Blog Post 1: (Click here for more info) Title: Studio Lighting Explore Chiaroscuro, split, Butterfly and Rembrandt Lighting, including your own photos
Blog Post 2:Click here for more info Title: Creative Portraits Double Exposure + montage to explore in depth (look at juxtaposition as an extension…) Include: – Research the creative process you have chosen (Double Exposure + Photo Montage) – Add screenshots and annotations of your own creative edits – Include final outcomes.
Blog Post 3- Title: Together Click here for more info Include: Alejandra Carles-Tolra example – A moodboard of visual ideas – Pick 4-6 sub-themes or words associated with ‘Togetherness’ – include an image and research for each word. – From the words you have researched, choose which one you will focus on – this will direct WHAT/WHO/HOW/ WHY you will photograph…
Blog Post 4 -Artist Research: Title: (Name of your chosen artist / photographer) – choose a photographer who to inspire HOW you will approach your own creative / editing process. – Research the photographer you have chosen, and choose one of their photos to analyse (looking at Visual / Technical / Contextual / Conceptual)
Blog Post 6 Title: Photoshoot 1 – Upload your contact sheet, – Selection Process – Annotations
Blog Post 7 Title: Photoshoot 2 – Upload your contact sheet, – Selection Process – Annotations
Blog Post 8: (If you have time, ideally you will complete a third photoshoot). Title: Photoshoot 3 – Upload your contact sheet, – Selection Process – Annotations
Blog Post/s 9 – Title: Editing 1/2/3/4 Tip: Show your editing process in detail through multiple blog posts. It’s often helpful to have more than one editing blog post to show different stages of your project’s development.
For example, a student creating a montage project might: 1. Make one post showing how they edit the levels and colours in their portraits. 2. Create a second post showing how they adjust lighting and colour in landscape or location photos (linked to their theme of together). 3. Then they may make a third post showing how they combine images digitally to create a montage. 4. Add a fourth post showing how they experiment with manual montage techniques.
Every student’s process will look different – the key is to show your progress and experimentation clearly through your posts.
Blog Post 10 – Title: Final Images – Clearly display your final images with annotations and evaluation
Blog Post 11- Title: Zine Creation During Exam – Screenshots and annotations of your process
Belonging Sub Themes:
Belonging
Safety
Vulnerable
Lonely
Connection
Community
Trust
Intimacy
Distance
Unity
Isolation
Support
Nostalgic
Harmony
Disjointed
Longing
Solidarity
Familiarity
Memory
Apart
Home
Artist Research:
– choose a photographer to inspire HOW you will approach your own creative / editing process.
– Research the photographer you have chosen, and choose one of their photos to analyse using (looking at Visual / Technical / Contextual / Conceptual)
List of possible artists / photographers:
Remember to photograph sensitively when working with people – how you represent them is crucial.
Think about your lighting too…natural light can be incredible (especially when using filtered, coloured or golden hour lighting – look for examples and have a go!
Concept
Photographer Example
Possible Photoshoot Focus
Friendship & Subculture
Jamel Shabazz / Justine Kurland
Group portraits of shared identity (music, fashion, friendship)
Private Identity
Adrienne Salinger / Petra Collins
Portraits in personal spaces, showing individuality and belonging
Freedom & Energy
Ryan McGinley / Olivia Bee
Candid or staged outdoor shoots showing movement, youth, and connection
Vulnerability & Change
Rineke Dijkstra / Hellen van Meene
Quiet portraits exploring transition, adolescence, or emotion
Ryan McGinley
Ryan McGinley’s photography explores themes of freedom, youth, and nature, often through images of youthful subjects who are embracing adventure, and living with uninhibited abandon. Key themes include hedonism, liberation, self-expression, and the human body, captured in vibrant, often cinematic and dreamlike, compositions that blend documentary and artful aesthetics.
Examples Structure for analysis:
Start by researching the the photographer:
Ryan McGinley is widely recognised for his contribution to contemporary photography through…
He emerged as an important figure in the early 2000s due to his distinctive approach to…
He became known for redefining youth culture in photography by…
His rise in the New York art scene positioned him as…
McGinley’s photographs have influenced contemporary visual culture by…
Key Techniques
McGinley’s earlier work often uses natural light to create images that…
A key technique in his work is the use of spontaneous, candid movement, which allows him to…
He frequently photographs his subjects in outdoor environments to achieve…
McGinley is known for his vibrant colour palettes, which help convey…
His use of 35mm film/analogue processes gives his work a sense of…
He directs his subjects in ways that produce images that feel…
Another essential technique in his practice is his editing style, which emphasises…
As his career progressed, McGinley began to experiment with more controlled lighting environments….
Themes
A recurring theme in McGinley’s work is youth and freedom, expressed through…
His photographs often explore the relationship between the human body and nature by…
He frequently addresses ideas of adventure and escapism, shown through…
ANALYSIS: Choose one of their photos to analyse in depth, looking at VISUAL / TECHNICAL / CONCEPTUAL / CONTEXTUAL
VISUAL ANALYSIS This photo consists of… Foreground / Background The composition draws the viewer’s eye toward… The subject’s pose conveys a sense of… The setting/background contributes to the overall mood by… Movement is suggested through… The use of space and framing emphasises…
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS McGinley’s use of analogue/35mm film results in… The lighting technique here creates a…. His choice of camera angle allows the viewer to… The shallow/deep depth of field helps highlight… The colour grading enhances the atmosphere by… The photograph appears to have been shot in natural/low light, which leads to… Post-processing choices contribute to…
CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS This image fits within McGinley’s broader body of work by exploring… The photograph was created during a period when McGinley was focusing on… It reflects his interest in youth culture by… The outdoor/natural setting connects to his ongoing theme of… Historically, this work can be linked to… Its place in contemporary photography is significant because…
CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS The image appears to explore the idea of… A key concept behind this work is the relationship between… McGinley may be suggesting feelings of… through his depiction of… The photograph raises questions about… Symbolically, the environment/pose/lighting could represent… The sense of freedom/vulnerability/adventure in the image communicates
When Alejandra Carles-Tolra was studying Sociology at the University of Barcelona, she realized that the way of approaching communities and groups was too rigid for her, she needed something else, a closer approach. As she already loved photography, she decided to bring a camera into the classroom. Since them she has been practicing visual sociology.
In her projects, different layers of content lie beyond the photography itself. Topics such as the sense of belonging, individual and group identity, community, sisterhood, relationships between the individual and society, are present in all her work. The groups that capture her attention are unconventional.
In her recent project, Where We Belong, we enter the universe of The Janeites as they call themselves, the people that have created the Jane Austen Pineapple Society whose members share their passion for the world of 19th British writer Jane Austen.
The Janeites are more than a group of friends having fun and dressing up in Regency Style. They have become a community of women from different generations that meet up, party together, and experience with freedom their femininity by making and wearing these dresses that make them feel beautiful and comfortable away from what society defines as beautiful.
As Alejandra says: At first glance it may look as they are romanticizing a very patriarchal form of society, but in fact they are re-appropriating the things that they liked from that time period, even if it is for ten days.
People and Places -family etc
Anthony Kurtz
Anthony Kurtz was born in America and is now based in Berlin and San Francisco. He specializes in environmental portraiture and his work has been used as commercial, editorial and art-documentary. His photos tend to be in the moment an unexpected however we can still see the strong ideas of formal portraits, the subjects in them tend to be in their natural location for example work place. He often works a lot with lights, mixing natural and studio to create mood and curiosity in the photographs.
Michelle Sank
Michelle Sank’s portraits explore subcultures and contemporary social issues. She captures the power and individuality of her subjects. In a sensitive way, she manages to depict the complexities of individual lives, culture and societal nuances. Sank’s work demonstrates the power of photography as a medium of social awareness and understanding. There is an interplay between the subject and their surroundings.
