DAY 1

MY INSPIRATION: lara gilks ‘beneath the ice’

CONTACT SHEETS:

Here I deleted the photos that didn’t come out well or ones I didn’t need to edit.

STAGES ON PHOTOSHOP:

FIRST ATTEMPT:

For these images I used Photoshop to adjust the colours of the original photos. I used Lara Gilks ‘beneath the ice’. On photoshop I changed each photos brightness and contrasts and then I added an image of steamed glass and lowered the opacity to give the same effect as Lara Gilks photos have.

SECOND ATTEMPT:

I wasn’t happy with the first attempt because the edits came out with a soft faded colour and wouldn’t look good when printed so I used the curves on Photoshop to add more depth to the photos.

DAY 2

For these two photos I used 3 different photos and lowered the opacity and merged them together for a multi/double exposure.

EXPERIMENTS

FINAL PIECE

GALLERY: artsteps

COMPARISON

I tried my best to make the photos similar to the artists ones

EVALULATION

What went well: I really liked how my first photos came out because I really liked the idea of how Lara gilks beneath the ice looked and how the models looks like they are trapped under ice. Instead of using a steamed glass in the bathroom like she did I used images off the internet and put them on photoshop and lowered the opacity. They turned out well as I was expecting

Critique: With my second photoshoot I didn’t have any inspiration or artists I had in mind, I could of spent a bit more time on having a artist reference.

LARA GELKS

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Lara Gilks is a photographer based in Wellington, New Zealand. She uses elements of nature, water, light, beauty in the context of the dreamscape between two worlds. Lara explores that dreamscape through the themes of metamorphosis, mortality, escapism, ascension, peace, silence. Through her work she seeks to create tension and an opportunity for the viewer to reconcile elements that don’t naturally fit together. Her pictures provide much space for imagination and interpretation. She wants to engage the viewer and create images that ask questions. 

Why did I choose Lara Gilks?

I chose Lara Gilks because I was inspired with

CLAUDE CAHUN

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Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present a dizzying kaleidoscopic mix of mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. Born in France, Cahun lived mostly on the island of Jersey with long-term love, Marcel Moore. Also known as Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, they both adopted their preferred gender-neutral pseudonyms during early adulthood. Moore, although often invisible, was always present – typically taking the photographs and also authoring collages – and in this sense was as much artist collaborator as Cahun’s personal support. Described in Cahun’s own words as a “hunt”, through a combination of text and imagery, Cahun’s exploration of self is relentless and at times unsettling. From circus performer, clothed in layers of artifice, to a stripped-down Buddhist monk grounded by integrity, Cahun is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with multiplicity. Tragically in line with the fragmentary nature of Cahun’s outlook, much of the artist’s work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. What remains bares interesting parallel to the title of Cahun’s diaristic publication Aveux Non Avenus, translated as Disavowals, which enigmatically suggests that for all that is revealed and given, much is still hidden or has been lost.

RALPH EUGENE MEATYARD

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Ralph Eugene Meatyard lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs. Meatyard’s creative circle included mystics and poets, such as Thomas Merton and Guy Davenport, as well as the photographers Cranston Ritchie and Van Deren Coke, who were mentors and fellow members of the Lexington Camera Club.

Meatyard’s work spanned many genres and experimented with new means of expression, from dreamlike portraits—often set in abandoned places—to multiple exposures, motion-blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. He also collaborated with his friend Wendell Berry on the 1971 book The Unforeseen Wilderness, for which Meatyard contributed photographs of Kentucky’s Red River Gorge. Meatyard’s final series, The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, are cryptic double portraits of friends and family members wearing masks and enacting symbolic dramas.

is best-known photography featured dolls and masks, or family, friends and neighbours pictured in abandoned buildings or in ordinary suburban backyards. Ralph Eugene Meatyard lived in Lexington, Kentucky, where he made his living as an optician while creating an impressive and enigmatic body of photographs.

What is identity photography?

A photograph resembles the likeness of what appeared before the lens. So, in the case of a profile picture, family album or mug shot, identity is based on the repetition of sameness that is evidenced by the image produced by the camera.

Why is identity photography important in photography?

Defining your photographic identity will allow you to say who you are, what you want to be, and how you are to be perceived by others. This should be apparent to each viewer, regardless of whether they are a photographer or not. Your photographic identity will define how you will be perceived by the world around you.

How is cultural identity represented through photography?

By creating a photograph (cause something into being that is not naturally evolved, making a construction out of photography) instead of just making one (taking a photographs of something that was already there), the photographer is able to taken into account multiple views, both from their own and from the models.

How do portraits communicate identity?

In analysing a portrait, we need to consider how the sitter or subject sees themselves, how the world might see them, how the artist sees them, and how we, the viewer, see them. All these ideas come together to convey identity in a portrait.

What is cultural portrait?

An organization’s mission, values and beliefs are the background of the culture portrait. These formal written statements provide the basis for expected goals, behaviour and relationships within the organization.

Claude cahun:

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Claude Cahun created some of the most startlingly original and enigmatic photographic images of the twentieth century. Prefiguring by over seventy years many of the concerns explored by contemporary artists today, the importance of her work is increasingly recognised.

