Photoshop gallery:

For my first virtual gallery I used five of my images that I have used for my final prints

I dragged them onto an empty gallery image that I found on the internet and presses CTRL + T to select the image, I then adjusted it by right clicking and using ‘skew’ and ‘free transform’ to place the image on top of the empty canvas.

I repeated this process with four other image placing them over the empty canvases until the gallery was full.

I added a shadow under some of my images to make it look more realistic and as id they were actually in a gallery by using the burn tool to darken the underneath of my images.

Overall I am happy with my edit and think is it very effective with the shadows making it look more realistic. however I think my images are a bit small therefore next time I would make my images slightly larger to make the more visible and engaging.

Artsteps gallery:

I also creative a second virtual gallery on on the website www.artsteps.com.

Firstly I picked the gallery space that I wanted to used and began adding my images onto the walls with other images that contrast well together.

Overall I prefer my second gallery as it allows you to feel like you are actually in the building with your work up. I think it allows my pieces to stand out and lets the viewer focus on the detail within them.

For my first manual photomontage I used my image on the red car in black and white and stitched a red heart into the photo as if it was coming out the car. I used red string as it contrasted with the black and white image and stood out well. Overall I like how this image turned out as it is simple yet effective however next time I would make my image of a better quality to avoid the patchy image.

For my second manual photomontage I used the sam image twice but in two different colours (pink and blue). I then cut the images into strips and re stuck them together alternating the colours of the strips to create an engaging effect. I think the image turned out well however the strips could have been cut more carefully to avoid the little gaps between them when sticking them together.

What is formalism ?

Formalism represents the how a photo or image is made (its form). It also includes the position that the image was taken from e.g. birds eye view, worms eye view etc. It is what is in the image and how is has been pieced together, rather than what the image tells us. Formalism began in photography in the late 1800’s, it was an approach in response to the post-impressionism movements that was major in the art industry at the time.

What is includes:

Formalism includes four main areas. Technical, visual, contextual and conceptual. They tell and describe how the image is made with the features that it carries.

Edward Weston:

An example of a formalism photographer is Weston, he takes images of objects close up to capture their detail and puts the images in black and white to show the shadows ad depth. I like the two images of his below as they hold lots of different tones and shades that intrigue the viewer into the image.

My example:

About her:

Mary Ellen Bartley is a photographer who is known for her tactile and formal qualities of abstract images. Her work focuses on geometry shapes and simple colours to create a painterly style image. She created a range of image throughout lock down called ‘7 Things Again and Again’ whereby she used the same objects and took a picture of them everyday changing their positions slightly each time.

Some examples:

Her work:

Some of my examples:

Overall I am happy with how these image turned out and think the simple, natural colours go well together with the hint of silver adding somethings to draw the viewer in.

For this montage I opened up two of my images and placed one on top of the other by dragging the green image on to the purple one and then dragging the background and dropping it on top.

I then found a ‘paper tear’ image off the internet and saved it to my files and then opened the up on photoshop as well. I used the quick selection tool to cut out the part of the tear that I wanted and the re-sized it on my images.

I then used the rubber tool to rub out half of the green images to reveal the purple image underneath.

Overall I am happy with how this montage turned out as it looks very effective to the viewer, and as if the image has been ripped and there is another image bellow it. I also tried adding some circle cut outs on the green image to also reveal the purple image to add some more depth to the image.

What is a montage:

Photomontage is the process of using two or more images and creating a final image out of them by either cutting, gluing, overlapping, editing or rearranging them.

Some of my own:

Firstly I opened up two of my images that I liked and that I thought went well together, in this montage I used a toy car and a little bottle with sand and shells in.

I then dragged one image on top of the other and then resized it and placed it where I wished it to go.

I then changed the opacity level to 64% so that the image was more of a blur. To blend the background I then changed the layer from normal to pin light to leave the car by itself.

Finally I cropped the image to the size that I wanted it to be so that there was not too much empty background.

Overall I like this image as it looks as if the toy car has been captured in the glass bottle. I also think that the plain background make the objects pop and stand out drawing the viewer into the image.

For my second montage I opened up two images that we the same in different colours, one in blue and one in pink.

I then dragged one image on top of the other and began cutting out circles with the elliptical marquee tool. I then clicked layer via copy and once I was happy with the amount of circles cut out I deleted the original pink image to leave the blue image and pink circles.

I am happy with how this montage turned out as it shower the viewer two versions of the image at once with the pink peering through breaking up the solid blue.

For this montage I used the same method as above however when I selected the circle I deleted it so reveal the image underneath. I think this edit is very effective and engages the viewer with the shapes and colours.

For this montage I opened two images on top of each other. I then selected half of the top image with the rectangular marquee tool, and deleted it by right clicking and then clicking layer via cut to reveal half of the image underneath. I like how this edit turned out as the blue and purple contrast well with each other drawing in the viewers eye. I have also tried to change the layer of the blue image to pin light to give it an engaging effect with the purple image in the shadows behind, as seen below.

