Louis Daguerre:

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography.

Born: November 18, 1787

Died: July 10, 1851

Daguerreotype:

Louis invented the first practical process of photography, known as the daguerreotype. 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. 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.

Henry William Fox-Talbot:

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

Born: February 11, 1800

Died: September 17, 1877

Calotype:

Calotype or talbotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. Paper texture effects in calotype photography limit the ability of this early process to record low contrast details and textures. The light had to filter through the paper negative and then provide all the energy to make the print image. An exposure time of fifteen minutes would be good – this could extend to half an hour or even several hours on an overcast day.

Julia Margaret Cameron:

Julia Margaret Cameron was a British photographer who is considered one of the most important portraitists of the 19th century.

She is known for her soft-focus close-ups of famous Victorian men and for illustrative images depicting characters from mythology, Christianity, and literature. Much of her work has connections to pictorialism and even movements such as The Pre-Rapahelites, and often had a dream-like, constructed quality to the images.

The history of photographic studios and photography dates back to the 1840s with the invention of processes for recording camera pictures, by Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre. The earliest photographic studios made use of natural daylight to create photographic portraits.

Early Pioneers of photography

Louis Daguerre 1787-1851

Louis Daguerre is credited with creating the first commercially successful photographic process known as the Daguerrueotype. It consisted of silver plates and chemicals such as iodine and bromine to create images. 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 natural phenomenon’s and remarkable events.

Henry Fox Talbot 1800-1877

Henry Fox Talbot was an English chemist, linguist, archaeologist, and pioneer of photography. He is best known for his development of the calotype, an early photographic process that was an improvement over the daguerreotype of the French inventor Louis Daguerre. Talbot’s calotypes used a photographic negative, from which multiple prints could be made. He and Louis Daguerre are best known as the main inventors of the camera and early photography.

Robert Cornelius 1809-1893

Robert Cornelius was an American photographer and pioneer in the history of photography. He designed the photographic plate for the first photograph taken in the United States, an image of a School taken by in 1839.

Louis Daguerre (18 November 1787 – 10 July 1851)- created the daguerreotype ( first publicly available photographic process )

He is a French artist and photographer, closely working with Joseph Niepce. He developed the diorama theatre which is a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model.

Henry William Fox-Talbot (1800 – 1877) UK- Fox Talbot was an English member of parliament, scientist, inventor and a pioneer of photography,  develop the three primary elements of photography: developing, fixing, and printing. Although simply exposing photographic paper to the light produced an image, it required extremely long exposure times. He accidently discovered that there was an image after a very short exposure.

He called this the ‘calotype’ and patented the process in 1841.

I selected my 9 best images from my heritage project after careful consideration and selecting through all my images to ensure the best work was selected.

I selected this portrait as I think the posing and the angle really helps to display the models environment and it conveys emotion through her facial expression which gives an insight into how she was feeling that day. I adjusted the WB to improve clarity of the image and used the cropping tool to frame the image. I also played around with the pre-sets and selected the B&W split tone as I liked the tones it created and the blue tint it adds to the image.

I selected this image as I like the composition of the objects and how the blue bottle and the roses have such opposing contrast this pulls focus to the centre of the image as the shadows around the edges allow for a brighter central focal point.

The third image was taken at the Hamptonne country life museum it shows a classic 17th century building entrance through a cantered angle. The lady in the background pulls focus as she is dressed in white and I captured her running out of the gardens. Overall I like this image as the tones of the ladies surroundings have a true rustic feel and she is perfectly positioned in the horizon of the image.

This is one of my best images because it portrays emotion through the tones of black and white and how the depth of detail on the grand piano is highlighted I also think the angle almost acts as if you are watching someone play and the set up of the cord sheets gives the image the feel that someone had been playing recently. However this image also has a more earie feel to it as vintage pianos hold connotations of the supernatural.

I picked this image as one of my final pictures as I really like the detail captured in the glass centre piece i also like that the image has an almost vintage feel to it due to the composition of the objects.

final images after edit

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Studio Photography

Rembrandt

This technique is inspired by Rembrandt who was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. He used to paint shadows in his paintings in order to add more depth and make them more realistic. This technique created a triangle on the side of the face and makes the model look more attractive. It is used in studio portrait photography and cinematography. It can be achieved using one light and a reflector, or two lights, and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum of equipment.

