What is portraiture?
Portraiture is taking a photo of someone, we are doing it this half term to show the ability of portraits. We take environmental portraits where there is a person in the image with a creative image in the background. This regularly shown by many photographers such as Tyler Mitchell and Niko Fro. Look down and see my work and some examples of portraits
- The first time I remember seeing a portrait was the Tate modern art gallery when I was younger and there were many different portraits in the gallery of famous artists and there work.
- The portrait by Vincent Van Gogh was painted using acrylic paints and stencils and detailed paintbrushes.
- The portrait that stood out in the gallery was Vincent van Gogh who's work was made with lots of swirls and different patterns and dark colours it was a self portrait of himself.
- The image was presented in a section of an art gallery and the painting really stood out to me as there were lots of abstract colours and there was lots of information about the artist and painter next to it.
- Abstract, portrait, paint, composition, dark, night sky, visual, symbolic, unique, swirls.
- The portrait by Vincent Van Gogh was painted using acrylic paints and stencils and detailed paintbrushes.
- The portrait that stood out in the gallery was Vincent van Gogh who's work was made with lots of swirls and different patterns and dark colours it was a self portrait of himself.
- The image was presented in a section of an art gallery and the painting really stood out to me as there were lots of abstract colours and there was lots of information about the artist and painter next to it.
- Abstract, portrait, paint, composition, dark, night sky, visual, symbolic, unique, swirls.
Photo recreation - Van Gogh
In the task me and David re created the first portraits we remember seeing, for me it was the self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh that I saw in an art gallery. I found the task not too challenging but I would have liked to take a few more different photos. I maybe could've done multiple different poses. It looks slightly different to the original but I prefer them because they are much more creative and less dull than a normal self portrait. I made it my own by using a different background and obviously different lighting because mine was a photo and Van Gogh's was a painting but i would say we bought his self portrait to life and made it more interesting and creative.
Photo recreation - Homework task
Nico Fro workshop
The type of photography that Niko Fro does is street photography, as he takes lots of photos of people in everyday life in south London in areas such as lee green and Eltham. He frames his images either with an environmental background, a frame within a frame or just a colourful background. The background is important because it gives structure to the image, what I mean by this is that all the backgrounds on his photos are abstract and creative which is what makes all his photos look unique and interesting because with just a plain boring background the photo would be very dull and average. Nico usually photographs random people who aren't actually posing for a photograph but are doing something in there everyday life that Niko would think is a good photo. He takes little places in South London that no one would really notice or care about and turns them into really great, creative and unique photographs. Overall he is a great photographer and takes great photos in South London including the area I live in
Environmental photos - evaluation
We had the task to go around the school and take photos inspired by Nico Fro, who was actually with us to help. The main objective was to ask staff members, teachers or students if we could take a photo of them and if they said yes then we had to capture the perfect picture of them. To capture the perfect image Nico Fro told us to get either an environmental background, (A background that contains some sort of nature) or a colourful background (A background that is colourful, usually contrasting). I enjoyed this task and in my photos I used many different backgrounds such as, the Kidbrooke buildings, the canteen, the assembly hall, the classroom and the walkway. I also captured shots of many people such as, myself, the engineer, a cleaner, and two students who had the same task. Overall, I think I did well.
The similarities between the two photos is that they are both old fashioned, in black and white and taken with old cameras. They are both self portraits and are framed in a square format both with dull backgrounds. I think they are both made with the very first camera to exist, I think the most likely reason why they are slightly different colours is because they were taken with different lenses. I think Robert just took the photos with his head and shoulders because he deemed it as the very first self portrait so he just took it normally. I'm not too sure why Hippolyte is lying down but perhaps he wants his image to become more abstract. I think they are both wealthy as getting a camera in the 1840s was extremely difficult. Roberts photo is almost taken like a selfie, however Hippolyte's looks like it's taken by someone else but I prefer Hippolyte's because it's more abstract than Roberts.
Street photography homework
This task was really fun and enjoyable but also really challenging. We had to take environmental photos of our area but with some containing people in them. I took lots of really nice photos of my area however, I didn't incorporate enough people into my photos and thats why the task was challenging. These photos are inspired by photographer Niko Fro who takes lots of environmental photos in south London. Overall I did good but did not fulfil the task to its fullest.
