Photoshop has enabled the impossible to happen in photographs. Explore how artists have pushed the boundaries between reality and the impossible. In the last decade, photographers and artists work have changed in many ways. That if you wanted to catch something spectacular you had to have your camera with you until you catch that spectacular something. For example, to catch a great photo of a sunrise, you would have had to get up at the crack of dawn. Or models, that had photo shots, had to spend hours putting make up on and the studio would have to be lit well. All of that changed when Photoshop came and made it possible to make all of them look great with not having to cover themselves in makeup. The artists I will be using to show this are Daisuke Takakura, Vincent Bourilhon and Bairon Rivera. The artists all connect to my topic because they all use Photoshop to manipulate photographs and make them look like the impossible. The artists show my investigations in the different examples people think of when they hear the impossible. The artists are all from this decade but are all from different times of the decade, the artists are also from different social backgrounds. Through my investigations I will be answering these questions, has Photoshop changed the way we look at life today? Has Photoshop changed the way we take photos? And has Photoshop allowed people to express their feelings better?
In all the pieces the Daisuke Takakura created is of a person in different positions, doing different things all in one piece, what I believe Daisuke is trying to do is tell the audience you can do many different things at the same time, for example in one of the pieces below the artist is in a park doing all aspects in the park like going on the swings or going down a slide or sitting on the wall, all these are different activities which have been put in one piece, the main purpose of Daisuke pieces is to create multiples of yourself doing various of things which only can be done one at a time. In Daisuke’s work I can see multiple perceptions of themselves, all wearing one type of clothing, the setting of each piece is different to each other, for example one is in the park, the other is in a field, so the artist selects a specific location to create his piece. The words that I would use to describe the art work is extraordinary, colorful, compact, joyful, peaceful.
The artwork has aspects of realism as it is pictures of the actual artist in the artwork and the surroundings/ setting is also realistic as it is an actual area/ place, I believe it is representational as well people can rely to the artwork as people may want to do a lot of things at once but obviously you cannot as we have 1 pair of arms and legs, so it can be representational to the audience. The person is in the artwork is very happy and joyful the reason for that is because the setting is in a peaceful atmosphere also you can tell by the expression in the person’s face in the artwork, the person in the artwork is very different to me, they are in the mid 20’s, she likes to wear brightly colored clothes and she is Japanese. Well that depends on what piece you are talking about as the artist I am currently working on has different situations going on his pieces as some of his pieces are spacious and others are crowded, that pretty much depends on the setting he uses in his artwork that will determine if it is spacious or crowded, this allows his work to vary between the both and not just kept to one aspect.
Daisuke Takakura’s work also shows stories of many different feelings and actions. Like for example the first image above that is three of the same woman all in one space. In this image I can see a woman that is having social media problems and the other two women are in support for the woman with the media problems. The way he has placed the three women, makes them look like completely different people and that all have separate lives that join together for this problem. Like this one the other image, I feel has a story as well. This image has a story of feelings though, this story is that this woman feels free and able to do what she wants. Daisuke shows this by the way he put lots of the same person running in many directions, giving the thought that they can go in any direction they want to go. In both these images, Daisuke shows many feelings through his artwork.
Vincent Bourilhon uses different objects to change and detail the photographs. In one example the artist use object like a jacket, top hat and an umbrella; to make an illusion of the objects just floating in the air. Vincent also made it more of an illusion by making the clothing and umbrella all black, the background also makes the black stand out making it more believable as an illusion. In Vincent’s work I see one color of clothing and umbrella floating like it’s on a “invisible man”. The setting is quiet bright but is darkened a bit which goes with the all black clothing. The words I would use to describe Vincent’s work are dark, gloomy and mysterious. The artwork is realistic because the setting is a real area and the clothing and umbrella look like they are on a person but it is also representational because it shows the way people feel invisible to other and look like some floating clothing but that could never happen because clothing can only be put on to something not just air. In the artwork there is no person but I believe that it is symbolism because I believe that the floating clothing is a symbol for people that feel like they are ignore or just not noticed and feel that they are not there. I believe this person is different to me because they feel like they are ignored by others and not noticed by anyone. One thing Vincent has said is that he expresses his feelings in his pieces and also makes some pieces to escape from the real world, in many ways. His artwork is spacious because the object of the picture is dead center of the picture and the rest of the picture is the setting.
In other pieces of Vincent’s, they have feelings or little stories behind them that the spectator brings their own feelings and experiences to make their own stories to. These images bring the spectator closer to the art piece as there is a connection between the two. Like in the two above that I feel both have a story of domestic violence. I believe this because in the image above on the right, the image is of a man that has knife to his back, I
see this as both abuse from another and self-harming. And in the other image on the left, I believe is of a woman that is being controlled in their relationship with someone. Both of these have the aspect that gives the spectator the need to think about the image more. He makes these pieces to express his feelings and to escape from the real world, in many ways.
Both of the artists use photos and Photoshop to portray their ideas into their pieces of work. Vincent Bourilhon uses Photoshop portray his feelings in many ways but Daisuke Takakura uses Photoshop to make his imagination of a world that is filled with clones in many different fictional worlds. The similarity in theme of the artists are the subject matter, in the Vincent’s work the subject matter is the person in the image and in Daisuke’s work it is the many versions of the person. Whereas their messages in their pieces are different to each other’s, in Vincent’s pieces Vincent is trying to show that you should let out your feelings through art. whereas Daisuke’s message is of doubles of people in the fictional world. The emotions that both the artists show in their work are confusing, centred and dreamy.
Both these artists answer part of my questions. Both the artists show that the way they use Photoshop has changed their views on life. Daisuke in his pieces he uses the idea of a world with clones, in this he has changed views on the way of life with just the one of us. Also Vincent, in his pieces he uses Photoshop to go to another world to get away from a world, in his words, that is flat, not original and very negative. The artists also both take their photos with different techniques and styles to get the effect that they do from their pieces. Daisuke takes photos of a certain model making lots of expression and in many positions and then decides afterwards what one go in the piece with his fictional world. Whereas Vincent takes his photos with pacific ideas of the images. Also both artists show emotions in their pieces
just in different ways. Daisuke use the models emotions to make his pieces go in the emotions directions. Whereas Vincent uses his own feelings to inspire and create his piece of artwork.
Photographer Bairon Rivera defies gravity in his photo series titled Levitation, which has people jumping, falling, and floating in mid-air. At times bright and coloured but also at times dark and gloomy. Bairon uses his photography and Photoshop to create his pieces of levitation. In doing so he creates many opposite photos and different stories for many of the photos. His photography skills add to the photo look more realistic but also representational because of the impossibility of people floating in mid-air. Bairon’s photos takes the look of acts that are impossible to the world: floating above the middle of a road, floating half way up a tree. Levitation isn’t just limited to people, in one photo, rocks hover around a subject who is upside-down in mid-air. With these photos lots of people are put in the thought of the alternate reality that Rivera has created, one where nothing is stuck to the ground.
Bairon shows lots of different stories in the same photo. The photo where the girl in the dress is falling has many different stories that I can think of, like she had just been at a wedding and is at the reception and then sees a friend and runs to play with them. They run to the top of the building and are playing near a window, then trips on something and falls out the window. Through this aspect the viewer is more engaged with the photo.
In conclusion I think Photoshop has changed the way we look at the world in many ways. Photoshop has changed the way people look at life and the world we live in. Like my artist, Daisuke that makes his thought of a world filled with clones that all had their own expressions. This is one example of how Photoshop changes the impossibility of anything. Photoshop has also changed the way we take the photographs. Like my artists that all take the photos to make their pieces. But they all take them differently. Daisuke takes groups of photos of his model and choose after the photoshoot. Whereas the other two artists Vincent and Bairon both take their photos with the ideas in their head of what they want to take photographs of. Photoshop has also changed the way people give out their feelings and emotions and how people see the different emotions of the artist in their pieces. All of my artists show emotions in their pieces in different ways. Daisuke reflects the emotions of the model in his pieces, whereas Vincent uses his emotions and feelings as inspiration to make his pieces. And Bairon shows more emotional stories in his pieces. As a whole Photoshop has changed the impossible into reality of other worlds that people go to, to make and view a piece of artwork. http://www.designboom.com/art/daisuke-takakura-monodramatic-cloned-photography05-04-2015/ http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2015/02/20/daisuke_takakura_monodramatic_explor es_the_idea_of_a_world_filled_with_clones.html http://mashable.com/2016/04/28/vincent-bourilhon-photography/#7j98PuU60mqZ http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/vincent-bourilhon-surreal-photography http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/bairon-rivera-levitation https://speckyboy.com/2014/07/11/intriguing-levitation-photography-bairon-rivera/