Philip Toledano: “DAYS WITH MY FATHER” is a son’s photo journal of his aging father’s last years. Following the death of his mother, photographer Phillip Toledano was shocked to learn of the extent of his father’s severe memory loss.
Shannon O’Donnell
That’s Not The Way The River Flows (2019) is a photographic series that playfully explores masculinity and femininity through self-portraits. The work comes from stills taken from moving image of the photographer performing scenes in front of the camera. This project aims to show the inner conflicts that the photographer has with identity and the gendered experience. It reveals the pressures, stereotypes and difficulties faced with growing up in a heavily, yet subtly, gendered society and how that has impacted the acceptance and exploration of the self.
These photographs form part of an ongoing series of engagements with institutional space and architecture. Through my photographic performances I investigate specific gestures and movements undertaken within public and private spaces, considering the impacts on the body by educational and institutional authority. The photographic process of recording the body in space depicts my physical and experiential memory of these sites, which is often absurd or uncomfortable.
Larry Sultan
Larry Sultan, Pictures from Home, 1992
Larry Sultan’s work blends documentary and staged photography to create images of the psychological as well as physical landscape of suburban family life.
Jamel Shabazz
Jamel Shabazz’s photography primarily explores themes of love, honor, dignity, community, and cultural pride within Black and urban communities in New York City. His work serves as a visual record of everyday life, aiming to counterbalance negative stereotypes and promote social awareness
Justine Kurland
In the late 1990s, photographer Justine Kurland imagined runaway girls roaming the American landscape — gathering in the woods, along highways and in open fields. Instead of encountering danger, these wayward spirits would form a sylvan utopia where girls could make their own rules.
Surrrealist Approaches
Tommy Ingberg
Tommy Ingberg is a photographer and visual artist, born 1980 in Sweden. He works with photography and digital image editing, creating minimalistic and self-reflecting surreal photo montages dealing with human nature, feelings and thoughts.
Tommy leaves the interpretation of his work up to the viewer but says, “For me, surrealism is about trying to explain something abstract like a feeling or a thought, expressing the subconscious with a picture. For my work I use my own inner life, thoughts and feelings as seeds to my pictures. In that sense the work is very personal, almost like a visual diary. Despite this subjectiveness in the process I hope that the work can engage the viewer in her or his own terms. I want the viewers to produce their own questions and answers when looking at the pictures, my own interpretations are really irrelevant in this context. “
Tommy Ingbergs main focus are people and the atmosphere/feeling that relates to the them. He portrays these feelings through his work by focusing on mainly on dark, saddening and depressing moods to reflect this idea of loss of identity. The running theme throughout Tommy Ingbergs pictures are that they are all in black and white which to me suggests a sense of depression and sadness. I chose to study Tommy Ingbergs work because not only does he create extraordinary surreal illusions but the deep meanings and stories which are told through his pictures really influenced me.
Heitor Magno is a Brazilian visual artist who explores identity through self-portraiture.
He uses double exposure techniques, often placing clones of himself alongside each other, to create glitch images – layering and obscuring expressions and complex emotions. Interfered Pictures, invisible expressions and pixelated factions are reflections questioning about his identity.
Heitor questions our willingness to expose intimate moments in our lives which can usually be given away by the expression on our faces.
DOUBLE EXPOSURES
PHOTO-MONTAGE
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.
Mask XIV 2006
John Stezaker: Is a British artist who is fascinated by the lure of images. Taking classic movie stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations, Stezaker makes collages to give old images a new meaning. By adjusting, inverting and slicing separate pictures together to create unique new works of art, Stezaker explores the subversive force of found images. Stezaker’s famous Mask series fuses the profiles of glamorous sitters with caves, hamlets, or waterfalls, making for images of eerie beauty.
His ‘Dark Star’ series turns publicity portraits into cut-out silhouettes, creating an ambiguous presence in the place of the absent celebrity. Stezaker’s way of giving old images a new context reaches its height in the found images of his Third Person Archive: the artist has removed delicate, haunting figures from the margins of obsolete travel illustrations. Presented as images on their own, they now take the centre stage of our attention
Thomas Sauvin and Kensuke Koike: ‘No More, No Less’ In 2015, French artist Thomas Sauvin acquired an album produced in the early 1980s by an unknown Shanghai University photography student. This volume was given a second life through the expert hands of Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist based in Venice whose practice combines collage and found photography. The series, “No More, No Less”, born from the encounter between Koike and Sauvin, includes new silver prints made from the album’s original negatives. These prints were then submitted to Koike’s sharp imagination, who, with a simple blade and adhesive tape, deconstructs and reinvents the images. However, these purely manual interventions all respect one single formal rule: nothing is removed, nothing is added, “No More, No Less”. In such a context that blends freedom and constraint, Koike and Sauvin meticulously explore the possibilities of an image only made up of itself.
Annegret Soltau
The German artist Annegret Soltau combines photography, collage, and thread art to create striking works on femininity, transience, and personal identity.
Tableau Approaches
Tableau photography is a genre of staged photography that arranges subjects and props to create a dramatic and picturesque scene, much like a still life or a painting. Inspired by traditions in theater and art, it involves meticulous planning, posing, and lighting to tell a story or evoke a specific mood in a single, static image. The subjects are posed to look as if they are unaware of the viewer, absorbed in the scene itself.
Jeff Wall
Jeff Wall, Insomnia, 1994, Transparency in lightbox
Jeff Wall’s work synthesizes the essentials of photography with elements from other art forms—including painting, cinema, and literature—in a complex mode that he calls “cinematography.” His pictures range from classical reportage to elaborate constructions and montages, usually produced at the larger scale traditionally identified with painting.
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who makes large-scale, cinematic, psychologically charged prints of staged scenes set in suburban landscapes and interiors.
Hannah Starkey is a British photographer who specializes in staged settings of women in city environments, based in London.
Tom Hunter
From the series Persons Unknown, Woman Reading a Possession Order, 1997
Tom Hunter (born 1965, Dorset, UK) explores themes depicting his local neighbourhood of East London, drawing on art historical references. He reconstructs stories, memories and myths to paint a psycho-geographical landscape.
Anna Gaskell
Anna Gaskell Untitled #8 (Wonder),1997
Anna Gaskell is a contemporary American artist known for exploring themes such as Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865). Anna Gaskell crafts foreboding photographic tableaux of preadolescent girls that reference children’s games, literature, and psychology. She is interested in isolating dramatic moments from larger plots such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, visible in two series: wonder (1996–97) and override (1997). In Gaskell’s style of “narrative photography,” of which Cindy Sherman is a pioneer, the image is carefully planned and staged; the scene presented is “artificial” in that it exists only to be photographed.
Tim Walker
Tim Walker,
Tim Walker rose to prominence in the mid-1990s with his highly imaginative and fantastical photographs inspired by his love of fairy tales…
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger’s art is defined by its critique of power, consumerism, and identity, achieved by merging bold, declarative text with found images, often in the style of advertising. Key concepts include her use of appropriation to repurpose mass media images, a feminist approach that questions social constructs, and a direct, confrontational style that engages the viewer directly through the use of pronouns like “you,” “I,” and “they”. Her work challenges the viewer to critically examine pervasive issues like capitalism, gender roles, and media manipulation.
Right-hand click and save this image so that you can use it in photoshop.
2. Open Adobe Photoshop
3. In Photoshop, click File, Open and locate the image you just saved.
4. Photoshop toolbar overview: Your Photoshop tools are located in a bar on the left of the screen.
If you cannot see the toolbar on the left, you can open it by Clicking: window > scroll down and click ‘tools’
How to hide and show toolbar:… see video below
5. How to Zoom in and Out
Click on the zoom tool icon in your toolbar (it looks like a magnifying glass).
