Psycho-geography is a hybrid of photography and  geography that emphasizes playfulness and “drifting” around urban environments. It has links to the Situationist International.

Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals.”

Another definition is “a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities… just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape

The originator of what became known as unitary urbanism, psychogeography, and the dérive was Ivan Chtcheglov, in his highly influential 1953 essay “Formulaire pour un urbanisme nouveau” (“Formulary for a New Urbanism”).

It has roots in Dadaism and Surrealism.

The idea of urban wandering relates to the older concept of the flâneur, theorized by Charles Baudelaire…and is similar to STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

PETAPIXEL definition of PsychoGeography CLICK HERE

What will you see on your journey…and how will  you respond and adapt to it ???

Koyaanisqati : Drawing its title from the Hopi word meaning “life out of balance,” this renowned documentary reveals how humanity has grown apart from nature. Featuring extensive footage of natural landscapes and elemental forces, the film gives way to many scenes of modern civilization and technology.

Superflux : explore over-surveillance and the prospect of intrusion in our everyday lives…has the concept of psycho-geographies evolved into something dystopian-like and Orwellian (1984- “Big brother”)…governments, town planners and the authorities design how we live, where we live and essentially control popluations of towns and cities.

Marcus Desieno creates de-humanised landscape photography by hacking surveillance camera networks…but avoids privacy problems normally associated with urban and residential areas…

What you need to do…(3-5 blog posts)

1. Research thenDefine, describe and explain what Psycho-Geography is…
2. Choose an (urban) area of Jersey that you are interested in exploring
3. Find the area on google maps and zoom in so that you can make a screen shot to add to your blog post.
4. Add the “street view” too if you can
5. Find as much information and images online as you can about the street / area you are exploring and include these in your blog post
6. Add any archival information that you can too (see below)
7. Then go to the area and explore on foot…photographing everything you can, and all that appears of interest to you at that time. Photograph up, down and across…creating a film or time-lapse is good too as is drone footage / imagery…
8. Record the time, date and place of your journey in your blog post
9. Add any thoughts, feelings or emotions you can about the place your are exploring…and as you develop a connection and familiarity with the place/ people / buildings etc.
10. Refer to Mishka Henner and Edward Burtynsky (aerial photographs) and The Boyle Family in your blog post…and discuss how they interact with an area and create art / photography inspired directly by the location and its uses / functions.
11. Analyse and evaluate your process…show your selection, editing and presentation of final images.

Using Photo-Archives

In the course of daily life, individuals and organizations create and keep information about their personal and business activities. Archivists identify and preserve these documents of lasting value.

These records — and the places they are kept — are called “archives.” Archival records take many forms, including correspondence, diaries, financial and legal documents, photographs, and moving image and sound recordings. All state governments as well as many local governments, schools, businesses, libraries, and historical societies, maintain archives.

Your task

The images above are Archival Images from iconic areas of Jersey…and these areas have changed over time.

• Find archival images that correspond to your own landscape photography and contrast and compare. Include any info you can find about the image itself / photographer / time period etc
• OR…you may find that you are intrigued by a particular landscape image and want to respond to it and create a comparison / composite image. For this you must conduct a photo-shoot aiming to document the area from a similar viewpoint and edit your images accordingly
• OR…you may want to explore the concept of JUXTAPOSING Old and new buildings / parts of Jersey…either by photographing them in situ, or creating a composite image using photoshop

Public archives in Jersey

Jersey Archives:  Since 1993 Jersey Archive has collected over 300,000 archival records and it is the island’s national repository holding archival material from public institutions as well as private businesses and individuals. To visit click here

Jersey Archive can offer guidance, information and documents that relate to all aspects of the Island’s History. It also holds the collections of the Channel Islands Family History Society.

Societe Jersiaise: Photographic archive of 80,000 images dating from the mid-1840s to the present day. 35,000 historical images in the Photographic Archive are searchable online here.

Societe Jersiaise also have an extensive library with access to may publications and records relating to the island’s history, identity and geography. Click here

Archisle: The Jersey Contemporary Photography Programme, hosted by the Société Jersiaise aims to promote contemporary photography through an ongoing programme of exhibitions, education and commissions.

The Jersey Evening Post Archives CLICK HERE

The Archisle project connects photographic archives, contemporary practice and experiences of island cultures and geographies through the development of a space for creative discourse between Jersey and international practitioners.

