Evaluation

For this assignment we have been asked to produce 5 final images and submit them to Fujifilm Student Competition. I have been taking photographs of Molly, I have been taking some simple portraits. I wanted them to be pure and smooth as I like simple portraiture, and as I was not sure about my idea it is always good to take some simple images so then you have a wide range of work and ideas that will make your photograph look like you want it to look. My work is also about stitching on images. From the start my idea was the same, I wanted to take portraits and stitch on them from the start so it did not really change at all. I was going to do some cut ups but then I didn't so I just left my images as they were. There are few equipment I have used in this project such as.; film camera, film, scanner, Mamiya RB67, softbox, snoot, needle, thread. Basically, I have used Mamiya for the first time and I loved it! It is not as complicated as I thought and when you get to use it more often it becomes as easy to use as digital camera. There was one problem I had to deal with in this assignment namely it was a photoshoot that did not work at all because one of my tutors told me to experiment with aperture so I did and all my images were under exposed I think only two of them worked but there was no point in scanning them into a computer because them two images were not the ones I wanted to use as my final images. I had no more time to arrange another photoshoot so I just left it as I was happy with them images I took of Molly. There is definitely an artist that have influenced me in my work which is Maurizio Anzeri as I was inspired by his embroidery work. If i done this assignment all over again I would probably do more photoshoots than I did this time to make sure I have a wide range of images to pick from. I am happy with my final outcomes but it could always been better than it is now. 

Kevin Corrado

Kevin is a young photographer from Connecticut. He is currently a graphic design student at the University of Bridgeport. In one of his interviews he said that he really really likes long exposures and he explained how he doeas it and why he likes them so much - "I use a tripod, since the exposure is so long, it would be blurry otherwise. Unlike using a narrow depth of field with a blurred background in shorter exposures with large apertures, in long exposure photography the subject is emphasized with a wide depth of field. By allowing water to flow still or letting clouds blur together, you can bring out the subject of the photo by decreasing the distraction of the background (and at the same time making it more beautiful). Star trails from long exposures bring out your photography subject more too, since the subject will be the only sharp object." he also says that he personally prefers black and white work to colour, but that doesn't make him any different. Also, here are some other questions that caught my eye: 

What attracts you to the water so much?
Water is simply amazing. Its a great representation of time in photographs.

What lens would you recommend for landscape photography?

That’s sorta difficult to say when currently I’m just working off my 18-55 kit lens and 55-300 telephoto. I guess I could go online right now and find you guys a good one but since this is “Teenage Photography” and you guys are probably all in the same boat I am with money, that’s probably not necessary. Anyways I usually end up using a very low focal length but with something in the foreground or taking up most of the frame. With the low focal length you will really get the feel of dimension.

Nick Lepard

Nick is basically a new artist that just begins his professional career. Some people say that his style is raw, competent and confident beyond his years. like the work of artists he admires, for example, the American writer Charles Bukowski, a 'hard-boiled anti-hero', and British painter Jenny Saville, who 'constructs painting with the weighty heft of sculpture' - "he paints with gusto and verve. he has moved beyond his earlier photo realist style to a more courageous approach that is part 'happenstance' and very much about the process of moving paint around, while still maintaining artistic control. " - says Diane who was very impressed with his work when she first saw it. Lepard’s parents immigrated to Canada from England. Both a Canadian and a UK citizen, he was born in Vancouver in 1983. Lepard graduated with a B.F.A. from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in 2008. His work is the product of a true artist, it reflects the mentality of the man behind the masterpiece. He paints into a style of more abstract concepts like the influx of media and information on the human being onto the canvas. He produces pieces that reflect the process more so than a planned product: “I find my art never really turns out the way I plan, which I chalk up to the fact that there are a lot of things influencing me that I am either unaware of, or that I don’t want to give credit to.” This is his own style.

The competition research

For this years competition, students are allowed to do anything they want, as soon as it has been taken with a original Fuji film. Students can have a wide range of choices because they can do whatever they want, whatever their idea is they can upload and submit the image. In previous years it has been different because there always has been a theme, but this year is totally open which is very very good because not everyone likes to take photographs of the same specialization or theme. 

Here are two of my final embroidery images, first one is my favourite as I like the colours and patterns better on this one, but on th second one I like patterns that I done with yellow thread. I have subbmited both of these images to Fuji, I am very very pleased with my final outcomes as i was not quite sure if they will look ok because I prefer to shoot digitaly than with a film camera, but they are not as bad as I thought they would be so this is a good point about it. 

