After editing my images, I exported them in higher resolution into photoshop to ensure they were good enough quality.
In my experiments below, I was inspired by Joachim Schmid to include halves/bits of faces, and to collage these together, but also collage and photomontage artists like John Stezaker.
I think that the work of John Stezaker and Joachim Schmid work well together, and are similar in some ways, which inspired my experiments below.
Combining my found images of my mum’s old bedroom with an image of her age 17, and a present day image of her. I chose this combination of images to show age identity, as well as to document and comment on the passing of time. I also like the way all the colours of this image go together. with the two monochromatic, Bill Brandt inspired images, and the old photograph with its yellow tones.
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Final edit
Another of my montages/collages. In this experiment, I was trying again to comment on age and environmental identity, by including images of my grandmother on the beach, which is a place of great importance to her. By juxtaposing images of her when she was younger and in the present day, I think a contrast of age and a clear passing of time is communicated. – I attempted to link this piece to Joachim Schmid and John Stezaker by hiding parts of the picture of my grandmother in the present day, which causes the viewer to look carefully at only the parts that are included.
Another of my experiments -here I experimented with adding an old document in the background, which created a vibrant colour contrast. I used an old polaroid of my mum as a child with my grandfather, along with a picture of her when she lived in London, and an abstract picture of her in the present day.
In this edit I wanted to do the same kind of idea as my previous experiments, but with two generations. I used images of my mum and nana from the present day, on the bottom, with a family portrait from the 70s when my family lived in New Zealand, as well as two images of my mum (left) and my nana (right) when they were young. My mum would have been about 20, and my nana a little younger, in her teens. I wanted to produce a juxtaposition of generations in this experiment.
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Final Edit
In this edit, I focused on my mum. I used pictures of her as a baby,( which my grandmother developed at home), as well as some of her in her late teens. I then included two of my Bill Brandt edits, one of which was half covered by the image of my mum when she was younger – I tried to use Joachim Schmid for that bit of the experiment, but used influences from my past collages and John Stezaker in this collage too. I love the way that my black and white edits contrast with the faded film images, and I’m glad I did decide edit in this way.
Joachim Schmid Experiments
Below are my edits specifically inspired by Joachim Schmid.
One of my not so successful edits – I think that in this experiment the colours might have been too contrasting, and I don’t think I got the angles quite right. I tried to improve on this as I went along, and after referring back to Joachim’s work, my experiments became more successful.
My second experiment – I think the angle and placement of my archival image was much better here, which created a much better composition and the two images of my mum blended more seamlessly together.
Another of my experiments – this time focusing on my grandmother. I placed the image of my nana in the present onto a white background, then added a slice of an image of her when she was younger, bringing it out of the border of the first image. I liked the effect it created, adding dimension.
I then added to this edit. I placed two more archival images of my grandmother into the background. I covered my nana’s face on the left, causing the viewer to focus only on the faces in the middle – this was inspired by John Stezaker. The image to the right contrasted nicely with the other image – the image above it concealed parts of the image, leaving just my nana’s feet and hair visible. I kept her hair visible as this is a huge part of her identity, and it shows in this collage, through the passing of time.
My most successful edit – I used an archival image of my mum (left) and my grandmother (right), to show the similarities and differences between them when they were younger. I think that the method of cropping the whole image and placing it on top of another was a better idea that just slicing a part of the image I wanted to add ( with lasso tool), as it created better composed edits.