Link: http://www.archisle.org.je/

Extension Task

• Research and explore how Lewis Bush  engages with and photographs the city and its development  / over-development.
• Click  here to check out an interview as he explains how he uses aerial / satellite imagery to home in on secret data stations used in the Cold War and produce abstract imagery influenced by the radio waves of secret information being mysteriously broad-casted.

Remember to show your Photo-Shoot Planning and clearly explain :

• who you are photographing
• what you are photographing
• when you are conducting the shoot
• where you are working/ location
• why you are designing the shoot in this way
• how you are going to produce the images (lighting / equipment etc)

Please use a planning sheet (like this one, or design your own) for each photoshoot…

1. An introduction to landscape photography, including a definition and mood-board of influential images
2. A Case Study on Ansel Adams or Edward Weston or Fay Godwin or Don McCullin (or similar)

3. Create a blog post that defines and explains what Romanticism is in Landscape Photography…include examples and make reference to Romanticism in other art-forms eg painting

Homework Assignment

• Due Date : Wed 16th October 2019
• Take 150-200 photos of romanticised landscapes
• Try to keep to natural / rural settings with minimal human impact
• We will show you how to “EXPOSURE BRACKET” and you must try using this technique for at least some of your photographs
• We will then show you how to convert these images to HDR using photoshop

Try to get out in the morning / evening light or even at night and capture interesting light effects, colours, mist, fog, and shadows too…

Possible locations include : woods, forests, sand dunes, beaches, fields, valley settings, cliff and coastal areas, sea-scapes (looking out to sea), church-grounds etc

We will be looking at Romanticism as a starting point and if you click here you will have a better understanding of some of the roots of landscape in contemporary photography….

Week 5

The focus of your study and research this week is natural landscapes and the notion of ROMANTICISM in Landscape  Art and then later, Photography.

The Age of The Enlightenment (1700-1800ish)

VS

The Age of Romanticism (1800-1900ish)

“Writers and artists rejected rationalism for the same reason that rationalism was rejected by the movement as a whole- it was in rejection of Enlightenment, which had sucked emotion from writing, politics, art, etc. Writers and artists in the Romantic period favored depicting emotions such as trepidation, horror, and wild untamed nature.”

“The ideals of these two intellectual movements were very different from one another. The Enlightenment thinkers believed very strongly in rationality and science. … By contrast, the Romantics rejected the whole idea of reason and science. They felt that a scientific worldview was cold and sterile.”

Blog Post 1+2: Define, describe and explain Romanticism (in landscape photography). Include a mood-board of appropriate images. Include at least 1 x hyperlink to an appropriate and relevant website. Embed an appropriate and relevant video / podcast.

Blog Post 3: Create an in-depth case study that analyses and interprets the work of a key landscape photographer…

For example : Ansel Adams / f/64 group / Edward Weston / Fay Godwin / Minor White etc

Remember you MUST use TECHNICAL / VISUAL / CONTEXTUAL / CONCEPTUAL to analyse effectively a key image…

Blog Post 4: add your contact sheet / select your best 5-10 images / 1 x final image / include edits and screen shots to show process

• analyse and evaluate your images and process
• show your understanding of composition, exposure, control of light, and effective use  of lenses to create NATURAL landscape images that range from wide angle to telephoto as a response to how your choice of photographer(s) developed the genre…

Use your research to help guide you when taking your own photographs…

• create a mind-map / mood-board of potential locations around Jersey that you could record and create romanticized landscape photographs of….look for extremes (either calm or wild, derelict, desolate, abandoned or stormy, battered and at the mercy of nature)
• use the wild and dynamic weather and elements to help create a sense of atmosphere, and evoke an emotional response within your photo assignment
• aim to photograph the coastline, the sea, the fields, the valleys, the woods, the sand dunes etc
• photograph in the “golden hour” before dark, at sunset or during sunrise…and include rain, fog, mist, ice, wind etc in your work
• look for LEADING LINES such as pathways, roads etc to help dissect your images and provide a sense of journey / discovery to them

EXTENSION TASK: EXPOSURE BRACKETING AND HDR IMAGERY

Exposure bracketing means that you take two more pictures: one slightly under-exposed (usually by dialing in a negative exposure compensation, say -1/3EV), and the second one slightly over-exposed (usually by dialing in a positive exposure compensation, say +1/3EV), again according to your camera’s light meter.

