Fragments
The end of year project I have chosen is Fragments. I have chosen this project because it looks really fascinating and interesting to me. It also allows me to use photoshop which i enjoy using and helps me t present my creativity. I created a pinterest board and saved various pins that link to fragments and which I think look creative and imaginative.
. I have been intrigued by a specific Photographer named Reynald Drouhin.
Reynald Drouhin
|
Born in 1969, Reynald Drouhin lives and works in Paris and teaches multimedia at the WEHAB-Rennes. He creates geometrical patterns from photographs that he has taken. He makes these by making an outline of a shape then copy and pasting that shape back on the original photograph and flipped it 180 degrees. He then made an outline of the flipped shape and copy and pasted that again so that it was the other half of the background and flipped it 180 degrees again.
|
My attempt to recreate his work
I found a landscaped photograph on google images and used that as a base. I did it pretty much the exact same as Reynald did in his photographs but I changed it a little to make it my own. I did this by adding two more shapes and I also made the background black and white.
Photoshopping my own photographs
Photograph analysis
In this photograph I can see a desk. I can also see what appears to be a 2d top down view of a fragmented room with books, a vase, dog biscuits and an open book with pictures.The words I would use to describe this photograph are "abstract", "fragmented and "unclear". If I was to describe this photograph to someone who hasn't seen it before I would tell them that someone has taken a picture of a room with random objects on the desk and cut up the picture and rearrange the cut up squares of the photograph. Like a puzzle.
This photograph reminds me of a desk that my grandfather had which was also quite unorganised. This is a very abstract image because of how distorted and disconnected the image is. There are different formal elements which are easy to spot in this image. For example, shape is prominent because of how the image is cropped or placed into squares and replaced to form a new image. There are also several lines I can see, like the gaps in the floorboards and in between the drawers, or the line of contrast between the different squares that make up the image. There is not a lot of space in this and it almost feels smaller because of how the squares are laid out. The photographer also manages to space out the squares on the side of the desk so that the desk looks more spread out. The subject is in focus but it has been cropped tremendously, like I said before it was cropped and put back together disorganised or it is just a large amount of pictures taken that are placed strategically.
One thing that really catches my eye in this photograph is not only the fact that it looks like a disorientating puzzle, but that the desk is shown from two different angles. There is a top down view and a forward facing view. The top down view shows the top of the desk which you wouldn't be able to see facing it from the front. Unless the desk is tilted but then the objects wouldn't be able to stand like that. I would ask the artist what inspired him to do such a thing and how did he show the different angles.
I would probably give this image the title "Broken puzzle" or "A disorientating desk" or "Memory fragments".I chose these titles because they relate to how this image is pieced together and what I think of when I look at it.
This photograph reminds me of a desk that my grandfather had which was also quite unorganised. This is a very abstract image because of how distorted and disconnected the image is. There are different formal elements which are easy to spot in this image. For example, shape is prominent because of how the image is cropped or placed into squares and replaced to form a new image. There are also several lines I can see, like the gaps in the floorboards and in between the drawers, or the line of contrast between the different squares that make up the image. There is not a lot of space in this and it almost feels smaller because of how the squares are laid out. The photographer also manages to space out the squares on the side of the desk so that the desk looks more spread out. The subject is in focus but it has been cropped tremendously, like I said before it was cropped and put back together disorganised or it is just a large amount of pictures taken that are placed strategically.
One thing that really catches my eye in this photograph is not only the fact that it looks like a disorientating puzzle, but that the desk is shown from two different angles. There is a top down view and a forward facing view. The top down view shows the top of the desk which you wouldn't be able to see facing it from the front. Unless the desk is tilted but then the objects wouldn't be able to stand like that. I would ask the artist what inspired him to do such a thing and how did he show the different angles.
I would probably give this image the title "Broken puzzle" or "A disorientating desk" or "Memory fragments".I chose these titles because they relate to how this image is pieced together and what I think of when I look at it.
