For Unit 1 I have explored the works of different photographers such as Saul Leiter and Uta Barth, I have then created a personal response to their works using similar techniques that would of been used by the artists themselves.
A specific artist who created work that I liked was Rinko Kawauchi, I discovered her work whilst researching artists for my openings project, her work stood out to me because of the light pastel colours that play a huge part in her photos, in my opinion the colours make her work very reminiscent of the summer time, whilst taking pictures for my final piece in openings I used her images as inspiration.
A different photographer who inspired my final piece was Tom Hunter, much like Kawauchi the thing that stood out to me about his work was the focus on colour and lighting. His photographs all tell a specific story, this feature inspired me greatly for my final piece and gave me the idea to create a cohesive collection of photographs.
During Unit 1 I completed personal projects for Abstraction and Openings, for Abstraction my first step was creating a response to Paul Strand, my first selection of abstract photographs were taken on my phone, whilst taking these photographs I focused on reflection and shape, reflection was important as it created a distorted view of the surroundings.
I began to develop my understanding of Abstract photography by looking at the formal elements and the roles that they play in taking an abstract photo, the next step along in my project was to experiment with different photographic techniques such as Photograms, the photogram process didn’t go hand in hand with any ideas that I had based around the theme of the project.
After experimenting with different techniques I began to research Saul Leiter. Leiter’s work intrigued me and made me view the theme in a different way.
For my final piece on the topic of abstraction I decided to use photographs that I had taken whilst on our visit to the Photographers Gallery in central London. I used Photoshop to enhance the colours in the images in attempt to mimic Leiter’s work. The final outcome pleased me as I felt that it was a clear response to Leiter.
Overall I did enjoy the theme of Abstraction, the nature of the topic is that it is very free and there are lots of different ways in which you can interpret it, this was interesting to me as I like being able to be creative without restrictions.
After Abstraction we began our next project, I decided to work within the theme of Openings. I first started to research a range of artists who contribute work that contains openings, the first artist that really caught my eye was Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi, her impeccable use of colour and spacing made her photographs very interesting to me, my first collection of photographs for the project were heavily inspired by her work, I used iPhoto to change the saturation of the photos so that the colours would be more vibrant.
Another artist who I began to research was Uta Barth, the thing that initially interested me about her work was the spooky atmosphere that her pictures created, the spooky vibe was created by the empty and cold nature of the images. This is a feeling that I wanted to create through my work.
After I had researched artists and taken pictures in response to their work I started to think about the ways that I could make images for the openings theme. I started to play around on Photoshop by layering images on top of each other, my idea was that by layering an image on top of another I could create a window which would act as an opening, the first outcome of this was very weak and I felt was lacking elements that had been created in the work of Barth or Kawauchi.
Outside of the lesson I stumbled across a sweater designed by Belgian fashion mogul Raf Simons, the design of the sweater featured scattered patches with text, I then realised that by incorporating text into my work I could create a cohesive collection of images. I then began to research Tom Hunter who created images that tell a story.
For my first final piece I created three images that used layering and text to link the pictures together, I was very happy with my first outcome as it drew inspiration from Kawauchi, Hunter and Barth.
To refine my work I decided to create a fan Zine which would include an even more cohesive set of images. The sub-theme that I wanted to convey to the viewer was the disconnect between urban life and rural life, I wanted to show this disconnect by inserting a burst of nature into pictures that feature a more industrial background.
This was my personal favourite project that I have created, the reason for this was because I felt as if I had more creative control over my outcomes and general decisions that I made whilst researching artists and refining ideas.
The final outcome of the project was an 18 image Zine, in my opinion the outcome was very successful, at the start of the project my initial goal was to create a cohesive set of images and I believe that through the zine I have done that. Along the way I experimented with focus and lighting whilst taking the overlapping images, I decided to include both in focus and out of focus images because it helped to build a mysterious feeling within the images.
The project that I feel was the most successful was Openings. This is because the all round quality of my work was better than any other project, I used my complex ideas to build my collection of images and instead of giving up when an experiment failed I persisted and continued to ask questions. I also feel that I pushed the boundaries of the theme which is shown in my unique final piece.
