Still Life Occupation Images

I imported my still life images into lightroom. I create a new collection set inside my main folder of occupation and war. This is so that my images can be categorized and organised. Once imported I then began to go through my images applying a star rating so when viewing all my images, I would know which were my best and worst by a glance. After giving them a rating I then selected each 5 star image and changed it to develop mode, as this allows me to edit the image. With these first few images I experimented with changing the exposure and editing the colors within them, such as making blue or orange stronger within the image. I also increased the grain of the image as this made the features on the object more detailed and visible.

Along with changing the different settings to make the images I have be less over exposed and have more contrast, etc I then used the crop tools on some of the images. I did this because in certain images the object wasn’t in the center to cropping of a side of the image then put the object in the middle. However, like the image above there was too much background and surroundings of the image which took focus off the main object, so cropping off most of the background made the object the main focus which in these images was what I wanted. This is because my main focus was to show parts of the occupation which was left.

As I carried on experimenting with my images I used the ‘Radial Filter’. This is where you draw a circle/oval around a certain part of the image and from then all the changes you make to the image effect everything outside of the circle. I believe this works well with still life images because it allows you to highlight the object you are focusing on, it can sometimes look as if the objects are glowing when its surroundings are increasingly darker from the background and the objects. It can make an image more interesting to look at by giving it different exposures within the same image, instead of it all being one tone.

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Once edited all my images, I then right clicked on the images and selected add a color filter to it (green) this is so I could determine which images where complete and ready to export. Visually this was easier for my to work with as I could select a color for the images I wanted to not use, use or was indecisive of. This makes it easier for me to export later on

Once I have selected the images I want to use for my final pieces I will go down to the left hand corner and click on ‘export’, this will then come up with how I want to export the image, where I want the images to be saved to, etc. I will transfer them as a JPEG this is so they can be uploaded onto the blog and be used on in-design. My images will remain in lightroom as they are, if I decide I want to go back and adjust them I can and then re-export them.

Final Images
Final Images

Overall I like how my images have turned out. I have experimented with how bright the lighting is within the images. In the photos of the lamps I have changed the coloring of the light making some of it more blue, grey or yellow this gives the images which gives the object a different background and feel for the image. The different lighting can make the object look a lot older and worn out or in well kept shape, but I prefer the image where the object looks older as you can see through the features on the object the ‘struggles’ it went through when belonging to someone which could be a representation of that individuals life during the occupation. In the images of the newspaper the paper is more yellow, which gives it an older look, along with the grain on the image makes the paper look more worn out. Finally, my image with different objects in it, the darkness in the corner lightens into the middle of the image, which acts as a highlight for the images, this naturally draws attention to the objects in the images. The darkness could’ve lighten a bit earlier as in the top left hand corner there is too much darkness over the helmet which results in you not rally being able to see the full detail which eliminates the point of the image as these images are there to show historical objects from the occupation and people want to see the detail and marks on them as it adds personalty and emotion to the image.

I then went back into the studio a second time this time with more ideas. I decided to photograph some of the same objects again but except this time using colored background, this adds something else to the image, making it catch the human eye more. I used a standard 50mm lens on a tripod, I had two light coming in from either side. I placed a piece of colored paper on the wall behind and one on the table, then placing the object in the middle of the paper. When photographing the images I sometimes slightly zoomed in or out of the image to make sure I could capture what I wanted to, to tell the story of the occupation. A problem I had was when changing the colored paper in and out I sometimes didn’t put the bottom piece close enough to the wall which resulted in the table being on show in the image, and making sure the object was in the middle but this could be fixed in lightroom by cropping.

Again, after I had finished editing my images I selected my final pieces so they could be exported as a JPEG. This is so they could be uploaded to the blog and used in Photoshop when creating a montage.

Final Images

Overall, when shooting with the colored paper, I found it difficult to make sure the paper was lined up straight to create that straight horizontal line, in some of the images I took you could see part of the table/wall but this was easily rectified as I could just re-position the camera and alter the zoom. The colored background makes the images more interesting and appealing to look at, as bright bold colors draw attention of the human eye. The colors also make the object I’m photographing stand out and you are able to see more detail of the object.

Montage experiment

In The First March of Gentlemen, Rafal Milach creates a narrative composed of real stories. He retells the historical childrens strike in Wrzenia in Poland from the early 20th Century, through collaged archive photographs from the 1950s and 1960. He has created a narrative to be read as a playful metaphor for the social and political tensions of the present.

When western Poland was under German occupation, over 100 students of the Catholic People’s School took part in a strike against the German influence on their education. The Germans aim was to remove the Polish language from their teachings.

Milach detached the figures from Szczepaniak’s photographs, both literally and figuratively, from their original context and placed them onto bright, candy coloured backgrounds. The design is “like a toy, like a candy – something nice to look at and to touch.” The figures are caged in geometric shapes, which as the book progresses, increasingly constrict and restrain them. The figures remain oblivious to their imprisonment. Ania Nałęcka-Milach, the designer of the book, created the physical object to reference the size and colour scheme of children’s school exercise books, as a camouflage for the serious subject matter.

https://en.artbooksonline.eu/art-20507

https://www.bjp-online.com/2018/06/milach-gentlemen/

MY RESPONSE:

In order to create these photomontages, I edited my still life Occupation objects on photoshop. These 4 outcomes are inspired by Rafal Milach, a photographer who created montages with figures caged in geometric shapes to retell the historical children strike in Wrzenia in Poland. His vivid colour scheme and “toy and candy” design has inspired me to further explore my editing skills on photoshop.

To create these several designs, I used archival images of German soldier from société jersiaise. The quick selection tool on photoshop allowed me to cut out the soldiers from their original photo and place it onto the still life photographs. Before using the line tool, I adjusted the figures using the transformation tool to change the size and placement. What I enjoyed the most about editing these photomontages was adding geometrical shapes onto the images to have the same contextual meaning as Milach’s book. The figures are restrained and caged by these lines to convey the restrictions the German’s introduced into Jersey when it was Occupied.

Photo-Montage Experimentation

After taking a series of images using the studio layout, I began to combine multiple elements to create photo-montages. In the initial studio photograph, I took inspiration from Rafal Milach’s “The First March of Gentlemen”, and used contrasting card colours to provide the background for the objects. I used one colour as a back wall, and a it’s complimentary colour as the ground colour in order to create an obvious separation between the 2. I then took a photograph of a series of objects taken from the Jersey archives, and for one of the images I made use of a number of tiny figurines. I then used Photoshop to create a montage out of these original images, and a series of archive images, taken during WW2.

I produced this first image after taking an initial photograph of the objects and figurines, and then used Photoshop to edit in the faded outlines of the soldiers. I did this to try and create a representation of the memories of the war (represented by the faded soldiers) in contrast to the present day (represented by the figurines of the elderly people). I produced this image to represent the reality of many individuals who survived occupation and war, as they now all live with constant memories and reminders of the experiences they survived during the war.

For my second photo-montage, I made use of 2 complimentary colours in the background, and photographed a pyramid maths object (taking inspiration from Rafal Milach). I then used an archived image of children in a concentration camp, and edited the image so it looked like the children were trapped inside of the object. I did this to reflect the horrors that many children faced during the war, while also contrasting this with the use of an object used in school, which is supposed to be a safe environment for children.

For the above image, I took a more experimental approach. I took inspiration from the note within the original book, saying “with love from mother, Xmas 1945”. I created a contrast between the 2 sides of the book, with the memories from home on the right, and the horrors of the trenches on the left. I did this to uncover the reality of war, and the differences between experiences of different people during WW2.

