Print Choices and compositions

For my final Prints I have chosen the following images.

A3
A3
A5
A5
A4
A4

I have chosen these images to print out as I believe that all together they have a good balance of natural and urban landscape. This covers my idea from the start of the project of showing how industrialised development is taking over natural areas. And they also show influence and response to the photographers that i have researched during the landscape project (Ansel Adams, Michael Boniwell, The New Topographics and Yener Torun).

Here is how I plan to mount and compose my prints…

With the A3 print of 4 photographs of houses situated in/on natural landscapes, I plan to trim down the 4 images and place each on a slight frame of black mounting board. Then place all 4 pieces onto 1 piece of foam-board. This will hopefully give the images a slight elevation from the board putting them closer to the viewer. With the raw minimally edited approach to this landscape project, giving the image presentations a sense of depth will mean that there is an extra element added to the piece rather that just mounting the images straight onto mounting board.

With this composition I am using my two A5 prints and one of my A4 prints. The idea of this composition is to present colour and shape within landscape which i think is effectively executed with the use of primary colours. I will put each image on its own piece of foam board with a 1cm boarder (grey in picture) and then mount all three in the order above onto one long thin piece of foam board. The idea of this is to give the piece a considerable amount of depth so that hopefully a shadow is cast on the white foam board as shadow is an element explored within the photographs.

For this A4 photograph print I wanted to keep it simple as it subtly reflects various elements such as shape, line, shadow and pattern. Therefore I will give the image a thin black boarder and place this onto a larger piece of foam board to give the piece a sense of scale and draw your eye into the image without over complicating its presentation.

For this final print composition I plan to mount these images of mountains in black mounting board. I wanted to do this as the images are quite detailed in areas and there is a large sense of depth within the photographs, so i didn’t want the presentation of the image to have significant depth its self. I also feel that the black surrounding the photographs will help to bring out the light in the image and draw the viewer’s eye towards the photographs.

 

Final Outcomes

Image 1:

For this photoshoot I wanted to go explore natural places and landscapes but came across some abandoned greenhouses and decided to focus my photoshoot around them. I still consider this a photoshoot exploring natural landscapes as all the images contain some sort of natural aspect but combined with derelict greenhouses, either the plants that have grown around the broken glass and wooden frames or are surrounding the greenhouses by themselves. I chose this image from my photoshoot to be in my final 3 as I like the geometrical shapes and lines created from the broken wooden frames, giving a different effect than if they were not derelict.

Experimentation:

For experimentation I wanted to add another aspect to the image to make it more aesthetically pleasing and interesting. I decided to try and edit shapes into the photo so you could still see the background of the original photo but with a shape in the middle that was transparent so you can still see through it.

I also tried turning the image into a panoramic image by taking the photo and attaching it to the original image but flipped horizontally to create a symmetrical and aesthetically pleasing overall image. I decided to not use this image as i think its too repetitive and decided that when I added in a shape it gives the image a different aspect, rather than the same aspect repeated.

Conclusion:
  • When taking this photoshoot i didn’t have one particular photographer in mind and wanted to do my own images, with a combinations of ideas from all the different photographers I’ve studied.
  • Although i liked the image by itself, without much editing, I decided to add in different shapes to develop my work and to make it look like more of a final outcome.
  • The square shape I have edited emphasises the geometrical lines and shapes within the image and adds a different aspect to the photo.
  • The shape also brings the light blue from the sky into the bottom half of the image creating contrast between the two as it contains parts of the image within the square.
  • The colours within the image as a whole are very neutral: the panes of broken glass on the left side of the photo also show the reflection from the sky making them appear blue in the image and  show the reflection of the clouds aswell. This blue then contrasts with the green on the right side on the image on a different greenhouse,

Image 2:

For these images I took inspiration from Mona Caron and the murals & street art she paints in the US, throughout South America and in Europe. For this image I put together two images as i liked them both together and decided to show the range and variation within my work. I added a black background as it frames the images and reflects how i want the images to be shown together rather than two separate images. I think they go together well as although they both have different paintings which i have edited in, the colours complement each other well as they are both from the same artist (Claude Monet). My favourite out of the two images is the one on the right as the painting is more visible and noticeable which makes it more similar to Mona Caron.

Experimentation:

At first I thought I would edit the images onto the side of the buildings as that’s what the artist did but I thought the paintings would look better framed by the window edges which would make my images similar but slightly different to Mona Caron’s.