• 

• 

Chiaroscuro/side light

Chiaroscuro (from Italian chiaro, “light,” and scuro, “dark”) is a film lighting style that emphasizes shadow and light. Chiaroscuro first emerged during the Renaissance as a painting technique used to create tension between the light and dark elements in portraits and other still life. To achieve this you just need to put your light on the side of the model and use a flash.

• 

• 

Butterfly

Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above and directly centred with the model’s face. This creates a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly. It’s also known as ‘Paramount lighting,’ named for classic Hollywood glamour photography.

• 

• 

Oliver Doran

Oliver Doran is a commercial, editorial and portrait photographer from Jersey, Channel Islands. He has over 15 years of experience and he photographs some of the most recognisable faces on the planet. He is known for his skilful use of light and mood to create striking visual breakthroughs that also strike the right chords and achieve diverse briefs and business goals.

His passion for travel, meeting new people and appreciating cultures different from his own lights the fire beneath everything he does. His roster of experiences includes working for the royal families in Bahrain and Dubai, an honour that he cherishes. Some find working with famous people intimidating, but for Oliver, the experience has made him empathetic to the innate human spirit.

Oliver creates vibrant, cinematic images using both flash, natural light and a mixture of both. He is comfortable in and out of the studio with complex lighting setups as well as working with ambient light in any location; day or night.

• 

• 

• 

ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS

I chose this image because I really like the yellow tones in the image and how the majority of the image is blurry with the exception of the reflection of the subject, I think this creates a really unusual contrast as -in the portrait- attention to drawn to the side where you cannot actually see the main subjects face which is unusual for portrait photography, it also really reminded me of Larry Clark‘s photographic style.

I chose this image because it really reminds me of Michelle Sank‘s photography, although the composition of the image is plain I really like how attention is drawn to the subject as they are the only interesting thing in the image- making the viewer “judge” the subject.

I have decided to print the two images above as a set as I really like the contrast between the skaters actually in the skatepark versus the almost commercial image of the torn skate shoes which implies the reality of skating: clothes getting torn, injuries and wrecked shoes.

HAMPTONNE EXTERIORS/INTERIORS

I chose this image because I really like the contrast of the shadow between the two buildings and how the two building almost look attached due to the perspective the photo was taken from. I also really like the wide variety of tones in the image and the texture of the Jersey granite (an important part of Jersey’s heritage) on the buildings as it creates interesting textures.

This is one of my favourite images so I tried to do the most minimal editing for this image because I really like how the walls and light almost frame the chair in the middle. I also really like how simple the composition is, with the empty chair in the middle- almost looking lonely.

In this image I really liked how the doorframe framed the bed and made it the centre subject. I also really like the shadows and light in the image so I tried to make the shadows more visible.

I decided to make the two images above a set as the similar compositions create a set of images that look almost abandoned and empty- possibly bringing in the theme of heritage as Hamptonne is no longer a used farm yet these rooms did once have people living in them.

HAMPTONNE PORTRAITS

I have decided to print this image because I really like the natural lighting on the model’s face and how the light hits the apple. I also believe the composition of the image is unusual, with the subject in the bottom right corner surrounded by empty space- displaying a sense of isolation.

PRODUCT TABLE

I included this image of a tool taken on a product table because it is obvious of -my inspiration- Walker Evans’ photographic style in ‘Beauties of the Common Tool’. I also really like how you can see every detail on the tool, especially the rusty colour.

Walker Evans-

Walker Evans (1903-1975), was an American photographer and photojournalist. His pictures are in black and white, due to the camera he used, and document life in the US during the great depression. He also did a series of still lifes, including Beauties of The Common Tool. The images are all of a simple tool on a plain background, focussing on how we can see beauty even in unexpected places.

Most of the interest from these come from the interesting shapes they are made up of and how light reacts to each subject, creating interesting and varying shadows.

Darren Harvey-Regan-

Darren Harvey-Regan (1974-), is a British photographer greatly inspired by Walker Evans’ work, using mostly black and white images and exploring shape and shadow. Harvey-Regan’s work is used to explore the space between 3D and 2D using a camera.