High Dynamic Range

HDR stands for high dynamic range, and it essentially takes a series of images, each shot with a different exposure from darkest to lightest. HDR combines the best parts of the three overexposed, underexposed, and balanced shots to create a dramatic image with beautiful shadowing and highlights

HDR adjustments in Adobe Lightroom click here

HDR adjustments in Adobe Photoshop click here

Task : try a few variation of exposure bracketing and then try using HDR controls to create the exposures that you want…you may already have pre-sets on your phone or camera to help you do this, but experimenting manually will help your understanding!

Ensure that you include the following key terms in your blog posts…

• Composition (rule of thirds, balance, symmetry)
• Perspective (linear and atmospheric, vanishing points)
• Depth (refer to aperture settings and focus points, foreground, mid-ground and back-ground)
• Scale (refer to proportion, but also detail influenced by medium / large format cameras)
• Light ( intensity, temperature, direction)
• Colour (colour harmonies / warm / cold colours and their effects)
• Shadow (strength, lack of…)
• Texture and surface quality
• Tonal values ( contrast created by highlights, low-lights and mid-tones)

Atmospheric Perspective

VS

https://petapixel.com/2016/09/14/20-composition-techniques-will-improve-photos/

Good Luck!

Camera Handling Skills

Once you have been instructed on how to use the lighting studio safely and respectfully, you will be able to use the studio during lesson times or in study periods. You must book the facility in advance via one of your teachers JAC / MM / MVT.

You must always leave the studio in a clean and tidy, safe manner. All equipment must be switched off and packed away. Any damage must be reported and logged.

Portrait Studio Shoot

Types of lighting available

• Continous lighting (spot / flood)
• Flash head
• Soft box
• Reflectors and coloured gels

Still Life Photography and using the product table / copy stand

Still-life Studio Shoot:

Each group of two students work on one station each ie. Continuous Light and Flash Lights and swap halfway through

You can choose to photograph each object individually or group together several objects for a more complex still life arrangements.

Technical stuff

Continuous Lights – photograph objects three dimensionally

Camera setting: Manual Mode
ISO: 100
White Balance: Daylight
Aperture: F/16
Shutter: 0.5 sec to 0.8 sec (depending on reflection of each object)
Lights in room must be switched off to avoid reflections

Continuous Lights – portrait

Camera setting: Manual Mode
ISO: 100
White Balance: Daylight Shutter Speed 1/125 sec Aperture f/16

Flash Lights – photograph images, documents, books, newspapers, etc or portraits

Camera setting: Manual Mode
ISO: 100
White Balance: Daylight
Aperture: F/16
Shutter: 1/125-1/200 (depending on reflection of each object)
Flash heads set to power output: 2.0
Use pilot light for focusing

You will be producing ideas, experiments and more using Adobe Photoshop.

These tasks will help introduce you to some basics and extend your skills.

If you already feel confident with Adobe Photoshop, you can move ahead and begin creating a set of photo-montages that show your understanding of the methods and concepts too.

You can use a combination of your own images, found images and images provided in the M : Drive too to create a set / series of images that explore facets of OCCUPATION V LIBERATION.

Don’t forget to upload your manual photo-montages via the MEDIA LIBRARY (they are stored in the M : Drive) and try to relate your experiments to the work of other photo-montage artists that you have looked at and been inspired by…

TECHNIQUES

Basic Image Adjustments

1. Brightness
2. Contrast
3. Exposure
4. Monochrome
5. Using Levels

• MANUAL CUT-N-PASTE (SCISSORS, SCALPEL AND GLUE)
• PHOTOSHOP –
• selection tools (to cut and move elements of images)
• free transform (CTRL T)– to move, re-size and shape elements
• layers and layer masks
• Layer Via copy (CTRL J)
• opacity control methods (double exposure)
• blending options
• cropping
• distortion
• proportion
• scale

1. Superimpose / juxtapose 2 images
2. Cut-n-paste
3. Flip and mirror
4. Layers and Opacity control

Create a set of blog posts that clearly show your progress, outcomes and inspiration. Include an evaluation and screen shots of your development in Adobe Photoshop

Autumn Term Planner

AS Photography 2019

Summer Task	Mark	Grade/level
Summer Task	–	–
Feedback: –
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the sum of all assessments	–
Component 1 : Photomontage	Mark	Grade/level
Photomontage Research and Analysis K+U	–	–
Photomontage Photoshoot + Contact Sheet + Selected Images	–	–
Photomontage Design and outcomes	–	–
Photomontage Evaluation	–	–
Due Date for completion = Wed 25 Sept 2019
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the sum of all assessments	–
Component 1 : Occupation Landscapes	Mark	Grade/level
Intro to Landscape Photography (Mood board / mindmap)	–	–
Utopia V Dystopia (romanticism v new topographics)	–	–
Case study 1 (research and analysis of a key photographer)	–	–
Photoshoot 1 (based on romanticist approaches)	–	–
Case study 2 (research and analysis of a key photographer)	–	–
Photoshoot 2 (based on new topographic approaches)	–	–
Editing, Enhancement and manipulation	–	–
Presentation and display of final outcomes	–	–
Evaluation of process	–	–
Due Date for completion = Wed 16 October 2019
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the sum of all assessments	–
Component 1 : Remembrance	Mark	Grade/level
Intro, moodboard, mindmap	–	–
Remembrance Photoshoot, contact sheet and selection	–	–
Editing, enhancement, processing and development	–	–
Presentation and display of final outcomes	–	–
Feedback: –
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the average of all assessments	–
Camera Skills	Mark	Grade/level
Focal Length	–	–
Focus Points	–	–
Depth of Field	–	–
Aperture	–	–
Shutter Speed	–	–
ISO and White Balance	–	–
Feedback: –
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the average of all assessments	–
Lighting Techniques	Mark	Grade/level
Natural Light / outdoors	–	–
Available Light / indoors	–	–
Studio Lighting / one point lighting	–	–
Studio Lighting / two point lighting	–	–
Studio Lighting / 3 point lighting	–	–
Feedback: –
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the average of all assessments	–
Adobe Photoshop Skills	Mark	Grade/level
Image Adjustment and enhancement	–	–
Cropping methods	–	–
Use of selection tools	–	–
Cut-n-paste methods	–	–
Layers and blending methods	–	–
Feedback: –
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the average of all assessments	–
Image Analysis and Interpretation : Newman vs Krupp	Mark	Grade/level
Technical knowledge and understanding	–	–
Visual knowledge and understanding	–	–
Conceptual knowledge and understanding	–	–
Contextual knowledge and understanding	–	–
Feedback: –
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the average of all assessments	–
Component 1 : Unit Assessment 1	Mark	Grade/level
Assessment Objective 1	–	–
Assessment Objective 2	–	–
Assessment Objective 3	–	–
Assessment Objective 4	–	–
Overall attainment for this set of assessments based on the sum of all assessments	–

An environmental portrait is a portrait executed in the subject’s usual environment, such as in their home or workplace, and typically illuminates the subject’s life and surroundings.  

Group Activity | Image Analysis

• Emotional Response (how it makes you feel / initial reactions):
• Technical Aspects:
• Visual Aspects:
• Conceptual Aspects:
• Contextual Aspects :

You have 5 minutes to research this image and present your findings as a group…

Blog Post 1 :

• define, describe and explain what an environmental portrait is

Select one key image and apply Technical | Visual | Contextual | Conceptual analysis

Other environmental portraits to consider

Resources to help you analyse and interpret the images…

Try some environmental portraits yourself…

Remember to show your Photo-Shoot Planning and clearly explain :

• who you are photographing
• what you are photographing
• when you are conducting the shoot
• where you are working/ location
• why you are designing the shoot in this way
• how you are going to produce the images (lighting / equipment etc)

Please use a planning sheet for each photoshoot…

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS…

Please refer to this resource to help you navigate your camera’s function and settings. You will learn how to apply these skills learning to various photo-shoots over the next few months…and you should aim to provide evidence of these skills throughout your coursework.

Remember to practice and experiment. Use your eyes and look. The more you look, the more you will see. How you see the world will determine what kind of photographer you will become.

A camera is only a tool, and it is down to you to get the best out of your equipment by becoming confident and comfortable

https://canon.ca/CanonOutsideOfAuto/learn

Camera Skills

You must experiment with each of these skill areas as we move through our sequence of photo-shoots. Remember to include / produce a blog post on each that includes evidence of your experiments and successes…

Remember to use What / How / Why / When when describing and explaining what you are experiencing and achieving with each of these…

1. Using Auto-Focus
2. Using Manual Focus
3. White Balance
4. ISO
5. Aperture
6. Focal Length : wide, standard and telephoto lenses
7. Depth of Field
8. Show / fast Shutter Speed
9. Exposure and exposure compensation
10. Exposure bracketing

Exposure Bracketing

Many digital cameras include an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) option. When AEB is selected, the camera automatically takes three or more shots, each at a different exposure. Auto Exposure Bracketing is very useful for capturing high contrast scenes for HDR like this…

…by taking the same photograph with a range of different exposure settings

You can use Exposure Compensation to quickly adjust how light or how dark your exposure will be using these controls…

Or set the amount of “bracketing” like this…

Then you can create your High Dynamic Range images by using this process in Adobe Photoshop…

Understanding Composition

1. The Rule of Thirds
2. One of the fundamentals of painting and photography, the Rule of Thirds is a technique designed to help artists and photographers build drama and interest in a piece. The rule states that a piece should be divided into nine squares of equal size, with two horizontal lines intersecting two vertical lines.

2. Fibonacci Curve

3. Triangles / angles / Golden Section

Cropping / framing

https://petapixel.com/2016/09/14/20-composition-techniques-will-improve-photos/

Understanding Lenses and Focal Length

Perspective and Depth

The formal and visual elements that constitute part of the ‘grammar’ of photography (such as line, shape, repetition, rhythm, balance etc.) are shared with other works of art. But photographs also have a specific grammar – flatness, frame, time, focus etc. ‘Mistakes’ in photography are often associated with (breaking) the ‘rules’ and expectations of this grammar e.g. out of focus, subject cropped, blur etc. Because of the flattening effect of photographs, things in reality are juxtaposed in unusual ways. Things in the distance (in reality) can appear to be on the same level as things closer to the camera. Some photographers have exploited the inherent surreality of this effect, what we might think of as a deliberate attempt to disorientate the viewer for artistic purposes. Other photographers and artists are more interested in the accidental disorientation caused by this phenomenon, a feature of the equipment (or apparatus) being used. Take these examples by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joel Meyerowitz, Saul Leiter and Matt Stuart. These photographers have exploited the flatness of photographs to make witty, gently surreal images that generate a smile in the mind.

Some questions to consider:

• What skills does a photographer need to make pictures like these?
• What do pictures like these tell us about the characteristics of photographs?
• How important is humour in photography?

Let’s take a look at some other photographers who seem interested in deliberately interrupting our view of the world. How do they deal with a whole range of stuff that gets in the way? Why are they attracted to interruptions, obscurity and ambiguity and how do they help us get to grips with how photographs work?

Ray Metzker ‘Pictus Interruptus’

Metzker is known for his unconventional street photographs. More abstract than either Cartier-Bresson and Meyerowitz, Metzker exploits and exaggerates the properties of still photography – odd framing, multiple exposures, deep contrast, and, in this series, the interruption of various objects placed between the lens and the ‘subject’. Metzker seems to want to deliberately disorientate the viewer and question the indexical relationship between photography and the world.

It becomes clearer…that I am looking for the unknown which in fact disturbs, is foreign in subject but hauntingly right for the picture, the workings of which seem inexplicable, at the very least, a surprise.
— Ray Metzker

Kurt Caviezel ‘Animals’

Caviezel takes  images made by public video surveillance cameras that can be viewed live on the Internet. The ‘Animals’ series documents landscape views disrupted by birds and insects roosting on or crawling across the camera’s lens. He raises interesting questions about what the subject(s) of these photographs might be and what happens when nature and technology collide.

