During my exam day three, I mounted up all of my printed images onto black/white card and foam board to make several separate installations of photography to go alongside my photobook.
I had printed out my best images that were incorperated within my book with the intent to create a series of mini stories presented in diptychs and triptychs. This would allow me to create many more narratives alongside my main narrative contained inside my book. I had pre-arranged a layout that I would follow for each board in my previous lessons before the printed images came down.
The images below show the four concepts that i came up with. They are all arranged differently depending on the types of images used, the sizes of the image and what works best to allow them to fit together.
It is good to have both a physical version of the book with all my best images from the shoots I have produced as well as these four boards. Having the physical prints on a large scale, especially shown in the A3 images is very rewarding because it allows me to see my imagery on a large scale and as a series that, personally, I think has worked well. It has allowed me to construct further narratives and stories that otherwise would not have been displayed through my photobook. I used two methods to present my work seen above, one being framing and one using foam board to lift the images out to appear 3D. I think the mounted images have worked better as they reveal a cleaner and more professional look however the foam board images have allowed my landscapes to really stand out, especially the ones on the black board as it compliments the moody skies.
For my final prints I decided to select 6 of my strongest pairs of images, 12 images in total, and display them in sets of two mounted on black and then three sets mounted on white, I felt that this was the best way to display my images as it was simple and each set was divided yet the black made them stand out and created a frame around each set of two.
In comparison, I think these images are very similar, especially in terms of meaning. They both show a man who lives in a different country to where they originate from. I think the image taken by Mahtab Hussain shows a young man who has changed in terms of dress style and lifestyle in order to fit in with the rest of the English community as there is a lot of hatred and racism, specifically aimed at Muslim men. In my image, we see an older man that continues to live his life as he did when he lived in his birth island, Madeira. Although both men are in different circumstances, I believe that where you originate from, there are various implications when it comes to racism and both culture are forced to commit to their new surroundings in order to live freely.
In this image I was attempting to achieve the same contextual ideas as Mahtab Hussain; showing how different cultures live in different countries.
The image is slightly contrasted and brings out some facial features that show ageing; how the older generation live. The aperture used was set at f/4 which means the lens is wider, letting the sensor receive more light and a shallow depth of field. The low f-stop in general makes the background more blurry and makes the background obscure. The shutter speed was most likely around 1/60 as the image is typically quite bright and focused in the foreground which also enhances the textures of the fencing and old objects around him although the background is unfocused.
I captured this photo in natural day light on a cloudy day. The light looks as if it is coming from above and coming straight on as there are no intense shadows created by the man in the photo nor objects surrounding him. The subtle increase in saturation in this image highlights the colour of his clothing. I see a very high level of control of this photo. The man is positioned in the center and he is looking directly at the lens as if he was cleaning the grill and became distracted by the camera for a small glimpse. There are a range of tones from black (fence shadows) to white (highly exposed sky). The middle ground textures are very intensifying and really work as a visual effect. The mans eyes are the main focus in the image.
I took this photograph in my garden, a place that my dad built as my home and which has never been changed. I think this is a very important aspect of the image because it shows that men are typically the ones who build the house but women are the ones who make it a home. This is a strong way of thinking in my family. The older ways of living continue through generations and is an extremely common in the Portuguese culture. The wear and tear in the fence and statues show that this garden has not been refurbished for many years. I think everything in my garden has its own story and for as long as I can remember, my father has always worked for taking care of our family in heavy duty jobs; building and simply being the breadwinner for our family. This traditionally is not the case for many families nowadays, where domestic jobs are shared between a couple.
“I feel so invisible. That’s why I became an artist. I wanted to represent this society in artistic space.”
Mahtab Hussain
The reason I chose this image as it is one of my favourite from Hussain’s You Get Me? album and I think it is a very powerful image as the subject is engaging with the camera. I also decided that this would be one of the photos that I wanted to look into as I plan to achieve the same concepts as Mahtab Hussain and thought this would be the perfect starting point.
Hussain seems to have taken this photo in natural day light and the wall in the background supports the fact the photo is taken outside due to the condition that it is in. The light looks as if it is surrounding the whole area and coming straight on as there are no shadows created by the subjects figure however, the patterns in the walls are creating small shades below which reinforces the idea that the natural light is mainly strongest from above. The subtle increase in saturation in this image highlights the colour of his clothing as well as the wear and tear from the walls in the background and the image is not massively light sensitive as it is clear and focused. I see a very high level of control of this photo. The man is positioned in the center and he is looking directly at the lens although his body is slightly turned to the left.
