Black and White images
I chose to edit the photos creating even more of a contrast between light and dark. The black and white images create more of a ghostly effect. The purposeful over and under exposure look more intense and create a more interesting image with a clear focal point in relation to the back ground.
My final outcomes
Image creation process
On Photoshop I went into image - adjustments - the i used the black & white controllers to create the initial flip from color to black and white. Also to create more contrast and over come the distracting background i used the same process but instead of clicking on black and white, i clicked levels then when from the left to right controller until my back ground got to my desired darkness.
I have decided to focus again on studio work because i find it is easy to control the variables that effect my final image out come.
When using a full studio lighting set, I was working on looking at the contrast of light and Dark and over exposure and under exposure. Also how different lights give different effects and meanings behind photos. Also I was looking at creating shadows and trying to make alive shadow with a second figure behind.
This is working on traditional portraits and lighting with a plane white or black back ground. My aim was to draw attention to the faces and make them the focal point of the picture. Worked with different angle making the focal point more to the right or left to offset the image and give it more visual interest and intrigue.
All of these images are playing upon the ideas of light and dark making the image actually contrast itself through the characters. This contrast of light and dark characters plays on the ideology of good and bad. These images are completely unedited, when I edit them I feel like the images are going to be more effective and have more of a visual impact.
Also of these images are playing upon the concepts of doubles and shadows. Looking at using color filters over the Red head/ spot lights. This creates a creepy underwater kind of theme to the image. The last image of this set is my favorite creating a ghostly double exposure feel to the image. This image was not actually a double exposure it was just done with two models and a low sutter speed to create movement with the surrounding outsides of the images while keeping the faces in focus.
These images were taken using a ring light to create a brighter more ghostly light. Where as the soft box lights create more of a over all surrounding light which is warmer and has less of a directed focus. That why I chose to use a ring light because it works more on the light that is already preset and brightening it up . Also the ring light gives more of a crisp bright contract from the background.
Identity is defined as “the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is”. This can be influenced by various factors including geographical or cultural influences. There have been arguments relating to the importance of nature vs. nurture and which has a larger impact on ones identity.
Different Types of Identity in Photography
Gender Identity: This is the idea of using gender to define ones identity. This is an idea often explored by various photographers/ artists such as Lorna Simpson. This work varies from more abstract pieces exploring the idea of gender identity crossing over to loss of identity to ides of empowerment in her work.
Cultural Identity: This is the idea of exploring culture and how it affects a persons identity. this can range from exploring how various cultures are portrayed/ stereotyped as well as being used to give a better insight into the reality of their culture. This has been explored by artists such as Paul Sepuya.
Social Identity: Social identity relates to the idea that a person can be the surrounding community, this is the same idea as the ‘nurture’ aspect of nature vs. nurture. This also relates to the idea that social pressure can change someones identity on a fundamental level through peer pressure etc. This has been explored by photographers such as Robert Frank, his work explores the influence of the ideals of their community on ones identity including ideas such as nationalism. However this piece also relates to the idea of Geographical/ political identity.
Loss of/ Lack of identity: This is an idea that someones identity can be stripped from them either by some form of disaster or by social out casting. This is often explored in conjunction with other forms of identity such as some of Lorna Simpsons work. This is an idea also commonly explored using a surrealist approach.
The definition of identity is being who or what a person is. Identity can be influenced by many factors all of which effect peoples identity differently. One of the main factors effecting identity is the place at which people live in, for example. A person brought up in a religious environment means they could have been taught to believe in certain things. This means that their identity has been influenced by someone else and they therefore never had the opportunity to find their own beliefs and become there own person.
Types of identity
Social Identity – the portion of an individual’s self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.
Cultural Identity – the feeling of belonging to a group, and culture is all the aspects that make up the way a person lives.
Geographical Identity – an individual’s sense of attachment to the region in which they live or the key characteristics in which a particular region/country associates with.
Lack/Loss of Identity – personal psychological conflict that involves confusion about one’s role in society or the sense of loss in a community.
Gender Identity – a person’s perception of their own or other people’s roles based on their gender.
Identity and place mood board
Exploring different types of identity
Gender identity– A photographer called Simpson explored gender identity in photographs.
Cultural and national identity/ gender identity- A photographer named Paul Sepuya explored these identity in his photography.
Geographical, political and social identity- Rineke Dijksra explored these identities through her photography.
Gender identity- Sarah Maple was well known for her gender identity images.
Identity and belonging- This was shown through Francesca Woodman’s work.
Personal identity- Larry Sultan
Social/ community identity- Was explored in John Bulmer’s work
Social and class identity– Was shown in Robert Frank’s work
My thoughts on identity and place are very mixed. I am very drawn to the topic of ‘loss of identity’ due to it being a very relatable topic for many people. I am going to therefore be using this topic to express clear points about loss which will be done through the adobe Photoshop app.
In order to understand more about photo montages, i created multiple montages using adobe Photoshop. When creating my montages i used Eugenia Loli as a inspiration for my images as i though her photo montages were very unique ( separate page on her work).
In this experiment i wanted to create a piece which was similar to Eugenia Loli’s. I liked the overall concept stylistic approach that she created and in order to create the same stylistic picture i used a layering technique. I kept my image very colorful just like Loli’s as it gives a child like look to the image which i quite like. I used the galaxy background as my first layer which i didn’t edit at all. My second layer was the man in the image which i edited out of the original image by using the cut out tool. This tool cut around the man in the picture so that i was able to drag this section out of the picture to layer one. Once the man was placed how i wanted it on layer one i then focused on layer three where i used the same technique to cut the blue hand out of an image. The blue hand originally came from the artist Steven Spangler who i had gained inspiration from in the past and i though that this image would be a good fit for the theme i was creating. My other aim for using the layering technique was to create a noticeable 3D technique which is successfully did. My final step of this montage what editing the brighness to higher than it originally was which has made the image stand out more. I am overall very happy with how this turned out.
In my response to John Stezaker, i decided to create my own photo montage. First of all i used a picture off the internet of two people in offices which i then edited using Photoshop. When editing this image, i created a layer each for the fire explosions. I then cropped each original picture to the part of the fire i wanted and used the ‘move’ tool to move the layer to layer 1 ( office layer). Using the ‘brush’ tool, i then made the fire into head shapes. My reasoning for making their heads into fire explosions is due to that being the mind set that they have. Their heads act as the disaster which they are putting into the world. This photo montage is used to express my negative viewpoints towards the government and the way that their minds cause our misery. As seen their is a similarity between mine and Stezaker’s work as we both edited different images onto people faces.
Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and/or expressions that make a person or group.
A persons identity is defined as the totality of one’s self-construal, in which how one construes oneself in the present expresses the continuity between how one construes oneself as one was in the past and how one construes oneself as one one aspires to be in the future. This allows for definitions of aspects of identity.
Gender identity forms an important part in identity, as it dictates to a significant degree on how one views oneself both as a person and in relation to other people, ideas and nature. There are many stigmas and stereotypes in Gender identities, these include how society expect men and women to behave on an account of their gender. The different stereotypes on women are; dressing in a typically feminine way, speaking clearly and politely, that they should be accommodating and nurturing. Whereas men should be big, butch, strong, aggressive and very bold.
Cultural Identity is the identity of belonging to a group. It is part of a person’s self-conception and self-perception and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation and locality. In this way cultural identity is both characteristic of the individual but also of the culturally identical group of members sharing the same cultural identity or upbringing. This can be shown by having people from the same race, ethnic or religious group in a photo together showing people from the same background together. You could even have people from different upbringings and ethnic backgrounds together, this would show how we can make our own identity and not stick to the stereotypical group society has made for us.
Social Identity is the portion of an individual’s self-concept derived from perceiving membership in a relevant social group. As originally formulated by social psychologists. It is a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership. These proposed groups are Social class, family, friendship groups and sport teams etc…. which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. This can be shown by having a photo of a person stood out with a group of their group, this can be done be making their outline bold or by even singling them out by blurring out the frame from around them.
Loss/lack of identity can emerge if one is taken from a group or situation which one ha belong to for a while or if one has a strong bond with someone from that group. When we lose our identity we lose a sense of self, we are then likely to seek our sense or self-worth from someone else. In photography loss of self is easy to show by blurring out a persons face or blurring/ridding a person of a facial feature showing they have a lost a part of themselves, making them incomplete.
