Essay
Every photographer has specific interests in their photography, such as; the genre, subject, techniques, etc. My personal interests can be quite varied, but my favourite style to photograph would be portraiture, because each person has something unique about them, as well as this there are also many stories and emotions that can come through in the image, which always keeps me fascinated. Being able to experiment with different cameras and techniques to create my images, always keeps me interested as it allows me to have a wider range of images, as well as technical processes. I personally prefer taking portraits without the person knowing I’m taking it, as I think it keeps their body language and facial expressions true and not created just for the image, because of this I focus a lot on the context within the images. I particularly focus on the subject of the image, rather than location.
My personal investigation is about the experimentation with distorting and manipulating images. I was drawn to this theme, because it would allow me the freedom I wanted with experimentation. One thing I initially wanted to experiment with was long exposures. I was interested in this, as I had taken images using this technique very briefly before and wanted to develop my understanding and responses of it. I was very intrigued by this technique, as I think the outcomes of using it make the images quite haunting and mysterious. However I didn’t want my images to become uncomfortable to look at, because they were too distorted and manipulated, which I found with my previous experiments with long exposures.
One person’s work who I admire and inspired me is Laurence Demaison, whose work I came across searching for long exposures. Her photographs are all focused on manipulating and distorting the human body. She does this through the long camera exposures and also the occasional strobe light which emphasised the ghostly effect. In addition to this Demaison is usually her own model and can take a single image and create a whole series, by re-creating the image in a variety of abstract ways. I created my first response to Demaison, by taking a set of images using a long exposure of my dog in the garden. I wanted my subject to be a dog, as I thought it would be a good way to capture the ghostly effect from it constantly moving. I was quite pleased with the outcome of my set of images, as I decided not to edit them as much as Demaison would, as I liked the high contrast and over exposed look they had. Following on from this, I was inspired even further into experimenting more with long shutter speeds.
Another photographer’s work, that inspired me to experiment with long shutter speeds, was Francesca Woodman. Once similarity between the two photographers, is that they both usually photograph themselves instead of models. The reason why Woodman would regularly photograph herself, was for the convenience of it, she was always available. However a difference between these photographers, is that Francesca Woodman’s images have a running theme of the model in the image, being merged into their surroundings. Overall she expresses the relationship with the body, through the way she can alter her identity, distorting her physical features. She was heavily influenced by was the surrealist fashion photographer, Deborah Turbeville as he could tell her own stories through the clothes in a rather strange way. Although Woodman uses a film camera to take her images, I decided that I wanted to create my response using a DSLR camera. This is because I wanted more modern images, compared to hers which look more dated from the grainy effect from the film camera. Another reason why a digital camera would be easier, is that I could experiment with the shutter speeds and not worry about wasting film. Like Woodman I photographed the human body, as I wanted to try and recreate the way she blends a body into it’s surroundings.
In lesson a task was to go out and take a set of images by chance, threshold concept #6. I decided to vary what I would do, for some images I guessed the focus when taking the image, therefore a few of the photographs came out quite blurry, whereas other times I would get the focus spot on. Another way I used chance when taking these images, was by not looking through the viewfinder and just randomly taking pictures, or by taking an image and guessing what would be in frame or not. I quite liked the overall outcome of these set of images because quite a lot of them weren’t in my opinion good images, however it made me more open minded, about not trying to get the perfect picture, but just to take a range of images. This task gave me inspiration for further experiments, by using the theme of chance to help manipulate my images in a number of ways, such as unfocusing the images.
Although during the summer holiday’s I realised that the majority of the images I was taking were portraits, even though I hadn’t initially thought about portraiture being a theme in my photographs. I decided to try and develop my experimentation with long exposures even further, but I found it quite hard to take new images that weren’t similar to my previous images. The few pictures I took, I really liked, especially the ones of the person in the tunnel. I didn’t need to use a long exposure, as the tunnel would rotate quite quickly, creating a really nice circular bright blue effect. Furthermore the majority of my images were very naturalistic. This didn’t follow my theme of photo manipulation and distortion. On the other hand it made me think about more ways I could distort an image without the original image being abstract. I wanted to start looking into portraiture, as I have never experimented with creating abstract portraits. Seeing as most of my summer holiday images were taken in Northumberland, a lot of them were still images of nature. Again these images didn’t typically follow on from my theme, however it made me think more about the background of the images I was taking for my personal investigation, as previously I’d mainly focused on the subject in my photographs. From my summer holiday photoshoots, it inspired me to experiment with abstract portraiture.
