All posts by Anna Houiellebecq

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Analysis, Experimenting

Disposable shoot project // response shoot

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After researching about the Disposable Camera Project I decided to do one of my own because I wanted to experiment with my freedom of expression and see what scenes would catch my eye more. I really liked the way I didn’t have to think of the technical side of the image by making sure the camera settings were right because I was using a disposable camera. This allowed me to focus more on what I was capturing. The images and the shoot below was my final outcome of the project.

These are all 24 images from the disposable image camera shoot. Not all the images turned out the way I was planning but I am happy with the overall result. I took the images over a period of 24 hours. I wanted to capture different scenes and objects that weren’t necessarily perfect images. I wanted to take images that would create a story, and something with unusual  aesthetics.

After collecting the images, I scanned them into a jpeg form so that I could edit them. I edited the images very simply because I didn’t want to manipulate the images too much. I know the images aren’t perfect but I really like that natural imperfect look.

As an experiment I also wanted to do some contrasting edits of the same images. I choose one of my favorite images and edited it in contrasting ways to see what style suited the image better. I first edited a colored version which I really  liked, and then I created a black and white version. I like both versions because of the variation between the light and the dark within the image. I really like the movement within the image and the way the light reflects of the water is captured really well. The image as a whole contains a spiritual atmosphere which was what I was trying to create.

The image below are light spill images because the scene or object I was trying to capture didn’t turn out the way I had planned, however I like the effect that they created.

Overall, I am very happy with the shoot and the final outcome of my images. I know that by doing this experimental shoot I have learnt more about how to perceive the world in an unusual and original perspective. I learnt about how to be more creative with what I am seeing and taking.

 

Experimenting

07.02.18 shoot // inspired by Rinko Kawauchi

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After researching a lot about Rinko Kawauhi’s previous work and photo series I wanted to do my own photo shoot using her images as inspiration. The main aim of the shoot was to capture things with little significance and to portray them in a  unique way that shows their pure beauty.

This shoot was done on the 7th of March at Queens Valley Reservoir. I used a Canon camera to capture the images. The shoot was inspired by the many images by Rinko Kawauchi. Her images contain a spiritual feeling to them and this is what I wanted to create in my own edits. The shoot was just a simple experimental shoot because I wanted to see what different abstract images I could capture in an environment I’ve seen many times. When searching for more particular objects and scenes you become more aware of the environment and you take in much more. I am very happy with the images I managed to collect.

EDITS

When editing the images, I knew I wanted them to be simple and pure. I aimed to keep the natural colours and not manipulate the originals too much. I simply made the images brighter and turned up the vibrancy of the images so that the colour’s were stronger which in turn made the image more appealing.

Research

research // disposable camera project

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http://www.asocialpractice.com/disposable-camera-project/

DISPOSABLE CAMERA PROJECT

The Disposable Camera Project was done by Colour Box Studio based in Merlbourne.  The Colour Box Studio is a pop up art space and online creative hub. The director, Amie Batalibasi, decided to do a project using a disposable camera. There were nine participants who took part in the project. They get asked to fill a disposable camera with images over a period of 24 hours. The project had been going on for 3 years. Each of the participants have their unique style and perceptions. What they view as a good image all varies. The project achieved a vast difference in style of images and subject. A book was created containing all the images called “The Disposable Camera Project.”

The disposable camera project draws in on the idea of freedom of expression because it allows people to expressive 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.

Colour Box Studio Disposable Camera Project First Edition 2013 installation view. Photo by Shari Trimble.
hotos by Colour Box Studio Disposable Camera Project Participants: Cara Thompson, Charlotte Wardell, Nicole Kennedy, Vanessa Lee, Suyin Lim, Emma Numan, Gareth Kaluza, Modesta Gentile and Rahima Miriam.

When researching more about photographers who use disposable cameras, I came across an article on the internet about a guy called Matt Blodgett. He is an American Photographer and full time construction worker. The article I came across was an interview including Matt Blodgett and the process he goes through when taking his images. He is 31 years old and grew up on the Canadian border in the Thousand Islands of upstate, New York. He recently moved to southern Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts where he was originally born. When Blodgett was asked about why he uses disposable cameras a lot he explains how they allow him to have fun with photography. He believes that some photographers take photography to seriously, which in some cases is very true. Blodgett doesn’t see him self as a photographer but when it comes to disposable cameras the implicitness of it allows any one to do it. What he aims to share with his photos is a “rolling diary of imagery that I live with and love.”  He doesn’t think before he shoots, he simply takes what he views as beautiful. Here are some of Matt Blodgett’s images below. 

His images are mainly of nature because this is what he views as beauty. He is similar to the photographers I have researched so far because the images that he collects are from day to day and they contain this spiritual atmosphere. I plan on collecting images in a similar process to this as a point in my project.  They don’t need to have a deeper meaning, just a simple object or scene will do.

I’ve given myself the task of collecting images in the same style and process as the one done within the disposable camera project. I bought a simple disposable camera from boots and kept the camera with me throughout a couple of days. Whenever I saw something interesting that I wanted to capture I made sure I got it. However I was looking close at detail rather then just the whole scene.

Experimenting

experiment video // seeing

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpr0PAa2W0E 

This video is an experiment that I did to create a starting point for my project. I want to create a cinematic film using scenes similar to  Rinko Kawauchi’s images. By fragmenting a particular object you capture an abstract version of the real thing. Its this concept that I want to draw in on. As well as taking still images, I also want to eventually create a film using short clips of different scenarios, still based on an abstract vision.  Here are some screen shots of different aspects within the film.

The video focuses on the movement within nature. Its a short video because its just an experiment. I tried to include different angles, shapes and close ups compared to long shots. I’ve never made film before so I wanted to start on a simple theme. 

Research

rinko kawauchi // sheets

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http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/publications/450/

SHEETS

2013

Sheets attempts to retrace Rinko Kawauchi’s steps in this world through a reassembly and re-editing of her filmstrips as a reinvented whole. Cinematographic at heart, the sequences of randomly selected contact sheets offer a real-life time lapse, a resurrection of moments in the personal history of the artist and immortalised in some of her more significant publications. The book’s gatefolds mark intervals in this rhythmic crescendo. They contribute, as if under a magnifying glass, to new spontaneous pairings of images. It is all here, fragment by fragment, the elements and patterns of a primal cosmogony of varied affective nuances with their connotations of transcendental immanence—a palimpsest of the everyday that Kawauchi brings together with such astounding ease as if the flow of juxtaposing images were as natural to her as her own biological path in life.
This book contains a selection of contact sheets that spans more than a decade of works.

Within the book Sheets, Kawauchi has a section were she closely looks at the body and particular features such as the eyes and mouth. I really like how she strips back the original ways of looking at the human form and decides to create her own representation by embracing her own viewpoint and style. Her work is very raw and pure which I really like. I want to also embrace this idea of capturing things in a way that they’ve never been capture before.

Analysis, Research

Rinko Kawauchi // AILA

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http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/publications/384/

http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/works/253/

AILA

Here is another series that I really like by Rinko Kawauchi. All of her images have a very similer atmosphere that goes with her idea and concept of the world. Her style is very spiritual and pure. This puplication by Rinko was done in 2005. This is how she describes the series in her own words, “A chick, horse, dog, turtle and human beings…Some creatures are to die soon after the birth; some creatures are born only to be eaten by the others to sustain their lives. All the living creatures are accepting their fate in the life no matter what it is. The mysterious and precious moments of the birth of various creatures. The blessings of being living. The babbles, vividness, beauty, joy, and the ephemeral existence of the lives in nature.” Within the series she is interpreting every day situations through the images that she creates.

I love the pure, softness that Rinko has created through her use of editing. She has managed to collect a wide variation of themes, frames and subjects within this series. She has captures portraits, landscapes, abstract images and lot of images of nature.  Every images within the series tells its won story and has its own unique theme. When she combines all the images into a series they all have this flow because of the style she has created.

Analysis, Research

rinko kawauchi // Illuminance

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http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/works/194/

Illuminance

The series Iluminance was done in 2011. Kawauchi’s work has frequently been lauded for its nuanced palette and offhand compositional mastery, as well as its ability to incite wonder via careful attention to tiny gestures and the incidental details of her everyday environment. In Illuminance, Kawauchi continues her exploration of the extraordinary in the mundane, drawn to the fundamental cycles of life and the seemingly inadvertent, fractal-like organization of the natural world into formal patterns.

Research

rinko kawauchi // the river embraced me

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http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/works/48/

The River Embraced Me

This series by Rinko is about memories and finding them again. Her use of pastel and soft colours is what drew me to her work. I lover style and unique perspectives that she has.

Her exhibition unifies the stories of people’s memories with works of photography — featuring her brand new works shot across forty different locations, all inspired by memories of the people of Kumamoto. By capturing the backdrops of these recollections, the experience brings life to memory within the photographer, and as such allows the viewer to feel the budding of memories of their own. Within time, flowing like a river, we find our memories embracing all of us. Through the scenes and places captured within these photographs, one finds this photo collection to be overflowing with refreshing moments — ones that open the doors to our own memory. Through opening a new frontier through Aso in Kumamoto as the backdrop of Kawauchi’s previous work “Ametsuchi,” we find her continuing her foresighted expression of what it means to feel “alive in the moment” throughout this newest work.

Research

response to manipulation shoot // artist research // rinko kawauchi

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http://rinkokawauchi.com/en/

rinko kawauchi

Rinko Kawauchi is a Japanese photographer born in 1972. Her work is characterized by a serene, poetic style, depicting the ordinary moments in life. She studied at Seian College of Art and Design and graduated in 1993. She worked in advertising for several years after graduationg, but later became a fine art photographer. In 2001 three of her photo books were published. They were Hanako (a japanese girl’s name), Utatane (catnap), and Hanabi (fireworks). Kawauchi’s images are rooted in Shinto, the ethnic religion of the people of Japan. According to Shinto, all things on earth have a spirit, this shows in her work because no subject is too small or mundane for her. Most of her images are in a 6×6 format.

I came across this photographer after doing my manipulation edits task. Her work is quite similar  and in the same style as Laura El Tanawy. Both their work contains a bleach, bright atmosphere that I love. Her images are extremely pure and have this innocent sense to them. She is aiming to capture the world as she sees it, with a spirit in everything and everyone. Although all of her images are quite dis-similar they all contain a beauty that link to each other in someway.

Within her many series she chooses to fragment certain scenes. She sees the beauty in everyday life and captures it. Her images range from landscapes to portraits to abstract scenes. She pinpoints the beauty that she sees and displays it, closely observing it.

Within her work, she doesn’t have a set theme like most photographers who choose to focus on one thing, such as a memory, or a a certain object. Kawauchi uses the world as her subject. She fragments the beauty of every day situations and uses her photographing style to manipulate them. Kawauchi is breaking the rules of photography like the photographer Laura El Tanawy. She fragments the scene rather than framing the whole thing. This is what makes her images so unique and interesting. They all tell their own specific story. I also love the colour and aesthetic of her images.

Analysis

comparison // mine and Laura El Tanawy

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Mine

My final edited image was created using Photoshop. I used the double exposure edit to layer two images on top of each other. My image has a bright exposure like Tanawy’s and also contains the use of pastel colors. This creates a feminism feel which is similar to Tanawy’s. The two images that I used where very different. I used a silhouette of branches hanging down with the sky as the background. I also used the reflection from inside a window to layer over it. Both of the images together create this interesting dimension with the use of the reflection as well as the silhouette.

 Laura El Tanawy

Tanawy’s image also looks like a double exposure edit. I used this image as a comparison to mine because I think its one of the most interesting from her series. The image contains silhouettes of trees and aspects of nature that she layers to create her final edit. She combines many scenes to create this dreamlike, spiritual atmosphere. This image is very bright and full of pastel colors. This style is very similar to my edit because it is also bright and full of pastel colors.  I like the contrast within the image because it contains pale yellows and also harsh reds. The image has a tropical feel because of the palm trees and the birds in the center of the frame. The colors in the image create consultations of pain and hatred with the use of the harsh reds.