K at r i n a S c o t t Independent practice
Initial thoughts...
From my exploration in semester one for independent practice I realised my interest in Graphic Design and Photography. For this semester my initial thoughts was to explore how photography can be used in a graphic way and to use a variety of medias. I wanted to look at text with imagery, such as colligrams and photo manipulation, like merging images. To help with ideas and give me inspiration I looked at a variety of artists, designers and photographers. From seeing others work it made me explore processes and themes I personally am interested in.
Rauschenberg
David Carson
These are my experiment with colligrams.
Shown left is my mix media piece of pen and photography.
Other experiments
From experimenting with the rose photograph, using pen and drawing colligrams, I wanted to take it further. With the mix media pieces I then ripped photographs and layered them on top to act as a border and another layer. I merged them together by taking a photograph of the two images on top of each other. I like the re-photographed effect and it takes mix media to another level.
F E e d b ac k f r o m f i r s t m e e t i n g
At this point I had my first meeting with a small group and Melissa. This allowed me discuss my work and have help to see how I could progress further. I was advised to look at the effects of reading an Image. How can something be changed and have hidden messages or distorted. To look at surreal and fantasy work. Also there is an interesting exhibition at white chapel to have a look at. I take all advise on board whether it is negative or positive. It always helps to talk ideas over with someone, because you can get another point of view and it lets me look at it from different perspectives.
These are my observations I saw from looking at Stezaker’s work.
Exhibition
I visited the Whitechapel Gallery in London. The exhibition I was most interested in was John Stezaker. I felt I gained a lot from going and seeing his pieces exhibited. I got a real sense of size, quality and detail. I loved the way he played around with the photographs, which completely changes the look of the image. He used clever positioning and perspective to make multiple images become one. (Example’s of his work exhibited is shown left). It made me go home and think, what can I do?
These are sneaky photographs I took at the exhibition of Stezaker’s work.
Shown right is one of my pieces I created after visiting the Stezaker’s exhibition. I took a photograph of a mouth and the A3 bridge in Tolworth and merged the two by using Photoshop. I made it black and white, so the image blended together and it looks like one image rather than two separate.
Trying John stez aker’s st yle
After seeing the exhibition I wanted to experiment with using his techniques. I chose a copy of my nan and grandads photographs to cut up, like Stezaker does, and put the two photographs together to make one image. I chose a recent photograph of my nan compared to using an old picture of my grandad. I positioned the two photographs so they matched up and could be like they could be one image. My reason for choosing the two different time periods, was to demonstrate at the time of the second world war a lot of people lost there partners and they would have still grown old, but there partners would be still there but just a memory.
I n f lue nce d by Thomas BarbEy
stezaker
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I was inspired by Stezaker’s idea of putting images on top of other images. Also after looking at Thomas Barbey’s work, he manipulates photographs in a surreal way, I wanted to try this technique out. I did this with the help of Photoshop on my own photographs.
These are my colour experiments. Above was taken at Ewell Court park, of the fountain. Below are taken when I visited London.
M o r e e x p e r i m e n tat i o n
I liked my previous image of the mouth and bridge in black and white and as I am looking at photography, colour is an important consideration. In the 21st century we are in, our culture think nothing of a colour photography. However colour is a relatively new invention, and only became widely accessible in early to mid twentieth century. I believe black and white photographs can be very striking and now we see so much colour it is sometimes nice to see images in black and white. Colour can be used realistically in everyday photographs, but I also wanted to experiment with extreme colours. I think it makes it look more surreal and can see a place like you would never see it in real life.
These are my black and white photographs, which where all taken on my visit to London. I played around with the levels and contrast to make a more dramatic black and white photograph.
Merging
Instead of my previous technique of layering pictures by hand and then photographing them, I merged two images together using Photoshop. The photograph left shows myself and my dog. I think it creates a really interesting image. I have merged them so our features, such as eyes nose and mouth are at the same level. To make it more obscure the photograph of my dog is actually her wearing the sunglasses. I wanted to develop this image further and after having a crit and looking at others work I knew I could push this further.
