Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. The impressionist artists were not trying to paint a realistic picture, but an impression of what the person, object or landscape looked like to them. This how the name of the movement came about – impressionists. They wanted to capture the movement and life of what they saw and show it to us as if it is happening before our eyes.

The sudden change in the look of these paintings was brought about by a change in methodology: applying paint in small touches of pure colour rather than broader strokes, and painting outdoors scenes to catch a particular fleeting impression of colour and light. The result was to emphasise the artist’s perception of the subject matter as much as the subject itself.

Impressionist art is a style in which the artist captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse of it. Usually when you imagine a scene you view this the same all the time, however it should differ as time goes on because the lighting is always changing. Impressionists paint their pictures with a lot of color and most of their pictures are outdoor scenes. Their pictures are very bright and vibrant with the absence of detail but with bold colors. Some of the greatest impressionist artists were Edouard Manet, Camille Pissaro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot and Pierre Auguste Renoir.
Monet was interested in subtle changes in the atmosphere which I have taken a particular interest in shown through my previous shoots.

Impressionist covers much of the art of this time, there were smaller movements within it, such as Pointillism, Art Nouveau and Fauvism. Pointilism was developed from Impressionism and involved the use of many small dots of colour to give a painting a greater sense of vibrancy when seen from a distance.

Before impressionism, landscapes in art were often imaginary and painted perfectly from a studio. The impressionists changed all that. They painted outdoors and on the spot. As they were outside, they looked at how light and colour changed the scenes and painted what lay in front of them. The technique of impressionism allowed the artists to quickly paint what was in front of them resulting in what some people argued to be ‘messy’. Lots of people didn’t like impressionism as they thought it was a bit messy and that the paintings looked unfinished. They thought art should be neater and that subjects in art should be more important than just everyday scenes. I argue against this point and believe that it is an interesting technique that allows an appreciation for the depiction of light which is often overlooked when looking at an art piece.

Carrying on from my previous shoot, this shoot is dedicated to creating an intense and moody atmosphere. I kept a close eye on the weather and picked my time to undergo with this shoot carefully. As explained in my previous post, I am focusing on the white house location with a variety of weather conditions to portray how the weather can transform a familiar landscape. The end result will have my images in a typology which will allow an easy comparison between the different weather and lighting.

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Edited Images

I was really happy with the way in which this shoot has turned out. The sky formed perfectly for the moody feel I was going for. I shot the majority of these photos with a very fast shutter speed to present us with a darker and more intense image. It worked well that my focal point was white as it really stood out against the dark background. These images will work extremely well along side the photos at sunset from my previous shoot helping me to demonstrate how lighting changes a landscape.

Inspired by Haystacks and the notion of effects of changing light I have decided to peruse a shoot series looking at this. For these shoots I have focused on a specific location this being the white house at St Ouens bay. The reason I chose this location was due to the fact it is a popular location for local photographers on the island and therefore will be a very different approach to how the majority of people chose to photograph it. Also i like how the shape of the building linked with the shape of haystacks with a cone shaped top. I have decided to achieve the best result i will photograph it at different times of the day also whilst varying on the days I shoot to get a variety of weather conditions. Through this series of photo shoots I will be showing the changing light and how it colored the surroundings of the same place. Also inspired by Sugimoto there will be a representation of time and movement within this. I will use the typology method at the end of all the shoots to show the impact the light has on perspective.

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My Edited Images

Overall, I think this photo shoot has been successful in demonstrating the golden hour light upon the white house. I think I have clearly portrayed the lighting within this hour and through the editing process in Lightroom I have made this much more enjoyable for the audience. Originally the photos were much too harsh and the harsh yellows did not blend well causing a distraction for the viewer. Therefore in Lightroom I adjusted the yellows to become slightly more orange whilst changing the blues to aqua to create a nice contrast. These two colors compliment each other creating an overall successful aesthetic. To further develop this shoot I think it could be interesting to mess around on photoshop trying to create brush strokes in the style of ‘impressionism’ and like Monets haystacks series. Or perhaps i could try and create a faded look similar to Sugimotos seascapes project. I have intentions on re-visiting this location when it is cloudy and dark creating more dramatic and moody images that will transform the landscape into something that will far differ from the one I have depicted in this shoot.

Analysis of my favorite Image from the shoot

I captured this image using natural lighting which allowed me to bring out the natural shadows and shapes within the sand and sky. Using natural lighting was one of the key factors that i had in mind when going on this shoot as my overall intention is to show how a landscape is transformed in different lighting/weather conditions. There is a subtle tonal range with the most part of the picture dominated by the brightness of the sky there are also some variety of highlights and shadows within the sand creating a very interesting texture. Clearly, these images were captured on a very sunny and bright day therefore a low ISO of 100 was used with a relatively fast shutter speed of 1/200. Having a low ISO allowed me to keep a high resolution image preventing little to no grain in the image.

