After the global Covid-19 pandemic, we saw reality change within a blink of an eye. Back to school in photography was quite different, many activities were restricted such as being able to leave freely to take pictures around the school, being able to get out of our seats whenever we wanted to and even being able to use the school's camera whenever. The long time of quarantine helped many people including myself to open our eyes to a new style of art and a new way of creativity and intelligence.
Artists are good at problem-solving as they are good at adapting to new settings. In art and photography being able to work in an uncomfortable environment and still achieve your best possible outcome is a key aspect of the subject.
Above are the contents of my school bag, the idea was to create an image literally out of our bags. After the pandemic, we had to create art out of the unusual. This is a literal representation of creating something out of nothing. The variations of colours in my bag add a very vibrant tone to the images. I used a box formation to show the contents and moved some things around whilst capturing the images. I think it was an interesting activity to do to show how you can do anything if you just try.
Marcel Duchamp & The Readymade
The Mona Lisa is arguably one of the most famous paintings in the world. One of the main reasons for the fame of this painting is the 'Mona Lisa Smile'. Da Vinci used shadow work and human optical illusion to create a smile through perspective. Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in a way so that the viewer's eyes are drawn to the mouth. I think that certain works of art become so extremely famous through difference and technicality, creating a piece of art that is different to what we are used to or is extremely difficult to recreate is what can make a piece of art well known.
I believe that Marcel Duchamp decided to appropriate the Mona Lisa to prove that art doesn't always need to be serious and can be taken out of context. In the original Mona Lisa, we have a peaceful and beautiful woman in a very serious environment whereas Duchamp's recreation of the painting shows a fun, humorous side which maybe is his message. I think the use of the title 'readymades' describes Duchamp's work of manufactured objects. His work disrupted the 'rules of art' in his time.
In 1979, Derek Bishton, John Reardon and Brian Homer created a self-portrait 'studio' outside their workplace in Handsworth, Birmingham, one of the most popular cities outside of London, it also has a very large migrant and ethnic community. The photographers gave control to the models allowing them the opportunity to present themselves to the camera in any way they desire, letting them dress/pose however they wanted and more. Photographed with a neutral, white background the project was aimed to challenge stereotyping through self-portraiture. Over 500 people all from different backgrounds, cultures and outlooks on life took part in this experiment, there were over five sessions for all models. These photographs heavily influenced Bishton, Reardon and Homer and they then went on to form the photography journals between 1979 and 1993. The journal then expanded on the issues of representation and power, reviewing how people were misrepresented through mainstream imagery.
I decided to refine these images by incorporating my two personal favourite pictures together. I love how I accidentally chose a pair of two people standing and then two people sitting down, creating more levels in the piece. The last image with legs above was me actually me packing away the pieces, I realised I actually quite liked the look of the piece and so I had to capture a picture, a happy incident.
For homework we had to have a look around our homes and find personal family photos comparing how different we take pictures now. Above are some of the many pictures my mum took back in 1990/2000s in London. She took these pictures on a Canon camera and would go on weekly trips to the camera shop to get them all developed. My personal favourites were ones that included 'the normal' back in those days for example old phones, fashion and more. She had a very casual lifestyle photography style, simply taking a picture of her friends, family and anything she liked. She brought her camera everywhere she went including parties, holidays and visiting her family back home in the Caribbean. She also created a very nostalgic touch without realising it, by adding the name of the person/people in the picture and the date. Overall I believe that my mum and I have a very similar photography style with a relaxed, natural theme.
Steven Quinn
Steven Quinn is a London based artist born in Belfast, focused on collages, street photography and paintings, Steven enjoys combining his own photography with cut-outs from old magazines and playing with images to create aesthetically pleasing and sometimes humorous pieces of art. Overall, I really like Steven's work because it alters the traditional art from the magazines and paintings making them retro. I love the ripped, messy look it creates. The disorganised placements of the different facial features are so interesting and lead you to wonder what he was thinking at the time of creating the piece. I am very inspired by Quinn when working on my personal projects. I love the ripped and distressed look he creates, like putting a man's mouth on a women's eyes. This is where I got the idea of ripped facial parts.
Kensuke Koike
Kensuke Koike is a Japanese artist based in Venice. His art is an expression of manipulating vintage photographs - involving cutting, tearing, punching, slicing and reassembling and more, creating different yet beautiful and surreal images. I think that Kensuke's is very different but I do like it a lot. His work has heavily influenced my collage pieces by messing around with arrangements of images and more. His work is alternative but very aesthetically pleasing to look at and question.
Hannah Höch
Hannah Höch was a German artist who was a part of the Berlin Dada group. She was a very important artist as she responded to the Second World War and her art reflected the anger and disgust at the time. She is very well known for her collages and recycling old newspapers and magazines, taking out the texts and pictures, combining them and creating layers. I am so interested in Höch's work, the look and what she did to express her views at the time. I love her collage work and her work is very influential to me. I love the mysterious part of her work, what is actually going on in her pieces? I am so confused yet so interesting. Hannah Höch is a great inspiration for my collage work. She was a part of the Berlin Dada group, a very important group that responded to the violence of the Second World War through art using their frustration and anger to create their pieces. Höch used multiple sources to create her work, including, texts from newspapers, magazines and more. I love Höch's works as it's very impactful and sends a message whilst being aesthetically pleasing.