A photomontage is a collage constructed from photographs.

Historically, the technique has been used to make political statements and gained popularity in the early 20th century (World War 1-World War 2)

Artists such as Raoul Haussman , Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield employed cut-n-paste techniques as a form of propaganda…as did Soviet artists like Aleksander Rodchenko and El Lissitsky

Photomontage has its roots in Dadaism…which is closely related to Surrrealism

raoul haussman:

Hannah Hoch:

John Heartfield:

What is it:

Photography is writing with light, as well as going through the process of taking and developing or processing an image.

A few examples:

In this image Shrunk and Kender have captured a man falling from a building or ‘leaping into the void’. The image is very intriguing as it makes you think what has made the man jump from the building. I think the image had quite a dark sense behind it which is what makes the image so catchy.

In this image by Broomberg and Chanarin it is unclear what the image is and is telling us, which allows for the viewer to make up their own background story of it. Once you do some research you will find out that the images is about war in Afghanistan. This allows the viewer to further read into the image discovering deeper meaning and back stories to the image.

camera obscura:

Camera obscura consists of a room with a box that has a tiny hole in one of the sides. Light will reflect from the natural world and will project an image from outside the box on to the opposite surface as shown in the image below.

This method of photography is still used in the modern world by some photographers all over the planet.

Nicephore Niepce:

Joseph Nicephore Niepce was the first person to make a permanent photographic image, and is commonly known to people for inventing photography. He invented the Niepce Heliograph in 1827, it was the process of the earliest photograph and was created with camera obscura. He was one of the most important figures in the photography industry and is still widely remembered to this day.

Louis Daguerre and daguerreotype:

Louis Daguerre was a French artist and photographer who helped develop photography with his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography which was the first practical process ever to be invented in 1839. Daguerre had an interest in lighting effects which is what brought his towards photography as he was a painter. He began by exploring with translucent paintings and different effects that were given off by light.

Henry Fox Talbot:

Henry Fox Talbot was famously known in 1841 for the development of the calotype, which was a further developed version of Deguerre’s daguerreotype. His process is where you have a sheet of silver chloride coated paper that was exposed to light in a camera obscura, the areas that were I the line of light then became darker in their tone and produced a negative image.

Richard Maddox:

Richard Maddox was an English photographer and physician who invented the dry plate, a glass plate coated in gelatin. It was an improved type of photographic plate that was greatly developed in 1871, so much that a factory that made them was established. From his invention smaller hand held cameras were able to be made.

George Eastman:

George Eastman was an American entrepreneur who introduced the kodak camera in 1888, which helped promote amateur photography, widely. He create the Kodak which is still used all over the world to this day.

Kodak (Brownie):

The Kodak was a series of cameras made by George Eastman in the 1900s. It consisted of a cardboard box with a simple camera and roll film inside, it was widely loved as it allows middle class people to take images of their own with the Kodak brownie dollar box. The camera had a single shutter speed and narrow apertures which allowed for a deep depth of field creating a simple image.

Digital Photography:

Digital photography uses a camera that contains many electronic photodetectors which produce an image from a lens. There are two types of digital images. Vector and raster.

Vector:

Vector images are created by using a sequence of commands through a computer. It places lines and shapes to create the image. These images are either a graphic artists work, or a file and are saved as as a sequence of vector statements, compared to raster images they are very clear and sharp.

Raster:

Raster images are are images made up of hundreds of tiny pixels, laid out in coulombs and rows. Each pixels contains different information and a colour to make the image piece by piece that depends on the image and its angle.

Ernest Baudoux:

Ernest Baudoux was a French born Jersey prolific photographer, and was from 1869 to 1887. He mainly focused on island houses and made a living as a portraitist as well as documenting the life of Jersey outdoors from 1870 to 1880. Many of his images that still exist are known as carbon printing, which means that images have a metallic-like finish. Baudoux was the first significant chronicler of the island life in images that was later taken over by Albert Smith.

David Campany’s book:

Campany’s book is focused on the quote ‘photographs confuse as mush as fascinate, conceal as much as reveal, distract as much as compel. They are unpredictable communicators’. His book contains 120 photographs from various photographers where by he explains the images history and meaning behind the image, as well as contextualising is with the visual culture.

When explaining his quote he says ‘If a photograph compels, if it holds our attention, it will be for more than one reason. The reasons may be unexpected, and even contradictory (mixed feelings are often the most compelling). When we are drawn to look at a photograph again and again, it is likely that our second or third response will not be quite the same as the first‘. This means images may have multiply different meaning that are only seen when we look deeper into image many times, ‘They cannot carry meanings in any straightforward way‘.