Croatian photographer Tanja Deman hosted a session in Hautlieu school upon the function of Adobe Bridge and enlightened us to how she creates her photographic montages which has given her prolific reputation. Being the organised and meticulous planner she is, Deman gave clear instruction to as what we were supposed to have prepared for her session and how we should store it in our computers. After selecting some environmental images from previous works, Tanja got us to focus on montages and combining different images.
I developed on this image of the peaceful green trees and blue skies as it connotes safety and tranquility which fundamentally, reflects our society today . Due to studies in alternative subjects, I’ve been lucky enough to value the freedoms and liberties our society has today in comparison to a catastrophic social domain of World War One. Following this appreciation for modern society’s safety I chose to incorporate a balloon barrage into the image which disrupts a once so idyllic photograph as it reminds us of the tragedy of the Blitz during World War One.
Personally, I thought this coincided successfully and similarly to Tanja’s work as she incorporates different places or monuments into toher places which inverts our expectations as its not what you expect.
When Jonny Briggs visited the school on 04/07/17 for his workshop he held for us, he set us a task to complete for the next time he visits the school on 18/07/17.
“find five different ways to destroy an image”…
I have chosen to destroy one image form my own personal archive. It is an image I have already experimented with – this being the image of myself and my dad sitting at the breakfast able on a holiday in France wearing similar raglan tops and with identical haircuts! I find this one very amusing because of the obvious similarities between myself and my dad when I younger, but still now that I’m grown up I get told I look lots like my dad.
I have already experimented with the image on Photoshop to attempt to alter its look digitally. I do enjoy this method because it allows me to play around with the Photoshop tools and find a weird way to make an image look different. When editing on Photoshop, I found it difficult to let my creativity run wild and my freedom seemed limited because I didn’t really know what I wanted to achieve. I am hoping that when I have the image in front of me physically, I will start gathering ideas as to what I can do to essentially “destroy” it. Therefore, as well as the digital edits, I have printed out around seven copies of the image so I can manually destroy it. I will upload the outcomes from this experiment once complete and explain my thought processes so it is easy to understand why I did it.
Here are the products from my session on Photoshop:
With each edit, I used the same page size and same sized image to show consistency and make a pleasing series of five of the same images it just edited differently. I also chose the same background colour being a faded out black because I felt like this allowed the image to stand out best.
For this edit, I extracted just the eyes from the original image. I wanted to show my understanding of Jonny’s work and attempt to replicate in my own way but following similar styles to what he does. Jonny makes a habit out of using and focusing on the eyes of some his images frequently and he often takes out just the eyes and makes this feature of the subject within the image the focal point which I love because it is so small and can be so easily ignored yet the eyes can hold so much narrative in themselves because emotions are told through your eyes an the way you look at something. However, what Jonny does not do is make an image or a montage out of just the eyes of people. This is what I have done and attempted to make it personal. I taken the eyes of myself in a picture and the eyes of my dad from an image and merged them into one edit. I wanted to create the idea that my dad’s constant gaze down on me from when I was a baby up until I was a young child, to when I became teenager and still now has been a significant part of my upbringing and is for moist children if you have a dominant male figure in your upbringing. His effort to look out for me non-stop is a huge influence for how I have grown up and what I have become and I wanted to show this in my edit yet a gaze can sometimes become very confused and hazed and I wanted to play a trick on the mind – by pixelating the cut-out eyes, the viewers own look becomes confused. I wanted to show that my dad’s gaze has progressively and gradually morphed into mine and as I become older, I begin to look at things the way my dad does. Especially now with a younger sister, my own look has matured as I have to monitor, as a guardian essentially, someone who is so young and innocent, as I used to be.
