Personal Investigation Essay
I began my personal investigation by researching photo books, why they were used and how they allow photographers to communicate their ideas and show their work to a wider audience. The first photobook I looked at was ‘Two Frame Films’ by Luke Fowler. The book is a range of diptychs including some photos taken seconds/minutes apart and some taken days apart. Also, a few of the diptychs use photographs that are completely unrelated. Luke Fowler inspired me to create my own diptychs using photographs that were clearly related. I began an image of a window with net curtains paired with a photograph of the net curtains in a different environment. All of my other diptychs are of related subjects. For example, I have another diptych that includes two photographs of buildings in Paris that were taken seconds apart and I have a diptych using photographs of buildings/trees taken a few days apart. The next photobook I looked at was ‘The Indecisive Memento’ by Nick Waplington. I liked the idea of capturing what I found interesting and I liked not having to waste time thinking about what to photograph and what it might turn out like.
I also looked threshold concept 6 Photographs rely on chance, more or less. Chance is very important in photography. You can fight chance, tolerate it or embrace it. To some extent, all photographs are the result of chance processes. I am interested in this threshold concept because of my preferred style way of working in photography. I like to work without a clear plan of what I want to photograph specifically, as I fear that the image I produce won’t turn out as I want it to. I’d rather just visit a specific location and take my camera with me to photograph things I see that interest me. I think that what interests me most really depends on where I am taking photographs. I am interested in the notion of happy accidents. I don’t believe that I have had many experiences with happy accidents in photography. The only ones that I can think of are when using Photoshop, as I never really know what I want to do to the image I am trying to edit. I think this is because I use digital techniques and processes more than traditional ones and I feel like more happens when you have to deal with negatives and developing images in the darkroom. This is something I may want to work on as I think that continuously controlling the way your images turn out can be boring and considered playing it safe, to a certain extent.
The photo book project was my first experience at having to conceive of my own body of work so I had to do a lot of experimenting with different genres and ways of photographing. My first experiments involved taking photographs of items/situations that were included on a ‘photo list’ that my class had designed. I found this extremely helpful as I realised that I struggle with instructions! I then began looking at signs. I researched Peter Liversidge and David Shrigley as they both create handmade signs that become installations. Liversidge’s signs are more serious and address political issues whereas Shrigley creates comical messages. My signs were different to both of these artists because I had a mix of digital and handmade signs that I put in a range of places including my school and local environment. I photographed them in Greenwich Park, with someone holding them up and hanging them on trees. I made two maquettes for my photobook using the photographs I had taken of my signs. I think that my digital maquette was more successful than my handmade one because I was able to adjust the sequencing of images and orientation a lot more than when I made it myself with paper. I found putting photos together very hard because I didn’t have enough successful images. This was when I decided to change the subject of my photobook to amusement arcades. I really enjoy the bright, neon lights and the atmosphere in the arcades - a mixture of concentration, risk and fantasy. For my photo book I used photographs I had taken on a family trip to Hastings, in an arcade by a fairground called Flamingo Park. I decided to pair photographs that had similar subjects, such as two different viewpoints of the same motif. I produced a soft back book with my photographs full bleed. I think that my book worked well because the combination of long shutter speeds and bold colours generates a feeling of excitement.
The theme of my project was inspired by the shadow art hashtag (#shadowart) on Instagram. I was heavily inspired by these photos on the hashtag because I really liked the contrast that is created when the shadow meets the light. I especially like the way that some geometric shapes are projected onto some of the buildings. I am also heavily inspired by Antonio Xoubanova's 'Un Universo Pequeno' ('A Small Universe') because I really like the way that the book shows a sequence that is like a journey, the photographer has walked up or down a busy street, photographing things that he finds interesting.
