My idea is to replicate abstract portrait paintings. These paintings all reflect someones individual identity and how they think they are perceived in the world. For example, Frida Kahlo’s work is all about her empowerment because when creating her work, women were seen as the weaker gender in society. Kahlo’s paintings often feature root imagery with roots growing out of her body to tie her to the ground, reflecting in a positive sense the theme of personal growth; in a negative sense of being trapped in a particular place, time and situation; and finally in an ambiguous sense of how memories of the past influence the present for either good and/or ill. In ‘My Grandparents and I’, Kahlo painted herself as a ten-year holding a ribbon that grows from an ancient tree that bears the portraits of her grandparents and other ancestors while her left foot is a tree trunk growing out of the ground, reflecting Kahlo’s view of humanity’s unity with the earth and her own sense of unity with Mexico.
These portraits were all a key turning point within the world or artistic culture: with Picasso who covered a range of topics from isolation to family. These artists opened the worlds eyes to abstract art which is understandable. They portrayed ideas in such augmented realities that they made sense.
My plan
My photo shoot plan fro Tableau photography is to replicate these paintings on peoples faces so that I can reflect the physicality and emotions behind these abstract portraits.
Frida Kahlo is going to be my main influence due to her views are so strong in her time in society. I would recreate scenes from the biopic movie ‘Frida’ give a sense of what her life was outside of her controversial paintings.
Photo-montage is the putting together of multiple pictures in order to create a new image with a completely different feel to what the separate individual images would have created. This is done by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs/images to make it entirely new one. sometimes this can cause the image to look some what like a photogenic print. Now days there is a more popular method of creating the idea of a photo montage and that by using a new application called ‘Photoshop’ do help ‘cut’ and edit the picture together this is known as ‘composting’ and is a more modern term for photo-montage. Although photographers need to be aware that a composite of related photographs to present a scene with all related images or subject is not considered a photo-montage.
What the history behind photo-montage?
In the 1880s was where first merging different photos together became about which was then called ‘combination print” and was most popular in a form of the contrived group portrait. The subjective and bizarre juxtaposition were further looked into by Dadaist and Futurist artists of the early 20th century. Some of the most iconic photo-montages were produced by George Grosz, Hannah Hoch and John Heart field from the being stages of photo-montages being produced. This also came extremely popular and was used extensively during the Pop art movement of the 1960s and 1970s. leading to more technical forms being produced by photographers like Jerry Uelsmann and David Hockney .
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Hannah Hoch
Hannah Hoch born in 1889 on November 1st in Gotha, Germany. Hoch began her training 1912 at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin- Charlottenburg. Here she concentrated on glass design with Harold Bengen, soon to be cut short when the break out of World War 1 began. However returned back to Berlin and began back at Applied Arts in 1915, although changed her specializing in glass design and moved her focus to painting, graphic design, woodcut and linoleum-block-painting with Emil Orlik until 1920. In 1915 she met and became romantically involved with Australian artist Raoul Hausmann, who in 1918 introduced Hoch to Berlin Dad circle, a group of people including George Grosz, Wieland Herzfele and Wieldlands brother John Heartfield. This then lead her to experiment with nonobjective art though painting but also looked into the idea of collage and photo montages. in 1917 is Hosh’s true interest in photo montages properly began. Hoch and Dadaists were the first to fully explore the idea of photo montages. Then in 1934 Hoch was names as a ‘cultural Bolshevist” by the Nazi.In order to continue to make art during World War l she retreated to a cottage in Heiligensee, on the outskirts of Berlin. After World War l Hoch tried extremely hard to stay relevant to the time period and continued to show of her hard work by putting them in exhibits through 1945 and 1946. As she grew and devleloped she worked with new modes of expression but continued to reference her past. Hoch was such a key part of photo montage and was clearly an important influencer during her period of six decades of hard work. Her legacy will obviously continue with her strong contribution to the Dada movement. In the late 1960 and 70s her work began to receive more attention due to the concerted effort by feminist scholars and artists to uncover and reclaim the art created by Hich and other during that particular time period of the 20th century. Hannah Hoch tragically passed away on May 31st in 1978 in West Berlin.
