Born in Spain in 1881 Pablo Picasso became one of the most important art figures of the 20th century. He had the most distinct style incorporating bight colours and geometric shapes to create mesmerising paintings which challenged previous art ideas such as romanticism. Starting the Cubist movement in 1907 with his abstract portraits, he made over 20,000, paintings, sculptures, ceramics, costumes and even theatre sets over his working career. His work covered a large variety of styles making him very respected in his lifetime and only more after his death Les Femmes D’alger selling for $179.4 million in may 2015. His work along with that of Georges Braque changed the face of European art and started the avant-garde movement of cubism. It is said that their work inspired styles such as Futurism, Dada and Constructivism in other countries.
Granite is a resource in Jersey that is available in abundance and plays a key part in the structures in Jersey. Lots of houses are built with the stone but the majority of them have plaster and paint covering the granite, whereas others have the granite exposed. This shoot serves the purpose of collecting photographs of granite rock faces of different shapes and at different angles. The reason I am doing this is so that I can use the material that I produce to create a contrast with the man-made structures that I have been photographing. I am planning on continuing with the style of editing that I have been experimenting, such as double exposure and layering photographs over each other to show this contrast. The photographs of the buildings that I am comparing these rock faces against are in black and white whereas I will be keeping these photographs in colour as I believe that the natural earthy tones of the rock will help to create an effective contrast within the compositions. Ultimately, the edits will show comparisons between how shapes are formed in man-made structure against the shapes formed in natural rocks by the waves over time.
Analysis
To capture this photograph of a granite rock face I used the natural daylight from Oueisne beach where the shoot took face. This natural daylight allowed for the natural shadows and crevices within the rock face to come to light and created contrast between the different depths of the rock face. I used a 300mm lens to capture the photograph so that I could zoom in and create a close-up abstract photograph of the rock face that focused on the edges and shapes within the rock rather than the surroundings. I used an ISO of 800, an aperture of f/8.0 and a shutter speed of 1/500 when taking the photograph. The ISO of 800 is fairly high but ensures that the photograph is correctly exposed along with the quick shutter speed of 1/500 that allows the photograph to be sharp and focused when the camera is zoomed in to such an extent. The depth of field ensures that the photograph is fully in focus and is clear.
There is wide tonal range in this photographs due to the sharp edges of the rock and the natural formations and cracks. There is also a range of earthy colours throughout the photograph as some parts of the rock face are more weathered than others – this helps to create a texture in the photograph as the edges can clearly be seen as sharp and the weathering can be seen in different areas. There is also a 3D effect due to the different depths of the rock face which emphasises the shapes and shadows within the photograph. There is no repetition in structure in the photograph as there is of my photographs with man-made structures which shows the contrast between a natural structure and an artificial one.
The photo is intended for editing alongside the photographs of building faces that I have produced and will aid me in showing contrast between buildings and natural rock formations. I chose to photograph granite specifically because it is a key natural resource of Jersey and is used in lots of housing. – the idea is that by editing the granite along with the buildings it will give a feeling of peeling back the layers to reveal the building materials supporting the buildings.
Minor White was an American photographer and editor whose efforts to extend photography’s range of expression greatly influenced creative photography in the mid-20th century. White’s interest in Zen philosophy and mysticism permeated both his subject matter and formal technique. “At first glance a photograph can inform us. At second glance it can reach us,” he once said.
White made thousands of black-and-white and color photographs of landscapes, people and abstract subject matter, created with both technical mastery and a strong visual sense of light and shadow. White’s pictures were abstract, black-and-white closeups of rocks, wood and water. The gleaming images were spiritual and intense. He arranged them in sequences, leading viewers from one picture to another, slowing us down and forcing us to see connections and relationships between the shapes.
In 1945 he moved to New York City, where he became part of a circle of friends that included the influential photographers Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz. His contact with Stieglitz helped him discover his own distinctive style. From Stieglitz he learned the expressive potential of the sequence, a group of photographs presented as a unit. White would present his work in such units along with text, creating arrangements that he hoped would inspire different moods, emotions, and associations in the viewer, moving beyond the conventional expressive possibilities of still photography. White considered his approach to this form one of his most important innovations. The sequence seems to have gratified an important psychological need for White. He also learned from Stieglitz the idea of the “equivalent,” or a photographic image intended as a visual metaphor for a state of being. Both in his photographs and in his writing.
In 1946 White moved to San Francisco, where he worked closely with the photographer Ansel Adams. Adams’s zone system, a method of visualizing how the scene or object to be photographed will appear in the final print, formed another major influence on White’s work.
White traveled throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early ’60s and began to experiment with colour photographs.
Colour Photographs
Among his best-known books are two collections, Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations (1969), which features some of his sequences, and Minor White: Rites and Passages (1978), with excerpts from his diaries and letters and a biographical essay by James Baker Hall.
Through his mystical approach to photography, Minor White has become one of the most influential photographers of the postwar era. His landscape photographs often create abstract images that disorient the viewer and penetrate beneath the surface of the subject. White developed sequences for these pictures that underscored the meditative possibilities of reading photographs as a means of spiritual self-knowledge, a practice that continues to inspire many contemporary photographers.
I chose Minor White as a photographer to research as I first liked how he portrayed nature spiritually and intensely. I am particularly interested in his colour photos as I like his use of bold colours against different shapes in nature, For example, the first colour image of the red/pink flower stood out to me when i saw his photos. This was because of how he portrayed the flower beautifully, even though its on a stone floor. I think that the colours complement each other well, the warm brown tones of the floor linking to the yellow center of the flower with the bright flower contrasting. I think this reflects his interest in Zen philosophy and mysticism, finding deeper meaning behind everyday objects. I also like how he considers carefully the order in which his photographs are displayed, hoping to create different moods, emotions, and associations in the viewer, moving beyond the conventional expressive possibilities of still photography. This is something I will take inspiration from in my project.
After my initial experimentation with images, using color to respond to John Baldessari, I decided to create another response in which I would become more practical with my ideas and actually cut out parts of the image itself. To do this I would need to use a small circular object which I could proceed to cut around as an outline for the areas of photo I wanted to take out. Using a Stanley knife and a small cup I traced the outline and cut around the outskirts of the edge trying to be as neat as possible, after cutting out wanted areas on all of the photos I went onto experiment with their presentation, linking areas and using the off-cuts to put back onto the photos. Once I had create four different layouts I photographed them against a black piece of card so that more definition could be created. Overall I decided to do this because I wanted to become more practical like Baldessari who would go out of his way to make certain scenes happen, and so by me creating a response like this it would allow me to be in control of the image taken completely, warping it so that it links into my intended outcome. Here are the final developed cut-outs of the photos taken and their various experimentation’s:
For my first edit I decided I wanted to make use of the parts cut out, this is because I loved the idea of placing parts of an environment that would not typically be seen in any other location elsewhere. I chose to use the circles as a theme because of how their repetition linked into Baldessari’s work that centered around figures and form, and so by placing things in usual ways presented aestheticism for the viewer who is drawn to how the locations don’t fit into where they are placed.
For this image I wanted to layout the basis for branching various ideas for designs off on, this could consist of various linking techniques towards each circle and where they could start and end. I selected the areas with the photo which I thought captured the essential patterns and textures seen such as trees, card, sky and fields. These three different areas of the environment make up the piece and so by taking a section of it out impacts the outcome much more than it initially did.
Firstly for this image I decided to link together each circle to one another, giving each three links with the exception of the middle one having five in order to connect it to every other one. The idea behind this was to essentially link together each of the different sections of the landscape together and present the piece with an abstract and unusual object within, making the viewer think about how each area impacts the next.
Finally for this last experiment I tried to randomize how the layout of the cut-outs experimentation look completely. To do this I randomly linked together various circles making sure that two circles had a link to the border of the photo. I tried to make sure the path of the links was completely uncoordinated leaving me to cross over various paths to make a form with no actual structure in the photograph.
Overall I found that my experimentation using the four images went well due to it pushing me to create more edits outside of software, making me more practical with my photographs whilst involving me more with the actual process and outcome of each piece. I chose to use this image as the experiment because of how I thought it presented the most diverse textures and patterns within a landscape found in most of my photos.
evaluation: My intinal intention with this project was the aim to be abel to show beuaty wihtin the icmplocity of naturla life, and also out daily lives, For this hsoot I had in mind a few loactions I wanted to go in order to ceate
During the early 1900’s a revolutionary new approach in art which involved the representation of reality emerged called cubism. It was elevated by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who both used different perspectives and views of the subject into one image. This created fragmented images with an abstract tone. The name ‘cubism’ came from the geometric shapes seen in the work, it became one of the most influential styled in the 20th century. Artists aimed to show one object of figure for various view points at one time breaking away from linear perspective which had been around since the Renaissance Cubism in turn lead onto other art movements such as constructivism and neo-plasticism which also both incorporate sharp geometric shapes and outlines but in a more simple and abstract way.
This painting by Pablo Picasso named ‘girl with mandolin’ shows a fragmented version of reality. The neutral colour scheme helps us focus in on the shadows and helps the cube shapes stand out. Painting with a model in front of him his work manages to show one image from various angles all joined together to create an impossible image, one which could not be seen by the human eye.
I want to look into cubism and how the idea has ben used I photography by various artists. Photography and the editing software which is now available such as photoshop makes it a lot easier to create cubist art. Images can be cut up, re sized and re constructed creating a similar effect to those of the original cubist artists. Bellow i have collected work by various artist showing new interpretations of cubism, the first mixes mediums to create its effect. A face had been painted onto the side of the models face, one of the real eyes coincides with where the drawn on would be creating an interesting illusion reminding us of the ‘old hag and young women’ illusion which questions our perspective and view of different content. The middle image is by Nigel Tomm and show and crumpled and distorted magazine page. His work tackles the idea of perfection displayed in the media by models and celebrities and follows similar conventions to cubist art.
Experimental Photography Pastes Comparable Trace Pack by Nigel Tomm
