Henry Mullins – (1818-1880) was a photographer who, between 1850-73 Henry Mullins made over 9000 carte de visite portraits of Jersey’s ruling elite and wealthy upper classes. The collection that exists of his work comes through his studio albums, in which he placed his clients in an ordered grid with reference to mid-nineteenth century social hierarchies. Throughout his career, Mullins collaborated with numerous acclaimed actors, directors, and production teams. Not only did he provide stunning headshots, but he also worked on set, capturing behind-the-scenes moments and promotional images for various films and television productions.

Cartes de visite:

A cartes de visite was a thin paper photograph mounted on a thicker paper card. The size of a carte de visite is 54.0 × 89 mm and this is placed on a card sized 64 × 100 mm. 

Henry was known for specialising in Cartes de visite, the photographic archive of ‘La Société’ contains a large amount of these (online archive being 9600 images). This archive has been described as the ‘first commercial photographic print’ this print was produced using egg whites to bind the chemicals of the photos and straight onto the paper. However, this method is very much avoided these days as more reliable methods have been discovered. Due to the photo being a result of exposure to light, an albumen print may be said to be a printed rather than a developed photograph. Traditionally small thin photograph mounted onto a thicker piece of card would be used for this but Henry Mullins used an album to display his work instead.

Many of these images contained the island’s most affluent and influential people, alongside officers of the Royal Militia Island of Jersey, for whom it was very popular to have portraits taken, as well as of their wives and children. The images of the officers document the change in generations as they do not look like the general person today, showing the fashion for long hair, whiskers and beards in the mid-1800s. Their appearance makes it difficult for the viewer to differentiate who is who as they were styled almost identically during this time.

Diamond Cameo:

This layout of final images is called a Diamond cameo due to the diamond-like shape produced by the placement of oval images. I like this technique as it is more unique and more appealing and eye catching to the eye as you can see all format and possible sides of his face allowing you to see every detail rather than a normal layout of images put together.

Here are some examples of diamond cameos from other artists, I decided to also research some other artists cameos just to see if there are any other ideas or techniques that I could pick up or recreate to use in my own creations. I also have attached some images of Henry Mullins’ work on diamond cameos as I think his work especially captures a more rustic and meaningful message through his cameos. I hope to capture the effect of my models looking from different angles as I think this will really escalate my edit of my photography to the next level and get as close to Henry Mullins’ but with my own individual twist on it.

PHOTOMONTAGE:

What is it?

Photomontage is the process of changing photographs by rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image. This means that having a combination of several shots joined together creates an effect of creativity and imagination.

Examples:

Brno Del Zou – ARTIST INSPIRATION

Brno Del Zou is a French photographer, sculptor and artist, born in 1963. In his work, he takes pictures of faces and bodies at various angles and combines the different photos into one. The result is a combination of several prints, leaving a distortion to the face or body.

Examples of his work:

My Contact Sheet:

My edited photos:

For these photos, we went to the studio and experimented with different facial angles to figure out which one worked better with montaging. I used the same image but edited them in different ways to experiment. I used photoshop to edit these images, and I also then produced them in black and white which makes the image more interesting due to the contrast.

I took inspiration from Brno Del Zou because I really like the artistic effect of his work, and I wanted to try it myself.

I think my final images were really successful because they look similar to the artist’s, and her face is changed around to seem distorted.

With Juxtaposition, A comparison can be made of my attempt images to same type of headshot Style, Henry Mullins took in his photos.

Using the same angles I was able to recreate some of his photos.

Comparisons:

Using the lighting techniques I learnt prior I was able to add more detail to these headshots. In conclusion I like how these images compare to the originals and believe I have replicated these images well.

For my edits I wanted to recreate the diamond Cameos Mullins did during his later work. Playing around with the saturation and tone of the image I was going for the Old-timey looks his images had on his Carte-de-visite’s.

Edit settings:

Going for a grainy effect, I tried to replicate the vintage aesthetic of Mullins photographs with the following settings:

Using from what I have learnt from my studies into studio lighting, I enhanced the shadow on my Chiaroscuro lighting with these edited images.

Since Mullins photographs were taken pre-colour film, I decided with my edits to have a low saturation to have that same visual composition of his images.

(Further use of studio lighting, here I used Rembrandt and made it more prominent with white settings)

Going for a very old looking photo, I attempted this by Increasing the size and roughness of the grain. Additionally by adjusting the exposure and contrast, it made a more brighter image and tonal difference amongst the light and dark parts of the Image.

(Using Rembrandt lighting again, I used grain to give it a more prominent appearance).

Diamond Cameo edits:

Using the eclipse tool, feathering and a use of alternative backgrounds, I edited my images further with photoshop.