Laia Abril was born in 19986 in Barcelona, Spain. Abril (since 2010) has been working on various projects revolving around the themes of Loss and memory, Eating Disorders and Body Image. She made a short film about a young girl struggling with bulimia (Thinspiration) and The Epilogue, documenting the indirect victims of eating disorders, through the story of the Robinson family and the aftermath of the death of Cammy Robinson to bulimia. Another thing that Abril focuses on is the hidden realities related to sexuality and gender equality.
I feel positive about the issues that Abril talks about and displays using her photographs, as it is in a dead mans territory, this is because it is an ongoing issue that will affect most of our lives but no one will speak about it. Labeling these issues gives people the confidence to talk about and seek advice for these things. Whilst most of her photos seem in poor taste and can upset people they are a real issue that brings the most appalling negativity in peoples lives.
These photos produced by Laia Abril show both issues of body image and eating disorders and sexuality.
She decided to focus her projects in telling intimate stories which raises uneasy realities related with femininity. In the photo above she is showing her work on her project on the young lesbian community in Brooklyn.
Photomontage is a combination of several shots joined together for artistic effect or to show more of the subject than can be shown in a single artwork. Images were composed by cutting, gluing, arranging and overlapping two or more photos or reproductions of photos together, sometimes in combination with other non-photographic material such as text or other abstract shapes.
Photomontages vary a lot in style and design. Artists choose to use a multitude of subjects such as portraits, natural environments, natural landscapes, city landscapes and different objects which are combined together for artistic effect.
MIND MAP:
When looking at the search results which come from searching “photomontage”, there are 4 main themes which typically come up. Therefore I separated my mind map into 4 sections, environmental, landscape, city-scapes, and portraiture.
JESSE DAXLER:
The artists work which intrigued me most when researching the topic of photo montages was Jesse Daxler, a photographer which uses portraiture in order to create her art work.
Jesse Draxler is an American artist, born in 1981 in Wisconsin. He lives and works in Los Angeles. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. The artist has a mixed approach: he does collages, but also texts or animated portraits in GIF. The central theme of his work is to transform and twist the original image, and turn it into something else. Mainly known for his collages, they often have sexual connotations, a visual impact and an attractive aesthetic, willing to shake up, or even disturb the spectator. Jesse Draxler likes deconstructing the classic idea of beauty and therefore paint Greek statues with spray paint, spilling ink on a fashion photo or cutting parts of human bodies. The artist makes hand-made collages, with the desire to make the spectator wonder if something is hidden under the surface. Jesse Draxler’s work was recently exhibited during solo exhibitions at Booth Gallery in New York (2016) and during collective exhibitions at The Unit in London(2015). Jesse Draxler also works with magazines, brands and designers. Among his clients are New York Times, Alexander McQueen, The Black Queen, or even Prince.
JESSE DRAXLER: “It’s a scientific exploration of what our knowledge of mortality does to our psyche. Basically, it says that everything we do in life, on every level, is at the core influenced by the idea that we’re going to die someday. It’s something that I’ve researched a lot, but I had never found a scientific exploration of it. It’s always an emotive or philosophical way of writing, so a scientific exploration was really refreshing—straight facts and research. I first came across it midsummer last year. My friend Greg Puciato,from Dillinger Escape Plan, we have a lot in common, so we were exchanging books and he told me to check it out.”
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF WORK:
TECHNICAL –
In terms of the technical aspects of this photo, extremely heavy editing has been used in order to create a very surreal, almost abstract image. Various editing techniques have been used from simple color adjustments, geometric cutting, using the brush tool and smudge tool. The overall image has also been made back and white which remain consistent throughout Draxlers work. It is also very bright and slightly overexposed. He has also chosen to remove a little slice of the background in order to reveal the checkered blank Photoshop document. I believe this image was likely taken in a studio environment judging from the even lighting which hits the face of the model.
VISUAL –
The initial feeling which hits the viewer upon seeing this image is unease. The dark, colored in, black eyes make this image quite unsettling, making us question why this has been done. The tone of black which has been used for the eyes is very dark, making them the focal point of the image, drawing in the viewer. There is a certain sense of juxtaposition in this image with the use of the youthful model, editing the images to become jagged old and unsettling. The correlating themes of this image which come to mind are delusion, possession and evil. I come to this conclusion through the collective visual effect of all the different elements in this image, the edges, juxtaposition, use of grey scale and strong editing. The black and white filter which has been applied to the image dulls out any life in the image, and makes it monochromatic.
