After my first response to Michael Marten where I contrasted a particular location at low tide and high tide I was particularly taken by how the change in water drastically changed the landscape. When reviewing my images, I felt more of an attraction towards the images at high tide. The high water makes me question what exists beyond our reality. At high tide we cannot see the sand and rock formations that are covered by the water, so this makes me think how much more we cannot see in our reality. Questions such as what lies above and below us are stimulated making me wonder how much do we not know. Existence is a never ending process and there is so much more to learn and explore. With these ideas, I wanted to create a sense of power and overwhelming feeling that links to the undiscovered realities that could be out there. Due to the full moon, there were some really big tides in the week that i knew would create some amazing displays. The power of the ocean, creating what can be seen below, shows the force of nature which may be distorting our reality and preventing us from seeing things. Essentially this photographic response is displaying the emotions felt when questioning reality. I feel like photographing the ocean links to the ideas of Zen Buddhism due to the relaxation the ocean can create, helping to disconnect the mind from reality and see beyond this.

Contact Sheet

Edits

Analysis of shoot

Overall, I think this shoot has been a great success. Not only does it show the effects of high tide but it has elements of power, force and underlying symbols that reflect emotion. The destructiveness of the ocean seen in these images act as a metaphor for the anger people have in the world. Emotion cannot be seen, and I wanted to explore through this imagery what it could look like if it was seen. Through my own past experience, I felt as if these waves demonstrated these emotions perfectly. Through my contextual studies on Zen Buddhism and Metaphysical, I wanted to have underlying messages through my images other than what they actually are. Therefore, the purpose of these images other than the aesthetic beauty of them was to show a sense of emotion that one cannot see in our reality.

Hansen is a street photographer who explored colour, shape and geometry.

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This image Shows the subjects coat contrasting against the road markings in the tarmac

As an art student, I belive it could be beneficial for my work to progress if I were able to add another skill to create a more dynamic style into my own work. As I am combining beauty, a sense of abstract and light into play, it could really benefit my work if I experimented within the possible outcomes of using paint to create a dynamic composition and also images which to work well into my narrative without being incredibly repetitive. Not only does this style of painting not create a whole new piece, but the movements and lines only benefit and expand the composition already there. It is not creating a whole new piece which has no relevancy to photography at all, but adding a more dynamic feel to a landscape piece. Much of the paint itself, is then further edited in photoshop to make the image even more illuminating and create more of a premis for relevance within the original image itself. The majority of these images below are based off looking at the colours of the key parts of the original image. This too is how I would create my own composition. For this experimentation, I want to develop the possibilities of painting in two ways, physically printing off the pictures, painting on and then colour correcting on photo editing software after to create a clear vibrancy for the paint, or however, secondly I belive it would be possible to try and create these effects of painting on photoshop, however, I feel this would destroy the point to create a painted edge to the piece.

The concept of painting onto a photograph is much more modern and contemporary, and this progressive style. Ben Hecht is a truly unique mixed media artist, using original photographs and painting over them with handmade encaustic paints (made from beeswax). Instead of purchasing paints, Hecht creates all of his paints from scratch. He sources his beeswax locally, mixes it with dry pigments in his colours of choice, and adds crystallised resin to finish the process. He prints his photographs large scale (often over 40 inches on any side), and then manipulates them through the use of paint. He tends to play with photographs of the ocean, manipulating them by adding greens, blues and whites, creating a beautiful 3D piece of work that is part photograph and part painting.

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These two pieces are based off the influence of clouds and the sky, and forming off the basis as if the clouds were to continue to form into a direct observational of art itself. The effect of the first piece, is more of a slight influence, only showing small lines overcoming the sun. This slight influence is interesting as it is not as a huge progressive change as others seen from this artistic work. The same smaller lines are visible in the second, but the amount has increased varies amounts. The copious small lines where done with the intentions to look as though they are small specs of light purposely found within this area of the sun or the sky. To my taste I prefer the larger thicker lines, however, I do understand why the artists chose otherwise. All the delicate lines work better within the founded darker pieces of the clouds and sun itself.

To my mind the image above is the most dynamic and possibly inspirational image for the forming of my project. Firstly they have edited a fold within the original image, so they knew where or how they could paint on the composition they intended. However, in this case the lights are edited on repeated of colour in order to form dynamic lines, and not actually physical paint. Consequently this is an option for my own development, however not my original idea. I belive the use of the bright lines throughout enhances the interesting light of line within the composition, and too the triangular shapes creates a form surrounding the tree and creating a subject of importance within the image itself.

I believe the copious possible outcomes is what interests me to experimenting within this painted or photoshopped technique. I will definitely experiment within the presentation of these images, As too they will create a more dynamic and again personal impact as I would be adding my own stroke and impact into the image themselves. The amount of interest found where the line is draw, creates a new sight of vision to how we look at a piece, and this is why I believe it is a successful technique.

David Benjamin also plays a key part in my influences, for without him, I probably wouldn’t have come up with the base layers for my images and the colour balancing I used on all of them.

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I colour balanced each layer using yellows and reds, each layer dedicated to one of the categories, Shadows, Midtones or Highlights.

It is a similarity and a difference between our work, as I filtered 3 images where as he uses only one singular image, and also I used all parts of the colour balance where as he only uses the midtones on a black and white image to adapt the images without darkening or lightening the images too much.