With this edit, again focusing on the eyes, I have taken this particular feature out this time. With this edit, I decided to make it more simple and not edit the photo in any way apart from to take the eyes of both myself and my dad out of the frame. This is something Jonny does in his photos and was something I was really drawn to because of its simplicity but complex meaning behind it. I decided to remove the eyes of both subjects because although eyes can tell a million words through the way you look at something or someone – whether it be love or passion or anger etc. I wanted to address the idea that emotions can be so easily ignored and although you may look at someone with love, other gestures, such as your body gestures and your words can play a part in getting across your message. I also anted to see the effect of removing the eyes in this image because they actually play a big part in the story told because my dad is looking down at me, with what I now is love and happiness, however, I am looking away. But we both have a smile on our faces and this is what can show the sense of love.
Jonny’s image
This is the same edit as the one above, however told in a different perspective to get across a different meaning. Where the space was that the eyes originally filled, I have filled this with a red block. The reason I have done this is very simple and was just an addition tot he original edit to show a different narrative. I chose to colour the negative space red because red is an iconic symbol of love and we, most of the time use our eyes as a way of telling someone we love them if it isn’t verbally. This isn’t my favorite edit but I do like it and I have focused on the effect of love and showing this through all my edits – the love that is shown between myself and my dad and how strong and powerful it is – that a relationship can provide happiness – also shown in the photo. The concept of happiness is evident to someone who hasn’t seen the photo but for me, it has a stronger meaning and I connect more so with it which I like. For this edit, I simply cut the photo in half in using the ‘rectangular marquee’ tool to select what area of the image I wanted to adjust. I selected the area then copied it, deleted the original and pasted the area I copied so that I could move it about as I wished.
I chose to move the copied area of myself and my dads head closer into the original image so that it overlapped. I wanted to do this so that the arms of my dad which are wrapped around me as I laugh in his grasp were closer together so that it portrayed the idea that he was holding me very tightly – crating a stronger bond and a cohesion between us two. Although, this was occurring in the original, I wanted to emphasise this further, therefore moved the copied area so that I was closer into my dads abdominal and so there wasn’t as much of assistance between us as before. I also moved the image up a little bit once repositioned so that the table edges were in line with one another. And as you can see, here, I have again opted for the concept of love and creating strong bonds.
Jonny’s image
This is my final edit that I produced and is one of my favourites because of the addition of text. I have again focused on what the eyes of each of us – myself and my dad can say and what they tell the audience. I cropped out the head of myself and replicated this four times and did the same with my dad also. This forces the viewers to look at the face’s of us only and derive some menaings and thoughts just by what we look like and what the orginal image may have looked like if they hadn’t seen it.
I wanted to confuse the audience again so flipped my head once cropped to face the other way to the original and I also moved my dad’s presence to the right of me instead of to the left – which is what the original was. However, to provide a clue that I have cropped the image, in the photos of my head, you can see the mouth and chin of my dad in the upper right corner – hinting that that he was originally looking down on me, however, now looking down at nothing. The emotions are still the same and it can be viewed that we are both smiling at nothing – perhaps there wasn’t actually anything funny in the original image and I am therefore making a new narrative for myself to interpret because I was so young at the time, I cannot remember the time the image was taken.
Adding to the idea of nostalgia and creating new stories and memories – I have arranged both sets of images in the style of a series of images from a photo booth. I really like this effect because each image is the same and it hasn’t changed as the series progresses which is usually what happens when having a mini shoot in a phtobooth. I wanted to show the idea of repetition in our lives – maybe going to the same holiday destination every time because it was what I liked and what my parents knew was safe (in the image we were in France).
As well, I have added in some type this time because I felt ike it would add an extra layer of narrative and give the overall work some more character. I chose to use the words ‘those loving eyes’ as I wished to narrow down the image to the focus of eyes and how they pay an important part in this image to tell a story and show emotion. I decided to replicate the word ‘loving’ several times as it works its way down the page fading gradually to black – showing that love is so easily lost at times in terms of romantic reltionships and I wanted to show that love is such a delicate thing.
I really liked the underwater images that Tanja captured on the coast in Jersey. I decided to use them as inspiration while editing some of the images I got from Grosnez. The black and white faded effect was what I wanted to create with my edits.
I remembered a photographer that I liked called Idiris Khan, and I wanted to combine his ideas and Deman’s to achieve my edits. Here is the main image by Khan that I wanted to use as inspiration.
