Born in 1961 in Morocco and Londoner since 1973, Hassan Hajjaj, lives and works since then between two countries. He is also influenced by cultural and musical scenes London, only by its northern heritage African. His artistic universe translates its ability to build bridges between these two cultures. Large coloured compositions, adopting the codes of photography contemporary fashion and pop art, they cross styles, universe and icons.
What I want to create
I come proudly from two different cultures .Indeed I’m Austrian and Mexican, two completely different cultures. This is part of my identity because I grew up with these two different origins and I made it in my own. So I wanted to take pictures that represents my two origins. What I find pleasant in Hassan Hajjaj’s photography is that he shows his cultures very proudly. I love the colours, the poses, the clothes and its makes me smile.
PRACTICAL WORK: This term you have 6 weeks to complete all work, including essay and photobook or film. This include all relevant blog posts demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of: RESEARCH > ANALYSIS > PLANNING > RECORDING, EXPERIMENTATION > PRESENTATION > EVALUATION.
DEADLINE: MUST complete final photo-shoots/ moving image recordings by end of January 2022
ESSAY: We will continue to spend 1 lesson a week every Wednesdays on CONTEXTUAL STUDIES where you will be learning about critical theory, photo history and contemporary practice as well as developing academic study skills to help you writing your essay. However, it is essential that you are organising your time effectively and setting aside time outside of lessons to read, study and write.
DEADLINE: Essay MUST be handed in Mon 31 Jan 2022
PHOTOBOOK / FILM: For the whole month of January you will be developing and designing your photobook which will include your essay and somewhere between 40-60 images sequenced to tell a story. For those making a film you will spend January editing moving images and sound in Premiere.
MOCK EXAM: 7 – 11 Feb 2022 3 days controlled test (15 hours) Groups: 13B: MON 7 – WED 9 FEB 13C: WED 7 – FRI 11 FEB
DEADLINE: Completion of photobook or film LAST DAY OF YOUR MOCK EXAM.
PLANNER – Download and save in your folder. Make sure you monitor and track your progress.
Week 15: 5 – 9 Jan Essay writing: Academic study skills Contextual Study: Decoding Photography
Wed: Academic Sources
Research and identify 3-5 literary sources from a variety of media such as books, journal/magazines, internet, Youtube/video that relates to your personal study and artists references .
Begin to read essay, texts and interviews with your chosen artists as well as commentary from critics, historians and others.
It’s important that you show evidence of reading and draw upon different pints of view – not only your own.
Take notes when you’re reading…key words, concepts, passages
Write down page number, author, year, title, publisher, place of publication so you can list source in a bibliography
Bibliography
List all the sources that you have identified above as literary sources. Where there are two or more works by one author in the same year distinguish them as 1988a, 1988b etc. Arrange literature in alphabetical order by author, or where no author is named, by the name of the museum or other organisation which produced the text. Apart from listing literature you must also list all other sources in alphabetical order e.g. websites/online sources, Youtube/ DVD/TV.
Quotation and Referencing:
Why should you reference?
To add academic support for your work
To support or disprove your argument
To show evidence of reading
To help readers locate your sources
To show respect for other people’s work
To avoid plagiarism
To achieve higher marks
What should you reference?
Anything that is based on a piece of information or idea that is not entirely your own.
That includes, direct quotes, paraphrasing or summarising of an idea, theory or concept, definitions, images, tables, graphs, maps or anything else obtained from a source
How should you reference?
Use Harvard System of Referencing…see Powerpoint: harvard system of referencing for further details on how to use it.
https://vimeo.com/223710862
Here is an full guide on how to use Harvard System of Referencing including online sources, such as websites etc.
Thurs: Essay Question
Think of a hypothesis and list possible essay questions
Below is a list of possible essay questions that may help you to formulate your own.
THUR: Essay Plan Make a plan that lists what you are going to write about in each paragraph – essay structure
Essay question:
Opening quote
Introduction (250-500 words): What is your area study? Which artists will you be analysing and why? How will you be responding to their work and essay question?
Pg 1 (500 words): Historical/ theoretical context within art, photography and visual culture relevant to your area of study. Make links to art movements/ isms and some of the methods employed by critics and historian.
Pg 2 (500 words): Analyse first artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Pg 3 (500 words): Analyse second artist/photographer in relation to your essay question. Present and evaluate your own images and responses.
Conclusion (250-500 words): Draw parallels, explore differences/ similarities between artists/photographers and that of your own work that you have produced
EssayIntroduction In this lesson you will write a 45 mins draft essay introduction following these steps:
Open a new Word document > SAVE AS: Essay draft
Copy essay question into Essay title: Hypothesis > if you don’t have one yet, make one!
Copy your essay introduction (from Essay Plan) which will give you a framework to build upon and also copy your Statement of Intent.