Photomontage: After Editing

These are my outcomes from the editing in camera as well as on Lightroom in the photomontage. I feel these outcomes have worked well and I am happy with the way they have turned out that I feel some could be used in my newspaper and final zine. The outcomes have come in response to Rafal Milach I feel I have been able to create successful outcomes in response to his work with experimenting with the coloured backgrounds, seeing what colours worked together and seeing what colours worked well with each other to create good effects in camera. I have enjoyed trying to work with creating and composing arrangements against the coloured backgrounds as I feel it adds something to the photographs and makes them more interesting to look at. I will be happy to experiment and use these in my final zine as I feel that the are successful outcomes. Something that I feel could have gone better were maybe being getting the lighting slightly better or the horizontal line straighter as I found slight difficulty in getting them connected correctly to create a perfectly straight line. Using the small figured people in the photographs helped to add to the effect I believe in the meaning of the photographs as well as in response to Rafal Milach, I think this helped to tell more of a story and created for a better, more interesting photograph rather than just composing with the objects it added a bit more meaning to the photographs portraying where the objects where from.

Photomontage: Shoot | In Camera working | Lightroom Editing

In-Camera Working

Below shows two examples of my in camera working with the photomontage. On the right I have worked and started to experiment with the use of the geometric shape blocks and the archival material. I have developed a few lot of photographs that incorporate the use of the shapes on the coloured backgrounds as well as the white backgrounds. Being influenced by Rafal Milach I tried to enclose some of the objects almost in the shapes and the cages however I did this in-camera rather than in later editing, but I will want to experiment with using archival images and incorporating them into my photographs. On the left shows my other experiments when I was working with the figures as well as the geometric shapes this is another version of incorporating the people and other aspects into the photographs in response to Milach.

Lightroom Editing

In lightroom I have been working in just updating contrasts and exposures as well as tints to work an enhance the photographs. I have not worked in photoshop as I have wanted to work mainly in camera working for this experiment with the small figures and the coloured backgrounds as well as the geometric shapes. I have worked with the brightness and contrasts of the photographs to enhance the coloured backgrounds I have used to work with the objects in front and help where there may have been some shadowing or dark patches from lighting angles which is the majority of the working I have produced in Lightroom rather than working in photoshop or the camera to particularly edit the photographs.

still life photography

PHOTOSHOOT PLANNING:

HOW: In order to do this photo shoot, a little bit of planning and preparation had to go into it beforehand as the correct setup was essential in order to create the images. I used a one point lighting system and black fabric in order to create the base for the items.

WHERE: I stationed the items on top of a fairly tall table as I found it would be much more beneficial if the items were at eye level as most still life imagery is captured from this level.

WHY: In order to explore history and a variety of visual arts, still life was an interesting topic to research and find out about as it is a very classical art form which spans hundreds of years into the past.

WHAT: In order to create the images I used items which would fit the theme of still life best, using pottery, vegetables, and silverware. Although there is a clear lack of variety, I used what I had at the time to create these images.

WHEN: I took these images at night as it was crucial to create chiaroscuro lighting within the images, this could only be done if there was one light source and a completely dark background.

EDITING:

For most of the images the best approach to editing the images was to do a couple simple adjustments. Firstly, in order to make them professional and neat I decided to crop them a fair amount as during the set up process, the black fabric which I used was not wide enough to cover the entirety of the screen, leaving white edges which disturbed away from the actual still life. I also adjusted the tilt shift on the images as it was crucial that the still life is situated on a horizontal surface. I then drastically increased the contrast of the images as one of the key elements of still life is the drastic change from highlights to shadows therefore it was necessary to bring this down. I lastly also increased the saturation of the images as I was keen to make the yellow and red apples in the image a focal point.

This image is a good example of how a simple increase in contrast, saturation and cropping can make an image look a lot more professional and much more believable that this is an actual still life set up.

