“Post production has enabled the impossible to happen in photographic. Explore why and how artists have pushed the boundaries between reality and the impossible.� Intro: Post production programs such as Photoshop, light room and illustrator has helped artist advance their creative work dramatically over the years and is still being used by many people. These programs are used not only to demonstrate a form of art, it is also executed to produce books, advertisements, magazines and newspapers. Things that we touch everyday has something to do with programs such as Photoshop. Before these programs we as people use to believe almost everything we see as it was usually only a photograph. However, now we always have to question what is in fact real or fake, this is because of the power of post-production tools that allows artist to manipulate the audience. Throughout this essay I will be talking about why and how artists use these tools to push the boundaries between what is real and what is in fact impossible. I will be using artists such as Nicholas Scarpinato, Tan Yan Wei and Vincent Bourilhon to demonstrate points as they are known for being creative with post production and developing certain techniques to manipulate their audience Vincent Bourilhon
Vincent Bourilhon is one of the many artists that use post production as a way of producing a narrative. His work is recent and during this time period people and technology have discovered different and more advanced techniques to produce creative work that would separate reality and the impossible. Vincent Bourilhon is an example that provides aesthetically pleasing imagery that makes the impossible appear as though it is reality. This is due to the recent advancements on post production programs that allow artists such as Vincent Bourilhon to provide this creative work to the audience. His work is heavily based on photography and manipulation using post production programs. It can be suggested that the artist likes to make an image appear to be reality when using real
photographs and then manipulating a few elements such as the head of the image above to appear as though the character of the image is in fact headless and has a coat hanger to replace the head. This is clearly beyond the impossible. However, with good experience of using post production programs the artist managed to make this impossible art piece look as though it is reality.
Vincent Bourilhon explores themes are that realistic and likes to show a narrative that the audience can relate to which is usually a realistic theme that everyone goes through and a narrative everyone in a way can relate. By doing this and adding in a unrealistic manipulation visual. Vincent Bourilhon can then show a scenario in a way that people have never seen before but can still understand although the image is impossible and realistically would never happen. For example, the image above explores the theme of loneliness and wanting someone to be there by you. However, there is no one in fact actually there but it is suggested by with the floating hat. Vincent Bourilhon is a huge fan of cinema, always in search of poetry and new ideas, his personal work reflects his admiration for cinema. Through graphic design and digital retouching, he has succeeded in building an imaginary world that is very unrealistic and very cinematic, on the borderline between dreams and reality. It could be suggested that because of this love for cinema he’s ideas of dream like manipulations come from movies but in a way manages to tell a whole narrative through a single image.
Nicholas Scarpinato
Nicholas Scarpinato is a photographer and filmmaker based out of Los Angeles, CA. Nicholas Scarpinato is another artist that uses advanced post production techniques to separate the reality and the impossible. However, the style of Scarpinato wants to make the imagery as surreal as possible to have an effect on the viewer. This image you can describe as the storyteller places a character in a narrative that sets in a isolated and misty like location that appears to be a forest of some-sort. This image focuses on the character as a main subject. The interesting thing about the character is the fact he is headless and producing a lot of smoke coming from his shirt which is the main post production element used for for this image. This is the storyteller’s way of telling an interesting narrative. The subject in this image is clearly the character which dominates the image as a whole as it is in proportion of the image taking the most amount of space. So we now know that the narrative is based around the character given or even the narrative is trying to convey an emotion of the character. The subject (character) is at a slight tilt which could mean that the subject is falling down to the ground. I have come to this observation because of the stance the character is posing. This is taking in consideration when Scarpinato uses post production techniques to tilt the character. The most interesting aspect of this image would be the color’s, character, creativity and photography which is all done very professionally and correctly. All of these elements is what makes this narrative piece of art successful. The color’s show a lot of green in the image. It can be argued that it has been corrected using post production programs such as light room to bring out the color’s in the image. It is very unlikely to get these color’s straight from the camera.
“The Keepers 2012″ The work above is a great example of how the artist uses photography and post production to make a surreal manipulation of multiple images to get a reaction from an audience by a narrative style art work. The artist states: “I would say that I am a surreal photographer. I prefer creating dream-like landscapes that transcend reality and cause the viewer to feel like they are in a dream.” During an interview with “Astrum People” Scarpinato states that he prefers to create a “dream-like landscape” that’s has the power to make the viewer “feel like they are in a dream” This tells us a lot of information about the artist as it tells us his intentions and what he wants the viewer to feel like when seeing his work. The fact the artist says “transcend reality” can be argued that he means this in a narrative way or a more technical post production way of making this narrative. The artist makes his intentions clear and does this through the use of making the reality impossible because of his post production techniques.
Tan Yan Wei
“Pandoras Box� Tan Yan Wei is different from Nicholas Scarpintino and Vincent Bourlihon because of the different type of narrative the artist produces. In this image you can see the storyteller placing a character in a isolated world that is surrounded mountains in a desert type land. We can also see a small black box which is letting out a lot of red smoke which can symbolize energy, strength or even danger because of the bold color red. In all this is a successful narrative telling piece of art. This has all clearly been done by the use of postproduction programs. This piece is clearly made from different images that then become manipulated into one using post production techniques and programs such as Photoshop and light room. You can tell because the character in the image is slightly out of proportion and scale to its surroundings. When looking closely you realize that the character would have to be taller than the mountains for the image to make sense. Details such as this give away how the piece has been composed.
If I was put in a situation that I would have to describe this artists work to a blind person I would tell them to imagine an isolated desert that has a mountain terrain in the land with a character placed in the center with an mysterious black box type object in from of him floating and realizing’s a mass amount of energy that is represented by red smoke. I would describe the character in the image as being an ordinary person you would see every day, in my belief he is also wearing black and white colored clothes because I think that the storyteller (artist) does not want us to think of the character as being any particular ethnicity or race. I believe that the character is purely just a subject that can be replaced by anyone but to show it visually the storyteller decided to show it through clothes.
Tan Yan Wei has an ongoing style with the red and dark tones in his imagery. It can be argued that the artist uses post production programs such as light room to expose more saturation of the reds. The red represent danger and anger which goes with the theme of the image above. The character in the narrative is expressing an over exaggerated emotion which can be looked at as anger. The colors are well thought out by the artist and is relevant to the narrative and the character’s emotions. The isolation of the character contrasts its location because the background appears to be very simplistic, faded and empty which yet another ongoing theme of the Tan Yan Wei. It can be argued that the artist uses post production techniques to express the character’s emotions as well as separate the reality and the impossible. However, everything the imagery appears to be real other than the red smoke element which has been manipulated. In conclusion of this artist it can be suggested the use of photography is as important as post production for the success of the image.
When thinking about why and how artists have pushed the boundaries of separating the reality with the impossible I find that it is mostly to create something that is visually able to tell a complex story that straight forward photography would not be able to do without post production. Almost all of the artist I have studied overly rely on post production programs to show a unique way of telling a narrative to an audience. This is how I approach to my narrative projects. My aims and intentions are clearly to represent a narrative in a creative way that is different from ordinary photography. By researching the artist and then also doing the work myself I found I am much like these artists for the reasons why we use post production. As important I believe photography is I always want to push the boundaries of how I can turn reality into something that appears to be impossible to gain a reaction or emotion from the viewer.
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Bibliography: About Vincent Bourilhon - http://www.vincent-bourilhon.com/ Vincent Bourilhon Image - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=vincent+bourilhon&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahU KEwjLtNng1YrUAhWmKsAKHQYyC5oQ_AUICigB&biw=1582&bih=859#imgrc=IhlbrmNqZSM_M: About Nicolas Scarpintino- http://www.nicholasscarpinato.com/2513578-about Images from Nicolas Scarpintino - http://www.nicholasscarpinato.com/untitled-gallery#3 Interview - https://astrumpeople.com/nicholas-scarpinato-photography-dream-like-landscapes-thattranscend-reality/ Tan Yan Wei portfolio - https://www.flickr.com/photos/yanweitan/ Tan Yan Wei Photo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/yanweitan/13348204565/