With the zoom tool selected, click on your photograph to zoom in.
To Zoom out: Select the zoom tool and hold Alt on your keeyboard (Windows) / Option (Mac) and click on your photo.
6. How to crop a photo
Crop: means to remove the unwanted edges of a Photograph.
With your image open, click the crop icon
Drag the box around your image to select the are you want to crop
When you are happy with your selection, click enter
7. How to Undo
You can undo an edit you have made by:
Clicking ‘edit’ along the top bar > then scroll down and click ‘undo’
You can then redo the edit by clicking ‘edit’ along the top bar, scrolling down and clicking ‘redo’
Another way to undo is to click ‘Ctrl’ and ‘Z’ on your keyboard
8. Hidden Tools
A small arrow in the bottom right corner of a tool icon means that there are more tools hiding behind it in that same spot.
To view the additional tools, click and hold on the icon. Or right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) on the icon. A fly-out menu will open listing the other tools that are available.
For example, if you click and hold on the ‘Rectangular Marquee Tool icon’, the fly-out menu shows that there is also the Elliptical Marquee Tool, the Single Row Marquee Tool and the Single Column Marquee Tool.
9. Automatic Correction Tools
Automatic correction tools in Photoshop can be found by:
Click ‘Image’ on the top bar of Photoshop, scroll down to select the ‘Auto’ tools.
You can also find ‘Auto’ Options within certain tools. For example: ‘Image’ > ‘Adjustments’ > ‘Brightness and Contrast’ > then select ‘Auto’
Try using:
Auto Tone – Corrects the tone
Auto Contrast – Increases contrast without shifting the color
Auto Colour – Like Auto Levels it adjusts contrast and color balance but takes a different approach
Auto brightness and contrast- can be found by going into image, adjustments, brightness and contrast.
Hue and Saturation -Adjusts colours and vibrance/greyscale – Can be found by going into image, adjustments, hue and saturation
Before and after:
Video instructions:
10. Layers
Layers in Photoshop are very helpful. Layers are simply images laid on top of each other.
Imagine taking four sheets of clear plastic. You paint a picture on each sheet of plastic and then layer the sheets on top of each other. The individual pictures merge together to become one. This is how layers work in Photoshop.
By using layers, you can start with your bottom layer, then add a new layer to edit the image. This means that if you make a mistake, you can easily delete or modify the top layer with your edits, without ruining or altering your original bottom layer.
In order to use layers, you must be able to see the layers panel:
Click Window along the top bar of Photoshop > then scroll down and make sure that ‘Layers’ is ticked.
This will open the layers panel.
At the moment, you should just be able to see one image (one layer) in the layers panel.
Layers Panel:
11. Creating Layers
With your image open in Photoshop, click ‘Layer’ > ‘New’ > ‘Layer’
A pop up window will open where you can give your layer a name. Click ‘OK’
You will see the new layer in the layers panel
12. Colour your new layer
You can now edit the new layer and it will show on top of your original image
Make sure your new layer is selected in the layers panel.
Click the ‘paint bucket’ icon from the left toolbar
Choose the colour you want to use by clicking the colour box at the bottom of the toolbar
When you have chosen your colour, select anywhere on your image to fill the page with that colour (I chose white).
You can click the eye next to your layer to show or hide the layer. This will reveal that your original image is still available beneath the coloured layer.
13. Create a blurred layer mask
With your new coloured layer on top of your original image, select the Elliptical Marquee tool (remember you might need to hold down the Rectangle Marquee Tool to show the additional tools
Click and drag to draw a circle. Tip:If you hold down shift at the same time, you will constrain proportions and be able to draw a perfect circle.
With the circle drawn, click ‘delete’ on your keyboard, this will remove the colour that is within your circle and reveal your image behind.
To deselect the circle, click anywhere outside of it, or go to “Select’ on the top bar > ‘Deselect’
14. Create a blurred layer maskcontinued…
Now that you have deleted a circle from your top colour layer, we can edit it further.
Make sure you have completed the last step on the previous slide (deselected the ‘Elliptical Marquee’ circle by clicking “Select’ on the top bar > ‘Deselect’ ) otherwise it wont work
Make sure your top layer (the one that you have filled with a colour is selected in the layer panel).
Then click ‘Filter’ > ‘Blur’ > ‘Gaussian Blur’
A window will pop up. Try moving the toggle left to right and click ‘ok’ when you are happy with the effect.
15. Duplicating Layers
As well as ‘New Layers’, you can also create ‘Duplicate Layers’. This allows you to create a duplicate or copy of your original layer. This means you can edit the duplicated layer and preserve the original layer underneath, just in case you need to go back to it.
To duplicate a layer:
With your image open in Photoshop, click ‘Layer’ > ‘Duplicate Layer’
A pop up window will open where you can give your layer a name. Click ‘OK’
You will see the duplicate layer in the layers panel
A well rehearsed phrase that we are all familiar with, invoking childhood memories of fairytales, grandparents recounting old days or stories around the campfire. American novelist Kurt Vonnegut argued that the quality that defined good storytellers was simply that they themselves loved stories.
See if you can identify the story that Vonnegut is illustrating here using a X / Y graph.
TASK 1:In pairs discuss how photography can tell stories and give examples?
think, pair, share…
Show me boards
Cold calling
Examples of visual storytelling:
FAMILY ALBUMS: images that charts events in the history of a family, such as portraits of family members, births/ christening, marriages/ weddings, holidays, birthdays, children at play, a new car etc.
WEDDING ALBUMS: a specific album produced with images from a weddings showing staged portraits and imagined snapshot following a formula of images depicting the wedding party, speeches, cutting the cake, first dance etc.
MOBILE PHONES / SOCIAL MEDIA: Digital images stored on mobile phones acting as a digital archive of your life. Images selected individually or in groups, edited using in-built software and shared on social media etc.
PICTURE-STORIES/ PHOTO-ESSAYS: A carefully considered set of images that together tells a story visually, published in magazines, newspapers or equivalent online platforms.
PHOTO-ZINES: smaller low-fi and affordable publications with less pages, produced and self-published by artists/ photographers.
A selection of student zines from school trip to St Malo in 2023
PHOTO-BOOKS: More serious and long-form photographic studies about a specific subject, community or place that are produced in collaboration with photographer, writer, designer and publisher.
Hannah Fernandes:Saudades – a student photobook on mixed heritage of Portuguese/ Jersey identity
FILMS/ CINEMA: Films are 24 still-images every second played on a timeline. More complex stories can be told using images and sound combined.
Chris Marker: La Jattee, 1962 – a short film constructed using still-images only
NARRATIVE – a summary
Narrative is essentially the way a story is told. For example you can tell different narratives of the same story. It is a very subjective process and there is no right or wrong. Whether or not your photographic story is any good is another matter.
An analogy: you witnessed a road accident and the police arrived to take statements from bystanders who saw the accident. Your version of events would be different to that of other witnesses or bystanders. They are both ‘true’ to what you saw and they both tell a different narrative depending on where you were in relation to the event, your point of view and how you remembered the event as it happened.
Narrative is constructed when you begin to create relationships between images (and/or text) and present more than two images together.
Your selection of images (editing) and the order of how these images appear on the pages (sequencing) contributes significantly to the construction of the narrative.
TASK 2: SEQUENCING:In pairs choose a newspaper and deconstruct it to re-configure a new narrative. You can cut, rip and tear sheets apart
Consider then discuss the following:
Think about what theme or story you wish to tell. Think about start, middle and end images.
Which images are major images (establishing shots, full page, double page), and minor images (portrait, detail shots, small images, multiple images on the page etc.)
Think about visual relationship between images and their juxtaposition e.g colour, shapes, subject, repetition, landscape, portrait, objects, details etc.
What happens or changes over the series of images?