Images-

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Inspired Photomontages-

• 

• 

• 

Yousuf Karsh

Yousuf Karsh was an Armenian-Canadian photographer best known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. Here is some of his most famous work:

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Philippe Halsman

Below are some INSTRUCTIONS AND INSPIRATIONS for your headshots in the studio. We will be experimenting with both continuous lights and flash lights using 1, 2 and 3 light sources and respond to a number of creative approaches to headshots with reference to both historical portraits photographers from Societe Jersiaise Photo-Archive and contemporary practitioners.

TECHNICAL

RECORDING: produce at least 3 portrait shoots in the studio and consider the following:

1. Lighting: soft, hard

2. Framing: Headshots

3. Focusing: focus on the eyes

4. Expression: Explore different moods and emotions.

5. Pose: Manner and attitude. Use hands too…

Camera settings (flash lighting)
Tripod: optional
Use transmitter on hotshoe
White balance: daylight (5000K)
ISO: 100
Exposure: Manual 1/125 shutter-speed > f/16 aperture
– check settings before shooting
Focal lenght: 105mm portrait lens

Camera settings (continuous lighting)
Tripod: recommended to avoid camera shake
Manual exposure mode
White balance: tungsten light (3200K)
ISO: 400-1600 – depending on how many light sources
Exposure: Manual 1/60-1/125 shutter-speed > f/4-f/8 aperture
– check settings before shooting
Focal lenght: 50mm portrait lens

DUE DATE FOR HEADSHOTS PROJECT = FRI 17TH DECEMBER

BLOG

In addition to complete the work listed in Studio Portraits 1 you are expected to show evidence of the following three EEEs on the blog for the work on Headshots.

EDITING: For each portrait shoot produce a contact-sheet, select and adjust your BEST 3 IMAGES in Photoshop using basic tools such as cropping, contrast, tonality, colour balance, monochrome. Describe also the lighting setup using an image from ‘behind the scenes’, ie. key light, back light, fill light, use of reflectors, gels etc.

EXPERIMENTING: Complete at least 3 out of these 5 experiments on DIAMOND CAMEO, DOUBLE/ MULTIPLE EXPOSURE, JUXTAPOSITION, SEQUENCE/ GRID AND MONTAGE (see more details below). Make sure you demonstrate creativity and produce at least 3 different variations of the same portrait experiment.

EVALUATING: Compare your portrait responses/ experiments and provide some analysis of artists work and images below that has inspired your ideas and shoots. Use this Photo-Literacy matrix.

INSPIRATIONS

Henry Mullins is one of the most prolific photographers represented in the Societe Jersiase Photo-Archive, producing over 9,000 portraits of islanders from 1852 to 1873 at a time when the population was around 55.000. The record we have of his work comes through his albums, in which he placed his clients in a social hierarchy. The arrangement of Mullins’ portraits of ‘who’s who’ in 19th century Jersey are highly politicised.

You can read more here in an extract from Dr Gareth Syvret’s (former photo-archivist) PhD thesis; The Photographic Matrix: Henry Mullins Portrait Albums

Henry Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. Here he would photograph Jersey political elite (The Bailiff, Lt Governor, Jurats, Deputies etc), mercantile families (Robin, Janvrin, Hemery, Nicolle ect.) military officers and professional classes (advocates, bankers, clergy, doctors etc).

His portrait were printed on a carte de visite as a small albumen print, (the first commercial photographic print produced using egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper) which was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. The size of a carte de visite is 54.0 × 89 mm normally mounted on a card sized 64 × 100 mm. In Mullins case he mounted his carted de visite into an album. Because of the small size and relatively affordable reproducibility cartes de visite were commonly traded among friends and visitors in the 1860s. Albums for the collection and display of cards became a common fixture in Victorian parlors. The immense popularity of these card photographs led to the publication and collection of photographs of prominent persons.

ED.EM_.03.01_lowDOWNLOAD

Here is a draft layout of ED.EM.03 Henry Mullins / Michelle Sank – on the social matrix. ED.EM. is a photo-zine produced by Societe Jersiaise Photographic Archive that presents a selection of images from its historical collection.

Becque á Barbe: Face to Face: A portrait project about Jèrriais – the island of Jersey’s native language of Norman French. Each portrait is titled with a Jèrriais word that each native speaker has chosen to represent a personal or symbolic meaning, or a specific memory linked to his or her childhood. Some portraits are darker in tonality to reflect the language hidden past at a time when English was adopted as the formal speech in Jersey and Jèrriais was suppressed publicly and forbidden to be spoken in schools.

Juxtaposed with portraits of Jèrriais speakers are a series of photographs of Jersey rocks that are all designated as Sites of Special Interest (SSIs); important geological outcrops that are protected from development and preserved for future public enjoyment and research purposes. The native speakers of Jersey French should be classified as People of Special Interest (PSIs) and equally be protected from extinction through encouraging greater visibility and recognition as guardians of a unique language that are essential in understanding the island’s special character.

Ole Christiansen (Danish): A special preoccupation has been music photography, portraits, but also – often strongly graphically emphasized urban landscapes which is reflected in his portraiture . Ole has over the years provided pictures for a myriad of books, magazines, record covers, annual reports, etc.

THE DEADPAN AESTHETIC

According to sources the origins of the word “Deadpan”  can be traced to 1927 when Vanity Fair Magazine compounded the words dead and pan, a slang word for a face, and used it as a noun. In 1928 the New York Times used it as adjective to describe the work of Buster Keaton.

It is less clear when it was first used to describe the style of photography associated with Edward Ruscha, Alec Soth, Thomas Ruff and many others.  Charlotte Cotton devotes a complete chapter to Deadpan in The Photograph as Contemporary Art and much that has been written since references that essay.

In summary Deadpan photography is a cool, detached, and unemotional presentation and, when used in a series, usually follows a pre-defined set of compositional and lighting rules.

This style originated in Germany and is descended from Neue Sachlichkeit, New Objectivity, a German art movement of the 1920s that influenced the photographer August Sander who systematically documented the people of the Weimar Republic . Much later, in the 1970s, Bernd and Hilla Becher, known for their devotion to the principles of New Objectivity, began to influence a new generation of German artists at the Dusseldorf School of Photography (4). These young German photographers included  Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Candida Hofer and Thomas Ruff. The Bechers (4 & 5) are best remembered for their studies of the industrial landscape, where they systematically photographed large structures such as water towers, coal bunkers or pit heads to document a soon-to-disappear landscape in a formalistic manner as much akin to industrial archeology as art. The Bechers’ set of “rules” included clean, black and white pictures taken in a flat grey light with straight-on compositions that perfectly lent themselves to their presentation methodology of large prints containing a montage of nine or more similar objects to allow the study of types (typology) in the style of an entomologist.

If you want to learn more about the theoretical and philosophical basis for the deadpan aesthetic READ HERE.

Thomas Ruff wanted to mimick the setup for a having a set of passport images taken. Read an interview with him here recently published in the Financial Times

PASSPORT PHOTO

From the UK Government website

FACE:

BACKGROUND:

Photos must have a background which:

TYPOLOGY means the study and interpretation of types and became associated with photography through the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, whose photographs taken over the course of 50 years of industrial structures; water towers, grain elevators, blast furnaces etc can be considered conceptual art. They were interested in the basic forms of these architectural structures and  referred to them as ‘Anonyme Skulpturen’ (Anonymous Sculptures.)

The Becher’s were influenced by the work of earlier German photographers linked to the New Objectivity movement of the 1920s such as August Sander, Karl Blossfeldt and Albert-Renger-Patzsch.

UP CLOSE

BRUCE GILDEN: FACE: Recently you have explored street photography and Bruce Gilden is renowned for his confrontational style and getting up close to his subject. Between 2012-14 Gilden travelled in America, Great Britain, and Colombia and created a series called FACE. Read a review here in the Guardian newspaper and another on Lensculture.

In addition to focusing on details of the face try and isolate body parts, gestures, clothing and physical features, such as hands, elbows, shoulders, neck, torso, hip, knees, feet. Your understanding of abstraction in photography; focusing on shapes, colours, light and shadows, textures and repetition is crucial here.

