Lydia Ayoubi Photoshop has enabled the impossible to happen in photographs. Explore how artists have pushed the boundaries between reality and the impossible.
Since the introduction of Photoshop, artist, photographers and designers have been discovering new ways to enhance their work. They have discovered advanced ways to develop their skills and have found new approaches to develop their work in such. The most popular way to manipulate photographs and images has now become experimenting with the impossible and use of surrealism. This has led in a drastic increase in story telling methods and the way we as individuals can interpret an image. I have chosen to answer this essay title for my narrative as I have looked into a number of artists who have followed these skills and techniques using photo manipulation to create the impossible. I believe that researching into these techniques in more detail will help me understand the way in which these artists work therefore aiding me in improving my own skills. I will be looking at the works of artists such as Silvia Grav, Joel Robinson, and Wanda Wulz. Silvia Grav This piece by Grav is from her collection called without eyes following her previous collection titled light. This piece was created a lot later in the artists life and she still continuing with more collections every year. As shown in the examples below a lot of Grav’s work is in black and white and uses photo manipulation as her medium to develop her photography. She sticks to this one tone in all her work to create an eerie effect and have a deeper meaning behind her pictures. This is done to make the stories she’s telling with her images to give more emotional depth. This is also aided by the placement of all her subjects and the editing she has added to the images. For example in her photo from the without eyes collection we see the focal point of the image is where the eyes would usually be. This is done by having all darker tones around it making the absence of the eyes more visual and brighter in a sense. The paleness of the skin of both characters is emphasized to the black and white tones of the picture to again, draw more attention to the space. Grav uses light to emphasise all her focal points in most of her images. We see this in the other two examples shown for instance the image with the black background and the centralised pale faces surrounded by white smoke, the faces all aligning light collection she focuses on this a lot by using negative space and filling it with block colours of black and white with the faces centralised in the middle. Silvia Grav’s work interested me because of her use of black and white tones. Her minimalist use of photo manipulation and use of light to show her focal point helped me understand that you don’t need much to tell a story using an image. She created the impossible and entered the world of surrealism using few changes to the original photographs yet still maintaining the strong message behind all her collections. She achieves a dreamlike aesthetic by applying techniques that include superimposition, multiple exposure and solarisation. She manipulates her photos using photo editing and different exposure in the dark room. In her work she centralises most of her objects/people using the shading and tones of dark. She likes the use of old photographs and their vintage theme, a quote from one of her interviews “I never quite know how to explain it. Aesthetically, I love analogue photography-‐ dirty, scratched. I’ve been obsessed with the black and white that old photographs possess since I’ve discovered photography, but I don’t know why. I see very clear when I find beautiful imagery, but I ignore why I’ve acquired my style. I think that this is unconscious, a set of many influences that are impossible to differentiate." A lot of her work even though it was inspiring, I found it to be very similar, repetitive and somewhat close minded therefore I chose to look at another artists, Joel Robinson who uses more variety and imagination in his work using photo manipulation. Combining these many techniques together to help make a narrative of my own. Even though her work depicts human characters she changes the mundane faces we are so used to seeing to something different and surreal. Her mixture of classical photography and surrealism conveys the message of the darkness that history carries. The use of tone and facial expressions in the above three examples show her portrayal of emotional depth which is reflected in all of her collections. A lot of her work has some historical reference most of it being illustrated by her use of grey scale.
