Seymour Mentor Essay

Kristin Seymour Photo book Mentor essay

Instead of a single book to use as a mentor I chose to focus on three

photographers: Robert Frank, David Hockney and David Sylvian. I chose these artists because they all created works of art that used the formal method of photomontage and photo collage to create a single image.

The idea to create work similar to them started in Italy when I was jealous of the people who could use phone apps to make panoramas. I chose to make ones with my iPad and tried my hardest to stich them together perfectly. Needless to say I did not succeed but I discovered that the replication, disorientation and non-­‐perfect look, was more aesthetically appealing to me. When introduced to this project I did not know what I wanted to do at all. It was only when I browsed through Robert Frank’s Come Again that I was inspired. He created this photo book from snap shots he took while on an assigned photography mission. The images from Come Again were not taken with the purpose of a photomontage. It was years after his trip to the locations that he composed the collaged photos. The photos were all from multiple angles and perspectives. In the end the images looked whole and were placed on grid paper.

David Hockney also creates photo montage collages. These collages

are usually of generic landscapes and people. His images may end up in a grid like format or overlapping like mine were. He often plays with scale of items within the

images in order to throw the viewer off and make them look deeper into the image.

He also creates images that use multiple “windows” to create a whole scene like the image below.

David Sylvian is a lesser known artist but created a book in 1984 titled

Perspectives, Polaroids. In this book he used the format of polaroid photography to piece together whole images of people and landscaped much like Hockney. All of the images I could find from his photo book were over lapped photos. There as no grid structure present. Here are a few examples:

The images I created for my book Concentrate Then Be Free were

unique in their own way. I photographed the scenes by standing in a singular place then turning in an approximately half circle taking photos about two or three shots high. I would keep the focal length the same the entire time. For a few images I incorporated close up images of items within the photo much like Hockney. I stitched the photos together using Photoshop and chose a certain criteria for each image. I would line up certain elements but not others. Whether that was poles, trees, bridges or maybe the horizon line. I allowed to other parts of the image to distort, or repeat. I would increase the saturation, contrast or play with the colors in many images to emphasize those sections more then others. I also chose to place the in focus images in front of the out of focus parts to create a false fully in focus final image. The photos were taken in places that I travel this semester. These places were very important to me because I traveled to these places to visit those people I love and are very special to me.

I approached this book in a highly structural and formal elements way

rather then conceptually. I am happy with the outcome and without Frank, Hockney and Sylvian’s work as guidance I would not have came to the images I did.