Satoshi Fujiwara: Code Unknown: In Michael Haneke’s 2000 film Code Unknown, there is a scene in which the protagonist’s lover, a photographer, secretly snaps pictures of passengers sitting across from him on the train.

Inspired by the film, I used the same approach to shoot people in Berlin trains. Yet in contemporary society, it is not acceptable to rashly and publicly display pictures of people’s faces that were taken without their permission. Thus, I shot and edited my pictures in a way that makes it impossible to identify the individual people who served as my “models.” To avoid impinging on the “right of likeness,” I used the shadows created by the direct sunlight pouring in through the windows, various compositional approaches, and digital processing to keep their identities anonymous.

When we look at another person, either directly or through another medium, we interpret a wide range of information based on outward appearance (face, physique, clothes and accessories, and movements)—in other words, various codes. By regulating and altering these codes in various ways, I set out to obscure the individuality and specificity of the subjects in the pictures in my series.—Satoshi Fujiwara

David Goldblatt: Particulars: Following a series of portraits of his compatriots made in the early 1970s, photographer David Goldblatt, for a very short and intense period of time, naturally turned to focusing on peoples’ particulars and individual body languages “as affirmations or embodiments of their selves.” Goldblatt’s affinity was no accident: Working at his father’s men’s outfitting store in the 1950s, his awareness of posture, gesture and proportion—technical as it was—formed early and would accompany him throughout his life.

In this series we see hands resting on laps, crossed legs, the curved backs of sleepers on a lawn at midday, their fingers and feet relaxed, pausing from their usual occupations. This deeply contemplative work is framed by Ingrid de Kok’s poetry.

EXPERIMENTATION

TASK

You must produce the following experiments:

1. DIAMOND CAMEO : Recreate a diamond cameo, similarly to Mullins of which four separate portraits of the same subject are arranged onto the same document in Photoshop.
2. DOUBLE/ MULTI-EXPOSURE: Either in camera or in post-post-production layer or merge two or three images into one portrait.
3. JUXTAPOSITION: Select 1 portrait by Mullins and one response that you have made and juxtapose opposite each in a new document in Photoshop. Look for similarities in pose, expression, gestures and overall composition. If you have some environmental portraits from previous shoot try and juxtapose in a similar way that Michelle Sank responded to Mullins portraits in ED.EM.03.
4. SEQUENCE/ GRID: Select a series of your headshots (between 5-12) and produce a sequence either as a grid, story-board, contact-sheet or typology. Reference Mullins pages in his portrait albums
5. MONTAGE: Select an appropriate set of portraits and create a montage of layered images in Photoshop as an A3 document.

DIAMOND CAMEO

DOUBLE / MULTI-EXPOSURES

Double or multiple exposures are an illusion created by layering images (or portions of images) over the top of each other. This can be achieved in the camera settings, or on Adobe Photoshop by creating LAYERS and then using BLENDING OPTIONS and OPACITY CONTROL. Artist have used these techniques to explore Surrealist Ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.

Idris Khan’s Every… Bernd And Hilla Becher… series appropriates the Bechers’ imagery and compiles their collections into single super-images. In this piece, multiple images of American-style gabled houses are digitally layered and super-imposed giving the effect of an impressionistic drawing or blurred film still. Since 1959 Bernd and Hilla Becher have been photographing industrial structures that exemplify modernist engineering, such as gas reservoirs and water towers. Their photographs are often presented in groups of similar design; their repeated images make these everyday buildings seem strangely imposing and alien.

JUXTAPOSITION

Juxtaposition is placing two images together to show contrast or similarities. For inspiration look at some of the page spreads from ED.EM.03 where pairings between portraits of Henry Mullins and Michelle Sank are juxtaposed to show comparison/ similarities/ differences between different social and professional classes in Jersey mid-19th century and early 21 st century.

For inspiration look also at the newspapers: LIBERATION / OCCUPATION and FUTURE OF ST HELIER produced by past A2 photography students and the publication GLOBAL MARKET by ECAL.

Juxtapose images according to shapes, colours, repetition, object vs portrait

Photographer Mike Terry has created a series of diptychs using a variety of strategies. His images sometimes appear to be two closely related frames from the same event. Some pairs are united by the quality of light. Other pairings juxtapose different viewpoints, subjects, colours and moods to create tension.

The resulting diptychs are still images but reference the theory of montage, first articulated by Russian film makers in the 1920s, specifically Sergei Eisenstein,

SEQUENCE/ GRID

Henry Mullins: Pages and re-constructed contact-sheets from his portrait albums.

Shannon O’Donnell: That’s Not The Way The River Flows (2019) is a photographic series that playfully explores masculinity and femininity through self-portraits. The work comes from stills taken from moving image of the photographer performing scenes in front of the camera. This project aims to show the inner conflicts that the photographer has with identity and the gendered experience. It reveals the pressures, stereotypes and difficulties faced with growing up in a heavily, yet subtly, gendered society and how that has impacted the acceptance and exploration of the self.

Duane Michals (b. 1932, USA) is one of the great photographic innovators of the last century, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text. Michals first made significant, creative strides in the field of photography during the 1960s. In an era heavily influenced by photojournalism, Michals manipulated the medium to communicate narratives. The sequences, for which he is widely known, appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format. Michals has also incorporated text as a key component in his works. Rather than serving a didactic or explanatory function, his handwritten text adds another dimension to the images’ meaning and gives voice to Michals’s singular musings, which are poetic, tragic, and humorous, often all at once.

Tracy Moffatt: The nine images in Something More tell an ambiguous tale of a young woman’s longing for ‘something more’, a quest which brings dashed hopes and the loss of innocence. With its staged theatricality and storyboard framing, the series has been described by critic Ingrid Perez as ‘a collection of scenes from a film that was never made’. While the film may never have been made, we recognise its components from a shared cultural memory of B-grade cinema and pulp fiction, from which Moffatt has drawn this melodrama. The ‘scenes’ can be displayed in any order – in pairs, rows or as a grid – and so their storyline is not fixed, although we piece together the arc from naïve country girl to fallen woman abandoned on the roadside in whatever arrangement they take. Moffatt capitalises on the cinematic device of montage, mixing together continuous narrative, flashbacks, cutaways, close-ups and memory or dream sequences, to structure the series, and relies on our knowledge of these devices to make sense and meaning out of the assemblage.

Philip Toledano: DAYS WITH MY FATHER is a son’s photo journal of his aging father’s last years. Following the death of his mother, photographer Phillip Toledano was shocked to learn of the extent of his father’s severe memory loss.

Walker Evans: One of the founding fathers of Documentary Photography Walker Evans used cropping as part of his work.  Another pioneer of the photo-essay, W. Eugene Smith also experimented with cropping is his picture-stories

Read more here on Walker Evans and his magazine work and  his series Labour Anonymous.

Hans-Peter Feldmann: (b. 1941 Duesseldorf). The photographic work of Hans-Peter Feldmann began with his own publications in small print-runs between 1968 and 1975. Often using reproductions of photographs from magazines or private snapshots, which he mixed with his own photographs, Feldmann, like Ed Ruscha, undermined the aura of the unique, “authentic” work of art. With his laconic imagery he seeks to break down conventional notions of art.

PHOTO-MONTAGE

Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. 

John Stezaker: Is a British artist who is fascinated by the lure of images. Taking classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning. By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.

His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations. Presented as images on their own, they now take the centre stage of our attention

Thomas Sauvin and Kensuke Koike: ‘No More, No Less’
In 2015, French artist Thomas Sauvin acquired an album produced in the early 1980s by an unknown Shanghai University photography student. This volume was given a second life through the expert hands of Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist based in Venice whose practice combines collage and found photography. The series, “No More, No Less”, born from the encounter between Koike and Sauvin, includes new silver prints made from the album’s original negatives. These prints were then submitted to Koike’s sharp imagination, who, with a simple blade and adhesive tape, deconstructs and reinvents the images. However, these purely manual interventions all respect one single formal rule: nothing is removed, nothing is added, “No More, No Less”. In such a context that blends freedom and constraint, Koike and Sauvin meticulously explore the possibilities of an image only made up of itself.

DUE DATE FOR HEADSHOTS PROJECT = FRI 17TH DECEMBER