Sticking to the idea of Diamond Cameo, I experimented further by alternatively adding a background of an old photo of Jerseys king street.

With This Diamond Cameo, I matched the background image of my photos to an old image of a newspaper I found. To me this creates an interesting composition as the headshots almost merge into to the newspaper.

Going for that old card effect, I used photoshop textures to make this image more interesting with its visual composition.

My responses:

Juxtaposition is placing two images together to show contrast or similarities. Juxtaposition is a powerful technique in photography, which essence is to place contrasting elements in the same frame and tell the viewer their story. The juxtaposition in your photography can combine such contrasting things as new and old, man-made and industrial, light and dark, or two different emotions.Juxtapose images according to shapes, colours, repetition, object vs portrait.

My response:

Professional headshots are a type of portrait photography typically used for websites, press releases, publications, and social-media profiles. The term “headshot” just means that the portrait photo is cropped somewhere in the middle torso – so that the focus is on your face.

Some common rules in order to produce successful headshots are:

• Don’t bend your head too far forward or back – you want to be relaxed and natural-looking.
• Don’t sit in an awkward position – you want to look comfortable and confident.
• Don’t look down at the ground – keep your chin up and make eye contact with the photographer.
• Don’t use outdated corporate headshots.
• Eyes must be open and clearly visible, with no flash reflections and no ‘red eye’
• Facial expression must be neutral (neither frowning nor smiling), with the mouth closed
• Photos must show both edges of the face clearly
• Photos must show a full front view of face and shoulders, squared to the camera 
• The face and shoulder image must be centred in the photo; the subject must not be looking over one shoulder (portrait style), or tilting their head to one side or backwards or forwards
• There must be no hair across the eyes
• Hats or head coverings are not permitted except when worn for religious reasons and only if the full facial features are clearly visible
• Photos with shadows on the face are unacceptable
• Photos must reflect/represent natural skin tone

Headshots Mood Board:

Thomas Ruff- Artist Research:

Thomas Ruff was a German photographer born on February 10th 1958,  who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as “a master of edited and reimagined images”. Ruff shares a studio on Düsseldorf’s Hansaallee, with fellow German photographers Laurenz Berges, Andreas Gursky and Axel Hütte. Thomas Ruff’s photography suggests the possibilities of his chosen medium, as he might use digital manipulation for one subject and antiquated darkroom techniques for another. Ruff works in series, creating defined bodies of work whose subjects include empty domestic interiors, appropriated interplanetary images captured by NASA, abstractions of modernist architecture and three–dimensional computer–generated Pop imagery.

Ruff is a unique photographer because he explores the boundaries of photography and challenges traditional ideas of representation. He experiments with different techniques such as digitally manipulating them or using large-scale formats in order to create visually striking photographs. His work often prompts viewers to question the nature of photography and our perception of reality.

Bruce Gilden:

Bruce Gilden is an American street photographer. He is best known for his candid close-up photographs of people on the streets of New York City, using a flashgun. He has had various books of his work published, has received the European Publishers Award for Photography and is a Guggenheim Fellow.

Bruce Gilden is one of the most iconic street photographers known for his confrontational and graphic images of a close-up subject. His work is around this due to being fascinated by the life on the streets and the complicated and captivating motion it involves in his childhood. His work has a high degree of intimacy and directness which have become signature in his work called FACE. Typically, people used are not the average person and have blemishes or look uncomfortable/awkward. Many people may say he is the most aggressive street photographer due to the rawness and realness of his images.

I like Gilden’s work because it has a sense of realism throughout. It is effective because he has a unique style that captures raw and candid moments. He often gets close up to his subjects, which I think creates powerful and intense images. His photos also have a a gritty and unfiltered quality which easily grabs attention and evokes strong emotions.

After creating a Diamond Cameo with different sides of my subject face, I decided that I wanted to edit them so they looked more rustic.

This is my Diamond Cameo without any type of editing (only blending was done as seen in my previous blog. I applied all these blending effect to all my experiment of Diamond Cameo) :

Evaluation and critique:

Although I quite liked the way the diamond cameo looked without editing except for blending, I didn’t like that fact that it looked really bland therefore I decided I wanted to experiment and see which one I liked most and showed that rustic tone to it.

Experiment 1:

Editing process: After using all those blending tools stated above, I flattened image so that I could edit the image I pressed on adjustments and selected the filter called warm. That was all I did to this experiment of Diamond Cameo.

