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Analysis, AS EXAM, Experimentation, Final Responses, Homework Assignment, Instruction, Planning, Recording, Research

AS Photography Exam Title Guidance : “Structure”

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AS Photog Exam: w/c Monday 24th April

  • Groups C & D: Monday 24th & Thursday 27th April
  • (Wednesday NO EXAM)
  • Groups A & E: Tuesday 25th & Friday 28th April

Read this carefully and think how you can design a thorough unit of investigation that explores your chosen theme, topic or subject matter…

structure
ˈstrʌktʃə/
noun
  1. 1.
    the arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex.
    “the two sentences have equivalent structures”
    synonyms: construction, form, formation, shape, composition, fabric, anatomy, make-up, constitution; More
  2. 2.
    a building or other object constructed from several parts.
    “the station is a magnificent structure and should not be demolished”
    synonyms: building, edifice, construction, erection, pile, complex, assembly

    “a vast Gothic structure with strange ornamental spirelets”
verb
  1. 1.
    construct or arrange according to a plan; give a pattern or organization to.
    “services must be structured so as to avoid pitfalls”
    synonyms: arrange, organize, order, design, shape, give structure to, assemble, construct, build, put together

    “the programme is structured around periods of residential study”

<<<CHOOSE 1 STARTING POINT ONLY>>>

Use mindmaps and moodboards to start…

You should aim to complete at least 1 Photo-shoot per week

Structure

  1. Erin O’Keefe often photographs objects propped up in a corner. Her work explores the visual ambiguities of shadow, space, shape, colour and reflection. Originally an architect, her photographs are of real structures without using digital manipulation such as Photoshop. Many other photographers have experimented with constructed spaces and reflections, such as Florence Henri, Robert Smithson, Owen Kydd, David Haxton, Thomas Demand, Paul Strand etc

Florence Henri
Composition Nature Morte, 1929
photograph

2. Robert Frank shocked his adopted country when he published his groundbreaking book The Americans in 1957. Rather than seeing the cosy Middle America personified in later TV cartoons like The Flintstones, he revealed the raw push and shove of a society that was at odds with itself. Other photographers such as Nan Goldin, Jeff Wall, Chris Killip and Sophie Calle have also been compelled to expose the real structures in society and ‘Tell it like it is’.

Robert Frank
Canal Street – New Orleans, 1955
photograph

3. Stories can be told in a single frame, three frames, or, as in films, millions of frames. Narrative structures can be linear, such as with Duane Michals’ sequences, or non-linear such as Paul Graham’s A Shimmer of Possibility and Wolfgang Tillmans’ If One Thing Matters, Everything Matters. Photographers, filmmakers and animators find unique ways to structure the narratives in their work.

Duane Michals
Alice’s Mirror
photograph

Bill Owens
Untitled from ‘Suburbia’
photograph

4. Photographers have been fascinated by the structure of natural forms from the earliest days of the medium. Karl Blossfeldt found a monumental presence in simple seedheads. Edward Weston revealed beauty in the forms of peppers and shells. Robert
Mapplethorpe, Ori Gersht, Todd McClelland and Olivia Parker have also focused on natural forms in different ways, demonstrating personal responses to light and texture.

RM
Honesty
photograph

Here are some other suggestions that may stimulate your imagination  / Starting points for photo-assignments
• Pine cones, pineapples, grapevines, hops, ivy, bindweed
• Scrapyards, building sites, cranes, restoration yards, derelict ruins
• Crystals, molecules, geology, fossils, footprints, tracks
• Stadiums, orchestras, rock concerts, floodlights, staircases
• Motorways, railways, runways, dockyards
• Flowers, plants, trees, fungi, algae, feathers, scales, shells
• Nests of weaver birds, wasps and bees, termite mounds, baskets
• Circuit boards, pipework, telephone poles, towers, pylons, skyscrapers
• Shop displays, escalators, bars, libraries, theatres and cinemas
• Gardens, parks, playgrounds, swimming pools, beaches
• Dolls, mannequins, puppets, cuddly toys, Lego

Assessment Objectives

You should provide evidence that fulfils the four Assessment Objectives:

AO1 Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding
AO2 Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
AO3 Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress
AO4 Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

Your preparatory studies should show evidence of:

• your development and control of visual literacy and the formal elements (tone,
texture, colour, line, form and structure)
• an exploration of techniques and media
• investigations showing engagement with appropriate primary and
secondary sources
• the development of your thoughts, decisions and ideas based on the theme
• critical review and reflection

Good luck and make sure you ask for guidance at any stage of the process…remember to play to your strengths and approach this unit in a similar way to your coursework units !!!

