I have chosen these images for my moodboard because i like how the artists take photography and observe it in a different way by making the images 3D which is a change from usual flat photography. I feel like it brings an element of life to these images, i especially like the ones of landscape such as the sea or a skyline as i feel it reflects nature in a more realistic way in its 3D form.

I plan to model my images after these inspiration photos, printing mine out as paper perhaps with a cardboard background and stacking them in a way that looks abstract and has resemblance to my artist references.

ARTIST REFERENCES

LETHA WILSON

Letha Wilson is a photographer and artist, specializing in making abstract sculptures of her images. She is known for her range of mediums, expanding the visual and physical dimensions of photography and sculpture by combining industrial materials such as Corten steel, aluminum, and vinyl with photography.

She prints images depicting the beauty of natural landscapes onto her sculptures, embeds them in the surface of her works, and manipulates them in various unexpected compostions. The sweeping expanse of a desert sunset, rock formations, and palm trees are among images Wilson has taken while travelling in Hawaii, the American West, and Iceland. The natural world is both the subject and content of her work.

Wilson’s site-specific works and public projects convey her ideas on a monumental scale, altering the space around them and offering moments of respite in the urban landscape. The outdoor sculptures engage directly with the elements and nature; as patinas form over time due to weather conditions, the natural world will act as a co-creative force on the appearance of these artworks.

KIRSTEN KAY THOEN

Kirsten kay Thoen is a New York based sculpture artist, her style of work includes taking photos of natures texture e.g the sea and putting it onto abstract shapes of a range of different sizes and colours to represent the emotions she feels whilst taking her photos.

Her artwork is concerned with the impacts of accelerated technology, and its inundation of imagery, on our connections to nature. While she amisdrawn to work with the illusive realism of photography, my creative process challenges the mediums traditions as she re-work her imagery of nature into sculptural forms to achieve a connection between image and form. The multi- dimensional works are vital objects, exposing the image as not the end-point but a catalyst for transcendence.

To help me create the 3D sculptures I first picked out my best images from Plemont and stinky bay, these images are presented below, I decided to choose these images as I felt they fit best together and will make aesthetic sculptures. After picking my images I printed them out and started to make the layout and plan for my sculptures.

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Experiment 1

For my first experiment, I took inspiration from Letha Wilson who is known for her unique photography and sculptures. She prints images, embeds them in the surface of her work and manipulates them into various compositions. She uses images that include desert sunsets, different rock formations and a range of different trees which are mainly taken in Hawaii, the American west and Iceland. The natural world is a big concept in her work and is the main focus of all her projects.

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Wilson was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but was raised in Colorado, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York where is earned her BFA from Syracuse University and her MFA from Hunter College. Letha has done many outdoor excursions which include the Rocky Mountains which have placed the natural world and its photographic image at the root of her artistic interests.

Letha Wilson’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at GRIMM, Amsterdam and New York. As well as many other places around the world. Wilson has also participated in group exhibitions at the New York public library, The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media.

Below I have shown some different angles of my first experiment. To make this sculpture I first started by printing out 6 different images that I had chosen from my Plemont and Sticky bay photoshoots, originally I only wanted to use 4 photographs and have two boards attached together but as I was experimenting I decided it would look better with 3 and have a more unique aesthetic. When actually building the sculpture I first started with 3 pieces of mount board which I then glued my chosen images onto so that could make two slits in the bottom so that it would be a standing object.

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I like this sculpture as it allows me to display a good amount of my final images in a creative way that is also pleasing to look at. This project allows me to get more experimental and creative with how I present my photographs which I think is useful when it comes to our overall ability in photography. Furthermore, I enjoy how it allows us to get. more hands-on with our images and away from the computers, it also helps us to display our own personalities to some extent.

As well as liking this sculpture and thinking it is a good first attempt, there are also some things that I would do differently if I could re-do it. Firstly, I would measure out the photos and the mount board more carefully as I think having neat edges can really make a difference to the quality of the final sculpture. I would also measure the splits accurately so that they are not too loose which causes the whole sculpture to move, this also makes a difference when it comes to the overall analysis and critique of the project.

Experiment 2

For my second experiment, I looked at the work of Joseph Parra. Parra was born in South Florida but now resides in Baltimore, Maryland which is where he received a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art with a major in painting and a minor in Art history and finally a concentration in Printmaking. Joseph always had an interest in working with the aspects of identity in relation to the human figure and his work challenges the traditions of portraiture through acts of concealment and exposure. Parra also studied at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Summer Seminar and The International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Umbria, Italy.

Joseph Parra is most notably known for his exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC as well as the Margulies Warehouse in Miami, he also has had his work shown in many other galleries.

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Below I have presented my second experiment, which shows the different angles of my sculpture. For this experiment, I have tried to make a 3D triangle to display my photos, to do this I first printed out my chosen images which I felt would fit nicely together and they would flow to create an eye-catching sculpture. Secondly, I glued these images on to mount board so that they had a firm structure to stand up on and that won’t be flimsy and bend when trying to construct the sculpture. Thirdly, I used masking on the inside of the sculpture to connect all the images together and lastly I added a plain piece of mount board to the top and bottom of the sculpture.

