For our first look at abstraction we experimented with a blank piece of paper. We manipulated the paper in ways such as folding, cutting or tearing the paper to create abstracts shapes and shadows. At first however I did not want to completely ruin the paper so i made small creases/ folds in the paper and shone a light above it. At first I chose a UV lights however due to the positioning of the light and the complicated nature of the paper the results were not satisfactory. I then moved on to using the red filter on the enlargers in the dark room. This is created a much more interesting photo with the different shadows created from the light being emitted down on to the paper. The ripples within the paper brought this effect further creating shadow underneath. After using different forms of light I decided to move outside to try and experiment with the paper in different ways. However this proved less satisfactory as I was very limited in what I could create without completely ruining the paper. However, I did come out with a few satisfactory results such as the paper being pushed up against the wire fence. I then moved back inside and in to the studio. I first experimented with projecting different textures glass upon the paper. This time however it was crumpled up to create different layers of shadow across the paper. I then tried to position the paper in a way that I was able to create the impression of it being a mountain range. Although it was a great idea it proved difficult to do effectively with the limited time and resources.
Tate Britain - Painting with Light
The exhibition at the Tate Britain, 'Painting with light' explores a wide range of different photographs that have been directly inspired by, or have inspired other works,
The Lady of Shalott
"The Lady Of Shalott", originally created and painted by artist Walter Crane. It was then recreated by photographer Henry Peach Robinson with the use of his camera and a well positioned model as well as his different techniques. However, Robinson was widely criticised for the process in which the photograph was taken. He went for a more experimental technique which involved the putting together of separate negatives to create the desired effect.
The Valley of the Dragon - John Dudley Johnston
This photo, taken by Johnston was made using the gum platinum photographic process. The process involves a specially treated platinum print that is then coated and washed in a special arabic gum. It is then then exposed to the same negative to create the effect shown above. It creates a silver haze that surrounds the mountain/ valley.
The Odour of Pomegranates - Zaida Ben Yusuf
Abstraction 2 - Out and About
For my second look on abstraction I moved on to exploring the surrounding environment and looking specifically at the different textures and buildings within it.
Market Trip - Farmers Market
Market Trip 2 - Grand Central Market
Chemigrams and Cyanotypes
To create our chemigrams we began to experiment with several different types of liquids and creams, all of which were household items like honey, moisturiser, soap, cream and other liquids like orange juice. We started of by placing these different liquids on to photographic paper that had already been exposed. We placed the different liquids on the paper in the form of different shapes and textures. For example when placing the cream on the paper I would spread it out evenly on some places but in others leave a much thicker layer. This was the same for most liquids and essentially meant that the developer/ fix would take longer to reach the paper and completely rid it of the liquids. For my first attempt i decided to use honey to create an 'X' type shape as an experiment. I used honey for this particular one. The honey, being quite a thick liquid, took much longer for the developer to reach the paper. This is why on the edges of the 'X' you are able to see a sort of fade from black to white.
Summer Tasks
Story - Forgotten Downtown
For my story element of the summer tasks I decided to go on a walk through the downtown district of Los Angeles. On my journey I decided to focus on both the homelessness that lines the streets as well as the empty and abandoned buildings, both of which are forgotten elements to the LA society. Los Angeles already has a serious homelessness problem, with around 254,000 people experiencing homelessness at some point of the year, and at least 82,000 people are homeless on any given night. One of the more shocking facts is that around 20% of this population are physically disabled and up to 77% don't receive any sort of public benefits to which they are entitled. This problem is far more obvious in places such as downtown. The housing/ building problem is no where near as bad but walking through you do get a feeling of abandonment, especially with the old cinemas. This is why my overall focus/aims with this small project was capturing people and places that had been 'forgotten' about by the wider society.
Above are examples of Cinemas in the 1920s and what they look like today. Almost all the cinemas in downtown LA are still there showing their original facades, except they are almost all unused and many have been converted in to different shops or abandoned completely. Below is a prime example of how an old and popular Warner Bros cinema has been converted in to one of the many Jewellery stores that line the streets of Downtown Los Angeles.
A Journey - Los Osos
Personal Brief
Brief: Create a series of images that examine the political impact on society and/or the landscape. Exploring the ideas of globalisation and the way people occupy the landscape.
Starting points:
Southbank
Construction near london eye/ waterloo station
London skyline
Blocks of flats/ estates or corporate buildings/offices.
Research Starting points:
Impact of construction/ housing projects on residents.