Compare and Contrast:
  • The one main difference between Mona Caron’s work and mine  is that she physically paints her images onto buildings (normally plants and flowers) to create murals for the public in the city, whereas I gathered images of paintings by Claude Monet (specifically his water lily paintings) and physically stuck them onto my own photos of buildings.  Instead of sticking the printed out paintings onto the walls on the side of the buildings, I edited them in the shape of the windows, so there were different sections of the painting around the image instead of just a whole image on one wall.
  • One similarity of Mona Caron’s and I’s work is that instead of using images of actual plants and flowers I used images of paintings that an artist has created to be more alike to Mona’s work.
  • In Mona Caron’s photos she has surrounding buildings within the building to create a sense of the city she painted her mural in, showing urban activity like cars and people in the images. She also does this to show the size of her paintings as without the surroundings someone may mistake it for being smaller than it actually is. In my images I only included one building in each of the images as i wanted all the attention to be on one single building, focusing on the paintings edited on as if i included other buildings there would be too much going on in the images when i displayed them both together.

Image 3

I chose this image from my Harve Des Pas photoshoot as i like the simplicity of it and the strong geometrical lines and shapes. I combined the two images together as i didn’t think the images would be as effective by themselves and be combining them together to create a completely new image and the illusion of a new building. I think this image represents the urban side of photography that I explored in this project, taking inspiration from the New Topographics through the contrasts of the harsh lines to the bright sky.

Experimentation:

To experiment with my images I tried different arrangements of images I took on my Harve Des Pas homework. I used images that i had edited to all have bold lines and shapes and connected lines from each image to the next (especially in the first image) so the images had a connection between them. I like the second image as it shows contrast between the curved and straight lines on different buildings, but they’re edited in a way to make them look similar: in both images the underneath of the balcony is contrasted with the light colour of the balcony and the bright white sky.

Compare and Contrast:

When photographing this image I tried to interpret some on Thomas Struth’s building photographs and some of the concepts he incooporates in his photos. He photographed industrialised cities focusing his attention on such cities as New York, Tokyo, Berlin and Naples.  Struth’s images of the urban environment concentrate on seemingly unspectacular streets and public spaces. This is similar to my photos as I focused in on one particular section of buildings, excluding any surroundings.  He seeks to record the face of urban space, seeing the architectural environment as a site where a community expresses its history and identity.

Struth deliberately refers to the tradition of black and white documentary photography, adopting a seemingly objective position. I also edited my images to black and white to create a similar effect to Struth’s. I also took the photo with a ‘seemingly objective position’ by zooming in on the edges and certain parts of the buildings, and with the compositions being simple.  One difference between mine and Struth’s work is that his photographs are neither staged nor digitally manipulated in post-production, whereas I edited my photo after, with emphasising the contrast between the light and dark sections.

Another similarity is that Struth had taken his photographs from the ground, adopting the viewpoint of a spectator looking up at the towering office blocks, which is what I did aswell. One difference between out work is that Struth seemed to focus his photos on a whole street or whole buildings, whereas I only focused on one section of a building, not incorporating any other buildings, giving a more objective viewpoint.

Overall I have enjoyed this landscape unit as i got to develop my knowledge in camera techniques and my understanding of concepts behind landscape photography that i wouldn’t have thought of before. I also now have a deeper knowledge of older and newer landscape photographers and the reasons they do what they do from researching romanticism, altered landscapes, as well as the urban and natural side of landscape photography and have explored each area doing my own interpretations.

Evaluation, critique and analysis of your final response

All of these I will do a window mount on mount board and leave a large white boarder surrounding the piece itself this creates a strong juxtaposing contrasts of white and dark tones and also creates a sense of harmony and a pattern to all the separate pieces. I think that tones create a finished piece it would be most effective to frame the pieces in a black frame and then hang them all in order or largest to smallest and create an overall pattern through the hanging itself. The top final image is the most accurate as the sizing is the same as i would too develop it for a finished final affect.I think the simplicity of the images is also enhanced within the frame as it too just highlights the tones without subtracting the attention of the images.

