Pictorialism;

Pictorialism first was invented in 1902, however the concept also started to develop in the 1880s and onwards. It was considered an art movement that was the strongest from 1885 to 1915.The key characteristics of pictorialism was putting Vaseline on lens, scratching negatives, mixing chemicals in the dark room, and it was meant to look hand made to make it look like a natural painting. The key idea was to separate photography as an art form from photography used towards various scientific and documentary purposes.

The artists associated were Alfred Stieglitz, Peter Henry Emerson, Julia Margaret Cameron and ” the brotherhood of the linked ring”.

Romanticism was a big influence and “allegorical paintings”, this helped to develop the concept of pictorialism.

The methods/ processes involved were hand-made processes, this was all done to make the images look very similar to paintings and make them look natural with natural manipulation. r Consequently artists would stay focused on the choice of photo papers and chemical procedures capable of enhancing or reducing certain effects. For the same reason, some pictorialists were using special lenses to produce softer images, but the softening of focus during post-processing was certainly the most common practice.  For instance, pictorialists were very fond of using gum bichromate – it was an unusual strategy which involved multiple layers of chemicals and resulted in a painterly image resembling watercolour paintings. Another favourite procedure of pictorialists was an oil print, which was quite useful since it allowed photographers to be selective and manipulate the lighter areas of print while keeping the darker parts intact. Besides these marginalized approaches, pictorialists used to rely on more common yet artistic enough practices, such as cyanotype or platinum print.

REALISM/ STRAIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY

Time period; 1915

Key characteristics / conventions; it was meant to show photography as a new modern art, the images were meant to be taken in sharp focus, with no manipulation with a clearly focused camera.  Straight photography is also synonymous with pure photography, since both terms describe the camera’s ability to faithfully reproduce an image of reality.

Straight photography emphasizes and engages with the camera’s own technical capability to produce images sharp in focus and rich in detail. The term generally refers to photographs that are not manipulated, either in the taking of the image or by darkroom or digital processes, but sharply depict the scene or subject as the camera sees it.

Artists associated; Paul Strand , Edward Western was his inspiration from the previous art movement. “The Steerage”- Alfred Stieglitz then switched to straight photography from pictorialism.

Key works; many artists took inspiration from Picasso, as his paintings were very abstract.

Methods/processes; framing the images.The term generally refers to photographs that are not manipulated, either in the taking of the image or by darkroom or digital processes, but sharply depict the scene or subject as the camera sees it.

Contrast between pictorialist’s and realist’s;

Pictorialists were photographs who typically made on orthomatic dry plates, with emulsion speed at what would be by today’s standards somewhere between ISO 5 and 10. Mood was far more important than sharpness. The lenses used were capable of reasonably sharp results when well stopped down, but often the photographers of the day did not enjoy the advantages of bright light and stable objects so that they were forced to use wider apertures, where lens performance was considerably degraded.

The Realists, in contrast, were dedicated to creating photographs that were as sharp as possible, typically using large format sheet film cameras and very small apertures to maximize depth of field and sharpness. Most, though not all, were landscapes, usually of the American West. The Realists believed photography to be a totally new art form, NOT a tool or technique for prior forms of art.

‘Fixing the shadows’, we started by watching a documentary ’ from BBC Genius of Photography, Episode 1. Which was about the history of photography. This allowed us to gain a richer insight into how cameras and photography developed over time , and all the different unique techniques that were used before professional cameras were developed. It showed us how when one artist developed a new idea about how to take photos, a few moths or years later a new artist worked from their work and developed even more techniques and processes from that. Every time a new process was developed it had a completely different meaning around photography and tried to present images in many different ways. I will talk about some of these early processes in this essay.

Camera Obscura-

Photography first started to develop and get attention in late 1820s , in France. However the earliest known written account of a camera obscura was provided in 400BC. It was light from an illuminated object that passed through a pinhole into a dark room created an inverted image of the original object. In the 18th centry, a concept/ process was disovered- the camera obscura. This is an optical device which is the ancestor of modern cameras. From the 17th century onwards some artists used it as an aid to plotting compositions. Essentially the camera obscura consisted of a lens attached to an aperture on the side of a darkened tent or box. It is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. “Camera obscura” can also refer to analogous constructions such as a box or tent in which an exterior image is projected inside.