Tommy Ingberg

Tommy is a self-taught photographer, who works with photography and digital image editing creating surrealistic photography dealing with human nature, feelings and thoughts. What Tommy does is he leaves the interpretation of his work up to viewers but also says, 

"For me, surrealism is about trying to explain something abstract like a feeling or a thought, expressing the subconscious with a picture. The Reality Rearranged series is my first try at describing reality trough surrealism. During the two and a half years I have worked on the series I have used my own inner life, thoughts and feelings as seeds to my pictures. In that sense the work is very personal, almost like a visual diary. Despite this subjectiveness in the process I hope that the work can engage the viewer in her or his own terms. I want the viewers to produce their own questions and answers when looking at the pictures, my own interpretations are really irrelevant in this context. "

In the last couple of years he has received international recognition his work shown in many publications and receiving awards and honorable mentions from many different competitions. I think is work is surprising, different, abstract and makes you think about it for a long time thinking what it means and what message is behind it.  

Mamiya RB67

These are my final images which I took in the studio, I have asked Molly to be my model as I wanted to stitch on them and Molly was the best person to do that with as I done it so many times before. But when I actually scanned them into the computer they look much more nicer than when I stitched on them. I will upload them stitched ones later to compare. I am quite pleased with them because they turned out exactly how I wanted them to be. I have used Mamiya RB67, and the film I have used was  Neopan 100 Acros. To be fair when I scanned those images onto a computer I thought they are not as well taken as I thought because they seem very dark and grey, but when I have tried to edit them on Photoshop they started to look better and better, but i had to remember to not edit them too much because when you do that it just gets worse and worse. There are only 10 images on the film I have used and some of those I took are blurry but I actually managed to get as many as I need. As there was only 10 images on this film I brought another one but as my tutor told me to experiment with the aperture I did but that made my images completely unexposed and I think that only two of them worked so I decided to just leave it and don't even scan them because they would not work anyway. For the other photoshoot i have asked Lauren to do some modeling for me as she's got blond hair and I wanted some difference in my photos and see what it would look like to sew onto hair like hers. But unfortunately I did not had a chance to do this. In my previous projects I think I have sew onto a photograph of Lauren anyway so I kind of know what it would look like.      

Idea

With the images I have taken with digital camera of Molly I am going to do an experimentation inspired by an artist Dilcia Giron who does cut ups on images, I really like her images, they are very abstract and surreal but they have a meaning behind them.

On her facebook page she says: "The universe is an ongoing Creation. Constant and continuous. Before I learned to walk or talk, I was coloring with crayons and playing with my imagination. My role as a creator was assigned to me before I was even born. And even though I have been forced to join a world that was created before me...and even though my head was fill with answers and assumptions, I still remember my original task: CREATE!"

Practice photoshoot

Last week I took some images of Molly with a digital camera because I wanted to practice and set the lights to see what would be the best lighting for my idea. I told Molly to do different faces as I dont want my final images to be simple and boring. I used Canon 5D, 24-105mm lens, soft box and a light which I don't remember a name of. 

Proposal

For this assignment we have been asked to produce 5 final images to submit to the Fujifilm Student Award 2014. My idea for this project is to do images inspired by Maurizio Anzeri who does embroidery images, he goes and founds old photographs in charity shops and them brings them home and stitches on them. I will take my images with black and white film because it is easier and quicker as I can develop it at collage and I don't have to send it off somewhere else, I can do it all myself. The lighting on my images will probably will look like the one at the bottom with a lad sticking his tongue out and looking up. As my model I will use Molly because I have been something similar before and Molly was the best person to stitch on. The target audience is competition, so the people who I am making them photos for are probably my age or few years younger or older than me and of course  the juges who will choose the best images. Anyone that is a student can enter this competition so it depends what age they are while they study. There is one artist that have influenced me to do such a thing and it is Maurizio Anzeri who I mentioned before. There are few equipments I will definitely use for this project, film camera, digital camera, studio, soft box, snoot, makeup, needle, thread, computer, scanner, darkroom, chemicals. As I will be using a film camera there is one that is the best for portraits which is Mamiya RB67, so I will make sure it will be available when I need it. I don't think I will foresee any problems other than something might break in the studio or the camera will break but that's hardly possible but if it will happen then I will take photos outside and use different camera that is there to use. 

Introducion

For this assignment the aim is to broaden and deepen skills, knowledge and understanding of creative thinking, across contemporary and historical art and design, in order to inform own practice. It is also to understand of how photographs can be manipulated and challenged. We have to create at least 5 final images to submit to the Fujifilm Student Awards. We have been asked to use new and tradicional technology to push our work even further. We have to analyse the creative ideas of others and this will include studying language, images, artefacts, meaning, direct observation, perceptual sensitive and the practitioners own motivations in art and design.