Connecting Essays

Example 1: Alec Soth

The picture above shows one of my pictures from location portraiture. I think it resembles the work of Alec Soth because it shows someone who looks relevant and belonging to the background they are in. Showing a naturally placed picture rather than a set up in a studio. And similarly to a lot of Soth's pictures, the person in my picture is not showing much facial expression but is still looking towards the camera. So it isn't in a candid style but it does't show much emotional attachment. The picture below shows one by Alec Soth that I felt related the closest to mine.

Example 2: Heather Edwards

The picture I took above, is one from my colour shoot. I found the photographer Heather Edwards when researching natural and plant photographers. I think my picture resembles her work in terms of colour, idea and depth. This being that there is a clear fore ground and back ground that have been differentiated with a shallow depth of field to emphasis the definition of the fore ground. In terms of colour, they are both edited to be very vibrant and saturated in colour. I also think the angle and zoom of the picture resembles her work. Especially in the example below. To make my work even more similar to hers, I could make the green of the grass less vibrant and make the colours of the leaves even more saturated. In her work below, it shows the grass being quite dull in colour but this makes the pink stand out even more making it look even more bright.

Example 3: Rut Blees Luxemburg

The picture above shows one that I took in London on a trip for my landscape pictures. I think the main ways it resembles Rut Blee's work is in terms of colour, editing, lighting, connotation and the actual landscape. A lot of her work is focused on urban city scapes. The example below has connotations of mystery and the city night life and how it can seem like quite a scary place to be. I think my picture also shows this because of the way I have edited it to show emphasis on the dark shadows, this shows a tonal contrast. I also edited the colour levels and saturation of my picture to make the yellow and orange undertones more strong. She does this in the majority of her pictures.

Example 4: Irving Penn

Irving Penn is best known for his low exposure, low key lighting, studio portraits. The picture above that I took is my favourite picture from my low key lighting studio shoot. The resemblance is with the tone and lighting. This is because of the shadows that cut out some of the face, this has been done with Penn's picture below. This makes the portrait seem quite abstract and also have a mysterious connotation as areas of the face have been taken over by negative space. To make my picture resemble his work even more I could zoom into the face further like he has done in the example below.

To further the connection between the two, I edited the picture in photoshop. I focused on making the picture black and white, and creating that low exposure and really high tonal contrast.

Example 5:

Landscape Image Bank

I like this image because I like the way the colours and tones all work together. Especially in the sky and the way the red tinted clouds work against the muted blue sky. I also like the angle the picture has been taken from as all the trees are in line and leading downwards and we can see that direction. I also like the simplicity of the trees, I think it has quite a powerful connotation as trees are known for being very bright and full with green leaves however seeing trees in such a bare way is quite contradicting. I think this portrays quite a lonely connotation.

I like how this picture has been taken from above so we can see the rooftops peering through hills. In addition I think the background horizon of what appears to be a landscape of factories and smoke. I think whilst this is not very obvious as it appears to be quite far away in the picture and can't see much detail, I think it adds depth to the picture. I also think the dark tones and shadows give the picture quite a mysterious connotation.

I really like the overall effect and connotation of this picture. The denotations are a very shadowed and transport tree landscape that has been reflected. I think the reflection and the way the clouds start to fade into the trees it makes the trees look like they're fading away. I think this has a mysterious connotation as it is quite an abstract way of seeing a landscape. I think the tonal contrast and the simplicity of the picture helps build this connotation.

I like this picture because of the abstract aspect of it. This is because the picture shows the top of the skyscrapers but because of the dark shadows, the rest of the buildings is quite difficult to see. This makes the picture have quite eery and daunting connotation because of the dark tones and shadows. I think it's quite powerful how there is no other objects, like the background is very plain, this makes the buildings stand out even more. 

I like the way the back half of the picture is overpowered by the clouds and mist. This makes the picture have quite a frightening effect as the building in itself is quite strange and ancient looking. I also think the way the picture has been manipulated, especially the way the dark tones have been accentuated, in addition the way the colours have been muted, this adds to the eeriness as bright colours portray happiness and adds life to the picture.