The impacts of city pollution/ industrialisation.
Southbank
Moving on from my curatorship task I decided to focus on the environment and the different ways that political actions can affect it. Using my brief I decided to photograph the many buildings on the south bank and in particular some of the new developments that were taking place around waterloo station. As well as this I took photos of the new 'affordable' housing being built in Vauxhall which had some apartments being sold for as much as £8million. I felt it related quite a lot to the brief as this was and is housing that is being bought up by overseas investors. At the same time the UK government is claiming that they are doing more to combat the growing housing crisis within London. There were also new housing developments just behind the London eye that supposedly contain 870 new homes some of which 'affordable'. This housing development was approved directly from former mayor Boris Johnson, after he said that it would create around 300 new jobs. I focused on the huge cranes that towered over the pavement and the south bank.
After this observation I think that it would be appropriate to follow through with more that are similar. However, I also think that I should pursue other starting points such as housing estates.
Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate
After visiting the south bank and photographing the different buildings and some of the new housing developments, I decided to visit a housing estate that has been standing for almost over 30 years. My intentions behind photographing a housing estate was to highlight the importance of housing in a city like London, especially when our government allows the building of multi-million pound housing developments that only the very rich can afford.
I think my choice of location and the way I photographed it were done well. The location is a notorious estate for its brutalist architecture. The fact that a housing estate is so well known allows me to encapsulate the brief even more so. I also think that the way I captured the estate in its simple and original form shows this too. Moving on from this, I think that there is definitely potential in pursuing observations of estates, however, I do think that I need to experiment more with how I address this brief.
Berlin
After coming back from a recent visit to Berlin I was left amazed and shocked with the different historical events that had taken place in Berlin in the last century. When looking back at my photographs I decided that I somehow wanted to capture the past and the present. I felt that the most obvious and one of the best way of doing this was to compare my photographs against those taken during 1945, after the Third Reich Fell. From all of my images taken I picked out the ones that captured famous buildings and areas that epitomise Berlin. The most well known buildings in the pictures were of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, which is the German parliament. I then found images of both of these buildings in 1945, post soviet invasion and the collapse of Nazi Germany. During the battle of Berlin many of the buildings, including some of the most important and recognisable within Germany, were left completely destroyed by high explosives and incendiary bombs. I found the history of the Reichstag and the damage inflicted upon it particularly interesting as the thought of government buildings such as the Houses of Parliament or the Whitehouse being blown up and severely attacked seem incredibly far fetched. I also think that a lot of people forget that there was actually any fighting in Berlin, and for many the pictures on the left invoke a feeling of shock.
The Brandenburg Gate after battle of Berlin - 1945
The Reichstag after Soviet invasion and battle of Berlin - 1945
Soviet forces clearing out a U Bahn station, Battle of Berlin - 1945
The Brandenburg Gate - 2016
The Reichstag - 2016
Alexanderplatz U Bahn Station - 2016
Old vs. New London
After the trip to Berlin where I successfully showed two images of pre and post war areas, I decided that I should experiment with the same ideas in London. I started off by searching through google images of old pictures of central London. I then found out where the images were taken and went to them in real life and attempted to take a similar picture. My contact sheet is below:
As it was a fairly complicated process to find pictures, then there location and then photograph them, I came out with two final photographs. Overall, they were successful. I managed to take the pictures in almost the exact same spot as they were originally taken and using the tools in photoshop, successfully overlay them. This links in with the brief of political changes as it shows how over time society (along with politics) changes drastically. From the clothes we wear to the cars we drive. The world is continuously changing due to a multitude of different factors. This is captured in my observation above.
Marcus Lyon - Brics
Moving on from exploring the old and new comparisons, I decided to go back to the focus of globalisation. For this I found the photographer Marcus Lyon who in his project Brics, explores the effect that overpopulation has on the environments that surround us. To do this Lyon superimposes his photographs to the point that they have been clearly altered, but at the same time wondering how he has managed to place all these different images in to one. His focus lies on the different cities around the world that he says will account for 95% of the population growth in the coming 40 years. This first image is of Shanghai, China. China has a population of around 1.3billion and Shanghai in particular accounts for over 14.5million of that figure. Lyon is able to present this ever growing population through his 'ever-growing' city by placing numerous layers of different buildings that surround his other landscape.
Similar to the image before, Lyon instead captures the movement of people and the idea of globalisation through the edited picture of hundreds of cars on a Dubai motorway. Much like Lyon's other work, it has undergone quite substantial editing to create a landscape that is effective in that it invokes the idea of mass migration and/or globalisation.
