Unit 1
For Unit 1 I've researched many photographers such as Harry Callahan, Saul Leiter, Reynold Drouhin and Gustave Le Grey. These photographers helped inspire me and open my eyes to the themes I carried out. I discovered them through pinterest, my photography teacher and by being recommended to me because I was doing something similar or related to their work. From researching and learning their work I was able to further develop and refine my work with more knowledge and a better idea of how to construct it. For example for my abstraction project I took a lot of inspiration from Saul Leiter like how to use focus, abstraction, how we view the world vs showing a different view of the world and reflection. In the theme abstraction I explored the use of multiple techniques and he idea of making the world we see normally as something completely different and unnatural. I was a bit spectacle at the beginning of this project because I wasn't really sure how to carry it out or how to make something abstract. I slowly began to realise that everything is abstract and there is no right way to create an abstract photograph but there are ways that you can make something very abstract by making it look more unnatural. I realised this when I made a couple photograms which were definitely abstract on their own but I wanted to see if I could develop them and refine them more to make them more abstract . So I cut it into several small squares and rearranged them so that they looked like a piece of mosaic art, and photographed it. The point is that I kept developing and refining the same image to make t more and more abstract. I would say I have tackled the threshold concept of photography being an art of selection rather than invention because when I was taking my pictures I had to think about how I would capture the world to make it abstract by selecting and arranging where and how the world in front of the lens could look out of place.
For my fragments project I researched a particular photographer after being inspired by his work on pinterest. He has a style of photography that I find very interesting which required photoshop, so I decided to recreate it. From studying his work I learned that photoshop is very good for fragments but also I could take reality and fragment it using technology, and it would look interesting and precise. This theme was fragments and it was pretty similar to my project on abstracton so because of that I have had a past experience in viewing the world in extraordinary ways. At first I was fairly sure that it was going to be very similar to the abstract project but as I progressed it came to my attention that I could manipulate the view of the world using technology and techniques to give it more fragments. I have also noticed that everything has fragments, it's the viewer that has to have the capability to see them that makes it different. In my opinion I believe that the threshold concept I tackled is number 5 which is "photographs are abstractions shaped by technology" becuase even though I did not use a camera for the final outcome in this project I used photoshop which is also technology.
On my abstractions page you can clearly see that I have taken one simple photogram that I have made and developed it several times. It started off as just a photogram (which was my favourite mind you) and I decided to take the idea of abstraction further so I cut up the photogram into multiple small pieces until it resembled an unfinished puzzle. I then taped the pieces together whilst they were still out of place and took it to the darkroom to create another photogram out of it. Once I had created a photogram of it I inverted the colours so it was no longer black and white but white and black. I developed it even further by splashing some of the chemicals on them in the dark room to create odd shapes and patterns around the original image and to fill in the negative space. Finally, I decided to develop them one last time by tinting them different colours to contrast against the black and white. I think the splash of chemicals worked really well because of how it makes the image pop more instead of it just being plain and simple it almost makes it more complex in my opinion.
There are a few different developments I have carried out for my fragments project but they are mainly for the first final outcome. I made some photograms using various magazine pages with circles cut out of them and placing the cut out circles onto the photographic paper to really express the idea of fragments. After I made the photograms I used them to experiment with different ideas and processes to develop them further and clearly show the fragments. I experimented with the photograms digitally and physically whether it was using Photoshop to edit them or cut circles out of them to place the other circles from the magazine pages to give some reality to the unnatural looking photograms. Placing the magazine behind the photogram worked well because it inspired me to continue that idea for my second final piece for my fragments project which is layering multiple magazine pages with circles cut out and scanning them to create an odd looking combination of colour and depth.
One of my final outcomes for my abstraction project came out really well and I think the outcome was very good. This is the one with the developed photograms. I like it because I think it shows my thought process behind the whole thing of how I made one simple thing then continued to develop it and make it better and more abstract. I was hoping to create multiple images that were very abstract and different but same at the same time. I definitely think it worked because as well as it showing my thought process, it showed how my mind opened up to more ideas and how I could project them. I successfully explored this theme and I know this because at the beginning I was skeptical and unsure how to carry out this project. I was confused as to what abstraction meant and how to portray them in photography. However, throughout the duration of the project and experimenting and experiencing and researching, I slowly began to get the hang of abstraction and why it’s different. If I had more time, then I would have liked to use Photoshop more now that I know how to use it more because I feel like I could create some very abstract images. This is personal to me because of how much time and effort I put into it as well as how it allowed me learn and broaden my ideas about abstraction. I hope the viewers will understand my thought process whilst creating these images and how one transitions to the other.
The first final outcome for my fragments project is by far my favourite. I used the photograms I made with the magazine pages to combine them with beautiful landscape pictures that admittedly weren’t my own but what I made with them was my own. I managed to cut out everything but the land and its reflection and replaced it with a photogram. I chose 6 of the pictures I made i and mounted them with a quote underneath that I found from a book that was recommended to me called Moon Palace. The quote says “The whole scene had an imaginary quality to it. I knew that it was real, but at the same time it was better than reality, more nearly a projection of what I wanted from reality than anything I had experienced before.” I chose this because in a way it represents what photography is because it is taking a small section of reality and projecting it onto a digital or materialised form. Then there is also the water which acts as a natural way of projecting reality onto a smooth flowing symmetrical "dimension" if you like. As well as this the photograms in the background look like the moon, whether it is the circles that look like craters or the dusty ash grey colour of it, what stands out the most to me is the emptiness and solidarity of it and the colourful landscapes in front act as a contrast between the lively earth that's full of colour and the cold and lonely grey moon. I want to create a final piece that had the element of fragments but also out of this world and it definitely worked. I’m proud to think that I have successfully explored this theme by experimenting a developing my ideas to make a final piece that hopefully can show my understanding of fragments. This outcome is personal to me because it allowed me to find myself in the art of photography and allows me to prove to myself that I can portray an idea in my head onto a visible format for others to see and hopefully the viewers can understand that.