The image is slightly contrasted and mainly enhances the natural shapes in the walls and signs of ware. The aperture used was most likely around f/32 which means the lens is smaller. A smaller aperture allows the middle ground and background to be in focus with the rest of the image. The shutter speed was most likely around 1/15 as the image is typically quite bright and focused, however, not over exposed. The slower shutter speed allows the camera to retrieve more light and makes it easier for contrasts to be seen. The textures are very intensifying and really work as a visual effect. There is a repetition of the same colours red and greenish mold which can be very meaningful in the photograph (see paragraph image No.2). The boys eyes are the main focus in the image as they are horizontally in the middle of the photograph leading the eye to his at first glance. Again, it could be argued that this is another method of manipulation as the viewer can feel more for the image as it tells a story.
Mahtab Hussain captured this image along with many other portraits. His idea behind these photographs was to show how people of his culture (Muslims) lived in a different country. In this case, London.
Image No.2
There is a lot of meaning behind this photograph. For example, in the image above, Hussain has saturated the colours which enhance green and red. These colours are most related to the Muslim culture, for instance, there are many different countries of where Muslims originate from. For example, the image above shows that the man in the image could potentially be representing the Bangladesh flag and how he lives in a foreign country.
I am very happy with the final outcomes of my exam project, I am happy with the way that the project had developed and how it has helped me as a photographer. At the beginning of the project I planned to look at the variety of landscapes with changes in the time, weather, and perspective but I feel that focusing on a harder topic such as the sublime pushed me further. At first I was struggling of how to go about photographing this concept and how to view the world in a different way. But then I found the photographer of Laura El Tantawy her work inspired me massively, with her unique perspectives on every situations. I really liked the boldness and how abstract but yet artistic her images where at the same time.
I then found the photographer of Rinko Kawauchi, who’s work really helped to shape the outcome of my project. Her images are very spiritual and purse and have this sense of delicacy to them which is very hard to convey in photographs but come very naturally to her. I mainly looked at her book ‘Illumiance’ to see her way of viewing the world.
I feel that the book focuses on the elements but within that is about stopping and viewing the beauty within the everyday world. But personally for me represent a journey for me not only as a photographer in regards to my photographic skills, but being able to change the focus of my images to a topic that I have never really looked at before. I feel that this shown in the book not only by the images themselves but through the visual stimulants in the book such as the boat, the plane, the sky and the trees as all of these things are growing or moving in some way.
If I were to do the proejct again I would look at more photographers in depth and do more photo shoots inspired by their works as I feel that it would have increased the diversity in the style of the images that I have taken. If I had started focusing on this idea from the beginning of the project I might had created a video to go along side the project and assist it in its overall meaning. But I am very happy with what I have created.
To conclude, I am extremely satisfied with the outcomes of the ‘Variation & Similarity’ project, in relation with my initial project specification I am confident to say that it reflects throughout my project and is clear in my final pieces. My initial action plan when approaching this project was ”I will produce photographs surrounding the theme of chaotic imagery. I plan to do this by creating photo-montages, collages and edits in response to the artists and photographers which I have and will research. I am going to relate this work to the issues of overpopulation and capitalism which have and still continue to play a big part in the overpowered development of the world. I will photograph all kinds of things relating to this theme as rather than limiting myself to one specific subject matter this will not allow me to produce pieces with chaos as the main part. These issues of overpopulation and capitalism are something which closely links Jersey with the rest of the world, through trade, immigration, politics and culture. I plan to explore this link and how it has developed over time, looking at the past and how it has become the present. And then how the future may look in terms of these issues. This will be executed by the use of archival and found imagery mixed with my own purposed photographs through means of collage and montage.” Which I can say with full confidence is something which I have more than met. Although my creative thought process and ideas have developed consistently throughout the project, I can safely say that the aesthetic which I was intending on producing from my initial thoughts is exactly what I have managed. My photo-shoots and gathering of visual material were a vital part of executing this project and again I can safely say that I followed my plans for these and it payed off as I managed to gather more than enough to work with than what was needed, which was massively ideal since I required a broad selection of textures, colours, shapes, forms, scenes, objects etc… The research I have done has clearly inspired the work which I have produced. Looking into the work of a total of 18 creative individuals has given me a good understanding of the style of work which I was aiming to produce, and this is definitely something which shows. Also learning about art movements which I was previously unaware of has allowed me to have a much better understanding of the creativity which I was working towards. Artists/Photographers Dexter Navy, Alice Wielinga, Peter Blake, Salvador Dali and Raoul Hausmann were definitely the most influential artists on my work which personally I believe is blatant within my work, as there are visual similarities within at least one of my final outcomes to each of these individuals. In terms of my two final displays they went completely to plan and I believe perfectly reflect my plans and mock-ups, and are overall a complete success. They are interesting and unusual outcomes and I believe that it was definitely worth spending my time on something slightly more complex than just a window mount or framing that wouldn’t show my images in a very eye catching way. They show my work in a way which can be individually interpreted by viewers as there are subtle meanings and messages within the work which can be noticed on closer inspection. So to say the least, I am overall extremely satisfied and confident in the way which this whole project has come together and worked.