Evaluation:

Overall I think these three pieces will be the most effective as they all have a clear linked theme of significance being;that of combining nature and then with architectural structures,they also have the same theme as my artist but i decided to use a wider range of setting combining woodland ans well as urban and sea scapes .They all have a continuing tonal range throughout being black and white continuing the same theme throughout. I also think that the display of them all will be effective as it is simple but also the second image will be cut into this style.

But also presents the ability of many different editing techniques and stretching the  ability to use camera techniques as well as Photoshop abilities. The editing also allows a similar overall theme throughout and does still respond to the artists themes.

critical analysis:

Critically I think the first image is the mostly successful,Due to the angle of the structure and also the way the light enhances the overall composition and the sea scape being effective and using the formalism lines too.Although i do think the lines surrounding the building could be edited better,as there are some issues are areas I did not intended to be there,furthermore the bottom could be possibly blended into the sea although i do not know if this would then take away the effect of the sea being present.

My second piece I decided I would not use the piece above but the original image where there are no lines  present,this is because it has a better quality and you are able to see the buildings of the tree and not have to question what is happening and if it is effective. To make this piece more effective I should have blurred the house to the tree and make a stronger area of cohesion and perhaps also make the tones darker as this would be more suiting to the other images.I do not think the surrealism is as accurate to a real life scenario as the previous image but can still be seen without questioning.

Thirdly this is a lot more abstract.This could be seen as effective or too much editing,but I do think again it present my themes in a different light overall.It could be slightly repetitive as just flipping the image is not the most in depth editing I could have done although i do think i was enhanced with the light I drew over the top with a slow shutter speed exposure,despite some sections with the previous background.

final response:

Overall I think that all my images work well together and still do show the themes of nature molding with industrial buildings. Although some could have been further edited but the simplicity of some of them still creates the same overall effect.

 

Mock Exam Final Piece

For my mock exam final piece I will be using this photograph:

I plan to divide the photograph into 8 equal A5 sections and then use these 8 different photographs to create one big photograph as shown below. This will hopefully emphasise the size of the subject in the photograph and therefore create a more dramatic and impressive photograph.

Final Ideas/Presentation

In my final piece I started by taping all of the smaller photographs together to make the full photograph. I then started to experiment different ways to present the photograph in a 3D form by using the creases between the smaller photographs.

In the below ideas I have folded the photograph in different ways in order to find which would be most successful. I looked at making it into a sculpture image in which you would have to walk around to see the whole photograph.

 

I decided to present the photograph as below; the middle two quarters are flat and the first and fourth quarters are folded forward to be closer to the viewer. I stuck the photograph onto foam board using three different pieces to create the 3D photograph. If I was to repeat this project I would try to create the photograph on a larger scale by printing it off myself and then attempt to make a more intricate presentation.

Final piece – planning for mock exam

I am going to edit my final images on photoshop and print the out in various sizes, I will then frame them or mount them of foam board. this will help the photos stand out on their own and as the photos are already quite detailed a simple frame will help this stand out and not over complicate them.

I also want to experiment with my editing and try to display them in a more interesting way.

I will then frame both the image with a beveled edge on poster black poster board. I will print a variety of images and try different combinations of black and white urban images and coloured natural image to see what looks best.

with my other photos which are being printed i will display them by either backing them on foam board or creating a frame.

I will print this image out in A3 because I think it is a striking image and will stand out and show its details in the background better as a larger print. I want to to either mount this image on white foam board of frame it in white. the white boarder will help the writing pop and stand out oven more. This image does not fit in with my most recent artist study however I think it sums up some of the new skills and styles I have learned whilst doing this landscape project. For this reason I am choosing to present this image on its own.

My A4 print will be my edit inspired by Merve Ozaslan’s work, I combined two photos that I took to create a collage which shows an urban and natural environment in one image. I will back this image on white foam board with a thin boarder to help the highlights on the image stand out.

These two images will be printed on A5 and displayed as a pair. both of these images were edited from one old image which I then replaced the sea in the image with a new photo I had taken. The idea behind this collage is to show the balance and contrast between the natural elements.

 

Final Presentation Ideas

When presenting my imagery I wanted to experiment ways of which I could visually present my images differently to the standard style. A way in which I could do this was through Photoshop where I could manipulate images into the style of presentation I desired. Before I got to this stage however I thought it was necessary to come up with a mood board on my ideas regarding the presentation of the final pieces, this was my result:After looking over these images I decided I should trial run a few of them by manipulating the photos within Photoshop to get the effect needed. I Ideas I settled on were 3D presentation of the landscape and objects due to how through this method it allowed me to choose the focus of interest I wished the view to focus on, whilst creating a more realistic and abstract result. The second idea was the simple image between two black sheet with a white border, I chose this one because I loved the simplicity of the outcome as I thought it emphasized and complimented the entire piece.