A visual representation of how it worked;

John Nicéphore Niepce

Nicéphore Niépce, in full Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce, (born March 7, 1765.France—died July 5, 1833, Chalon-sur-Saône), French inventor who was the first to make a permanent photographic image.

When lithography became a fashionable hobby in France in 1813, Niépce began to experiment with the then-novel printing technique. He sought a way to provide images automatically. He coated pewter with various light-sensitive substances in an effort to copy superimposed engravings in sunlight. From this he progressed in April 1816 to attempts at photography which he called heliography(sundrawing), with a camera. He recorded a view from his workroom window on paper sensitized with silver chloride but was only partially able to fix the image.

Louis Daguerre + Daguerreotype 

The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of photography. 

Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate.

In contrast to photographic paper, a daguerreotype is not flexible and is rather heavy.The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp. It has a mirror-like surface and is very fragile. Since the metal plate is extremely vulnerable, most daguerreotypes are presented in a special housing. Different types of housings existed: an open model, a folding case, jewelry…

Numerous portrait studio’s opened their doors from 1840 onward. Daguerreotypes were very expensive, so only the wealthy could afford to have their portrait taken. Even though the portrait was the most popular subject, the daguerreotype was used to record many other images such as topographic and documentary subjects, antiquities, still lives, natural phenomena and remarkable events.
European daguerreotypes are scarce. They are scattered in institutional and private collections all over the world. Many aspects of the daguerreotype still need to be discovered. They can help us to understand the impact of photography on Europe’s social and cultural history.

The process;

The daguerreotype is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. The process required great care. The silver-plated copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked like a mirror. Next, the plate was sensitized in a closed box over iodine until it took on a yellow-rose appearance. The plate, held in a lightproof holder, was then transferred to the camera. After exposure to light, the plate was developed over hot mercury until an image appeared. To fix the image, the plate was immersed in a solution of sodium thiosulfate or salt and then toned with gold chloride.

Exposure times for the earliest daguerreotypes ranged from three to fifteen minutes, making the process nearly impractical for portraiture. Modifications to the sensitization process coupled with the improvement of photographic lenses soon reduced the exposure time to less than a minute.

HENRY FOX TALBOT and Calotype;

William Henry Fox Talbot was an English scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries.

What did Henry Fox Talbot do?

In 1851 Talbot discovered a way of taking instantaneous photographs, and his “photolyphic engraving” (patented in 1852 and 1858), a method of using printable steel plates and muslin screens to achieve quality middle tones of photographs on printing plates.

He called his process “calotype”. The original negative and positive process invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, the calotype is sometimes called a “Talbotype.” This process uses a paper negative to make a print with a softer, less sharp image than the daguerreotype, but because a negative is produced, it is possible to make multiple copies. The image is contained in the fabric of the paper rather than on the surface, so the paper fibers tend to show through on the prints. The process was superceded in the 1850s by the collodion glass negative.

Richard Maddox and The Gelatin or Dry Plate photographic process;

Richard Leach Maddox was an English photographer and physician who invented lightweight gelatin negative plates for photography in 1871. This involved the coating of glass photographic plates with a light sensitive gelatin emulsion and allowing them to dry prior to use.

. He combined silver bromide with “vegetable gummy matters” (lichen, linseed, quince), and “starchy substances” (rice, tapioca, sago). “Often I fancied I was just within the doorway when the door closed, and other plans had to be tried. Finally he tried gelatin from a packet of Nelson’s Gelatine Granuals.

Maddox prepared a number of plates, exposing by contact-printing them from other negatives, and putting each through a different exposure trial. “The resulting prints were very delicate in detail, of a colour varying between a bistre and olive tint, and after washing dried to a brilliant surface”. He later described trials on “out-of-door subjects”, but it was “impossible to get some laurels depicted in anything more than black and white” (i.e. without gray-scale tones).

