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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

The Civil war stereography was also a key influence in my work as the 3D anaglyph effect has provided my work with colours that were not originally there.

The 3D effect that were on the original civil war photos were added in reference to the distances they wanted the different parts of the photos to look as if it were looking through the human eye, as if they were there.

The effect I wanted to create was merely to move parts of my images in to different parts of the photos to create an extra detail, but also so that they were visually interesting to look at, which is the same reason that the civil war stereographs were made as well.

An obvious difference between my work and the civil war stereographs, is the fact that my work is in colour and theirs is in black and white, although they used plate cameras, this created small spots of extra natural detail to the photos, unlike my photos in which I had to manually create them through the app I used to create my stereographs.