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I like this sculpture as it is an easy but interesting way to showcase different photos from all angles. It is also easy to add to as a sculpture as it is such a simple design that it can be enhanced in many different ways. There are a few downfalls to this sculpture such as the measurements of both images and the mount board. If I could re-do this sculpture I would take more care in measuring each photo to fitting the mount board, also making all the measurements even as I feel it would look a lot more sleek and aesthetic. As you can see in the middle image, the board on the right is slightly taller than the left which is very noticeable and is a big disadvantage to those sculptures.

We went down to the photography studio and took a variety of still life images of objects that relate to the ‘My Rock’ project such as rocks, shells, seaweed etc that could be combined with previous photoshoots later on. We used two different types of lighting [still lighting and flashead lighting] with different backgrounds in order to experiment with the intensity of the lights and accentuate the quality of each image along with pairing each object composition with a backdrop that would allow the details the emerge within the image.

Still Lighting:

When taking images with still lighting, we decided to move around our composition between photos, adding and removing objects so we could later decide which ones we preferred and which ones would be scrapped. Along with that, we experimented with holding coloured acrylic sheets in front of the camera lens, tinting our images a variety of saturated colours, and seeing how it affected how the photo looked and felt from a more meaningful perspective. Overall, I think our photoshoot was successful as we took a bunch of well lit photographs, however, I feel as though we could go back and take more still life photos of objects on their own.

Some of my best shots:

Flashead Lights:

When taking images using the flashead lights, we spent a lot of time getting our framing right as the backdrop was coloured paper and we wanted to make sure we didn’t get the table itself in frame which led to less photos being taken. We tried taking photos from different viewpoints [i.e: eyelevel and bird’s-eye] whilst trying to keep the lighting consistent which was a struggle due to the amount of shadows that would appear from all the objects. Overall, I think our images came out decent, however, I do think we could improve and could have a second photoshoot with the flashead lights.

Some of my best shots:

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I have selected an array of images to use as inspiration for my own photo-sculpture. I like the idea of distorting my original images and focusing on shapes and layers in my sculpture.

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“There is a vast difference between taking a picture and making a photograph,” declared Heinecken, who rejected the idea of photography as a mere recording device. In this work, a series of segmented photographs of a nude female figure are affixed to the sides of nine rotating blocks. Borrowing practices normally used in sculpture or modernist abstraction, Heinecken expanded what we expect of photographs, here insisting on their interactivity, dimensionality, and ability to puzzle.

https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/18932

I chose to look at Fractured Figure Sections because it is a unique and memorable photosculpture. Heinecken’s work tends to feature Multiexposures and inverted colours and this piece is no different, it does however have the added 3D element of there being multiple faces, as well as the fact that these faces can be moved to create the desired image of the viewer. This could tie into ideas of the portrayal of women and beauty standards as the faces of the sections are all based off of one original image of a naked woman. This idea of customisation by the viewer could tie into the male gaze and women being expected to change themselves in order to be seen as appealing by other people.

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Goudal’s work often features images of one environment placed inside a different contrasting one. Jetée features a collection of images of a pier placed inside some kind of run down, industrial looking room. Both places are old and manmade and Goudal made sure to line up the perspectives of the interlope between images to make their combination more seamless, while also leaving the noticeable cracks between the images of the jetée. The water on the floor below the pier image make it look as if water has spilled through, creating another strange connection between the two images. Goudal’s pieces are often about contrast, often between manmade structures and the natural world, which is seen in this piece as well, the warms dark greys of the indoor environment contrast the lighter cooler colours of the outside world.

Artist Research

For my research and inspiration, I looked at work from Felicity Hammond– an emerging artist who works across photography and installation. Fascinated by political contradictions within the urban landscape her work explores construction sites and obsolete built environments. Her sculptures are abstract in the way that they are all small parts of a larger sculpture that constructs a landscape.

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First Model Idea

My first idea is to use these 4 photos from the My Rock project, and stack them similar to an ascending spiral staircase.

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Experimenting

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Final Version

For my final version, I will be more precisely measuring the slits on the photos, as well as on the base to make sure the model stands sturdy and straight. I will also be using toothpicks to create a sort of spine for support.

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Wind Chime Idea

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Is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. Similar to still life painting, it is the application of photography to the still life artistic style.

History of Still Life

-Still life is usually about metaphors / symbolism (i.e death, love, fragility of life, etc)

Still, life has historically been used as a way to present symbolism for real life, for example early Netherlandish paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. This then developed to more recent history with photography- allowing more to be captured more easily. This genre gives the photographer more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition compared to other photographic genres, such as landscape or portrait photography. Lighting and framing are important aspects of still life photography composition. Manmade objects like pots, vases, consumer products, handicrafts etc. or natural objects like plants, fruits, vegetables, food, rocks, shells etc. can be taken as subjects for still life photography. Typically, still life photos are not close up to the subject nor far away, but at a very head-on angle. The art in still life photography is often in the choice of objects that are being arranged and the lighting rather than the skill of the photographer. Still life derives from the Dutch word still even, coined in the 17th century when paintings of objects enjoyed immense popularity throughout Europe. The impetus for this term came as artists created compositions of greater complexity, bringing together a wider variety of objects to communicate allegorical meanings.

