COLLABORATION
THE ART OF INSTRUCTION
JOHN BALDESSARI
Conceptual artist John Baldessari, famously known for appropriating his work, pioneered a new complex, concept of photography. During his prime of work in the 1970s, Baldessari embraced the cultural impact of 'rebelling' from his era through his work. Previously, photography and art was extremely serious, fine art such as family portraits or establishing shots of the famous municipalities however Baldessari broke the rules of art. John was daring and experimented with his work to create his iconic masterpieces. As started he commenced his art career as a painter, Baldessari assorted his painted work with printed work, for example Baldessari's exposure to an audience rose after his 'polka dot' series. Baldessari has famously spoken about the original thought process around this series after having many printed pieces of art around him and absurdly placing pricing stickers of the model's faces, with the creative mindset Baldessari owned, he came to a realisation that the images were for keeps. The images are very ambiguous, and are very difficult to understand, however that is the beauty of the work, the difficulty of understanding allows, unlimited imagination and opinions on his work.
CLASS INSTRUCTIONS
For a task we created lists of rules for each other to follow and adapt our work on. The past couple of days, whilst I've been out I kept an eye out on how to capture the scenery around me to fit the instructions.
MY LIST OF RULES STATED
- Take a picture of the sun rising
- Take a picture of the city at night
- Take a picture of you going up an escalator
- Take a picture of neon light in the dark
- Take a picture of fruit/vegetables growing in your garden
Together as a class, we gathered all of our images from our homework task and laid them out on the floor. As we were placing all of the images together we tried to find links to create sequences, for example linking colours, trees, how dark or light the picture is and more. Although I love every picture and individually they all carry amazing stories and meanings, we had to remove some as the limit for the sequence was 30. Collaboratively, we all decided which pictures didn't fit the theme or meet the standard of expectation, such as images that were slanted, blurry or cropped out.
THE PROCESS
We started off the process of removing and constructing out class photo book by pinning all the images onto the wall. As we saw the images hung up, it fully conveyed how our collaborative photo book will look. With the images on the wall, it was easier to see which photos didn't fit with our our sequence.
Next is the process was the trail and error, adding and removing images and refining the final piece. As a class, we discussed and explained why we want to remove and add back certain pictures and why it would fit the theme of the book. The picture of my class mate standing up is an example of how we would all go up and remove the images and rearrange the images. Overall, I really enjoyed this experience because it was so practical and got us on our feet, arguing with each other as to why some images deserve to stay and in general we grew closer as creators and found an understanding in each others' minds and creativity.
We came to an agreement that the landscape pictures shall be placed over two pages in our book and created the sequence as the pictures were a journey, starting off with the image of the stairs on a bus ending with the bird in the sky. I adored this experiment and how we worked together to create this book.
GEORGIA O'KEEFE & ALFRED STIEGLITZ
Some may say that arguably, Georgia O’keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz were the two greatest American artists at the first half of the 20th century. As a couple, they created extremely conceptual, unusual work that could be described as complicated yet messianic. Their work is different, it's peculiar and almost frightening, the images reveal a lot but not too much, there are so many questions unanswered for the viewer, like why are her hands positioned that way? Possibly the relaxed pose could imply Georgia's power in the relationship and dominance in their creation of art. The black and white filter portrays the time period the images were taken in, the early 1900s. The couple's work presents a balanced, fair relationship between the two, in the 1920s it wasn't exactly normalised for women to work or have any type of say within their relationship. Georgia O'keeffe was creatively independent and presented to the world the importance of a woman's say in society.
LE SALLE DE CLASSE
HICHAM BENOHOUD
LE SALLE DE CLASSE
HICHAM BENOHOUD
The photo series, 'Le Salle de Classe' or 'The Classroom', was influenced by Hicham Benohoud's profession as an art teacher due to him growing a passion for photography. To generate the project, Hicham had to utilise the objects in his very own classroom, including his students. The black and white prints are made up of over a hundred images taken between 1994 and 2000 during his time as an art teacher in a school in Marrakech, Morocco. Benohoud gave his students specific poses to carry out to convey his intention of showcasing the friction between children's game and violence induced by child psychology. The series can be perceived as a demonstrate the culture of Morocco and religious taboos in the society. I absolutely love this project and what it represents, I feel like the black and white filter adds to work creating a vintage or nostalgic touch. The story behind the work with Benohoud simply using the objects in his classroom to produce the work shows his effort and shows to the world that you can simply make art out of anything if you try. |
MY RESPONSE
In class we had to undergo a task, completing a list of five images going in pairs and using props from a box to create the images. In the first three pictures, I had my two other classmates hold the coloured film to accomplish the vibrant colourful theme, covering the white spotlights onto the white backdrop. I used the colours blue and pink over the lights to create contrasts whilst I got Peggy to hold up a yellow piece of film over her face. I adore the colourful images as they are so out of my box that I usually tend to be more comfortable shooting natural/lifestyle images than set-up images. I loved the process of creating these images and the outcomes gave out an editorial style of work that I relish.
