In this task i created a Pin-interest account and created a new board linked to the new exam theme. I did this in order to gain inspiration and get some ideas together. Once i had finished searching for images i then zoomed out on my board and took a screenshot of it. Any ideas emerging?
Task 1 - The group shot - Codes of behaviour
The group photo has powerful underlying conventions,whether a family portrait or a gathering of friends. These reflect codes of behaviour that shift over time. In the early 1990s Paul M Smith explored the convention of the "Team Photo" and the "Night Out" - photographs so often taken by the group of lads which he took to be anything but spontaneous.
Practical Task
This is my first attempt of the conversation task. i used the concepts shown by Paul M Smith and created a series of images that have one person carrying out all the roles. Using the photos that had been taken ,I then used photoshop to create 4 layers
Did you attempt your own? Perhaps you could once you have completed all of the annotations etc for he latter stages of your project.
Artist Analysis - Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky was born in 1955 in Leipzig,East Germany. Shortly after he and his family escaped East Germany for the West,moving first to Essen and then to Dusseldorf,where Gursky grew up. In Essen Gursky's parents established a commercial photography studio, which later flourished into Dusseldorf. According to Gursky, the majority of his childhood was spent in this studio, where he would regularly plunder the 'treasure-trove of equipment' for 'anything that looked like it might be fun to play with. Gursky studied photography at the the Folkwang unviersity of the arts, essen (1977-80), and the Dusseldorf Art academy (1980-87), where the photography course was run by esteemed conceptual artists Bernd and Hilla Becher, and where artists including Gerhard Richter also taught classes. At the academy gursky was taught alongside artists including Thomas Struth, Thomas ruff, Candida Hofer and Axel Hutte - a group of photographers who have since become known as the 'Dusseldorf School'.
Since he 1990s, Gursky has concentrated on sites if commerce and tourism,making work that draws attention to todays burgeoning high-tech industry and global markets. His imagery ranges from the vast,anonymous architecture of modern day hotel lobbies,apartment buildings and warehouses to stock exchanges and parliaments in places from as far a field as Shanghai, Brasilia,Los angles and Hong Kong. Although his work adopts the scale and composition of historical Landscape paintings, His photographs are often derived from inauspicious sources:.
half term homework
Task 1 - Exhibition Visit
Visit an exhibition that genuinely interests you. Do not be overly concerned about linking it to the exam theme- we can make a connection later.
Introduce the exhibition- who, what, where?
What was the intention behind the work?
Anything to say about technique / Process?
What was your opinion of the exhibition?
Visit an exhibition that genuinely interests you. Do not be overly concerned about linking it to the exam theme- we can make a connection later.
Introduce the exhibition- who, what, where?
What was the intention behind the work?
Anything to say about technique / Process?
What was your opinion of the exhibition?
Task 2 - Hidden from normal view
Look for interesting places that may be hidden from the normal view alleyways, garages, the back of shops and carparks. Take a series of photographs that show these hidden landscapes. Think about how light, colour texture can create atmosphere within your photographs giving the viewer an insight into an unseen world.
Look for interesting places that may be hidden from the normal view alleyways, garages, the back of shops and carparks. Take a series of photographs that show these hidden landscapes. Think about how light, colour texture can create atmosphere within your photographs giving the viewer an insight into an unseen world.
Task 3 - Changed landscape
http://www.bombsight.org Using the site, look at your local area and photograph the different sites that were bombed during the second world war. Take a series of landscape photographs that capture the essence of the location now and if possible any remnants of what it looked like before the bomb.
http://www.bombsight.org Using the site, look at your local area and photograph the different sites that were bombed during the second world war. Take a series of landscape photographs that capture the essence of the location now and if possible any remnants of what it looked like before the bomb.
Arsenal stadium during and after the second world war
The Arsenal stadium also paid the price when it was bombed in 1941. The North Bank was wrecked after a fire broke out and the roof collapsed and much of the terracing on the South Stand was damaged too and these had to be repaired before Arsenal could return home after the war. Another bomb, weighing 1,000lb, had fallen near the stadium in October 1940. Meanwhile tonnes of concrete that had been blown over the Clock End terraces needed to be removed.
Highbury Corner during and after the second world war
Highbury corner suffered one of islingtons most destructive wartime attacks 73 years ago.The bomb completely destroyed the once rather splendid Highbury and Islington Station. the Cock Tavern next to it, 11 houses in Compton Terrace and damaged several other buildings including, allegedly, the bank opposite, distributing paper money all over Highbury Fields behind. A small part of the old station's facade is still visible, tucked between the entrance of the tube station and the rebuilt Cock Tavern.
Canonbury Tower during and after the second world war
Task - Compromises
Using the images taken in the previous task and the work of Robertson experiment in the darkroom using different paper and artistic techniques. The paper provided is old and may have unexpected outcomes when developed. As well as developing the image try exposing certain parts of the paper to light and different chemical as a way of showing experimentation.
Artist Analysis - Mariah Robertson
Mariah Robertson is an American photographer. She lives in New York City. Robertson's primary medium is photography, but her works are often exhibited as installations and considered sculptural.
My Response
For my response to Mariah Robertsons work i firstly went and picked up any items of rubbish around school that i could use to photograph. Once i had collated a small pile of rubbish i went and photographed the pieces of rubbish together using a plain white piece of card as the background. I then used to photoshop to edit the images and turn them into black and white. After this i printed the images out onto photographic paper and used the dark room to create a series of outcomes. I then exposed the images to bleach and dripped yellow and blue paint all over the images and left them to dry
3 Strands: Potential Ideas
Strand one - Graffiti
Artist Analysis - Martha Cooper
Intention, link to the theme?
Martha Cooper is an American photojournalist born in the 1940s in Baltimore, Maryland. She worked as a staff photographer for the New York Post during the 1970s. American Photojournalist Martha Cooper began shooting graffiti on her way to work at the new york post in the 1970s.Breaking into train yards and discussed lots with the writers, her photographs captured the social decay that sprawned todays culture of bling
"People in New York used to hate graffiti. I used to try and tell people what I was doing and I would get such horrible arguments from academics about how horrible it was, and what vandalism this was. And I don’t have a good defence for defacing public property, you know, I’ve had to try and come up with explanations, and it isn’t as if I just love this stuff over every surface you can find. My only defence is: ‘Well, what about advertising?’ At least this is done by hand" - http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/photography-2/martha-cooper/
My Response
For my response to Martha coopers work I went to Brick lane in east London in order to capture scenes of graffiti.
Chosen Edits
Annotate: www, ebi, potential ways forward
Strand Two - Hidden from normal view
Artist Analysis - Kevin Van Aelst
Connecticut, us based Kevin Van Aelst reimagines and reassembles the little, mundane things in our daily lives, and turns them into mysterious notions of life and existence with his photography compositions. He wrote in a statement "My artwork is an attempt to reconcile my physical surroundings with the fears, fascinations, curiosities, and daydreams occupying my mind". His photographs and constructions consist of common artifacts, materials and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled into various forms,patterns and illustrations. Kevin Van Aelst's images aim to examine the distance between where his mind wanders to and the big material objects that inspire those fixations.
Explain the idea, link to the theme
My response
For my response to Kevin Van Aelst work I gathered together a range of objects and took them out of their normal environment in order to give them a new meaning.
Strand Three - Masks
Explain your idea, link to the theme
Artist Analysis - Andrew Gallimore and Rankin
Andrew Gallimore grew up in the Midlands, in Stoke-on-Trent and is now a professional makeup artist. John Rankin Waddell (born 1966), also known under his working name Rankin , is a British portrait and fashion photography .Together Rankin & Andrew Gallimore have created some of the most captivating beauty images in recent memory.Together the duo has created a striking new book simply titled, Andrew Gallimoore by Rankin that charts the course of their collaborations and in doing so explores the definition of what beauty is on a cultural scale.
My Response
For my response to Andrew Gallimore Andrew Rankin's work I placed a number of gems on ths persons face in order to try and create a mask.To develop my photographs even further I copied some photos into photoshop and increased the contrast and brightness to make the image more enhanced.
In order to improve this piece of work i should have used more gems to ensure all of the persons face was covered. This would have made the picture resemble Andrew Gallimore and Rankin's work more accurately. In the first edit I should have also used a tripod so that the camera was centred on the persons face. i should have used some sort of glue that would stick the gems to the face better as they kept on peeling off which is clearly shown in some of the photographs i took.
Chosen Edits
Chosen Strand: masks
first development
For my first development of the theme masks i decided to experiment with projects images onto a face in order to create a mask. I did this by placing a plain mask onto a persons face and using images of the actual person i projected them using a projector onto the plain mask to create a contrast. However you could not see the projected image on the mask very clearly as it did no show through on the camera very well.
Chosen Edits
second DEVELOPMENT
For this development i took a number of pictures of this person with a plain mask over their face. I then took pictures of graffiti in Brick lane and using photoshop I layered the images of graffiti that I took and placed them onto the mask. In oder to make the images fit into the shape of the mask I used the rubber tool around the shape of the mask.In order to improve this piece of work i should have blended the different images of graffiti better.
tHIRD DEVELOPMENT
For my third Development i decided to create a mask that shows the contrast between being happy and sad. To do this i photographed a person with he text 'sad' written across their face and the text 'Happy' written on the mask. The contrast between the two texts aims to show that the person hides behind a mask and uses a mask to cover up what they are really feeling.