4th Plinth / Composition Work Diary

Description of shoot:

In this shoot, we used our own pictures to create a 4th plinth photo. I used a picture that I took from my landscape shoot as the background. The object I used to place onto the landscape was a marble ring holder. I took the pictures of the object in a studio to ensure lighting was efficient for this task. My idea was to have a landscape with a contrasting object placed onto it. This shows an abstract and unrealistic portrayal. This idea was inspired by Storm Thorgerson, in how it's placing random objects into a location to produce an abstract situation in the picture.

Editing:

 To create the objects that would be placed onto the background, I used two pictures that I took both with the hand placed in slightly different places to create a variation in my picture. I used the quick selection tool in photoshop to highlight the hand and then I deleted the background and copy and pasted them onto the background picture. I found this quite quick and easy to complete, this may have been because the hand didn't have any very small details, this made it easy to see the outline and therefore easy to select.

Final Outcome:

I made my background picture slightly darker by editing the levels and curves in photoshop. I did this to emphasis the dark tones, this made the white hands stand out more against the dark background, I think this also made the picture more abstract as the hands are more defined. 

I added three different versions of the hand onto the image as I wanted my final outcome to seem like the hands were an abstract portrayal of sculptures that have been placed there. I made them three different sizes and moved them on the photo so they seemed more randomly placed. 

I think my outcome was more dark and mysterious because of the dark background, than Storm's work. His work has a more happy and joyful atmosphere because of the backgrounds he uses and colours.

Progression:

I think next time I take a 4th plinth picture, I will use an object that relates to the picture a bit more, so there is a relationship between the object and background. In addition, I will focus on making the lighting of the objects. This is to make the lighting more realistic and more fitting with the background. This would make the objects look more like they belong to the picture and the picture would look more like an entirety.

Hannah Hoch Research

Known for her incisively political collage and photomontage works, Dada artist Hannah Höch appropriated and rearranged images and text from the mass media to critique the failings of the Weimar German Government. Höch drew inspiration from the collage work of Pablo Picasso and fellow Dada exponent Kurt Schwitters, and her own compositions share with those artists a similarly dynamic and layered style. Höch preferred metaphoric imagery to the more direct, text-based confrontational approach of her contemporary John Heartfield, whose work she found “tendentious.” She rejected the German government, but often focused her criticism more narrowly on gender issues, and is recognized as a pioneering feminist artist for works such as Das schöne Mädchen (The Beautiful Girl), (1920), an evocative visual reaction to the birth of industrial advertising and ideals of beauty it furthered. Höch was, for a period of time, the partner of Dada artist Raoul Haussman.

Höch began her training in 1912 at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg, where she studied glass design with Harold Bengen until her work was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.She went back to Berlin in 1915 and reenrolled at the School of Applied Arts, where she studied paintingand graphic design—woodcut and linoleum-block printing—with Emil Orlik until 1920. In 1915 she met and became romantically involved with Austrian artist Raoul Hausmann, who in 1918 introduced her to the Berlin Dada circle, a group of artists that included George Grosz, Wieland Herzfelde, and Wieland’s older brother, John Heartfield. Höch began to experiment with nonobjective art—nonrepresentational works that make no reference to the natural world—through painting, but also with collage and photomontage—collages consisting of fragments of imagery found in newspapers and magazines. (It is commonly held that Höch’s interest in photomontage was born in 1917 while she and Hausmann were on vacation at the Baltic Sea and thus preceded her association with the Dada circle.) From 1916 to 1926, to support herself and pay for her schooling, Höch worked part-time at Ullstein Verlag, a Berlin magazine-publishing house for which she wrote articles on and designed patterns for “women’s” handicrafts—mainly knitting, crocheting, and embroidery. That position gave her access to an abundant supply of images and text that she could use in her work.