 

Experimentation

Abstract Dispersions

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Here I simply did a dispersion effect to create an effect making these photograph appear somewhat disintegrating into the air.  Firstly I copied my planet like circle which I cut out onto a new white layer.  I then duplicated this layer.  With the original layer I clicked on filter and liquify.  From here I smudged the edges of my photograph.  After this, I added a clip layer mask onto the original layer. and using the brush tool with varying pressures and sizes selected the areas I wanted dispersed.

Here I felt inspired by the fact that often Global Warming is destroying the Earth.  I believe I have captured how the slow process of the global warming is affecting our planet.  I wanted to create these images with a direct link to abstraction through the fact I have heavily liquefied the pano-spheres  and stretched them.  This is a sharp contrast to the my previous pano spheres in the sense that before I explored an abstraction that showed a normal, ordered functioning and neat appearing planet like object.  However now I have shown the opposite, a world in tatters.  This stretching of areas of the photograph has created an effect that appears very surreal in the sense the Earth is being blown up appearing slightly scary.  I like this because its abstract qualities is opposite to this but I believe works nicely because the delicacy of the dispersed particles with varying strengths appears very unreal creating an effect of which the Earth is crumbling away in our atmosphere before our eyes and that life is continuing without people raising an eyebrow.  I feel I am hinting at what could happen if people continue to live this way, destroying our beautiful planet.

 

Uncategorized

Abstract – Experimentation

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Analysis:

This is my favourite image of this mini experimentation i did because of the technical and uniqueness that it has. The original emotions it brings are striking and excitement due to the unusual bright colours.  The vibrant colours against the black background make the image stand out. I have the message behind the image relating to one of the state of climate change exhibition which inspired me to use the colours to represent toxicity and the pollution going into water. The technical aspects of this image are the use of shutter speed. the image had to be on a extremely fast shutter speed around 1/100 of a second to capture the detail of the balloons popping without blurring. The image doesnt consist of much original photographical planning as i thought i could also link this photoshoot to New Objectivity. i think that this works well as new objectivity as it is looking at the water balloon popping in an unusual way which makes it look different. It also links to abstract which again incorporates into this topic. I grouped four images together because it makes is have more horizontal detail adding to the effect and impact of the image. However i do think that the image could be better if i had used a tri pod because that would have compleatly illiminated any blur of the ballon popping and i would also try and get the background exactly black because due to inverting it and trying to not over expose the images there is a slight blue tint to the background. However altogether i am really happy with this shoot and its outcome.

 

Uncategorized

Bokeh Photography

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in photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens.Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”. Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting “good” and “bad” bokeh, respectively. Bokeh occurs for parts of the scene that lie outside the depth of field. Photographers sometimes deliberately use a shallow focus technique to create images with prominent out-of-focus regions.

Bokeh is often most visible around small background highlights, such as specular reflections and light sources, which is why it is often associated with such areas. However, bokeh is not limited to highlights; blur occurs in all out-of-focus regions of the image.

Slide1

bokeh-city-wallpaper-2

Analysis:

I had an Immediate emotional response to this image as the colours are very calming and the the image is soft are not hard to look at. I think the colour complement each other and make you look at different focal point of the image as there are many specific dots. I think that the fact you are still able to see the building in the back ground it is just out of focus is very effective and shows more about the setting and landscape this image is being captured in. The photographer will of had to have the focus on the manual setting and a low ISO and relatively fast shutter speed. Also by looking at the image i would say that a tri pod has been used so that the light blobs do not shift across the image. The image has an interesting perspective as the building in the foreground are a lot closer and the vanishing point where the building disappear creating a good depth of field as well as creating leading lines which take your eye through the image. The photographer has also considered the rule of thirds whilst capturing this image, as the vanishing point is in the let axis of the image.

How to:

To do this photography you need to have your focus on manual focus. You then angle the camera at an area with lighting and put your camera compleatly out of focus. You should now get the effect of there being light bubbles creating an abstract night photography

 

Best Images:

I think that my Bokeh inspired night photoshoot went relatively well. My favourite thing about my images here are the colour range that i have managed to capture showing the different lighting in a specific area. I think that these images would have been better if i had focused on something in the foreground and kept it in focus and then had the bokeh lighting as the background to create a greater depth of field.

