‘Investigation of Love’ is an exploration on the abstract notion of love, determining whether photographic evidence is enough to prove the presence of love. The project was inspired by an application for a Dutch residence permit. The couple were required to share photographs of the places they visited together and things they did; objects form a story within the relationship, items they gave each other, purchased, found, or stole together. An anonymous immigration officer assessed the evidence to determine whether Russian-born Lilia Luganskaia was allowed to stay in the Netherlands with her lover.
“We fell in love and lived happily ever after’ wasn’t a satisfying answer for the grave looking officers at the Immigration Department”, Luganskaia told GUP. “They said: if you love him, you better prove it”, she added.
The collection of 514 personal objects is handled as evidence and has been photographed in a clean, catalogued environment and is displayed in the same way as a family photo album . It includes a set of dessert forks purchased at the Texel island flea market, postcards, the furniture which the couple bought together, books which they recommended to each other, letters from friends and relatives and even a dog.
The project asks whether several pictures of a couple justify love? And if not, how many more images would it take to do so? Is it at all possible to depict an emotional bond with photography? What other objects can prove love as well as the book does?
Image Analysis
The style of the image is very minimalistic due to its use as evidence. It prefers to remain conceptual, suggesting the idea of love through symbolism. The dog is the focus of the image, being placed in the centre on a wooden podium to represent its importance in telling the narrative of the couple’s relationship.
The dog featured in the series could be seen as a symbol of loyalty, between the couple as well as towards the dog that they care for in a parental manner. It says so much about their relationship in that they have obviously been together a long time, long enough to adopt a pet together, however the name of the dog is not given showing that there is still some aspects of their relationship that would rather stay private as intimate connections to each other.
Seen in the image is a lot of the colour ‘White’, in the background and in the fur of the dog. White is often seen as a representation of innocence suggesting that the love they share is pure.
The environment in the image appears to be well lit suggesting that artificial lighting was used.
In 1881 Blossfeldt began his studies as an apprentice at the Art Ironworks and Foundry in Mägdesprung, Germany, where he studied sculpture and iron casting. He then moved to Berlin to study at the School of the Museum of Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbemuseum). In 1890 Blossfeldt received a scholarship to study in Rome under Moritz Meurer, a decorative artist and professor of ornament and design. Along with several other assistants, Blossfeldt created and photographed casts of botanical specimens in and around Rome. He continued to work with Meurer through 1896 and traveled beyond Italy to North Africa and Greece to collect specimens. Beginning in 1898 Blossfeldt taught design at the School of the Museum of Decorative Arts (Kunstgewerbeschule), and in 1930 he became professor emeritus. There he established a plant photography archive that he used to teach his students about design and patterns found in nature.
Blossfeldt had no formal training as a photographer and used homemade cameras that he outfitted with lenses capable of magnifying his subjects up to 30 times their natural size. The use of magnification resulted in images of extreme detail and clarity. With the precision of a botanist, Blossfeldt photographed the natural world for scientific and pedagogical purposes and inadvertently became a modern artist. His work was considered the forerunner to Neue Sachlichkeit photography, which favoured sharply focused documentarian images. In 1926, when Blossfeldt was already in his 60s, his work was exhibited to the public for the first time at Berlin’s avant-garde Galerie Nierendorf.The works exhibited there were published in the book Urformen der Kunst (1928; Art Forms in Nature [2003]). The first of his three photo books (the other two were Wundergarten der Natur, 1932; and Wunder in der Natur, 1942, the last published posthumously), it was enormously successful and remains one of the most-significant photo books of the 20th century.
I was particularly inspired by how the textures and patterns created by these natural forms really highlighted minute details that could not usually be seen by the everyday eye. Some examples of his work can be seen below:
After looking at Blossfeldt’s work I decided to go onto analyse one of his images, here I would be looking at technical, visual and conceptual aspects of the photo. By doing this it would allow me to have a better understanding of how he goes about composing his imagery, and the composition he uses to do so. The image I have chosen to analyse is called Hordeum distichum and is part of his fine art series looking at textures and patterns within the structures of plants:
Visual: Visually the piece is extremely aesthetic, using contrast and a symmetrical appearance to highlight the various shadows and depth of the plant. By capturing the plant up close on a macro scale it essentially brings together the whole photo as it fills in a space that otherwise would be blank with symmetrical lines, using a high contrast to highlight the identity of the plant which seemingly unfolds from itself using predominantly darker shades to fill up any space which would contain negative space. The image itself has been taken on a closer level so that the viewer can become more personal with the plant, as seeing it up close presents the viewer with a perspective that might not have been traditionally provided for them. Because of this the photograph seems to make the plant into something completely different to its original appearance, as by singling one bud head out it casts a light onto it that maybe is not accessible when viewing them en mass.