SUCCESSFUL IMAGES:

MOST SUCCESSFUL IMAGE:

IMAGE ANALYSIS:

VISUAL:

In terms of the visual aspects of the image, it is extremely impactful in various aspects. Firstly the contrast between the backdrop and the highlights is very intense. I used chiaroscuro lighting in order to achieve this effect by only using one light source, this created a very effective recreation of traditional still life imagery. The deep and dark black backdrop is very indicative of the style as the majority of still life imagery displays this as well. One of the focal -points of the image is the apples which are centered in the bottom half of the image, the bright red and yellow makes them extremely noticeable among the muted color scheme of the other objects. There is no set arrangement with the other objects and they appear to be just left as they have been there, used and left. There is no real sense of depth within the image as the black background merges the layers of the image together almost into one.

TECHNICAL:

In terms of the technical set up of the still life, I had to put in a bit of thought into how and where to do it at the time. Firstly it was essential that I did this during night time as I needed a dark surrounding in order to create the chiaroscuro lighting which can be seen in the image above. I also had to set up a one point light system which in order to create the chiaroscuro lighting, it also gave it the authentic still life feel which I was going for. In terms of the camera setting, I used the manual setting on my camera as it was a fairly dark environment and needed ti increase the exposure to a certain level in order to avoid an under exposed image. I needed to also increase the aperture to let in as much light as possible into the camera. The most important part of this photo shoot was definitely the composition of the items within the still life. The arrangement and items which I chose, very much fit the still life concept in terms of being historically appropriate.

CONCEPTUAL:

When creating this still life imagery, the main concept which I was trying to convey was the period specific features of still life, recreating them with photography instead of other artistic mediums. All of the composition rules come into play here; that’s why still life shots are so valuable as a learning tool. You have the rule of thirds, leading lines, diagonals, geometric shapes, and visual weight (determined by either the object’s size or color). Every subject of every still life photo has some sort of appealing feature. It might be the shape, or possibly its color. Sometimes it is the object’s function, its texture and so forth. There is something interesting.

CONTEXTUAL:

Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. It is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. An example is food photography.This genre gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition compared to other photographic genres, such as landscape or portrait photography. Lighting and framing are important aspects of still life photography composition.Popular still life images include groups of flowers, food, and desk space, but still life photography is not limited to those 3 categories. Typically, still life’s are not close up to the subject nor far away, but at a very medium angle. The art in still life photography is often in the choice of objects that are being arranged and the lighting rather than the skill of the photographer.

My montage’s

I experimented with montage inspired by Rafal Milach by using photoshop. I used a combination of archival images, my images taken in the studio of occupation objects and images I took in the Jersey War Tunnels.

Making The Montage

I added a very childish 'candy' coloured backround which I took inspiration from Milach, and then I just cut and moved the images into places I like. I like the combination of black and white images with the coloured images. At first I added all the people and the plasters and ration tin, however I didn't like all of the negative space up at the top so I searched through my war tunnels and thought adding a light would create more of an aptmosphere.

Extension

I like how my montage turned out however, I want to further extend my photomontage and make it multi-media. I like how Milach's book had a string to wrap around the book, so I want to incorperate string within my piece. I also want to produce another copy but add paint into the montage. I feel like painting over the faces to make the people anomynous could make the image more interesting. It can also represent the many people who were involved in the war, even if it was day-to-day, but aren't recognised because of how it affected everyone, there were only a few specific individuals that were recogniseable because of the war.

The Painted Montage

I chose to paint the picture in photoshop. I chose a brush stroke that resembled a mor rough looking paint brush stroke to make it look more realistic. I also chose the paint colour to be green as it is a complimentary colour to the pink on the colour wheel. I chose to only paint on the female faces as the males are both obviously soldiers. The mother may have been involved with the soldiers but I wasn't sure so I decided to hide her face benteath the paint. I do like how the image turned out, however I feel that something is missing between the soldier on the left and the woman. I don't like how much negative space there is between so next time I could either extend how far the paint goes or I could make the background two-tones to make it more dynamic.