Karl Blossfeldt
Karl Blossfeldt was a German photographer along with being a sculptor, teacher and artist who was born in June 13, 1865 and died on December 9, 1932. He creates close-up photographs of plants and living things. He was inspired by plants and the way they grow. Blossfeldt started his making most of his photographs with his own home made camera that could magnify the subject up to thirty times its size which made even the smallest details on a plant clear and visible. He took these pictures because he wanted to document how plants grow. His photographs are special because they are up close-ups of of different and unusual plants with their own patterns and shape. The plant will take up the whole photograph leaving small amounts of extra space.
Personal ideas
I cut out random holes of different sizes in pages of magazines the stuck them against widows or held them up in the building. They look really good in the light because I can see the page behind shining through. Next time I am going to take them to the darkroom to make photograms of the pages and see how they come out.
Photograms
I then photocopied all the photograms I made in to A3 paper. This will allow me to play around with it more and experiment in different ways.
Layered
Experiments
Final Outcomes (Unmounted)
The first three photographs above were experiments using photoshop to develop my photograms. I started with layering two different photograms together and used different patterns and shapes to show the one behind. I then found a picture on google that had a lot of bright and vibrant colours which I also layered behind one of my photograms, I did this because I thought that the bright colours behind the black and white would look interesting so I cut circles in the photogram using photoshop to bring the colour through. Finally I tried something different which I thought would look rather interesting.
How I make them
Finished Final Outcome
For my final outcome I chose 6 of the pictures I made in photoshop 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.
Researching other Photographers
Dafna Talmor
Dafna Talmor is an artist and lecturer based in London. Her practice encompasses photography, video, curation and collaborations. She completed a BA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths (2001) and MA in Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art (2004), London and has been exhibiting work internationally and nationally since 1999. Her photographs are included in public collections such as Deutsche Bank, Hiscox, in multiple private collections internationally and has been featured in publications such as Camera Austria, ArtReview, Hotshoe, Elephant, GUP, UYW, BJP, Photomonitor and BLOW. Dafna's work is included in Post-Photography:The Artist with a Camera by Robert Shore (Laurence King Publishing 2014) and Alternative Photographic Processes:Crafting Handmade Images by Brady Wilks (Focal Press 2015).
Gustave Le Gray
Gustave Le Gray was born in 1820 in Villiers-le-Bel, Val-d'Oise. He was originally trained as a painter, studying under François-Édouard Picot and Paul Delaroche. He even exhibited at the salon in 1848 and 1853. He then crossed over to photography in the early years of its development.
He made his first daguerreotypes by 1847. His early photographs included portraits; scenes of nature such as Fontainebleau Forest; and buildings such as châteaux of the Loire Valley.
He taught photography to students such as Charles Nègre, Henri Le Secq, Nadar, Olympe Aguado, and Maxime Du Camp. In 1851 he became one of the first five photographers hired for the Missions Héliographiques to document French monuments and buildings. In that same year he helped found the Société Héliographique, the "first photographic organisation in the world". Le Gray published a treatise on photography, which went through four editions, in 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1854.
He made his first daguerreotypes by 1847. His early photographs included portraits; scenes of nature such as Fontainebleau Forest; and buildings such as châteaux of the Loire Valley.
He taught photography to students such as Charles Nègre, Henri Le Secq, Nadar, Olympe Aguado, and Maxime Du Camp. In 1851 he became one of the first five photographers hired for the Missions Héliographiques to document French monuments and buildings. In that same year he helped found the Société Héliographique, the "first photographic organisation in the world". Le Gray published a treatise on photography, which went through four editions, in 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1854.
My own approach
2nd Final Outcome
For my second final piece I am going to develop an idea I had a while ago with the magazine pages with holes in them. However I am taking them to the scanner and layering multiple pages and rearranging the pages and cut up circles so that they can hopefully come out as patterns or something that looks pleasing to the eye.
Merging 2 Scans
Using the previous layers I am going to try taking them to photoshop to merge two scans together to create even more layers.
Merging 3 scans
I took 3 of the scans and layered them over eachother in photoshop. I then used the blending options to make one layer soft light and the other layer hard light.
Final Evaluation
I must say it is quite interesting how all the colours and layers blend together. The colours change depending on the colour of the circle thats layered on top of it.