Matt Lipps
Matt Lipps is an American photographer who creates new and original pieces out of collected books and magazines. He cuts out very specific shapes and people to create 3D assemblages. Lipps' relationship with both photography and sculpture is what helped create such unique art. I think Lipps' work is very thought-provoking, he's mixing photography with sculpture creating a completely new element to the art. The use of shadows and highlights adds even more to the work creating a new layer of mystery.
Daniel Gordon
Daniel Gordon is an American artist based in New York, best known for creating large colourful pieces that stand between collage and set-up photography. In the piece, I can see a very vibrant, colourful photograph, almost an 80s aesthetic with the different layers of colours. I think these were created by Gordon taking some images and then recycling, tearing, ripping, cutting and adding different images together. I would describe this work as playful, vibrant and bright. Daniel Gordon works in a very playful and experimental way. He uses sculpture and cutouts to create his three-dimensional work. I love Gordon's work as it's very creative and unique. Each one of his pieces is an independent look, making your recreation feel very specific and individual. Gordon's work also encourages the use of shadows, highlights and angles making two identical pictures look completely different.
Above are my attempts at a Matt Lipps and Daniel Gordon piece, personally, I don't think they're my best. For more of a 'Lipps' look, I could've made them 3D statues but I do love the yellow background as I think it complements the skin colour of the black celebrities. I was inspired by Daniel Gordon with the vibrant background colour and for the Matt Lipps theme, I layered the celebrities on black paper to make them 'pop out' and appear 3D. If I were to attempt this I would try and make the images so you can fully understand the inspiration of Matt Lipps.
These are my attempts at a closer look at my collage. My theme was 'Black Beauty' following this year's large BLM movement impact, which was showcased in just a random magazine I bought from a petrol station. I was extremely thrilled to see so many different black celebrities in the paper and all the uplifting comments towards them. I used a black border behind the images to really highlight each person. Personally, I feel like this wasn't my absolute best piece of work, I feel like I could've widened my experimentation but overall I think it was alright.
Prison Photography
I find prison photography very interesting as we get to see the inside of a prisoner's life and what they see every day. Another reason why I found it interesting is, that we get to see the inmate's work, we see how they intemperate things especially in the circumstances they are in, it may even be therapeutic for some inmates. The COVID-19 pandemic has given us a much similar situation to a prisoner's as we are "locked inside". A similar problem to inmates, we had to learn how to deal with staying inside and still keeping a healthy mental state during these groundhog days. Photography can be a good "escape" as you can lose yourself being so invested in what you're doing, getting the best work done possible. Sometimes in photography, you have to be very focused, knowing exactly what you're doing, knowing your perfect lighting, foreground, background, positioning and so on. This may help the inmate think more of it is just a picture and actually being a piece of art, this could help them in life making them see things in a different way. Obviously, with the settings that the inmates are in, photography may be more difficult for prisoners because more than likely they are not going to be allowed out and whilst they are out there are going to be very strict rules for example some having to stay in cuffs for the safety of others, this will not allow them to fully do what they want. The workshop will have to work around these restrictions and still make it effective and helpful for the inmates.
The list
Working with photoshop
In today's lesson, we had a step-by-step checklist to complete. We had one image to interpret in 20 different ways, using things like photocopying, wetting and more. I enjoyed today's lesson because liked the challenge of trying to make something the same look so different in each picture.
Virtual Field Trip
These are my virtual trip images from Marrakech, Morocco. I love the mixture of the roads and the tunnel it adds a more 'grunge' effect. I made sure to capture the different atmosphere in Morocco compared to London for example the mountains and palm trees showcasing the beautiful scenery the country has to offer.
As a class, we created books with the images we selected from Google Map I really enjoyed this project as I have never done anything like this before. The cover was a happy accident as the printer ruined the original picture but I saw potential in the image and showcased the mistake. If I were to do this again, I would fix the measurements as some are the pages weren't equal lengths and widths.
Today I experimented with three images, refining them with an abstract effect with the thread. Needless to say, my sewing skills aren't out of this world, I had a lot of fun making these reworks as I didn't even know that this was even style therefore I respect artists who specialise in sewing photography, it is such a creative and effective way to refine your word.
This is my mind map, I've taken inspiration from the artist Steven Quinn for collage work. I will be collecting multiple images and experimenting with them. Ripping, cutting, sticking together, layering and more. I will collect magazine images specifically for this part. I also have an idea for the look again (and again) side. I will take the same picture over a period of time and use Photoshop to fully execute my idea.
This is my collage work, I took inspiration from the artists Hannah Höch, Daniel Gordon and Steven Quinn with their collage and set-up photography work. I did this by bringing in a magazine, selecting the images I liked best and cutting them up leaving some with the background and some without. I used both colourful and black and white images. I then randomly ordered them around with some lying on top of each other creating a 'cluttered' look. Next time, I will fix the lighting as some of them are giving flashbacks ruining the picture.
Here are some leftover images I cut off from the magazines that didn't make the final piece but I simply just adore the different heights and materials in the images. I also believe that this image on its own is a good response to Matt Lipps.
Social Media & Filters
Here is some of my work with help from my teacher, it's based on social media filters and the constant feeling of having to compare yourself and features to others. I took pictures from magazines of some of the world's most beautiful women and layered them onto each other to show how everyone feels under pressure to feel pretty.