Tyler Mitchell photo recreation
In this task we had to take six photos of our partner using partial inspiration from Tyler Mitchell. We looked at his photos and discovered that most of his photos are taken using props but in an unusual way. I think my favourite photo is the top right photo as the colour contrast of the black and white works really well and the prop that we used added a sense of mystery. Overall I think we did really well on this task and it showed in some of our photos. WWW: I used a variety of different light sources to create this photograph I was interested in the tonal contrasts that could be achieved by moving the lights and observing the arrangment of shadows and highlights.
EBI: I think I should take more pictures in each shoot so that I can make decisions about which images have worked when I review and edit them afterwards.
EBI: I think I should take more pictures in each shoot so that I can make decisions about which images have worked when I review and edit them afterwards.
Tyler Mitchell
- Tyler Mitchell's reasons for taking these images is that he wanted to photograph black people at leisure, playing, relaxing, being natural. I partialy agree as I think there should be more photography like this
- For the photographer these images are ones that have been denied history-there are no images like these that have been viewed before. I agree I haven't seen photography like this much.
- He said that the act of visualising and making these types of images, projecting that image for the world to see is an important act. I can see that as it shows black people doing everyday things which I think we should see more kinds of photos like this and we should see more kinds of photos like this everywhere.
- He wants the normality of the lives of the people shown to exist in public places. Usually these images have been denied he wants the images to have 'freedom'. He wants to change the idea of the lack of representation and wants to correct the imbalance. He wants to break the barriers and change and the way photos are taken and advertised across the world.
- Tyler Mitchell also wishes to subvert the notion of hierarchy within art and photography. He is trying to add equality in photography.
- The images are autobiographical-he is telling his own narrative his story from his childhood. His photos are influenced by his interesting background and where he is from
- His images are influenced by a trip to Cuba.
- These are the images from his youth recreated.
My favourite Tyler Mitchell photo is the one on the left with the yellow bricks as the colour contrast is beautiful. Tyler Mitchells photos are excellent and they really stood out in the Tyler Mitchell photo gallery. His photos are inspiring and great to learn about.
Central London gallery visit
We went to central London to go on a school trip and these are some of the photos of people that I took. I enjoyed going out to London and going to the Tyler Mitchell photo gallery and the Photographers gallery and discovering different techniques of taking photos which I have taken lots of inspiration from and will try and implement it in my own photos. The Tyler Mitchell photo wasn't as big however it displayed many great photos.
WWW: I used a variety of different light sources to create this photograph. I was interested in the tonal contrasts that could be achieved my moving lights and observing the arrangement of shadows and highlights.
EBI:
WWW: I used a variety of different light sources to create this photograph. I was interested in the tonal contrasts that could be achieved my moving lights and observing the arrangement of shadows and highlights.
EBI:
Portrait task
In this task we had to take 4 different images of a self portrait, a police mugshot, a passport photo and a family portrait we had to make sure that we were using the correct facial expressions in the photo and making sure that each image is framed perfectly as for a police mugshot, passport photo and family portrait the photos have to be very neat and framed within a square format. I think one of the most important factors for this task is the facial expressions as they define each picture. Police mugshots are usually taken holding a number and the person in the photo usually has a slightly angry, anxious and worried look. In the passport photo only your head is in the frame and you have to keep a straight face, no smiling. The family portrait was quite formal as we were all sitting beside eachother in a formal arrangement.
WWW: Used good backgrounds a good formal framing.
EBI: Improve the family portrait
WWW: Used good backgrounds a good formal framing.
EBI: Improve the family portrait
The relationships between portraits in art
In this task we had to chose one or more images from the Tallis GCSE website and recreate them using the props provided and in the area of block 1. It was quite a challenging task as the images contained many different details and the props were quite limited. We had to use our imagination with the colours as we couldn't get the exact ones in the image. I chose these images as I thought they were really creative and abstract.
I think that we improved our images well as we have used a better background which was plain black. We also used more accurate props so the colours matched the original photos, we also made the lighting better as the first image was in the dark room with very little lighting. Furthermore, The way we positioned ourselves in the photo was much more similar the original photo. There are definitely things to still improve but we had major improvements.
WWW: I like the composition of this image. I thought hard about about exactly where to place the frame when I looked through the viewfinder. The forms and shapes on the final picture seem well balanced
EBI: I feel like I need to be more patient when taking my photographs. I sometimes rush the process.
WWW: I like the composition of this image. I thought hard about about exactly where to place the frame when I looked through the viewfinder. The forms and shapes on the final picture seem well balanced
EBI: I feel like I need to be more patient when taking my photographs. I sometimes rush the process.
Man Ray photograms
What is a photogram? A photogram is a shadow like photographic image made using many different types of objects and many different types of styles. They are created by placing objects on a light sensitive and applying light to it for a few seconds.
His compositions are fantastic, the contrast of black and white in his photograms are really fascinating as the random objects are illuminated in the image. It is really cool with the amount of possibilities that you could make in the photograms such as the top left image where the materials (including hands) make the photogram look like an evil face. I think you could use almost any small material in a photogram and still turn it into something majestical. To make his photograms he puts his objects onto light-sensitive paper and then exposed to light. The light areas of the print are where objects have rested on the paper and stopped light exposing the paper.
Cyanotypes
What is a cyanotype? A cyanotype is a photo created using coated paper and light, the cyanotype is a method of photographic printing that produces blue prints. Sir John Herschel, an astronomer and scientist, discovered the process in 1842. Herschel was able to reproduce mathematical tables as well as other notes and diagrams by using the cyanotype method. It led to the creation of creative art pieces such as Anna Atkins.
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Bauhaus educator as well as a painter and photographer from Hungary. He was a major proponent of incorporating business and technology into the arts and was heavily influenced by constructivism. That was the year Moholy-Nagy made five canvases by phone. Based on his instructions to the foreman, the paintings were made in a sign factory in Germany. Both men used a grid to communicate the locations of the enamel colors on a chart that he had of the factory's colors.
Even before he joined the army, he had begun to draw. But to pass the time while he was stuck in artillery observation posts for so many hours, he started drawing. On the backs of military-issued postcards, which he could easily carry, he created hundreds of drawings, many of which were in color. They are bright, energetic, and frequently silly. His left thumb was broken by shrapnel in 1917 and he had a long improvement in Budapest. He joined the military as a reserve. He had a terrible time during the war. At this point, his social idealism began to take shape. While he was in Budapest, he published literary criticism and short stories, but he was already seriously considering becoming an artist. A friend from the university supported him in this. Iván Hevesy, who later turned into a craftsmanship pundit, was one more of his significant early tutors.
László participated in exhibitions and attended evening classes at an art school in Budapest. Therefore, we can say that he began his artistic career around 1918, when he was 23 years old. His figurative and Expressionism-influenced artwork included drawings and paintings. He added the name of Guszti bácsi's town to his own and became László Moholy-Nagy. It appears that another friend, Erzsébet Landau, who owned a photography studio in Budapest, sparked his interest in the art at this time. According to the evidence that is currently available, Erzsi Landau gave or sold László one of her old cameras and encouraged him to become a photographer. In spite of the fact that I don't have a clue about the specific date when he started to photo, it was some time before he left Hungary.
After the war, there was a brief period of political unrest and revolution in Hungary before Admiral Miklós Horthy established a dictatorship. László went back to Szeged after leaving Budapest. He also traveled to Vienna at the end of 1919 from Szeged. He was pretty much on the move for the rest of his life from that point on. He joined the Hungarian avant-garde group MA in Vienna, where they were temporarily exiled from their homeland's political repression. Lajos Kassák, an artist and writer who also had a significant impact on Moholy's career, led the group. However, Moholy didn't like Vienna and moved to Berlin in the spring of 1920.
Even before he joined the army, he had begun to draw. But to pass the time while he was stuck in artillery observation posts for so many hours, he started drawing. On the backs of military-issued postcards, which he could easily carry, he created hundreds of drawings, many of which were in color. They are bright, energetic, and frequently silly. His left thumb was broken by shrapnel in 1917 and he had a long improvement in Budapest. He joined the military as a reserve. He had a terrible time during the war. At this point, his social idealism began to take shape. While he was in Budapest, he published literary criticism and short stories, but he was already seriously considering becoming an artist. A friend from the university supported him in this. Iván Hevesy, who later turned into a craftsmanship pundit, was one more of his significant early tutors.
László participated in exhibitions and attended evening classes at an art school in Budapest. Therefore, we can say that he began his artistic career around 1918, when he was 23 years old. His figurative and Expressionism-influenced artwork included drawings and paintings. He added the name of Guszti bácsi's town to his own and became László Moholy-Nagy. It appears that another friend, Erzsébet Landau, who owned a photography studio in Budapest, sparked his interest in the art at this time. According to the evidence that is currently available, Erzsi Landau gave or sold László one of her old cameras and encouraged him to become a photographer. In spite of the fact that I don't have a clue about the specific date when he started to photo, it was some time before he left Hungary.
After the war, there was a brief period of political unrest and revolution in Hungary before Admiral Miklós Horthy established a dictatorship. László went back to Szeged after leaving Budapest. He also traveled to Vienna at the end of 1919 from Szeged. He was pretty much on the move for the rest of his life from that point on. He joined the Hungarian avant-garde group MA in Vienna, where they were temporarily exiled from their homeland's political repression. Lajos Kassák, an artist and writer who also had a significant impact on Moholy's career, led the group. However, Moholy didn't like Vienna and moved to Berlin in the spring of 1920.
My favourite pieces of Moholy's work
Light workshop notes
-The key light is the main light.
-A Soft box confines light from an artificial source into a wired frame box.
- The further away the light the shadow increases but as you put the light closer in front of his face then there is more light and less shadow.
-The light is a filement light which has a layer of translucent cloth used to make the light softer called diffusion.
- The barn doors on the led lights are used to make the light more specific and defined.
- You can use translucent paper to change the colour of the light.
- A 2 point light system is where you use two lights at 45 degrees to eachother. White light reflects the light. If you had a white wall, the light and shadows are harder to control.
- Black absorbs light. If you had a black background, it will absorb the. It is easier to make shadows with a black background.
-Green backgrounds could be used for green screens.
- LED Lights- easier to work with, don't get as they don't get too hot, can change colours.
- You can change the intensity of the lights using the arrows on the back.
- Speedlight Is not a continuous light, it flashes when being controlled by a trigger.
- Two toning is using two different colour gels on one subject.
-A Soft box confines light from an artificial source into a wired frame box.
- The further away the light the shadow increases but as you put the light closer in front of his face then there is more light and less shadow.
-The light is a filement light which has a layer of translucent cloth used to make the light softer called diffusion.
- The barn doors on the led lights are used to make the light more specific and defined.
- You can use translucent paper to change the colour of the light.
- A 2 point light system is where you use two lights at 45 degrees to eachother. White light reflects the light. If you had a white wall, the light and shadows are harder to control.
- Black absorbs light. If you had a black background, it will absorb the. It is easier to make shadows with a black background.
-Green backgrounds could be used for green screens.
- LED Lights- easier to work with, don't get as they don't get too hot, can change colours.
- You can change the intensity of the lights using the arrows on the back.
- Speedlight Is not a continuous light, it flashes when being controlled by a trigger.
- Two toning is using two different colour gels on one subject.
Winter photos
For this we went outside and took some photos in the snow and took some winter themed photos. I took advantage of Mohamed wearing fully black clothing to create a sort of shadow silhouette type image in the middle two. I used the contrast of black and white being polar opposite colours to create these images including a picture of him in action and a self portrait with his face distorted by a piece of snow. Overall, I could have added more images and thought of more ideas, however the task was our own choice and we did it to experiment with the snow and sun light. I think I got some good images in the end.
Light experiments
In this task we got to experiment with the lights and see how the different colours and lights would affect our images. We used Led lights and filament lights to add different light compositions and to reflect light upon the persons face. We used the barn doors on the led lights to make the light more specific and defined.
Lee Friedlander
I really like the style of self portraits Lee Friedlander as he uses unique styles to take self portraits and includes things such as props to increase the abstraction. His photos are in black and white signifiying that they are quite old photos. American pioneer Lee Friedlander is renowned for his innovative street photography. Friedlander's street photography captures the unexpected overlaps of light and content in urban landscapes and frequently features candid portraits of people, signs, and reflections of himself in storefront windows.
Rankin destroy
Rankin is regularly the concern of such complaint and this challenge turned into one manner for him to reply to his critics with function wit, permitting his photos to be destroyed and the sale of the artwork works reaping rewards a song charity for younger people.
Two years withinside the making, the Destroy or in other words Rankin mission worried over 70 musicians and visible artists together with Michael Stipe, U2, Jarvis Cocker, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, Debbie Harry, Marianne Faithfull, Mat Collishaw, Douglas Gordon and Damien Hirst. In my opinion very big talented and creative musicians.
Rankin says style and superstar images may be criticised for being checked out in a extraordinary perspective. Rankin sees himself as the principle challenge of such grievance and the brand new mission of Rankin called `Destroy' is one manner he can reply to his critics with characteristics, on this he lets in his pictures to be destroyed and sells them reaping rewards a tune charity for younger humans. His motive is to make humans recognize what abilities are utilized in developing tempting pictures that stand out to everyone. Rankin faces demanding situations to this mission which might be to observe the difficult strategies which might be used to make those or to generate memorable pix for humans. The cause why images is the sort of high-quality medium for marketing and marketing Is as it tells us a story.
Two years withinside the making, the Destroy or in other words Rankin mission worried over 70 musicians and visible artists together with Michael Stipe, U2, Jarvis Cocker, Ian Brown, Kylie Minogue, Debbie Harry, Marianne Faithfull, Mat Collishaw, Douglas Gordon and Damien Hirst. In my opinion very big talented and creative musicians.
Rankin says style and superstar images may be criticised for being checked out in a extraordinary perspective. Rankin sees himself as the principle challenge of such grievance and the brand new mission of Rankin called `Destroy' is one manner he can reply to his critics with characteristics, on this he lets in his pictures to be destroyed and sells them reaping rewards a tune charity for younger humans. His motive is to make humans recognize what abilities are utilized in developing tempting pictures that stand out to everyone. Rankin faces demanding situations to this mission which might be to observe the difficult strategies which might be used to make those or to generate memorable pix for humans. The cause why images is the sort of high-quality medium for marketing and marketing Is as it tells us a story.
Rankin's work.
Photos to destroy
Photopea
In this task we had to use a photoshop website called Photopea to edit a photo that we took adding different affects changing the contrast, brightness, saturation. In this photo I experimented with the settings changing lots of different factors, and gave Mohamed an evil cartoon look. I think this was good fun to see what kind of images we could make and I think my final product came out well in this task. I think the photo is composed well and the contrast from black to white makes the photo look really good. The photo was taken with a black background with a white reflective light to the left adding a unique rock style to the background.
Photograms
In this task we had to go into the dark room and make photograms. To make photograms you have to get light sensitive paper an assotate and random objects. Place the light sensitive paper under the safety light and put the assotate and objects on top. Expose the light for 3 seconds then put the paper through chemicals wash and dry then your photogram should be done. In my photograms I used unique objects such as my keys which had an abstract shark pattern on it. I composed my objects and placed them around with my face as the main focus. The saturation was very calm and the composition was good.
In the early series Only Half the Picture, Muholi captures moments of love and intimacy as well as intense images alluding to traumatic events despite the equality promised by South Africa`s 1996 constitution, its LGBTQIA+ community remains a target for violence and prejudice. Other key series of works, include Brave Beauties, which celebrates empowered non-binary people and trans women, many of whom have won Miss Gay Beauty pageants, and Being, a series of tender images of couples which challenge stereotypes and taboos. Muholi views their work as collaborative, referring to the individuals they photograph as "participants" rather than as subjects. They try to capture the moment without negativity or focusing on the prevalent violence, portraying the LGBTQI community as individuals and as a whole to encourage unity. Thus, their work can be considered documentative, recording the overall community LGBTI of South Africa and their challenges, and at times, more specifically the struggle of black lesbians.
Muholi's efforts of creating a more positive visualization of LGBTI Africans combats the homophobic-motivated violence that is prevalent in South Africa today, especially in the case of black lesbians.
Muholi's efforts of creating a more positive visualization of LGBTI Africans combats the homophobic-motivated violence that is prevalent in South Africa today, especially in the case of black lesbians.