Lydia Ayoubi The mood that Grav creates in her images is very emotional somewhat gloomy. Grav was aiming to suggest sadness in her images which in my opinion has been achieved, I think the sadness is represented well with her use of colour and facial expression. The sadness depicted by the faces of the characters achieves this greatly as the emotion is pure, the colour aids this because of the sad connotations it carries. The colour is important to the mood because it is harmonious with the emotion of the characters and it emphasises what feeling is already there. The view point Grav uses in her images does seem to be a lot of close up of the faces, in the three examples shown above she has only faces and arms in different positions but all of them seem to be quite close up portraits. They’re very realistic very detailed images of the humans and they vary from landscape to portrait pictures which is done to resemble old fashioned photographs. All of the lighting she uses in her images are harsh either very bright or very dark to create the dark tones, she sticks to the black and white tonal range for all her images to create the old fashioned affect she seeks. The only materials she uses are photographs and photo manipulation with this she creates dominance of the figures and is very spatially aware. There’s balance in all her photographs, she follows the rule of thirds and always has a focal point which is shown using light and tone. She manipulates her images by using Photoshop to make them more surreal however doesn’t use any typography because a lot of her work is meant to represent old fashioned photographs so any type in the images would ruin this theme. I have found that Grav has used photo manipulation to aid her with her photography to create more surreal art pieces. She, just like many artists have found the use in Photoshop to create their surreal universes in their images. Joel Robinson I chose to look at Joel Robinson’s work for my narrative essay because he uses a lot more photo manipulation to create his stories in his images. He’s much more imaginative in the sense that he uses more fictional ideas when creating his narrative images. A lot of the art work he creates is mainly book art, or in relation to story books. The piece I’ll be looking at from his work is called a new Realm. This was a piece done later in his life and is very typical of the type of work he produces. All his work focuses on creating fictional representations of the world as we know it. A lot of his work represents fictional stories or environments. All of his pieces use similar colour range and tone. The lighting is also similar in all his images, in the three examples shown the lighting is all the same level of darkness, he doesn’t use much light in his images to create a deeper sense of mystery to the images which plays on the idea of fantasy he wants to represent. The dark tones of the images also help with creating a focal point similar to Silvia Grav. He uses darker tones in the negative space around the main character or subject then uses lighter colours and shades to create a halo affect almost on the subject. For example in the image to the right the cloud is the brightest colour on the page thus making it the soul focus of the image. The dark shades of brown surrounding it creates a frame around the wrist growing the tree. In this image the cloud would be the main focal point due to its bright attractive colours leading the eye to it first. Similarly the image to right with the dragon has the fire as the main focus due to the vibrance of the colour orange used to create the realistic flames. This brings it more attention plus the pitch black background surrounding it also frames it and centralises it more. We see there being bright colours around the fire like the white dragon or the brightness of the characters face however they carry less vibrancy for instance the characters face is more blurry even though it carries colour and brightness to it unlike the dragon which is a focused white clean cut piece of paper. The positioning of the dragon however is what draws the attention to the fire. Where your eyes would be focused on the bright dragon its main features pointing down towards the fire making that the main focus of the image. He follows this technique in most of his images and keeps a similar pattern with the theme, colour arrangement and tone in all his art work. He does this to create his own narratives using heavy photo manipulation to narrate the stories. He uses surrealism and creates the impossible with Photoshop by changing the way we see the world and visualising what you would usually only see written on the pages of a book. The photo I have chosen to study for this, a new realm illustrates the imaginary world that Joel Robinson has created. It relates to narrative because it tells a
Lydia Ayoubi story of fiction and imagination. It creates a new world, and twists reality as we know it. Using photo manipulation through Photoshop and photography, Robinson tells a story of portals through time and creates multi dimensions from the world we live in. a lot of the background of the image is blurred because of the fog placed around the character and the portal. This is done to draw attention to the character and subject. The bright colours of the character in contrast to the dark colours of the background makes it stand out more helping us see what the most important part of the image is. I think the main focal point is the portal itself because we see the character drawing attention away from himself by pointing towards the puddle. Everything in the image lines up to make the portal more prominent. The story being told in this image, I think, is that the character is entering a new world of his own but is frightened to learn about what lies for him beyond the portal. This fear or hesitance is shown by the characters face turning away from the portal and his body language, him being curled up and protective almost of himself. We see that he wants to learn more or explore because he has one arm in the portal already. The work Robinson creates is imaginative and very abstract. He has really pushed the boundaries of reality by creating his own little world using photo manipulation. The colours in the three examples shown above are on a very similar tone scale. With the browns white and deep yellows, a lot of the colours are very natural or have natural connotations. This is because most of his settings are in forests or has some sort of natural representation, the dragon being an animal and the fire being a natural element. Even though all his work is based on surrealism he finds a way to make it very realistic by using a lot of detail and making all the tones/lighting fit together well. The mood he sets in all his images is fantasy or fictional. He achieves this well, I think, because he includes a lot of fictional subjects or characters in his photographs. He makes them look natural or like they belong however he makes the impossible happen using nature as his main subject. The fictional mood he creates using colour and tone is important because the colour adds to the natural and fictional theme he aims for, it’s complimentary towards the theme because of all the warm colours he uses. Joel Robinson’s work has lot more colour compared to Grav’s work, he uses more fantasy in his pieces to narrate his stories which requires more colour due to the child like connotations it owns. He uses photo manipulation to create this fantasy and fictional stories thus making the impossible through his images. I chose to look at Joel Robinson’s work for my narrative as I wanted to create a fictional theme to my stories and have a lot of fantasy in my own images. I created this using the same techniques used by Robinson himself. Wanda Wulz The artwork that Wanda Walz created was visionary for her time. She layered photographs over each other in the dark room to manipulate them how she pleases. She blended and layered images to create something completely new. She’s most famously known for her cat portrait. This is the image I will be studying for my narrative. Wanda was very unique with her sense of style when it came to photography, she didn’t follow in the footsteps of the photographers in her time or her family’s path either. She went in her own direction creating new unusual images. She was influenced by the Bragaglia brothers photo dynamism, she experimented herself with photomontages and created her own master pieces of her time. This image was created quite early on in her life as an artist, it was one of her most famous portraits. It connects with her futuristic movement as the whole photo manipulation in her time was a complete new idea. The futuristic approach she takes by blending two images together to create a fictional creature was a unique way of expressing oneself through photography. A lot of her work follows the same technique of over lapping and montaging her images together. For example we see in the image titled Exercise we see the three images of a lady doing gymnastic poses. It follows the same technique as all her early work. All her images are in black and white due to the time period they were created in. the expense of colour printing photographs was too much. This connects to narrative because Wulz like to tell a different story through her portraits, her work was revolutionary bringing photo manipulation to a great start. Her layering technique was possible without the use of Photoshop or any other computer program. She was capable of telling her story through photo manipulation without the means we have to use today.
Lydia Ayoubi The image depicts a portrait of herself with a cat merged onto her face creating a new fictional creature. She uses two very ordinary images and minimalistic techniques to create something completely unique, different and new. She uses very little negative space in her images which draws more focus to the detailing of the character used. To me the main focus point would be the nose of the picture due to the fact that it is the brightest part of the image. The exposure and vibrance of the white in her image draws attention to itself and makes it the main focal point for the portrait. Wanda Wulz had a very abstract way of thinking for her time, she experimented with new techniques and moved away from the natural way of photographing. She used photo manipulation to her advantage and explores the way she can change the human face to something completely different. The colour and smooth blending of the image complement each other very well. The subtlety of the blend and the colours over lapping perfectly really creates something new without any use of photo manipulating programs, which is completely revolutionary for the time period it was created in. I think the mood this photo was aiming to achieve is some feline features to it. The facial expression of the woman matches the cat’s expression perfectly. It has a somewhat seductive feel to it due to the eyes looking up at you similar to how a cat would. The pose of the woman or the body language she has is similar to feline characteristics with the paw of the cat blending in making it seem like the woman posing in this way. This works because you really get the feline feel to this narrative. The colours work well together because of the black and white colours of the cat matching the grey scale of the photograph. This brings the image together more by making it blend better. The image itself doesn’t have any use of Photoshop to create it, however Wanda Wulz has pushed the boundaries of reality using techniques and methods available in her time. Showing that Photoshop is not the only medium available to manipulate images and tell a narrative through photo manipulation. There are many techniques and skill yet to be taught/learnt that don’t require computer programs. I found that Wulz’s work, compared to Robinson and Grav was a lot more minimalistic due to the lack of materials she had available to her in her time. Grav attempts to replicate the old fashioned style of photographs that Wulz was limited too and Robinson goes in an entirely different direction going down the path of fantasy and fairy tales. They all achieve different styles of photo manipulation using different skills and techniques, however they all easily manage to narrate their message through the use of soul imagery. Other artists I found during my study of narratives were Dara Scully and Terra Kate who followed the fairy tale/fantasy technique with photo manipulation. I looked into this style more prominently because I found this style to suit my narrative better than the rest. I wanted to look into fantasy narratives and manipulating photographs to create the impossible in a fictional sense rather than emotional sense. After studying the changes of photo manipulation through time I found that the use of Photoshop to manipulate photographs has helped us make the impossible possible. Photoshop has opened up many doors to us for photo manipulation and has increased our knowledge and skill through it. It has helped make anything easier to present through the use of images and photographs and is evident that the presence of Photoshop as a photo manipulating platform has opened up to us a range of opportunities unavailable to us in the past, evidence shown through the difference of work by Wanda Wulz and Grav. They both achieved similar styles however due to Photoshop’s aid Grav was able to add more detail and produce much higher quality manipulations. Photoshop will allow artist to learn more skills and build up their knowledge therefore developing their ability to push the boundaries between what’s possible and what’s impossible, creating a new reality through the work of art.
Lydia Ayoubi Bibliography Silvia Grav: http://silviagrav.berta.me/w-‐eyes/ http://soledadvega.com/2014/05/beauty-‐darkness-‐the-‐duality-‐of-‐silvia-‐gravs-‐photography/ Joel Robinson: http://joelrobison.com/newest-‐images/ https://joelrobisonphoto.wordpress.com/extras/ Wanda Wulz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_Wulz http://irenebrination.typepad.com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2013/01/rediscovering-‐wanda-‐wulz.html