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This is a black and white image taken by Erwin Blumenfeld in 1939 showing a model wearing a long dress and hanging onto the Eiffel Tower, the composition on this image is very well thought out, the city of Paris stretching out into the background shows the detail on the buildings at the bottom of the photo and the vastness of the city as you look up the image. Although we can only see a small section of the Eiffel Tower in the right corner of the image we can still tell what it is due to its iconic structure, the geometric shapes and bold lines also act as leading lines in the image leading our eyes up and towards the models stretched out arm. The geometric shapes in the structure are echoed in the model’s long tartan dress which is flowing in the wind. The photographer could have been trying to communicate the idea of freedom and sublime in this photo, with the scene from way above the city it almost gives the idea of separation from the busy life on the streets bellow. The image has two opposing elements, the industrial look of the metal structure and the natural and soft look of the women and her dress, these two ideas are also reflected in the vast scene of the city bellow which I shown from a unique perspective. We are used to seeing images of cities from ground level looking up portraying them as busy, big and important however this image unusually does the opposite.

The women in this photograph is Lisa Fonssagrives, a Swedish model known as the first ever supermodel, she was born in 1911 and was trained as a dancer and sculptor. In 1936 she was first photographed and due to her natural elegance ability to be comfortable in front of the camera. These photos were sent to Vogue who then invited her for more test shots. Over the next tree years she continued to work as a model becoming one of the most sought after models at the time, featuring on many magazine throughout her career. The photo was taken for Vogue for the 50th anniversary of the tower dress by Lucien Lelong. In the 1930’s a new style of women’s magazine was emerging, it focused on female beauty. This photo was taken just before France was occupied by the Germans in WW2 and could reflect the last moments of freedom before Paris was occupied.

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Inspired by Michael Marten I have responded to his work by selecting a location and photographing it at low tide and then returned at high tide to take photos in the same position. I feel as if I have displayed a clear understanding of his work through my responses and there is a strong correlation between the images seen above. Without taking Martens image into consideration it appeared we had a similar composition and framing by using the leading line of a man made structure. I like the sense of urban vs rural within this image and the metaphor that the tide could be suggesting that the urban landscape is invading the rural world. There is also an incorporation of the changing light and how it differs at different times of the day. I like how this change in light and tidal movement is directly compared from the same angle at a different time. Usually these changing matters cannot be seen without a photographic/video evidence of it. This stimulates the ideas about what we cannot see in our reality and has these deeper meanings about our perception. This links to the contextual research i have collated about metaphysical and the several theories suggesting whether things exist in our mind or exist independently. I like how within Martens image he has divided the horizon directly through the middle of the image which is similar to Sugimoto’s sea scapes project. I think when I complete my next shoot in this style i will aim to try and take some photos with this incorporation which will link my two artist studies together.

John Baldessari was a key artist in terms of experimentation as he himself as an artist has produced many interesting and weird artworks due his quote ‘I will not make any more boring art’, This sparked his coloured shapes in his artwork. Those exact artworks are what influenced parts of my images .

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I used the sketch book app to put coloured circles over the faces in my images, which in itself was interesting. But these actually gave me the base layer for more interesting colours in my images, for after my 3d edits and cuts, lots of different colours popped from the images.

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Again as a contrast to his work, my work is overall a lot more colourful and full on where as the coloured shapes he uses are more obscure and pop out of the images that bit more.

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I took this shoot in my back garden one morning before going to school, as when I woke up the sunrise had created beautiful sunrise. So I thought that I would be able to use this sky in the background of some of the images. I feel that this shoot was successful as i did created some images that I really like. But as I was rushed for time as I was trying to leave for school on time, I didn’t have time to think and plan out some shots and I hadn’t really thought about what I had wanted to photograph previously . So I want to do another shoot in the same location, but to really take my time focusing on the small details that I could photograph.

Edits 

When editing these images I used Laura El- Tantawy for inspiration, as in her work there is an overriding theme of using pastel colours and having a fantasy/dream feel to them. I wanted my images to look obscure but still natural at the same time. For the editing of these photos the main technique that I used was double exposure as it is manipulating the images.

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between possibility and actuality. Metaphysics studies questions related to what it is for something to exist and what types of existence there are. Metaphysics seeks to answer, in an abstract and fully general manner, the questions:^[

1. What is there?
2. What is it like?

I feel like this study links to the ideas of Zen Buddhism and the works of Hiroshi Sugimoto in the way there is a sense of deeper thinking. Through my works I have set myself the aim to have underlying messages about what exists past our reality for example underneath the sea at high tide. Also connections to what we may not be able to see in our reality such as the changing light as it happens. This has clear links to the ideas around metaphysical which is intriguing to me.

Topics of metaphysical investigation include existence, objects and their properties, space and time, cause and effect and possibility.

There are two broad stances about what is “the world” studied by metaphysics. The strong, classical view assumes that the objects studied by metaphysics exist independently of any observer, so that the subject is the most fundamental of all sciences. The weak, modern view assumes that the objects studied by metaphysics exist inside the mind of an observer, so the subject becomes a form of introspection. Introspection is the examination of ones own conscious thoughts and feelings.

• Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that studies the ultimate nature of existence, reality, and experience.
• Metaphysics includes all religions but transcends them all.
• Metaphysics is the study of ultimate cause in the Universe.
• Metaphysics is the only science capable of inquiring beyond physical and human science.