The black and white images that follow below, are very different to the images above and are more similar to my usual style of photography. I particularly like the first image of Peggy holding up the skipping rope in front of the wide window because I like how it's so dark, almost grungy. The blurred, moving skipping rope showcases the nature of the photoshoot, being very natural and free-willed by me, allowing Peggy to just play around with the rope.
The third set of images were created by me using a hole punched photograph over the camera lens. I like ambiguous the picture almost like it has this 'fear of the unknown' foundation. It was quite difficult to took this pictures because the lens didn't know what to focus in, that is why to of the images are focused on the canon paper whilst the image in the middle in focused on Peggy's face.
In order to capture this collection of pictures I had to step out of my comfort box and be different. Instead of 'going with the flow' like I usually do, making the people in the picture act like I'm not there I actually decided to construct and design the set up for the images. I loved this experiment and in the future I will add in more of a structure and direction when it comes to taking pictures.
The black and white images that follow below, are very different to the images above and are more similar to my usual style of photography. I particularly like the first image of Peggy holding up the skipping rope in front of the wide window because I like how it's so dark, almost grungy. The blurred, moving skipping rope showcases the nature of the photoshoot, being very natural and free-willed by me, allowing Peggy to just play around with the rope.
The third set of images were created by me using a hole punched photograph over the camera lens. I like ambiguous the picture almost like it has this 'fear of the unknown' foundation. It was quite difficult to took this pictures because the lens didn't know what to focus in, that is why to of the images are focused on the canon paper whilst the image in the middle in focused on Peggy's face.
In order to capture this collection of pictures I had to step out of my comfort box and be different. Instead of 'going with the flow' like I usually do, making the people in the picture act like I'm not there I actually decided to construct and design the set up for the images. I loved this experiment and in the future I will add in more of a structure and direction when it comes to taking pictures.
SCARTI
ADAM BROOMBERG & OLIVER CHANARIN
In photography we were introduced to the photo book 'Scarti' crafted by two English photographers, Oliver Chanarin and Adam Broomberg. The book is described to be a 'happy accident' by the two as the mashups of overlays wasn't actually planned at all. The work is extremely abstract and thought provoking, the art sparks questions in your mind, who was in control during the shoot, who decided on how the patients were going to pose? Although it was unintentional, the chaotic overlays could portray what is going inside not only the mind of patients but perhaps also the scenes that take place within the hospital too. Some may describe the pictures as eerie leading them to feel uneasy, specifically the picture with the man with blood covering his face however this unpleasant feeling could teach others the understanding of how people inside these hospitals feel and what they are going through.
FICTIONAL STORY HOMEWORK
FICTIONAL STORY HOMEWORK
In class we were given a task to create fictional stories that we had to make up on the spot. Our story had to involve a detail biography of a made up photographer and had to explain how old they were, what they took pictures of, what cameras they used and more. At the end of the task we folded the paper and the teachers passed round the stories anonymously. Below is the story that I received and was my assignment for the half term
- "Daphne Hadid is a 26 years old fashion photographer who was born in Monaco but lives in Sydney, Australia. She works for magazines and takes footage for fashion shows. She has travelled quite a lot because her work has been viewed and praised by millions. She began her journey at 17 when she realised she loved taking photos of fashion models and she posted her work on social media and her online portfolio. An editor for vogue saw her work and invited her into their photography team. She uses a digital camera. She studies fashion in university in Paris because she wanted to be a fashion designer. Once she had to document her work online."
The story I received was an editorial, fashion photographer. The complete the look of these edits I first had to select and photograph my favourite poses from my Vogue magazines, including varies sizes and colours. I then moved all my images into the Adobe Photoshop Mix app, where I could cut out the models so I just had their body. After resizing, moving around and refining the raw colleague, I then moved the images to VSCO cam where I can change the filter, exposure, highlights and lowlights and more to “clean” the images and fix any rough looking edges to cut outs. To finish the piece I added a grain over the image to add a personal touch to the works. Overall o really enjoyed this task, I adore the editorial style of photography and I love experimenting with various styles of the art. I loved working with photoshop to create the colleagues and expanding my skills when it comes to digitally designing pieces.
- Make an image with your camera of a mood
- Make portrait of something that you love
- Make a portrait of something you hate
- Recreate an image or thought in a series of 10 images
- Create an image you don't understand and create an image that asks questions
- Make images where the subject is on the edge of the frame and then makes images where the subject is out of the frame
To create these images, I went into the school's studio and utilised all of its helpful components. To capture an image of a mood, I got my friend to stand in front of the blank wall whilst in conversation to portray our moods when together. I edited these images in iPhoto, and intensified any colour and structure. My favourite image from this series, is the first one as I usually take images within this style and I had fun playing around with the editing to clean the image.
ZZYZX
GREGORY HALPERN
GREGORY HALPERN
In class we were shown the artist Gregory Halpern, I love the structure of his work, some may find the images simple but his immense detail to framing, lighting and editing helps to beautifully detail and construct the image. His images seem familiar and push the viewer to ask questions, this style of work is helpful to me when working on my own projects and how I should layout and style my work.
DREAM SEQUENCE HOMEWORK
For homework, we had to create a sequence of what our dreams looked in photos. A lot of my pictures are very dark to amplify the idea of dreams being very ambiguous and not being able to fully remember them once you're awake. We were introduced to the artist Gregory Halpern's 'ZZYZX' and I completely loved his work and the way of how he presented it on his website. Although the pictures individually may be quite simplistic, when they are sequenced together it creates art and a storyboard within itself.
As an introduction to the lesson we wrote down how we were feeling this morning, when writing we had to think about certain aspects of the day for instance, how the weather was effecting our mood, if we were hungry, how our morning was going and more. After this task, we set off and took pictures, turning our written paragraphs into images. In mine I spoke a lot about the weather and how I was feeling hungry so I specifically got pictures of the weather showing how it was effecting my morning for example, the pictures of my glasses. I also wrote about how I missed breakfast so I added shots of the canteen. Overall, this task was quite difficult because it was hard to think outside of the box in order to create interesting, abstract images out very simple statements.
SUPREME VOLUME 2
At home I have a large photography book collection but my favourite and first photography book I ever bought was the 'Supreme Volume 2' book published by Phaidon. I love this book so much because I adore how authentic and relevant it is to the brand. Without forcing too much effort the images are so flawless and inspiring, they convey the young, teenage, free-spirited moto Supreme sell for whilst also celebrating their foundation of Skateboarding culture. Whilst the images are taken in a editorial style, they still seem very relaxed and natural which I love.
DAVID SIMS
Whilst flicking through the book 'Supreme Vol 2' I fell involve with the editorial style of photography and googled who name of the photographer behind them. I was introduced to David Sims and spent some time scrolling through his website, Sims' work is so elegant and simply speaks for itself. I love how Sims utilises the lighting in his work and how it creates shadows and definition, contouring the body and highlighting features.
MY RESPONSE
Above are my responses to David Sims' style of photography, I particularly like the first image as I love how the shadows define her face and create almost a structure. To create these pieces, I had the model stand infant of white screen and used a box light as I feel like they make the images come out better compared to using the flash on the camera itself. It was interesting to take pictures in the sort of format as I usually tend to take lifestyle, casual pictures as opposed to 'set up' images.
As much as I enjoyed this new style of photography for myself, it just doesn't feel like me and I find it difficult to confident in work as it doesn't feel natural. In order to enjoy this project, I will return back to my personal style of photography whilst still bringing on board some styles of fashion photography for my work to be as good as possible.
As much as I enjoyed this new style of photography for myself, it just doesn't feel like me and I find it difficult to confident in work as it doesn't feel natural. In order to enjoy this project, I will return back to my personal style of photography whilst still bringing on board some styles of fashion photography for my work to be as good as possible.
Etan & Me, 2014
VIVIANE SASSEN
VIVIANE SASSEN
After making the decision to stop my experiment in editorial photography, I took some to research some different photographers. My teacher suggested to look up the photographer Viviane Sassen and i found her work very intriguing. Whilst she still uses some of the editorial style of photography such as, has the camera is positioned, having the subject in the middle of the frame or even the simple background to fully highlight the model. Sassen also has quite an abstract style in my opinion, editorial photography is usually associated with glamour and fashion magazines, whilst Sassen's photos make the viewer question the story behind her pieces, what country is she in, who are the people she's photographing, why are there certain aspects to the picture that may relate to the model's culture and heritage? Where in editorial photography we mainly focus on the beauty or advertisement of a product, in Sassen's images we admire the shapes, shadows and structures.
DIE SON SIEN ALLES
2002-2004
2002-2004
Whilst scrolling further on Sassen's website, I came across the project. I love the style and layout of the images and how she photographed such normal parts of life, like bedrooms and barbers and turned them into very interesting time-capsules that are a window for what life was like 20 years ago. This is my favourite project of Sassen's and when doing my personal investigation, I will take on board the ideas and how effortlessly she took images without even having to set anything up or wait for the "perfect" opportunity.
NICO FROEHLICH
Nico Froehlich's work was introduced to me by both my teachers and I loved his style in photography as it's so relatable. Being a young person from South London, you are given many photography advantages as everywhere around is so authentic yet photogenic. There are still many places in South that haven't be changed or gentrified and, this creates a great contrast that photographers can utilise in their work. I particularly like Forehlich's work as the camera he uses works perfectly with his messages and how they look aesthetically. I love the film finish and texture of the images and make me feel almost as if they're nostalgic, like I'm looking and images from the past that are telling a story. I will be taking Nico's work and style on board with me and how I start my personal project.
NIALL McDIARMID
My teacher introduced me to Niall McDiarmid's work and it helped me push further in my vision in my style of work and the "effortless" style and taking pictures of "normal" things that we see every day. I like McDiarmid's work because it feels so comfortable and familiar, moving forward in my project, I am going to be as aware as McDiarmid in the sense of taking a picture of everything I see.
THRESHOLD CONCEPT 6
My approach to work definitely fits in the same category of Threshold Concept 6, as I am taking pictures on a film camera the work is very trial and error. I won't know, until the images are very fully developed, how my images will look, if there are any ruins, if they are blurry to focussed, it's simply a risk. As I don't know the outcome of my images, if they were to not go as how I had envisioned, I will need to find a solution, possibly by reworking the images, cutting and sticking together or photocopying layers. "Photographers rely on chance" is a good quote for me to understand that sometimes not everything will go how I had planned before but what the forced outcome had to be may be even better than the initial idea. |
"Photography is easy, Photography is difficult"
PAUL GRAHAM
In my opinion, I have mixed emotions about this article. On one hand, I agree, taking a picture is easy and requires barely any complex teaching as to how one takes a picture however, I believe it quite degrading to a skill/talent 'easy' as it requires years of learning and practising in order to become "good". It easy to take a picture but it's difficult to be good. I agree with the line "I just don't know where to start" as seeing as photography is such a broad subject and ideology, it is hard to find your feet in your creativity and individuality, distinguishing yourself from other creators. This mental block stops many from wanting to start and progressing. The act of taking a picture is easy but once again the act of taking a good picture is learnt and not all may understand the technique of how it is completed.
Here is a mind map of my ideas for my Personal Project, when writing down my thoughts, I remembered to include elements of the Photographer's I had researched, for example, when I wrote down 'smokers' the photo the man vaping by Niall McDiarmid came to mind. I want to make this project as comfortable and as personal to me as possible, this could be achieved by me getting shots of places that could a sentimental value, for example, 'Sundays With Dad' is a designated day I spend with my father. I have three options for cameras, the first choice is using my phone, which I mainly use when the image is a coincidence or I haven't explicitly gone out to take pictures but I stumbled across the opportunity, next is the use of a Kodak Disposable Camera, this option tends to be my favourite because I love the outcome and vintage texture of the images and I can use my Canon t70 which produces Black and White images and I will have to experiment with the Darkroom and developing images by myself as opposed to taking them to a developing shop. |
DISNEYLAND PARIS
2/23
2/23
For the past week I've been in Disneyland Paris on a school trip with Media, whilst on the trip I remembered to use all the photographic opportunities I could see. As my project is mainly based around the use of disposable cameras many of the pictures are being developed currently, however as this was the case and I knew only having pictures on the camera would delay my progress, I took many pictures on my phone to have some proof of work.
When taking pictures I was trying to achieve the silhouette and isolated look, for example making the castle look isolated and surrounding by dark and the castle itself being very bright/colourful. With Disneyland it is a very photogenic place so it is quite easy to get a good picture of your surroundings. Whilst editing I enhanced the images' colour and exaggerated the difference between dark and light in the images, I tried to capture more wholesome moments that were close to me for example my two friends' ears in front of the castle. On the disposable camera I am eager to see how the vintage texture of the printed images with look the modern, bright works.
When receiving the images back, there were many "fails", where perhaps the lighting was wrong and so the image turned out completely blank. However, I absolutely love the images that I took, when taking images I tried my hardest to show the all the different aspects and relationships within the place, for instance the picture of the young girl on her mum's shoulders. The only image I am not pleased with, is the one of the fireworks, as it was too dark and I didn't use the flash, the the castle wasn't captured in the final print. Overall, I really enjoyed this project and using actual cameras to hold my memories.
READING & LEADS FESTIVAL
8/22
8/22
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Whilst developing pictures for the project, on my camera there were plenty of images I took in summer whilst working at Reading & Leeds Festival. During the weekend, I took images of the dressing rooms, stages and the preparation of the artist and dancers. I feel like these images, fit with the theme of my Personal Project as it's a representation of my job and life outside of sixth form and how I can always incorporate my photography skills in my life. |