Giving it meaning
By adding text to the images it gave the photograph meaning and content. I played around with the words. The top piece’s makes a joke out of the image, as it shows a hairy dog as a human. I then put this photograph on to a cover of women’s health magazine, as an advert they would show. The bottom image I created for my ‘make me think’ project. I used this photograph from my Independent practice, but added a thought provoking question.
The power of meaning
I discovered by adding more meaning to an image it can make a piece of work much stronger. From earlier work using the roses and other flowers, I wanted to use a similar process, but have the content more meaningful to me. I chose my grandparents. Their generation had to go through a lot with the devastating wars. When looking through photographs, documents and medals I knew this was a topic I wanted to explore. Gordon Matta-Clark’s work from the Tropolism exhibition, ‘You are the measure’, lead to me thinking more about the process I had being exploring. Before I was ripping pages, as I liked the effect, but after seeing his work it made me think. I wanted to rip back in time and show the layers behind a photograph. (Images of his exhibition are shown on this page).
I layered a photograph of my grandads war documents on top of an image of him in his navy uniform aged 18.
My grandad with a war postcard.
Exploring more photographs
I loved the effect the old photographs had together and they were expressive, as it was on a meaningful subject. Therefore I tried some more layering out and then rephotographed them to create a flat photograph, but it looks like it has depth and three dimensional.
Pictured is my other nan and grandad aged 17 alongside an image of them aged 80. It is ironic they are in the same pose all those years later . I like the old black and white photo juxtaposed with the modern colour image.
These are my grandads photographs of his war boat. The writing that is bursting through was actually on the back, but I brought it to the front so it could be seen.
T u r n i n g a s t i l l i m ag e i n t o a n A n i m at i o n
After a lot of people saying there could see the peeling photographs as a moving image I wanted to experiment. I used photography to make a stop frame animation. The animation shows the life of the person behind the war document. This was my grandad , so it shows him in his uniform and then with my nan happily after the war. This peeling back of life could continue on to tell even more of a story. The effect I went for was jumpy images, as if it was an old film or television set that would jump around. I think it adds an antique edge to the animation. I think it was a simpler process than I thought it would be. It is not a long animation and if I had more time I would make it longer.
P e e l i n g B ac k
The images show three stills from the animation. I created it using Photoshop and exported it into Quicktime. This is made out of 54 photographs and exported at 6fps.
E va l uat i o n Independent practice From discovering a passion for Photography in semester one I chose to look at photography in a graphic way. Through experimenting with different process, such as pen and photography, merging and ripping images, I produced a range of pieces. On reflection my earlier images of flowers had less impact for me and when showing them to others, than the later images. I feel my earlier work in independent practice for semester two allowed me to develop. Experimenting with the rose I explored different methods. I particularly liked ripping an image and then photographing it. It gave a different quality when it was rephotographed. When I discovered the power of adding a meaning behind an image it made it more appealing to an audience and a consumer. I found that response when showing my work to others in my tutorial groups, friends and family. I found the tutorials very helpful. It kept me on track and allowed me to talk about my ideas and reflect on where I had got up to at that point. I had both group tutorials and personal one on one sessions. They both were useful in different ways. I really liked my group tutorial when everyone laid
their work out and we all looked at each others work and offered our opinions in an informal way. I gained great insight to what was appealing to others and what to develop further. With my personal tuition it allowed me to talk about my work in depth and gain the tutors knowledge on people and work to explore. This pushed my work further. After several comments from people connecting with my grandparents images I created, I made more and they also wanted to see the images turned into an animation. I am glad I experimented with making an animation, because I think it worked out really well. The Whitechapel exhibition was very useful and finding John Stezaker’s work gave me inspiration to try different processes and styles. All the people I researched influenced my work in some way. I found I can benefit a lot by looking at others work if ever I am stuck on an idea and in need of inspiration. I did find it challenging at times to allow time to do independent practice combined with studio work. However the regular tutorials kept me on track and made me allocate time for it. One of my improvements for next year is to make sure I give myself time to do my independent work and not have to rush it. Therefore I can fully explore what I am experimenting and exploring.