How have recent advances in computer technology effected story telling within artwork? Advances in technology progresses further as time passes by to make life easier on a level of where digital technology can be called now artistic. The use of advanced technology becomes more common in the art and design world. Therefore I am going to peruse this in my essay, as I find it intriguing how technology affects visual images which are revolving around my narrative topic. I particular choose this question, as I am aware that recently art is highly relaying on technology, which can be seen as a modern trend to the society as people see it in a more attractive way than traditional art
In this essay I am going to analyse how different artist rely on advanced computer technology to create their individual story telling within their artwork. I am also going to look at three different Photographer who are specialized in use of technology for their story telling. Nicholas Max, Paul M Smith and Taylor McCormick are examples of those who will appear in this essay. One photographer that I am going to look at is Paul M Smith who use computer technology for photo manipulation in his work. He relies solely on capturing a scene with his camera, and then fill in the gaps with himself using Photoshop to digitally manipulate his images to create a unique story. Another artist that I am going to explorer is Nicholas Max. I have decided to use Nicholas Max as one of my artist as he is a modern designer who is born in a year where technology is greatly developed and has started to affect the society with its advantages. In addition his use of computer software and photographs is similar to Paul M Smith but in the same time is different. I am also going to look at Taylor McCormick, as she is another photographer who greatly depends on technology to create dreamy effects in order to illustrate her story. She as well has the same approach like Nicholas Max and Paul M Smith towards the use of technology. This may be caused as both live in a period were technology has extended to be an outstanding influence to the standards life. I believe that these artists will help me to develop a good understanding of how recent advance in computer technology has effect storytelling. Furthermore in the end of this essay I would like to deeply investigate the comparisons and contrast each of my photographers of how they use advanced technology within their narrative.
NICHOLAS MAX
Nicholas Max is a 20 years old university student who studies Film and Photography in Virginia. He became interested in photography at a young age when he began using his parent’s camera at their home. He particular enjoyed photographing images which told a story, “a secret that is waiting to be unearthed, a memory or a place in time” as he quoted. He believes that the most important factor in telling a story through an image was the creative process while the photographic elements are the supportive skills to highlight this. Therefore he strongly feels that his work should represent surrealism.
I personally choose this particular artist as I found it fascinating of how he achieves exceptional fairytale attractiveness in his images due to computer technology. Furthermore I believe that the editing using computer software’s is the creative process that he is talking about in the quote and the main source of his fairy tale appeal. Nicholas Max starts off with photographs of a place with a model in it. And in the same time he concerns himself with the suitable choice of clothes and location to fit his story. This shows that his work is heavily photographic based and does not appear to involve any other materials or media. This is a result due the development of advanced camera technology in quality as well as in accessibility. Cameras development allow many advantages as new functions such as focal points different shades and mood setting, taking photo from a camera makes the image much more clearer and professional which Nicholas Max is passively demonstrating in his work. This progression in technology has also made it possible to apply high quality cameras as a function in phones. This enable many people to take good quality photographs for a cheap price and is handy to have it always around, allowing photographers such as Nicholas Max to take images any time as they want. This has been proven as Nicholas Max stated that he uses cameras like “5D Mark ii, Nikon Fm2, Polaroid 600, iPhone 5 and a 16mm Bolex camera” for his story telling. He also uses Phones alongside professional cameras which also result to the same quality of photograph in his work. I believe that his high standard quality photographs are the established basis of his story telling which later are edited to have a dreamy atmosphere. Afterwards he takes secondary photographs of an object which he then edited further by changing the
size and proportion of the image in Photoshop leading to the surrealism effect. He then and plays with contrast, brightness and shadow levels in Photoshop to create the dreamy, fairy tale like atmosphere in his work. Without Photoshop he would not be in a position to create his dreamy images from his photographs, which is one of his unique key style in his way of storytelling.
I especially like this artist work named “"Acceptance of Time" “. It is a creative, dreamily like surrealism image. This is a typical work for the artist as seen above all of his work tells different stories but the fairytale atmosphere remain the same, which makes this particular work typical to the artist style.
In this fairytale like setting, even a single object such as a watch stands out like an object which can be often seen in fairy tales due to the scale and proportion of these object. By changing the size of the object in the Photoshop he was able to make his image seem unrealistic. This factor contributes greatly to narrative as the fairytale structure of unbelievable object itself illustrates a story as unnatural things are only possible in stories. Furthermore by modifying the contrast, brightness and shadow levels in Photoshop, he was able to add a sense of nostalgia which emphasizes and hints suggestions of what the story to his image is about. This will make it look natural, which always allows the viewer to believe that his image is a fairy tale story full of fantasy. In addition it’s a dreamy sensation, which is enhanced by lowering the saturation of the colors in Photoshop, leads to a story which can be comprehend to a fairy tale. I like the enchanted method of how he uses technology such as editing in Photoshop to tell his story in a way which would be represented in a fairy tale book. Furthermore Photoshop helped him to deepen the depth in darkness of this work, which adds to the fairy tale like atmosphere. In addition it helped him to bolder the warm mixture of colors of orange, maroon,
gold yellow and brown and the characteristics of the clothes that the model is wearing adds to the fairy tale feeling as the colors bleed into the fine, saturated shades in the background, giving a settle and balance overall image. For example the image of a girl who sits in the middle of the forest contains those nostalgia, autumn like colors and therefor does not seem out of place in this fantasy like place. It is a narrative as the viewer would ask themselves “why are there massive clocks surrounding the girl, dose it relate to stopped time for the girl like the Peter Pan syndrome?” or “why is she alone in this dreamy world” relating to a story where this image is a dimensional, fantasy world of the girls own mind where she wishes to stop growing; her inner self maybe. The fact that The structure and composition of how he isolated the model in the middle of the image makes her the focus point making her the main protagonist of the story and the way how she is surrounded by clock which all stops in the same time makes the viewer think that a still stand has something to do with the story. Furthermore the dreamy like place and the young model also results to the belief that this is a childish dream or wish of stopping time to remain the same and never want to move on with life or adulthood. He states that he sometimes “get lost in my head in magical spaces”, which supports the theory about a still stand happening in the dream and the reason of why he intended to create a dreamy effect in his work.
Photography is the main media source and base for Nicholas Max to illustrate each story line. He commonly captures fragility and unknowing in many of his images, which can be seen in the example work of the broken glass (placed on the left side) as it is fragile and would be easily broken resulting it to be dangerous. This is possible due to technology which allows to crop glass and manipulate it on a hand without any dangerous harm and risk. He also captures images where the model moves in fragility way making it seems like she/he is delicate in some of his work. He has to consider the amount of sun light, shadow and the actual place where he takes the photograph as it is the most important factor to create his story. In addition he uses some Photoshop editing to add shadows and contrast to a cropped out object such as the watch in the examples which was placed in an unreal position. I believe that Nicolas Maxis highly depends on advance technology to produce effectively story telling, by giving a life to his fairy tale image and connects it with the viewer asking them clear questions about what the story is about. The use of advanced photography and Photoshop enabled him to recreate the dreaming feeling which is the most important effect in his unique way of telling a story.
Paul M Smith
Paul M Smith was born in Britain in 1969. He was a student at Coventry University who studied Fine Art there. After he graduated from university he worked as a photography teacher in Coventry University. I choose to look into Smiths work because I found his method of using Photoshop to achieve a natural look in his narrative interesting and clever which is similar to Nicholas Max. He uses his Photoshop skills to manipulate the viewer to convince them that his work is believable, even though everyone commonly knows that many people with the same face is not possible in real circumstances.
This is a work from Smiths collection called “Make My Night” this image is based on his own youthful past where he “fully embraced lads’ culture in the army”. By producing this work he remained himself about the “wry humor in much of the work that is derived from the recognition of familiar scenarios painfully recalled,
becoming a part of the collective memory” which he stated. This hints that due the development of Photoshop he was able to illustrate his past memories into an image to tell the viewer his story. It also reflects that his work has a personal meaning behind it. Like Nicholas, Smith has also kept a unique style in his work. This piece which I have chosen is typical to the artist style as he keeps a similar technical method to that of the previous series combined with the use of multiple self-portraits. This contributes to his personal touch in his story telling. Different to Nicholas Max that uses the surrealism movement Smiths work is more a realism movement.
Smith dose depend much on computer technology. He starts of taking photographs of location with his camera and then doses the editing on a computer via Photoshop which is similar to Nicholas Max method. He first creates the base from the primary photographs of a location and then proceeds taking multiple photographs of himself labeling him with various different characters with different expression, movement, cloths etc. He then crops himself out from the secondary photographs and places him in the gaps in the base photograph of the location. Due to these developed functions in technology he was able creates a convincing and easy to understand narrative, as each photograph character are identical but demonstrate different purposes with different expression and action. In addition it also adds to the youthfulness of the image as it demonstrate one’s own joy. He then merges all the character and place together and creates the narrative piece. The message that the artist is conveying in this particular narrative is the youthful joy in a pub for a male. It straightforwardly demonstrate the story of how male live their joy in the pub being drunk and enjoy them self with their games and their humor of their company. The artist demonstrates this as he took the location photographs in a pub with many beer bottle and place himself with many different position and places in the image with a joyful expression. The focal point of this image is the idea of the realistic memorable event being happened as it seems like a photo shot to keep as a memory.
The image quality seems like a reproduced, machine printed picture taken from a standard shot camera generate in the hand of reveler; bleached out faces, over cropped subject matter or the slight bluer of the finger over the lens, which makes it appear realistic letting it feel like that this event has actually happened. This also results the overall image to be dull and more realistic which is different to Nicholas creative warm colored images. In order to create that effect the artist has added contrast and deepen the overall shadow level in Photoshop. Due to the dim colors a serious dark atmosphere is crated which compliments the title of “Make My Night” as it allows the craziness and joy of this image to stand out. Furthermore the dull bulb light exudates the memorable feeling of the realistic mood of friends hanging out as the dull creates the feeling of past. The view point of the image is from a third person prospective, which adds to camera shot effect. The format is landscape to make the image seemed as if the characters in the picture are moving and it also helps to get an overall image what the image is actually about. Using Photoshop to crop out the characters helps to create a realistic effect to the image composition.