The advantages of the dry plate were obvious: photographers could use commercial dry plates off the shelf instead of having to prepare their own emulsions in a mobile darkroom. Negatives did not have to be developed immediately. Also, for the first time, cameras could be made small enough to be hand-held, or even concealed: further research created ‘fast’ exposure times, which led to ‘snapshot’ photography (and the ‘Kodak’ camera with roll film), ultimately paving the way for cinematography.

George Eastman + Kodak

In 1888, inventor George Eastman invented a game-changing kind of dry, transparent, flexible photographic film that came in a roll. The film was designed for use in Eastman’s newly designed, user-friendly Kodak cameras.

 His first camera, the Kodak, was sold in 1888 and consisted of a box camera with 100 exposures. Later he offered the first Brownie camera, which was intended for children. By 1927, Eastman Kodak was the largest U.S. company in the industry.

Who Was George Eastman?

In 1880, George Eastman opened the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. His first camera, the Kodak, was sold in 1888 and consisted of a box camera with 100 exposures. Later he offered the first Brownie camera, which was intended for children. By 1927, Eastman Kodak was the largest U.S. company in the industry. Eastman committed suicide in 1932.

Early Life and Education 

Named after his father George Washington Eastman, George Eastman was born on July 12, 1854, in Waterville, New York. George Sr. had started a small business school, Eastman Commercial College, in Rochester, where he moved the family in 1860. But he died suddenly when Eastman was eight. One of young Eastman’s two older sisters was wheelchair-bound from polio and died when Eastman was 16.

Eastman’s mother, Mary, took in boarders to support the family, and Eastman dropped out of high school at age 14 to add to the family income. He began as a messenger and office boy for insurance companies and studied accounting at home to qualify for a higher salary. He eventually landed a job as bookkeeper at the Rochester Savings Bank.

Inventions

When Eastman was 24, he planned to visit Santo Domingo and, on the advice of a colleague, decided to document the trip. But the photography equipment alone was enormous, heavy and costly. He bought all the equipment, but he never took the trip.

Instead he began researching how to make photography less cumbersome and easier for the average person to enjoy. After seeing a formula for a “dry plate” emulsion in a British publication, and getting tutelage from two local amateur photographers, Eastman formulated a gelatin-based paper film and a device for coating dry plates.

Kodak Photography

He resigned from his bank job after launching his fledgling photography company in April 1880. In 1885, he headed to the patent office with a roll-holder device that he and camera inventor William Hall Walker had developed. This allowed cameras to be smaller and cheaper.

Eastman also came up with the name Kodak, because he believed products should have their own identity, free from association with anything else. So in 1888, he launched the first Kodak camera (a few years later, he amended the company name to Eastman Kodak).

The company slogan was “You press the button, we do the rest,” which meant the camera was sent in to the company after the 100 exposures on the roll of film had been used; they developed it and sent it back to the customer. 

The Brownie Camera

The Brownie camera was launched in 1900 to target new hobbyist photographers — children — and with its $1 price tag, it also became a favourite of servicemen. Eastman supported the military in other ways as well, developing unbreakable glass lenses for gas masks and a special camera for taking pictures from planes during World War I.

The Original Kodak was fitted with a rotating barrel shutter unique to this model. The shutter was set by pulling up a string on top of the camera and operated by pushing a button on the side of the camera. After taking a photograph, a key on top of the camera was used to wind the film onto the next frame.

An example of autochrome from the archive;

What you want to explore?

In my personal study I am going to be exploring the theme of Identity. Identity is the qualities, beliefs, personality, looks and expressions that make a person. In my study I will be looking into my childhood and objects and drawings from my childhood which I will incorporate into creating a book. I have chose to explore this as it is personal to me and so therefore I feel I can fully capture all the emotions and meaningful imagery that I need to represent my childhood and how that has shaped me into the person I am today. I feel that I will be able to create a more meaningful project as it will be relative and personal to my life and my experiences.

How you wish to develop your project?

To develop my project I will go through all my baby images and diaries to find images that have meaning to me and best represent my identity, I also will be taking and using drawings and writings I did as a kid to help guide the meanings of the images.

When and where you intend to begin your study?

To begin my study I will create a mind map and then develop the into a more detailed and specific mood-board including ideas based on childhood and collect a number of artists that I can look into. When researching artists I found myself most interested in Jim Goldbergs project “Raising wolves” which combines images, texts, drawings and diary notations from runaway teens in Los Angeles. Although in my personal study I will be focusing on my own life I still felt like I could take inspiration from his project as I want to use other parts of my childhood other than just images to capture a more telling story, and then use a disposable to create images similar to Goldbergs style of me now. I will present my final outcomes in a photobook.

For my first shoot I plan on just experimenting with my ideas and different ways I can capture me now and my old memories. This shoot may not be used in my final outcomes however I feel it will be useful to put my ideas into practice to ensure I will be able to capture my idea the way I want to. This shoot can help me plan my final outcome better and give me more of an idea what I hope it to look like.

Camera Obscura

During our photography lessons we watched  ‘Fixing the Shadows’ from BBC Genius of Photography, Episode 1. We learnt about the historical timeline of photography and how photography grew to what it is now. The documentary went through the timeline of photography and the different influences on photography now. Photography began in the late 1820s in France. In the early 18th century they discovered camera obscura image projection and the observation that some substances are visibly altered by exposure to light. A camera obscura is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. The result from camera obscura was that an inverted image of the outside scene was cast on the opposite wall, which was usually whitened. As well as being used for photography they used camera obscura for centuries to view eclipses of the Sun without endangering the eyes and in the 16th century it was used as an aid to drawing; the subject was posed outside and the image reflected on a piece of drawing paper for the artist to trace. Portable versions were built, followed by smaller and then even pocket models, the interior of the box was painted black and the image was reflected by an angled mirror so that it could be viewed right side up.

John Nicéphore Niepce

Nicéphore Niépce,was born March 7, 1765 in France and died July 5, 1833. He was a French inventor who was the first to make a permanent photographic image. Niépce’s main problem and inspiration for creating photography was an unsteady hand and weak drawing skills, which then led him to attempt to find a way to capture images permanently without relying on his poor drawing skills. He developed heliography, which was a technique he used to create the world’s oldest surviving product of a photographic process: a print made from a photoengraved printing plate in 1825. Niépce experimented with the use of silver chloride, which darkened when exposed to light, but found it was not sufficient to produce the results he desired. He then moved on to bitumen, which led him to creating his first successful attempt at capturing a nature image. His process involved dissolving bitumen in lavender oil (which is a solvent often used in varnish), he then coated a sheet of pewter with this mixture and placed it inside a camera obscura.  Eight hours later he removed it and washed it with lavender oil to remove any unexposed bitumen and was then left with an image.

The earliest surviving photo from Niépce is from 1825. It is said to be taken at his family home in France.

Louis Daguerre + Daguerreotype

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was born on the 18th November 1787 and died on the 10th July 1851, he was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. In 1829, Daguerre partnered with Nicéphore Niépce. Niépce died suddenly in 1833, but Daguerre continued experimenting, and evolved the process of the daguerreotype. It wasn’t until 1838 when Daguerre’s experiments progressed to the point where he felt comfortable showing examples of the new medium to selected artists and scientists in the hope of lining up investors. François Arago was among the artists Daguerres shared his work with and he offered Daguerre a lifetime pension in exchange for the rights to his process. 

The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process in the history of photography. Named after the inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre. To make the image, a daguerreotypist would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish then they would treat it with fumes that made its surface light sensitive then they exposed it in a camera for as long as was judged to be necessary, which could be as little as a few seconds for brightly sunlit subjects or much longer with less intense lighting then made the resulting latent image on it visible by fuming it with mercury vapor which removed its sensitivity to light by liquid chemical treatment; rinsed and dried it; and then sealed the result behind glass in a protective enclosure. Each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate. Unlike photographic paper, a daguerreotype is not flexible and is instead heavy. The daguerreotype is accurate, detailed and sharp and has a mirror-like surface and is very fragile. As the metal plate is extremely vulnerable, most daguerreotypes are presented in a special housing. Daguerreotypes were very expensive, so only the wealthy could afford to have their portrait taken. Although the portrait was the most popular subject, the daguerreotype was used to record many other images such as topographic and documentary subjects, antiquities, still lives, natural phenomena and remarkable events.

George Eastman + Kodak

George Eastman was born July 12th, 1854 and died March 14th, 1932. He was an American entrepreneur who founded the ‘Eastman Kodak’ company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. Eastman invented the Kodak camera, helping make photography accessible to the public. In 1888, he sold his first Kodak camera which consisted of a box camera with 100 exposures that used paper negatives. Once consumers had used their 100 exposures the entire camera was sent back to the manufacturer for developing, printing, and reloading when the film was used up. Eastman Kodaks slogan was “You press the button, we do the rest”. 8 years later he went on to develop the first Brownie camera, which was intended for children and sold for one dollar These cameras quickly became popular due to its simplicity which helped greatly accelerated the growth of amateur photography, especially among women, to whom much of the Kodak advertising was addressed. By simplifying the apparatus and even processing the film for the consumer, he made photography accessible to millions of casual amateurs with no particular professional training, technical expertise, or aesthetic credentials. Within a few years of the Kodak’s introduction, snapshot photography became a national craze and ‘smiling’ for photos became the new thing rather than previous set up portraiture.

Shipla Gupta

Who?	I will not need anyone as a model because I’ll be taking pictures of objects and landscapes.
What?	I’ll be photographing places and things that relate to my identity from my whole life, childhood to present day.
Why?	I want to take individual things and create some sort of narrative or sequence with them to show how I have evolved but also show the important things to me.
Where?	Greve De Lecq,  St Catherines pier, Corbierre Lighthouse, Harve Des Pas, St Aubins and the school studio.
When?	I’ll need to do a few different shoots on different days and different times because the places and landscapes are all over the island. I also need to think about the lighting I want for each location and the weather (sun, rain, fog, blue skies?) The pictures of old photos can be taken at any time in the studio at school.
How?	I will use my camera and the natural daylight, but for the studio pictures I will use artificial lighting.

Umberto Verdoliva

Who?	I will not need anyone as a model because I’ll be taking pictures of landscapes.
What?	Similar to my Shipla Grupta photoshoot I want to take images around jersey that relate to my identity but for this photographer I intend to focus on a more abstract approach like the images from Procida. But also try and incorporate the abstract style with landscapes.
Why?	I want to take images of landscapes which relate to me and my current life in Jersey and contrast it with where my parents grew up but also to show my identity through places.
Where?	Greve De Lecq,  St Catherines pier, Corbierre Lighthouse, Harve Des Pas, St Aubins.
When?	I’ll need to do a few different shoots on different days and different times because the places and landscapes are all over the island. I also need to think about the lighting I want for each location and the weather (sun, rain, fog, blue skies?) For this photographer in particular it would be good to take photos on a sunny day so I can get the same high contrast images.
How?	I will use my camera and natural daylight.

The camera obscura is initially one of the first concepts of converting landscapes into images. It was achieved by blacking out all light sources in a small room, only leaving a small hole correlating to the landscape that is wanted to come through. The result was that an inverted image of the outside scene was cast on the opposite wall, which was usually whitened. This technique has been used for many reasons ; Firstly was widely used for viewing eclipses of the Sun without endangering the eyes, then progressed to be an aid to drawing. With the subject being drawn posing outside and the image reflected on a piece of drawing paper for the artist to trace. Portable versions were built, followed by smaller and even pocket models, making the art more available to the general public. The interior of the box was painted black and the image reflected by an angled mirror so that it could be viewed right side up.

This adaptation is the main stepping stone to Nicéphore Niépce’s work with light sensitive plates. He did this by coating  pewter with various light-sensitive substances in an effort to copy superimposed engravings in sunlight. He called this heliography, meaning sun drawing. Niepce trialled many different substances to find the most effective one for his aim. He tried paper sensitized with silver chloride, but was only partially able to fix the image. He next tried a light-sensitive material bitumen of Judea, a kind of asphalt, which hardens on exposure to light. He achieved his final aim in 1826 by permanently fixing the view from his workspace onto a pewter plate. Metal had the advantage of being unbreakable and was better suited to the subsequent etching process to produce a printing plate.

