Exam Preparation Project.
Mind map of ideas.
5 Possible Starting points. ๏ Photographing smashed windows, glass, piggy banks. (The idea of being inside, or something being inside and breaking through the middle obstacle to get outside.) ๏ Landscapes - Layers of landscapes, mountains, hills, certain things like trees, windows acting as a frame (inside) looking out on the main picture. Collage, layers. ๏ Emotions - Portraying the inside, outside. Personality portrayed on the outside, collage. Looking through eyes. (Eyes-inside, Water/Tears - In between, Out on a loved one, mixed emotions - outside) ๏ Crop/ Leftovers - Between the blank space. Looking at what is normally never seen. The picture between the main subject and the empty space. ๏ Skin - Shadows, silhouettes, the absent space between the camera and the subject. Outside of the skin (muscles) photoshopped image, showing the inside of half the body. Showing the Heart, Linking with emotions? Collage words coming from the heart, Skin peeling? showing the process of before, in between and after?
Artist’s 1 comparison – Davis Ayer This photo was taken by Davis Ayers from a set of photographs called ‘Time Travel’ taken of light projection body art. He used vintage photos of landscapes and projected them onto the female body. I found this photograph particularly appealing as it shows great skill in blending projections with the human body which interests me and inspires me to use this in my own work. In my own coursework based project ‘Inside, Outside and In between’ this technique can be used greatly by experimenting with the different prepositions, each giving a certain texture or meaning in the photograph. The projections contrast against the skin making the body a sort of framework that surrounds the actual photograph highlighting it. I feel this is very important as the effect is prominent and makes an impact on the viewer. I think that Davis used this for that reason so the body accentuated the vintage images that were projected. I believe the artist was inspired by body art and tried to find a way of imposing certain photographs onto the body to give it that effect. Davis Ayer may have wanted to portray the idea of old and new. This shows that the photograph has strong digital use and therefore is contemporary with the high definition. The title ‘Time Travel’ gives the idea of going back in time and with the use of contemporary digital effects they contrast and express the idea that the body is showing ‘Time travel’ and places back in time. The photograph has a high contrast and clarity within it which shows slight texture in the skin as well as the detail of the buildings in the photograph that has been projected. This photograph has inspired me to use projection in the development of my photographs as I believe there will be a great outcome. The use of close up imagery accentuates both images and blends them perfectly. This gives me more of an idea of how to overlay photographs without using Photoshop. This has given me more of an insight on physical development and I can now experiment using projection to discover different textures, it will also help me capture some details which may be lost with other techniques, as I want to keep detail and clarity within my photographs.
Artist 1’s comparison -Eva Mueller Eva Mueller also creates projection imagery in her work. Her photographs are also mainly studio based likewise to Davis Ayer and she explores many unique and surreal ideas within her work. With these photographs Eva Mueller uses initial landscape photographs of the outside world and overlays them onto specific body parts on a model, in a studio. Many of Eva Mueller’s ideas seem to focus on the idea of surrealism. Her photographs merge the two images to create the illusion that they are a part of each other. Her images are mainly photo-shopped the give the clean finished affect in contrast to Davis Ayer. The projections completely cover the body parts that she photographed which I feel makes it look a lot more real and affective. I think that the artist’s intentions were to make the human body appear in a different form contrasting to David Ayer where it makes it clear that the body and the projection are two separate things.
Developed.
Katie Heine Heine’s was inspired herself by an artist which unfortunately I couldn’t find. However I feel that her use of patterns and Photoshop skills prove to be really effective and has inspired me to use it within my own work. By the use of overly in particular areas it enhances the colors and has highlighted certain aspects and picked out certain details making them stand out a lot more. The pattern is also very affective as it creates an extra image over the top of her own. There is also a high contrast used within the photograph bringing out the branches in the trees and finding all the little details, giving a strong quality within the photograph.
Landscapes.
Developed.
