Latest Shoot - Kelly Nipper and Walead Beshty

I had another go at using Walead Beshty as an artist model but the photos just didn't turn out. So I started using Kelly Nipper and looking at her photos. I think I will return to looking at Walead Beshty and try again. I like how Kelly Nipper uses movement and posture to show still photos of dancers. In my next shoot I'm going to go deeper in looking at Kelly Nipper, and imitating her techniques to fit into my work. 

Walead Beshty - Annotations

Artist Model Drawing Task

 Focal Point

 - In these photos an my drawings the focal point is the move moving the rocks, because there is a white boarder, it draws the eye to the image. Also the pyramids along the back draw the eye to the middle of the photo

Eye Level View

- The eye level view is perfect because it shows everything that is necessary in the photo. If it was from a birds eye view, the focus would be taken away from the man and put on the pyramids because it is the biggest part of the picture. 

 Landscape Format

- Allows the Pyramids to be seen in the photos. If the photo was portrait it would make the background smaller, and less a part of the picture. Which would make the concept irrelevant.

 Symmetry

- The photo is quite symmetrical not in the way that its the same on both sides, but in the way that the subject matter is very evenly placed, apart from the man.

 Rule of thirds 

 - The landscape of the Pyramids is along the line of the rule of thirds, so it does apply here.

 

Planning My Next Shoot - Walead Beshty

This is the plan for my next shoot. I'm looking at Walead Beshty who uses models with thier faces and bodies places sunkin in into objects. As I am using the blanket for a prop, I was thinking about trying this concept with Logan and the blanket. 

Panel 1 FINISHED!

This is my final choice for panel 1.

Artist Model Research - Duane Michals

Duane Michals is an American photographer, who uses slow shutter speed and sequences to show philosophy and emotion. He also uses series and multi-exposure in an innovative form. Michals began his work in the 60's where he was inspired by photojournalism and wanted to communicate and show narratives in photo form. He did this by using 'frame by frame' layout, also in a grid format. Michals uses text throughout his images to title a piece of work or the person in it and to push a statement across to the viewer.
Michals work has been exhibited in many exhibitions in the last 50 years, including The Museum of Modern Art-New York, Odakyu Museum-Tokyo, International Center of Photography-New York, Thessaloniki Museum of Photography-Greece.


In this picture below Michals uses the grid, frame by frame format to position the photos. He uses text to Title the photo with the models name and the year in which the photo was taken. He uses black and white to show the strong contrats between the colours. this also shows alot of positive space, with the background, his hair, and skin being lighter than the rest of the photo. Making these areas of the photos really light makes the darkness in his eyes and mouth really stand out. Also his photos are very symmetrical and even, where the object or person is placed in the same place in all three photos, but still manages to show movement.

               

I have used his techniques of slowing down shutter speed and creating movement in a still photograph. By my strong use of positive space, show similarities in my work and the techniques of Michals. I've decided to not use black and white in my photography as I dont like the look of it. 

Artist Model Research - Eileen Cowan

I've beginning to look into other ideas and explore other artist models as I need to develop my folio further. The artist models I've started to look at are Eileen Cowan.

I've started to look at Eileen Cowan, who uses close ups of human features with lots of negative space and very little negative space to show the contrast between light and dark. I've decided that I want to explore my ideas further with this because I think it works well with the mood of my concept.

I've taken some photos so far with lots of negative and dark space. I really like the creepyness of these photos and I think they work really well. In my next shoot I'm going to take similar photos again, but with closeups of the arms and hands, and possibly use Logan's face aswell. The closeups will show more positive space with more light and shadow effects.

Plan for Panel 1

This is my plan so far for panel 1 of my folio. I've decided to develop the technique of sequences and use Duane Michals as a strong artist model. I've used these first shots to show the anger and frustration, and I'm going to develop this further with the sequencing technique. 

I also decided that I didn't want to use black and white as thoughout all photos on my folio as I personally find it boring and unappealing, so after talking to Mrs Clemence I have decided to use sepia and instagram style filters and possibly ending up in full color by the end of the folio. This isn't my final decision on this as I dont want my photos to look childish and tacky, so I'm still deciding on this one. 

My next shots I want to take will be close ups on Logans face and head, with him shaking his hair around and looking angry, I'm thinking of possibly using tears in this picture. I'm going to try with shutter speed and play around with the focus most likely in the dark room. I want to develop these shots and have four-six photos cover across the middle-bottom of panel 1. 

Im unsure of what I want to put in the gap between these photos and the previous photos i've taken, but I'm sure after taking,  editing and putting the next shot on my first panel, then I will have some inspiration of what to put there. 

Work So Far ...

In the past 2 weeks I have begun to take photos and I'm beginning to see my artist models come through my work, mainly with the sequence photographs.
I feel that I need to start to plan my work so I'm not taking photos that I wont actually use, so starting next week I am gonna plan out my first panel and write a list of artist models that are relevant. I will do this on paper and post it up on my blog on Monday or Tuesday.

The sequence photos are just a practice of using shutter-speed, so I wont use those ones for my folio, but I'm thinking of re-taking them so that they are relavent to my concept.

Research: Implied Human Presence

Implied human present is a photo where you can tell that someone has been in the photo, whether the person has made a mess, or made a track or made there mark on something, but there is actually no human in the picture.

Andy Goldsworthy is a sculpture, artist, photographer. He uses nature and the raw materials around him to create sculptures by arranging leaves, ice, rocks, flowers and grass. He uses shapes such as circles. As his work is made of all natural materials, they will deconstruct and over time be destroyed, so he uses photography to keep a record of his works. He also uses bright coloured leaves prominently to capture the eye and the circle shape lures you into his work. He also uses and ombre effect where the outside of the shape is darker.

Some examples of his work is:

source:  http://www.iamparagon.com/2009/06/artists-that-inspire-me-andy-goldsworthy/

Richard Long is an English sculpture, artist and photographer and is one of Britain's best known 'land artist.' He has had many exhibitions that have been seen all around Europe, USA and Asia. Long uses splashes of paint,mud and stone to create his artworks, and uses hes hands and fingers to create texture and movement in the paint or mud. Along with Goldsworthy he often uses circles to make the sculpture look more clean-cut, even tho he works with mess and makes mess doing his work. He uses nature and places rocks, stone, tree cuttings etc in his work. Also Long uses rectangular shaped and swirls. I think that with the sculptures the finger strokes he uses in his sculptures and painting give a presence as they can look like finger prints or trails of someone. He makes his artworks seem like tracks that someone has walked on.

Some examples of his work:

source : Richard Long, The guardian article,