Technical: The photo itself has been taken in black and white, using a black sheet of paper as a backdrop which highlights the structure of the plant, adding a sinister and symmetrical feel to the entire piece. Blossfeldt has made sure to capture only the head of the bud so that it may be presented in a overall symmetrical manner which leaves the end result more aesthetic for the viewers, as using an increased contrast making the different shades pop due to it greatly exaggerating the change in shade so that things like black are emphasized. When taking the image the shutter speed would have been relatively normal due to Blossfeldt not needing to capture any moving object due to the photo being taken in studio conditions, which as a result gives off a beautiful result which perfectly presents the head of the plant in a way not previously done before. Texture and pattern making up the majority of the piece as the photograph breaks up the plant so that it becomes more abstract, creating shapes that could not be previously seen due to a greater scope needed to see it.
Conceptual: Conceptually Blossfeldt can be seen taking this image in reference to fine arts, using a simple but effective camera angle and subject to produce a piece that is extremely aesthetic to the eye, emphasizing the shades so that they perfectly contrast each other and define the overall result of the photograph. The piece plays part in a series of photographs of bud which at the time were taken so that his students could use them to produce biology based work that could be used in class, however his passion for this kind of photograph led him to create more of the typographic styled method.
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated at Grekov Odessa Art school. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics.
Kandinsky exploited the evocative interrelation between color and form to create an aesthetic experience that engaged the sight, sound, and emotions of the public. He believed that total abstraction offered the possibility for profound, transcendental expression and that copying from nature only interfered with this process. Highly inspired to create art that communicated a universal sense of spirituality, he innovated a pictorial language that only loosely related to the outside world, but expressed volumes about the artist’s inner experience. His visual vocabulary developed through three phases, shifting from his early, representational canvases and their divine symbolism to his rapturous and operatic compositions, to his late, geometric and biomorphic flat planes of color.
Kandinsky’s most famous pieces are his abstract work, in these examples you can see his frequent use of circles in his paintings. This was another artist of whom sparked or continued that interest in circles in imagery and I would be keen to explore this further and produce responses to these artists.
Squares with Concentric Circles
Squares with Concentric Circles (above) is a small watercolor made with gouache (a type of watercolor paint) and crayon. Kandinsky created a grid composition (the “squares”). Within each square unit, he painted “concentric circles”, meaning that the circles share a central point. He believed the circle had symbolic significance relating to the mysteries of space and he used it as an abstract form to which he would create his art. Kandinsky explores many side-by-side combinations of color relationships: complementary (colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as orange and blue), analogous (adjacent colors on the color wheel, such as red and orange), and triad (colors spaced equally on the color wheel, such as red, blue, and yellow). He varies the intensity and value of some colors, sometimes even within the same circle. The close placement of such high-value colors makes them appear to pulsate.
The painting is a study, or sketch-like investigation into a subject. Kandinsky’s quick, freehand renderings produce lopsided and irregular geometric shapes, giving the conceptual work a living, organic feel. The watercolors bleed into one another, and the artist sometimes breaks from his formula. He saw the formula as secondary to the study’s purpose, which is the experience of viewing color relationships. Kandinsky never intended for this study to be viewed as a finished work of art, but rather as a color aid to refer to while he worked on other paintings.
BAM Perspectives is a business created and run solely by Marc Le Cornu, who happens to be my father. ‘BAM’ (his nickname) began the business after becoming a trained commercial drone pilot for the States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service a few years ago, he then created the emergency services drone team to allow all emergency services to acquire use of the Fire Service’s drone and train multiple operators with ‘BAM’ in command of the team. His passion for drones and drone photography was clearly visible from this point, he loved it and decided to buy a drone himself; a DJI Mavic. This drone was compact, light and had a good camera for its relatively small size. It was with this drone he began taking photos and videos which sparked online with many people sharing and liking his work.