Once returning to school we got the task of an abstraction experiment. This was used to open my mind, to more ways of creating images by thinking outside of the box. We had to make our own abstract sculptures, only using coloured and plain paper. Although this was a very quick task to do, it did help me realise, that I wanted to focus on taking images, that had more thought put into them and I would have to stage. It was a fun process creating the sculpture, as it was something I hadn’t tried before and it I liked the idea of being able to physically create something, instead of taking images. A second task that was most useful to me, was picking an image and photographing it in weird locations, such as on the toilet flusher. This task was surprisingly useful to me, as it made me realise, that just because my theme is photo manipulation and distortion, it doesn’t mean that I necessarily had to take abstract images, but I could display them in a way, that would distort the image. This task was the first time in my personal investigation where I started to think about display strategies.
Close-up portrait was set as a third task in class, which was to create a set of images that were thought out carefully about the background, foreground and the subject of the image. Originally I found this task very hard, as I had mainly taken my other photographs with an element of chance, however with this task it wasn’t possible to do so. I took my first set of images quite randomly, as it took me quite a while to frame each image, as I hadn’t put that much thought into my photos before. I really wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of these images, as I wasn’t thinking about the foreground whilst framing the pictures. Although I spent time creating each image, they all look very rushed and as a result of this I personally find the images quite boring and bland to look at.
However following on from this task, the next couple of sets of images I took, I still struggled a lot with, but I did put more thought into the framing of the photographs. I think my main problem, was that I found it harder to take images in school, as I have taken so many already from previous tasks, therefore there was a lack of inspiration. I decided to follow taking this theme outside of school. I slightly strayed away from thinking about the foreground, and solely focused on the close up photography and also the background. I located some images in a couple of underpasses in my local area. I really liked the coloured tiles in the background, because as they were faded, it made my subject stand out more and give the image some depth and more attractive to the eye, rather than a plain background. I also focused on completely framing some images of a close up body part. My favourite image was zoomed into my model’s coat and the only body part that was visible, was their nose. With these images I created a zine using indesign. I really liked the way the images came out,as they were definitely more developed and mature, compared to the first images I took for this task. I then created a final outcome by displaying my images in a zine, using indesign to form the layout. However once I saw my images in a zine form, I realised that they were more naturalistic than I had wanted. I therefore got thinking about more distorted ways of displaying my photos.
I wanted to take new images to experiment with, as I wasn’t feeling inspired with the original images I had been using, as I had experimented with them already. I came across the photographer Bill Brandt, who takes images of the body and links it to the background and foreground in the frame. He does this by linking the two, through the shapes the body creates and the shapes in the location of the image. I took a set of images in response to this. Using a model I got her to mainly to hand movements to link in with the bridge I was photographing at, such as by, intertwining her fingers in a railing and creating the same lined with her hands. I also took more close ups of the models face, specifically her mouth. I did this because I liked the the textures of it, and the slight colour variation of the lips and the tongue.
For my final piece I had to think about how I could manipulate my images by the way I displayed them, to distort them. One thought I was interested in trying, was projecting the images onto a variation of materials, trying to create a layered effect. I really liked this idea and wanted to explore it further, to do this I used a wooden box construction and placed a variety of materials in it, such as; cardboard, paper and a transparent sheet of plastic. I then projected the images I had previously taken into the box and took a further set of photo. I really enjoyed the process of creating the final images, as I could constantly change things about the way the photos looked, for example where the projector was placed and the angles I took the images at.
I was really impressed, by how much the original images had become distorted, by being broken up from the multiple layers of materials, which created a 3D effect. Whilst taking these images, I was focused on the the variety of tones which came through in the picture, which I enhanced when editing the images into black and white and increasing the contrast. Furthermore to develop these images, I created another set of photos using the box construction and projector, but I decided to use less materials the second time round. I did this to try and make the images look a bit more simplistic, as I think the first images were quite busy. I really liked the more simplistic effect on some of the images, as it distorted the images slightly, but it was still hard to tell what the original photo was of. Again I edited the majority of these images into black and white as I think it makes it harder to recognise how the image has been manipulated.
Out of the box construction sets of images, I picked my favourites to use for my final piece. Through displaying my images, I wanted to break the images up, to make my final piece even more abstract, in a simplistic way. To do this I cut geometric shapes, mainly squares and rectangles into two pieces of A2 mountboard. I then printed out my favourite images, on one sheet of mountboard I carefully thought about what sections of the images would come through the shape cut-out’s. However with the second mountboard I randomly placed my images on it, to see the difference in outcomes.
Overall I am really pleased with the way my final pieces came out. I think they link nicely together, through the repetition in images and the repetitive shapes cut out of both of them. The main themes in my images (tones, lines and shapes) came through clearly in my work, not only from my images, but also through the way they were displayed. In addition to this, from the start of my personal investigation, I knew I wanted my final piece to be abstract, through the process of my project I have clearly been able to develop and explore this. My work has become more abstract throughout the project and I’m very happy how my final outcome is so abstract, that it’s difficult for the viewers to know what the original images were of. Therefore I have successfully been able to create a final piece, that follows the themes of my project and I think is of high quality.