At the beginning of this project I didn't really have an idea of what I was going to photograph so I looked at Peter Fraser, Lucien Herve and William Eggleston. These photographers inspired me to take a set in London and a set in Margate. I think that my images taken in London look very touristy but I think that a few of the look like Lucien Herve's architectural photographs. I think that my photos came out looking touristy because I wasn't limiting myself to a set amount of photographs so I took photos of whatever I saw that interested me. My set that was taken at Margate is quite like William Eggleston's images because of all of the bright colours that are in them. After these sets of photographs I began looking into narratives, selecting and sequencing. I really liked the way that I could tell a story using my photographs. I then began to take photos while I was walking around school. The first set wasn't as successful as I thought it was going to be as I didn't have enough photos to make a sequence that made sense. My second set was taken in school was a bit more successful because I travelled further around the school and produced a lot more photos that made sense as a sequence/narrative. I decided that I was going to edit these photos to make them look a bit more grainy and as if they had been taken on a film camera. After I knew what I was looking for in my photos I went to East London and took photos there. I think that my most successful images were taken at Brick Lane and Bethnal Green because this is where I found the best and most shadows projected onto buildings and the floor.
These images taken in East London became a part of my first final outcome, which was four triptychs. I decided to make four triptychs because I found that a lot of my images could be paired in threes as they had very similar colours or content in them. Triptychs allowed me to group similar images in a different way rather than just having them displayed in a simple grid. I also like that here is so much for the viewer to look at when using triptychs and that I can choose to have one of my four or all four to be displayed. I liked that my photos were of different things rather than three photos of the same thing at different angles, like some photographers have done. When sequencing my images I thought that it didn't really matter what photos were paired with others because they were all taken while on the same journey.
After my first final outcome I began experimenting in Photoshop making digital collages with my photos taken in East London. I began by using two or three images to make a single collage. While making these I was using a lot of triangle shapes, this was because I thought that it was an interesting way to show the layers that were underneath. Once I knew what I wanted some of my collages to look like I started using triptychs to create my collages.
I first made a simple triptych then began to layer up each photo, by copying and pasting the new photograph onto a different layer and changing the look of the layers (e.g darken, multiply, colour burn etc). I found editing some of these collages hard because I was trying to make my collages not confusing to look at as well as trying to emphasise certain parts.I also struggled with trying to make the collages look different instead of them all looking the same. I think that using geometric shapes in these collages worked out well because I was able to create a contrast between the layers (eg having a really bright triangle layered on top of a dark brick wall). I had the idea to make enough of these strip collages to create a wallpaper border by sticking them all together. This would be an interesting thing to do because I haven't seen a wallpaper border made out of edited/collages photographs before. The geometric shapes that I used within the collages gave me the idea to create a kind of sculpture collage, where I cut out the shapes and stick them on top so they're raised above the initial surface. This would allow the viewer to see what colour is underneath the raised shape.
My second final outcome was inspired by my collage sculpture idea. I chose three of my most successful collages that I made in Photoshop using the same photographs taken in East London and built up on them creating a sculpture. In Photoshop I split the collage into four sections and I printed these separate parts out and I stuck them together on mount board so I could make a larger photograph strip. I then re printed the collages in black and white and cut out the geometric shapes to layer on top. I mounted the cut outs onto mount board and used a small brick to have them higher up. Having the black and white sections raised up allows the viewer to still see the colour version that is beneath it. I think that I could display these in a number of ways that would let the viewer see the different layers in a range of ways. One of the ways could be to hang them on the wall in a horizontal row so that the viewer can walk along the collages and see the different layers. Or I could display them in a vertical row, one underneath the other, as this would again allow the viewer to see all of the layers and the colours underneath.
Bibliography
http://www.bjp-online.com/2017/06/sian-daveys-intimate-portraits-of-her-daughters/
http://www.egglestontrust.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316481.Indecisive_Momento
http://www.gupmagazine.com/books/luke-fowler/two-frame-films
https://www.jmaclean.co.uk/photography/fine-art/about/
https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/07/14/from-a-whisper-to-a-scream-following-yoko-onos-instructions/
http://www.peterfraser.net/cv/
http://www.peterfraser.net/critical-writing/eventually-everything-connects/
https://www.photobookstore.co.uk/photobook-two-and-two-_with-signed-print%5E.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/performance/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures
https://www.themoderninstitute.com/artists/luke-fowler/works/photo-archive-group-1-2006-2009/36/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jan/27/david-shrigley-conceptual-artist
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/19/william-eggleston-interview-i-play-the-piano-musik-photography
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory
I began my personal investigation by researching photo books, why they were used and how they allow photographers to communicate their ideas and show their work to a wider audience. The first photobook I looked at was ‘Two Frame Films’ by Luke Fowler. The book is a range of diptychs including some photos taken seconds/minutes apart and some taken days apart. Also, a few of the diptychs use photographs that are completely unrelated. Luke Fowler inspired me to create my own diptychs using photographs that were clearly related. I began an image of a window with net curtains paired with a photograph of the net curtains in a different environment. All of my other diptychs are of related subjects. For example, I have another diptych that includes two photographs of buildings in Paris that were taken seconds apart and I have a diptych using photographs of buildings/trees taken a few days apart. The next photobook I looked at was ‘The Indecisive Memento’ by Nick Waplington. I liked the idea of capturing what I found interesting and I liked not having to waste time thinking about what to photograph and what it might turn out like.
I also looked threshold concept 6 Photographs rely on chance, more or less. Chance is very important in photography. You can fight chance, tolerate it or embrace it. To some extent, all photographs are the result of chance processes. I am interested in this threshold concept because of my preferred style way of working in photography. I like to work without a clear plan of what I want to photograph specifically, as I fear that the image I produce won’t turn out as I want it to. I’d rather just visit a specific location and take my camera with me to photograph things I see that interest me. I think that what interests me most really depends on where I am taking photographs. I am interested in the notion of happy accidents. I don’t believe that I have had many experiences with happy accidents in photography. The only ones that I can think of are when using Photoshop, as I never really know what I want to do to the image I am trying to edit. I think this is because I use digital techniques and processes more than traditional ones and I feel like more happens when you have to deal with negatives and developing images in the darkroom. This is something I may want to work on as I think that continuously controlling the way your images turn out can be boring and considered playing it safe, to a certain extent.
The photo book project was my first experience at having to conceive of my own body of work so I had to do a lot of experimenting with different genres and ways of photographing. My first experiments involved taking photographs of items/situations that were included on a ‘photo list’ that my class had designed. I found this extremely helpful as I realised that I struggle with instructions! I then began looking at signs. I researched Peter Liversidge and David Shrigley as they both create handmade signs that become installations. Liversidge’s signs are more serious and address political issues whereas Shrigley creates comical messages. My signs were different to both of these artists because I had a mix of digital and handmade signs that I put in a range of places including my school and local environment. I photographed them in Greenwich Park, with someone holding them up and hanging them on trees. I made two maquettes for my photobook using the photographs I had taken of my signs. I think that my digital maquette was more successful than my handmade one because I was able to adjust the sequencing of images and orientation a lot more than when I made it myself with paper. I found putting photos together very hard because I didn’t have enough successful images. This was when I decided to change the subject of my photobook to amusement arcades. I really enjoy the bright, neon lights and the atmosphere in the arcades - a mixture of concentration, risk and fantasy. For my photo book I used photographs I had taken on a family trip to Hastings, in an arcade by a fairground called Flamingo Park. I decided to pair photographs that had similar subjects, such as two different viewpoints of the same motif. I produced a soft back book with my photographs full bleed. I think that my book worked well because the combination of long shutter speeds and bold colours generates a feeling of excitement.
The theme of my project was inspired by the shadow art hashtag (#shadowart) on Instagram. I was heavily inspired by these photos on the hashtag because I really liked the contrast that is created when the shadow meets the light. I especially like the way that some geometric shapes are projected onto some of the buildings. I am also heavily inspired by Antonio Xoubanova's 'Un Universo Pequeno' ('A Small Universe') because I really like the way that the book shows a sequence that is like a journey, the photographer has walked up or down a busy street, photographing things that he finds interesting.