Identify 2 quotes from sources identified in an earlier task using Harvard System of Referencing.
Use one quote as an opening quote:Choose a quote from either one of your photographers or critics. It has to be something that relates to your investigation.
Begin to write a paragraph (250-500 words) answering the following questions below.
You got 45 mins to write and upload to the blog!
Think about an opening that will draw your reader in e.g. you can use an opening quote that sets the scene. Or think more philosophically about the nature of photography and and feeble relationship with reality.
You should include in your introduction an outline of your intention of your study e.g.
What are you going to investigate.
How does this area/ work interest you?
What are you trying to prove/challenge, argument/ counter-argument?
Whose work (artists/photographers) are you analysing and why?
What historical or theoretical context is the work situated within. Include 1 or 2 quotes for or against.
What links are there with your previous studies?
What have you explored so far in your Coursework or what are you going to photograph?
How did or will your work develop.
What camera skills, techniques or digital processes in Photoshop have or are you going to experiment with?
Use 500 words blog post you produced before Christmas in relation to Art Movement and Isms as a basis for this paragraph
Select at least two qoutes from your literary sources (see list below) that you can incorporate into your paragraph.
Your paragraph must include visual examples of artists making work within that art movement that is relevant to your Personal Study.
Complete Paragraph 1 and upload to the blog at the end of lesson
Paragraph 1 Structure (500 words): Use subheading. This paragraph covers the first thing you said in your introduction that you would address.The first sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph. Other sentences develop the subject of the paragraph.
Content: you could look at the following…exemplify your hypothesis within a historical and theoretical context. Write about how your area of study and own work is linked to a specific art movement/ ism. Research and read key text and articles from critics, historians and artists associated with the movement/ism. Use quotes from sources to make a point, back it up with evidence or an example (a photograph), explain how the image supports the point made or how your interpretation of the work may disapprove. How does the photograph compare or contrast with others made by the same photographer, or to other images made in the same period or of the same genre by other artists. How does the photograph relate to visual representation in general, and in particularly to the history and theory of photography, arts and culture.
Include relevant examples, illustrations, details, quotations, and references showing evidence of reading, knowledge and understanding of history, theory and context!
WED 12 JAN: CONTEXTUAL STUDIES Decoding Photography • Select one of the questions listed • Read text in detail, make notes and identify 3 quotes • Select one image from examples mentioned in text and apply your own interpretation of the photograph by applying theory and critical thinking • Incorporate the 3 quotes above into your interpretation of the image and make sure you comment on the quotes.
RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring footage from video/ audio recordings to lessons:
EDITING: • Save media in folder on local V:Data Drive • Organisation: Create a new project in Premiere • Editing: begin editing video/ audio clips on the timeline • Adjusting: recordings in Colour / B&W appropriate to your intentions.
EXPERIMENTING: • Video: experimenting with sequencing using relevant transitions and effects • Sound: consider how audio can add depth to your film, such as ambient sound, sound fx, voice-over, interview, musical score etc. • Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1280 x 720 pixels) and import as a Psd file into your project folder on the V-Data drive.
EVALUATING: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on your artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaboration. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting/ production for further annotation. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
THURS/FRI: 13 – 14 Jan PRESENTATION – Work-in-Progress
PRESENTING: Prepare a 3-5 mins presentation on something that you are working on right now in your project. For example:
An idea An image A photo-shoot An experiment An inspiration New research New development
Use blog posts to present in class. As a class we will give constructive feedback on how each student can develop their work and project.
UNDERSTANDING FILM EDITING: NARRATIVE, CINEMATOGRAPHY, SOUND, MISE-EN-SCENE, EDITING
Earlier in the academic year we looked at narrative in photography, literature and cinema. Let’s refresh our memory and revisit some of the theories around visual storytelling.
Blog: Produce a number of posts that show evidence of the following:
1. Research a film and describe its story – including subject-matter, genre and style etc.
2. Who is the film director? Why did he/she make it? (intentions/ reasons) Who is it for? (audience) How was it received? (any press, awards, legacy etc.)
3. Deconstruct the film’s narrative, editing and sound, such as; scenes, action, shot sizes, camera angles and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.
CASE-STUDIES: Look below for examples of films and theory on editing and sound used in understanding cinema and language of moving images.
THEORY
For more details see Dr McKinlay’s blog on Narrative in Cinema and The Language of Moving Image which look more specifically at some of the recognised conventions and key terminology associated with moving image (film, TV, adverts, animations, installations and other moving image products) which will help to create your own moving image product. Remember the key is to know what the rules are before trying to break them.
The following recognised conventions should help students to deconstruct key moving image media texts and will also help students to create their own moving image products, working within or against these conventions. Remember the key is to know what the rules are before trying to break them.