For my fragments project I researched a particular photographer after being inspired by his work on pinterest. He has a style of photography that I find very interesting which required photoshop, so I decided to recreate it. From studying his work I learned that photoshop is very good for fragments but also I could take reality and fragment it using technology, and it would look interesting and precise. This theme was fragments and it was pretty similar to my project on abstracton so because of that I have had a past experience in viewing the world in extraordinary ways. At first I was fairly sure that it was going to be very similar to the abstract project but as I progressed it came to my attention that I could manipulate the view of the world using technology and techniques to give it more fragments. I have also noticed that everything has fragments, it's the viewer that has to have the capability to see them that makes it different. In my opinion I believe that the threshold concept I tackled is number 5 which is "photographs are abstractions shaped by technology" becuase even though I did not use a camera for the final outcome in this project I used photoshop which is also technology.
On my abstractions page you can clearly see that I have taken one simple photogram that I have made and developed it several times. It started off as just a photogram (which was my favourite mind you) and I decided to take the idea of abstraction further so I cut up the photogram into multiple small pieces until it resembled an unfinished puzzle. I then taped the pieces together whilst they were still out of place and took it to the darkroom to create another photogram out of it. Once I had created a photogram of it I inverted the colours so it was no longer black and white but white and black. I developed it even further by splashing some of the chemicals on them in the dark room to create odd shapes and patterns around the original image and to fill in the negative space. Finally, I decided to develop them one last time by tinting them different colours to contrast against the black and white. I think the splash of chemicals worked really well because of how it makes the image pop more instead of it just being plain and simple it almost makes it more complex in my opinion.
There are a few different developments I have carried out for my fragments project but they are mainly for the first final outcome. I made some photograms using various magazine pages with circles cut out of them and placing the cut out circles onto the photographic paper to really express the idea of fragments. After I made the photograms I used them to experiment with different ideas and processes to develop them further and clearly show the fragments. I experimented with the photograms digitally and physically whether it was using Photoshop to edit them or cut circles out of them to place the other circles from the magazine pages to give some reality to the unnatural looking photograms. Placing the magazine behind the photogram worked well because it inspired me to continue that idea for my second final piece for my fragments project which is layering multiple magazine pages with circles cut out and scanning them to create an odd looking combination of colour and depth.
One of my final outcomes for my abstraction project came out really well and I think the outcome was very good. This is the one with the developed photograms. I like it because I think it shows my thought process behind the whole thing of how I made one simple thing then continued to develop it and make it better and more abstract. I was hoping to create multiple images that were very abstract and different but same at the same time. I definitely think it worked because as well as it showing my thought process, it showed how my mind opened up to more ideas and how I could project them. I successfully explored this theme and I know this because at the beginning I was skeptical and unsure how to carry out this project. I was confused as to what abstraction meant and how to portray them in photography. However, throughout the duration of the project and experimenting and experiencing and researching, I slowly began to get the hang of abstraction and why it’s different. If I had more time, then I would have liked to use Photoshop more now that I know how to use it more because I feel like I could create some very abstract images. This is personal to me because of how much time and effort I put into it as well as how it allowed me learn and broaden my ideas about abstraction. I hope the viewers will understand my thought process whilst creating these images and how one transitions to the other.
The first final outcome for my fragments project is by far my favourite. I used the photograms I made with the magazine pages to combine them with beautiful landscape pictures that admittedly weren’t my own but what I made with them was my own. I managed to cut out everything but the land and its reflection and replaced it with a photogram. I chose 6 of the pictures I made i and mounted them with a quote underneath that I found from a book that was recommended to me called Moon Palace. The quote says “The whole scene had an imaginary quality to it. I knew that it was real, but at the same time it was better than reality, more nearly a projection of what I wanted from reality than anything I had experienced before.” I chose this because in a way it represents what photography is because it is taking a small section of reality and projecting it onto a digital or materialised form. Then there is also the water which acts as a natural way of projecting reality onto a smooth flowing symmetrical "dimension" if you like. As well as this the photograms in the background look like the moon, whether it is the circles that look like craters or the dusty ash grey colour of it, what stands out the most to me is the emptiness and solidarity of it and the colourful landscapes in front act as a contrast between the lively earth that's full of colour and the cold and lonely grey moon. I want to create a final piece that had the element of fragments but also out of this world and it definitely worked. I’m proud to think that I have successfully explored this theme by experimenting a developing my ideas to make a final piece that hopefully can show my understanding of fragments. This outcome is personal to me because it allowed me to find myself in the art of photography and allows me to prove to myself that I can portray an idea in my head onto a visible format for others to see and hopefully the viewers can understand that.