My views on her work:

I have quite mixed opinions on her work, this is because at a first glance, I thought her pictures seem quite random and very distorted, especially as a lot of her pictures are based around a portrait / human figure so it is very easy to make it look very random and abstract just by changing one element. For example slightly enlarging one eye on portrait, instantly distorts the proportions on the face making it appear unrealistic. However researching her and her work, and also reading more into the connotations of her work, I realised connections can be made between all the different aspects she places in one picture. These connections can be seen differently for everyone but I think that shows the power behind her work as everyone sees the same denotations in her work but everyone could see a different meaning and message.

"Grotesque" This is an example of her work where connections can be made between all of the different things she has on this picture.

Denotations:

This picture shows female legs and sections of a female face along with half of a males face.

Connotations:

This picture to me, represents how females can be sexualised when dressing, to what society sees as 'provocatively'. The male face could portray society. This is seen through the judgemental facial expression.

Composition / 4th Plinth Brainstorm

Ideas for objects to include in the 4th plinth

• a shoe
• a teddy
• small sculptures
• a glove
• ornaments
• flower pot
• a lamp
• boots
• nail varnish
• fruit
• rubic cube
• alcohol bottle
• plastic bottle
• wine glass
• a leaf
• a branch
• double decker bus
• a cupcake
• play station remote
• crayons
• perfume bottle
• phone
• glasses
• water melon
• doll
• clay ornaments

Landscape Straight Images

Landscape Work Diary

Description of shoot:

After researching landscape photography and landscape photographers, I went out and captured my own landscape pictures. I was very interested in Rut Blees Luxemburg's work after researching her. So within this shoot I tried to work in her style. I used a tripod in order to keep the pictures steady, this is because of the camera settings. In order to maintain in the style of Luxemburg, I mainly took pictures of landscapes that were man made / artificial as a pose to natural landscapes and horizons.  In this sense, I focused on buildings, construction scenery, and car parks. I found that a main factor of her work that stood out to me, was how it seems to represent urban city life. This is a sense that I have tried to re create in this shoot.

Editing:

In order to further work in the style of Luxemburg, I edited my pictures in photoshop and tried to make them similar to the effects that her pictures have. I think her style is very clear and defined as most of her pictures follow this particular style which makes her work very recognisable and memorable. I also found that this made it easier for me to work in her style. I made most of my pictures underexposed to she the darkness and has a connotation of night life. I also manipulated the colours in the pictures by making the yellows and oranges stand out more so than the other colours to emphasise the warm undertones in the pictures. I also edited the levels in the pictures to make the dark tones and shadows even more dark to create that tonal contrast.

Examples and picture I liked:

The pictures below show two examples of pictures I captured and edited. It also shows screenshots of the processes I manipulated the pictures with in photoshop.

The picture above is my favourite picture that I took in this shoot. It is also the one that I think most represents Luxemberg's work. I was inspired by the image to the right which is one of her pictures. I have used a similar sort of landscape through the use of an inside staircase in an urban and rustic looking setting. The most important factor of editing this picture was creating the darkness of the shadows to create a tonal contrast but also to manipulate the colour balance in this picture. I focused on bringing out the oranges and yellows and I put a slight orange based filter on there picture.

Progression:

In order to improve the quality of this shoot, next time, I will try and get more of a variety. I can do this by looking at natural landscapes and scenery as well as man made landscapes e.g. buildings. This way I can explore all different types of landscapes to get a bigger range of images. I think the best way to achieve this is to go out to all sorts of different places and take pictures instead of keeping to the same places.

Here is a landscape picture from the internet. This is the type of image that I would aspire to get if I could re do this shoot. I think these are the type of landscapes I am most interested in as I am not really interested in very colourful and bright natural landscapes, I am much more interested in simplistic and minimalistic landscapes that have dark tonal features and muted colours.

Rut Blees Luxemburg Research

Rut Blees Luxemburg (born 1967) is a German photographer. Her technique is to take photographs at night, mostly exploring the urban landscape. She is a Tutor at the Royal College of Art.



Luxemburg studied photography at London College of Communication and gained her last formal education at the University of Westminster. She employs long exposures to allows her to use the light emanating from the street only, for instance from office blocks or street lights in her photos. Luxemburg created a series of images for the London Underground in 2007. Many of her photographs and prints deal with nocturnal themes.





