Shoot Plan

WHERE: I have a light box which i can use to get even lighting all around the image, this will help me to be able to control the shadows and the highlights therefore controlling the overall tone. Therefore I can do it anywhere in my house.

WHAT: I am going to be creating my own series inspired by Vjeko Sager’s ‘Antimatter’ series. It features raised and lowered sections of cut out paper.I want my series to have meaning and have some sort of story to each creation which will make it more interesting.

HOW: I am going to use either thick paper or white card as the card might fold better. I will cut slices in the paper so I can fold bits to create a sort of architectural look structure. I will use my lightbox for even lighting and take the photo from straight above. I will just use the kit lens as it has the widest focal length which will be helpful as there is not much room in the lightbox.

WHEN: I can do it at anytime as the lightbox has its own light.

Contact Sheet

I am happy with my photoshoot. I used my lightbox so I could easily control the lighting and shadows, it allowed me to also get soft shadows rather than harsh lighting. I flagged the images I were good so I could filter out all the other images so I could just edit the good ones. I wasn’t to bothered about the colours as I could change the white balance in lightroom and I would make the images black and white anyway.

Edit Process

Edits

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Evaluation / Compare

This was my best outcome because it most accurately resembles the style of Vjeko Sager. This photo that I took looks more like an architectural structure than a sliced up piece of paper. It also capture light and tone well. The other images also capture light and tone but this image looks the best. There is a nice equal balance between the shadows and the highlights. However, to make my images look less like paper and more like a structure, sharper cleaner lines would need to be cut and possibly a different lighting set up. Overall, I am happy with these outcomes, they look good and resemble the style of Sage and explore light and tone.

Case Study

VJeko Sager is a current contemporary artist who experiments with an architectural style. He is also a philosopher, educator and curator. In this series called ‘Antimatter’ he creates shapes by cutting paper to raise levels and lower levels. He likes to push the boundaries of what we think we know. He doesn’t take simple solutions as answers and believes that society has become numb to the complexity of reality. His work has achieved awards and has been exhibited all over the world. Because of his philosophy and style of work, he has been described as an architect of the mind.

Analysis

Visual

Looking at this image it doesn’t look like cut paper at first glance. To me it looks like cracks in the ground and like something is trying to break through from beneath. When I look at this image there is not much depth, it shows some depth by taking what was a completely 2d looking image and adding depth to make it look 3d by cutting pieces of the paper to make structures. This image is also very minimal, not a lot is happening and from a distance it almost looks like a blank page, I like the simplicity behind the image and then the thought out placement of the ‘cracks’.

Technical

In this image, the light and tone has been explored by cutting the paper and lifting or pushing down bits. By doing this, shadows are created. Tone is about the values of light and dark that make up an image, in this image the is a vignette meaning there are dark areas around the image and in the corners, this suggests that a light was point straight down. I think an on camera flash may have been used as you can often get a vignette when using a camera flash, also the fact that there are no shadows from where the camera would have been. Overall, the image is very bright in tone and has a lot more white and highlights rather than dark areas. It obviously lacks colour so the image is made interesting by the use of the shadows.

Concept / Context

Vjeko Sager likes to push the boundaries of knowability. Tis image is part of a series called ‘Antimatter’ they look like things are breaking through the surface. With this image I like the placement of the ‘cracks’ on the page as it looks like cracks from roots or perhaps a mole. The way there are big cracks make it look like where something started then went back under and tried again further up. Sager also believes that culture is being numbed of how complex reality really is, this may be why he has made this series as he has taken paper which is usually always overlooked for what we think it is but then he creates it into something we had never even considered.

AbstractFormalism, is the concept that a work’s artistic value is entirely determined by its form. To understand formalism, you have to know what form is. Form is the shape of something, and the visual aspects that come together to make that shape. It’s purely visual aspects.

Formalism emphasizes compositional elements such as color, line, shape and texture rather than realism, context, and content. In visual art, formalism is a concept that suggests that everything necessary to comprehending a work of art is contained within the work of art. The context for the work, including the reason for its creation, the historical background, and the life of the artist, is considered to be of less importance. Formalism is an approach to understanding art.

Abstract photography, sometimes called non-objective, experimental, conceptual or concrete photography, is a means of depicting a visual image that does not have an immediate association with the object world and that has been created through the use of photographic equipment, processes or materials.

Tone= The range of lightest to darkest parts of an image as a whole or the particular area in an image.

Photo Analysis

The lighting within the image is artificial, possibly taken in a studio. A strong source of light illuminates the right side of the paper, creating dark, heavy shadows as the paper blocks the light from travelling any further.

Reed incorporates line and tone within the photo. The curve of the paper creates curved, overlapping lines guide the eye around the centre of the image. Soft shadows form an almost parallel line with the curve of the paper.

His image has a low tonal range (three or four main tones) which creates a highly contrasting image. The lightest tones are in the centre of the image and to the right. The light tones take up the majority of the image, possibly inferring the power of societal institutions over its members. The darkest tones are apparent in the shadows behind the paper (pictured to the left), continuing with the allegory of society it may represent how people’s individuality is ‘overshadowed’ by these institutions or societal norms, influencing the behaviour of individuals away from how they might usually act.

The subject of the image itself (white paper pictured centre) splits the image into thirds. Negative space on the left and right third of the image creates a strong contrast in the image. Sharp corners in the paper subject make the shapes within the image almost geometrical, yet the lack of straight lines (the curve of the paper) creates more organic shapes, which juxtapose the sharpness of the angles created by overlapping paper.