As alluded to, when looking at moving image products, it is useful to make a link to NARRATIVE THEORY as most often the key ideas, codes and conventions that are put to use for moving image products, are usually put together to serve ideas around NARRATIVE. For example, character, theme, motivation, empathy, ideology and so on.
Here are a few things to consider when working with Moving Image. (These are extracts from Dr McKinlay’s blog posts above)
THE CAMERA: Here are some of the key features of the camera in terms of creating a moving image product.
Focus and Depth of Field: The focus is used to direct and prioritise elements in a shot and therefore prioritise certain information. For example, it will determine who the audience should look at (even if we are not listening to them). It may switch our focus (known technically as a pull focus / rack focus / follow focus) between one element and another. Remember that the elements may not be people, but could be objects, spaces, shapes or colours, which may represent an idea, theme, belief etc (see the post on Semiotics)
Tracking / Panning / Craning / Tilting / Hand held / Steadicam
Establishing Shot / Long Shot / Medium Shot / Close-up / Big Close-Up / Extreme Close Up (students often struggle with the first and the last again issues with SCALE, SIZE & SPACE, so practice is really important)
Insert Shot
THE EDIT: Moving image products (like other media products: print, radio, on-line) are clearly constructed around the concept of putting one thing next to another. This is editing.
Editing is the process of manipulating separate images into a continuous piece of moving image which develops characters, themes, spaces and ideas through a series of events, interactions and occurrences. As such, it is (usually) LINEAR and SEQUENTIAL, although, it must be remembered that moving image products often parachute the audience into a particular moment and usually leave them at an equally unresolved moment. As such BACK STORY,FORESHADOWING, REPETITION, ELLIPSIS, DEVELOPMENT, ENIGMA, DRAMATIC IRONY and other concepts are really important to always bear in mind. Again NARRATIVE THEORY is really important to an understanding of moving image products.
Moving from Camera to Edit, would be to look at the way camera can frame and position characters and thereby the audience by creating ‘subjectivity‘ and empathy in the way they are constructed. This can be used to deliberately ‘stitch‘ the audience into the text in a deliberate and particular way.
This idea of sewing / stitching the audience into the text was developed by theoreticians of the “Screen theory” approach — Colin MacCabe, Stephen Heath and Laura Mulvey, so follow this link to find out a little bit more.
SHOT SEQUENCING 1: Shot / Reverse Shot
The Shot / Reverse Shot a really good starting point for students to both think about and produce moving image products. The basic sequence runs from a wide angle master shot that is at a 90′ angle to (usually) two characters. This sets up the visual space and allows the film-maker to to then shoot separate close-ups, that if connected through an eye-line match are able to give the impression that they are opposite each other talking. The shots are usually over the shoulder. Firstly, they include both characters – which are called EXTERNAL REVERSES. As the drama increases, the framing of each shot then excludes the back of the head of the other character and moves in to a much closer over the shoulder shot – which are called INTERNAL REVERSES. Remember that these shots are not creating a direct look to camera. To look directly at the camera creates a very different relationship between the characters and the audience and is a technique that is only used for specific techniques / genres / film-makers.
The basic edit: cut/fade/dissolve
SHOT SEQUENCING 2: Shot progression
Shot progression usually involves the following shots (although not always in the same order). The use of these shots allow the audience to understand SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS between locations, people, movements etc. The length of shot will determine the drama, empathy, theme etc. The choice of how to sequence each shot will determine the AESTHETIC QUALITY of the product. The next sequence will then follow a similar pattern, which again allows the audience to understand concepts such as SPACE, TIME, DISTANCE, MOVEMENT, MOTIVATION, PLOT, THEME etc.
establishing shot / ES, moving to
wide shot / WS,
to medium shot / MS,
to close up / CU,
to big close up / BCU;
and then back out again
The use of sequential editing (editing one clip to another) allows for a number of key concepts to be produced:
parallel editing: two events editing together – so that they may be happening at the same time, or not?
flashback / flash-forward – allowing time to shift
montage – a series of independent and perhaps unconnected shots to be edited together
CONTINUITY EDITING
Continuity editing can be seen as the opposite of montage editing as the main aim is to create a sense of realism or ‘believability’ known as verisimilitude and has it’s own structure of rules where shots are edited together at particular times or on particular shots. For example:
match on action
eye-line match
graphic match
sound bridge
30′ rule
180′ rule
Editing is the process of putting one element / idea next to another. It is known as the Kuleshov effect, in that adding one element / idea to another actually produces a third idea / element, which if constructed well can produce in the audience an idea that isn’t actually present! If this sounds confusing, the basic rule in editing is you don’t show everything literally, you need to use just enough information to provide ideas and suggestions for your audience to develop EMPATHY and INVOLVEMENT with characters, themes, setting, plot. As such, what you leave out known as ELLIPSIS is just as important as what you put in. Again the ideas of SPACE, SIZE & SCALE are really important, because you need to frame your shots with appropriate SIZE AND SCALE and trim your shots so that they are not too long ie creating the appropriate SPACE for ideas, characters, themes, the plot etc to develop.