Taylor McCormick Taylor McCormick is a photographer who was born on September 14th 1993 in Edgewood, Kentucky. She became interested in photography and begun it as a hobby, but nowadays it is her passion and a way of life as she describes that it has “grown into a passion�. This again ascertains the growth of technology and application to storytelling, as it become her passion now. The major impact of her passion was due to the constant expansion and further involvement of the online community of photographers on Flickr. Thanks to that she had great opportunities to collaborate with other artists in places all over the world such as, Atlanta, Washington, Indiana, Portland, New York and Los Angeles. Her only wishes for the future are to be able to continue her passion and travel the world with the people she loves.
I chose to look at the work of Taylor McCormick because her unique style of using technology interests me. Her approach towards technology to produce her surreal pieces is similar to Nicholas Max and Paul M Smith, as she is a contemporary photographs and primarily uses Photoshop to produce these imaginative unrealities. However in contrast to my previous artist her way of illustrating her story telling consist of a much darker and mysterious atmosphere. Her photo manipulation use is a slightly similarity to Nicholas Max as her work appears to be slightly dated with a fairy tale like image, but her piece can be argued rather as a darker supernatural appearance than a settled, fantasy dream. Her photo manipulation skills like letting object flout, copping the same object multiple times or letting people fade away in Photoshop compromises strongly similarity in relation to Nicholas Max. This might be due to the fact that both photographer mainly use Photoshop to edit the atmosphere of the photography into a fantasy like mood. Her composition in her work is spaced out with much negative space. She also puts her models mostly in the center, seen in her previous works. Her range of straightforward photography and manipulation are very effective in her way of storytelling, as it is forcing the viewer to ask questions due to the abstract and unexplainable nature. Overall, her designs are very unique and all completely differentiate from each other; it is hard to tell what the story is about without reading the caption or title from the artist. It directs many different views which
can be seen in one of her work. This forces the viewer to think too deeply and ask many rhetorical questions, as they appear to have a unique view to the viewer in the theory to believe that the piece reinforces a sense of unreality and unknowingness which is seen in the picture at the left. It clearly displays the dark editing skill that I have mentioned which expresses her style through simple manipulation. It appears that this image is fairly desaturated and darkened, possible in order to highlight the blackness of the trees to contrast the way in which she is going to follow. This results to believe that they were intentions to get across the idea of adventure and discovery. McCormick uses mainly photographs as her media for her pieces as this is her main passion and how she expresses herself. She tends to avoid using bright colors and often chooses to set quite a dull mood in her photographs. In many of her work she keeps the model/object central, while allowing an equal negative space of the background be left. Most of her background images are places that are commonly seen by anyone but she lets the model pose to an extend to get the viewers interested to ask themselves “what is she/he doing in that place”. Her intention might be to let her viewer ask themselves what the reason might be for the model to be in that particular area. Later she uses her photo manipulation skills to let people fade away or float. She also changes the mood by changing the contrast and color level to get a much darker and dull atmosphere.
One example that caught my attention is this piece called Week 41 from her collection semester weeks. She stated that ‘each image (in her collection) representing a different week in my first semester of college. This one was my favorite and most personal.’ In my opinion the overall image is a question. For example why is she headless? What’s the reason for her to be in a room headless? Why is she sitting and not lying down? Is the image showing death or loss of her other half because she is changing while doing her semester? It is a simple design. A headless person is placed in the center, while allowing equal negative space to be seen in the canvas. This results too many different views and opinions from many people. And the fact that she uses Photoshop to crate the effects makes it simpler and easier for her to do. She erased the head and added contrast to
get a darker shade in the image. This results to a shilled feeling of coldness and death. This leads to believe that the image is based on dead and ghost. I believe that her manipulation skills in Photoshop are likely the main reason which leads the viewer to question her narrative.
In conclusion I find that that recent advance in computer technology has affected storytelling in many aspects. It opens up new possibilities and makes story telling easier and allows to edit the as well as enables to push the boundaries of reality which Nicholas Max and Paul M Smith and Taylor McCormick have demonstrated in their work. Technology helps to edit the visual atmosphere of the story in many ways giving it a sense of nostalgic or dreamy feeling which Nicholas Max and Taylor McCormick have applied in their work. It also allows to push the boundaries of reality and permits to create the imposable or supernatural to happen like many people with the same face to be in the same place which Paul M Smith has established in his work. It helped them to edit there work whether on duplicating character or changing the scale, proportion or the mood of the images. It opens up many possibilities and creativity to enhance in there way of storytelling and I am convinced that technology will be always technologically advanced further in the future, which will lead to a complete new revolution of storytelling!