Evaluation and critique: I quite like this picture. I like the way the adjustment adds this rustic tone to the picture and how it gives the picture shadow however I don’t like how dark the picture is. In some parts of the picture, it is so dark that it strips away the subjects face and removes those beautiful details the subject has. I also don’t like how orange the picture is, it makes the subjects face look a little saturated.

Experiment 2:

Editing process: For this Diamond cameo, I added an adjustment called soft sepia after blending my cut outs and flattening my image. That is all I did for this diamond cameo

Evaluation and critique: I really like this picture. I think that this picture is the picture that shows the most rustic tone. I really like the colour of it and how it doesn’t strip the details from the subjects face because it adds heavy shadows to parts of the picture like the experiment above. I really like how the adjustment brought the picture to life and really shows ‘oldies’ look to it. However this picture could have a more orange background like the original diamond cameos so that the diamond cameo would look more realistic.

Experiment 3:

Editing process: For this diamond cameo I decided to add a different type of filter called diffuse glow after blending the cut outs and flattening the image. I added the diffuse glow by pressing filter on the top bar and then I pressed filter gallery and pressed the distort folder and selected diffuse glow and then I added a adjustment called warm. This was all I did for this diamond cameo.

Evaluation and critique: I think this diamond cameo looks alright. The filter adds a really nice, rustic look to the diamond cameo, however, I think that the diamond cameo is overly exposed and gives the subjects too much highlight in parts where the subjects face was more exposed to light. Because of this, it strips that rustic look the picture should have.

Experiment 4:

Editing process: For this picture I decided that I wanted to add texture and an adjustment so I pressed filter on the top bar and then I pressed filter gallery and pressed the texturiser, after flattening and blending my image. After applying texture I felt like the diamond cameo needed something more so I added an adjustment called sepia. This was all I did for this diamond Cameo.

Evaluation and critique: I really like the end product of this diamond cameo. I like the colour of the diamond cameo even though its not entirely that original diamond cameo colour. I also like how the texture added a more rustic tone to the picture. However it doesn’t really look as rustic as I wanted it to look because it doesn’t have that orange undertone that old pictures used to have. The picture is quite bland.

Overall Evaluation:

Overall, I really liked how my diamond cameos turned out. My favourite cameo was experiment 2 as I think that it is the most accurate out of all the experiments. I think that the format of my diamond cameos are pretty precise and I strongly believe that you can see that they are diamond cameos.

A strength that I had with my diamond cameos is how I was able to show creativity. I experimented with lots of textures and colours so that I could be sure to which cameo looked the most ‘correct’. I think that experiment 2 was the one that looked the most accurate and had that old look that Henry Mullins photos had. However that cameo could have some improvements like having a scrunched up effect to it or maybe some burned parts to it so that it looked more old. I could also show more of a yellow tone to it just like Henry’s photos looked like. I could’ve experimented with the colours and layered different colours to create a more aged look to it.

Finally I think that I’m quite satisfied with my diamond cameos. I think that they look exactly what they are meant to look like but I do think that I could’ve focused more in the editing and making sure that my experiments looked more like Henry Mullins photos. Instead of focusing on making them black and white I could’ve focused on trying to correct that yellow tone that Henry Mullins photos had.

DIAMOND CAMEO:

What is it?

‘Diamond Cameo’ styles of photography is where four oval portraits are presented of usually the same individual person but they are positioned at different angles. The four oval portraits create a diamond shape when they are placed in a certain layout. Sometimes, artists decide to use different people which makes this technique really unique.

Examples of Diamond Cameo methods:

Artist Inspiration– Henry Mullins

Henry Mullins was a British photographer who moved from London to Jersey in 1848, which he then set up a studio known as the ‘Royal Saloon’ in the prime location of the Royal Square, St Helier. Initially, he was in partnership with a Mr Millward, but by the following year he was working alone and continued to work out of the same studio for another 26 years. He produced thousands of portraits of islanders between 1848 and 1873 at this highly successful studio. While numerous photographic studios opened across the town of St Helier in the 1850s and 1860s, Mullins continued to be the photographer of choice for leading members of Jersey society and successful local and immigrant families.

Examples of his work:

My Contact Sheet:

My edited photos:

Here is a few examples of my attempt at using the technique of Diamond Cameos. I used four portraits of the same person in different positions and facial expressions so it could look as effective as possible.

I think these Diamond Cameos are really successful, and I like the way in the last one that the added filter creates an old-fashioned affect. I experimented with three different ways of presenting these images. Personally, my favourite is the vintage-like one, as it holds the most emotion behind the presentation of images. The photos have a yellowish, warmer tone to it as this brings an affect of nostalgia. I was inspired by Henry Mullins’ artwork as I love how his photos look really old and vintage, so I tried to similarly do the same with mine.