This exam unit 'Variations and Similarities' to me meant to create something that would create a connection with the viewer of the photographs, but with something that throws their perception out of focus. Throughout the unit, you see the many ways I try to create the specific outcome I want, from the moving GIFs, to the close up photos. This slowly leads into the macro photos, and then the insertion of small people and figures. underneath, you can see my documentation of the full development I went through to get to my final piece.
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LOCATION GIFS
SHOOT IN THE WOODS
These photos were taken in the Coldfall woods and the inspiration behind them was to add a city, brutalist building to a very earthy, urban scene. In order to take the photos, I had to take an existing picture of a building that had already taken, and use pictures of the outside, such as a door, a mounting board, or a manhole cover. I then took these, and made the picture of the building out of the
on of the strands will be based on the work of Todd Mclellan. He is the guy that takes apart the old phones and gadgets, and then pieces it all together in one big photo. will try to do this with some sort of gadget that can be easily taken apart and put together. possibly the arc.
These images were taken in a dark room with a digital camera. i used one harsh studio light to illuminate certain parts of the subject. This was to accentuate the different features of their face, so that i could take photos that would appear candid, but also show the individual parts of their face.
This was in the style of Russian photographer Valerie Kabis, who created this series of photos in order to show dark or thought provoking images. The images i have taken are both hidden yet seen, almost as if I have selected which part of the picture I want the viewer to see, as if it was like the duality of man, represented in the two pictures. This made for a very interesting series, as I created eerie atmosphere between the photos, almost a 1920's horror film like vibe. it also shows the variation and similarity between the photos, since they are the same people, but photographed in different ways, and from different angles, to show that even from a simple perspective change, things can look very different, even without the extreme lighting difference. Underneath you will find the full contact sheet of pictures that were taken, before they were converted into black and white, and enhanced by contrast or brightness. |
THREE STRANDS
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FOCUS
In this series of photos, I plan to go around and take photos of literally anything, since i am using a macro lens, so it will be all out of focus.
i took photos of everything that was around me, in an effort to see them in a very different way, with the macro lens easily being able to blur out the environment, creating a semi clear image. I liked the aspect of nearly making out the image, but to find out it was something completely different than what you had expected. This to me made the idea of focus a very possible contender for the task i was going to use for the main part.
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TYPOGRAPHY
In this series, i plan to shoot pictures of different people's eyes. People will have different sizes, and colours, and i think it will be something interesting to look forward too, and perhaps overlay them like on the photos by Bernd and Hilla Becher.
I plan to take the photos of the eyes that i have taken, and place them side by side, very much in the style of Bernd and Hilla Becher. This will hopefully create a piece of photography that will have both similarity and variation at the same time. I could do what Idris Khan did to the photos that they had taken, and overlay them all, so you could see all of the pictures at once.
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CLOSE UP
I want to take photos of close up things, with a macro lens, so that I can see the up close variation in the objects, but how it looks similar in the zoomed out. This will require me to use things like a macro lens, and get extremely close up.
Getting this close up to the subjects of the photos was amazing, as i could see all of these different things that could be created. For example, i took one of the photos of a rock, and then moved and replaced the background, in order to create a visual piece, that could be completely mistaken for something else. It is almost like a toy camera effect on the subject, wherein I could add small pieces and people's models doing things in order to fill the gap, and make it a bridge between similarity and variation. This is also a very strong contender for the final strand which will be developed.
EXAMPLE OF TOY CAMERA EFFECT
for this, i simply went onto google images and found a silhouette of characters that were doing what i wanted (rock climbing silhouette, or walking people silhouette), and then i removed the white background, and pasted them into the picture. I then manipulated the perspective of the photos, creating an image that was all in the same point of view, with a perfect balance, and a perfect image
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I am very interested of the idea of the minimal look, and very much like the idea of miniatures in the photographs, whether they be models, or actual figurines. This idea comes from the following artists:
These photographer utilise miniatures in order to create photorealistic scenes. This creates an interesting take on the similarity and variation, wherein the mini's look as if they are doing real everyday things, such as playing golf, mowing the lawn, and playing in some sort of pool in the summer. it is the similarity to real life, but the variation in the setting, and person. The activity however, is still the same to real life.