Through her work she investigates and explores how the cityscape both reflects and affects human condition. Luxemburg takes photographs at night on the edge of the centre of the city using long exposure that allow her to use the light emanating form the street only – from office blocks and street lights.


Luxemburg’s distinctive style creates a sometimes immediately recognisable image, however some of her images are almost abstract. Urban landscapes can sometimes be intimidating to approach, but Luxemburg manages to create a poetic image that allows the viewer to be drawn in to notice the unnoticed an capture the details of a familiar yet alien environment.


Luxemburg states that she is ‘attracted to the heimlichkeit of a space in the public. A space that allows for a moment of repose.’


In choosing her location of her urban landscapes, but also in the subject itself, Luxemburg states that ‘it is hard for me to photograph places where I don’t have that feeling or relation’. Luxemburg also moved on from capturing streets in her work, in particular ‘A Modern Project’, whilst they are still included they are not so obvious as a subject and Luxemburg focusses on other places in the urban landscape. ‘Liebeslied’ was influenced by Roland Barthes’ saying ‘To get out, go in deeper’, Luxemburg going in deeper by getting closer to the ground.


The process of Luxemburg’s work, as mentioned before is the use of long exposures, she uses a 5 x 4 camera that ‘requires slowness’.


In an interview with Luxemburg, she explains how she is drawn to the sites of her work. As mentioned previously Luxemburg has stated how she finds it hard to take photographs of an environment she is unfamiliar with. She also goes out ‘wandering’ before she sets out to take the final images, looking for subjects that draw her in, compositions that ctach her eye that she will later go back to with the 5×4 camera.


For Luxemburg I do not think it is structure that makes her work recognisable, but her use of colours and tones. The rich tones of orange and yellow and green in her images, make her work recognisable in an instant. The lighting of other places around the subject, emphasise the atmosphere but also bring out the themes of her images. Not only obviously portraying what she has noticed but allowing the reader the time to notice it.


The long exposure of the image creates a sense that the glow of the lights allow the viewer when looking at the image more time to look at them. As she has studied these areas and captured them for us over time, we should observe and read her images for a time too. ”

My views on her work: I personally really like her pictures and I especially like how a lot of her work fits in with a particular style that is memorable as her work. This style is very urban and represents night / city everyday life. In addition, her colour use is very interesting as there are many dark tones and shadows as well as yellow and orange warm undertones, are emphasised to create an overall warm coloured but dark tonal picture. Furthermore, I also like how she uses light tones which are often being reflected in some way, this creates a tonal contrast which I think has a nice effect. I think a lot of her images share a common connotation of mystery in an urban landscape.

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Ansel Adams Research

Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, and books.
He mainly works in black and white and occasionally in colour. He prefers black and white as it defines the tonal contrast within the picture.

He formed the group f64. 

"You don't take a photograph, you make it."

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence."

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."                                             

Here are some examples of his work:

 

Denotations:

This picture has a build up of rocks leading towards mountains that can be vaguely seen in the distance. I like the use of light coming from the sun that is shining towards the mountains. This also highlights the clouds that can be seen in the sky. There is also a high tonal contrast that is especially defined by the black and white filter on his picture.

Connotations:

I think this has a connotation of peace due to the big space if open land which appears quite tranquil to me. I also think the mountains portray strength as they sit openly in the distance and because we can see  that they are among the clouds which shows their height.

Denotations:

This picture shows a large river leading towards mountains in the distance. There are many trees and forest space on either side of the river. There is a very high contrast in tones through the use of very dark shadows on the bottom left corner. There are also some highlighted areas like on the right side of the clouds and on the river.

Connotations:

I think this has quite a dark and mysterious connotation due to the use of dark shadows in the picture. In addition there is limited sunlight in this picture which also supports this mysterious and portrayal.

Denotations:

This picture shows a mountain peering through the trees. There are also some clouds which hide some of the bottom of the mountain.

