Daily Archives: January 30, 2019

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AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity FINAL PIECES + analysis

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This is the first image, in my somewhat series, of 5 final pieces. I chose to use this image as Katie is looking directly at the camera, however her facial expressions are not happy. I’ve chosen the phrase ‘I was only 8’ as my story started when I was 8 years old, and what I experienced shaped my identity into the person that I am today, 9 years later.

I took inspiration from Krugers editing but the ‘secrets’ told in Rosenfields ‘What I Be’ project. I personally feel this looked, visibly very effective because although the text automatically catches attention, the black and white image is also so strong and consequently very eye-catching.

In my second image I touched on how bullying/verbal/emotional abuse caused a loss of identity, and some of the questions that we ask ourselves when we do experience this.

who am i? 

what am i doing?

I broke some of the words up into separate boxes for separate letters, Kruger did this in one of her images and I thought it was interesting, I think it brings a lot of emphasis to individual ‘significant’ words.

In this image I’ve put the text ‘INVISIBLE WOUNDS’ across Katie’s eyes, I’ve done this because if something is invisible, you cannot see it, around Katie I’ve stated some of the serious effects that can be caused by these issues alongside the loss of a persons sense of self.

This final image is personally my favourite as even though it’s extremely personal to me, it does raise awareness on the issues that children and teens can involuntarily be forced to face, and all of these ‘invisible wounds’ are heavily stigmatised, causing young people to stay silent.

For this final edit I have chosen to use a photo of Katie at ‘the Bridge’. The Bridge is somewhere where children & families can access support, I thought this was appropriate for this image as in my text, I have listed places that young people can approach for help and support.

I thought that this was important to have incorporated somewhere in my finals because, not only do these issues usually require help, my story involved all of these people – another personal touch to my ‘identity’.

My final, final piece represented recovery and moving on.

In this edit I’d used the history tool to bring Katie back to colour, I did this because colour is often associated with happiness, where as black and white images are usually seen as depressing and sad.

I’ve written about what recovery can bring a person, for example; happiness, confidence and self-belief or self-worth. I’ve also written ‘tackling the stigma’ larger than the rest at the bottom of the image, this is because I feel that through my images I have tackled stigma.

Uncategorized

Research- 2019 mock

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Who is Francesca Stern Woodman?

Francesca Stern Woodman born on the 3rd of April 1958 was an American photographer and best known for her black and white images.

Francesca was born in Denver, Colorado. her Jewish mother names Betty Woodman and her father from a Protestant background, George Woodman who were also both artists. Woodman also had a brother who grew up to become a professor of electronic art. overall Woodman had a fairly creative and artistic family.  From the age of 13 is where Woodman really learnt her love for photography whilst attending a public school in Colorado, whilst she wasn’t in Italy with her family. Moving on to high school in 1972 where she attended Abbot Academy. This is when she concentrated on developing he skills and overall perspective on photography and graduated in 1975. After her excellent performance at her middle school she was then able to go on to attended Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode.  In 1977 she studied in Italy as part of a honors program. Graduating in 1978. In 1979 Woodman decided to more to New York to ”make a career in photography”. Woodman worked hard for a long period of time sending of portfolios to anyone that would have a look and consider them. however still in 1980, woodman had not yet been successful. This was Woodman’s lowest time as that same year she attempted suicide and after recovery moved to live with her family in Manhattan, where she could rebuild herself- well that what her parents thought. soon to be proved wrong when on January 1981 Woodman jumped out of a loft of a building and died at the age of twenty-two.

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Image result for francesca woodman

Visual:

Francesca Woodman’s images are always portrayed with such a strong once looking at them. In this image you see an empty room which some what looks dirty with the walls being marked. The room gives off a cold feeling and lonely feeling with the image of the woman, doing what looks like reaching down to the floor. However her whole figure is distorted and blurred so you are unable to see any feature of her body or face. Although her shoes are still in fair quality this will be down to the fact she hadn’t yet moved when the photo was being taken. By being able to see her shoes it implies a woman is being photographed due to the high heels that are worn. The woman is positioned to the left of the image and what feels fairly manipulated to be presented as far away from the camera right up near the wall.

Technical:

In this image there is a clear representation of shadows being produced this could have been effected by natural daylight shining in through the window. The main focus of the image is the woman who is located on the fair left and positioned far back at the wall from the camera. It’s clear that for this image to have the appearance it does the camera must have had an extremely low shutter speed in order to create the blurriness of the figures movement. To me this image is displaying a mixture of texture with the wall and floor almost feeling gritty and unsmooth compared to the figure who is over ‘’smooth’’ in the sense that there are no lines or clear outline to the woman creating a distorted feeling to the image.

Conceptual:

How does this image make you feel? The image present the feeling of loneliness this is represented through the feeling of the rustic empty and oversized room. With then only one distorted figure cramped in the order. Her movement almost like she’s trying to break out from that corner and start to spread out. The blurred figure gives the feeling of rushing that she was moving fast, possibly wanting to get away from something- the loneliness?

Contextual:

From research it is clear that Francesca Woodman ad a hard and what she felt dark. With loving photography so much and no one else appreciating it like she did. The idea of the loneliness in this image could be portrayed as Woodman emotions of her own work the idea that she was alone with no one else to look and view her work.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas

Identity & Place Editing (MOCK EXAM)

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first edit:

First I started by increasing the brightness of the original image to +20 and the contrast to +25. I thought this may give me more control over the darker and lighter areas when I came to adjust the threshold.

I then used the threshold option to turn the image into a heavily contrasted black and white photograph – inspired by Kruger.

A lot of parts of this image were black, and so I attempted to use the exposure settings to try and change this. I changed the gamma correction to 9.99, which was the lowest.

I then played a bit with the curves to see if I could lighten anything to bring out some detail, this was totally trial and error.

I finished by adding text, and the red border.

another edit:

I began editing this piece by using threshold, I tried to use the amount where you were still able to see detail on the wall and the trees behind Katie.

As this image was a lot happier, I did want some colour, and so I then used the ‘history tool’ which enables you to ‘colour’ things in to rewind them to their unedited, original state.

AO1 Develop Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Isabella Madrid

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Isabella Madrid was born in Pereira, Columbia. At the age of twelve, she began to feel a void in her life until her father gave her the first camera at thirteen and she discovered photography. Her style is simple, candid and introspective. She has a love for post production and knows the incredible things that can be achieved from a photograph. Inspiration comes to her from the most unexpected places and people. She also finds it within herself, in her feelings, in the human body, in light and nature. Her artistic photography is mainly self portraits. Therefore, her whole creative process is very personal and aimed for self discovery. She does all the editing on photoshop and likes to experiment with textures, mixing digital painting with photos, with colours, with light, with black and white. Her creative work mainly happens in her own room. A place where she can be herself without any concerns.

ANALYSIS OF IMAGE

This image is a self portrait of the photographer holding two paintbrushes towards her face. One is towards her mouth and the other is near her right eye. This image relates to ‘loss of identity’ since the edit shows that her face is a blank canvas. The two paintbrushes are painting her facial features and creating a false identity for her. When responding to Isabella Madrid’s work I will create edits that convey the theme ‘lack of identity’ just like she does through photoshop manipulation.

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity: Photo-shoot 1 Final Selections

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Below is a gallery of the final images i selected fro  the contact sheets of my first photo-shoot:

In order to take inspiration from Murtha’s style of photography as well as her concept, I edited each image so that they followed her black and white coloring, and made a range of other edits in order to alter and enhance each image, the following images are the results:

The above gallery displays the images after the editing process. Some involved more editing than simply changing the color of the image.

The above image involved editing 3 different images together, in order to give the appearance that the cardigans in the background are floating on their own. This was done as a representation of loss, as both cardigans appear to belong to the generation before (grandparents). This editing was done in Photoshop using the following process:

I used the quick selection tool in photo-shop to select the cardigan separately from the background, and pasted this selection into the other image, therefore merging the 2 images. The same process was used for the second sweater.

Editing was also used to create different effects on my photographs, such as the following:

In order to create the final image from the above photograph, I used photo-shop and lowered the opacity of the eraser tool, and using different layers, created 3 versions of the subject, each one slightly more erased than the last:

The final image (below) takes inspiration from Murtha’s work through the color scheme and documentary style photography, while also keeping with the theme of the identity project (showing the development and change of a child as they grow and, literally, move forward)

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO2 Explore Ideas, AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Unit 2 Portrait

Final Portrait Photoshoot 1 + Image editing Ideas

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Action Plan

For my final photo shoot, I decided to feature myself as the main subject of the photographs and took photos in my garden and on my local beach where I have grown up playing football and socializing.  I Then met up with a friend in town and used him as a subject afterwards. We simply walked around the backstreet areas to capture images. I mainly focused on using available light sources such as shop fronts and Street lights however, in some scenarios I used my camera flash

In order for the first half of this shoot to take place, I had to take the photos from a distance. I therefore downloaded the Nikon Snap bridge app, Which allowed me to set timers and take photos directly from my phone via Bluetooth connection. I also used a tripod in order to hold the camera at a suitable height and to get a very stable, focused image. For the second half of the shoot, I simply held my camera and shot from different angles. I preferred this approach more as even though I captured more blurred images, I had more of a free range of movement with the camera and I was able to capture angles that a tripod simply wouldn’t allow me to

Below is a contact sheet from the shoot. overall, The night I chose to shoot on was a very stormy night, So a lot of my images contain a lot of noise and blurring. I have however, looked over all of the images to see if I can make anything out of the negative images due to the nature of my chosen area,  Fortunately I have been able to identify a few which can have some potential further down the line due to their composition obscuring the subjects identity

Contact Sheet

This is the contact sheet of my narrowed down images.

With the help of this contact sheet, I have been able to select images that I feel stand out for numerous reasons. Below are some of these images and my thoughts on them.

Image 1

I like this image due to the clarity of the subjects face. The solid purple background helps the neutral colors of skin tone and the subjects jacket stand out, Essentially drawing all of our focus onto the subjects profile and facial features. The image does need some cropping at the edges in order to ensure our entire focus is on the subject and not the garage door at the sides and top left of the image.

Image 2

I also particularly like this image. The photo was taken using a tripod and as a result of the environment, The tripod was on a slope explaining the angle of the image. This can easily be corrected using free transform in Photoshop. I like the composition of the images color due to my outfit consisting of neutral colors, similar to that of the breakwater I am propped up against, as well as the bright white color of my shoes standing out among these darker, neutral colors.

Image 3

This is also another personal favorite out of all my Images. I decided to utilize the lighting from a red LED shop window display. I asked my subject to step into the light and the result was an effect similar to chiaroscuro, with half of the subjects face being illuminated and the other half being left out of the light and in the shadows.

Editing Techniques

For my project, i have decided to focus on the idea of obscuring identity.I have decided that I will achieve this process through multiple editing techniques, exploring ideas of digital editing methods like pixelating, Blurring as well as physical methods such as taping and tearing. Here are a few demonstrations of my chosen methods demonstrated below.

Pixelating

This method is essentially using a filter from the filter gallery.  Firstly,  I have cropped the image down to remove the unwanted garage doors on the sides of the Image. I have then drawn around the subjects face  with the lasso tool, as this is the feature I wish to select for pixelization and Created a new layer out of it with the CTRL+J Function. I have decided to leave a bit of space around the face in order for the outermost pixels to fade into the background rather than towards the edge of the face, as this will also contort the face shape of the subject more if I do this and, arguably , The subjects face shape is quite a noticeable feature.

In the filter bar at the top of the screen, I have gone down to the pixelate function and selected mosaic, as this is a style of pixelation that truly represents the style I wish to Achieve

I have then set the Pixel square size to 70. This is not a set size and will vary from image to image dependent upon the composition of the element I wish to pixelate

Here is the final outcome of this process in the editing stage. As you can see, the majority of facial features are distorted but from analyzing this image, I have decided that In future I may enlarge the pixels in order to further obscure the identity of the subject and break up facial features further.

Blurring

I have decided to also incorporate features of blurring within this project. I will be focusing my work around 2 different types of blurring- Motion and box blurring, Motion blurring is a type of blurring that can occur naturally within an image by either moving the camera when taking a photo, Or photographing something moving with a low shutter speed. For my project, I simply just like the motion blur aesthetic so I will apply it through the motion blur filter interface.

I have repeated the first few steps from pixelation in the sense of isolating the area I wish to blur (The subjects face). I have then selected motion blur from the filter drop down and set the angle at 21 degrees, Meaning the blur is going across the subjects face horizontally and slightly vertically. The blur distance has been set at 169 pixels, As I find it matches the aesthetic I am trying to capture.