After consideration for the exam brief I decided the most effective and interesting way for me to demonstrate the theme ‘variation and similarity’ was through nature and aspects of it. I made this decision due to the vast range of green spaces and easy access to aspects of nature, such as, shells and rocks from the beach, or a variety of flowers from fields and lanes. My exam project focused on three main points within nature, Flowers, Objects found at the beach; rocks and shells, and natural landscapes, to adhere to the theme variation and similarity while using these objects I made sure to collect a variety of different types of the same object; flowers, rocks. I feel abiding by these specific rules I set myself allowed me to successfully fulfill the exam brief, for example I photographed twelve different types of rocks and shells and ten different types of flowers, but while all falling under the same category of photo shoot 1 or 2, demonstrating a range of similar objects; flowers or rocks, but being completely different in appearance, being the aspects of variation. I also photographed natural landscapes, the variable of similarity being the model that appears within the photographs and the fact that the landscape is natural; beach, woods etc, but the variation also being that the natural landscape is different in appearance, the woods differing from the beach greatly in appearance but still falling under the same category of natural landscape and fitting into photo shoot 3.
I drew inspiration from and researched a variety of artists throughout my exam project, for example; John Baldessari, Luigi Ghirri and Etienne-Jules Marey are a few that I was directly inspired by and their techniques and styles are visible thought out my project and final pieces. I incorporated John Baldessaris ‘dots’ into five of my final piece photographs, this being a simple but effective effect within my final pieces. Luigi Ghirri was another artist that I took inspiration from, I used aspects of his style of presentation and composition within photographs, being another simple effect but effective in the overall outcome of the presentation of my final pieces. Etienne-Jules Marey was an artist that I also took direct inspiration from and his style of sequencing and repetition is visible within my final pieces, four of my final piece photographs go into a single sequence. My final pieces link with the exam theme of ‘variation and similarity’ for example the majority of my final pieces have a variety of different photographs in one piece, two of my eight final pieces consist of four different photographs that link in a way, two consist of three separate photographs that link, two consist of pairs of photographs that link and I have included two singular photographs that where successful photographs by themselves and have direct links to artist john Baldessari, one of the artist that I researched throughout the exam project.
The majority of my photographs within the exam project ‘variation and similarity’ where taken in natural daylight, this added a warm, bright feeling thought out the body of photographs and also made the colours within the photographs pop. The meaning behind the photographs are very literal and solely represent what you see in the photograph. I thought specifically about the composition of my photographs throughout the project and made sure to photographed a variety of different angles, distances, to have a variety of option to choose from when making decisions about the most successful outcomes and what photographs would be good enough for final pieces.
In conclusion I feel that my decision to photograph Nature and aspects of it, in response to ‘Variation and similarity’ was successful and my project and final pieces are a good indication of the development of my ideas and work.
To introduce my book I wanted to make it clear to the audience this sense of change which is the ongoing theme within my book. This set of images on the opening page show these ideas of variation through the difference in water level, one being at low tide and the other at high tide. Another main focus within my book is the variation of lighting within the same location which is evident in this spread as one image was taken at midday and one at sunset.
I chose to opt for a double page spread for this image due to the fear of the unknown it creates. The thick clouds and fog obscure the horizon creating a sense of isolation in the way that the clouds appear to be closing in on us. Also it represents an expression of time exposed which act as a time capsule for a series of events in time. This is effective at the start of my book in showing how the whole book is about the events within a day of changing weather, lighting and sea.
I felt as if the above image is very strong in aesthetics and therefore believed it would work best as a double page spread. I ensured there was no boarder to emphasize the sense of isolation and really engage the viewer, making them feel as if they are there. It feels moodier and slower than in reality which i deliberately constructed to show the power of nature and emotions it can evoke.
