Mary Ellen is a famous abstract photographer exploring the tactile and formal qualities of the printed book. She works to look at the geometrics and pure form of where her objects she photographs goes.
throughout this week I have been attempting to replicate her methods.
I worked to place objects in unique and different settings, whilst playing around with the placement of the camera angles.
Not only does she create uniquely placing images of books and other still life objects, but expands her work by cutting out pieces of her already made pictures, and re-adjusting them in smooth but also ridged ways, eventually creating an unique and attractive image.
New Objectivity was a movement in German art started by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in the 1920s. It was a reaction against expressionism. It offered a return to unsentimental reality and a focus on the objective world, as opposed to the more abstract, romantic, or idealistic tendencies of Expressionism.
Here are some examples of new objectivity art:
This is a left wing photography style called Dadaism, it links to new objectivity.
After importing all my files into photoshop, all being the same pixel size, I started to Edit the images using cropping tools.
My main keyboard controls used where Crtl+A, Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, and Ctrl+T.
I used the select tool in photoshop to create a messy image with layers, why not.
Eventually I saved 4 edited images.
My idea behind these images was for more of an abstract feel to them, where some of them would interlink within one another, whilst making this textiles effect on the images. And for fun I wanted to create a face using the materials I had, to spice it up a bit
I used the grain, vignette and temperature tools to make the image look old fashioned and faded.Here I added a rosy tint to continue the idea of nostalgia. Also a lot of these images needed general aspect adjustment, so I did that too. The use of the monochrome filter again has the same effect.
This is my contact sheet for all the photos I took in this photoshoot. I definitely didn’t take enough so if I get a chance I would like to take some more. Also, I don’t really like how the headphones images came out as they just weren’t arranged properly, but my favourite photos are of the dolls because I think their arrangement and the lighting just work really well in all of them.