The Sewed Montage

For this montage, I wanted to sew around the individuals to fill out some of the negative space. I decided that I wanted to sew what looked like cages around the figures to connote the almost invisible cages of war. I also decided that each figure should have a certain colour for their cage as the war affected everyones lives in a unique way, however the 'leading officer' on the left also features the colours of the individuals as he has more reign and control over the other people, meaning that he has influence on their cages. The officer has his own colour though, blue, as the war also has a cage on him. On the way to school it was raining and my piece got very wet. This affected some of the image especially the corners, however I don't mind how it frayed the corners, it gives the image a slightly more aged and used feel. I also like how I didnt sew traditional cage shapes, this reflects how the individuals cages are all unique and affected them all in different ways. Next time I would purchase some different coloured string such as green as it goes along well with the background's colour wheel.

Montage Food Stamp

I liked the coloured background of the previous montages I had created, however I feel like it can get repetitive and I wanted to created a background that had a bit more meaning to the war. In the studio, I had taken a photograph of four food stamps that the Jersey Archives had lended to us. I still wanted to feature people in my montage as the war was about the beliefs of individuals and nations. The war was people based and I wanted to keep my montages people based. I therefore chose to cut around an image I took of two war survivers: Hedley and Joyce. I also chose to cut around two archival images: a doctor and a woman from a wealthy class. I wanted to feature people both from the past of the war and people from the present from the war to display how although the war is over, it still lives on. With the food stamps, I cut out all of them individually, duplicated the layers multiple times and layered them around the background until I thought it looked aesthetically pleasing. Overall I like how the montage turned out, however, next time I will enlarfe the image of all of the individuals, especially the doctor and the 'posh' woman to fill in some of the space at the top.

Occupation VS Liberation – Classical Photographer

Francis Foot:

“Francis Foot was born in 1885, the son of Francois Foot (1847-1918) and Louisa Hunt (1843-1934). Francois was a china and Glass dealer in Dumaresq Street, at a time when the area was one of the more affluent in St Helier. His son started his working life as a gas fitter. However, he soon became fascinated by photography and the early phonographs and gramophone records and realised that he could earn a living from them.

So the family took on a second shop in Pitt Street, where Francis worked as a photographer, while his father and mother sold gramophones, records and other wares in Dumaresq Street. After his father’s death, Francis concentrated the business in Pitt Street.

Francis married Margaret Vernon shortly before the First World War and the couple had four children, George (1914- ), Stanley (1915- ), Dora (1917- ) and Reg (1920- ).”
https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Francis_Foot

Analysing Image:

Francis Foot

Technical:

This images was taken with natural lighting as this photo was taken a long time ago. It is difficult to establish the aperture and shutter speed as this photo was taken a very long time ago and a different camera was used.

Conceptual:

This photo was taken at the beach, with Francis’ two kids George and Stanley playing in the sand. The idea behind this photo is to show the kids whilst they are having fun and enjoying their time.

Contextual:

Additionally, this photo was taken in a environmental photo style. It could also be taken to document the two boys lives and to keep memories.

Visual:

This image is in black and white which gives a vintage feel to the photo. The under exposure and sharpness of this photo shows that it is an old photo and that it was taken a long time go.

Still-Life: Contextual Studies

Origin and Definition of Still Life:

“A still life (also known by its French title, nature morte) painting is a piece that features an arrangement of inanimate objects as its subject. Usually, these items are set on a table and often include organic objects like fruits and flowers and household items like glassware and textiles.

The term “still life” is derived from the Dutch word stilleven, which gained prominence during the 16th century. While it was during this time that the still life gained recognition as a genre, its roots date back to ancient times.

The earliest known still life paintings were created by the Egyptians in the 15th century BCE. Funerary paintings of food—including crops, fish, and meat—have been discovered in ancient burial sites. The most famous ancient Egyptian still-life was discovered in the Tomb of Menna, a site whose walls were adorned with exceptionally detailed scenes of everyday life.

Ancient Greeks and Romans also created similar depictions of inanimate objects. While they mostly reserved still life subject matter for mosaics, they also employed it for frescoes, like Still Life with Glass Bowl of Fruit and Vases, a 1st-century wall painting from Pompeii.

