Abstract Photgraphy
The Formal Elements
Focus: Areas that look clearest and sharpest in the photograph and which areas do not.
Light: Where are the areas in the photograph that appear brightest, are there any shadows? Does the photograph help you tell the time of day it is? Is the light natural or artificial? Harsh or soft? Is the light natural or artificial? Line: Are there objects in the photograph that act as lines? Are they straight, curvy, thin, thick? Do the lines create direction in the photograph? Do they outline? Do the lines show movement or energy? Repetition: Are there any objects, shapes or lines which repeat and create a pattern? |
Shape: Do you see geometric (straight edged) or organic (curvy) shapes? Which are they?
Space: Is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates this appearance? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces? Is there depth created by spatial illusions i.e. perspective?
Texture: If you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel?
Value/Tone:Is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest value? Where is the lightest?
Space: Is there depth to the photograph or does it seem shallow? What creates this appearance? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces? Is there depth created by spatial illusions i.e. perspective?
Texture: If you could touch the surface of the photograph how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they would feel?
Value/Tone:Is there a range of tones from dark to light? Where is the darkest value? Where is the lightest?
My First Set
I was exploring patterns. However if I wanted to I could divide some of these image into other groups such as, lines, shadows etc.
What are Chemigrams?Pierre Cordier was the most responsible for developing and exploring chemigrams. Cordier adapted the name Chimigramme in French in 1958. A chemigram is a combination of both painting and photography and is made without a camera.
Ingredients neededChemigrams require the use of materials from silver-halide based photography
|
Experimenting with Chemigrams
these chemigrams we're made as a class on the 26th september 2013. this was our first time making chemigrams. We worked in our normal photography room with the lights on and the blinds open. we used three trays of chemicals - developer, stop and fix - and running cold water to wash the chemicals of the photographic paper.
for patterns we used brushes, a sponge and paper towels to paint the chemicals onto the surface of the paper before taking the prints over to the window and exposing them to fairly strong sunlight for between 2 and 20 minutes. We then fixed the images and washed them in running water. The fix seemed to produce white shapes, whereas the stop (and developer) created paler shapes. The longest exposure was 20 minutes and this worked really well. It was certainly the most varied in terms of colour.
for patterns we used brushes, a sponge and paper towels to paint the chemicals onto the surface of the paper before taking the prints over to the window and exposing them to fairly strong sunlight for between 2 and 20 minutes. We then fixed the images and washed them in running water. The fix seemed to produce white shapes, whereas the stop (and developer) created paler shapes. The longest exposure was 20 minutes and this worked really well. It was certainly the most varied in terms of colour.
Photograms
I made these photograms as group with Emily and Yasmin as a group of three in the darkroom. If you look closely at these you can see some of the objects used stand out more than others for example the light bulb, pen and pins. If I was to do this experiment again I would use more objects to cover up the black space this would make it harder to make out what objects are used.
Aaron SiskindI like Aaron Siskind's photographs of trees and surfaces. He seems interested in textures and patterns and this is also what interests me the most. The camera is usually very close to the subject so you can't really see the edges. He also emphasises the tones in the image making a sharp contrast between light and dark.
|
|
Trip to Sutcliffe Park
My class visited a local park to see if we could capture abstract images of the landscape. These are the images I took with a DSLR. I was focusing mainly on patterns, textures and light and thinking about the work of Aaron Siskind.
Comparison
Trip to Margate
Our next class trip was to Margate. We visited the Turner Contemporary gallery to see exhibitions by Dorothy Cross and Turner and Constable. We also explored the Old Town and the sea front and took loads of photographs.
I tried to make my pictures as abstract as possible. I looked at textures and surfaces, patterns and the effect of the weather. It was really rainy and windy so it was quite difficult to make pictures. I'm really pleased with the images I took. |
My photographs
I edited these pictures in two ways:
- selecting sequences of images that looked good together (e.g. seascapes, rubbish)
- making small adjustments to the images in iPhoto before printing them out (e.g. changing from colour to black and white)
My Final Pieces
Unit 1 Evaluation
I first started Unit 1 looking at Anna Atkins as I was doing research on the process of cyanotypes. I noticed that photographs don’t always consist of the use of a camera capturing moments but focus on the natural source of light we experience everyday. I also then went on to look at the technique of making photograms and Rayographs and working in the darkroom. I explored the work of Eadweard Muybridge an English photographer who used a series of cameras to explain how horses move. By taking a sequence of images he could tell a story. This was another process/technique I adapted when making my Moving Images response. Duane Michals influenced my final pieces for the Multiple Images project a lot more than Atkins and Muybrigde because I really liked the way he used a sequence of images to tell a poetic story. I also looked at Anton Kawasaki who is a mobile photographer. I really liked the fact that in Kawasaki's mobile photography he captured a lot of images of what’s around him on busy streets and using a square shape. I also enjoyed looking at his images as there was always a subject to look out which was normally a person. I also got the impression that the person in the image may not always know that they are being photographed so they may not alway be looking directly at the camera. When exploring abstraction I looked at Pierre Cordier when looking at Chemigrams and had a go at making chemigrams and experimented with them however I didn’t enjoy the making and waiting process of making chemigrams so I didn’t stick through and continue to make them but I did go back the making photograms which I enjoyed more and like the use of black and white effect the paper has.