The Kuleshov effect is a film editing (montage) effect demonstrated by Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation. Through this phenomenon we can suggest meaning and manipulate space, as well as time.
The Kuleshov Effect
Kuleshov edited a short film in which a shot of the expressionless face of Tsarist matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with various other shots (a bowl of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on a divan). The film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on Mosjoukine’s face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was “looking at” the bowl of soup, the girl in the coffin, or the woman on the divan, showing an expression of hunger, grief, or desire, respectively. The footage of Mosjoukine was actually the same shot each time.
Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of film editing. The implication is that viewers brought their own emotional reactions to this sequence of images, and then moreover attributed those reactions to the actor, investing his impassive face with their own feelings. Kuleshov believed this, along with montage, had to be the basis of cinema as an independent art form.
Chris Marker: La Jétte
Chris Marker, La Jettee, (1962)
Chris Marker, (1921-2012) was a French filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor and multi-media artist who has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his complex queries about time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. Marker’s La Jetée is one of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made, a tale of time travel. What makes the film interesting for the purposes of this discussion, is that while in editing terms it uses the language of cinema to construct its narrative effect, it is composed entirely of still images showing imagesfrom the featureless dark of the underground caverns of future Paris, to the intensely detailed views across the ruined city, and the juxtaposition of destroyed buildings with the spire of the Eiffel Tower. You can read more here about the meaning of the film and it is available on Vimeo here in its entirety (29 mins)
Mark Cousins:Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise
A narrative can also be made constructed entirely of archive footage as in Atomic, Living in Dread and Promise, a film that shows impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times – protest marches, Cold War sabre-rattling, Chernobyl and Fukishima – but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how x-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. The nuclear age has been a nightmare, but dreamlike too. Made by director and film critic, Mark Cousins and featuring original music score by Mogwai, it was first broadcast on BBC4 as part of Storyville documentary. Your can read a Q&A with Cousins’ here where he discusses the making of the film.
Christopher Nolan: Memento
Memento is a 2000 American neo-noirpsychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Guy Pearce stars as a man who, as a result of an injury, has anterograde amnesia (the inability to form new memories) and has short-term memory loss approximately every fifteen minutes. He is searching for the people who attacked him and killed his wife, using an intricate system of Polaroid photographs and tattoos to track information he cannot remember.
The film is presented as two different sequences of scenes interspersed during the film: a series in black-and-white that is shown chronologically, and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order (simulating for the audience the mental state of the protagonist). The two sequences meet at the end of the film, producing one complete and cohesive narrative
Telling a story in reverse can be an interesting way to construct a narrative. Both cinema and literature are good at jumping between different time modes, past, present and future. Moving image and sound can enhance these different temporal shifts and written language is good and transporting your imagination from one time zone to another. Photography is mute but different strategies can be employed such as changing from colour to monochrome suggesting a different time or a different set of images. Using old photographs from archives, or found imagery can add complexity too, and including words can support a sequence of images, or add tension between the visual and the textual adding other elements to a photographic narrative.
Memento: Narrative and Postmodernism is also being looked at in Media Studies and if you are studying this subject make sure you include knowledge and understanding learned. Adopting a inter-disciplinary approach to your work is advantageous and being able to use theory and/ or context from other subjects will add value to your overall quality of your work and potentially achieve higher marks.
Theorists like Sergei Eisenstein, D.W Griffiths, Lev Kuleshov, Jean Epstein, John Grierson (also the coiner of the term ‘documentary’), Dziga Vertov, Andre Bazin, and Siegfried Kracauer went into sometimes painful detail to articulate theories about how various film and editing combinations created different forms of meaning. Many of these ideas remain surprisingly robust and useful a century later, and remain the bedrock of much of the theory taught to film students.
MISE EN SCENE
Mise en scene plays a huge role in communicating the tone of a story — but what is mise en scene? In classical terms, mise en scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play or film. Today, mise en scene is regarded as all of the elements that go into any single shot of a production. Click below to learn more about mise-en-scene
Four of the most important aspects of mise en scene are: sets, props, costume/hair/makeup, and lighting. Here are examples from filmmakers Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson on how to apply color to these four aspects.
VIDEO ART are not following moving image conventions as described above. Instead they are more fragmented in structure and often don’t follow a narrative in a linear sense. Often they are concerned with other elements, such as repetition, parody, chance, play or staging something for the camera. For more help and guidance – see my a previous blog posts here from 2017
Tom Pope, Art and Protests, Jersey Live film stuff
You may explore different approaches to image-making across different genres such as performance, photography, video,multi-media, installation, land/ environmental art, experimental film-making and avant-garde cinema.