 

 

 

Experimentation

Geometric Abstraction +Responses

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Victoria Siemer

Is a photographer focusing on photo manipulation using Photoshop.  Her inspirations come from various other artists since she had no formal photography training, she paid attention to others styles, for example street photographer Dave Krugman.  Her works often include a dramatic  environment with strong levels of symmetry, proving a contrast to the wild and abstract locations she is shooting in.  This part of her work is called “Geometric Reflection”.  Here include some examples of her work:

Image result for victoria siemer Image result for victoria siemer

Image result for victoria siemer Image result for victoria siemer

My own responses

I chose to experiment with this as it linked in with the theme of abstract photography and the fact I felt inspired by Victoria Siemer.   The definition for Geometric Abstraction is “Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. ” .  For my ideas I simply copied the layer of my photograph by pressing ctrl+J.  I then selected an area of a shape using a marquee tool and rotated it to my desired angle.  After this, I used the rubber tool to remove areas I didn’t want to capture a sense of reflection whereas in others I didn’t and simply left them rotated.

I believe this fits well into my theme of abstract and surrealism in photography because these pieces of work emphasis the abstract with the interesting shapes that look quite abnormal.   I believe I have done this successfully because they almost appear quite surreal that the abstraction within the photograph looks as if it is part of the photograph.  Here I have particularity focused on textures as they enhance many of the abstract shapes within the photograph and in some, color too because this exaggerates the abstraction so far that it appears surreal.  I personally enjoy observing the beauty of fine, particular details within a setting and by doing this, I feel inspired to isolate various parts and make them appear surreal.  This therefore poses the idea to you of how a very normal looking viewpoint in day to day life, I use for surprising and strange elements that shouldn’t fit in but do, to express how to others how I can see the world through interesting shapes, colors and textures.

Analysis, Research

Panoramic Photographers

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Brad Templeton

Image result for brad templeton panorama

I like this photograph because of it’s light blue hues from the water and encircling it is the dark Forrest area around the side going off into the distance.  This is interesting to me because it appears like a sort of container to the beauty of the lake in which it is holding.  This is significant as the blue water is portrayed as almost quite precious as the photographer appears to have enhanced the vibrance, contrast and brightness.  The fact the hills in the background go far in the distance is also significant as it shows how the importance it is of preserving the lake.  I believe this is successful because it adds strength to the current wooded area that we can see close up.  I also like this photograph because of how the photograph is so calming due to it’s open space and brightened sky and land colors.

Image result for brad templeton panorama

This photograph fascinates as the large depth of field caused by the high aperture adds to a strong city line.  I also like how the photographer has strengthened this by enhancing the contrast again to strongly separate between the sky and Earth.  With these strong dark tones of the city, contrasting with the brightened blue hue of the sky, it almost appears as if the city is a dirty place and the sky i somewhat pure and clean.  This is therefore sending the message to me that we can’t let the dangers of the city’s pollution affect our natural environment.  This is emphasized by the fact the photograph is slightly overexposed adding to the theme of a harsh environment.

Will Pearson

Image result for will pearson photography panorama

I love this photograph because of it’s romanticized composition that create a panorama that to me, is very beautiful.  For example, the sunset, overlooking the sky, lighting up everywhere is beautiful, especially with the orange glow radiating off to the surrounding sky and reflected by the buildings.  To enhance this, a warming filter can be added to the photograph on Photoshop to exaggerate the mood further.  I also like the angle of which the photograph has been taken from.  For example: the fact we are high up, looking face on at the sun in the distance, with the city below  literally heightens the specialty of of the photograph in the sense that we and only a few other buildings are high up to enjoy the view with most of the city unable to.

Image result for will pearson photography panorama

Finally, this photograph to me is interesting because of the fact its taken on a slow shutter speed, giving the colors subtlety and in this sense puts together a photograph of beautiful elegance.  This stands out to me because often a city is known to be very rushed and busy.  Interestingly, this photograph shows to me that if we stand back and admire the city and stop rushing around, there is lots of beauty within it.  However what I also like is how the photograph has still captured the light of the city showing that it is still alive and still breathing, not taking anything away from it.  It has done this by taking a photograph with little light but an extremely slow shutter speed and high aperture to still have that sense of busyness of a city.