Northern Renaissance artists popularized still life iconography with their flower paintings. These pieces typically showcase colorful flora “from different countries and even different continents in one vase and at one moment of blooming” (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and often do not feature other subject matter. These paintings rose to prominence in the early 17th century, when Northern Renaissance artists grew increasingly interested in creating realistic studies of everyday items.

Dutch Golden Age artists took this interest in detailed floral art a step further with their vanitas paintings. Vanitas paintings are inspired by memento mori, a genre of painting whose Latin name translates to “remember that you have to die.” Like memento mori depictions, these pieces often pair cut flowers with objects like human skulls, waning candles, and overturned hourglasses to comment on the fleeting nature of life.

Unlike memento mori art, however, vanitas paintings “also include other symbols such as musical instruments, wine and books to remind us explicitly of the vanity of worldly pleasures and goods” (Tate).”
https://mymodernmet.com/what-is-still-life-painting-definition/

Analysis of Key Image:

Image result for Still Life with a Turkey Pie
Still Life with a Turkey Pie – Pieter Claesz

In this painting, you can see luxurious products and Asian objects spread across a table. The theme of Asian items are implicit, as many now would not be a able to tell they were originated from Asia. Some examples of Asian items are the ingredients in savoury pies, which contain cinnamon, mace, cloves and ginger.

The Asian items suggest that there is a sense of wealth as they have been imported over and usually imported things back then were very expensive and hard to get. Also the amount of food can suggest wealth as lower class could not afford this much food.

There is a melancholy feel to this photo becasue of the use of dark and neatural tones and colours. This could imply a sense of sadness and loneliness. Also, the turkey could suggest that they are feeding a large family.

Emile F. Guiton – Autochromes:

The Autochromne process was invented by two brothers on the 10th of June 1907 by Louis and August Lumière. To an invited audience of 600 the brothers demonstrated their newest invention, the first combined system additive colour screen process.

Autochrome involved covering a glass plate with a thin wash of tiny potato starch grains dyed red, green, and blue, which then creates a filter. A thin layer of emulsion was added over that and when the plate was flipped and exposed to light, the resulting image could be developed into a transparency. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150131-pictures-autochrome-color-photography-history-people-culture/

Additionally, autocrhome was made by passing transparent starch grains through a series of sieves to isolate grains between ten and fifteen microns thick. Next, microscopic starch grains were then separated into batches, then dyed red, green and violet, mixed together and spread over a glass plate coated with a sticky varnish. Next, charcoal powder was spread over the plate to fill in any gaps between the coloured starch grains. A roller with over five tons per square centimeter of pressure was applied in order to spread the grains and flatten them out and then the plate was coated with a panchromatic photographic emulsion.

Examples of Emile’s work:

Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton
Emile F. Guiton

Lorenzo Vitturi:

“Lorenzo Vitturi (b. 1980, Italy) is a photographer and sculptor based in London. Formerly a cinema set painter, Vitturi has brought this experience into his photographic practice, which revolves around site-specific interventions at the intersection of photography, sculpture and performance. In Vitturi’s process, photography in conceived as a space of transformation, where different disciplines merge together to represent the complexities of changing urban environments. 

Vitturi’s latest solo exhibitions have taken place at FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, The Photographers’ Gallery in London, at Contact Photography Festival in Toronto, and at the CNA in Luxembourg. Vitturi also participated to group exhibitions at MaXXI in Rome, at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, at La Triennale in Milan, at the Shanghai Art Museum and at K11 Art Space in Shanghai, and at BOZAR in Brussels. 

Following the presentation of Dalston Anatomy in 2013 as a book, multi-layered installations and performance, Vitturi’s latest photo-book ‘Money Must Be Made’ was published by SPBH Editions in September 2017.” https://www.flowersgallery.com/artists/view/lorenzo-vitturi

Examples of his work:

Lorenzo Vitturi
Image result for Lorenzo Vitturi
Lorenzo Vitturi
Image result for Lorenzo Vitturi
Lorenzo Vitturi
Image result for Lorenzo Vitturi
Lorenzo Vitturi