Fun Fair St Helier
With this, he decided to create his own business to run part time whilst in the Station Commander/Group Commander position at the Fire Service. He came up with BAM Perspectives, he used social media to advertise almost completely free and he also created a website to sell images (which he could legally do with a commercial licence). He is the only local drone pilot to hold a dense urban area license, allowing him to fly over town (large built up areas) which other pilots simply cannot do (legally).
DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian
DJI Inspire 2
DJI Mavic 2 Pro
His work mainly consists of landscape imagery, both from drone and DSLR. He has 3 drones currently, DJI Mavic 2 Pro, DJI Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian and DJI Inspire 2. Not only does he do landscape imagery, he does land survey imagery, property surveys and progress images for building sites and even the predicted window views for the Horizon Apartments site. He also takes a fine art approach with abstract imagery, his use of circles both in natural and urban landscapes is something that sparked some ideas for me to follow for a project idea.
“AS MUSIC IS ONLY SOUND UNDER GOVERNANCE OF CERTAIN LAWS, SO IS PICTORIAL EFFECT ONLY THE COMBINATION OF CERTAIN FORMS AND LIGHTS AND SHADOWS IN LIKE MANNER HARMONIOUSLY BROUGHT TOGETHER.” – Henry Peach Robinson
Pictorialists took the medium of photography and reinvented it as an art form, placing beauty, tonality, and composition above creating an accurate visual record. Through their creations, the movement aimed to elevate photography to the same level as painting and have it recognized as such by galleries and other artistic institutions. A Pictorialist photograph is usually taken to mean an image that has been manipulated in some way to increase its artistic impact. Common themes within the style are the use of soft focus, color tinting, and visible manipulation such as composite images or the addition of brushstrokes. Photography was invented in the late 1830s and was initially considered to be a way in which to produce purely scientific and representational images. This began to change from the 1850s when advocates such as the English painter William John Newton suggested that photography could also be artistic. The Pictorialist movement was at its most active between 1885 and 1915 and during its heyday it had an international reach with centers in England, France, and the USA. Pictorialists used a range of darkroom techniques to produce images that allowed them to express their creativity, utilizing it to tell stories, replicate mythological or biblical scenes, and to produce dream-like landscapes.
Pictorialism was closely linked to prevailing artistic movements, as the photographers took inspiration from popular art, adopting its styles and ideas to demonstrate similarity between it and photography. Movements that were particularly influential were Tonalism, Impressionism and, in some instances, Victorian genre painting. Pictorialists were the first to present the case for photography to be classed as art and in doing so they initiated a discussion about the artistic value of photography as well as a debate about the social role of photographic manipulation. Both of these matters are still contested today and they have been made ever more relevant in the last decades through the increasing use of Photoshop in advertising and on social media. The movement led to great innovation in the field of photography with a number of the photographers associated with it responsible for developing new techniques to further their artistic vision. This laid the foundations for later advances in color photography and other technical processes.
John Baldessari (born June 17, 1931) is an American conceptual artist living and working in Santa Monica and Venice. Baldessari was initially a painter with his early major works being canvas paintings that were empty but for painted statements coming from contemporary art theory. Baldessari’s work ‘Painting for Kubler’ presented the viewer with theoretical intructions on how to view it as well as the importance of the context within his previous works. referenced art historian George Kubler’s book ‘The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things’.
In 1970 Baldessari and some friends burnt all of his paintings created over 13 years to create a new piece, titled ‘The Cremation Project’ and baked the ashes from the paintings into cookies then placed them into an urn leading to an art installation consisting of a bronze commemorative plaque with the destroyed paintings’ birth and death dates, as well as a recipe for making the cookies. Through this project Baldessari drew a connection between atistic practice and the human life cycle.
Baldessari began to experiment with bringing texts and photo into his canvases and then later began to work in printmaking, film, video, sculpture and photography in the 1970’s. His work shows the narrative potential of images and often incorporates language within his art. His art has been featured in more than 200 solo exhibitions in the US and Europe and has influenced artists such as Cindy Sherman.
Many of Baldessari’s works are sequences showing attempts to accomplish an arbitrary goal – an example of this is Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (1973) in which Baldessari attempts to do exactly as the title describes and then photographed the results. This project is an early-example of post-conceptual art. Another example of Baldessari’s work that links to post-conceptual art is when he used circular adhesive dots to cover up the faces of subjects which led to him being known as ‘the guy who puts dots over peoples faces’ – the inspiration for this work came from the brightly coloured price-stickers seen on sale items. As part of an experiment coming under the title ‘Play’ I responded to Baldessari’s post-conceptual work; this experiment drew inspiration from both ‘Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line’ and his work with brightly coloured dots as I attempted to capture three balls in a straight line as Baldessari did. I used the idea of throwing balls in the air to bring in inspiration from Baldessari’s work with brightly coloured dots by throwing a bright yellow dodgeball into the air to contrast with the dark grey sky in the background – this created the same effect as Baldessari’s work by creating an abstract composition that has high contrast between colours and backgrounds.
“Cutting Ribbon, Man In Wheelchair, Paintings (Version
On his work with placing colourful retail stickers over photographs, Baldessari says “I just got so tired of looking at these faces… If you can’t see their face, you’re going to look at how they’re dressed, maybe their stance, their surroundings” which supports the view that Baldessari’s motivations behind this work was to force the viewer to view the photograph or subject in an unconventional way, a feature often attributed with post-conceptualism. When asked why Baldessari only leaves the mundane parts of the photograph, as the face is the most interesting part, Baldessari responds “I think you really sort of dig beneath the surface and you can see what that photograph is really about, what’s going on”
Post conceptualism is an art theory that builds upon the legacy of conceptual art in contemporary art, where the concepts involved take a bit more priority over the traditional concern for aesthetics. The term first came into art through the influence of Baldessari in the 1970’s through his work Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line. The movement focused on the idea behind the art and questioned the traditional role of the object.
After looking over the works of John Baldessari I became inspired to create my own response regarding the colours used within his graphics used. I really liked his used of block colouring to create abstract effects within pre-taken images of people and landscapes, blocking out faces and aspects of the environment as a means of censorship. As a result of this it produces collages of different materials which contrast one another allowing for a aesthetically pleasing result. To create the intended results I would have to use software such as Adobe Photoshop to cut and paste in colour in the areas wanted, the photos I will be using are images I have previously taken in shoots regarding the topic of variation and similarity. Here are some examples of Baldessari’s work which I will be drawing inspiration from:
Once I had chosen some of the works which I would be using as a reference to create off I decided to go ahead and proceed to cut areas out which I thought would look more effective with varying ranges of colour. Using Adobe Photoshop I used the snipping tool to cut out and replace the different areas of each image with block colouring, looking back at Baldessari’s work as a reference to my structure of creating related works. Here is the process of me creating each image:
Step 1: Select the lasso tool located on the top left hand side of the tool bar and make sure the freehand option is chosen.
Step 2: Once you have selected the lasso tool draw out the desired shape of the area you intend to make a block colour out of, when doing it make sure to connect the end and the start point so that it does not ruin the layout.
Step 3: After highlighting the wanted area make sure to go on to chose the paintbrush tool next, located just under the lasso tool. Using the colour boxes select a colour that contrasts the piece well and paint it within the lassoed area, making sure to deselect the highlighted are once completed.
When I finished experiment with various designs I then chose four images that I best reflected the intended outcome of the process and inspiration towards John Baldessari’s work. These are the images I selected as the best outcomes of the experimentation:
For this image I used red circles each with a varying opacity, by doing this it would create the impression of different depths of fields, with the more out of focused being the more faded shapes. When creating it I wanted to make sure there was still a natural feel to the piece, so limited the amount of shapes depending on the focus of the area so that they would not overpower and fill the entire piece.
Here I wanted to capture a reflection of a shape within a muddy puddle. To do this I had to crop out the parts of the shape which touched the mud, this seemed a bit to complicated for a Baldessari’s work, however I liked the final outcome of how the lighter blue completely contrasted that of the surrounding black mud of the image.
When editing this piece I tried to block colour only the bushes and trees that were the most outstanding to the environment, allowing me to roughly cut out the area and replace it all with colour that contrasted but complimented each other so that it would not become eye sore. When placing the block colours I made sure not to have them grouped together so much as by clustering them together it would reduce the effect of the simplicity I wanted to put across, instead abstracting the photo too much.
Finally I selected this image because I like the roughly cut out mesh wire which it replaced with a contrasted yellow which compliments the black which makes up the majority of the photo. By also adding the white rectangle I found that it brakes the piece up and instead stops the yellow from becoming too minimal and the black becoming too overpowering.