Are you using your best images? How and why did you choose them ?
Task 3 : Image Analysis
Describe and explain a chosen image…
Include thoughts and feelings on
Impact of the image
What you think it might be about…metaphors ? Hidden meanings ? Symbolism ?
Composition and Layout / colour / line / shape
Key features…
Example…
Migrant Mother is a photograph taken in 1936 in Nipomo, California, by American photographer Dorothea Lange during her time with the Resettlement Administration.
Surrealist photography is a genre that uses photography to create dreamlike, irrational, and unexpected images, defying reality by juxtaposing familiar objects in unfamiliar ways. It aims to explore the unconscious mind and tap into dreams and emotions, often achieved through techniques like photomontage, double exposure, and creative manipulation of focus and color.
The movement officially began in 1924 with André Breton‘s “Manifesto of Surrealism” and continues today through both traditional darkroom and modern digital editing methods.
Characteristics
Juxtaposition: Combines unrelated elements to create surprising and thought-provoking scenes, such as placing a person’s head on a flower or making a car appear to fly.
Dreamlike atmosphere: Creates a sense of seeing the world through heightened senses or emotions, often by distorting familiar reality.
Symbolism: Uses objects and scenes to convey unconscious ideas, fears, and desires.
Technical experimentation: Employs manual camera settings, unusual framing, and a variety of editing techniques to subvert reality.
Common techniques
Photomontage and collage: Combines multiple images to create a completely new, composite photograph.
Double exposure: Merges two separate images into one, creating a layered and ethereal effect.
Solarization: A darkroom process that involves re-exposing a print during development to create a “haloing” effect.
Manipulation of perspective and scale: Changes the viewer’s perception by manipulating the size or viewpoint of objects.
Motion blur: Uses a slow shutter speed to create a dreamlike, blurred effect.
Creative lighting and color: Intentionally uses unnatural lighting or color palettes to enhance the surreal quality of an image.
Photograms (Rayographs): Places objects directly onto photographic paper and exposes them to light to capture their silhouettes, as famously done by Man Ray.
Examples
“Sueño No. 5: Botella del mar” (Dream No. 5: Bottle of the Sea) by German-Argentine photographer Grete Stern 1950
“Untitled (Shell hand),” 1934.Photograph by Dora Maar
“Humanly Impossible” (also known as “Der einsame Metropolitan” or “The Lonely Metropolitan”) 1932 Herbert Bayer.
Claude Cahun “Je tends les bras” (I extend my arms)1931.
Man Ray Object to be Destroyed 1923
Jerry Uelsmann Untitled 1982
Kevin Corrado
Claude Cahun
CASE STUDY: Claude Cahun, born Lucy Schwob was a French photographer, sculptor, and writer. She is best known for her self-portraits in which she assumes a variety of personas, including dandy, weight lifter, aviator, and doll. The Jersey Heritage Trust collection represents the largest repository of the artistic work of Cahun who moved to the Jersey in 1937 with her stepsister and lover Marcel Moore. She was imprisoned and sentenced to death in 1944 for activities in the resistance during the Occupation. However, Cahun survived and she was almost forgotten until the late 1980s, and much of her and Moore’s work was destroyed by the Nazis, who requisitioned their home. CaHun died in 1954 of ill health (some contribute this to her time in German captivity) and Moore killed herself in 1972. They are both buried together in St Brelade’s churchyard.
In this image, Cahun has shaved her head and is dressed in men’s clothing. She once explained: “Under this mask, another mask; I will never finish removing all these faces.”1 (Claude Cahun, Disavowals, London 2007, p.183)
Cahun was friends with many Surrealist artists and writers; André Breton once called her “one of the most curious spirits of our time.”
While many male Surrealists depicted women as objects of male desire, Cahun staged images of herself that challenge the idea of the politics of gender. Cahun was championing the idea of gender fluidity way before the hashtags of today. She was exploring her identity, not defining it. Her self-portraits often interrogates space, such as domestic interiors and Jersey landscapes using rock crevasses and granite gate
READ articles here in The Guardian and the BBC to learn more and use these texts for your essay. Link to Jersey Heritage which houses the largest collection of her work and an article written by Louise Downie in response to an exhibition in 2005, Acting Out: Claude Cahun and Marvel Moore at Jersey Museum.
In 2017 the National Portrait Gallery in London staged a major exhibition Gillian Wearing and Claude Cahun: Behind the Mask, Another Mask showing their work together for the first time. Slipping between genders and personae in their photographic self-images, Wearing and Cahun become others while inventing themselves. “We were born in different times, we have different concerns, and we come from different backgrounds. She didn’t know me, yet I know her,” Wearing says, paying homage to Cahun and acknowledging her presence. The bigger question the exhibition might ask is less how we construct identities for ourselves than what is this thing called presence?
Claude CahunGillian Wearing
In Behind The Mask, Wearing is being Cahun. Previously she has re-enacted photographs of Andy Warhol in drag, the young Diane Arbus with a camera, Robert Mapplethorpe with a skull-topped cane, hard-bitten New York crime photographer Weegee wreathed in cigar-smoke. Among these doubles, you know Wearing is in the frame somewhere, under the silicon mask and the prosthetics, the wigs and makeup and the lighting. Going through her own family albums, she has become her own mother and her father. It is a surprise she has never got lost in this hall of time-slipping mirrors, among her own self-images and the faces she has adopted. Wearing has got others to play her game, too – substituting their own adult voices with those of a child, putting on disguises while confessing their secrets on video.
Read articles in relation to exhibition here
Read articles here in Aperture and The Guardian in relation to the exhibition. Cahun has been described as a Cindy Sherman before her time. Wearing’s art undoubtedly owes something to Sherman – just as Sherman herself is indebted to artist Suzy Lake. Looking back at Cahun, Wearing is both tracing artistic influence, and paying homage to it, teasing out threads in a web of relationships crossing generations.
Clare Rae
Clare Rae, an artist from Melbourne, Australia who produces photographs and moving image works that interrogate representations of the female body via an exploration of the physical environment. Rae visited Jersey as part of the Archisle international artist-in-residence programme in 2017. She was researching the Claude Cahun archive, shooting new photography and film in Jersey, as well as running workshops.
From her research she produced a new body of work, Entre Nous: Claude Cahun and Clare Rae that was exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Australia 22 March – 6 May 2018, and subsequently at CCA Galleries in Jersey, UK, 7–28 September 2018.
In her series, Never standing on two feet, Rae considers Cahun’s engagement with the physical and cultural landscapes of Jersey, an aspect of her work that has received little analysis to date. Rae writes:
Like Cahun’s, my photographs depict my body in relation to place; in these instances sites of coastal geography and Jersey’s Neolithic ritual monuments. I enact a visual dialogue between the body and these environments, and test how their photographic histories impact upon contemporary engagements. Cahun used self-portraiture to subvert the dominance of the male gaze in photographic depictions of the female body in the landscape. My practice is invested in the feminist act of self-representation and I draw parallels between my performances of an expanding vocabulary of gesture and Cahun’s overtly performative images of the body expressing a multiplicity of identity. In this series, I tease out the interpretations inherent in landscape photography. I utilise gesture and the performing body to contrast and unsettle traditional representations of the female figure in the landscape.
See this blog post Photography, Performance and the Body for more details and context of the above artists work
Clare gave a artist talk contextualising her practice, covering recent projects that have engaged with notions of architecture and the body, and the role of performative photography in her work. Clare will discuss her research on these areas, specifically her interest in artists such as Claude Cahun, Francesca Woodman and Australian performance artist Jill Orr. Clare also discussed her photographic methodologies and practices,
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
Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic, 1919, collage of pasted papers
John Heartfield
El Lissitsky
Aleksander Rodchenko
Pop Art developments (USA and UK 1950s-)
Photomontage was also used to great effect by various Pop Artists in the mid 20th Century
Many Pop Art images and constructions tackled popular consumerism, advertising, branding and marketing techniques
Pop art also explored political concerns such as war, and gender roles too
Richard Hamilton
Peter Blake
Andy Warhol
Robert Rauschenberg, Signs, 1970, screenprint, 109.22 x 86.36 cm
From House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, 1967–72: [1] … [5] Red Strip Kitchen; [6] …
John Stezaker, Pair IV, 2007
Jesse Draxler
Examples and Inspiration
Richard Hamilton
Kurt Schwitters
Peter Blake
David Hockney
Soviet Constructivists
Sammy Slabinck
John Stezaker
Jesse Treece
Jonny Briggs
Hannah Hoch
Annegret Soltau
Brno del Szou
Joachim Schmid
Jesse Draxler
Peter Kennard
Eugenia Loli
Sarah Eisenlohr
Grete Stern
Jerry Uelsmann
Duane Michals
Edmund Teske
Man Ray
El Lissitsky
Martha Rosler
Christian Marclay-Album Covers
Soviet war art and propaganda
Joachim Schmid
Jerry Uelsmann
In her artist statement Montana based artist Sarah Eisenlohr explains that her collages use places of existence to create fictional ones in an effort to demonstrate the ways in which humans have transformed the earth. These scenes often carry undertones of spirituality and faith. “I consider the figures’ desire for shelter, warmth, and something stronger than themselves as symbols of serenity that I seek through spirituality, while the use of sublime in my work points to a relationship with the divine,”
California based artist Eugenia Loli draws inspiration for her surreal art collages from vintage magazine images. Loli intends for her images to serve as a snap shot from a surreal movie from which the viewer can create his or her own narrative.
Task 1
Create a blog post that includes a clear understanding of the history and background of photo-montage.
Include a moodboard / mindmap
Add examples of Early – late 20th Century Photomontage eg Hannah Hoch
Task 2
Choose a specific photo-montage artist and write/create a CASE STUDY
This must include a detailed analysis of 1 x key image by the artist
Create a set of 3-5 photo-montages using a mixture of your own imagery and “found” imagery….(this could be archival imagery) either using Adobe Photoshop methods or traditional cut-n-paste methods
TAKE 100-200 NEW PHOTOS TO CREATE MATERIAL FOR YOUR EXPERIMENTS — based on STEREOTYPES
Show your process clearly…remember to add screen shots etc
Evaluate your process…describe and explain what you have done, why, how etc
KEY COMPONENTS AND DISTINGUISHING FEATURES of PHOTO-MONTAGE
A NARRATIVE, CONCEPT OR THEME (A MESSAGE OR A COMMENT)
ARCHIVAL / VINTAGE IMAGERY COMBINED WITH OWN IMAGERY
SUBVERSION OF MEANING—-POSTMODERNISM
SOURCE MATERIAL YOU CAN USE
NEWSPAPERS
MAGAZINES
ORIGINAL IMAGERY (from studio, tableau, other portraits etc)
INTERNET-SOURCED IMAGERY
BOOKS
TECHNIQUES
MANUAL CUT-N-PASTE (SCISSORS, SCALPEL AND GLUE)
PHOTOSHOP –
selection tools (to cut and move elements of images)
free transform (CTRL T)– to move, re-size and shape elements
layers and layer masks
opacity tool
blending options
distortion
proportion
scale
Ensure you have enough evidence of…
Mood-board, definition and introduction (AO1)
Mind-map of ideas (AO1)
Artist References / Case Study (must include image analysis) (AO1)
Double or multiple exposures are an illusion created by layering images (or portions of images) over the top of each other. This can be achieved in the camera settings, or on Adobe Photoshop by creating LAYERS and then using BLENDING OPTIONS and OPACITY CONTROL, but also by erasing through parts of layers to reveal parts of other images.
Artist have used these techniques to explore Surrealist Ideas and evoke dream-like imagery, or imagery that explores time / time lapse.
Tiffany Sutton:
Tiffany J. Sutton is a contemporary photographer whose work focuses on Black women in intimate, everyday spaces. She uses creative techniques such as multiple exposures, layering, and analog processes to explore identity, community, and emotional connection. Her portraits blend documentary and conceptual approaches, emphasising both individuality and shared experience.
Tiffany’s narrative-based photographs place Black women and their experiences, however trivial, front and center: “I am determined to catch every moment in the subjects’ life,” she writes, often traveling to on-site locations where she captures women in their bedrooms or backyards. In abstracting her portraits, Tiffany encourages us to look closely at multiple meanings, our dual perceptions, and the infinite possibilities contained inside one person.
JUXTAPOSITION
Juxtaposition is placing two images together to show contrast or similarities. For inspiration look at some of the page spreads from ED.EM.03 where pairings between portraits of Henry Mullins and Michelle Sank are juxtaposed to show comparison/ similarities/ differences between different social and professional classes in Jersey mid-19th century and early 21 st century.
Nikita Pirogov:
“syntax of space” is a metaphorical way of describing how physical environments—like architecture, landscapes, and urban layouts—are “structured” in ways that communicate meaning, much like language has grammar and syntax.
Presented as diptychs, these spaces become symbolic
Juxtaposed with portraits of Jèrriais speakers are a series of photographs of Jersey rocks that are all designated as Sites of Special Interest (SSIs); important geological outcrops that are protected from development and preserved for future public enjoyment and research purposes. The native speakers of Jersey French should be classified as People of Special Interest (PSIs) and equally be protected from extinction through encouraging greater visibility and recognition as guardians of a unique language that are essential in understanding the island’s special character.
Alicja Brodowicz:
Alicja Brodowicz is a Polish photographer whose work delves into the intimate intersections between the human body and the natural world. Her photography is characterised by a minimalist, black-and-white aesthetic that emphasises texture, form, and subtle symbolism.
PHOTO-MONTAGE
Photomontage is the process and the result of making a composite photograph by cutting, gluing, rearranging and overlapping two or more photographs into a new image.
Artists first began to experiment with photomontage techniques during the mid-Victorian era, with some of the earliest examples traced back to pioneering photographers Oskar Rejlander and Henry Peach Robinson in the 1860s. But it was during the early twentieth century that the technique became truly popularised as an art form by the Berlin Dada Group, who saw in its broken, distorted realities the potential to reflect the terror of living through the First World War. In contrast with traditional art forms such as drawing and painting, deconstructed photographic matter offered up startling levels of realism, making their imagery all the more visually arresting.
Try using textures and frames to add to your process ; you can find some pre-saved examples here
M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Resources\Frames and textures PHOTOSHOP
Kensuoke Koike:
Thomas Sauvin and Kensuke Koike: ‘No More, No Less’ In 2015, French artist Thomas Sauvin acquired an album produced in the early 1980s by an unknown Shanghai University photography student. This volume was given a second life through the expert hands of Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist based in Venice whose practice combines collage and found photography. The series, “No More, No Less”, born from the encounter between Koike and Sauvin, includes new silver prints made from the album’s original negatives. These prints were then submitted to Koike’s sharp imagination, who, with a simple blade and adhesive tape, deconstructs and reinvents the images. However, these purely manual interventions all respect one single formal rule: nothing is removed, nothing is added, “No More, No Less”. In such a context that blends freedom and constraint, Koike and Sauvin meticulously explore the possibilities of an image only made up of itself.
John Stezaker:
John Stezaker is a British conceptual artist and photographer known for his photomontages and collage work that explore memory, identity, and the passage of time. His practice often involves reworking found images—old film stills, postcards, vintage photographs, and publicity material—by cutting, overlaying, or juxtaposing them in unexpected ways.
Tommy Ingberg:
Tommy Ingberg is a Swedish photographer known for his surrealist black-and-white photomontages that explore the human condition through symbolic, dreamlike imagery. His work blends minimalism and metaphor, often placing solitary figures within vast, empty landscapes or juxtaposing everyday objects in unexpected ways.
Student Response:
Contact sheet:
Edits:
Lorna Simpson:
Lorna Simpson’s collages explore identity, beauty, and power — especially around how Black women are seen and represented.
They look at how hair, body, and culture connect to ideas of self-expression and belonging. By painting over old magazine photos, she reclaims images of Black women and turns them into something new and powerful — showing that identity can be creative, layered, and ever-changing
Studio Portraits Moodboard (include various lighting methods)
What is studio lighting and why do we use studio lighting?
Add diagrams / images of lighting set-ups too
What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide / solve
What is fill lighting?
What is Chiaroscure, Rembrandt lighting and Butterfly lighting? Show your own examples
Include your own studio portrait experiments showing a variety of lighting techniques and outcomes.
Natural Lighting:
In most cases we can make use of natural or available / ambient light…but we must be aware of different kinds of natural light and learn how to exploit it thoughtfully and creatively…
intensity of the light
direction of the light
temperature of the light (and white balance on the camera)
With a single point light source, light is coming from one bulb.
One light set-ups can give you both dramatic, shadowy photos which ooze mood as well as bright, cleanly lit images with plenty of detail throughout.
Using just one light forces you to think critically about placement, angle, and intensity. Without multiple light sources competing, you can create strong, intentional shadows that add depth and drama to your portraits.
Key Light – The key light is your main light source. In the studio, this is your artificial light. It could just as easily be any other type of light source such as a window or a street light. This is the main light that you will be shaping your subject with.
Fill Light – In these examples, the fill light is the job of the reflector. When placed opposite the key light, the reflector bounces light back onto your subject and fills in the shadows. This helps to reduce contrast and also tends to lead to more flattering images of human subjects. A fill light does not have to be a reflector. Again, it could be any light source that acts independently of your key light to fill in shadows on your subject.
2-Point Lighting
Two-point lighting uses two lights to create depth by placing the subject between them, with one acting as a key light for main illumination and the other as a fill light to soften shadows.
You can use two point lighting to achieve different effects….
Soft side lighting and fill
What is clamshell lighting?
Clamshell lighting is a simple, two-light configuration: You place both lights facing your subject at a 45-degree angle, one angled up, one angled down. Note that your key light (i.e., your primary, brighter light) should point 45 degrees downward, while your fill light should point 45 degrees upward. Your camera should sit between the two lights, facing your subject.
When viewed from the side, the two lights resemble an open clamshell (imagination may be required!):
A clamshell setup provides beautiful, soft light with faint shadows and glorious catchlights. Clamshell lighting works well on pretty much everyone; I’d say that it’s flattering for men and women of all ages, so it’s a great setup to have in your back pocket.
Deep umbrella techniques
This setup used two lights — one for the model and one for the background
A clamshell setup provides beautiful, soft light with faint shadows and glorious catchlights. Clamshell lighting works well on pretty much everyone; I’d say that it’s flattering for men and women of all ages, so it’s a great setup to have in your back pocket.
Back light / Rim Light
The below photo was taken with a key light and a bare bulb with a reflector. The Key light is coming from the left of the model, illuminating her face. While the bare bulb is lighting the back of the model.
Rim Light
Because the light is angled slightly down and the model bent her head just a bit, you see a strongly directional light that carves out the model’s bone structure yet still leaves soft-edged shadows, because the light source is larger relative to the subject. The rim light separates the model from the background. Like the key light, it’s angled slightly down at the model to take advantage of falloff and keep the focus on her face and the movement in her hair. The result is a moody, contrasting image.
Rim light A rim light is placed behind a subject that exposes the outline or rim of the subject with light.
3-point lightins
CHIARUSCURO
A visual element in art, chiaroscuro (Italian for lightdark) is defined as a bold contrast between light and dark). A certain amount of chiaroscuro is the effect of light modelling in painting where 3-dimensional volume is suggested by highlights and shadows. It first appeared in 15th century painting in Italy and Flanders (Holland), but true chiaroscuro developed during the 16th century, in Mannerism and in Baroque art.
Dark subjects were dramatically lighted by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source was a compositional device seen in the paintings of old masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
Johannes Vermeer, The Girl with the Pearl Earring, 1665—-chiaruscuro as employed by the Dutch Masters
Chiaruscuro in film: Film noir (French for “black film”), is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize moral ambiguity and sexual motivation. Hollywood’s classic film noir period is generally regarded as stretching from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography, while many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Depression.
Chiaroscuro in photography: Chiaroscuro using one key light and a variation using a reflector that reflects light from the key light back onto the sitter.
Back light / rim light
Chiarascuro used to illuminate features
Have a look at the work of Oliver Doran a studio portrait photographer in St Helier, Jersey
REMBRANDT LIGHTING
Rembrandt lighting is a technique for portrait photography named after Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, the great Dutch painter. It refers to a way of lighting a face so that an upside-down light triangle appears under the eyes of the subject.
Rembrandt, self-portrait
In Hollywood in the early 20th century, the legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille introduced spotlights to create more realistic effects of light and shadows into the ‘plain’ studio lighting setup that was generally in use. Rembrandt lighting is one effect that was created by this, and it became widely used in promotional photographs of film stars showing them in a dramatic and eye-catching way.
Marilyn MonroeKeanu Revees
Light set-up using one key light to the right
How to Create a Rembrandt Lighting Setup
Light: Lighting styles are determined by the positioning of your light source. Rembrandt lighting is created by the single light source being at a 40 to 45-degree angle and higher than the subject. Use cans use both flashlights and continuous lights.
Lens: Use a 35mm or 50mm if space is at a premium – or if you’re looking at including more of the subject than just the head and shoulders. A 50mm works really nicely for portraits and will give a nice depth of field if you’re shooting at a shallow aperture. But a 35mm will give you a wider point of view and is great to fit more of the body in of your subject.
Camera settings (flash lighting) Tripod: optional Use transmitter on hotshoe White balance: daylight (5000K) ISO: 100 Exposure: Manual 1/125 shutter-speed > f/16 aperture – check settings before shooting Focal lenght: 105mm portrait lens
Camera settings (continuous lighting) Tripod: recommended to avoid camera shake Manual exposure mode White balance: tungsten light (3200K) ISO: 400-1600 – depending on how many light sources Exposure: Manual 1/60-1/125 shutter-speed > f/4-f/8 aperture – check settings before shooting Focal lenght: 50mm portrait lens
BUTTERFLY LIGHTING
Butterfly lighting is a type of portrait lighting technique used primarily in a studio setting. Its name comes from the butterfly-shaped shadow that forms under the nose because the light comes from above the camera. You may also hear it called ‘paramount lighting’ or ‘glamour lighting’.
What is butterfly lighting used for?
Butterfly lighting is used for portraits. It’s a light pattern that flatters almost everybody, making it one of the most common lighting setups.
Butterfly lighting was used to photograph some of the most famous stars from classic Hollywood, and that’s why it’s also called Paramount lighting.
With it, you can highlight cheekbones and create shadows under them as well as under the neck – which makes the model look thinner.
Lighting: Butterfly lighting requires a key light that can be a flash unit or continuous. If continuos, it can be artificial or natural. In other words, you can use strobes, speedlights, LEDs or even the sun.
A butterfly lighting effect refers to the setup and not to the quality of light – it can be soft or hard light depending on the effect you want.
If you want to create a soft light, you’ll need to use modifiers. A beauty dish is perfect for glamour photography as it distributes the light evenly and smooths the skin. You can also use a softbox or an umbrella.
Instead, if you want to have hard light, you can leave the light source as it is. Alternatively, you can use grid spots to direct it and create different effects – check out MagMod gels for some creative options and examples of what hard light is used for.