See more examples here of video art and experimental films in the blog post from our 90 sec film project on ART & ACTIVISM.
Moving image depends on sound for much of its’ meaning. It is impossible to overstate how important a role audio plays in the film viewing experience. While it’s perfectly natural to be drawn to the visual side of film making, those striking visuals don’t hold the same weight without strong cinematic sound design to back them up. Whereas a painting is purely visual and a song can be purely aural, cinema combines sight and sound for a unified experience where one bolsters and elevates the other. Click on link below and learn about the role of the sound designer and other sound design jobs, the fundamentals of sound design, and to check out some examples from the movies with the best sound design.
Sound design is how filmmakers flesh out the aural world of a film to enhance the mood, atmosphere, and/or tone. Sound design components include sound effects or SFX sound design, mixing, Foley sound design, dialogue, and music. Sound design is the final and most important element needed to create an immersive experience for the audience.
Examples of sound design in practice:
A sound designer working in the sci-fi, horror, or fantasy genres will likely be tasked with conceiving original sounds for unique sources. What does an alien ship sound like? How do you approach horror creature sound design? All of these are questions a sound designer will devise answers for.
Let’s take a look at District 9‘ssound design as an example. In this scene, the sounds of the mech suit, alien weapons, computerized UI, the spaceship, and the creature vocalizations all required immense creativity in District 9’s sound design.
This is sound design from Neill Blomkamp’s District 9
The Coen Brothers have a keen ear for cinematic sound design. Their filmography is jam-packed with excellent examples of sound design, including some of the best sound design in films. Their work showcases the variety of different directions a sound designer can take the material.
This can range from stylized near-cartoon sound design in something like Raising Arizona to something more psychologically-driven like Barton Fink’ssound design. John Goodman’s ferocious roars, hysterical dialogue, the rush of fire, and the long decay of his shotgun blast, are all sound design examples culminating in one cohesive moment.
Barton Fink sound design in action
In addition to individual sound effects, sound designers also create what are known as soundscapes. You can think of a soundscape as a bed of audio that music, SFX, and dialogue rest on top of. Creative soundscapes are a great way to enhance a film’s sense of atmosphere or style.
Many of the most memorable soundscapes find themselves at home in the horror genre. An eerie soundscape can be a great way to double down on the creepiness of on-screen visuals. The films of David Lynch almost always feature incredibly inventive soundscapes that he often crafts himself.
In this example from Eraserhead, notice how much atmosphere and dread are generated through the powerful and oppressive soundscape. The droning, surreal tones are layered with industrial noises that magnify the bleak nature of the environment surrounding our protagonist and the end effect is staggeringly effective.
Sound editing vs sound mixing
To continue familiarizing yourself with audio post-production and to get a good handle on the distinction between sound editing and sound mixing, read article on the nuances that distinguish them here.
What you hear on a movie’s soundtrack is multilayered. Dialogue, ADR, sound effects, Foley, music — it’s all part of the overall sound design. Putting it all together is a massive job and it’s handled by multiple teams with different taks. So, that brings us to the question of the hour: what is the difference between sound editing vs sound mixing?
Catch a few scenes from iconic movies that delineate between editing and mixing, below.
Sound editing is the creation, recording, or re-recording of sounds.
When you’re on set, capturing quality sound is critical. But the majority of the sounds you hear in the movies are rarely ever captured this way. Often, the main focus on set, is the blocking and staging of the actors, and perfecting the execution of their lines.
Many of the sounds are added in later. The collection and creation of these sounds is sound editing. We’ll get more into the ways artists collect these sounds soon. Once these sounds are added in, then sound mixing can begin. The main goal in mixing is to make sure that all of the sounds, including recorded dialogue, are as seamless as possible.
Let’s dive a little deeper into both sound editing and mixing.
Week: 18-19 -20: 24 Jan– 11 Feb MOCK EXAM 3 days (15 hrs) Mon 7 – Fri 11 Feb Finish Editing Film & Complete Essay
In the next three week focus on beginning to edit and collect all your images, archival material and texts, including finishing writing your essay needed to complete your photobook.
ESSAY: Lesson time (Fri): Complete conclusion, bibliography, proof read and hand in draft essay no later than Mon 31 Jan.
You want to aim for a draft layout and hand in draft version of your essay before your Mock Exam day, then use that day to fine tune design and complete essay.
FILM: Lesson time (Mon, Tue, Thurs & Fri) Produce a number of blogposts that show evidence of the following:
STORYBOARDING: Re-evaluate your own film’s narrative and storyboard including details of individual scenes, action, shot sizes, camera angles and mise-en-scene (the arrangement of the scenery in front of the camera) from location, props, people, lighting, sound etc.