A photo-montage is a type of montage constructed from photographic images. In the modern age, this style of photographic editing is typically created using Adobe Photoshop or other computer software. The style has been tracked back to as early as the 1860s, but was made more popular in the 1880s when people were starting to be more experimental with their exposures. Early photo montage would consist of cutting out parts of one or more images and paste them on top of an existing photograph. These elements would later be explored in more detail by futurist and dadaist photographers at the start of the 20th century.
‘Wicked tells the incredible untold story of an unlikely but profound friendship between two young women who first meet as sorcery students at Shiz University: the blonde and very popular Glinda and a misunderstood green girl named Elphaba. Following an encounter with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Glinda’s unflinching desire for popularity sees her seduced by power while Elphaba’s determination to remain true to herself, and to those around her, will have unexpected and shocking consequences for her future. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda The Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.’
https://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/london/about
Mood Board
Defying Gravity
Taken from Google
In the defying gravity seen we see Glinda and Elphaba caught in a room, needing to make a plan and fast. When the protagonist Elphaba casts a spell to make a broom stick fly she decides she will escape using that. She then invites her good friend Glinda to join and escape together but Glinda declines as it is not in her nature to rebel. The Guards break into the room and take Glinda Elphaba is seen traveling down the stage saying “It’s not her she has nothing to do with it I’m the one you want” The guards let go of the blonde girl and stare at Elphaba in awe as she takes to the sky.
Popular
Taken From Google
Popular is the scene where we know the two girls are attempting to get on, but of course on Glinda’s terms. This scene is Glinda giving her new friend Elphaba a make over to make her more popular and appealing to other students at the university. Of course she “Glindafies” her making her seem like a duplicate. We see Elphaba go through the different stages, from taking her hair down to tossing her hair. Eventually, a pink flower is placed in the green witches hair, creating an emotional reaction with the audience. Elphaba is then seen running of the stage in tears.
No Good Deed
Taken From Google
In no good deed we are faced with Elphaba rising onto the stage with her spell book screaming Fieryo, the name of the boy she loves. This man has been taken by the guards to be killed. The green witch is then seen casting a spell to try and keep her loved one alive, but then backtracks and reminds herself on the damage she has caused to her loved ones. She then comes to the conclusion that she is Wicked.
Contact Sheets
Edits With Story Telling
This is my photograph showing the Defying Gravity scene. The protagonist Elphaba is seen in the centre of the image with wind blowing through her hair, presenting the idea that she is in the sky. She is holding her broom high into the air, showing she is proud and is looking towards the broom. The fact that she is not looking at the lens presents the idea that she should not look back and that she is determined to succeed in what she does now. The story behind this shows how she does not need to do as people say and that others should not determine the life that she lives. It portrays her empowering character as a role model to others, it is used to present the views of feminists and how men do not rule to world. This message can be used in any context, for example it could show that A Levels do not define who we are and won’t stop us reaching our hopes and dreams if we fail them. The purpose of this photograph is to inspire others. When editing this image I decided to make the image darker allowing her different tones of green to be presented and allows Elphaba to stand out from the background. To achieve this I just levelled and and adjusted the curves.
In my no good deed Tableaux we are presented with the green witch in the centre of the frame. She has her spell book open and is casting a spell, shown by her hand movements. The neutral facial expression and direct eye contact with the lens implies the worries and concerns the character has. To story trying to be told is that magic can not fix up our lives. Obviously, we can not cast spells in real life so when transferring this message into the real world it is essentially saying think before we do something as we do not know how it is going to affect others around us. This is a sensitive image as multiple emotions can be interpreted by my models face. Unfortunately, the face of the model is not the main focus point is is sort of out of focus, this loose some of the overall effect and may lead to misinterpretations of the photography. To edit this photograph I just levelled and and adjusted the curves in order to make the image seem naturally darker.
Within this photograph we have the two witches staring at each other, which was inspired by the ‘What is this feeling’ scene. We see Glinda staring at Elphaba with neutral facial expression and sort of squinting her eyes which informs us that she despises the green witch. On the other hand, Elphaba has a smile on her face which informs viewers that she finds it funny that Glinda loathes her. To edit this photograph I just levelled and and adjusted the curves in order to make the image seem naturally darker.
In my final image I wanted to capture the personality of Glinda and the moment when the two girls finally bond. We can see Glinda playing with the hair of Glinda with a big smile on her face, this informs viewers that Glinda is a girly girl and enjoys giving others makeovers and playing with peoples hair. In contrast Elphaba does not seem that fazed by it showing her tomboy side. The contrast shows that for the two witches to be neutral the green witch has to compromise and try and begin to like what Glinda wants. This presents the idea that girls are only concerned with hair, makeup and their phones, but clearly they are not which is demonstrated by Elphaba. Due to the harsh lighting, it allows the two witches to stand out from the background allowing the message to come across better. To edit this photograph I just levelled and adjusted the curves in order to make the image seem naturally darker.
Comparison
When comparing my work to The Entombment of Christ (Deposizione) (1601-3) there are some similarities and differences. The main difference is that my tableaux covers issues that teenagers face today, whereas the artist research shows a major event which took place in 1601. A similarity is the of plain backgrounds which allows the story to be the main focus point allowing the storyline to be outlined clearly within the photograph. Another difference is that my tableaux is a photograph which allowed me to experiment more with lighting, shutter speed and depth of field, compared to the painting made in 1603. Moreover, a lot of thought has been put into my tableaux as I considered costumes, lighting, props, background and facial expressions of my models. Doing this allows a full story to be told, I learnt this from when I researched The Entombment of Christ (Deposizione). In my Defying Gravity image I took inspiration from the painting to use the chiaroscuro effect which has allowed parts of the models body and face to be lit up and gradually get darker, which has allowed a more dramatic effect and tone to be added to my final image.
Evaluation
To evaluate I believe that my tableaux was successful, due to the techniques and skills I have acquired from doing a class tableaux. I was successfully able to create a story within a picture, which is clear for viewers to understand. I have also been able to put in multiple elements to create a successful Tableaux. If I was to do another tableaux I would aim to look at a more religious approach, as I believe the final images would be able to produce a more meaningful representation of a story to viewers, as everyone would understand. I would also at potentially looking at a different editing strategy in order to make the images more dramatic. Although I enjoyed looking at this style of portraiture I do not think that I will continue this idea.
A photo montage is a collage constructed of photos that usually address political issues.
The idea of photo montages come from the dadaism movement whom utilized this technique in artwork in 1915 to protest against the First World War.
David Hockney
David Hockney is a highly renowned British artist responsible for the development of 1960s pop art as well as photo montages. He started off using polaroid prints and took many of different parts of a scene and then rearranged them on a blank canvas.
Here are some examples of his photo montage work
Analysis
I quite like this image below due to the very unreal looking nature, However these images were all taken on a Polaroid. The images were taken one after the other and stuck together to create the scene we see here. there is a vibrant range of color, Ranging from the blue skies to the yellow signs and green trees.
A tableau vivant (often shortened to tableau, plural:tableaux vivants), French for ‘living picture’, is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically lit.
Ryan Schude, of a family camping in a WinnebagoCaravaggio – The Entombment of Christ
Within this photograph we have the two witches staring at each other, which was inspired by the ‘What is this feeling’ scene. We see Glinda staring at Elphaba with neutral facial expression and sort of squinting her eyes which informs us that she despises the green witch. On the other hand, Elphaba has a smile on her face which informs viewers that she finds it funny that Glinda loathes her. To edit this photograph I just levelled and and adjusted the curves in order to make the image seem naturally darker.
In my final image I wanted to capture the personality of Glinda and the moment when the two girls finally bond. We can see Glinda playing with the hair of Glinda with a big smile on her face, this informs viewers that Glinda is a girly girl and enjoys giving others makeovers and playing with peoples hair. In contrast Elphaba does not seem that fazed by it showing her tomboy side. The contrast shows that for the two witches to be neutral the green witch has to compromise and try and begin to like what Glinda wants. This presents the idea that girls are only concerned with hair, makeup and their phones, but clearly they are not which is demonstrated by Elphaba. Due to the harsh lighting, it allows the two witches to stand out from the background allowing the message to come across better. To edit this photograph I just levelled and adjusted the curves in order to make the image seem naturally darker.