At the beginning of this project I didn't really have an idea of what I was going to photograph so I looked at Peter Fraser, Lucien Herve and William Eggleston. These photographers inspired me to take a set in London and a set in Margate. I think that my images taken in London look very touristy but I think that a few of the look like Lucien Herve's architectural photographs. I think that my photos came out looking touristy because I wasn't limiting myself to a set amount of photographs so I took photos of whatever I saw that interested me. My set that was taken at Margate is quite like William Eggleston's images because of all of the bright colours that are in them. After these sets of photographs I began looking into narratives, selecting and sequencing. I really liked the way that I could tell a story using my photographs. I then began to take photos while I was walking around school. The first set wasn't as successful as I thought it was going to be as I didn't have enough photos to make a sequence that made sense. My second set was taken in school was a bit more successful because I travelled further around the school and produced a lot more photos that made sense as a sequence/narrative. I decided that I was going to edit these photos to make them look a bit more grainy and as if they had been taken on a film camera. After I knew what I was looking for in my photos I went to East London and took photos there. I think that my most successful images were taken at Brick Lane and Bethnal Green because this is where I found the best and most shadows projected onto buildings and the floor.
These images taken in East London became a part of my first final outcome, which was four triptychs. I decided to make four triptychs because I found that a lot of my images could be paired in threes as they had very similar colours or content in them. Triptychs allowed me to group similar images in a different way rather than just having them displayed in a simple grid. I also like that here is so much for the viewer to look at when using triptychs and that I can choose to have one of my four or all four to be displayed. I liked that my photos were of different things rather than three photos of the same thing at different angles, like some photographers have done. When sequencing my images I thought that it didn't really matter what photos were paired with others because they were all taken while on the same journey.
After my first final outcome I began experimenting in Photoshop making digital collages with my photos taken in East London. I began by using two or three images to make a single collage. While making these I was using a lot of triangle shapes, this was because I thought that it was an interesting way to show the layers that were underneath. Once I knew what I wanted some of my collages to look like I started using triptychs to create my collages.
I first made a simple triptych then began to layer up each photo, by copying and pasting the new photograph onto a different layer and changing the look of the layers (e.g darken, multiply, colour burn etc). I found editing some of these collages hard because I was trying to make my collages not confusing to look at as well as trying to emphasise certain parts.I also struggled with trying to make the collages look different instead of them all looking the same. I think that using geometric shapes in these collages worked out well because I was able to create a contrast between the layers (eg having a really bright triangle layered on top of a dark brick wall). I had the idea to make enough of these strip collages to create a wallpaper border by sticking them all together. This would be an interesting thing to do because I haven't seen a wallpaper border made out of edited/collages photographs before. The geometric shapes that I used within the collages gave me the idea to create a kind of sculpture collage, where I cut out the shapes and stick them on top so they're raised above the initial surface. This would allow the viewer to see what colour is underneath the raised shape.
My second final outcome was inspired by my collage sculpture idea. I chose three of my most successful collages that I made in Photoshop using the same photographs taken in East London and built up on them creating a sculpture. In Photoshop I split the collage into four sections and I printed these separate parts out and I stuck them together on mount board so I could make a larger photograph strip. I then re printed the collages in black and white and cut out the geometric shapes to layer on top. I mounted the cut outs onto mount board and used a small brick to have them higher up. Having the black and white sections raised up allows the viewer to still see the colour version that is beneath it. I think that I could display these in a number of ways that would let the viewer see the different layers in a range of ways. One of the ways could be to hang them on the wall in a horizontal row so that the viewer can walk along the collages and see the different layers. Or I could display them in a vertical row, one underneath the other, as this would again allow the viewer to see all of the layers and the colours underneath.
Bibliography
http://www.bjp-online.com/2017/06/sian-daveys-intimate-portraits-of-her-daughters/
http://www.egglestontrust.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316481.Indecisive_Momento
http://www.gupmagazine.com/books/luke-fowler/two-frame-films
https://www.jmaclean.co.uk/photography/fine-art/about/
https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/07/14/from-a-whisper-to-a-scream-following-yoko-onos-instructions/
http://www.peterfraser.net/cv/
http://www.peterfraser.net/critical-writing/eventually-everything-connects/
https://www.photobookstore.co.uk/photobook-two-and-two-_with-signed-print%5E.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/performance/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures
https://www.themoderninstitute.com/artists/luke-fowler/works/photo-archive-group-1-2006-2009/36/
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/jan/27/david-shrigley-conceptual-artist
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/nov/19/william-eggleston-interview-i-play-the-piano-musik-photography
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_montage_theory