Narrative:What is your story? Describe in:
3 words
A sentence
A paragraph
2. RECORDING: Produce a number of photographic response to your Personal Study and bring footage from video/ audio recordings to lessons:
• Save footage in folder on local V:Data Drive • Organisation: Create a new project in Premiere
3. EDITING: • Begin editing video/ audio clips on the timeline • Adjust recordings in Colour / B&W appropriate to your intentions. • Video: experimenting with editing and sequencing using relevant transitions and effects • Sound: consider how audio can add depth to your film, such as ambient sound, sound fx, voice-over, interview, musical score etc. • Title and credits: Consider typography/ graphics/ styles etc. For more creative possibilities make title page in Photoshop (format: 1280 x 720 pixels) and import as a Psd file into your project folder on the V-Data drive.
Produce screen prints of layout ideas as you progress and add to Blog for further annotation, commenting on editing and sequencing video and sound etc.
4. EVALUATION: Write an evaluation on the blog that reflects on your artistic intentions, film-editing process and collaboration. Include screen-prints from Premiere and a few ‘behind the scenes’ images of the shooting/ production for further annotation. Comment on the following:
How successful was your photoshoot and experimentation?
What references did you make to artists references? – comment on technical, visual, contextual, conceptual?
How are you going to develop your project from here? – comment on research, planning, recording, experimenting.
What are you going to do next? – what, why, how, when, where?
5. BLOG POSTS: Make sure all blog posts are finished including, research, analysis, experimentation, annotation and an evaluation of final outcomes.
6. FINAL PRINTS: Select a set of 5-6 photographs as final outcomes and evaluate – explaining in some detail how well you realised your intentions and reflect on what you have learned in LOVE & REBELLION project.
Save final prints in our shared PRINT folder (no later than 15:00 end of your Mock exam day) in a high-resolution (4000 pixels on the long edge.) Save each images in your name i.e. first name_surname_title_1, and 2, 3 and so on.
M:DepartmentsPhotographyStudentsImage TransferPRINTINGA2 Coursework Prints Spring 2022
Claude Cahun is a woman who has reinvented herself through photography by posing for the lens with a keen sense of staging: dressed as a woman or a man, shaved or wicking, masked or disguised. The most radical pieces, such as his self-portraits made in 1928 or the sets such as “I’m in Training”, foreshadow contemporary performance. Each is a variation on the question of identity and gender, the body and its metamorphosis, individualism and the sense of exception
Analysis
Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob), Untitled 1921–22
This definitely shows gender identity. We can see the great Claude cahun in full action. In this photo she has chosen to represent herself bald. Even her eyebrows are not showing. She is dressed in what appears to be a fairly masculine costume. The costume is black, quite large and a bit large for her. She has a white shirt underneath that matches her handkerchief . Her position is in my opinion mixed . We can see that her fist is tight as before a fight. And on her right side she puts her hand on her hip which gives a rather relaxed mood. Her face expresses a little questioning. Although she dresses in a fairly masculine way you can see in her face that her upper lip has lipstick. What could represent femininity. This image is in black and white which creates a good contrast and a dramatic mood.
Comparison
Claude Cahun
Hassan Hajjaj Moroccan Pop Art
These photographers have a completely different style. The only similarity is that the models are placed in the middle but they don’t even have position. In the background of the photo of Hassan Hajjaj we can see patterns and colours while that of Claude cahun you can not really den something. The photo of Claude cahun is black and white which creates contrast while that of Hassan Hajjaj is in colour to make resort the beautiful Moroccan motifs.
‘Claude Cahun, born Lucy Renee Mathilde Schwob, was a French lesbian photographer, sculptor and writer. Schwob adopted the pseudonym Claude Cahun in 1917 and is best known for self-portraits, in which Cahun assumed a variety of personae.’ As a gender neutral person, Claude created many artworks starting at 20 years old, up to her death in her 50’s. She used this artwork to express her identity- this being mostly gender identity. I would describe her work as fascinating and odd with a sense of deep meaning yet a bit of fun.
Much of the artist’s work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. This also meant that many of her found pieces were not dated or named.
“Here, Cahun presents herself as bold, androgynous, and doubled by a mirrored-reflection. The image is lush with textures and tones: the checkerboard jacket, highlighted hair, and smooth sun-kissed skin all make the image vivid with the abundance of life. Traditionally, the inclusion of a mirror in art was used as a convenient way to expose two enticing views of a female subject or, alternatively, as a way to emphasize a woman’s vanity. In this case however, the ‘real’ Cahun looks away from the mirror and engages with and meets the viewer’s gaze. Cahun rejects being typecast as a passive woman who is visually consumed by admiring herself. There is no sin of vanity at work here, and instead qualities of thoughtfulness, exploration, and self-assurance confront the viewer.” – Art historian Shelley Rice
Claude Cahun was not the basic photographer of her time, she liked to explore different methods and tried many different things with her artworks, for example double exposure (as you can see above), photomontages and the use of masks and other props. In this image we see a dark backdrop- this makes Claude’s light skin pop, making her the only focus point. As it is only her head and shoulders in the photograph, it allows the viewers to focus on her facial expression and bold look. The way the two exposures have been also put together create a sense of symmetry in the image- even though there is not.