In my exam preparation I started by making a big mind map of ideas that I could use to prepare for my exam. I then narrowed these down and collected ‘5 starting points’ if I chose to do certain ideas. I was extremely interested in the idea of glass and researched a few artists however I didn’t really find there was much I could do and I didn’t have the right safety materials to use for the project. My next idea was skin, I felt this would’ve been a really good idea as I could link it easily with the theme of inside, outside and in between. My initial idea was to take photographs of a male friend and use then as my model. I asked my model to pose in different ways and used a spotlight to capture the different ones in his skin. I felt this was really effective as the light caught the muscles and created really nice shadows and highlighted certain aspects of the body. I felt this was quite challenging as although I have taken many portrait photographs I was a little out of my comfort zone photographing my model half-naked, although it was a really good experience and made me a lot more confident in taking those sort of photographs. I chose to do a range of different angles and I also took a close up to see the textures in the skin.
To develop these photographs further and portray the theme of ‘Inside, outside and in between’ I wanted to show the inside of the body. I took another set of photographs of a pluck that I had bought form the butchers and using them photographs I use my Photoshop skills to overlay images of the pluck, onto my male model’s body. I felt this was really affective and where the light hit the skin, the overlay images showed a lot of detail and link really well with the initial photographs. My idea 2 for my exam prep I wanted to look at landscapes. I felt this could also really fit in really well with the theme of inside, outside and in between as I could look at the outside environment and look between the objects to find all the details. My initial set of photographs were ones that I took from all different locations that I had visited. Some were from my holiday, a few others were taken from the back of my house and the rest were taken from a nearby park. I chose to take my photographs at these locations as they were all very scenic and had bold bright colours. I felt these were extremely affective and the ones from my holiday contrasted the ones from my area back home as the holiday photographs were very clear and didnt have much things going on within the photographs however the ones I took from from the park and my house were very busy and had a lot of details and objects.
To develop these initial photographs I was inspired by photography student Katie Heine who was inspired by an artist herself. She use Photoshop to create different shapes within the image, distorting it and giving it the look of looking through a kaleidoscope. I felt this was really affective so I used all different shapes and overlays to re- create my photographs in a creative way. I felt that the different overlays enhanced a lot of aspects and details within the photographs making them stand out a lot more. The different symmetrical patterns I felt worked really well and gave a surreal effect. I felt I challenged myself doing this as I had never done it before in my work, I found it interesting using different tools on Photoshop and designing my own patterns to overlay on top of my initial photographs. I believe that this improved my Photoshop skills further for my exam, where I can hopefully use these skills for my exam in the future.
Exam artist This Is Laura Hughes a photography student at the Milwaukee institute of Art and Design. I was really inspired by her work as it shows a lot of technical features that I would like to use within my own work. For my Exam I want to focus on the idea of skin. This photograph I felt fit perfectly with the theme of inside, outside and in between as it shows the outside of the body and what looks like a skeletal x-ray of herself merged within the photograph. The image displays an anatomy of the body while also keeping a really glamorous image with the image of herself. I feel that this is a really good contrast. Also Hughes has edited her photo into black and white which I feel accentuates the skeleton even more so making it stand out as the white contrasts with the black background and features. This has inspired me to use black and white in some of my photographs, especially when I use projection as I feel then it doesn’t look too over powering with all the details and it makes the image more appealing to the eye. I believe this image the artist could have tried to symbolise a persons inner beauty, by showing herself really glammed up and having the inner skeleton appearing out vaguely. I find this particular photograph visually pleasing however it does indicate some fort of symbolism which has inspired me to also use within my Exam.
Exam – Work produced in Exam
Final Outcomes.
Exam Full Evaluation.
Exam Evaluation I started my exam project first by taking my initial photographs to fit the theme ‘Inside, Outside and In-between’. In my exam preparation I took photos of landscapes, these photographs I took when I was on holiday, some were also from the view from the back of my house and the others were taken in a nearby park to where I live. This I found very interesting as I visited areas that I had never been before and it gave me a chance to take photographs in an unfamiliar surrounding. I felt this turned out really well as I had never photographed in these areas before I could focus on extracting every little detail enabling me to become more familiar and see between all the surroundings, linking with the theme of inside outside and in-between. My other initial sets of photographs were portraits of a male friend. This theme I chose to do was based on skin. My intentions with this theme were to portray the idea of outside the surface of the skin, and in my development focus what is inside and behind the skin, linking with the overall theme.