The series of insects and birds in my encyclopedia investigate the properties of the apparatus as a thing, as hardware, and the impact these properties have on the image. More often than not, the lenses and sensor are mounted in their box high up onto a wall that is only accessible by means of cranes or ladders for men. They are exposed to all kinds of weather and wildlife. Profiting from the situation, insects and birds turn the boxes into their habitat. Spiders spin their nets in front of the lens; flies and mosquitos crawl about the lens; bird rest on the boxes with their tail feathers hanging into the images. Needless to say, it was never the camera operators’ intention to photograph these animals. The animals and apparatus, however, could not care less about the agenda of the operators. They create images and aesthetics that a photographer with his or her own camera cannot produce unless they take pictures with a camera inhabited by moths. — Kurt Caviezel

Stephen Gill ‘Talking to Ants’

Stephen Gill is exactly the sort of photographer who might keep moths in his camera.  Gill’s practice is rooted in the urban landscape of London’s East End. He has utilised a variety of strategies for capturing the beauty of mundane reality, offering viewers new visions and surprising perspectives. In this series he disrupts his chosen views by introducing small objects into the body of the camera itself. The resulting photographs are chance arrangements of photogram-like abstractions seemingly superimposed on unremarkable sections of the Hackney landscape. 

The photographs in this series were made in East London between 2009 and 2013. They feature objects and creatures that I sourced from the local surroundings and placed into the body of my camera. I hoped through this method to encourage the spirit of the place to clamber aboard the images and be encapsulated in the film emulsion, like objects embedded in amber. My aim was to evoke the feeling of the area at the same time as describing its appearance as the subject was both in front and behind the camera lens at the same moment.
I like to think of these photographs as in-camera photograms in which conflict or harmony has been randomly formed in the final image depending on where the objects landed.
— Stephen Gill

Akihiko Miyoshi ‘Abstract Photographs’

Miyoshi is fascinated by the relationship between analogue and digital photography, between the indexicality of light and the abstraction of pixels. In this series he uses a large format camera, a mirror and coloured tape, creating disrupted self-portraits. Our sense of spatial relationships is confused. Initially, we are unable to trust what we see. Slowly, we are able to disentangle the visual clues in order to make sense of the picture. In the process we are reminded of the elements of photographic grammar. Abstraction can often be more effective way to remind us that we are looking at a photograph, an artificial construct rather than a faithful facsimile of the world.

• The photographs are taken facing a mirror with coloured tape adhered to the front of the camera’s lens as they attempt to unpack the structural mechanics of photographic representation. The tapes obstruct the lens creating a field of colour that cloud over the frame and the reflection of the artist. The photographs are on the verge of becoming abstract recalling colour field paintings. Yet paradoxically it simultaneously reinforces its photographic origins by insisting on its own indexicality.
• — Akihiko Miyoshi

Adrian Diubaldo ‘Broke Work’

Diabuldo is Bipolar. This series of photographs is a deliberate attempt to capture the fracturing of reality that occurs when he experiences a manic episode. It is interesting, in the context of this project, that his chosen technique was to disrupt ordinary views with an object, itself a fractured optical device. In these pictures, we are looking at the world through two pieces of glass which return a recognisable but warped and disturbing view of the world. It’s a reminder that reality is largely subjective, affected by our mental states and relative wellbeing. We all see the world differently and photography can be a useful means to communicate our individual visions.

When I shot these photographs, I used a piece of broken glass brick to interrupt a sense of full verisimilitude in the images.  The visual effect is meant to signify the trouble with getting back to a sense of “reality” that those faced with Bipolar constantly re-learn to achieve, each time they heal from a manic episode.
​– Adrian  Diubaldo

Some ​suggested activities:

• Students attempt to take a series of photographs in which they alter their viewpoint, camera angle and framing in order to juxtapose two or more objects that are distant in reality but become closely associated through the flattening effect of photography.
• Students could creatively explore one of the cardinal mistakes of photography by deliberately placing their finger in front of the lens. What effects can be achieved by this intentional disruption?
• Students apply strips of coloured tape (or similar) to a piece of clear plastic E.g. acetate. They then take a series of photographs looking through this disrupted surface, experimenting with focus and depth of field. Mirrors could be used to create abstract self-portraits and paint could provide a less structured alternative or addition to the strips of tape.
• Students gather a selection of small scraps of paper that may contain random text or graphic elements. They take a series of pictures in which the scraps of paper interrupt the view. Further experiments could be undertaken with other small objects.
• Students are given a small stack of Post It notes. They are instructed to find a large-ish window on which to stick the notes so that they can photograph through them. They should experiment with the arrangement of the notes and with focus and depth of field.

