EXAMS UNIT 2018:
FREEDOMS AND/OR LIMITATIONS
STARTING POINTS
The title for this unit is, 'Freedoms and Limitations'. As a starting point, I create a Pinterest board and began to explore images and media that could be linked to this idea. I looked into both 'freedoms' and 'limitations' and in some cases, was able to find images that could be considered representative of both. Setting this board up will hopefully provide me with some inspiration as I start this project and also act as a reference point later on. After setting up this board, I began to brainstorm some initial ideas and created a mind map (which can be seen below). This enabled me to get down all my thoughts and feelings I had first had when faced with the project title. Furthermore, I began to work on some early developments that could also help to generate inspiration. The first was to do with framing and is documented below.
FRAMING
For this task I set out to explore 'framing' and how it can enhance/affect an image. I used different sized papers and cut-out squares essentially creating a 'frame'. I took these papers outside and used them as a physical guide to frame things that I found of interest. Taking the title of task literally, this helped frame specific objects, people and situations by removing them from their wider context enhancing their appearance/purpose. I used a fast shutter speed so that I could capture things quickly, as I came across them, as pictures I took of people around me often came out blurry capturing their movement whereas I wanted a freeze frame of the person instead. I also adjusted the f/stop and ISO as necessary whilst the natural lighting adjusted throughout the day.
EXHIBITION VISIT - GETTY IMAGES GALLERY
I visited the Getty Images Gallery in Oxford Circus and saw an exhibition titled, 'Year in Focus 2017', a retrospective exhibition featuring a stunning curation of images that captured and defined the global news agenda and events of the past year. The Getty Images’ editorial team of award-winning photographers provided coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from all corners of the world. They were at the centre of the key news stories and major events, covering more than 160,000 news, sport and entertainment events at home and abroad. Year in Focus 2017 will showcase the most significant moments from the past year, as well as archival anniversaries, portraits and obituaries.
Featured are powerful images that document some of 2017’s most important news events, including the genocide of the Rohingya, Hurricane Harvey and the devastation of Grenfell Tower. The exhibition showcases some of the year’s highest profile entertainment and sporting events, from Cannes Film Festival to Wimbledon and the World Athletics Championships. As well as images from the past year, the curation includes archival images of Princess Diana to mark 20 years since her death, alongside other anniversaries such as the Russian Revolution and the Hindenburg disaster.
GALLERY VISIT - THE BARBICAN - ANOTHER KIND OF LIFE
This exhibition titled 'Another Kind of Life: Photography on the Margins' touches themes of countercultures, subcultures, and minorities of all kinds and features the work of 20 international photographers from the 1950s to the present day. It follows individuals in their communities and explores their lives on the 'fringes of society' offering an insight that is more diverse and complex to our views of the world.
Each photographer had their own room and the freedom to display their work how they saw fit their work best. Photographers such as Jim Goldberg took advantage of this opportunity by using different mediums to show his work. He had multiple images along the walls of the room as well as a stand with a book, a hanging denim jacket that is seen in a photo nearby and and a TV with headphones to listen from.
Each photographer had their own room and the freedom to display their work how they saw fit their work best. Photographers such as Jim Goldberg took advantage of this opportunity by using different mediums to show his work. He had multiple images along the walls of the room as well as a stand with a book, a hanging denim jacket that is seen in a photo nearby and and a TV with headphones to listen from.
TIME SPENT - MARY ELLEN MARK
Mark's work shows how she spent time with an individual, in her case, Tiny, a friend whom she met in the parking lot of a downtown club called the Monastery in Seattle, Washington. Their friendship lasted more than three decades. Her images are often up close and personal suggesting she knows her subject well that is further portrayed in an image of Tiny crying, showing that she feels comfortable around Mark, the photographer.
TASK 1 - MOVEMENT
The shutter and aperture controls of a camera limit the exposure time and the outcome of a photographic image. These controls can capture movement in different ways. How you capture movement can give the impression of freedom or freeze a moment, trapping the figure in a still that appears to imprison them.
FAST SHUTTER SPEED
Philippe Halsmann believed that people expressed their true selves when they jumped:
"Starting in the early 1950s I asked every famous or important person I photographed to jump for me. I was motivated by a genuine curiosity. After all, life has taught us to control and disguise our facial expressions, but it has not taught us to control our jumps. I wanted to see famous people reveal in a jump their ambition or their lack of it, their self-importance or their insecurity, and many other traits."
"Starting in the early 1950s I asked every famous or important person I photographed to jump for me. I was motivated by a genuine curiosity. After all, life has taught us to control and disguise our facial expressions, but it has not taught us to control our jumps. I wanted to see famous people reveal in a jump their ambition or their lack of it, their self-importance or their insecurity, and many other traits."
SLOW SHUTTER SPEED
Although she was the model in most of her work, Francesca Woodman’s photographs do not function as typical self-portraits. Rather, she used her own image to explore the representation of gender and the relation of the body to its environment. Now that we know that Woodman committed suicide at 22 we can project a greater meaning on the images. Some critics have considered the images in the context of her mental health at the time and reached conclusions that she felt trapped and was looking for a way to escape.