I really liked this image due to the overall composition and textures that are present. Linking to Sugimotos seascapes project I have incorporated a method that he used where he bifurcated exactly in half by the horizon line however I have used the sea wall as my point to divide from. The interesting textures within the sand help to draw the viewer to the main subject thus being the white house. I also like how there is a direct contrast between the many textures within the bottom half of the picture compared to the top half were it is all one constant texture. This incorporation of variety at the bottom and similarity at the top is a direct link to the exam project title.

The concept behind this image is the notion of movement and time implied through the light which although appears in this photograph as something that is always there, is not and is always changing. Also the textures within the sand help to show this sense of time as it appears to be moving just like how the sun is always moving that creates a variety of light. The photographs from this shoot show just one perspective of a landscape and indicate the one perspective we usually have of a landscape. However through multiple shoots at the same location I intend to show how the image should differ throughout time.

Dafna Talmor created a project called Contructed Landscapes in which she used multiple photographs from many shoots to create her own constructed landscape, she did this by creating her own edges, filtering through photos on top of each other and using different colour filters on top.

To create a response to her work, I have used a selection of images from my trip to Ireland, in which hills, trees, and lakes are featured.

To work with these photos, I put them into black and white and increased the contrast to full, and used the brightness tool accordingly to make them all look a similar tone.

I then got to work on cutting up parts of the images on photoshop using the magic wand tool and moving the cut out parts onto an empty black landscape template to create my own bold edges to the image.

After placing all of the cut out parts on the black template, I used the colour balance tool to put in the red and yellow tones within shadows, mid-tones and highlights.

After that I then used two of the black and white images, and colour balanced them in the same way and overlay them on top of the image I had made using a hard light overlay and made a second with pin light overlay.

Idea 1: I was planning on going on a trip to London and during the time in London i am planning on photographing buildings. Exploring the extreme variation between modern and post modern architecture within the city and how it developed and evolved into the city it is today. In addition, i would like to look into future building plans and compare them to recently finished structures and much older structures. When taking the pictures i will take into consideration, the golden ratio (Fibonacci sequence), geometry, symmetry, opposites, dramatic juxtapositions.

Idea 2: For my second idea I looked at size, shape and colour within the streets and natural landscapes. Colour is everywhere in our lives so i wanted to explore the aesthetic. Colours have been assigned to many different signs and and objects over the years; such as, traffic lights, red means stop and green means go. or the blue flashing lights on emergency vehicles, or uniforms. I want to explore the colours we see everyday, artificial and natural, to compare and contrast between them. I will research the origins of colour photography and how it has progressed with modern technologies.

Idea 3: For my third idea i was planning on focusing on similar shapes and sizes of objects and show the variations between them. For this idea i would explore Standardisation. This is when components of parts and or just about everything. It is when things are made so that they can be assembled easily, used with comfort. They take into consideration human orthographic which is the average human dimensions. This shows how everything we have build is designed around the human body so i thought this would be an interesting concept.

To conclude, the idea i would like to use for my variation and similarity project is idea 2. I feel like this will be the most exciting and interesting idea to go ahead with, this is because alot of photographers use black and white. Why take away the natural colours? I want to go in an opposite direction from black and white into vibrant and saturated images that pop with colour.

My idea for this project sprung whilst analysing the exam spectrum. Variations and similarities is a very broad subject and can be explored in different ways. From this, I researched the deeper meanings behind these words and how they are used in order to get a deeper understanding.

Variations refers to a change or difference in conditions usually within certain limits. It is more simply: a different or distinct version of something. After a lot of research I discovered that there are different types of meanings for the word, variation. The biology term of variation refers to the occurrence of an organism in more than one distinct colour or form. This is called genetic variations and are the differences in DNA or genes between each individual being. I found this very interesting to explore as everybody is similar as we all have genes, are made up of the same organs and our own DNA but no individual has the same exact genes as we all vary from one another. Variations in terms of people, can be identified as the differences among the individual of the same species.

When researching similarities, I found that this word also used humans and biology as an example. It describes this word as being an aspect, trait or features that could meant the “the similarities between people of different nationalities”. Overall it simply means, the state or fact that makes things comparable.

I found it very interesting to see how both words separately can link to the same this, humans, and therefore I have decided to base this project on life while also using it to show that we are all similar no matter our religion, race, ethnicity, authority, etc.

Here is a mood board of what I plan to achieve in my portraits using studio lighting only.