live because of the condi*ons that the humans have created. I have been inspired by his photography project ‘urban ar*sts’ that project captures street ar*st turning dull muted colours of buildings into colourful pieces of art work. I want to create a surreal city that is colourful and beau*ful, where nothing is dull and everything is colourful. I will try to achieve this by using graffi* and layering it to my idea one.
Project: underground landscapes Year: 2011
Project: urban ar*sts Year: 2008
Jimmay Bones Jimmay Bones is a Los Angeles photograph who rather than capturing an images because of the subject ma[er he photographs the atmosphere and moods, and then Photoshop's the images to create a different mood. Bones captures the claustrophobic feeling of a busy city life. The photograph “eyes of the city” depict how the Empire state building connects together to create a surreal pillar that seems like it is holding up the sky with another city. Some of Bones photographs have been inspired by the photographer Simon Gardiner’s photography, this ar*st used mirrors to create beau*ful reflected image, Gardiner’s photos reflect the busy city life just like Bones photographs do.
Photographer: Simon Gardiner Name: vortograph Year: unknown Loca*on: Paris
Photographer: Jimmay Bones Name: eyes of the city Loca*on: New York
Evalua*on Ader doing the first set of photographs I have developed them to add tones and layer some images to create new landscapes that refers and meets the brief that I have chosen. I think that my first set of photographs have work well, however some off them didn’t come out too a high standard due to the weather and the *me off the day. Another factor to some of the images being not to a high quality. Exploring the landscape from different and unique angles helped me create the surreal fantasy landscape that I was aiming for. For my idea two I had more ideas and inspira*on ader developing my first idea, also I think that the photographs I took for my second idea are more unusual and work with the first idea , because the city has graffi* and I wanted to show graffi* and street art in a posi*ve way rather than showing it in a way that everyone sees it which is bad and illegal. I have developed my second idea images more through out the project, I have explored more ar*st and linked my work to them be[er than I did in my first idea. I think if I did the project again I would choose a be[er *me of day and explore more loca*ons. Also experiment with a wider range of materials and media. The weather that I did the photographs wasn’t ideal over all I think that the photographs have been a success and that they meet the brief. I think that the second idea was stronger than the first idea because I had more understanding and had done more research into the different styles of surreal ci*es that I could do. I also think that using paint to add colour to the images worked well and added depth and atmosphere to it.