Evaluation for Unit 1
Throughout the course, I have often explored other artists work to help inspire and prompt me to create and investigate techniques, ideas and the overall meaning behind photography. Some artists that I have investigated include Anna Atkins, Lewis Baltz, John Baldessari and Stephen Gill. The majority of the artists and photographers I have researched, I have discovered through gallery visits to the Tate, the Barbican and through class discussions which allowed me to further broaden my knowledge of many artists that were then unknown to me. Anna Atkins is a photographer that was introduced to me and changed how I saw photography as a whole; her technique of using chemicals and light sensitive paper to create cyanotypes, was new to me and entitled me to experiment with this technique myself. I discovered that the cyanotype is a more unusual and traditional method of taking a photo, yet was simple and only required light and a subject, which ultimately is all that you need to create a photograph. My attempts of an Anna Atkins-styled cyanotype, overall were successful and taught me that photography is not simply about a camera or a dark room, but the process we go through to achieve the end product and how we use light to create an image. On the other end of the spectrum, John Baldessari uses contrasting techniques and a much more modern approach when creating photographs. Baldessari incorporates artistic features and contextual ideas, which allows the viewer to see a meaning behind the photo and not just an image. His work has been the inspiration behind my final piece for unit 1, as his quirky technique of concealing the subject's face (in his coloured dots series), allowed me to then create my own personal investigation. The impact of this investigation led me to see the meaning and idea behind the images are often the more exciting and interesting part of the creation of the photos. Baldessari's work let me first come up with an idea before developing the photos which I discovered gave me more of a direction with my work which I personally prefer to being spontaneous. I found that this allowed my work to have a direction, yet there was still room for alterations and changes along the way. I feel that John Baldessari's work has definitely influenced me the most as it has actually changed the way in which I now create and record photos and projects. I always now look at a subject or an idea that I am passionate about, and think of a way in which I could reflect my feelings and display it through the photo or the process I used.
Throughout the unit I have mostly explored the theme of "Contrast", which has prompted me for nearly all the ideas I have created. I have incorporated other smaller themes that build under the main idea of contrast which include; architecture, typologies, abstract photography, portraits, street photography, moving objects, landscapes and nature. I feel that the most successful themes have been architecture and portraits, as not only have I focused the most on them, but I feel that the products and images I have produced have been of a high quality and have allowed me to further strengthen my photography skills. I also think that personally I am most interested in these two themes more so than any of the others, which is evident when I have sustained and developed both my architectural photos and portraits and used both in my two final pieces. I have done this by using photoshop with my architectural images, to help add a new dimension and enhance my studies of the formal elements (in particular lines, light and space). I took inspiration from Lewis Baltz and his black and white photography to aid me in gathering initial ideas for the start of my project, which led me onto focusing more specifically on the lines of buildings. For my second project proposal, I was influenced mostly by John Baldessari's coloured dots series, which prompted me to look further into the contextual side of photography and then produce images after deciding on a meaning behind them. I feel that this idea worked much better for me, as it allowed me to explore with many ideas and types of photography before deciding on a final way to put forward my initial idea.
Often I have created many experiments throughout the course which allowed me to use a range of media, techniques and processes; for example the use of photo-sensitive paper and light when creating pinhole photography. For this to work, I needed to experiment and understand how to measure the amount of light needed to create a good photo. I did this by creating a handmade pinhole camera and using duct tape to open and close the pinhole- this allowed me to control the amount of light able to get into the camera, as well as the size of the hole created acting as the aperture on a digital camera. Unfortunately for me, the experiment did not go to well as I had not let enough light travel and bounce off onto the light sensitive paper, which led me to develop my work by either adjusting the size of the hole on the camera, or leaving the tape off for longer. I decided to leave the tape off for longer, yet still the photo looked incomplete.
I managed to create 2 final pieces for unit 1. The first being based off architectural photography with inspiration from Lewis Baltz and Luigi Ghirri and was more of an artistic collage and handmade structure, however the second was using portraits and a more contextual idea behind the process of my work, much in the same way as John Baldessari and Stephen Gill. The first final outcome was made using card and a collage of my architectural photos that I had previously taken and was all joined together to make a 3D structure using string to represent the structure of Waterloo Bridge in London. I was hoping to create a more realistic structure which represented a 3D collage of the buildings I have photographed, however unfortunately the idea did not really work as the structure often was prone to collapse and the quality of the photos were lost when cut up. I feel that it did not reflect my interests as a photographer, as the actual images I took were supposed to be the main focus yet the structure detracted the attention away from the pictures. Although, for my second final piece, I took a more conceptual approach and decided to look at how the media taints and forces opinions onto society in western countries through newspapers and magazines. I decided to take portraits of people and splash ink over their facial features to show how the ink in newspapers involuntarily makes people think they know the 'true' stories when things have been adapted depending on what the newspaper wants the reader to know. I feel like this idea did work much better than the previous one as I had a direction in my work, which allowed room for changes along the way but ultimately gave me an idea for where I aimed to be for the final piece. My ideas went through changes and evolved from wanting to use double exposure to completely cutting out the idea, and also wanting to use a wide range of faces when in fact I only ended up with 3 different faces (although 7 photographs altogether). The most important influence on my work has definitely been John Baldessari, as his idea of conceptual photography and art has changed how I think about photography as a whole and allowed me to understand the importance of the idea behind a photo just as much as the photo itself. I feel like the way in which my photos are presented to the viewer is now just as important as the actual image.
