I am very happy with the final outcome of my exam project. The ideas that I began with have been fully explored and developed throughout. My initial ideas to explore the concept of freedom was to focus on the freedom of how we view the world in our unique perspectives. I started my researching and exploring spiritual concepts within photography and how everyday situations can be a thing of beauty. My idea was to fragment certain scenes and to capture them in an abstract way. I looked at the artist Laura El-Tantawy and her own unique persepctives. I really liked her abstract, artistic images full of colour and I used her ideas as inspiration for my shoot.  Here are some of the outcomes of that shoot. 

After looking at the photographer Laura El-Tantawy I came across the photographer Rinko Kawauchi who I used as inspiration for the rest of my project. Her images are very spiritual and pure and have a sense of freedom within them. I looked at many of her series and focused a lot on her ideas and way of viewing the world. I used Kawuchi as inspiration to create an experimentation video focusing on nature. I wanted to do this to create a starting point for my art film that I wanted to create based on this concept of making insignificant things beautiful.

Since I was looking at the concept of freedom of expression and the freedom of viewing the world in our own way I researched a project called the Disposable Camera Project.The disposable camera project draws in on the idea of freedom of expression because it allows people to express themselves and show their own unique outlook of the world thorough photography. A disposable camera allows people who may not be use to using a camera to be able to very simply capture a scene or a scenario they find beautiful or interesting. It gives them an easy way of expressing themselves. After researching the disposable camera project, I wanted to use the idea myself and I did a shoot using a disposable camera. Here are some of outcomes of that shoot.

After doing the disposable camera shoot I did a shoot using Rinko Kawauchi as inspiration.  I tried to create images containing a spiritual meaning and things with purity and beauty. I was very happy with the outcome of that shoot because It linked closely to my main idea of portraying insignificant things in a beautiful, unique way. Here are my favorite outcomes from that shoot. 

After doing the experimentation shoot using Rinko Kawauchi as inspiration I started focusing more closely on certain scenes and objects to capture such as the sea, plants, the sky and the body. For each scene and object I focused closely and fragmented particular areas that I wanted to focus on. I kept linking my work to Rinko Kawauchi’s images to compare my viewpoint to hers. As well as focusing on nature and the body, I started to combine the two areas to capture unusual and interesting images such as the one below. After doing all my photo shoots and collecting my images I started creating my photo book and experimenting with different layouts and proportions of images. I looked closely at examples of Rinko Kawauchi’s books such as Amersuchi and Illuminance because the images and meaning relates well with my project. Whilst developing my photo book more I started focusing more closely on my art film based on the same concept as my photo book. After watching the film The Tree of Life, I researched more about the ideas behind it and began developing my own ideas for my own film. I started by collecting short clips of certain scenes that were insignificant yet beautiful. Here are some of the short clips that I collected. After collecting a substantial amount of clips I collaborated them together to create the film I had imagined.

After looking closely at and evaluating Rinko Kawauchi’s book more called Illuminance I finaly finished the layout of my photobook Wabi Sabi which I was very happy with.  I then decided on which final images to display as sets based on what images worked well together and represented my project best.

Illuminance is a series by Rinko Kawauchi about focusing on the tiny gestures and details throughout our day to day lives. She explores the extraordinary in the insignificant things that we would normally ignore or not even notice. All her images within her series contain this spiritual, unique style that she creates effortlessly. She has a feminine touch that you can see in the soft, pastel colours throughout the book. The photobook, Illuminance was published in 2011 and costs £40 to purchase. The form and functions of the book is the first thing we think about when seeing the book.  It is produced as a cloth bound book using Japanese binding to hold it together. The book has a material texture too it because of the use of the cloth cover. This effect makes the book much more interesting because the cloth cover creates a rough texture for the hand to touch and feel. It gives the brain something extra to think about. The book is big and heavy to pick up because it contains hundreds of images by Kawauchi. The pages within the book are thick which improves the quality of the book and makes it feel and look more professional.

The book contains a spiritual and sublime aesthetic that runs throughout the whole series. Each image links to the next somehow. They flow in a sequence that symbolises a story or narrative that Kawauchi is trying to create. The images are about day to day events so the narrative Kawauchi is capturing could be in the time period of a day. She could be using the series of images to symbolise a series of events throughout a day. The images flow really well and link together in a good way because of the use of shape and colour. The pastel colours within each image is highlighted. Although some of the images presented next to each other are contrasting, its the contrast within them that works well together, such as the light and shadow and the line compared the circular shape.

Rinko Kawauchi has  a very contemporary approach to her work. She breaks the rules within photography and creates her own unique perspective of the world. She has an unusual way of framing and she also uses symmetry and patterns to add to her complex series. Her images are very bright and contain a feminine touch which is delicate. As a viewer of the photobook I can tell that Kawauchi adds her own personality and emotion into each image.

Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer and I believe you can see this in her work. Japan is a very spiritual culture and they care a lot for the body and soul. They view things very differently to the western world. Everything is seen to contain a spirit and an element of beauty, no matter how insignificant it is. When looking through the photobook I can see Kawauchi’s point if view and imagine looking at the image through her mind. She sees more then just a tree or a reflection. She sees remarkable beauty. I think the name Illuminance suits this series really well because it is a word we would use to describe something bright, and something radiating beauty. This is how she describes the objects and scenes she’s captured.

After researching more about the photo book illuminance I came across an article by lens culture about Rinko Kawauchi and her many series such as ‘Search for the Sun’, and Illuminance. The article contains a paragraph describing the series. “Inspired by the subtle aesthetic of wabi-sabi—a philosophy of reduction, modesty and the beauty of imperfection—these luminous images offer an enchanting gaze on the world around us.”  Wabi Sabi is the name of my project which ties in well with my whole theme and research because Kawauchi herself was also inspired by the aesthetic Wabi Sabi.