The images below are my edits of the images that I took at Grosnez usings Deman’s and Khan’s ideas.
I wanted to try an edit just using Khan’s idea. His edits look very blurry because he layers the same image over and over again. I decided to use the motion blur tool on Photoshop to achieve the same effect.
Here are some more edits, continued on from my primary experiments using the pen tool on Photoshop to digitally draw on top of the images. I decided to explore the concept of photo collage and montage more so in preparation for Tanja visit on Tuesday 11th June. I felt like this would be necessary and would open up my mind to the style of art more to allow to me decipher whether I wish to explore it in more detail for A2 course or not – or whether I just want to use it as a starting point and experimentation tool – which I think is most likely because I don’t feel like collaging is something I can strive at but is useful for developing my skills and advancing my understanding of the very popular style.
I tried to use the work of my artist references more in these edits and just explore different way of editing to get me back into the habit of editing constantly. I started overlaying images and I was particularly drawn to the idea of placing one image on top of another – most of the time contrasting black and white and colour and I opted for the lighter and more delicate way of editing. Towards the latter stages however, I explored the tools more so and came up with a piece plays about with proportions and colours.
Over the weekend, I visited my neighbour who is the owner of Claude Cahun’s old property In the parish of Saint Brelade. Diane Martland is a lady in her seventies who has lived in the property since 1965; eleven years after Claude Cahun died. Her father purchased the house addressed “Bedford House” for £15,000 and I couldn’t hazard a guess to as how much the property is worth now considering the location, condition of the house/ land and due to the discovery of Claude Cahun’s work and how this coincides with the property. Of paramount importance, Jersey Heritage recently ‘listed’ the building meaning it cannot be knocked down and it will be forever protected.
I questioned Lady Di to what her favourite image(s) were of Claude Cahun’s collection to which she picked the following:
Diane picked these two images as she felt a connection on a personal level as the pictures were taken in the garden she owns. She commented on how she enjoyed the absurdity of the images, especially the photograph of the cat on a leash on the beach/garden wall. Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s photographic montage is another Diane enjoys as its quirky nature combined with the breathtaking scenery of the South-West coast creates a sublime image.
Following this discussion, I asked Diane whether she’d be comfortable posing to replicate some similar images to that which Cahun took and she jumped at the opportunity… she was doing costume changes as she’d arranged different sets of clothing which she felt were similar to that of the image and also asked me to fetch my dog because we didn’t quite have a cat.
For tomorrows workshop we have been asked to bring in an image that can be destroyed, I chose this:
I simply tore it up, and stuck the pieces back together in a collage style photograph as I wanted to show the idea of a broken relationship.
This was because Johnny started talking about failures and mistakes in photography and if they were necessarily a bad thing. Interestingly, a wide range of viewpoints were expressed, including my own which felt that how can a creative subject like photography, ever have anything wrong. Obviously this leads to then in this context that a mistake, is when something occurs unintentionally and from this, this causes for us to go on a tangent. However I believe that it is hard to categorize mistakes in photography, because this comes very close to what the journey of photography is all about. Therefore mistakes are normal and are in a sense intentional as that is natural in photography.
To demonstrate this, we drew faces with our eyes closed and analysed how despite what we intended to do, how differing our results became. This task was very thought provoking because it led us to compare the figure in our head an how that can mask reality. This is obviously a very prominent issue in everyday society when we can be so focused on producing an intended result, our ayes can be closed to other areas that are opened up and let us develop our ideas.
Here Johnny told us to get an image and have a “play” with it, and show how we could explore the root of family relationships. I chose to create a torn effect by tearing the photograph into various parts, and stuck them back near together to create a jigsaw effect, with a stronger emphasis on the situation not being fixed, but permanently broken. I felt this way because I wanted to explore how despite family relationships breaking down, arguably the long term feelings towards one another are somewhat impacted. I like how I have created a smashed glass feeling which coincidentally links with our debate over the idea of mistakes as I initially was’t prepared to create this effect, and only after judging how close I wanted the pieces together I decided I could create a shattered glass effect. This way I feel I made the photograph to exaggerate its feelings towards brokenness.
Make a folder named: Photo collage workshop (you may already have done this.
You should already have completed 1 – 3 previously
‘1. MY IMAGES’ (it should contain 5 images from previous work on Landsape)
‘2. ARCHIVE IMAGES’ (it should contain 5 images from research at Photographic Archive Societe Jersiaise)
‘3. ARTISTS REFERENCES’ (it should contain 5 images from research of Tanja work and her inspirations/ influences)
‘4. RAW PHOTOS’ (15 SUCCESSFUL PHOTOGRAPHS made from our walk at Gronez to L’Etacq on Tue 20 June)
‘5. NEW WORK’ (2 DIGITAL PHOTO COLLAGES IN PS FORMAT, made from the above images)
When I see the students on our group sessions I would like them to show me the content of these folders in Adobe Bridge.
Wish you all a good rest of the week and looking forward to seeing you on the 11th July where we will be working on photo collages.
Best regards,
Tanja
Following on from Tanja’s workshop on photo-collage we want you to complete the following before the summer holiday. If you want to make something unique you should plan a new shoot where you make a set of images for a photo-collage. Only relying on images from the school trip to Gronez-L’Etacq is not enough.
Produce a blog post with at least 3 -5 digital sketches where you annotate the process and techniques used to construct the photo-collage
Produce at least one final photo-collage that is close to completion and write an evaluation. (In the next academic year there will be time for you to refine or modify photo-collages and you may consider to explore this further in October and November when you develop your project, Personal Investigation in an individual manner)
Prepare a presentation of your photo-collage work for Thurs 20 and Fri 21 July. (Tanja will be back in Sept to give feedback on your work in progress)
HELP & GUIDANCE: When constructing your photo-collage remember to consider the following:
Notes from Tanja’ workshop 11th July
In camera: When shooting new images for photo-collage
Camera settings: Use the same camera settings such as aperture f/stops, exposure and focal length on your lens. It is impossible to combine, in a photo-realistic way, images which are shot with both wide-angle and telephoto lens
Lighting: Choose to shoot images needed in the same lighting conditions, e.g. use overcast weather. Avoid making a collage using images shot outside in natural light and images made inside using artificial lighting or studio lighting. It won’t work!
Perspective: Maintain close to same perspective when shooting i.e. if you photograph from eye-level maintain that throughout. If perspective is not correct, it pays to go back and re-shoot an image rather than trying to’ fit it’ in Photoshop
In post production: Use Bridge to organise images and folders. Photoshop to construct photo-collage.
Blank canvas: Create a new document size A1 = 594mm x 841mm at resolution 300 pixels per inch. Total size of new document should be: 199,4 Mb. Then begin to import images or selections of images into new document and build up your collage.
File management: Organise layers by renaming them and collate in group folders in the layer box
Image adjustments: Use meta layers for colour adjustment/ B&W/ brightness & contrast to sit on top of all the other image layers. It’s easier to adjust individual layers as you go along.
Yesterday, on the 4th July, Jonny Briggs visited Hautlieu to talk to us during our lesson. I thought we would start the task straight away but he first sat us down in a group and asked us a particular question. He went round everyone and asked whether they though fear was a good thing or a bad thing when working on a project. My response was that I thought fear could be turned into a good thing if you are able to control your fears. If the fear overwhelmed you, it could cause you to give up, or make irrational mistakes. However, the most successful people are able to take the fear and use it to push them forward.
Briggs’ whole talk was about fears and mistakes. He did a task with us, were we had to draw a face of a person with our eyes closed. I thought it was a very unusual thing for us to do, but Briggs’ explanation of the task at the end was very interesting.
For the next part of the task we had to draw the face of someone in the room with our eyes closed. Here is my response of that part of the task.
Briggs then asked us which one of the images we found most hard to draw and why. Drawing the image of the person we knew was the most difficult for me because rather then just using my imagination to make up simple features of a person, we had to draw someone we knew which meant we had something to compare to. The second had to be more accurate which was difficult with your eyes closed.
Briggs then asked us whether we would find an image that we drew with our eyes open more interesting compared to the image that we drew with our eyes closed. The quality of the drawing would be much better if I drew it with my eyes open, but the image drawn with my eyes closed would be more interesting because the shapes and abstract forms create a greater artistic feel. Briggs then used this theory and explained that although the image we drew was full of mistakes, such as the eyes not being right, it doesn’t mean we have to regard the image as bad. Its the mistakes that make the images interesting.
The next task we did with Briggs was destroying an image that we brought in. I brought in an image of my parents at their wedding because it links with the project that we are doing at the moment, about family. We were asked to manipulate and destroy the image in some way with a meaning behind it. I decided to cut out the faces of my parents and swap them over. I then stapled them back onto the image again. I wanted some gaps within the image so light could be seen through. I’m really happy with the outcome of the process. I choose to swap there heads over to symbolize that through their marriage they would have to take on the roles of each other, and learn the traits of them.
Photographer/ artist Jonny Briggs visited Hautlieu school yesterday to host a session based upon fear/ anxiety and mistakes. He developed upon how these feelings or outcomes are not always a bad thing and tested our pretensions of what makes a successful or ‘right’ image.
Briggs opened the talk with a discussion upon the affects of fear on creativity in which students in the class gave their varied responses and shared how they react differently under pressure. He moved onto to talk about how mistakes can be positive as they’re unique and how unplanned outcomes can be just as valuable as meticulous planned pieces as long as they’re executed properly. Following this, the session consisted of drawing an illustration of a face with our eyes are closed as he developed upon this sense of mistakes can be a success.
We moved onto drawing a fellow class-mates face with our eyes closed which everybody seemed to find funny as our illustration was so different to the actual face. Briggs moved onto to talk about how we have this instilled sense of fear of getting things wrong.
Briggs introduced a task using an old image that we don’t mind damaging in order to expand on this idea of mistakes. Following Jonny’s first session, I opted for a traditional photo with a smile in a formal format which he openly detested.
I chose to quickly swap mine and my girlfriend’s face as in the relationship, she definitely wears the trousers and bosses me about. The rushed and inaccurate nature of the photograph enables the photo to look more like a mistake like Briggs wanted us to do which I also followed by not executing the task with meticulous and careful planning.
The image displaying our role reversal coincides with my study of Claude Cahun as her androgynous nature shines through and although we’re not playing on the illusion whether the characters in the photograph are male or female, the principle of role reversal still inverts society’s expectations of how genders should act like in relation to their stereotypes.
Briggs’s open-minded nature is refreshing in a photography session as he focuses internally and purely upon himself rather than meeting the expectations set by teachers. Jonny Briggs has a main focus on psychology which is where his interest lies and this is evident through his work as well as incorporating his family which gives him inspiration.
During Jonny Brigg’s workshop we discussed how fear and mistakes can be explored creatively in the image-making process.
Jonny asked: If fear is a good thing? Or, if something good can come from mistakes in a creative process.
Task A: From today’s session please produce a blog post with your thoughts on Jonny’s session, including drawings/ images/ objects that you made and provide an evaluation.
For Jonny’s next session on Tue 18 July he would like you to consider the above questions on fear and mistakes and explore the following:
Task B:How many times can you think about destroying an image.
Choose one of your images which relates to the theme of family (e.g. archive, family album, or new image you have made) and destroy the same image in 5 different ways using both analogue and digital methods
Produce a blog post with your outcomes with an evaluation of creative processes used and overall interpretation.
Make sure you print out 5 destroyed images and be ready for a presentation when Jonny visit us next, Tue 18 July
Extension: Choose a second image and destroy it in 5 new or other ways.
For this edit, I simply cut the photo in half in using the ‘rectangular marquee’ tool to select what area of the image I wanted to adjust. I selected the area then copied it, deleted the original and pasted the area I copied so that I could move it about as I wished.