My Interpretation
After looking at Marcus' work I decided to try and find a location that was both high up and had a great view so that I had plenty to work with in the editing stages. Thankfully the new building at the Tate was both high up and gave a 360 degree view of the London landscape. When taking my photographs I was ensuring that I was taking enough pictures of individual buildings so I could create my own superimposed landscape. In terms of settings on the camera I kept it quite basic to ensure that i didn't have to edit each individual photo I used in my final edit.
Once I had my photographs of the different buildings in the surrounding landscape I began to pick and choose my images. The first screenshot shows the photograph that I would use as my background. I chose this one as out of all the photos I had taken this was the most built up in terms of the surrounding landscape. After choosing this I moved on to selecting different images from what I had taken. When choosing, I was particularly looking for pictures of different tall/ big buildings as these would be easier to edit in without looking drastically fake. As you can see from the second and third image, I chose the picture of the fairly big housing block. After selecting this I copied and pasted in to my first image and found an appropriate place to put the building, at the same time making sure it was placed in an appropriate position. Once happy with my placement I changed the opacity of the building and using the eraser tool I began to rub out the parts of the building that were not in place.
Below is the final image I came up with after editing all the available images in to one landscape.
Alexey Titarenko - City of Shadows
Alexey Titarenko is a Russian photographer most famous for his series 'City of Shadows'. Titarenko not only uses a long exposure but goes through the solarisation process and at the same time allows for light to enter during the development process. As well as this Titarenko experiments with bleach in the darkroom to create a bigger contrast within his greys. This ultimately gives the shadowy effect. I have chosen to include this in my responses as I feel that the use of long exposure in built up and populated areas represents the idea of an ever growing population and city, all due to the effects of globalisation.
In this first image Titarenko places himself in an area that is busy and slow paced. The fact that it is slow paced means that the people photographed tend to merge into one 'sea' of people.
Still similar to the previous image, this time Titarenko keeps an old lady as his focul point while she is surrounded by the moving city.
My Interpretation
To mimic Titarenko's work as best as possible I decided to find some of the more populous places in London. For this I went to Oxford street and Regent street. Because I needed a large number of people to be in the photograph, I decided on going around mid-day. However, as I was using an exposure of around 20-30 seconds I had to compensate for the mid-day light. For this I added two ND filters to the front of my lense. This essentially allows for longer exposures without the image being completely over-exposed.
The observation was fairly successful, however, I feel that I am moving too far away from my brief. For further observations I think that the best path to take would to be to stick to architecture and the overall environment, and if at times it is appropriate, include people.
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky, much like Marcus Lyon focuses on large landscapes and often edits his photographs in to what is an unseemingly large landscape. For example, above shows a photograph of a building in Paris, France that has been put together to create a much larger building that actually exists.
My Response -
As a first attempt at putting images together to make a larger landscape I went back to Oxford street and stood across the road from all the shops. From one end of the road to the other I began to take pictures at about ten metre intervals. This was done so that when editing the images together, I had images of the entire street. However, this did not prove to be so simple. Despite the fact that I took images at regular intervals my failure to do so at exactly the same distance meant that a lot of the images came out distorted. As well as using ND filters (which allowed me to take long exposures in the daytime) I also changed my camera settings to RAW. This allowed far more flexibility when editing the photos in photoshop as they were non-compressed files. In terms of settings I set my exposure time at a quarter of a second. This was possible in the bright light because of my ND filters. The intention behind a slightly longer shutter speed was to ensure that my images captured the movement of the people. This theme of movement links in with the idea of globalisation which is also explored through the photographing of different shop fronts. It also poses a practical benefit as it makes it easier to edit around a blur than it does someone standing still in the middle of the shot.
The first image is composed of four seperate photographs of a part of Oxford street. The first two and last image are composed in a way that are easier to edit and thus more natural in their placement. The third image, however, was taken at such an angle that it became difficult to place it against the second one without looking entirely out of place. However, I did attempt to manouvre it in to the image at the best of my ability.
Although my second image is far bigger and achieves the idea of a large image, it still has its faults. Because the individual images differ so greatly in both exposure time and compostion they seem far more distorted, especially the images toward the end.
What next?