Make the following blog posts…

Development of your ideas by research and analysis / look at key photographers eg Ray Metzker

Photo shoot 1 /2 / 3

Experiment!

Show your outcomes…and evaluate the process

History of Photo-montage (Europe 1910 onwards)

• A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs.
• Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2)
• Artists such as Raoul Haussman , Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield employed cut-n-paste techniques as a form of propaganda…as did Soviet artists like Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitsky
• Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism…which is closely related to Surrrealism

Pop Art developments (USA and UK 1950s-)

• Photomontage was also used to great effect by various Pop Artists in the mid 20th Century
• Pop art was a reaction to abstract expressionism and was similar to DADA in some ways
• Many Pop Art images and constructions tackled popular consumerism, advertising, branding and marketing techniques
• Pop art also explored political concerns such as war, and gender roles too

Examples and Inspiration

• richard hamilton / kurt schwitters / peter blake /
• soviet art
• sammy slabinck
• john stezaker
• jesse treece
• jonny briggs
• david hockney
• Hannah hoch
• Annegret Soltau
• Brno de Szou
• Joachim Schmid
• Jesse Draxler
• Peter Kennard
• Eugenia Loli
• Sarah Eisenlohr 
• Grete Stern
• Jerry UELSMANN
• Duane Michals
• Edmund Teske
• Man Ray
• El Lissitsky
• Martha Rosler

In her artist statement Montana based artist Sarah Eisenlohr explains that her collages use places of existence to create fictional ones in an effort to demonstrate the ways in which humans have transformed the earth. These scenes often carry undertones of spirituality and faith. “I consider the figures’ desire for shelter, warmth, and something stronger than themselves as symbols of serenity that I seek through spirituality, while the use of sublime in my work points to a relationship with the divine,”

California based artist Eugenia Loli draws inspiration for her surreal art collages from vintage magazine images. Loli intends for her images to serve as a snap shot from a surreal movie from which the viewer can create his or her own narrative.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFkEKJpFILw/?igshid=1l1e4m7rvbnfm

Task 1 : deadline Friday 13th September

1. Create a blog post that includes a clear understanding of the history and background of photo-montage.
2. Include a moodboard / mindmap
3. Add examples of Early – late 20th Century Photomontage eg Hannah Hoch

Task 2 : deadline = Friday 20th September

1. Choose a specific photo-montage artist and write/create a CASE STUDY
2. This must include a detailed analysis of 1 x key image by the artist
3. Add TECHNICAL -VISUAL-CONCEPTUAL-CONTEXTUAL understanding

Task 3 : deadline = Friday 20th September

1. Create a set of 3-5 photo-montages using a mixture of your own imagery and “found” imagery….(this could be archival imagery)
2. TAKE 100-200 NEW PHOTOS TO CREATE MATERIAL FOR YOUR EXPERIMENTS
3. Show your process clearly…remember to add screen shots etc
4. Evaluate your process…describe and explain what you have done, why, how etc

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KEY COMPONENTS AND DISTINGUISHING FEATURES of PHOTO-MONTAGE

• A NARRATIVE, CONCEPT OR THEME (A MESSAGE OR A COMMENT)
• ARCHIVAL / VINTAGE IMAGERY COMBINED WITH OWN IMAGERY
• SUBVERSION OF MEANING—-POSTMODERNISM

SOURCE MATERIAL YOU CAN USE

• NEWSPAPERS
• MAGAZINES
• ORIGINAL IMAGERY (from studio, tableau, other portraits etc)
• INTERNET-SOURCED IMAGERY
• BOOKS

TECHNIQUES

• MANUAL CUT-N-PASTE (SCISSORS, SCALPEL AND GLUE)
• PHOTOSHOP –
• selection tools (to cut and move elements of images)
• free transform (CTRL T)– to move, re-size and shape elements
• layers and layer masks
• opacity tool
• blending options
• distortion
• proportion
• scale

Ensure you have enough evidence of…

1. moodboards
2. mindmaps
3. case studies (artist references)
4. action plans
5. photoshoots + contact sheets (annotated)
6. appropriate selection and editing techniques
7. presentation of final ideas and personal responses
8. analysis and evaluation of process
9. compare and contrast to a key photographer
10. critique / review / reflection of your work

Ensure you discuss / describe / explain your images using key words and vocab…