Connotations:

I really like this image as the mountain is in between the clouds so some of the edges are hidden. Also because the mountain takes up a lot of space in the picture is shows power and it has a majestic quality to it.

Equipment / Definitions:

Pre visualisation:

A process used in film-making to generate preliminary versions of shots or sequences predominately using 3D animation tools and a virtual environment.

The OED definition suggests there are several of types of previsualization: all of which are planning tools for various kinds of industries. Now, there are six different fields, in which some sort of previsualization is used to visualize how a procedure or product will look. The motion picture industry is only one of these fields. They are as follows:
Photography is one of the older disciplines to use previs. Ansell Adams was known to previsualize many of his more renowned photographs as far back as the 1930s. 

My interpretation: 

It is a process where a photographer creates a mental or physical idea of a picture and what it will look like, before the image is actually shot and captured. Some people may not choose to undergo this process but some will find this very beneficial when in a shoot.

Zone system:

The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.

F64:

Experimenting with Composite / 4th Plinth Work Diary

Description:

To further explore the idea of manipulated images I used photos from the internet and used photoshop to place an object onto another picture. This is a form of image manipulation. I did this by first choosing an object, then in photoshop I used the quick selection tool to highlight the object to separate it from the background, then delete everything that's not selected (the background). Then I opened the background in a separate photoshop file and copied the original picture onto the new picture and edit it in terms of size and position to place it where I wanted it on the picture.

Example one:

When being introduced to this technique, I wanted to create a picture that all made sense and linked together or looked right, rather than just a random object. In this example I have placed a 'stop and think' sign onto a picture of silhouette seemingly attacking an adolescent. I did this to create the idea that people don't often think about the consequences and impact that their words can have on another being. I wanted this to have quite a serious and meaningful connotation to it.

Example one:

With this example, I placed a small picture of earth onto a picture of a girl looking to the side. I placed the earth in that certain place to make it look like the girl is looking at it. I quite like how the earth is on a canvas of just back negative space, I think this makes it look like it belongs as that is how we know earth to look from space. This makes quite an abstract picture as it making the whole world seem smaller than a person. I also like how the picture is in black and white but the picture of earth is in colour. I think this makes the world stand out.

Composite / Manipulated Images Definition Post

My view on image manipulation:

Personally speaking, I edit the majority of my images to make the features I like more emphasised and drawing more attention to these features. It can also help you create the type of image that you want as editing can change the overall feelings/emotions that the picture presents. On the other hand, editing images does change realism of the picture. For example if you capture a landscape, then edit the levels in the picture, it is changing the natural lighting and the natural scenery, which is potentially disregarding the whole point of landscape photography as you are not showing the image as it was, it did not look like that, it was artificially manipulated to the photographers preference.

Ethical / personal issues with image manipulation:

With portraiture, a common thing to do is manipulate the image to correct any imperfections that the model may have e.g. blurring out spots and making someones eyes a different colour/bigger. This is to make the image seem perfect. This could potentially be a ethical issues as editing someone is changing what they look like. 

There can also be ethical issues which support the use of image manipulation. For example a documentary photographer who may have photographed a crime scene that involves some gory features, they may edit out some parts of the picture as they might upset some people or be discomforting to look it so it would be unethical to show the public the image in its entirety.

Areas of Industry / art & design are manipulated images used in:

I think that manipulated images are often used in magazine / fashion industry as they have a specific 'image' and 'look' that they want to create in fashion magazines, so by manipulating photos, especially models / portraits, helps the editors to create the ideal or perfect look that they want or are expected to have. Manipulated images is also a big factor in all sorts of advertisement. This is because obviously the main aim of advertisement is to maximise potential of what is being advertised, this is to make it look more appealing to potential customers so they find the product or service desirable. This can be done easily by manipulating images to create this. In addition, the news and reality journalism could also use manipulated images to make sure images are suitable for their specific audience. This is related to an ethical factor that I spoke about above.

Banal:
If an object is banal, it is thought to be something that is very familiar for people to see as we often see it in everyday scenarios. 

Experimenting with Composition / 4th plinth Straight Images