The edges of the different layers of the image are quite jagged and uneven, which gives the image a weathered and old feel. The messy hair and black eyes of the model could potentially signify mental illness or other forms of hallucination. The backdrop is white and clean, making the main subject of the image stand out in the foreground. There is no real sense of pattern or symmetry in this image, everything is chaotic and uneven. Draxler has also used negative space in this image to give another layer of depth to the image. The jagged nature of the edges, gives the image a lot of texture. Although being monochromatic, the image is fairly light and bright as Draxler has used white negative space and the clothing of the model is also light in color.
CONCEPTUAL –
All of Draxlers work is composed of a black and white color pallete, commenting, “When I began working exclusively in grey scale is when everything seemed to start to make sense,” says artist and illustrator Jesse Draxler of his dark, brooding style that combines collaged photography and painting, manifesting in large-scale paintings or commissioned illustrations. “It’s as if by freeing my mind from having to think about color I had gained a greater clarity for everything else, like when someone loses a sense their other senses heighten to compensate.” Jesse suspects that his preference for a black and white palette is informed by the fact he’s color blind, or “color deficient” as he calls it. “Though I don’t put too much weight behind just that.”
Jesse Draxler’s pieces are enigmatic explorations of existentialism. The artist tackles ideas of beauty, nihilism, sexuality, and absurdity through deconstructed images that incorporate found photos, abstract painting, and design, and the resulting pieces are dark, monochromatic, and visually challenging.
ACTION PLAN:
WHO – I took very causal images of just one model.In order to retain consistency and have a clearer canvas to work with when editing, the model is not wearing a shirt.
WHAT – I wanted to take as many images as possible in different positions in order to have different layers which I can later add to my photo montage.
WHEN – This was taken during the evening as I used lash photography and wanted there to be a striking contrast between the backdrop and the model.
WHERE – The images were taken indoors.
WHY – The images were taken as the starting material to use for my photo montage later, using different editing techniques in Photoshop in order to create a final product which incorporates artistic intentions and photography.
HOW – I used a dark room and flash photography in order to create the images.
CONTACT SHEETS:
EDITING TECHNIQUES:
When editing this photo montage, I used multiple editing techniques in order to achieve the final product. I started with my base image, cropping it and perfecting the skin of the model in order to have a clean canvas to work with. I used the blur and smudge tool in order to smooth out the skin of the model. I imported another 3 additional images for the layering of the montage. The main tools which I used to cut out the hands and torso of the model was the magic wand, quick selection tool and magnetic lasso. I found the magic wand tool to be very useful as it allowed me to get rid of large areas of background quickly and efficiently. I only used the magnetic lasso tool when the area I was selecting had a clear backdrop, as the tool is very sensitive and catches onto other unnecessary parts easily.
I later on also used the eraser tool to smooth out any rough edges around the arms which were left behind. When arranging the arms, I used a transparent gradient so that they blend well into the skin around it, preventing harsh edges. I adjusted the size and positioning of the different layers so that they fill the surrounding space effectively and blend together seamlessly. I moved different layers around so that the central hands were in the very foreground of the image.
Once this was done, I again used the blur tool to soften the edges of the hair and make them a little less harsh. In the final stages of editing, I added a black and white filter onto the image and increased the contrast. I decreased the ofset in order to deepen the black and create a stronger gradient of black and white.
MY RESPONSE:
AFTER EDITING AND ADJUSTMENTSBEFORE EDITING AND ADJUSTMENTS
EVALUATION:
The overall process of creating this photo montage was fairly easy yet time consuming. The most difficult aspect was finding appropriate images which conveyed some feeling and variation in the facial expression of the model. I also wanted variation in the hand position of the model, as this is what makes the image unique and different. A key aspect of Draxler’s work is the consistent use of grey scale therefore I experimented with the different depths of black and white in the image.
COMPARISON TO KEY PHOTOGRAPHER:
When making my photo collage, this specific photo from Draxler (misophonia) was my main inspiration. The main concept which I was trying to replicate was the duplication of the face of the model in the image. In order to add my own artistic elements and to differentiate my work, I decided not to use the irregular cut out pattern of Draxler. Another element which I used was the strong grey scale filter. I previewed my work without the filter and came to the conclusion that in order to create impact, the filter was needed.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS:
TECHNICAL –
During this photo shoot, the main objective was to create strong contrast between the backdrop and model using flash photography. It proved to be very effective as during the editing process, I could easily use the magic wand tool, lasso, and quick select tool to get rid of the backdrop. Whilst adjusting the light, I increased the exposure and contrast of the image to create dramatic lighting. I did not use any additional equipment such as tripod as I wanted the images to be less staged and more relaxed and casual, making the facial expressions of the model more genuine.
VISUAL –
I think when you first look at the image it is very striking and bold with the highly contrasting black and white, creating a monotone state. The themes which come to mind when looking at this image is worry and stress as expressed by the models face and hand positioning, touching the face and hair. There are many elements and layers involved in the image which create confusion. The hands central in the image have a gesture which pulls the viewer in, a sort of hypnotizing movement that makes them focus in. The straight lines of the edges of the arms, guides the eyes from the bottom of the image to the top where the hands and face are located. The central and right hand face are both looking into different directions which make the viewer question the circumstances of when the image was taken and what exactly the model is looking at. There is a sense of repetition and pattern with the use of the same face with different facial expressions and hand position. The hands of the model take position in the foreground of the image and the face in the mid-ground as they are covered by the hands and are shifted further back.
CONCEPTUAL –
The concept of this whole photo shoot was to be as authentic and relaxed as possible. Prior to the photo shoot, I asked the model what emotion they felt most significantly, tho which the answer was “worry”, therefore this was the theme which I tried to sustain throughout and make it clear in the final product. I chose images which clearly reflect this emotion and could be recognized by the viewer.
CONTEXTUAL –
The purpose of creating photo montages is to create hyper reality. Something which is pasted together to create an art piece which is surreal and fantasy like.
The process of creating a collage photo can be traced back to the first darkroom printing attempts, when photographers experimented with direct contact printing of objects placed on photographic plates, or techniques such as double exposure and masking. Of course, the art of “mounting the photos together” doesn’t have to involve the creation of new pictures at all – it can employ found and existing prints only as well, depending on the artist’s intentions and goals. Finally, with the advent of computers, the need of having physical imagery disappeared altogether, as today’s examples of photomontage art are being assembled within editing softwares and often never end up in a printed form.
Perhaps the most famous photomontage came during the mid-Victorian era. Then called “combination printing”, it was created by Oscar Rejlander, a pioneering photographer who was one of the experts in the field. His 1857 collage photo The Two Ways of Life was followed by the 1858 Fading Away by another artist, Henry Peach Robinson. By the end of the century, many other artworks came to life, specifically in forms of funny-looking postcards which often featured the wrong head stuck on a different body, or the creation of strange, impossible creatures. By the beginning of World War I, the method gained its first momentum, with photographers all over Europe producing postcards showing soldiers departing for battle with their loved ones seeing them off. More specifically, it was the Berlin Dada group that developed it as a tool of protest against the war and other political issues of the period, turning it into a proper modern art form.
Photo Montage is the process and the result of making composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.Sometimes the resulting composite image is photographed so that a final image may appear as a seamless photographic print. A similar method, although one that does not use film, is realized today through image-editing software. This latter technique is referred to by professionals as “compositing”, and in casual usage is often called “photoshopping” (from the name of the popular software system). There are many methods for combining images that are also called photo montage, such as Victorian “combination printing”, the printing of more than one negative on a single piece of printing paper, front-projection and computer montage techniques.
Mood Board:
Photo Analysis:
This image shows women putting on make up. The image has been split into lots of different segments and been move around and put back together. Each segment had the same amount of space between it. At a glance it looks like there might be two women doing their makeup, but the more you look at it the more people there seems to pop up. There is makeup spread all over the table in front of the women. The way that the segments have been arranged it gives the image a sense of movement. The lighting seems to be coming form behind the camera, and it is not too strong as there are not any strong shadows being made. The shutter speed was likely to be quite quick as the images are all in focus and the women seem to be moving, so the easiest way to have captured them was with a quick shutter speed. The white balance seems to stay the same through out all of the segments.
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. Here are some examples that i like:
