To look at the idea of play within photography we experimented with archival images and the way John Baldessari edits and manipulates them in a fun way to create expressive works of art. He used colourful price stickers to cover peoples faces in photos ultimately hiding their identity and creating a level playing field between them all . His art can be seen as radicle and chaotic with a strong playful element. Born in 1931 in America he is known for his conceptual art, incorporating found photography with text, paint also making creating using video. There is really no rhyme or reason to his work an he is known for

https://aeon.co/videos/everything-you-need-to-know-about-john-baldessari-godfather-of-conceptual

As a response to John Baldessari’s work and the idea of play and experimentation we flipped a coins above a archival image taken of Jersey. The photo I chose was take in the royal square on a special occasion, it shows soldiers standing in order. the photo is in black and white and has a high contrast making it very striking on its own. Wherever the coin landed we drew a circle around it, after doing this 6 times I used a stanley knife to cut out the circle shapes. I then chose to experiment with the cut out pieces if different ways arranging them and re capturing them in new positions.

• 

• 

• 

The circles are all a uniform size however the variation in the new cicular images is very different and tell a whole new story. The shapes are fun and completely re invent the scene from the original image demostraiting how the idea of play within photography can work.

I placed the original image with the cut out holes over a piece of black card do that the circle shape stand out. I then replaced the cut out pieces on top of the image offsetting them to leave a segment shape to give the look of a shadow.

• 

• 

Finally I used the left over parts of the photo and cut it into smaller uniform circles using a whole punch. I then collaged them all together onto a plain white page concentrating the darker ones to the top left hand corner and having the disperse over the page.