To take this project in my own direction on the theme of variation and similarity I want to develop the idea of beauty ideals and views on perfection in the modern world. The idea that there is one view of perfection that people should conform to and aspire to reach rather than accepting that everyone is unique and different. I am going to look into reflections considering the artist reference of Erwin Blumenfeld and and reality and editing in the media. I want to start by conducting a simple portrait photo shoot so I can experiment with editing ideas and develop the concept further. I also want to look into celebrity culture and the new age of the influencer and how they can often create unrealistic expectations for looks and lifestyle. I have also thought about researching some theorists such as Kant and Plato and looking at their ideas on beauty, comparing them to modern ideas.
For the final set of edits I’ve made I used the previous set and then used various images from the shoots I’ve done and overlayed them on top of the original images to add even more detail and definition to my images.
For my exam, I have come up with multiple ideas with what I am going to investigate for the title ‘Variation and Similarity.’ I am interested in exploring repetition, as I have done a few shoots and experimentations to do with this; for example, the doors and windows shoot I did that was inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher. I would maybe use some of these images and create a grid format from some of my best images of my doors and windows shoot. However, I don’t want to base my exam just on this, as my shoot inspired by the Becher’s was only a mini shoot/experiment to see if I liked this style to portray the exam title, (although, this could be an aspect of my exam). I like the idea of repetition because this could be interpreted in many different ways. Some examples of what I could capture for this title is things like: shadows and lighting, reflections, architectural structures (like doors and windows,) sunlight, colour, water, nature, landscapes and seascapes.
Another main idea of mine is light vs shadows/darkness. I like this concept as I would be showing the repetition of light rays (e.g. from the sun) and shadows. I would have to take a couple of shoots at around 5:30pm, when there is a golden hour of sunlight. However, I could also photograph shoots early in the morning, when there is sunrise at around 6am. I like the idea of basing my project around the Sun; it is a bold factor in everyday life. In Jersey, we are the sunniest island within the Channel Islands, which I think I could research further to make my project more contextual and relevant. Moreover, I like the idea of shadows as this can be incorporated in many different ways; along with light.
The binary opposite of light is darkness. I think putting these two together for my exam would work successfully as I would be showing the variation of lights and tones – from light tones to darker tones (shadows). I think exploring light can be creative and I can plan many different and varied shoots that portray light – using sunlight for outdoor shoots and other lights for indoor shoots.
I would make a specific plan on things I would want to capture. To experiment with this first, I might do a mini shoot that explores the sun and shadows on nature, for example, the sea, fields, beaches and landscape views.
Additionally, I am keen to explore another typology approach; this time, I would choose to photograph 1 interesting, unique object/building that is based near around where I live, and go back to that same spot a couple of times, (around 10 times) at the same time each day, (about 5:30pm – when there is a bold stroke of sun). I need to make sure that this object I am choosing to photograph on a regular basis is either being hit by sun rays or where there are shadows reflected on the object. I am doing this because I think that this is a unique idea that portrays the development of something specific; the object would look slightly different each time I visit it, which fits into the theme variation, as well as similarity because I am choosing to capture the same object, just on different days. From this, after a few days (maybe about 6 – 7) I would choose 2 or 3 best images from this developing shoot and include them in my project – so that I am exploring light and shadows within one specific object and how this can change over time.
These 2 shoots that I have come up with to start off my exam photo-shoots may be successful, in which I will use the images in my final outcome.
On top of this, I like the idea of illuminance; this is the total luminous flux incident on a surface, per unit area. I would like to explore the effects of light in general, not just the natural light caused by the Sun. Artificial light can create amazing photography, and I think this is a shoot I would like to experiment with. To do this, I would use a dark room and get a torch or spotlight and place it on a range of objects, or a model. To make this more intriguing, I could use different coloured filters and place them in front of the light to create a more creative, coloured series of images. If this shoot is successful, I may have to base my project around the idea of illuminance and darkness; this can be more of a general approach, so that I can use photos created by the use of artificial light as well as the earth’s natural resource of sunlight.
Mood-board of images that portray my inspirations
Overall, I think my main photography exam is going to be based on the title light vs darkness. This way, I can explore more creative ways of photographing objects/models in light as I can use artificial light and stage my photos more. With the noun ‘darkness’, this can again, be explored in more interesting concepts, as I can use shadows as a starting point for my photos on this side of the project. Yet, I can also photograph objects/models that I can create a darkness onto by adjusting the camera settings (the ISO etc). I think this would work better as I can compare two opposites that have a broader title. The variance of objects I use within my shoots links to the ‘variation’ aspect of the exam title, whereas my images will have a similarity in that they all share illuminance and darkness, (linking to the ‘similarity’ aspect of the exam title). My project will communicate how light and darkness can create similar moods – light can communicate happiness or uplifting vibes and darkness can communicate eeriness or uncertainty.