For my Development I used photoshop to enhance the pictures brightness and contrast and to turn it in to black and white which i did by turning the image into grayscale.
Chosen Edits
DEVELOPMENT
fourth development
For my fourth development I decided to continue to explore the concept of using words to create a mask. This time i did this by ripping out pages of a book and cutting the pages into fine strips. I then placed the strips in water , which acted as a glue and started to place the strips onto the persons face. I photographed the person standing infront of a black piece of card which acted as a backdrop for all the images i took. In order to improve my work i should have made sure that all the strips of paper were stuck to the persons face properly as you can see in the image below that some of the strips were stating to peal off, which take away focus from the image.
fifth DEVELOPMENT
For this development I firstly took a series of portraits from different angles to capture different parts of the face. Using photoshop I then turned the photos of the portraits into black and white by using the mode 'Greyscale' and printed them out onto white card with a glossy finish. Do develop these portraits further I cut out a number of different images of flowers and placed and stuck them down on different parts of the face on each image in order to try and replicate a series of masks made out of flowers. Once i had completed sticking the flowers own on the portraits with glue I then used my camera to photograph the final series of images.
further development
final piece from ella johnson on Vimeo.
Sixth development
Artist Analysis - Alyssa Monks
Born in 1977 in New Jersey, Alyssa Monks began oil painting as a child. She studied at The New School in New York and Montclair State University and earned her B.A. from Boston College in 1999. During this time she studied painting at Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence.In paintings both visceral and lush, Alyssa Monks aims to express the most fundamental experiences of being human, including love, loss, and the search for self. She primarily concentrates on the human figure, portraying herself and acquaintances and loved ones in intimate, large-scale compositions that appear expressively naturalistic.
My Response
Chosen Edits
further DEVELOPMENT
Artist Analysis - krisztianna
Krisztiannaa, a child of Hungarian immigrants who grew up in California is deeply influenced by Día De Los Muertos, a Mexican national holiday that celebrates the lives of the departed. The art of the sugar skull is a powerful visual that helps her express a joy for life and respect of finality. Her life long love of biology and nature are common themes in her art, as well as birth, death, rebirth and transformation. Watercolour, ink, acrylic, clay, and resin casting are her favourite materials for expression.
For this development, my aim was to explore the relationship between plants and water. I also wanted to combine the two artists ideas into one outcome; the idea of nature and water. In this particular experiment i really wanted to explore the concept of water and ways i could make the face appear distorted. I aslo aimed to combine the artists work into a development of my own. With the photographs in the bath, i think in order to achieve a better effect, i should have perhaps taken some photographs of the the subjects underwater so it would have a layer of water above the face . I think it would have also been interesting if i possibly explored the ida of condensation and glass.
my response
Chosen Edits
seventh development
Artist Analysis - Kristen Hatgi sink
Kristen Hatgi Sink Is visual artist and photographer, born Denver, CO 1984. Kristen loves beautiful minds, faces, bodies, and often makes pictures with flowers and glitter. She works in film, digital, and wet plate collodion. Kristen received her BFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University in 2008. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Boston, Washington DC, Kochi Japan, Canada, and Denver. Kristen lives In Denver Colorado with her husband Mark Sink in a 1900 house, which they are currently remodeling.
Combining aspects of still life with portraiture, the new series by photographer Kristen Hatgi Sink is breathtaking. The artist used eyelash glue to artfully place flowers on her models' faces, which she then photographed in her kitchen under Vermeer-like lighting to create a surreal group of stunning pieces.
My Response
For my fifth devlopment i decided to explore the concept of flowers and the face in order to create a series of masks, which links to the theme of secrets. For my response to Kristen Hatgi Sink's work I placed a bunch of flowers on my sisters face using double sided tape to stick the flowers down.In order to improve my work next time i should use make sure that all of the tape ,that i used to stick down the flowers to the face ,is fully covered with flowers as in the image above you can see that some of the tape is visible and not covered with a flower to hide it.
Chosen Edit
DEVELOPMENT
final piece
For my final piece I continued to focus on placing flowers on the face in order to create a mask. However this time I created a stop motion animation in order to show the process of the flowers turning into a mask. I did this by putting my camera on a tripod and taking a picture every time i placed flower on the face. After this I used i movie to create the final output of the stop motion animation.
In order to improve my work i should have used a bigger tripod as in some of the images you can see the legs of the tripod which is distracting. I also had to redo placing the flowers on the face a couple of times as they would not stay on the neck of the person .Next time i should use some sort of glue to stick the flowers down and prevent them from falling.
Chosen Edits
ella from ella johnson on Vimeo.