Experimentation: Once you have the key light set up, it’s time to fill the shadows. You can use a reflector to bounce the light back up and soften the shadow under the chin and the one from under the nose.
To do so, position the reflector under the subject’s face. Start at waist level and see how it looks. If the shadows are still strong, move it closer to the face and so on.
Experiment with different positions to achieve different effects. You can also change the colour of the reflector. A white one will give you a neutral tone, while a golden one gives a warming overcast.
Once you’re happy with your butterfly lighting, direct the model to have a striking fashion pose or whatever the desired pose or expression you’re looking for.
Just keep in mind that the subject’s face needs to be towards the light in order to have the butterfly shadow under the nose.
Using Flash
Bouncing the flash to soften its effects
Above : An example of “bouncing” the flash to soften the effects and create a larger “fill” area…try this wherever there are white walls/ ceilings
Flash units offer a range of possibilities in both low and high lighting scenarios that you could explore such as…
flash “bouncing”
fill-in flash
TTL / speedlight flash
remote / infra-red flash (studio lighting)
fast + slow synch flash
light painting c/w slow shutter speeds
Using Gels and Coloured Lighting
What is a snoot in lighting?
A snoot is a tube or similar object that fits over a light used in theatrical lighting or photography, to control the direction and radius of the light beam. Snoots can be cylindrical or truncated conical in shape, different lengths and diameters, and made of various materials.
Ole Christiansen (Danish): A special preoccupation has been music photography, portraits, but also – often strongly graphically emphasized urban landscapes which is reflected in his portraiture . Ole has over the years provided pictures for a myriad of books, magazines, record covers, annual reports, etc.
Ole Christiansen: Portraits I & II
Evidence of Your Learning
During this unit we would expect all students to complete 2-3 blog posts detailing how you are experimenting with various lighting techniques eg REMBRANDT LIGHTING/ BUTTERFLY LIGHTING / CHIARUSCURO + SPliT LIGHTING
Rembrandt Lighting
Add information / links showing how Chiarascuro has been used since the Renaissance in painting…but also how it used now in photography and film
You must describe and explain your process with each technique…add your images to your blog as you progress, print off your successful images and evaluate your process using technical vocab and analysis skills. Think carefully about the presentation of your ideas and outcomes…compare your work to relevant portrait photographers as you develop your studio portraiture – see below
INSPIRATIONS: PORTRAITURE
Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Rankin, Nadav Kandar, Richard Avedon, Yousef Karsh, David Bailey, Mario Testino, Steve McCurry, Jill Greenberg, Nick Knight, Tim Walker, Corrine Day, Jane Bown, Rineke Djikstra, Thomas Ruff et al…
Annie Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses.
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his fashion photography, portraits, and still lifes. Penn’s career included work at Vogue magazine, and independent advertising work for clients including Issey Miyake and Clinique.
Salvadore Dali
John Rankin Waddell, known as Rankin, is a British photographer and director who has photographed Kate Moss, Madonna, David Bowie and The Queen. The London Evening Standard described Rankin’s fashion and portrait photography style as high-gloss, highly sexed and hyper-perfect.
Watch film where Rankin photograph a group of GCSE students and talk to them about his career and beauty in photography
Nadav Kander is a London-based photographer, artist and director, known for his portraiture and landscapes. Kander has produced a number of books and had his work exhibited widely.
As Molesworth notes, “Each of these artists has engaged portraiture—a genre of image-making as old as modernity itself—as a means of connecting themselves to other artists. The results are three bodies of work that play with the historical conventions of the genre while nibbling away at its edges.”
Aneesa Dawoojee – Gloves off: The Fighting Spirit of South London A diverse London based community bonded by strength, hardships and determination. With an underlying theme of life’s struggle and overcoming it. The journey of real Londoners bonded by a sport that sees no colour. Each person stripped away from their environment and placed against a fine art backdrop in order to take away judgements and let them speak as one voice. Compassionate visual stories that offer hope.
Portrait of Britain vol. 5 Portrait of Britain returns this year with images that define contemporary life in Britain. Alongside the many events that have shaped 2022 – the outbreak of war, record-high inflation, soaring temperatures, and the death of the Queen, to name a few. This year’s winners provide a snapshot of a frenzied year through 99 compelling portraits. Designed to illustrate the diversity of life in modern Britain, the award invites us to reflect on the multiplicity of voices and stories across the country, forming a precious historical record of British life.
Published by Hoxton Mini Press – Explore more here
Expected Final Outcomes
A Case Study and Practical Responses to a photographer who employs a range of lighting techniques
1 x Final Portrait using natural light + analysis and evaluation
1 x Final Portrait using 1 point lighting + analysis and evaluation
1 x Final Portrait using 2 point lighting + analysis and evaluation
Show you can provide evidence of head shots, cropped head shots, half body, three-quarter length and full length portraits.
Show that you can employ interesting angles and viewpoints…
Make sure you ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS IN YOUR BLOG
Why do we use studio lighting?
What is the difference between 1-2-3 point lighting and what does each technique provide / solve
What is fill lighting?
What is Rembrandt lighting, Butterfly lighting, Chiarascuro ? Show examples + your own experiments
Consider Composition
The Triangle
Rule of Thirds
The rule of thirds in photography is a guideline that places the subject in the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two thirds more open.
You will be shown how to adapt your camera settings to exploit the EXPOSURE TRIANGLE and then complete your final photo-shoot(s) in response to Belonging…
You will be shown examples of how to select and present your images into a grid of 6 x A4 or 9 x A5 images. These will be printed out for you and then attached to a board.
Final Outcome:
Edit and present 6-9 of your best images in a grid format. You could include 1-3 images from your summer task, as well images from your experiments over the last 7 weeks.
It can be a good idea to come up with a name / theme for your final images. This doesn’t necessarily have to to be printed with your images, but it can be included on your blog and will give your photos a consistent theme. E.G:
“Fleeting Presence”
“Blurred memories”
“Shadows of Belonging”
Present your final images on your blog: Include:
Title: Final Presentation of Photos (could add a particular theme or title that you have created)
Different versions of your grid layout that you have tested
The final grid layout clearly presented at the bottom of the blog post with details that include:
The theme behind your work / link to belonging
The different techniques you have included (shutter speed / aperture etc)
Different artists that might have inspired your work
Any edits that you have used to enhance your photos.
Print your final images and present in a physical grid format.
Think and choose carefully…your images should tell a story, but create contrasts too…how you sequence your images will take experimentation and thought.
Remember…your Summer Task must also be able to view on your blog…screen shot your presentation if you need to into a separate blog post.
EXPORTING FOR PRINT
File Handling and printing...A5
or editing and printing when EXPORTING from Lightroom you must adjust the file size to Short edge for “high resolution” images (JPEGS) like this…
A5 Short Edge = 14.8 cm
A4 Short Edge = 21.0 cm
A3 Short Edge =29.7 cm
Save to folder:
M:\Radio\Departments\Photography\Students\Image Transfer\Year 12 BELONGING\Your Name x 9 images
Remember…clear labelling at all stages and for all blog posts is VITAL
You should have the minimum blog posts listed below for Assessment by Friday 24th October…
A photograph’s exposure determines how light or dark an image will appear when it’s been captured by your camera. This is determined by just three camera settings: aperture, ISO and shutter speed (the “exposure triangle”).
Normally we are aiming to achieve a balanced exposure but in some cases you want to deliberately under and overexpose an image to capture the full dynamic range to tones from dark to bright. For example, in landscape photography you often use this method to capture details in the sky (bright areas) and foreground (dark areas).