Louis Daguerre used this finding with the intention of improving the very long exposure times by either chemical or optical means that Niepce gave in on.

For my personal study, the artists i have chosen to research and take inspiration from are Edward Honaker and Gabriel Isak as I’m looking into portraying mental illness through photography. I thought they were the perfect photographers to looking into as they both photograph mental health in their way in the theme of identity.

mood board of Edward Honaker’s photography;

Edward Honaker

mood board of Gabriel Isak’s photography;

analysis;

Edward takes all his images in black and white. I think that this creates a very sad and depressing atmosphere as there’s no colour to his photography, however, that’s the idea he’s trying to create as he’s hiding and blurring out his identity. he uses a simple tonal range, from basic greys all around the background to very dark tones around him and the mirror, this really draws you into him as the contrast between the tones stands out. his photo is taken using natural lighting as you can see there real light coming in through the window behind him, as seen in the mirror. this makes his image seem more natural and simple as there’s no set-up that needed to be done. the composition of the mirror is directly in the middle of the image but slightly to the left which might represent his mental state as it’s slightly off and not in the perfect position. you can tell that either someone took a photo of him or maybe he had a timer set up on his camera with a tripod and did it himself. the background is very simple, just plain wallpaper in a house, showing a slight section of the door. Edward then proceed to edit his image and blur his face out, or he could have even done it with a very slow shutter speed and could have moved his head quickly to create a blurry concept. he does this to his images to blur his identity out and show his mental state, as he doesn’t know quite who he identifies and isn’t confident in how he feels. I think that his photos are very powerful as many individuals are confused about who they really are or who they want to be, and he shows this in a very clever way by blurring his face out. t makes the rest of his image look so put together however when it comes to him, his face is blurry which creates this sense of confusion in his own identity and showing this by standing in front of a mirror was a powerful idea as it looks like he’s reflecting on who he really is by looking at himself.

Gabriels photography is very unique. I think he presents the theme of identity and mental health in such a clever way and links them perfectly. in this chosen image he uses an abstract way of showing identity through using two figures. he uses both black and white and colour in his photography however in this image he focuses on black and white. the contrast is so sharp between the two figures in this image which makes it so interesting. it creates this idea of two different identities that everyone has, like your inner mental health (the black figure checking in on you) and then who you show to be on the outside and how you present yourself to the world being the white figure. his images are very powerful as both figures are sad and it leaves the viewer to the interpretation of what emotions he’s trying to present. the composition of the two figures is right in the centre and he left a big space on top of his image, this draws you right to the figures. he takes his images using a setup lighting equipment to achieve these strong contrasts but usually edits a lot of his images on software to achieve these solid colours and edit the figures digitally sometimes too. his images aren’t blurry which suggests he uses a very quick shutter speed to capture his images in one quick clean snapshot. I think he achieves what he wants to show, people have many personalities and identities and the sad state of their links with mental health.

History of Photography

Must include

Umberto Verdoliva

Lights, shadows, contrast, sarcasm, and the hunting of visual poetry. The atmosphere of city life ignites my curiosity, leading me to capture real moments with the camera. Ordinary life creates the most attractive and charming pictures

-Umberto Verdoliva

Umberto Verdoliva is from Castellammare di Stabia near to Naples. he currently lives in Italy. He captures street photos mainly around Italy, focusing on his daily life in depth looking for the beauty in humanity around him. He does not plan his outcomes, he goes out into the city streets and looks into crowds, waiting for the right moment to capture. When taking photos he focuses on the relationship between man and the urban environment. Verdoliva became a photographer to be closer to people and enjoys meeting people when he goes out to take photos.