For my exam photos I took photographs of skin, as that was what I planned to focus my exam on whilst doing my exam preparation, I really thought I could experiment with different types of skin in many ways and use quite a lot of development, therefor I carried this idea into my exam. The photographs were close up’s of skin, from people that I knew. I took these photographs previously and kept them in a untouched folder, ready for me to edit them within the exam. The photos I took were of different ages and different ethnicities. This I felt was more affective as I wanted to show the different contrasting skin tone, colours and textures, which was my aim. I felt I took a step further doing this project than all my previous ones as I would usually focus on self-portraiture or occasionally use one more person within my work, however I chose to challenge myself and get a range of different people to photograph. This I felt had a good outcome as it let me experiment with new things and target my work outside of my comfort zone and as my exam was on the subject of skin I wanted to use as many different skin tones and textures as possible.
I also challenged myself in using a male model, who was a close friend of mine. Within my work I have never used a male in portraiture work. This was also a good experience as I felt a lot more comfortable photographing him than people who I photographed previously and I felt they were some of my best photographs. The initial photographs I took I felt were of good quality, there were a handful that I feel could’ve been slightly more affective with the lack of lighting in certain places, or where the lens was slightly out of focus, this was in a few of the self-portraits of my male friend however overall I feel I have produced good quality photographs for my initial set and my main focus was making sure that they were a good base to do developments on. The fact that some of my photographs were out of focus didn’t affect my exam work and I didn’t use that part of the photographs and I erased the actual features to use the outline of the body, therefore it didn’t make much difference, however they could have been improved.
Throughout my 8-hour exam I used the same theme of skin to represent ‘Inside, outside and in-between’. However even though I stuck with the same theme I use different sets of photos each time and developed them in many different ways, both practically and by Photoshop. My first idea In the first few hours i simply used projection with the initial photographs I had taken and edited them so that they were really contrasted. I saturated these photos so the colour wasn’t too overpowering with all the details in the skin, this I found to be very effective when projecting the photographs onto the white studio wall and me, as the colours and detail were quite intense. Then I developed this idea further in my second set of photographs for the net 3 hours, as instead I wanted to keep the outline of the body, so using Photoshop I erased the model in my photographs and filled the outline with the close up’s of skin that I had taken. I merged the photos together and used the burn tool to create some shadows under the neck and where the usual shadows would form, this made it more 3D and I produced 7 final outcomes.
I then developed this idea by using the initial photographs of skin close up and printing them onto acetate, I placed hand parts of a similar size together so it created the illusion that they were merged together, then re-photographed the acetate on top of a light box, creating my final outcomes for that idea. Finally my last idea was more practical, I decided that I wanted to make a collage of all the different skin close ups and merge them together to create the sense of unity between cultures and ages. I tore the edges roughly instead of cutting around the photographs, I feel this gave the photographs more of an edge and with the ridged side it made it more like a collaged piece. Using the different images I was able to create 4 final outcomes in collages, re creating images of hands using all the different photographs.
I think that my choice of artists worked extremely well and were affective with the ideas I had for my own work. The artists work really inspired me to challenge myself with using different effects and techniques in my work. In my exam preparation I used the artists Eva Mueller and David Ayer to compare as they both used a form of overlay however in very different ways, this enabled me to experiment with the different ways either by projection or by Photoshop, which within my first idea I used overlay to merge the photograph of organs onto the self portrait of my male model. This I felt worked exceedingly well and I felt my choice of artist were really useful in inspiring me to use this technique. My last Artist inspired me as it was a student’s work that was inspired by an artist themselves. This inspired my development as it used a unique way of distorting the photo with different exposures and contrasts however still leaving the image intact. In my idea 2 of Landscape’s I was able to use this technique creating a surreal, alien look. It gave my photographs the illusion of looking through a kaleidoscope which proved to be very affective.
I felt I really pushed my creative boundaries as I explored many different ideas that I hadn’t done before and I challenged myself. All of my ideas linked with the artists whether it was with the theme or the way in which the artist had used a similar contrast in their photographs to intensify them. I believe that the exam went really well, I developed 4 sets of outcomes that all used different techniques. My first sets of outcomes were projections of skin onto myself and another model. The second set of outcomes were photo-shopped images of skin silhouettes, the third set of outcomes were acetates and my final set of outcomes were collages of skin. If I had more time on this project I would develop my ideas further to see if I could have pushed my creative skills further and developed each idea in a more practical way, either by sewing onto the photographs or scratching out part of the photos to distort them a lot more and make more of an impact. However I am really pleased with the outcomes I have produced and I feel I have achieved high quality work.