TASK 2 - PUSHING THE LIMITS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
EXPECTATION 1 - FOCUS
EXPECTATION 2 - COMPOSITION
EXPECTATION 3 - EXPOSURE
TASK 3 - LIMITING SPACE
Around 1948, photographer Irving Penn began making unusual portraits of a number of writers, artists, musicians, politicians, dancers and other celebrities. Each one was asked to position in a small corner (sharper than 90°) created with two studio flats pushed together and a carpet on the floor.
The photographic studio was no longer a neutral environment but became an active agent in the creation of the photographic reality. Irving Penn had already allowed the studio to have a presence in his images. In some of his other studio images we see electrical cables and photographic material scattered on the floor. In the portrait of Georgia O'Keefe (below) we see the supports for the corner flats.
Within the corner portraits, the studio becomes an architectural limiter of the subject movements and the resulting compressed and claustrophobic environment isolates the subjects’ personalities in an abstract, artificial corner of the world.
He once explained. “The walls were a surface to lean on or push against. For me the picture possibilities were interesting; limiting the subjects movements seemed to relieve me of part of the problem of holding onto them.”
The photographic studio was no longer a neutral environment but became an active agent in the creation of the photographic reality. Irving Penn had already allowed the studio to have a presence in his images. In some of his other studio images we see electrical cables and photographic material scattered on the floor. In the portrait of Georgia O'Keefe (below) we see the supports for the corner flats.
Within the corner portraits, the studio becomes an architectural limiter of the subject movements and the resulting compressed and claustrophobic environment isolates the subjects’ personalities in an abstract, artificial corner of the world.
He once explained. “The walls were a surface to lean on or push against. For me the picture possibilities were interesting; limiting the subjects movements seemed to relieve me of part of the problem of holding onto them.”
MY RESPONSE
THREE STRANDS
STRAND 1 - PORTRAITURE REFLECTING FREEDOM
For my first strand, I am going to explore the idea of portraiture reflecting freedom and the way in which I can convey this theme through my work. One idea I had was to explore freedom of movement and any other elements I can include to express this further.
STRAND 2 - FACIAL DISTORTION
STRAND 3 - POLITICAL MESSAGES
DEVELOPMENT OF STRAND 2 - DISTORTION
The strand I have chosen to develop is the strand of facial distortion. I will begin to develop this idea further and create some responses that will influence the direction and shape of my project. I looked back over my Pinterest board for some starting inspiration and I decided for this theme, I would use both physical and digital ways of distortion.
DEVELOPMENT 1 - USING MIRRORS/GLASS
The first development I decided to do involved using mirrors and glass to distort the images. I set up the lights in the studio and used some coloured gels over each light to achieve an ambient effect. This was effective as the images became more exciting and vibrant, and the reflections from the mirrors become more interesting than if I had just used plain lighting. Furthermore, I decided to include a shot in which you can actually see the mirror, as the pattern it had was offering another distortion. The glass I used was effective in creating a almost ripple like effect, which made the facial features of my subject appear different. I would like to come back to this idea and develop it further, using more mirrors and maybe finding a way to create even more dramatic distortion.
DEVELOPMENT 2 - PHYSICAL DISTORTION
The next development I decided to do was a more physical process which involved printing out an image multiple times and ripping an almost circular pattern which became smaller in size each time, resulting in a layered effect in which the subject's face is no longer visible. My first few attempts with this process were simple using paper and ripping, but, I decided to take this further and experiment with other elements such as fire and bleach. These are documented below.
DEVELOPMENT 3 - COMBINING FACES
Following on from my last development I decided to use the ripping method again, this time, using multiple subjects and combing their faces to create new people. This task was interesting as it was a bit of a challenge to try and line up the faces of a varied group of people. To aid this, I slightly edited the images on Photoshop and lined them up as identically as possible. However, this was still not completely effective and so I had to accept the fact that not all faces would line up symmetrically. The process of ripping ended up working well and I was able to create multiple different 'new faces'. I was inspired to do this development by a piece of work by John Clang which used the same method but was gathered into a video. His message was for climate change however.
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DEVELOPMENT 4 - DIGITAL VERSION
For my next development I decided to now aim to create compositions similar to my earlier ones, but instead using digital means. The idea of merging faces together is interesting to me as although all of my subjects were vastly different, I managed to create images that somewhat resembled a normal face. The effect these give is quite eerie and many people who viewed my work found it weird, seeing different faces merged as one. I chose to cut the images together using harsh lines instead of ripping as it gives a more mechanical feel and is almost quite robotic. Furthermore, it highlights the contrast between the different faces. Moving further, I want to start creating more realistic looking images of merging faces.
DEVELOPMENT 5
After my last few developments, I decided to aim to start create more realistic looking images, editing the faces together on Photoshop in a way that didn't show any of the lines or harsh edges as used previously.