Here is my final outcome for the motion blurring. In other images, i may choose to blur the subjects whole body to give off a sense of movement which could portray ideas of a hatred of the subjects own identity or an element of being camera shy

Box blurring is a process that follows roughly the same procedure as all of the above editing techniques, However for this feature, I have decided I want to keep the subjects facial shape the same and instead, blur only the face in order to create a feeling of a lost identity rather than the need to conceal it.

I have selected the subjects face with the lasso tool and from that, created a new layer. I have then applied the box blur filter with a radius of 56 pixels.

I like the effect that is given off by this process, However I feel that the eyes and eyebrows are still very noticeable, So I have therefore decided that desaturating both the layer and the background can help to Hide this. By removing the color of the subjects face, He is now barely recognisable.

Here is the final edit for this process

Straight away you are drawn into the obscured features of the participants face, Features are recognizable such as the nose,mouth and eyes, yet they are obscured to the point where it is practically impossible to identify the subject behind the edit

Unit 2 Portrait

Final Outcomes & Explanations (MOCK EXAM)

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These are my final photo-montages in a series of 3, which I have made as a response to the ‘Identity and Place’ stimulus.

The method I used to create these was first finding all these photos and taking some more recent ones. Next I photographed all the photos using my phone and transferred them over to my computer where I then printed them all out and began to experiment with what I was ripping/cutting out and where I was going to sew the piece back on. After deciding on what was going to go where, I scrunched up all the photos to make them look torn and then used glue to stick the pieces on. When the glue had dried I then started stitching into the photos with black thread and a needle, in order to make the pieces like patches.

Final Outcomes

This is the first one in the series, and one of the only ones that I only used 2 photos to create. The base picture is a passport photo of my mum from the 70s and the two eyes are from a photo of me, which was taken about a month ago, this age difference contrasts the base photo which is around 40 years old. This can also be seen through the fact the most recent one is better quality, there is less blurring and it is in colour. Whereas the older one is in black and white and the features on the face do have some blurring. This photo-montage was also the only one which I decided to add text to.  I used acrylic red paint in order to paint on the words “I am nobody, who are you?”. I chose to write this as I felt the piece was missing something and the words link in the identity theme. The original creator of this phrase (which has now become a popular saying) was Emily Dickinson. Dickinson was a notable poet, born in 1830-1886. Her poem ‘I am nobody!’ has now become one of her most famous. The poem addresses a feeling of being on the outside, it is about being “us against them”.

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –  
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –  
To an admiring Bog!

Emily Dickinson

The inspiration for the layout of the text came from an artist named Dominic Beyeler. I first saw one of his pieces based on this saying on the Instagram Explore page, and I just thought it looked really interesting and cool, the way he had laid out the text over the persons face, and how it all fit perfectly. Therefore I decided to try it out on my photo-montage as it was lacking something, and I think it turned out really well. The painting could have been neater and more exact however, I feel that a messier look gives the photo-montage more authenticity.

Above is the second photo-montage I made. I used two photos to make this: the black and white one is of my mum and her brother, playing and posing for a photo. This was around the late 60s. I like how both of them seem happy and smiling, it is a breath of fresh air which contrasts some of the more depressing photos which are more common these days. The coloured photo is one from the early 2000s of me and my brother, posing for a school photo together. I thought this was quite a weirdly strange photo-montage as the two photos fit together quite well despite being taken a long time apart. Some parts are almost perfectly matched such as the hands at the bottom. The stitching in this one is also a lot more prominent than the last and there is more of it due to there being more pieces of photos to stitch on. Overall I enjoy the contrasting colours of the two photos and how they match together really well apart from at a few places.

This is my last one in the series. It is solely portraits/passport photos of me and my mum, at different ages in our lives. The base photo is a coloured photo of my mum in her 20/30s. I have layered over the top ripped out features from photos of me. Some of them match well and others don’t, which was the point of what I was doing. The piece of neck/jaw/hair matches almost perfectly with the base photo of my mum, some parts are a bit off because of the sizing of the photos but I think that this makes the finish product look more interesting and cool to look at when the pieces don’t match up. The addition of an extra eye also makes the portrait even less ordinary.

AO3 Record Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Component 2 ESA, Unit 2 Portrait

Identity and Place – Practical

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Contact Sheet:

Final images:

Edited in: Photoshop + Lightroom

For this image I wanted to show a confusion and inevitable lack of identity, I did this by using multiple exposures in Photoshop and then using a large eraser (2500 px or so) with around a 20-35% brush hardness. Along with this, I used different opacity levels for many of the different layers, to make the image seem almost dream-like or as if it was happening inside the head of the subject, with the intention of the face furthest to the left to have different personalities or emotions. I wanted the image to have a different look than most other portraits in plain white/yellow light, and the pink hue added by the neon sign only adds to the image as it helps it look slightly unnatural/artificial.  There were a total of 9 different images used to add depth into the many faces, along with most of them using layer masks and using gradients to eliminate the edges, and then if an image was moved up or down, I used the eraser to eliminate any hard lines from either the top or bottom of the image.

Edited in: Photoshop

While I originally played around with the idea of digitally erasing parts of a subject like the mouth and eyes, however I found that this didn’t work in the way that I wanted it to, so I decided to use the lasso tool instead. For this image I used the Polygonal Lasso tool in Photoshop to select areas of the subjects face, then copied these areas and pasted them back into the image as a new layer, I did this several times on many different areas of the face as you can see above. I wanted to make the subject seem like a broken mirror, hence all of the layers are triangular and, for the most part, facing inwards like a smashed mirror. I did this to show the feeling of not knowing who you really are, similar to the first image, but this one is more about all of the ways we represent ourselves depending on who we are around, and how at a certain point you lose yourself when trying to put on these different faces for other people. To me, this image represents being lost and not really knowing who you, because you are trying to act differently around different people in your life, where as the first image represents a more internal struggle, and lack of identity because of focusing on too many things inside your own head.

Unsuccessful Images

Edited in: Photoshop

I also experimented with the idea of using mirrors but personally don’t really like how it turned out. I think that this idea could have worked better if I had found a larger, more open space, so you could see the depth of the image. I also think a different mirror would have enhanced the image as from this angle the mirror used doesn’t have and large edges; meaning it doesn’t look as much like a mirror compared to Laura Williams’ work, on which this image is based.

AO1 Develop Ideas, AO4 Present Ideas, Uncategorized, Unit 2 Portrait

Sculpture For my final exam images

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Sculpture to help with the image blending

For my final images I have created a sculpture that should inventory help make my I  mages have more depth and interest.  This sculpture is made from broken wood bringing in this running theme of industrialization and how everything is getting refurbished and we just have all this left over building materials.  My intentions for this sculpture that it was meant to reflect a head and  have the shape so that it will blend effortlessly into my images.  This wooden shape will also show the confusion of industrialization tho humans and how in effects key feature of there life such as there identity's and place of origin. The sculpture was made using off cuts of wood glues together with a hot glue gun. The sculpture is about the relative size of a head so should create a realist blend. I am thinking of blending a combination of these images to together with one image of a face  to show how mentally changeling change can be to a persons identity of there residence ( where they live). I also really like the idea of combining different kinds of media e.g sculptural and pictures I feel like it creates depth and a more interesting story to the photo because you can look at the image and see the whole work process behind it. Also adding a different rages of media lets be be more creative and it then can show through my final images.   

The artists work that I took inspiration for this work from was  Henry Moors work is all made from wood and created human forms through his work.
As a young artist, Moore was attracted to the principles of ‘direct carving’ and ‘truth to material’ which had inspired the great pioneers of modern sculpture, who in turn had been influenced by the work of masters from ancient civilizations on view in ethnographic displays across Europe. In his early career Moore adopted these principles uncompromisingly, creating quite experimental and innovative work in materials ranging from indigenous stones to exotic woods, a choice which declared his distance from the use of white marble typical of a tradition he was keen to reject.

After the Second World War Moore softened his position, to reflect his new belief that it was the idea, rather than the technique, that really mattered in art. Yet, while for many years modelling in plaster or clay and casting in bronze was his preferred method to make new work, he never completely relinquished carving. Having acquired a house near the famous Carrara quarries in Tuscany, from the early 1960s Moore took to work in marble and adopted more universal and timeless subjects, positioning himself within the great tradition of European humanism epitomized by one of his favorite artists, Michelangelo.

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