I firstly focused on the 3D design with this being my desired effect:To create this I stitched images of building I had taken together, with me adding edges digitally it made the 3D effect I wanted, this was my outcome:

Whilst making this design I found that by adding a shadow to the piece created the effect as if it was mounted upon a wall, emphasizing the 3D aspects even more.

Once completed I moved onto the design of a plain black mounted image to present my images in. To do this I used simple shapes to create the imagery adding texture to them by using overlay, this was my result:

Image result for Diagram of framing a pictureWhen editing the images I found that when displayed together the pieces looked more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. This allowed me to come to the conclusion that I would display three of the images together to created this effect.

Contextual/Conceptual Study

Joan Fontcuberta – Artist Research

Joan Fontcuberta, who was born in 1955. He is also a teacher, editor, curator and writer. He received a communication’s degree from Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1977. In his early years of career, he worked in the field of advertising just like his family. Between 1979 and 1986, he taught at the University of Barcelona in the Fine Arts department.

An exhibition by Joan Fontcuberta, titled Through the Looking Glass in association with Digital Nights, involved internet resources (Reflectograms and Googlegrams). These pieces of works aim to reflect the significance of the rise in use of images, the potential of viral distribution and broadcast, as well as artists’ proliferation.

Source

Landscapes Without Memory

The series is deceptive; these aren’t photographs but computer-generated images created by software renderers that are designed to produce 3D images based on cartographic data. Fontcuberta decided to explore the possibilities of the technology by feeding it misinformation: instead of giving it a map to read, he fed it the visual data contained in famous paintings or pictures of different parts of his anatomy. The results are these “landscapes without memory.

Final Images and Presentation Ideas

For this image I decided to print the image to the scale of A3 size, I want to sick this image onto a white foam board as I wanted to have decided to present this image by its self as I feel that this is the strongest image out of my final selection.

I have decided to present these image together on the same white foam board as the I feel that they do not fit with the other images but when they are put together complement each other very nicely, I have printed these to images to A4 size.

With this final image I decided to print it off at A4 size. I  plan to stick it onto a white foam board and then to stick this onto a black board to highlight the levels of contrast.

Experimentation Of Different Layouts 

Final Layout Choice

decided to change the layout of the image from being on separate pieces and card and foam, I decided to present all if the images on a white piece of card as it would be more effective as the images all fit into the same series. I placed the A3 image in the center of the card as I feel that this is the strongest image out of my final selection.  

Night Photography

Artist Research – Edgar Martins

Edgar Martins (born 1977, Évora, Portugal) grew up in Macau, moving to London in 1996, where he completed an MA in Photography and Fine Arts at the Royal College of Art.
Landscape, place, space, and architecture have established themselves as the predominant themes in Martins’ photographic imagery. Martins uses photography to develop a philosophical, quasi-scientific investigation, examining various minimalist concepts of the contemporary urban landscape. Moving between the factual and fictional, between the concrete and the metaphorical, the artist operates within a landscape of uncertainty, permanent flux, transition and opposition.

My Contact Sheets

Edited Pieces Selected From Above Photographs

 

Joan Fontcuberta

One of Spain's most prominent and innovative artists, Joan Fontcuberta is best known for exploring the interstices between art, science, and illusion. Where science reaches its limits in his works, the imagination frequently finds a creative space in which to flourish. In Landscapes without Memory, Fontcuberta has co-opted a piece of computer software originally designed for military or scientific use in rendering three-dimensional images of landscapes. The software enables the user to build photo-realistic models based on information scanned from two-dimensional sources—usually satellite surveys or cartographic data. The result gives the user the illusion of navigating in three dimensions which had previously been visualized only as a flat image.Fontcuberta feeds the software fragments of pictures by Turner, Cézanne, Dalí, Stieglitz, Weston, and others, forcing the program to interpret a variety of landscape masterworks as "real." The contours and tones of these painted and photographic landscapes are transformed into three-dimensional mountains, rivers, valleys, and clouds.

My edits using my own images