Considering the use of Photo-shop techniques such as layering to explore environmental photography I was inspired by the work of Idris Khan. He is a British artist who is well-known for creating densely layered images that address ideas to do with experience and history by collapsing a single moment. His layering technique involves adding new layers while keeping traces of what has been before to create something new through repetition and superimposition. His photographs often originate from secondary source material, for example, he has explored the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. The Bechers originally set out to document functional architecture in the post-industrial era by using a dead-pan approach, photographing each structure in an objective and uniform way, from different angles and then grouping them in typologies.
Khan has said that he wanted to look at images that had influenced the photographic culture as a whole and see if he could add something new to this work. He achieved this by challenging the cold, dead-pan approach the Bechers took by creating a different atmosphere with his resulting images appearing more like drawings or blurred film stills that have an eerie quality to them. By appropriating the Bechers imagery and compiling their collections into single super-imposed images he makes the viewer think about authorship, time and image-making. The structures in the Bechers original photographs are almost identical and Khan adjusts the contrast and opacity to ensure each layer can be seen and has presence. I think that it’s interesting how he has used new methods to explore an iconic collection of photographs and challenge the way that are interpreted . At the same time they also seem to destroy the source materials in that they are almost illegible but they also tribute the labour and time of the original creators. I also like that in this case the use of layering as a technique has a specific meaning and value and isn’t done purely for abstract or aesthetic purposes.
Experimentation
This is an old image of mine which was taken while exploring the themes of social environment and typologies. I experimented in Photo-Shop with the idea of double-exposures and layering of the same image. I did this by copying the image and then moving the duplicated layer slightly and adjusting the overlay and opacity. I experimented with different variations and settings such as colour burn and soft light. These are some of my outcomes from this:
