Exam theme: Obscured Final exam idea
Intentions for final idea For my final idea I would like to create final pieces which are a mixture of both idea 1 and 2. this is because I liked both concepts and how I carried out the developments and how I took the initial photographs. I think my mixing the strong points from each idea I will end up with really visually appealing final outcomes.
Initial photographs
Artist analysis
Artist: Seb Patane ‘Razzia’ (2006)
Unfortunately as I have been unable to find out any information about this artist my analysis will be purely visual. What really drew me to Patane’s work was the contrast in the bright flowers pressed onto the printed paper, also the fact that all the eyes in the image were covered. This links in with my first approach for my exam. The flowers add a rainbow hue to the monochrome image behind them making then the focal point in the photograph. I am unsure as to whether Patane used his own images as the background or if they were images from somewhere else.
Patane’s work has inspired me to take close up portraits and use the technique of placing flowers over the face of the model’s face, however unlike like Patane, I will be leaving one eye uncovered as to show how the flower is only partially obscuring her face and also because I think by leaving one eye uncovered it allows the viewer to connect with the image.
Developments
Final developments
Exam Evaluation For my first approach to this exam project I started by taking close up, clear portraits and also slightly blurred portraits of a friend. I then wanted to work on top of these images and obscure them with paper. Then for my second approach, I changed the subject matter and went out and photographed landscapes. From this I then wanted to obscure the natural landscape with something which was also natural, dried flowers. I found that taking photographs of a person, or taking portraits, was quite difficult because one, it was my first time taking portraits and two, I found it quite difficult steadying my hands and also getting the composition and lighting right. I think both my initial photographs were taken quite well, however I think my initial photographs from my second approach were better than the first approach as they were more visually stronger. I think the initial photographs for the first approach could be improved by making sure orientation of the subject is correct and also getting the lighting right and not making the image too subdued or over exposed.
For my final exam piece I continued on from idea 1 and idea 2. I took the strongest points from each idea and developed this onto my exam piece. I used the idea of taking close up, clear and focused portraits from idea 1 and the idea of using the dried flowers from idea 2 and put these together. I also used the idea of using the Nik’s Silver Efex software again for my exam piece. I did this by first taking clear, simple portraits of the model and then lightly edited these using Photoshop to brighten them. I then printed these images on photo paper and strategically placed the dried flowers onto the image, obscuring the face but leaving one eye uncovered, this was to draw the viewer into the image as the eyes are usually the first thing a person looks at when viewing portraits. I did however cover the whole face in some of the images to have a slight range in my photographs. I then edited these using Nik’s Silver Efex removing the strong hues from the flowers and only putting the colour in certain areas because I think having the full colour contrasted too much against the model’s face. I also printed out some of the images on acetate and used the same technique as I did with the photo paper. I think my second idea was the most successful out of my initial ideas because the final outcomes were much more visually appealing than the first idea. The contrast of the coloured flowers against the dark landscape worked really well bringing in the viewers attention. I think my first idea didn’t work as well because I didn’t develop it any further and the images looked quite flat. I believe that if I did some further developments and took stronger photographs then it would’ve had a greater impact on the viewer.
I feel that my artist research was quite effective as they helped me mould my ideas and photographs. The three artists I researched were Eni Turkeshi for idea one, Matthias Heiderich for idea two and Seb Patane for my exam piece. I think each artist helped me a lot for each of my ideas and also helped me with the other ideas as well. For idea two I got inspiration for my developments from Seb Patane, I also used him for my final piece. For my final piece I used Patane’s idea quite closely with my own by covering the face and sometimes eyes with dried flowers. However, Patane covered the whole body with the flowers and left them in full colour, whereas I muted the colours slightly. Also with my first idea I got inspiration from Turkeshi’s working thinking she had placed cut out paper onto her photograph, however this effect was created because of a broken lense. My assumption helped me with my development giving me the idea of using cut outs to obscure the photographs and using my initial photographs to obscure the model’s face. For my second idea I used Matthias Heiderich’s idea of photographing natural areas which were quite bleak and free of man made things. Living in London means this idea was quite hard to carry out because there is not a lot of free, natural space so I decided to go to Hyde park and photograph the empty space without getting too much of the buildings surrounding it into the image. I also liked how Heiderich’s images were in dark tones and therefore I used Nik’s software to change the colour of the images and decided to make them dark shades of blue and green.
I feel that the exam went quite well because I finished all my work on time and I had a clear plan for what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. I feel that I produced final outcomes which were quite aesthetically pleasing and the subject was the main focal point and caught the viewers attention. My final outcomes mainly linked around Patane’s work with the flowers but also my first idea of the portraits. I feel that if I had more time on this project I would definitely improve my first approach by taking clearer and stronger images and would have more developments by working with more of my initial photographs rather than just the one I used. Also for the exam pieces I would have taken the acetate images a step further by making them more artier and perhaps working onto them with paint and then placing the flowers on top. One artist who I would look at for inspiration for this would be Gerhard Richter, who paints from photographs. His work is quite inspirational as it looks like he has painted on top of photographs but has actually painted a replica of the photograph.