This is my attempt at collaging nature and man made structures together using paper, scissors and glue: I like it and think it turned out very well but don't think it is as seamless as Tanja's work where it looks real. When creating the image I had the thought process of the city skyline being reflected into the water as the snow-tipped mountains to remind us of where we came from and the true natural form that they embody nut i don't think this is conveyed as clearly as I wanted it to be. After making the first stitch up of the mountains and city I then photocopied it out onto acetate (right) to then take it into the dark room to create my negative image (bottom left). Then using my negative I made the positive which had purposefully a lot of water on it to create an almost rainy effect in the final image but I don't really like how it turned out because it is a bit too overpowering with all of the water marks on the picture. Finally using the acetate again, I made a cyanotype ,which works very similarly to making a photogram in the dark room, using sunlight on the concourse and the acetate to put over it to create an outline onto the special cyan paper. Once reacted with sunlight for around 7 minutes I brought it back inside and washed it and left it to dry. I also made another cyanotype which I exposed for 5 minutes instead of 7 which wasn't as clear and was under exposed. In conclusion, the collage work as a whole ,in response to Tanja Deman's, was successful and I liked creating the image and I also like the outcomes that came out of it; From this work I have clearly seen that I prefer editing the image in real life over online.
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Uta Barth makes these really interesting images that are intentionally out of focus and 'blurry'; the images show landscapes and places that are just recognisable behind the blur of the camera lense. Some words I would use to describe these images are abstract, nostalgic and obscured because they don’t necessarily follow the rules of traditional photography where everything blurry is wrong as well as providing comfort and familiarity as if the blur makes the images more recognisable where it can almost be anywhere you believe it is. I assume these images were created using standard camera photography which was either focus locked to out of focus or it was blurred in pre post production such as photoshop or other editing software. Moreover, I like the excessive use of lines and leading lines especially because so much of the image is obscured from vision via the blur; the lines really give a good idea of what the image is and what the subject and background are where this would be less apparent without these dominant lines in her images. Below are my attempts of out of focus landscapes: I don't massively like them because they are all boring areas around where I live so I am very familiar with them whereas someone else who doesn't live around me may see them very differently. Next time I will add more editing processes to offer more variety in colour as the same greys and greens are repetitive.
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Bill Armstrong's work has a very clear emphasis on colour and shades as all of his images are very colourful, full of yellows, blues, magentas and pinks. The choice to make the photos out of focus is very interesting because it gives the figures a very eerie feel as they are ominous dark outlines without emotion or easy definition of gender or any way to recognise them; this evokes the fear of the unknown and that fear of something that is unidentifiable. For me the clear shapes and lines in his images showcase leading lines in a very unconventional image that doesn't seem to follow any of the other rules of classic photography is very interesting. Moreover, the colour choices in his compositions are intriguing because they are contrasting colours placed next to each other where they make the background landscapes look almost un-earthly or extra terrestrial; and the sometimes mismatched colourful figures also fit this classic depiction of an alien or an extra terrestrial being where they are many different colours. Although, this makes me think about why he made all of these choices to obscure the figure as much as possible and disguise the background along with it to where they both look other worldly? To use this to take my own set of out of focus images I will make sure to encorporate a lot of colours to add to. The ambiguity of the images magnify the mystery about what is pictured in them.
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To create this photogram I used one of my own images from Korea and started removing certain aspects to abstract it over time. First I removed the tree as it is the main focus point of the image and removing it makes the image look emptier; I then experimented with making a different layer of thickness on the paper by tearing it to add texture and then sticking it onto the bottom part of the image after cutting out the intricate windows/ panels on the wall to take even more out of the image. Finally I cut out the building in the background and was finished with the abstraction but will come back and take away more later and keep experimenting until it is unrecognisable. The cut-out holes make room for the light to come through which will then expose the photographic paper leaving an outline/imprint. When exposing my photo paper to the enlarger I was adjusting the positioning of the paper to fully fit under my template it was slightly getting exposed making different layers of the template in the final image (below). After being exposed for around 15 seconds it went into the developers for around 1 minute each and was then into the water to stop the reaction when brought out of the dark room.
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I am overall happy with the results and like how it turned out with the different layers and upside down shadow caused by me accidentally flipping it when aligning it. The shadowey eeriness of the image is really hyperbolised by the default monochromatic colour palette the photogram gives it as well as the multiple layers of windows and tree making the objects look translucent almost mimicking a ghost or spectral figure. Furthermore I really like how the tearing of the page is very visible and the thickness difference is also visually noticeable along with the actual temple textures coming through even though I didn't cut that part out. This just shows that experimenting can lead to unexpected outcomes that maybe wouldn't have been found if I didn't explore the possibilities.
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Dafna Talmore, a lecturer and artist from London creates disrupted landscapes and altered images through physical editing such as playing with the chromatics of the edges to cutting the image into pieces, rearranging and removing some like a big messed up puzzle; her alterations allow for a mass variety of interpretations about the message being conveyed as well as what the actual image depicts as well. The alterations made to the original images also encompasses certain photographical features such as leading lines drawing the viewer to separate parts of the frame and to certain subjects. Her work inspired me to respond with my own pieces; when on a photowalk in Peckham I took a lot of landscape images of the people, the urban environment and the street art which I all found very interesting so reused them for this response. I printed the images out on acetate very small in order to fit into the slide projector; once printed out I altered and changed the compositions with scratching using a scalpel to using different shapes of coloured gels to modify the final outcome. In the end, and after creating all the new pieces I really like the one depicting the dark figure in the golden room surrounded with scratches and damage as it is very visually pleasing as well as clearly has deeper meaning and links to mental health whilst being a beautiful composition with the colours and patterned wall in the foreground: Leading lines and rule of thirds all accumulate to make it an abstraction evoking feelings of confusion yet nostalgia where it seems familiar. I also really like the damage and changes made to the first and the fourth images as it is representative of the area of Peckham whilst also still providing beauty and comfort as a whole microcosm.
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Pete Humphrey is English photographer who is not widely known but has had many of his images featured in local and national newspapers and won the Bargate Quarter Competition in 2018 due to his awe-inspiring landscapes. Among his many collections of natural landscapes I chose the images specifically depicting the New Forest as it is a place I used to go all the time on holiday and feel a sort of connection to; the beauty of the new forest is presented in these images perfectly through the use of the sunset colours blending, the rays of light creating leading lines into the subjects of the images and the overall contrast and thought put into his compositions. I particularly really like the image on the left because of the colours incorporated from the golden glow of the sun to the vibrant pinks and purples of the lavender and heather paired with the silhouetted tree in the middle-ground. This draws attention to the centre of the image due to its contrast to the rest of the image. All of Humphrys framework is very prodigious staying parallel to the multi layers of trees and perfectly balancing the weight of the pictures between the fore ground, middle ground and back ground whilst also demonstrating the importance of empty space as well. Although, in his images there are some cases of fixation regarding his subjects and landscapes, but to improve on this he could branch out to have a wider variety of images.
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