COMponent 1 evaluation
Over my photography course started with learning about and experimenting with the different techniques and processes that there we could use. Some of these included photograms, cyanotypes and light painting. We had to find inspiration for the pieces we made by researching artists that worked with those techniques. For example: Man Ray, Anna Atkins and Eric Staller. One artists whose work I greatly admired was Anna Atkins. She was seen by some as the “first female photographer” and was the first person to create a photobook. She specialized in Cyanotypes and made beautiful prints using flowers and plants. She was my source of inspiration for my cyanotypes, which I really enjoyed doing. I was also inspired by Gjon Mili, a photographer whose work gave me great insight into multiple exposure images.
We then moved onto our personal projects, where we spent some time learning about themes in photography and then working towards a final piece. We experimented in subjects like street photography, edges and abstraction. Again, we looked at artists: Matt Stuart, Dolores Marat and Ernst Haas. My favourite of these artists was Dolores Marat. Her use of colour and composition led me to challenge the way I took my images, questioning the angles and whether I could make it more interesting to look at.
One theme I investigated and created a final piece on was edges. I started by researching the topic, seeing what edges meant to other photographers and give myself inspiration when it came to creativity. I found two artists that had completely different takes on the theme: Dolores Marat and Daniel Janda. While both artists used colour as a key part of their work, one did it mostly digitally and one looked for colours out in public. Because of this, I made looking for colours a big part of my project. I started by taking pictures of edges around the school, looking for either sharp or circular edges. Nothing else. I used depth of field to create a focus on the lines in each image. I then recreated a series created by artist Jan Groover, where she takes a series of closeups of silverware which create a jumble of lines and curves, which I really admired. I loosely based my images on this, and created a series of images of pins and thumbtacks. Closeup to replicate Groover’s images, and black and white to make the coloured pins as close to silver as I could get them. I then took more pictures around the school, looking for long lines and landscapes, which I later added colour to using Photoshop. It was the first time I had used it and noticed the depth that the colour added to the images. For my final piece, I took pictures of people and buildings in my school and printed them twice. Once in black and white and once in colour. I then used a scalpel to dissect the images and paste them over one another, creating a collage effect and lining them up. This was then mounted in a window mount and presented as a final outcome. I did exactly what I had set out to do, which was exciting as I wasn't sure what I would do when we were first presented with the theme.
If I had more time, I would love to have been able to refine my understanding of ways to work in the darkroom. I felt like that was brushed over and i didn't know enough about it to take it into account when playing around with different themes and stimuli. I feel that my work is personal to me because I can show my personality and the way I think.
We then moved onto our personal projects, where we spent some time learning about themes in photography and then working towards a final piece. We experimented in subjects like street photography, edges and abstraction. Again, we looked at artists: Matt Stuart, Dolores Marat and Ernst Haas. My favourite of these artists was Dolores Marat. Her use of colour and composition led me to challenge the way I took my images, questioning the angles and whether I could make it more interesting to look at.
One theme I investigated and created a final piece on was edges. I started by researching the topic, seeing what edges meant to other photographers and give myself inspiration when it came to creativity. I found two artists that had completely different takes on the theme: Dolores Marat and Daniel Janda. While both artists used colour as a key part of their work, one did it mostly digitally and one looked for colours out in public. Because of this, I made looking for colours a big part of my project. I started by taking pictures of edges around the school, looking for either sharp or circular edges. Nothing else. I used depth of field to create a focus on the lines in each image. I then recreated a series created by artist Jan Groover, where she takes a series of closeups of silverware which create a jumble of lines and curves, which I really admired. I loosely based my images on this, and created a series of images of pins and thumbtacks. Closeup to replicate Groover’s images, and black and white to make the coloured pins as close to silver as I could get them. I then took more pictures around the school, looking for long lines and landscapes, which I later added colour to using Photoshop. It was the first time I had used it and noticed the depth that the colour added to the images. For my final piece, I took pictures of people and buildings in my school and printed them twice. Once in black and white and once in colour. I then used a scalpel to dissect the images and paste them over one another, creating a collage effect and lining them up. This was then mounted in a window mount and presented as a final outcome. I did exactly what I had set out to do, which was exciting as I wasn't sure what I would do when we were first presented with the theme.
If I had more time, I would love to have been able to refine my understanding of ways to work in the darkroom. I felt like that was brushed over and i didn't know enough about it to take it into account when playing around with different themes and stimuli. I feel that my work is personal to me because I can show my personality and the way I think.