Analysis of Key Painting

Brueghel has used

Robert Heinecken

Robert Heinecken was an American artist who referred to himself as a “paraphotographer” because he so often made photographic images without a camera. He was born on October 29th 1931 and died on May 19th 2006.

examples of his work

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Heinecken extended photographic processes and materials into lithography, collage, photo-based painting and sculpture, and installation. Drawing on the countless pictures in magazines, books, pornography, television, and even consumer items such as TV dinners, Heinecken used found images to explore the manufacture of daily life by mass media and the relationship between the original and the copy, both in art and in our culture at large.

Image analysis

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This image/sculpture shows a stack of rotating images which create multiple images when aligned in different ways, like a puzzle. the images created by the puzzle are pictures of the human form and can be rearranged to create different forms. This could be suggesting that the human form is just like a puzzle and can be very confusing at times.

Lauren Pascarella

Lauren Pascarella was born in Hollywood, FL in 1984.  She studied at New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida from 2003 to 2007, majoring in Photography. She is currently working in cross-disciplinary genres, including New Media and digital photographic installations. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. 

examples of her work

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Pascarellas process utilizes photographs of printed and manipulated photographs, “I have the ability to shift perspective”. At times, the flat photographic images behave just as if they had the depth of their real world counterparts. In other instances, they are arrayed in a manner that wouldn’t be possible without shedding a dimension. “When examining my work, the viewer is confronted with an unsettling situation that demands correction. Whether the subject is a single item or a cluster of disjointed objects, the mind will attempt proper placement, but without satisfaction”.

Image analysis

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The image above shows a lot of clutter in the kitchen of the artists house which looks like it is placed very random at first. As the artists states, “When examining my work, the viewer is confronted with an unsettling situation that demands correction”, in this case the unsettling situation being a lot of clutter which the viewer wants to clean up. This idea could be backed up by the photo of the woman in the back of the photo who also looks unsettled or even frustrated. The clutter has been placed this way with a purpose, to create a unique sculpture like image where the viewer wants to correctly place the objects where they belong, but without satisfaction.

The final images from my first shoot in the studio using the objects given, I decided to use this shoot as an opportunity to experiment with lighting and colour.

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I created a structure consisting of a foamboard base, sheets of Perspex and put a light behind it, the images were printed onto transparent paper so that they could be layered in front of the light.

I think for a display I would need a stronger light so the images were clearly more visible, even better if I could make lighting fixtures which go in the base underneath the Perspex slides illuminating the image itself.

Joseph Parra was born in South Florida and currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland where he received a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) with a major in Painting, a minor in Art History, and a concentration in Printmaking. He has always had an interest in working with aspects of identity in relation to the human figure. His work has come to challenge the traditions of portraiture through acts of concealment and exposure; a reflection of the mind transposed onto a surface.

“Remember, today is the first day of the rest of your life. Don’t be bound by yesterday, just look forward“-Joseph Parra

Examples of his work

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Exposure and concealment are Parra’s tools, carried out via printmaking, digital printing, drawing, sculpting and painting. While viewers connect with the figures, they are also silently confronted by the figures’ mindless expressions, illuminating that they aren’t aware of their voyeur.

Joseph Parras work could be an inspiration towards my 3d photo sculptures because of the way he creates the 3d effect. I really like the way he uses crumpled paper to create distorted faces and present them in an effective way. I could use the idea of rolled up paper with my images of rock formations to make a 3d sculpture in a similar way to Joseph.

Mary Ellen Bartley

Mary Ellen Bartley is known for her photographs exploring the tactile and formal qualities of the printed book, and its potential for abstraction. By emphasizing the unique “aura” and materiality of printed matter, Bartley’s work offers a celebration of textural and tactile properties, a particularly potent act in this increasingly digital age.

Examples of her work

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Bartley photographs stacked paperback books that take on the identity of minimal sculptures. This is emphasized by the anonymity of the books, whose spines and covers cannot be seen, just the blocks of pages with subtle variations in colour. 

Mary Ellen Bartley has a few different styles of work with a topic based on photographing and manipulation of different kinds of books. To create these abnormal books, Mary cuts out strips of the book cover and flips them around in a sequence, then photographs them on a vibrant coloured background. Examples:

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Image analysis

In this image, you can see three crumpled pieces of paper displaying a distorted face on wooden shelves. The faces can portray the idea of lost identity due to the same face displaying different emotions through different positions and angles. The shadows being cast from the shelves creates a nice, dark contrast towards the plain grey background. Also, the artist has created relating shapes with the faces to give the idea of different identities through the face positioning. I would like to use a similar style of work when I create my 3d photo sculpture because I like the way the faces are positioned and displayed.