Clare Rae X Claude Cahun

Both these images caught my eye when at the exhibition but both for different reasons. Clare’s work all had her in it as the focal point but the positions she took up didn’t overpower the photos they blended in with the surrounding well and even though some of the positions looked uncomfortable they created a delicate feel to the photo, like in the one below. Her clothes also add to this they where clearly thought out, in the photo above she wears a mid-length skirt which adds to the modesty of the photo and how she doesn’t want to be spotted she wants to blend in with her surrounding  and not stand out. Whereas I feel the opposite with some of Claude’s work, as she dresses up very boldly to make a statement, but in the photo below I felt differently because her naked body seemed to fit perfectly with the surroundings. The low position meant she could become closer to her surroundings creating a more natural pose. The seaweed wrapped around her is a subtle but genius addition to the photo, it’s as if the water is trying to grab onto her and bring her closer. Even though being naked isn’t subtle, to me it feels delicate and it’s our natural state, so it matches the natural state of the rocks and the sand. Cahun is well known for exploring the world of gender within her work, I feel that Rae has also emphasized that in her work. The two photos above both exhibit a great deal of gender confusion as the people in the photos could be either male or female. Both positions show a lack of control over themselves and how they can’t move a certain way, they are who they are, and they can’t do anything about it, they are stuck that way. Also, the fact that neither of their faces are showing expresses how you can’t define gender by a certain look, facial features don’t have anything to do with your gender, you make your gender, your looks don’t define you. 

Clare Rae
Claude Cahun

Paper Photography

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

This is my favorite image from the shoot with the paper.

Technical:

Lighting – The photo was taken with flash the try and highlight the contrast between the white paper and black card.

Aperture – The aperture was F3 so a medium amount of light was being let into the camera.

Shutter Speed – Was around 1/15 of a second which gave the top photo in particular a slight blur. An improvement would be to maybe use a faster speed of 1/250 or use manual focus.

ISO – The ISO was around 800.

White Balance – The temperature and warmth was turned up when editing to give the paper a worn effect as if it had been left for some time and been used. The white balance was also turned up to help the paper stand out.

Visual: 

The texture of this image has been greatly heightened to over exaggerate the crumples in the paper. I used the warmth tool to increase the worn look on the paper to make it look like it had been used or is old.

Conceptual:

The idea behind this work and image was to capture a raw and simplistic picture that can still be powerful and emphasize how such common items such as a crumpled piece of paper can be captured in unique and diverse ways, showing how photography can create a virtual presence of something so plain.

 

Experimenting with Paper

Martin Creed

Martin Creed

Martin Creed (born 1968) is a British artist and musician.  He won the Turner Prize in 2001 for exhibitions during the preceding year, with the jury praising his audacity for exhibiting a single installation, Work No. 227: The lights going on and off, in the Turner Prize show.  Creed lives and works in London. 

For this experimentation with Paper I focused on the artist Martin Creed.  Creed is looking at a sense of possibility.  He is experimenting with the shape of the ball and also into the creases that can be made onto the paper as shadows and lines.

My aim was to use Martin Creed as inspiration to produce my own set of photographs from and experimental photoshoot.  This included experimenting with the different positions of the paper and where in frame it sat but also what effects I could create with the creases in the paper and also different paper textures such as plain white paper and also tracing paper.

 

Contact Sheet of Own Experimenting

I have done experiments with the angles I have taken of the paper and how I have positioned the different sheets to form one image to create different compositions.  I have tried to experiment with the different traps of light between the creases of the paper to create different tones in the final photographs.

I often used the flash when creating my photographs, I did this to experiment with the amount of light I could hold and experiment with to see different outcomes of tone and exposure as I photographed the paper.

Final Chosen Photograph

Unedited
Final Edited