He shows his love for photography by organising workshops, exhibitions, portfolio readings, presentations, writing articles and insights on his photography. In 2010 he became a member of the international collective “Vivo” until 2017. during this he founded “SPONTANEA” an Italian collective dedicated to street photography from 2013 to 2019.

Verdoliva is inspired by photographers, Fan Ho and Henri Cartier-Bresson for their use of light, shapes and strength in their images.

https://www.lensculture.com/umbertoverdoliva

https://artofcreativephotography.com/streetphotographers/umberto-verdoliva/

Examples of his work:

What is a dream?

Two real moments captured over time, merged to create something meaningful, balanced, and unique. Recreating a scene, an atmosphere, an ephemeral reality from something that existed in different times and places has been the leitmotif of my work.

-Umberto Verdoliva

The images from “What is a dream?” are made on film, double exposures which is two or more photos put together. Verdoliva plans these images when making them hoping the final outcome sparks the viewers imagination.

I’m constantly roving around the city looking for “connections” between things, people, feelings. When I’m photographing, I look at everything as if it were a dream. With my double exposures, I try to create new realities: merging, mixing, matching elements far and wide to produce new, unimagined meaning.

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/umberto-verdoliva-what-is-a-dream

Images from What is a dream?:

I particularly like this project and the outcomes he made and the technique of double exposures. I like how they add more layers to an image and tell a more in depth story.

Procida

Why the island? Because it is the point where I isolate myself, where I am alone: it is a point that is separate from the rest of the world, not because it really is, but because in my state of mind I can separate myself from it.

-Giuseppe Ungaretti

Procida is one of the islands part of the Flegrean Islands off the coast of Naples in southern Italy.

In this path, which still continues, Procida has been my transit, the refuge, a door revealed with the key of my camera, it has allowed me to find myself again, to discover, to leave out the tiredness and misunderstandings of a life that I might have wanted. different.

“But most beautiful of all, the Island Not Found” are the lines of a poem by Guido Gozzano, an imaginary place that is there to be continually reinvented by those who perceive its soul and grace.

On the island, however, we also find a landing place, a temporary stop for a transit, a stop to recover strength and then continue. The island and the sea, elements that have always been contained in the narration, have allowed me to abandon myself to the beauty of the wind, the light, the smell of salt and my own silences, giving birth to the ancestral desire to tell and reveal the profound enigma inside me.

In the term “isolation” the word island as a place constitutes its backbone, and the very proximity to the mainland accentuates the dimension of distance.

-Umberto Verdoliva

https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/10830087-procida

Images from Procida:

Link to the photobook

I like the way these images have strong lines and angles, making them very strong and bold images. If I was to use this style for my own double exposure images it would add texture and shape to my images.

Image Analysis

Content – The image includes a man walking on a pavement into what looks like a plastered picture of a close up shot of a women, almost like he is walking into a new world. The street picture is taken at eye level from a slight distance so he could get the man and the pavement in the picture. Verdoliva takes his pictures at random when he is out and looks for possible outcomes. The image has no specific name but is part of his ‘What is a dream?’ series which is about getting the viewer to use their imagination.

Formal Elements – The image is in black and white which creates a high tonal range throughout the image emphasising the contrast between light and dark. The lighting would have been from the natural daylight which translates to the images’ softness, it is not harsh and bold. even though the image has layers to it, it still has a short depth of field and feels 2D. There is a lot of textures in the final outcome from the wall in the background, the peeling plaster sheet and the close up portrait adds to the textures. These create quite harsh lines, almost like dry brush strokes in a painting, adding depth and grain to the image. The image contains a mixture of geometric and organic shapes like the hair in the portrait of the girl and the run down wall in the background and geometric shapes like the pavement lines which also is a form of repetition. The white solid line which is the edge of the paper that the man is walking into could link to the idea of walking into a new world as Verdoliva likes to get people to question themselves and their imaginations while looking at his images. The background image with the man walking follows the rule of third as the horizon is in the bottom third and the main subject is off centre.

Mood – The mood overall is very dark and eerie. The softness of the image also creates a ghostly feeling because it is very light and empty. The Women also looks like she is looking over her shoulder as if the man is following her which creates a atmospheric feeling.