For my cut images is used a black background on a standard 8×10 landscape base, I then chose various images and cut them from the original images using the magic wand tool to create a tear like effect and then I moved them across to the black landscape base and resized them to fit to corners and areas so that other cuts could be moved across.
This is the raw image from my photo-shoot at Jersey zoo in which I planned to photograph the butterflies due to the fact that they were a common element within photo montage artwork which I have looked at in my research. I believe this is because they are an example of nature’s beauty and when added to a piece their prints and patterns give for a very aesthetically pleasing effect. I then removed the surroundings from the original image using Photoshop as this would allow me to work freely with the butterfly as a subject.I then decided to create a pattern of the butterfly and enhanced the colours within its wings.To go with this I chose this minimal architectural piece of imagery from the photo shoot in which I recorded a set of 171 postcards that relate to my theme of the world being connected due to overpopulation and capitalism. Then using double exposures I layered the butterfly pattern upon the cropped image of the architectural postcard. I did this above the grass in the top half of the image and also cut out parts of the pattern where it overlapped the building as having the pattern completely overlaid didn’t look rightDespite thinking that the previous part of my process made for a successful outcome I simply thought a pink sky would make for a nicer contrast against the green grass, hence I selected the sky and altered the saturation to a pink tone. And overall I believed that as this was it stood as a successful piece which didn’t need any more alterations, visually I believe the composition of the piece is well put together and in terms of the photograph I believe that it mainly is for aesthetics but shows the most subtle links of beauty between different places. This piece is one which I will definitely use as a final piece.
Idea 1: I have considered taking photos of peoples skin it is something everyone has in common but can also be so different, from imperfections such as spots and berth marks to skin colour I could even look into different ages and how skin changes over time.
idea 2: Reflections, opposites, using mirrors to frame parts of the body, angle and perspective, world inside the mirror, alternate reality/ fantasy.
idea 3: How people dress to express themselves and show their individuality, introvert/ extrovert.
Postmodernism was a reaction against modernism. Modernism is a philosophical movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped modernism were the development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities, followed then by reactions of horror to World war 1. Modernism also rejected the certainty of enlightenment thinking, and many modernists rejected religious belief. Photographers began to produce work with a sharp focus and an emphasis on formal qualities, exploiting, rather than obscuring, the camera as an essentially mechanical and technological tool. In this context, “modern” is not used in the sense of “contemporary”, but merely as a name for a specific period in history.
Postmodernism is the name given to the defining artistic movement of the second half of the 20th century. Modernism was characterised by a rejection of previous artistic trends, such as Romanticism and a tendency toward realism. Postmodernism is a large movement that developed in the mid- to late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture and criticism and that marked a departure from modernism. The term has also more generally been applied to the historical era following modernity and the tendencies of this era.
In Lewis Bush’s ‘Metropole’ he used a technique of double exposure. In response to this approach to presenting the shapes and features of buildings I have attempted to create edits by layering photographs over eachother to create confusion and an abstractness within the photographs. This links to the theme ‘Variance and Similarity’ because it explores the fact that there are an increasing amount of large buildings for offices or flats taking away from green land and so the landscape in which we live is turning into a repetitive view of similar flats and offices leaving citizens with a feeling of monotony as everything is being redeveloped to serve the same purpose. By using a double exposure technique it is merging together both similar and different building faces to create one abstract and abnormal building face. Bush’s work on ‘Metropole’ shows a lot of emphasis on the repetition between buildings due to his double exposure effect.
I think that my experimentation with using double exposure whilst drawing inspiration from Lewis Bush has resulted in a type of composition that is both familiar and unfamiliar – similar to the feeling that John Coplans evokes in his audience with his photographs of his different body parts. I believe that this method of presentation is effective as it catches the eye and forces the viewer to think about what they are looking at as well as picking apart the image but I think that when trying to convey the theme of ‘Variance and Similarity’ it may compromise the ability of the photographs to show the differences between different buildings as well as the similarities within them due to the fact that it merges the buildings together. Although saying this, upon looking deeply into the features of the photograph the viewer will spot features of different houses and will be able to see features that do not belong to the base house in the photograph and so will be effective in establishing the different individualistic features that belong to each house. Therefore I will not write off this method of experimentation as it achieves the aim of causing the viewer to look deeper into the photographs.
An example of my experimentation of using double exposure
John Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California. He was a painter, however Baldessari began to incorporate texts and photography into his canvases in the mid-1960s. He painted in a gestural style but by the end of the decade he had begun to introduce pre-existing images and text often creating riddles that highlighted some of the unspoken assumptions of contemporary painting and in the 1970s he abandoned painting altogether and instead made a large range of media. His interests generally still focused on the photographic image.