Moving on from my first attempt at interpreting Gursky's work I will focus on photographing more bleak buildings, for example, housing estates. I will also focus more on how I take my images. For example, ill ensure that the camera is at the same height for each image and take photos at smaller intervals. Having a 10 meter interval meant that the image had to be warped and put into the right perspective which proved highly problematic as I was never able to get it exactly right. A smaller interval will mean that I have more to work with and the images (when placed together) will be less distorted.
Second Observation - Palace of Westminster
Moving on from my previous attempt at re-creating Gursky's work, I decided to photograph one of London's most notable landmarks. The Palace of Westminster has been around for hundreds of years and has housed members of both the Commons and the Lords. I chose to photograph it because not only is it architecturally appropriate for Gursky's style of work, but it also encompasses the one building in which all political decisions are made and is thus a prime example of how political decisions shape our environment.
Although partially successful, it has proven difficult to find locations within London that you can gain a good enough vantage point to photograph and thus manipulate. Moving on from my attempt at exploring the political changes on the landscape through the work of Gursky, I will attempt to explore it on a more discreet level such as exploring housing estates and their inhabitants. I believe that this will cut out the complex aspects that are involved in Gursky's style of work and instead just focus on the environment and the people within it.
The Barbican
Moving on from Gursky's work I felt that I needed to take a step back and re approach the brief in a far more simplistic (but still effective!) way. For this I decided that the best way forward was to photograph various housing estates and the people within them. For the first observation I decided to visit the Barbican estate in Central London. Although the estate is particularly well known there is a considerable amount of history that comes with it. Built and opened in the 1980s the estate was built upon an area that was bombed particularly badly during the second world war. It is for that reason that this estate, albeit a middle-upper class are now, is so prominent and rich in political history.
As a first attempt at visiting the barbican estate with this brief in mind I think it went very well. The shots I captured manage to encapsulate the brutalist architecture and the people within. I was also extremely lucky that the sun and its light worked considerably within my favour. It allowed me to capture various photographs of the sun streaming through the different alleys and walkways within the estate. It helped in particular with the man wearing the trench coat and hat as the sun rays landed perfectly. Moving on from this observation I think that the best way forward is to carry on with capturing various estates and, if appropriate, the people within them.
Holloway Road Estate
Moving on from my previous observation, I decided it would be appropriate to experiment further with the idea of housing estates. For this I found an estate of Holloway Road. I went quite early in the morning as the weather was grey and drizzly. I think that in terms of experimentation and progressing this observation went well. However, I have lost the SD card and so am unable to pick selects out and edit them. I did, however, manage to save my contact sheet which is seen above.
Possible developments: Revisit barbican? ^ Laurent Kronental ? How does the building alter the quality if light? Crop scenes etc. Incorporate people.....? How do these Brutalist shape the view seen from them? The brunswick centre? Insitute of eduvation ? the southbank? http://londonist.com/2012/05/londons-top-brutalist-buildings
Laurent Kronental
After reviewing my images from the barbican observation I came across a photographer called Laurent Kronental who also incorporates solitary people into their photographs. They also tend to focus on the different housing estates around Paris. Their work is show below:
What drew me toward this photographer is the way he manages to capture the solitary individual surrounded by the large brutalists estates. Kronental's intentions were to juxtapose elderly people against the old and forgotten housing estates in Paris. Although slightly different to my project focus, both ideas tend to encapsulate the same thing. Instead my focus is less on the individual but more on how the individual inhabits the estates that have been the creation of political changes. After finding Kronental's work I think that the best step forward would be to revisit one or some of the locations that I have already been to and aim to capture the environment and the individuals within.
The Barbican - 2 (Final Piece)
After reviewing my observations hitherto, and looking at the work of Kronental. I decided that the best and most likely successful way forward would be to revisit the barbican. This time, however, I was focused more on capturing the people within the Barbican rather than the Barbican itself. That said, the location of course has relevance with regard to the brief. The location, as said before, has been the result of various different political decisions and thus I see it as an appropriate place to attempt to further my response. The images are below:
Overall, it was a success. I was able to capture lone, solitary individuals within an appropriate environment with regards to the brief. I also think that the work of Kronental is clearly reflected in my final observation in a successful manner, regardless of whether the intentions were the same. When editing my photographs I made very minuscule touches to the colour balances, such as bringing out the reds ever so slightly to create a warming effect that was seen in my previous photos. However, any editing I did do was kept to a minimum. I think that when capturing these sorts of photographs it is important to keep it as genuine as possible especially as you are exploring the effects that the environment has. This is in stark contrast to my previous attempts at reproducing the work of Andreas Gursky, whose images explore a similar concept but in an entirely different way.