My second final outcome reflects my interests as a photographer in the sense that I personally find portraits and the idea and meaning behind things just as interesting, and I feel that sometimes a photo becomes just that little bit more special when there was a reason as to why someone took it. I feel that the way I have evolved through my second piece and throughout unit 1 as a whole, has allowed me to change how I view the world outside of working on photography, a I now pay more attention to detail and look at everyday objects in a new way and often wonder about the back-story of images and people in a curious and interesting way.
Throughout the unit I have mostly explored the theme of "Contrast", which has prompted me for nearly all the ideas I have created. I have incorporated other smaller themes that build under the main idea of contrast which include; architecture, typologies, abstract photography, portraits, street photography, moving objects, landscapes and nature. I feel that the most successful themes have been architecture and portraits, as not only have I focused the most on them, but I feel that the products and images I have produced have been of a high quality and have allowed me to further strengthen my photography skills. I also think that personally I am most interested in these two themes more so than any of the others, which is evident when I have sustained and developed both my architectural photos and portraits and used both in my two final pieces. I have done this by using photoshop with my architectural images, to help add a new dimension and enhance my studies of the formal elements (in particular lines, light and space). I took inspiration from Lewis Baltz and his black and white photography to aid me in gathering initial ideas for the start of my project, which led me onto focusing more specifically on the lines of buildings. For my second project proposal, I was influenced mostly by John Baldessari's coloured dots series, which prompted me to look further into the contextual side of photography and then produce images after deciding on a meaning behind them. I feel that this idea worked much better for me, as it allowed me to explore with many ideas and types of photography before deciding on a final way to put forward my initial idea.
Often I have created many experiments throughout the course which allowed me to use a range of media, techniques and processes; for example the use of photo-sensitive paper and light when creating pinhole photography. For this to work, I needed to experiment and understand how to measure the amount of light needed to create a good photo. I did this by creating a handmade pinhole camera and using duct tape to open and close the pinhole- this allowed me to control the amount of light able to get into the camera, as well as the size of the hole created acting as the aperture on a digital camera. Unfortunately for me, the experiment did not go to well as I had not let enough light travel and bounce off onto the light sensitive paper, which led me to develop my work by either adjusting the size of the hole on the camera, or leaving the tape off for longer. I decided to leave the tape off for longer, yet still the photo looked incomplete.
I managed to create 2 final pieces for unit 1. The first being based off architectural photography with inspiration from Lewis Baltz and Luigi Ghirri and was more of an artistic collage and handmade structure, however the second was using portraits and a more contextual idea behind the process of my work, much in the same way as John Baldessari and Stephen Gill. The first final outcome was made using card and a collage of my architectural photos that I had previously taken and was all joined together to make a 3D structure using string to represent the structure of Waterloo Bridge in London. I was hoping to create a more realistic structure which represented a 3D collage of the buildings I have photographed, however unfortunately the idea did not really work as the structure often was prone to collapse and the quality of the photos were lost when cut up. I feel that it did not reflect my interests as a photographer, as the actual images I took were supposed to be the main focus yet the structure detracted the attention away from the pictures. Although, for my second final piece, I took a more conceptual approach and decided to look at how the media taints and forces opinions onto society in western countries through newspapers and magazines. I decided to take portraits of people and splash ink over their facial features to show how the ink in newspapers involuntarily makes people think they know the 'true' stories when things have been adapted depending on what the newspaper wants the reader to know. I feel like this idea did work much better than the previous one as I had a direction in my work, which allowed room for changes along the way but ultimately gave me an idea for where I aimed to be for the final piece. My ideas went through changes and evolved from wanting to use double exposure to completely cutting out the idea, and also wanting to use a wide range of faces when in fact I only ended up with 3 different faces (although 7 photographs altogether). The most important influence on my work has definitely been John Baldessari, as his idea of conceptual photography and art has changed how I think about photography as a whole and allowed me to understand the importance of the idea behind a photo just as much as the photo itself. I feel like the way in which my photos are presented to the viewer is now just as important as the actual image.
My second final outcome reflects my interests as a photographer in the sense that I personally find portraits and the idea and meaning behind things just as interesting, and I feel that sometimes a photo becomes just that little bit more special when there was a reason as to why someone took it. I feel that the way I have evolved through my second piece and throughout unit 1 as a whole, has allowed me to change how I view the world outside of working on photography, a I now pay more attention to detail and look at everyday objects in a new way and often wonder about the back-story of images and people in a curious and interesting way.