We spent a lesson outside the classroom to do a an outdoor photo shoot task. Started out in pairs we would throw balls up in the air in an attempt to try frame and photograph them with no blur and the ball being in the centre of the view finder. We did this by using a high shutter speed on our cameras in attempt to clearly capture the object. The point of this task was to try and teach us how to photograph a moving object while ensuring the subject was framed in the correct way.
We then focused on our partners. In this task we again used a high shutter speed on our cameras and tried to photograph our partner who was consistency moving around. This tasked also focused on moving objects and trying to capture them without motion blur.
Further experimenting
I wanted to experiment further by editing my Images in the style of Baldessari’s works by covering their faces with coloured circles. I did multiple experiments but found these three were the best due to the original image being stronger than other images from the shoot. I found these images where strong as they had multiple subjects in the image and worked the best when creating images the same way as John Baldessari.
This shoot is a development on my original shoot which drew inspiration from photographers Lewis Bush and Michael Wolf. My previous shoot focused more on the faces and structures of housing and office blocks but I have decided to expand beyond this in this shoot by also photographing other types of buildings such as hotels, shops and individual houses. Through expanding beyond housing and office blocks it allows me to further demonstrate how different the housing situations within Jersey can be, as well as showing how similar the styles of housing can be in a certain area as the shoot took part near Havre De Pas where a lot of the houses are terraced and quite old-fashioned. I plan on editing photographs from this shoot, future shoots and previous shoots by experimenting with styles such as GIF’s, typologys and layering through double exposure as Lewis Bush did on ‘Metropole’. My intentions in experimenting in these ways is to explore which method is possibly the best at demonstrating how similar but different the houses/flats in jersey can be as well as emphasising the shapes and patterns within the buildings. I feel that it is important for me to focus on different types of buildings within Jersey rather than focusing on only high-riser buildings as that would limit the extent to which I explore buildings in Jersey as well as limiting the extent to which I show variance and similarity within the buildings
Contact Sheet
Edits
After going through all of the photographs that I produced on this shoot I selected some of the best that I could edit. I edited these photographs by putting a black and white filter on in order to allow the viewer to focus on the shapes within the photographs rather than the colour. I then used a perspective crop on the majority of the photographs in order to make the photograph completely straight on in order to further emphasise the symmetry and patterns within the photographs. As well as the black and white filter I increased the contrast, used high highlights and whites, used low shadows and blacks and adjusted the exposure accordingly to create a composition that is mostly over exposed but the features such as the windows are emphasised to help the shapes within the buildings to come forward.
Analysis
I captured this photograph in a natural lighting in order to bring out the natural shadows and shapes within the building that I was photographing. There is a wide tonal range due to both the nature of the building and my editing to the photograph. The bright whiteness in the walls of the photograph contrasts greatly with the dark black shadows on the balconies. I took this photograph on a bright day where there was plenty of sunlight so only needed to use a low ISO of 100 along with a shutter speed of 1/60 to capture this photograph. The low ISO paired with the quick shutter speed allowed for the photograph to be as high in quality as possible as well as not being overexposed (even though I edited the photograph to increase the exposure. I edited this photograph by using a black and white filter to bring out the shapes in the windows as well as the shadows and then I increased the contrast, highlights and whites whilst reducing blacks and shadows to create a composition that had high contrast between the black and whites. A depth of field of f/16 was used to capture the photograph which can be seen as the whole of the photograph is in focus. The photograph has a slightly cold colour cast to it due the bright whiteness throughout it.
I opted for a black and white filter over a colour photograph as it helped to bring out the details within the buildings, especially the contrasts as well as a wide tonal range to create a more dramatic composition. Due to the deep shadows and edges within the photograph as well as the editing of the photograph the composition has a 3D effect as it appears to have different layers which bring the photograph to life.
The aim of this shoot was to create a set of photographs that showed the repetition of shapes within not only blocks of flats and offices, but also within houses, shops and other styles of buildings within Jersey. The overall results shows how even though there is a lot of repetition within individual buildings, each building has its own unique characteristics and shapes and therefore have variance. The inspiration for this shoot came from photographs of tall tower blocks in cities such as Hong Kong where each floor and flat are almost identical, which is perfectly demonstrated in Michael Wolf’s work as well as inspiration from Lewis Bush’s ‘Metropole’ in which he looks at the development of buildings through a double exposure technique to create a similar outcome to what I have done – I plan on further developing this shoot to photograph more buildings in a different area of Jersey to further demonstrate variance between the houses. I will also be experimenting with different ways of presenting the photographs.
The concept behind the previous shoot is that there are an increasing amount of these large and repetitive buildings that make way for office buildings or flats due to the ever rising population and urban migration but this shoot focuses as well on the housing of the population away from these tower blocks. The photographs resulting from my shoot show just how repetitive these buildings that are taking space from nature really are, especially ones in within close proximity to eachother, and reflect the idea that some residents may believe that the landscape of cities including Jersey is becoming repetitive and monotonous as lots of land is being taken to serve the same purpose of housing or offices.