Claude Cahun’s photographic self-portraits present a dizzying kaleidoscopic mix of mystery, exuberance, and sobriety. Born in France, Cahun lived mostly on the island of Jersey with long-term love, Marcel Moore. Also known as Lucy Schwob and Suzanne Malherbe, they both adopted their preferred gender-neutral pseudonyms during early adulthood. Moore, although often invisible, was always present – typically taking the photographs and also authoring collages – and in this sense was as much artist collaborator as Cahun’s personal support. Described in Cahun’s own words as a “hunt”, through a combination of text and imagery, Cahun’s exploration of self is relentless and at times unsettling. From circus performer, clothed in layers of artifice, to a stripped-down Buddhist monk grounded by integrity, Cahun is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with multiplicity. Tragically in line with the fragmentary nature of Cahun’s outlook, much of the artist’s work was destroyed following an arrest and subsequent imprisonment for resistance against the Nazis. What remains bares interesting parallel to the title of Cahun’s diaristic publication Aveux Non Avenus, translated as Disavowals, which enigmatically suggests that for all that is revealed and given, much is still hidden or has been lost.

In 1937 Cahun and Moore settled in Jersey. Following the fall of France and the German occupation of Jersey and the other Channel Islands, they became active as resistance workers and propagandists. Fervently against war, the two worked extensively in producing anti-German fliers. Many were snippets from English-to-German translations of BBC reports on the Nazis’ crimes and insolence, which were pasted together to create rhythmic poems and harsh criticism. They created many of these messages under the German pseudonym Der Soldat Ohne Namen, or The Soldier With No Name, to deceive German soldiers that there was a conspiracy among the occupation troops. The couple then dressed up and attended many German military events in Jersey, strategically placing their pamphlets in soldier’s pockets, on their chairs, and in cigarette boxes for soldiers to find. Additionally, they inconspicuously crumpled up and threw their fliers into cars and windows.

Cindy Sherman

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Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and filmmaker whose self-portraits offer critiques of gender and identity. What made Sherman famous is the use of her own body in roles or personas in her work, with her seminal series Untitled Film Stills (1977–1980) being particularly important. These black-and-white photographs feature the artist herself as a model in various costumes and poses, and are her portrayals of female stereotypes found in film, television, and advertising. Similar to Barbara Kruger, Sherman examines and distorts femininity as a social construct. “I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colourful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you’re looking at is something totally opposite,” she reflected. “It seems boring to me to pursue the typical idea of beauty, because that is the easiest and the most obvious way to see the world. It’s more challenging to look at the other side.” Born on January 19, 1954 in Glen Ridge, NJ, the artist abandoned painting for photography while attending the State University of New York at Buffalo, and in 1976, moved to New York to pursue a career as a photographer. In addition to the Untitled Film Stills series, she has continued to explore women as subject matter, often donning elaborate disguises in large-scale colour photographs, throughout her career. Her work has been the subject of many museum exhibitions, including those at The Museum of Modern Art in 2019, and at the National Portrait Gallery, in London in 2019. Sherman lives and works in New York, NY.

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Juxtaposition in photography is a fascinating concept. It happens when two or more people/objects are compared side by side, creating an interesting contrast in colors, shapes, lines, etc.

It’s a very significant way to describe two contrasting effects of objects, ideas, people, images, and animals in a single photo. In simple words, juxtaposition in pictures is to capture different things that are put next to each other.

This technique can be used in your compositions  to play with peoples’ curiosity and thoughtfulness regarding the moments and scenes you capture.

Juxtaposition occurs when two things are placed side by side for comparison, often to highlight the contrast between the elements. The simplest example would be the yin-yang symbol.

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What is a montage photography?

a combination of several photographs joined together for artistic effect or to show more of the subject than can be shown in a single photograph. Also called montage.

Photomontages are similar to cubism. There are no bounds of perspective or time. You can create a single artwork using several images of the same or many subjects. Doing this in a cohesive manner gives exciting results.

composite photographic image made either by pasting together individual prints or parts of prints, by successively exposing individual images onto a single sheet of paper, or by exposing the component images simultaneously through superimposed negatives.

Dora mar

Henriette Theodora Markovich, known as Dora Maar, was a French photographer, painter, and poet. A love partner of Pablo Picasso, Maar was depicted in a number of Picasso’s paintings, including his Portrait of Dora Maar and Dora Maar au Chat.

Unlike many other photomontage creators of this time, Maar did not use photographs taken from illustrated newspapers or magazines. Instead the images often came from her own work, including both street and landscape photography.

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My work

The photos I will use

Double and multi exposure

In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be identical to each other.

What is double exposure mode?

By releasing the shutter twice in the double exposure mode, you can superimpose two different images in a single photo. Enjoy adding an exquisitely artistic nuance, different from that created by normal digital processing.

Using multiple exposure gives you a terrific way to create soft, silky flower images blending two images. Using a tripod keeps the flower stationary during both images which will give you better results. Set the blend mode to Average, focus on the flower and take the first shot.

A double exposure is a photograph composed of two combined and overlaid images. You can create double exposures in Photoshop or with digital cameras using a special setting. These images often have a dreamy, otherworldly feel and you can use them for great artistic effect, with both digital cameras and film.

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My example of double / multi exposure

Photos I will use:

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The Patent Diamond Cameo photograph was registered by F.R. Window of London in 1864. Four small oval portraits (1″ x ³/₄“) were placed on a carte de visite in the shape of a diamond, each portrait being of the same person photographed in a different position. A special camera made by Dallmeyer was used in which the one glass negative was moved to a new position in the back of camera after each portrait had been taken, and when the paper print had been pasted on the card a special press was used to punch the four portraits up into a convex cameo shape.

My photos: