Unit 1 : Final Evaluation
In unit 1 , I looked at alot of different artists for inspiration for my work like Anna Atkins , Gjon Mili , Robert-Paul Jansen , Boogie and a few more. For example , Boogie influenced one of my personal projects themes of street photography , his work is very unique and different. He took pictures of gang life and pictures from different angles and heights. This inspired me to take all sorts of pictures when I was going out or in school , from different views and in different places. Another artist who influenced me would be Robert-Paul Jansen , he is a mobile photographer and gave me ideas for my personal project of mobile photography. His photos are very interesting for several different reasons , for example he uses different colours and contrasts , also he takes very good photos on a iphone and uses different effects so all his photos look different. His photos inspired me to go out with my phone and take some pictures of nature and use different applications so none of could be identified as the same. Also with mobile photography you can take photos anytime , anywhere on your phone which is a advantage because with a camera its a heavy and big object which you don't always have with you.
During unit 1 , I have used and experimented with a load of materials whilst doing techniques and processes. For example cyanotypes , photograms , pinhole photography , camera obscuras , light painting and multiple portraits. I enjoyed doing light painting as its something interesting to learn and I also used it again in my theme of spirals and you can produce anything you choose to as you are controlling the lights and strobe. However at the same time your pictures will always come out different. Gjon Mili was a light painter who used a strobe flash light to produce his photos and he inspired me to do my light paintings as his pictures in 'LIFE' were produced very well and alot of people noticed Gjon for that. Also I learnt how to use photoshop properly which I have used loads in most of my projects , because it helps edit and refine my images effectively.
Ive done six different personal projects , mobile photography , street photography , edges , abstract , spirals and absurd. For my first personal project (mobile photography) I took pictures around the school on a ipod as there is several different apps on the ipod I could experiment with where as on the DSLR I can't use different apps. Also the whole reason of mobile photography is to use a ipod/iphone , so you can take the photo at that exact moment , wherever you are. When using the ipod , I could edit and share the pictures much quicker than if I was using the DSLR. However the one disadvantage of using a ipod is the quality of the photos , the quality is much better on the DSLR. I also took some photos outside of school with a iphone which was a better quality than the ipod and I took time in editing them during the break of school. During this project I researched artists and I came across Robert-Paul Jansen , who's photos were very helpful and inspiring. I used two different apps on the ipod called Pixlmatic and Hipstermatic which were good to use.
For my second personal project (street photography) we began by watching a video called 'Everybody street' which talks about many different street photographers and gave us a overall idea of what street photography is. Boogie was one of the photographers shown in the video and he stood out the most to me , this is because his pictures are from people who are in gangs which this lets you see different peoples life. Also he takes photographs from different angles and heights and I thought that would be interesting to do. We then went out and took our own photos which had to be from different views and angles , for my first set I used a ipod , then I went back out and used a DSLR. Our second challenge was diagonals , so we went out and took photographs with diagonals in them. Our next task was , rule of thirds. This was basically a imaginary grid which helps us make better photographs , some cameras do have a option to turn this grid on so you can see what is in each box. Our fourth task was , compare and contrast the rule of thirds. All of theses challenges help us to develop our ideas and use different materials to complete the tasks.
For my third personal project I chose to do edges , I thought it would be easy and there would be loads of pictures I could take for this theme. I firstly went out and took pictures on a ipod then I went out and used the ipod again to get a better set of photos , as I know knew what I was trying to achieve more. I then used the DSLR to take pictures and researched before I went out , I found one artist called Piet Mondrian. He focused on abstract art and his lines being parallel to the canvas. After doing this , I then went a took another set of photos on the DSLR which we're the best set of photos. I used these photos for my final piece , which was a big board with circles and triangles cut out , where they had been cut out I selotaped the pictures so you could just see some of it. After making this final piece I did some more research and found a artist called Charles Harbutt , his main focus is black and white pictures and they all have edges in so it related to my theme. He thinks of unusual edges so I thought I would try it. The first time the pictures were good but didn't have a good quality as I took them on a ipod , so I went out again and got a better set of photos on the DSLR. We aslo learnt how to do glitching whilst doing personal project 3 , we had to open and photo and mess about with its text so the photo got ruined basically.
For my fourth personal project (abstract) we had to explain what we thought abstract was , we then wrote down the main elements of abstraction and took some photos based one of the elements , the first set did not look abstract at all , so I could of glitched them to make them look distinct. We also watched a youtube video about what artist do during there day so we get a insight of what they do and could maybe do some ourselves. I then took a few sets of photos and out of them chose the best ones to weave. I chose two photos and weaved them in and out of eachother to create a unusual picture. I then experimented with a few apps which edited pictures different to see which one came out the best so I know what one I should use in the future. After doing this I printed the same photo twice , just in different colours so I could cut shapes out of one and have a different colour one behind.
For my fifth personal project (spirals) , I chose to do this one as there is many ways you could create spirals and I could experiment with a lot of things. The first thing I chose to do was go into the broadcasting studio and create spirals using light painting. I then done some research on Andy Goldsworthy who created sculptures with nature , he inspired me as his work was different to everyone else's , he does stuff you would not think of doing and it's also very creative. I then took some pictures on my phone and edited on photoshop so they now had spirals in them somewhere. Finally , I ripped up little bits of paper and made them into a spiral sort of shape and photographed them with a app called 'Hipstamatic' , with this app I put it on double exposure so two pictures combined into one. I took a few pictures in black and white and then took some in colour so I could compare them. It was a successful idea and I used these pictures for my final piece which we mounted onto board.
For my sixth and final personal project (absurd) , I found a photo that I thought was absurd and wrote about why I liked it , It was a photo taken by David Shrigley of a ballon in bed with a smiley face drawn on it. We then got set a task to take pictures based on hiding. There was not much places I could find which were good to use so this task wasn't as successful as it could of been. I took another set which I aimed to be more in focus and a bigger variety of photos , the second set were more successful than my first set. I then got a load of post-it notes and wrote random words/phases on them and stuck them somewhere completely different to what they said , this was a good idea and went to plan. After this I took a set of photos based on forced perspective , these were successful but I could of got more and should of planned it more. I took headshot's of people in my class so I could use photoshop to turn there face upside down, it was a difficult process as the first way I did it didn't work , so we had to find another way. However when I finally could do it , they we're very successful and I chose them for my final piece in the end. I printed out three of the best ones and mounted them on to board.