Lucas Simoes is an independent artist based in São Paulo, with a background in architecture and design. His experiences of training as an architect redefined his perceptions of art and opened new paths of discovery. He was born in 1980, whereas Cahun was born in 1894- this is almost a generation apart.
His works explore the limits and unpredictability of behaviour of materials and the final results always spans between an act of research and a genuine art piece. I will be focusing on his photographic project called ‘Burns’ where he would print out photographs of people and create burns in the paper.
“To burn pictures, a way of physically erase a memory by burning it, so with time, the image that is burnt will disappear from your memory. The pictures in that series are not mine, I took it from many different sources, and the coloured tag under it is my way of telling that the image is not original, but printed in a paper, it symbolises the “ink on paper”…
Every photograph we take represents a memory, one we can see clearer than our brains remember. In my project, this could represent how people are seen in memory/remembered- and how it varies and changes.
“Because personal and collective memories are so inextricably intertwined with photographs—the result of the medium’s progressive saturation of everyday life for the past century and a half—this revolutionary change in the production and dissemination of photographic images is altering society’s relationship to memory.” – https://www.eastman.org/matter-memory-photography-object-digital-age
He describes these photographs as memories which he is ‘burning away’. This work is different to Claude’s in the sense that hers shows confidence and almost self-discovery in some, whereas Lucas’s work represents the erasing of memories and pictures from someone’s mind. He also added strips of hot colour to his work which made the images pop- and Claude’s images consisted of high contrast which made her images pop in a different way to Lucas’s. Another difference between these two artists is that Claude would take self portraits- and Lucas took images of others that weren’t his.
Jesse Draxler is a mixed media and multidisciplinary artist, and his pieces combine painting, photography, collage, typography and digital painting. He also wrote a book in which he incorporated the first photograph below among many others. “Misophonia incorporates various mediums and styles from figurative painting and harsh typography to deliriously textural photography and collage. The book serves not only as a master collection of Draxler’s work throughout his career to date, but also as a living organism, in which each piece communicates with the others, the whole, and itself.”
The photographs above are the ones I will be focusing on. Draxler cut out sections of the same person at different angles and put them all together. With my project this could potentially represent the different angles and perspectives that people are seen by.
Identity is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, which could include there surroundings, upbringing, gender, cultural, social identity, geographical identity, political identity as well as loss of identity. An example of this could be someones environment which they are surrendered by such as a coastal environment as it could impact them in several ways due to their surroundings.
Going ahead i’m going to take photos in relation to the mood board above as I feel the way the artists have disguised the faces to almost hide their identity, makes the photos have more depth and meaning to them. Furthermore I would also like to take photographs of peoples environment which they are surrounded by as I believe this adds to peoples identities.
Claude Cahun was a French lesbian photographer, sculptor and writer. She has attracted what amounts to a cult following among art historians and critics working from postmodern, feminist, and queer theoretical perspectives. She is most remembered for her highly staged self-portraits and tableaux that incorporated the visual aesthetics of surrealism. Many of Cahun’s portraits feature the artist looking directly at the viewer, head shaved, often revealing only head and shoulders (eliminating body from the view), and a blurring of gender indicators and behaviours. Cahun made work for herself and did not want to be famous. It wasn’t until 40 years after her death that her work became recognized. In many ways, Cahun’s life was marked by a sense of role reversal, and like many early queer pioneers, their public identity became a commentary upon the public’s notions of sexuality, gender, beauty, and logic. Her adoption of a gender neutral name and her androgynous self-portraits display a revolutionary way of thinking and creating, experimenting with the audience’s understanding of photography as a documentation of reality
Laia Abril
Abril takes photographs associated with eating disorders, rape, abortion and sexuality. Since 2010, Abril has been working on various projects exploring the subject of eating disorders. Abril is a thoughtful conceptualist who tells metaphorical stories about difficult subjects using a mixture of research and whatever raw material comes to hand: found photos, her own images, family photographs, personal testimonies, official archives, interviews and diaries. “There are so many stories,” says Abril, “and it was important to find ways of telling them visually. Her work typically studies hard , painful subjects that seem difficult to talk about.
Photographers Cahun and Abril both relate to the theme of identity. They send a strong message and address serious matters that should be publicly discussed and accepted. Both photographers express how people are worried about how others view you as a person. They both express sexuality in their work, Cahun’s work protested gender and sexual norms, Abril had a project that began with the intention of depicting notions of femininity of the young lesbian community in New York:
Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and expressions that make a person or group of people. People categories others identity as positive or destructive. A psychological identity relates to self-image and self-esteem.