photographers to research for the strands:
David Levinthal - miniature
Slinkachu - minature photography
Christopher Boffoli -
Minimiam
Idris Khan - Hila and Bernd Becher
David Levinthal - miniature
Slinkachu - minature photography
Christopher Boffoli -
Minimiam
Idris Khan - Hila and Bernd Becher
MINITAURE PHOTOS
These photos were taken with the influence of the miniature artists at mind. For example, i didn't have access to the miniatures, so i instead had to use real people, but i decided that i could make them miniature my mixing their environment with smaller things, making them miniatures. This way, i had the opportunity to take the individual people, and mix their environment with the different things.
i have created several scenes, in which the miniature figures are doing certain things. For example one of the pictures will be the builders operating on a phone, trying to fix it.
another will be a film set recording something, and i will have a screen there, to try and show the picture that the camera is taking.
i have also come up with other ideas, but the figures themselves have to dictate what i am doing with them, otherwise i cannot assume what to do. I would like to shoot the photos in square format, but they will have to be taken digitally, in order to edit in post production, to the specific needs of the photo.
I have made sketches of some of the photos, which will be used to create proper photos.
another will be a film set recording something, and i will have a screen there, to try and show the picture that the camera is taking.
i have also come up with other ideas, but the figures themselves have to dictate what i am doing with them, otherwise i cannot assume what to do. I would like to shoot the photos in square format, but they will have to be taken digitally, in order to edit in post production, to the specific needs of the photo.
I have made sketches of some of the photos, which will be used to create proper photos.
these photos were taken under studio lights in the classroom. I unfortunately had to retake all of those photos, as the lighting was off, and i wanted to stitch them together. Underneath you will find the stitched together photo. you can see some of the stitch lines, but i decided to leave them in, as it shows you the dimension of the pictures, and how many photos were taken. This picture was stitched together using 5 individual images.
i have decided that my final piece will 1 big sheet, with the images stitched together, to make one very large picture, with lots of different things going on. The stitched together aspect will represent the world, and the similarities and variations will be in the world of the picture, with the different items that they are doing.
I also took inspiration from this film 'Downsizing', which uses CGI, and interesting camera angles to create an interesting aspect of small people, next to extraordinarily large people. This was what I decided to use as a base, with small people interacting with normal sized things, like matchboxes, and cutlery. This made my idea more interesting, as could see that it works practically. This way, I decided to use small models of people, and create them doing small things. I could have used big things, with actual people, but this would have required a green screen, and a clever editing eye to take the photographs from the same perspective. Instead taking pictures of normal people with small things, i decided to take pictures of the little models, with the normal sized things. This allowed me to create a sense of the toy camera effect.
all of these pictures were taken with a white paper background, and foam core bottom, with the following settings:
-manual
-1/80
-f5.6
-iso 100
-135mm lens
The repeatability of the white in the image is something that ensured that I had a consistent colour for the white background so that i could stitch it together with little trouble. This was before I was going to make it an ensemble piece, but when i did piece it all together, it worked with the contrast and the colour together. I just had to change the exposure and the levels on the photos to match each other, and then it blended perfectly.
-manual
-1/80
-f5.6
-iso 100
-135mm lens
The repeatability of the white in the image is something that ensured that I had a consistent colour for the white background so that i could stitch it together with little trouble. This was before I was going to make it an ensemble piece, but when i did piece it all together, it worked with the contrast and the colour together. I just had to change the exposure and the levels on the photos to match each other, and then it blended perfectly.
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These series of photos were something that had to create a sense of connection to the people in the photo. In the photos, i wanted the variation and similarity to be very clear, and yet objective. It needed to be for the people to realise that the similarity is that they are doing things that normal construction crews would do, but it instead would have a certain amount of difference to reality. First, I used everyday items, that people know what is in front of them, and then making the workers perform their normal tasks, but with the items. This way, it created a sense of similarity with the items and the tasks, but the scale of it is what changed.