In this image we had to create an abstract image by cutting up a picture of yourself and placing each cut out in a different unique position to make it look totally out of place. After that you put it into the printer and chose a colour, put the paper with the colour back into the printer and reverse it. Chose a new colour and print, the image should end up with scattered pieces of cut outs and two different colours. The image may look weird at first glance but it actually looks really vibrant and artistic. I used the colours blue and green as they contrast together well and are relaxing colours. I framed the small cutouts of the image in a completely random way and I do think it turned out well but perhaps I could've thought about the positioning in a bit more detail but on the other hand it looks good when it is randomly placed. Overall, I think I did well and made a good image.
30 Photos
In these photos I took lots of different photos of people in scenery around my area, central London and other various places I mainly used photos of my friends and tried to add different and abstract backgrounds to the photos. These photos were just for fun and i'm happy how a lot of them turned out. I like my creativity when taking these photos as I used lots of different backgrounds, people, places and objects to collect a beautiful collage of abstract street photos.
WWW: I took a variety of abstract photographs using unique backgrounds and photo styles
EBI: Used different photo styles
WWW: I took a variety of abstract photographs using unique backgrounds and photo styles
EBI: Used different photo styles
Ziqianqian
These photos are very abstract because they use a wide variety of objects in their photos and relaxing colours within the images. The genre is still life as they are very simple and minimalistic images. These photos are also self portraits just without the women showing her face in the photo because taking self portraits just has to include you not your face. The composition is really unique and she makes the photos look calm which is linked to the still life genre and how she encorporates plants, furniture and mirrors into her photos. It makes.
Ten words to describe her photos is Abstract, calm, reflective, colourful, creative, unique, still, organic, artistic and nature. |
Ziqian Qian inspired photos in school
Using the style of ziqainqain I composed several images using a mirror within the picture I layed mirrors with different backgrounds and got any part of my body within the photo I used a plain background for some as well, I tried to compose a different genre of photo within the photos to get a wide selection and to try out different things. I also tried to only take inspiration from her photos and not copy them.
WWW: I am pleased that I was able to select the point of focus in these images correctly. This helped me create a contrast between objects that are in sharp focus and those that are out of focus.
EBI: Next time I intend to frame the image more accurately, looking more carefully around the edges of the screen before I press the shutter.
WWW: I am pleased that I was able to select the point of focus in these images correctly. This helped me create a contrast between objects that are in sharp focus and those that are out of focus.
EBI: Next time I intend to frame the image more accurately, looking more carefully around the edges of the screen before I press the shutter.
30 self portrait homework task
In this task we had to take 30 self portraits and convert them to black and white photos. For this task I mainly used reflections since it makes my images abstract and unique and lets me unlock a new style of self portraiture. I also made the most of my old phone and used it to create different reflections and experiment with things such as lighting and framing. Overall I think I did good in this task and managed to think of creative ideas.
WWW:
WWW:
Ziqianqian inspired photos
For this task we had to take 30 images that are inspired by photographer Ziqian qian who takes unique self portraits involving mirrors, nature, objects and her body. When doing this task I was thinking about variation, I didn't want a bunch of the same images otherwise it would be boring. I took her concept of placing objects in front of a mirror and put parts of my body such as my hands, legs, body and head while trying to maintain a nice background. I think I used really good colours in the images and managed to incorporate nature into the images also adding unique objects and framing them well. Overall I think that I did well in this task.
For my plan I want to take light photoshoots and experiment with lights to make a nice collage of light photos and make a collage out of them for my final project.
Assessment practice
This photo by Lee Friedlander a professional photographer is a self portrait but with further unique aspects added with it the way he composes the self portrait is subtle as it is portrayed in the wing mirror of a car which gives the people looking at it a calming feeling when looking at it. It shows a black and white photo of a car and a sign in the background which shows a sign with a message on the background. In many of Friedlanders photos he uses writing within them, perhaps to sed a message to the people who are looking at it. The photo symbolises that a relationships have no commitment and people just forget about them and do what they want and ride in the distance, just like a rental car. The photo was taken in missisipi 2008 from his American car series. The photo was taken to spread a message to other people about relationships and staying committed. The genre could be still life as it sets a calming scene.
Final piece
In my final piece I am going to make two photos in each genre I am going to make two photograms two light photos and multiple abstract colour photos