Identity can be manipulated by various ways, such as parental upbringing, friends, family, culture, work, place and environment, I plan to use this in my photography work, mainly within Photoshop.
Mood Board
Initial Ideas
My first idea is to take about 3-4 photos then line them up in Photoshop, them merge them together, each photo will have the subject doing different facial expressions displaying various emotions. The 2 photos at each end will be anger with 1 hand on the hand creating a sandwich type concept. Additionally, I may add other photos of there face into the image, like the image of the girl with the lipstick on in the mood board.
Another idea is to mask the face in Photoshop and detach it from the head and fill it in with a black area behind the floating face, it could have items coming from behind the face out of the head.
Next, I could have a blank face then edit the faces upside down or swap peoples faces.
I could have 5 blank faces all the same then add facial features on each face, like steps. It shows the process of building identity.
Claude Cahun, born 1894 and died in 1954 , was a French lesbian photographer, sculptor and writer. In 1917 Claude was best known for self-portraits. These portraits where photographed to show off the culture or identity of lesbian/gay people. As for it was frowned apron to be that type of person in that time, these images (portraits) that Claude took were strong, powerful images that were hated by some but loved but others. The torture that if people in around 1917 chose to be somebody different to what society wanted us to be like , people would be beaten up, tormented , or even killed.
MOOD BOARD –
Images by Claude Cahun
1921 – Claude Cahun
This image of Claude herself shows her transformation of a girl into a boy like style. As for the short hair and the no makeup look as well as the boy fleece. In 1921 when this image had been taken, it was a horrible era for gay/trans people as for it was so disgusted by others. This image shows a reflection of Claudes face in the mirror, this may indicate that she looks at herself as a boy/lesbian, even in her own reflection. She looks at the camera with a strong look in her eyes that she’s not disheartened of who she is , she seems to give off a sense that she is proud of who she is. This reflection in the mirror gives off two sides to her life as for her being born one way and identifying as another.
Claude Cahun was a French lesbian photographer born in 1894 in Nantes, France. Cahun’s birth name given to her was Renee Mathilde Schwob, however she changed her legal name to Claude Cahun in 1917. Cahun was most recognised for her activist work repelling gender norms. She moved to Jersey in 1937 with her partner, Marcel Moore (named at birth as Suzanne Malherbe). The couple became active as resistance workers and propagandists during the German occupation of Jersey and the other Channel Islands. Cahun and Moore would attend Germany military events and placed activist leaflets in the pockets of soldiers, on chairs and even hid them in cigarette boxes for soldiers to later discover. Cahun continued to take self portraits presenting herself in non-binary characteristics until her later life, although she did not want to be famous therefore didn’t gain recognition for her photography until she died in 1954, after se and Moore had been arrested and sentenced to death in 1944 due to their activist movements. However before their death sentence, Jersey was liberated in 1945, resulting in both of their releases although Cahun later died due to being poorly treated in prison. Claude Cahun’s writings were published in 2002, as she leaves behind her iconic legacy in the non-binary and LGBTQ community.
The lighting in the image is rather soft, as it creates subtle shadows which can be seen in the face and especially under the eyes. However the juxtaposition between light and dark is still very intense. This is shown in the clothing, makeup and hair, and how they create an extreme contrast in tone against Cahun’s fair skin. The main source of light appears to be coming from behind the camera, as the face is lit quite evenly.
There is no distinct use of line in this photograph, as there is neither a repetition of line of use of leading lines, which makes the composition more complex.
Similar to the use of line, there is no representation of repetition in this image, presumably to focus on the activist message of the composition of the image.
The majority of the shapes in the image are organic and curved. The only representation of artificial shapes is the rounded weight in the hands of Cahun.
It is difficult to recognise the depth of field in this image as the background is made up of purely empty space, therefore making it difficult to compare the focal point’s focus with the background.
Although texture is not the main focus for this image, the overall texture of the image is rather smooth as the shapes in the photograph are organic and curved. There is no representation of rough or jagged edges.
There is a range of tones from dark to light in this image. The darkest sections of the photograph can be seen in the hair, clothing and makeup of Claude Cahun aswell as the background. The lightest areas are found in Cahun’s fair skin tone and the white images on the weights in Cahun’s arms. The image, overall, tends towards darkness as the entire background and elements of the foreground prioritise darker tones.
There is no colours featured in this photograph as the photo was taken in 1927, and colour photography was only made accessible in the late 1930’s. However I believe the vintage greyscale appearance of the photo adds a sense of intimidation and courage.
The composition of this photograph is very artificial and purposely set up. In the photograph, Cahun dresses as a ‘strong man’ from a circus, in order to create controversy over the stereotypical woman being weak or insignificant. This would have been a risky and revolutionary protest for both women and the LGBTQ community as these groups had been oppressed for centuries, yet Cahun celebrates her differences and sexuality.