I think that this method of presenting my work, implies the passage of time and timelessness, echoing the oceans perpetual cycle of change and renewal. By using this triptych method, it allows the viewer to see beauty in each individual part of the landscape as appose to when it is as one photograph.
I thought that this image worked really well within my photo book, mainly to give the viewer a break from the main structure of the book. It allows the viewer to really engage with the beauty of the ocean. The depth within this image has signification of a journey, representing the cycle that the ocean undergoes everyday and also mimicking the journey that the viewer is on within my book.
I like how the above two pages lack the physical detail with an absence of a main focal point, any land mass and objects. Instead strongly focuses on the lighting and textures which are often not appreciated within the landscape. This was inspired by my studies on metaphysics. Through these two pages there are underlying messages about what exists past our reality for example underneath the sea. Also connections to what we may not be able to see in our reality such as the changing light as it happens which is portrayed through the typology.
The diptych above was specifically chosen as a result of the similar patterns within the plants and the ocean froth. I think this similarity in textures and shapes is really interesting, especially due to them both being natural yet different things. This evokes a relationship between these two elements of nature which stimulates a sense of beauty. Also the juxtaposition between the golden light on the left image and dull moody tones in the right image compliment each other.
This is one of my favorite photos within the photo book, hence why I chose to give it a double page spread. I was really pleased with the composition of this photograph, highlighting elements of beauty (the flowers) contrasted with feelings of intimidation and threat (the clouds). I like how the flowers lead the viewer to the to the cloud formations whilst also mimicking the shapes of clouds with the textures they contain themselves.
Gaining inspiration from the constant and seamless cycle of matter, from air to water to cloud and vapor, and back again i captured this photo that represents this with the intense cloud formations.
I specifically chose these images to end my photo-book with as it represents the end of the journey that the weather, lighting and ocean has undertaken throughout my time photographing it for this project. The photograph on the right is the view that is seen when you reach the bottom of the stairs that can be seen on the left. I think that a sunset image works well due to the fact it portrays the end of the day, highlighting that it is the end of my book. The image of the stairs symbolize a sense of movement and time that occurs to result in the changing weather conditions and sea change.
Wolf was born in 1954 in Munich, Germany, and was raised in the United States, Europe, and Canada. He lived and worked in Hong Kong and Paris. He attended the North Toronto Collegiate Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1976 he obtained a degree in visual communication at the University of Essen, Germany, where he studied with Otto Steinert. Wolf died in April 2019 in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong.
Wolf began his career in 1994 as a photojournalist, spending eight years working in Hong Kong for the German magazine Stern. He said that a decline in the magazine industry led to photojournalism assignments becoming “stupid and boring.” In 2003 he decided to work only on fine-art photography projects. In ‘Tokyo compression’ Wolf photographed people squashed up against windows in the underground trains. Michael Wolf’s Tokyo compression focuses on the craziness of Tokyo’s underground system. For his shots he has chosen a location which relentlessly provides his camera with new pictures minute by minute. Every day thousands and thousands of people enter this subsurface hell for two or more hours, constrained between glass, steel and other people who roll to their place of work and back home beneath the city. In Michael Wolf’s pictures we look into countless human faces, all trying to sustain this evident madness in their own way.
I like this image the most as it tell you about the subject. From this image I can gather that the Tokyo sub-way is a dirty place and also that the people who live there must wake early to go to work through a crazy rush-hour of people to support family, and that they are probably very tired constantly and grab sleep when they can. This image is also compels you to look at the subject as he is put in the frame due to the trains window he is squashed up against. Many of the other images also show people squashed up against the wet windows, also suggesting it is hot and crowded in there.
This image is quite dark and more of an environmental photo rather than his usual pop-art or abstract photos. The photo would have been taken with a higher ISO to let more light into the lens in the darkly lit scenes of the tube. A fast shutter speed would have been needed if the train was moving, or a low one of roughly 1/60 of a second if it had stopped.
Architecture of Density
In Wolf’s ‘Architecture of Density’ he has used natural light from the city of Hong Kong to catch the repetitive and colourful high-riser apartment block. Natural lighting has been able to capture the natural tonal ranges of the building which I think depicts the city of Hong Kong well. A deep depth of field would have been used this is because all parts of the photograph are in focus. A shutter speed of 1/60 would have been use as it is the usually one for people and slow moving object an ISO of about 100. this has lead to a visually appealing image.
