Since my personal investigation involves manipulating my own archival images, I have decided to scan the photographs and print them so the originals would be kept the same as they are irreplaceable. Although many of the photographs had already been printed out, I also found several CDs storing images of places I used to live and go on holiday. I had never seen the images from the CDs, which caused a realisation that memory does fade away in time. I could not remember the moments these photos were captured, the memories were only restored through looking at these images. Like Carolle Benitah I had to “excavate” through albums, boxes and CDs in order to carry out the process of “order, classification, scanning and printing”.

Below I have planned the different techniques I intend to carry out on my childhood archival images during the Christmas holidays. The only photo-shoots I need to conduct is when I capture self portraits in the style of John Stezaker’s Mask series and Antonio Mora’s dream like portraits. Even these photos need alterations through collages and multi exposure.

Photo-manipulation one: Carolle Benitah

For my first photo-manipulation I plan to use coloured thread and scissors in order to alter my childhood photos to investigate how moving to different country’s has influenced my current identity. I will try to recreate the visual aspects portrayed in her work by including needlework and artistic techniques, whether that may be drawing, painting or cutting. Through these techniques, I want to demonstrate my feelings towards my childhood from my current perspective. I want to portray how grateful I am to have lived in various countries. It has allowed me to gain cultural knowledge, new experiences and memories. By manipulating my archival images, I want to demonstrate how memories slowly fade away in the passage of time. Revisiting my childhood images will help me to recall the moments in which the photographs were taken. The red illustrations will be symbolic of me leaving behind my traces in each country.

Photo-manipulation two: Annegret Soltau

For my second photo-manipulation I would like my archival images to be sewn over or collaged with black thread. I intend to recreate the abstract quality of her work and the geometric patterns which joins features of her face. The thread will help me portray the idea of identity and will act as a metaphor for the instability in my life. I intend to use thread to showcase that movement doesn’t necessarily mean freedom. It’s restricting in the way that you feel out of place, a sense of not feeling like you belong at “home”.

Photo-shoot three: John Stezaker

For my third photo-shoot I intend to create collages by hiding the facial features of black and white portraits with archival images depicting countries I have lived in and their most iconic scenery and architecture. These archive images will overlap my face in order to convey how living in different countries has ultimately shaped my current identity. In the editing process, I will turn the portraits of myself and my parents into black and white while keeping the archival images in colour to replicate his work.

Photo-shoot four: Antonio Mora

For my fourth photo-shoot I will respond to Antonio Mora’s photography work by creating digital collages on photoshop. This will enable me to merge portraits with landscapes and architecture from archival photographs. In order to replicate his style I will capture head shots so in the manipulation process I can focus on altering the area around the head.

https://www.citizenatelier.com/artists-antonio-mora

https://www.mylovt.com

Antonio Mora has been a creative art director since 1995 and has gradually drawn towards the more artistic area of his profession. His work which is personal and evocative are meant to create intense feelings. He has developed a large collection of portraits where dreamworlds are superimposed with reality.

Mora uses techniques to create digital collages using various tools such as filters, hues, saturations and gradients of opacity. This creative process results in photographs being merged together. The tools on photoshop allowed him to dissolve two or more superimposed images in order to obtain results where the human faces are mixed with landscapes and architecture. I would say that his digital collages place his subjects in a strange, mysterious world, halfway between dream and reality. “My originality lies in the fusion, in finding combinations that evoke evocation and mystery. Images that open a crack in our collective memory that allows us to observe the beings that inhabit our deepest dreams.”

He says that his work is inspired by the belief that “art is made to disturb the conscience”. He works with images he finds through the internet, magazines and blogs and fuses them together with his photo manipulation techniques. His seamless way of mixing various concepts together creates a mind tricking illusion for the viewer.

As a response to his work, I will create digital collages on photoshop to blend portraits with landscapes and architecture from archival photographs. Like Mora, I want my work to be surreal in order to create a mysterious world. The portraits will have to be head shots in order to manipulate the region of the face. I selected Mora as one of my references because I want to create digital collages using self portraits in order to demonstrate how living in different countries has ultimately shaped my current identity.

VISUAL: This is a portrait that consists of the natural and unnatural world. The woman’s face has been slightly revealed, creating a mysterious effect to the image. If you look closely you can see cracks in the photo which makes it seem like the image is ageing and about to peel off.  Around the head area you can see arches which appears to be a bridge that has been copied and pasted several times. On the left hand side you can see a cluster of leaves resting in the corner. The reflection of the leaves and the arches can also be seen in the image, seamlessly blending into the woman’s face. You can also see that the smallest arch and its reflection has created a circle which has been replaced for the real eye that has been erased.  Antonio Mora has placed multiple pictures on top of one another and then lowered the opacity to blend all the images together.

COMPOSITION: The focal point in this image is where the eye is supposed to be. The arches have decreased in size the further out it is which captures the viewers attention and makes their eyes follow through the endless tunnel. The contrast in colours is interesting since the lower half is dark and gloomy while the upper half has a tranquil effect through the nature and peaceful landscape.

OPINION: I like how the artist has used nature to replace a large amount of the woman’s face. I think this image is telling us a story about a young woman who is broken which is represented by the cracks. She has a lot going on in her head which is represented by the several arches that circle around her. She appears to be envious which can be seen through the colour imagery of green depicted through the leaves and their reflection.

Luigi Ghirri is an Italian born artist and photographer. Ghirri is considered as a pioneer of contemporary photography. His pictures often feature very baron backgrounds with a starkly contrasting subject. His photography seems to employ abstraction through the use of minimalist forms with little contrast to hide the form of the object. This results in an image with few discernible three dimensional forms, utilizing color blocking to represent forms.

The lighting in the image is very flat and soft. This image is naturally lit however it seems as though it may have been overcast due to the lack of harsh shadows. It appears as thought the image was taken around mid-day as any shadows appear directly beneath the slide. I believe this was done to further abstract the forms within the image. The image appears to have been taken using a high F stop since the whole image is mostly in focus and there appears to be very little vignetting. There appears to be a considerable amount of grain and Gaussian blur in the image which suggests it is either taken on film (also suggested by slight discoloration on the left) or an old digital camera. The image looks rather cold.

The image features very flat tones across the background which is broken up by the strong contrast created by the bright red slide in the foreground. There is some texture created by the small ripples throughout the sand in the foreground. The piece features very strong lines  with a strong emphasis on triangles created by the slide and the small stream of water across the sound. The ripples in the sand create a repeating pattern until they slowly go out of focus as they reach the background.