The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive it is to the light, while a higher ISO number increases the sensitivity of your camera. The component within your camera that can change sensitivity is called “image sensor” or simply “sensor
Exposure Bracketing
Many digital cameras include an Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) option. When AEB is selected, the camera automatically takes three or more shots, each at a different exposure. Auto Exposure Bracketing is very useful for capturing high contrast scenes for HDR like this…
…by taking the same photograph with a range of different exposure settings
You can use Exposure Compensation to quickly adjust how light or how dark your exposure will be using these controls…
Or set the amount of “bracketing” like this…
Then you can create your High Dynamic Range images by using this process in Adobe Photoshop…
Understanding Composition
The Rule of Thirds
One of the fundamentals of painting and photography, the Rule of Thirds is a technique designed to help artists and photographers build drama and interest in a piece. The rule states that a piece should be divided into nine squares of equal size, with two horizontal lines intersecting two vertical lines.
Composition is the way in which an image is constructed. It is the arrangement of all the visual elements which make up the image, and the understanding and recognition of the relationship between those visual elements
Leading Lines
In photography, leading lines are a compositional technique where natural or man-made lines in a scene are used to guide the viewer’s eye towards a specific point of interest, typically the main subject or focal point of the image
Macro
Macro photography is the art of taking extreme close-up photographs of small subjects, where the size of the subject on the camera’s sensor is at least life-size or larger (1:1 magnification or greater). It reveals intricate details often unseen by the naked eye, transforming everyday objects into captivating images.
Bell Pepper Seeds
Edges of a book
Cropping / framing
Create drama / impact with cropping
Balance
In photography, balance refers to the distribution of visual weight within a composition, creating a sense of equilibrium and harmony. It’s not necessarily about symmetry, but rather how elements are arranged so they guide the viewer’s eye throughout the image without feeling overly heavy on one side or area.
How can knowledge and understanding of an artists work inform your own practice as a student of photography?
For aperture and shallow depth of field: Choose between one of these artists or select two for comparison.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Saul Leiter or Uta Barth
Ralph Eugene MeatyardUta Barth
Saul Leiter
Use these subheadings as a guide to structure your artists case study > make it insightful and meaningful!
RESEARCH > in-depth research of an artist is the first step
Always start by making use of resources on the blog produced by the teachers.
If there are hyperlinks, click on them and learn more. Explore relevant sources both on the internet and also ask teacher if books exists of their work in the classroom (often we have books of the artists we study).
Make notes of what you read, including relevant quotes and also copy hyperlink to online sources, or if a book write title, author, year of publication and publisher.
MOODBOARD > gallery of their images
Introduce an artist with a mood board showing a selection of their images in relation to current topic of study: aperture, depth of field and in/ out of focus images.
INTRODUCTION > background and context of the artists work
Write a paragraph where you introduce the artist describing why you have chosen to study them and how they relate to the topic you are studying, ie. aperture, shallow depth of field
Provide an overview of their work, including describing methods, techniques, style, approach, meaning and subject-matter (if relevant)
Also consider any personal, artistic or historical context that you read about their work that might be useful for you to include.
Incorporate quotes and comments from sources used to gain knowledge and understanding, such as the artist themselves or others (art critics, art historians, curators, writers, journalists etc) using a variety of sources such as online articles, reviews, books, YouTube etc.
Make sure you reference sources and embed links to the above sources in your blog post.
IMAGE ANALYSIS > meaning behind images using photographic vocabulary
Select at least one image from the moodboard and analyse in depth using methodology of: TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL.
Write a paragraph for each element of analysis using specific words from photography vocabulary sheet below.
Example # 1
Key Aspects of Photo Literacy
Analyzing visual elements: Understanding how techniques like camera angle, framing, subject placement, and focus contribute to the message of a photograph.
Recognizing constructed narratives: Realizing that photographs are not objective recordings of reality but are created by a photographer who makes deliberate choices about what to include and how to present it.
Understanding context: Knowing that a photograph’s meaning is influenced by its purpose (e.g., advertising, news, personal snapshot) and the cultural, political, and historical context in which it was created and viewed.
Interpreting symbolism: Identifying the use of symbolism within an image to convey deeper, often non-literal, ideas or emotions…metaphors are often used too.
Creating photographic texts: Using photography as a tool to express ideas and tell stories, thereby deepening one’s understanding of the visual language they are using.
PLAN A RESPONSE > How you will develop a photoshoot
Write a brief explanation about how this artist case study will inform your photographic response.
What aspects of their work will you focus on in your next shoot?
Plan your photoshoot: What, where, when, who, how?
RECORD> make a new set of images
Produce a set of images that respond to the artist work studied focusing on a specific visual style and look (aesthetic) demonstrating competent camera skills and techniques (ie. creative use of aperture, shallow depth of field, out of focusing.)
Select and adjust images from shoot using Lightroom and show evidence of editing process using screen grabs and annotation.
Make sure to include contact sheets of sub-selections and a final set of your best images in variations of colours and B/W versions.
COMPARE & CONTRAST > describe similarities and differences
Compare and contrast your own images with the artists case study and describe similarities and differences in approaches, techniques and outcomes with a focus on aesthetics (how something looks) and techniques (use of aperture, effects of depth of field, in / out of focus).
Select two key images as visual illustrations (one you have made and one by the artist) and analyse using specific photographic vocabulary: TECHNICAL > VISUAL > CONTEXTUAL > CONCEPTUAL.
Here is an example…Artist case study: Uta Barth
Understanding Utah Bath’s Journey into photography:
How did Utah Bath first get interested in using photography?
Technical Focus: Aperture and Its Effects
How does Utah Barth explore focus and perception?
How does Utah Barth use aperture in her photos?
Can you identify any examples in her work where the aperture draws attention to specificsubjects or details? How does this challenge traditional photos and perception?
Connecting to the Theme of Belonging
How could Utah Bath’s photographs explore or represent the theme of belonging?
How does the camera capture things that they eye cannot? How does this link to fleeting moments and transience in life?
What effect does soft focus have in her photos? How could this link to a sense of belonging?
Analysing one of her photos:
1. Visual :
What are the main elements you see in the photo (people, objects, colors, shapes, textures)?
How is the composition arranged? Where is the main subject placed in the frame?
Are there any patterns, contrasts, or focal points that draw your attention?
Key words for Visual Analysis of Uta Barth’s work (based on the above image):
Soft focus
Blurred background
Muted colours
Earthy tones
Green foliage
Outdoor setting
Sharp focus
Contrast
Negative space
Composition
Light and colour
Abstract Shapes
2. Technical Analysis
What camera settings can you infer from the photo (e.g., aperture, shutter speed, focus)? How do these choices affect the image?
How is depth of field used? Is the background blurred or sharp, and what effect does this have?
How does Utah Bath use light—natural or artificial—to shape the image?
Are there any notable photographic techniques (e.g., framing, angles, perspective) being employed?
Key words for Technical Analysis of Uta Barth’s work:
Shallow depth of field
Wide aperture
Natural light
Diffused lighting
Soft focus
Background
Foreground
Sharp focus
Framing
Bokeh effect
3. Contextual Analysis
What do you know about Utah Bath’s background or the setting of this photo? How might this influence the image?
Is there any historical, cultural, or social context that is relevant to understanding the photo?
Key words for Contextual Analysis of Uta Barth’s work:
Ground series
Peripheral vision
Everyday environment
Overlooked details
Emerged in late 1980s and 1990s
Abstract photography
Nature
Time / life cycles
4. Conceptual Analysis
What themes or ideas does the photo explore (e.g., belonging, identity, community)?
How does the photo communicate emotions or messages beyond the literal subject matter?
What is the photographer trying to say or ask the viewer through this image?
Key words for Contextual Analysis of Uta Barth’s work:
Perception
Memory / fleeting moments
Presence / absence
Belonging
Unnoticed details in everyday life
Here are a selection of other artists case studies…
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