THE VORTICIST WITHIN

Colin Southgate Frps

Help! I've been taken over by an alien species; the Vorticists have got me! Sounding like something out of Doctor Who, this short-lived movement in British art existed around the time of the Great War, having been inspired by the Italian Futurists and Cubism too. I think they have been creeping up on me for some time, as my interest in the graphic arts has increased over the years. Certainly my renewed interest in photographing reflections and my passion for multiple and mirrored images has led to a realisation that the Vorticists were exploring similar ideas in their paintings a hundred years ago. Alvin Langdon Coburn incorporated these ideas into his photography by using mirrors to multiply the subject being photographed. He called them vortographs.

A visit to the London Art Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art was like being caught in a perfect storm of creativity. Paintings, art prints, sculpture and photography too, proclaimed that there are no limits to what we may attempt artistically. The overlap between photography and the other arts has never been more clearly demonstrated. I came away feeling vindicated in my own desire to make ever more creative pictures.

An original photograph always forms the basis for these pictures, usually something with strong lines and bold design, the image being taken with a creative objective in mind. Modern buildings are prime candidates. There are a number of ways to develop the image but most involve copying the original image several times, flipping over and possibly rotating the layers individually in the Transform menu in Photoshop and possibly stretching the layer too. With each copy layer set to 50% opacity in the layers palette it is possible to see the image building up and adjust or discard layers as you go along.

As with all creative things, experiment is the key word. For example, a copy of the composite layers could be used to make an inverted monochrome Find Edges layer which can be blended back with the composite image. Alternatively, plug-ins such as Topaz or Nik filters, may provide a more intense effect. Experimenting with the blending modes on all layers, even adjustment layers, can throw up some great surprises

I increasingly see photography as an integrated part of the arts scene, being used by artists in their creations and they, in their turn, influencing photographers to reach out to the art world.