A specific artist who created work that I liked was Rinko Kawauchi, I discovered her work whilst researching artists for my openings project, her work stood out to me because of the light pastel colours that play a huge part in her photos, in my opinion the colours make her work very reminiscent of the summer time, whilst taking pictures for my final piece in openings I used her images as inspiration.
A different photographer who inspired my final piece was Tom Hunter, much like Kawauchi the thing that stood out to me about his work was the focus on colour and lighting. His photographs all tell a specific story, this feature inspired me greatly for my final piece and gave me the idea to create a cohesive collection of photographs.
During Unit 1 I completed personal projects for Abstraction and Openings, for Abstraction my first step was creating a response to Paul Strand, my first selection of abstract photographs were taken on my phone, whilst taking these photographs I focused on reflection and shape, reflection was important as it created a distorted view of the surroundings.
I began to develop my understanding of Abstract photography by looking at the formal elements and the roles that they play in taking an abstract photo, the next step along in my project was to experiment with different photographic techniques such as Photograms, the photogram process didn’t go hand in hand with any ideas that I had based around the theme of the project.
After experimenting with different techniques I began to research Saul Leiter. Leiter’s work intrigued me and made me view the theme in a different way.
For my final piece on the topic of abstraction I decided to use photographs that I had taken whilst on our visit to the Photographers Gallery in central London. I used Photoshop to enhance the colours in the images in attempt to mimic Leiter’s work. The final outcome pleased me as I felt that it was a clear response to Leiter.
Overall I did enjoy the theme of Abstraction, the nature of the topic is that it is very free and there are lots of different ways in which you can interpret it, this was interesting to me as I like being able to be creative without restrictions.
After Abstraction we began our next project, I decided to work within the theme of Openings. I first started to research a range of artists who contribute work that contains openings, the first artist that really caught my eye was Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi, her impeccable use of colour and spacing made her photographs very interesting to me, my first collection of photographs for the project were heavily inspired by her work, I used iPhoto to change the saturation of the photos so that the colours would be more vibrant.
Another artist who I began to research was Uta Barth, the thing that initially interested me about her work was the spooky atmosphere that her pictures created, the spooky vibe was created by the empty and cold nature of the images. This is a feeling that I wanted to create through my work.
After I had researched artists and taken pictures in response to their work I started to think about the ways that I could make images for the openings theme. I started to play around on Photoshop by layering images on top of each other, my idea was that by layering an image on top of another I could create a window which would act as an opening, the first outcome of this was very weak and I felt was lacking elements that had been created in the work of Barth or Kawauchi.
Outside of the lesson I stumbled across a sweater designed by Belgian fashion mogul Raf Simons, the design of the sweater featured scattered patches with text, I then realised that by incorporating text into my work I could create a cohesive collection of images. I then began to research Tom Hunter who created images that tell a story.
For my first final piece I created three images that used layering and text to link the pictures together, I was very happy with my first outcome as it drew inspiration from Kawauchi, Hunter and Barth.
To refine my work I decided to create a fan Zine which would include an even more cohesive set of images. The sub-theme that I wanted to convey to the viewer was the disconnect between urban life and rural life, I wanted to show this disconnect by inserting a burst of nature into pictures that feature a more industrial background.
This was my personal favourite project that I have created, the reason for this was because I felt as if I had more creative control over my outcomes and general decisions that I made whilst researching artists and refining ideas.
The final outcome of the project was an 18 image Zine, in my opinion the outcome was very successful, at the start of the project my initial goal was to create a cohesive set of images and I believe that through the zine I have done that. Along the way I experimented with focus and lighting whilst taking the overlapping images, I decided to include both in focus and out of focus images because it helped to build a mysterious feeling within the images.
The project that I feel was the most successful was Openings. This is because the all round quality of my work was better than any other project, I used my complex ideas to build my collection of images and instead of giving up when an experiment failed I persisted and continued to ask questions. I also feel that I pushed the boundaries of the theme which is shown in my unique final piece.