Statement of intent:
The theme of this project is 'Weird and Wonderful'. I aspire to obtain a high grade for this project, as I want to show improvement since my 'Campaign Photography' project. I plan on travelling down multiple paths to achieve a highly developed final outcome(s). This journey will include in depth analysis, artists research,a store for my high-standard photographs, experimentation with editing. I aim to produce a portfolio of images demonstrating my ideas, development, creative work and reflection based around the themes surrealism and mirrors/refractions. For my initial research I will start by researching photographers mainly surrealist photographers. At the moment I have two in mind Salvador Dali and Souichi Furusho. I chose them because I believe I can get a lot of inspiration from them.When I chose these themes I instantly though birds forming into a head or a mirror blocking something or someone at unusual angles.To show progression I shall be manipulating my images in Photoshop also to show the progression of my work I will demonstrate a clear understanding and track all my photos and the improvement of them and I will then develop my images using different techniques. I would like to experiment with many techniques so that I get the desired effect in my images. I will also be researching a mirror photographer named Guillaume Amat. I chose him because he can positively influence my images.I will have 6-8 weeks to produce my highest quality of work that I can. I will have to piece out my work so that it comes to a good ending when I'm at the end of this project. I will use my time wisely to get the highest grade I possibly can in this project. For the routes that I plan on taking I reckon that I will be following Souichi Furusho a lot more than Salvador Dali and Guillaume Amat. This is because he has a rider range of photographs.
Mood Board:
Surrealism:
Surrealism aimed to revolutionise human experience, rejecting a rational vision of life in favour of one that asserted the value of the unconscious and dreams.The movement's poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional.
In my opinion this means that artists, poets, photographers, scientist and writers were really interested about a dream like state where anything was possible and what psychological effects dreams
Artist Research:
Salvador Dali:
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquis of Dalí de Púbol is a surrealist artist from Spain. This painting is one of his most famous pieces called "Melting Clock" it is a very surreal image about a clock that looks like it is melting. Personally I love this image as it portrays surrealism really well. I mean I am in awe from this one picture as it is quite evidently fake but because of the colours, the shadows it looks very real. However there is one thing I would improve and that is the background specifically in the bottom right hand corner.The effect it makes me feel is weird becasue you would never see a clock melt and it just doesn’t seem right and in the setting it’s in it just makes you feel weird. There's a soft edge of the clock melting off the corner of a sharp brown cube. There is also a colour contrast where the brown cube goes straight into the cloudy blue of the sky. The picture is very uncanny because the object shouldn't melt because its not realistic . The cube then blends into the background so it makes it look like a waterfall but also a seaside at the same time. The moths and flies are there because it represents death and it could be there eating away at the clock but also it could represent nature and also it could resemble that there isn't much time and that time is fading away as in the clock being the amount of time you have left and its fading away.
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Rene Magritte:
The medium is a painting, he has used cold colours that are positioned in an order in which the the colours blend into each as we see the green cleverly gets darker as we go towards the trees then we see the contrast of blue and dark green in the background apart from this the background is pretty simplistic but that I believe adds to the overall effect of the image.
Rene Magritte painted it in 1928 and it definitely ties in with other surreal pictures that this man has painted in this time period there were a lot of psychiatrists and philosophers speculating about how dreams affect people's inner thoughts and harboured feelings and anxieties. This gave artists an entrance into this line of work. The composition of the painting enhances the main focus point of the image which is the paper that the man is reading this is because of the composition the rule of thirds means the paper and the hat lie on sweet spots which instantly attracts eyes towards them. The painting is a landscape painting of a man with a newspaper that covers his face the front of the newspaper has been blended in with the background. The painting makes me feel relaxed because of the colours and the setting it just makes me feel very mellow and calm. This connects to my work as it has a clear link to my project the surrealism used within this work clearly portrays the cultural movement of the era. The surrealist movement would feature the element of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions to highlight their weird features and for the en-lookers to explore the hidden under-lying message in the picture. I do like this work because it is set up well as the paper matches the background very well. I think this influences my work as it is really something I am focusing on. |
Photographer Analysis:
Souichi Furusho: Surrealism
Souichi Furusho is a surrealist photographer. He likes to take pictures that have a dull background and a man walking through a certain area with surreal things swirling around him giving a disturbing atmosphere. It is a new image but instead of being in colour it is in black and white to give it this feeling. I really like this image as it positively influences my ideas. I really like the composition of this image it has a deep depth of field and the arrangement of the different elements. The different elements make this image which helps to elucidate the context of this it was evidently taken to "influence the viewer into feeling sympathetic for the poor man who (when looking into the image) was a man walking to work who Souichi took a picture" (Google search) of this was then manipulated into this image, Souichi took this image to show the hardships of a lower working class man who is below the poverty line personally I don't believe this image conveys that well enough, I still like the image but I believe this theme could be portrayed better. This links to my theme as it is a surreal picture I would like to produce a picture like this in black and white.
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Shoot Plan:
New type of image: inspired by Guillaume Amat
Guillaume Amat: Mirrors
Guillaume Amat is a photographer who uses mirrors in a rural setting he also takes these photos in urban settings but mostly he takes them in rural settings. I like this type of images as they can positively influence my own personal images. I like the use of a medium to deep depth of field as I only ever thought you could get the desired effect by using a short depth of field but now I can vary my techniques and get better images for it. I really like the composition of this image it has a deep depth of field and the arrangement of the different elements. This connects to my work as this is one of the types of photography I would like to focus on. After researching the image I have realised that the them is trying to tell us about the effect of fly tipping on the environment. I believe the themes could be portrayed better but I still enjoy the image.
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Shoot 1:
Manipulation of Images:
Final Image:
Manipulation 2:
Final Image:
Shoot 2:
Manipulation:
I have looked at using frames to portray surrealism which was enjoyful that I got some good outcomes out of. This is work based upon Guillame Amat however now I would like to focus on creating surrealist figures like work done by Rene Magritte.
Final Gallery:
Shoot 3:
Same shoot different location:
I have done this to see whether the differing location helps contribute to the overall affect of the images.
Manipulation:
Shoot 4:
You must click onto the picture to see it in full.
Manipulation:
Shoot 5:
Manipulation:
Final Outcomes:
For this outcome I used many drawing tools like the magic lasso, clone stamp tool and the burn and smaudge tool.
Evaluation:
My project theme was 'Weird and Wonderful'. We started the topic in mid-March and finished in mid-July. Overall I enjoyed this topic as it gave us a wide range of subjects to choose from. I originally chose the topic of surrealism but then later on in the topic converted to mirrors as I believed that I wasn't getting good enough final outcomes. I chose these two topics as as soon as I researched 'weird and wonderful' my eye was instantly drawn to mirrors and surrealism.
The thing I enjoyed the most about this topic was the manipulation of photographs in Photoshop and the freedom to use different methods to portray my subject choice. However what I found most interesting was the locations I could take pictures in and how the location of a single shot can affect the final outcome.
Throughout this topic I have been developing new techniques which I can carry through with me into my next topic. Specifically though, I have developed my application of new 'tools' in Photoshop and to confidently use the clone stamp tool and the magic lasso tool. I have also developed new techniques to take the picture to improve the composition in which to change the overall effect of the image. However a technique I would like to develop is the location of my shoots. As I said in the second paragraph the location really does affect the final outcome and unfortunately I feel like for some of my outcomes I got this wrong
The thing I enjoyed the most about this topic was the manipulation of photographs in Photoshop and the freedom to use different methods to portray my subject choice. However what I found most interesting was the locations I could take pictures in and how the location of a single shot can affect the final outcome.
Throughout this topic I have been developing new techniques which I can carry through with me into my next topic. Specifically though, I have developed my application of new 'tools' in Photoshop and to confidently use the clone stamp tool and the magic lasso tool. I have also developed new techniques to take the picture to improve the composition in which to change the overall effect of the image. However a technique I would like to develop is the location of my shoots. As I said in the second paragraph the location really does affect the final outcome and unfortunately I feel like for some of my outcomes I got this wrong