PERSONAL STUDY- WORD CLOUD

EVALUATION - ENHANCED IMAGE PROJECT

The design brief for my 'Enhanced image project' was designed to teach further dark room techniques, and to encourage the exploration of enhancing images through various experimentation and new methods learnt. The theme for the project was my own chosen pathway (documentary) which I had to stick with through out the whole unit. 

The outcome I produced was a form of 'installation' which I used a bin for. I used liquid emulsion to print my work onto various different pieces of 'rubbish'. I then displayed them onto a bin and took a photograph to accompany my whole installation. I chose to print my photographs onto rubbish as my photographs were all mainly taken in the more 'grittier' parts of London; what some may call the 'slums' or look at as rubbish. So I decided to play on this idea with my final piece.

The materials I used were as mentioned, the liquid emulsion which I used to print my photographs with and various different pieces of rubbish. For photograph which I mounted I mainly used the dodging and burning technique I learned at the beginning of the project. That specific technique really helped to enhance my already contrasted photographs and make them resemble that of my chosen artist, which I looked at for inspiration. 

For my final outcome I researched a lot of different installation pieces and sculptures. I looked at artists such as Annette Messager for inspiration as I previously I was going to create a piece much like her hanging installations. But later I decided against it as I wanted something a little more contemporary. I also researched different types of surfaces which liquid emulsion worked best on, as I had never used it before and didn't know what to expect. There weren't many photographers that I could find using liquid emulsion, but the few that did seemed to use very light materials such as paper or thin pieces of cloth. Also very importantly I did quite a bit of research on the person who most inspired my photographs, Daido Moriyama. I looked at his different pieces of work and read some of his interviews in which he talks about his work.

To try and meet the deadline, I tried to ensure I had some form on plan in my head as to where I was trying to go with my work. I ensured I took all my photographs on time to allow me enough time to fully experiment with them. I also made sure I mad every picture count, as I did not know how many would actually turn out good enough to use in the final piece. 

In general I think most parts of my process worked quite well. I thought that the dodging and burning of my photographs were quite successful and proved to be an important part of my process. Also when I finally got the the liquid emulsion to work in my favour, that too was quite successful. I got enough of the photograph so that you can make out what it is, but then I have not included all of the image to give it a more 'aged' appearance. 

I think what would make my outcome a success is that everything more or less goes with each other. The is a running theme through out the whole piece and it all corresponds to one another. 

In my opinion I would say I've met the brief as I experimented with most of my photographs and have learned new techniques which I can apply later on in the course. I also explored and applied these new techniques into creating a final piece by the end.

As with anything I did find some problems along the way. One of which kept happening a lot of the time is my photographs being out of focus. With this being an issue a few of the photographs which I liked could not be used due to this. Also due to the lack of time I didn't have enough time experimenting with the liquid emulsion. This resulted in me having wasted a lot of my time seeing what materials the liquid emulsion worked best on. If given more time I would definitely experiment with different materials to see which worked best with the liquid emulsion. 

I learned many new skills which I hadn't before. I learned dodging and burning, vignetting, solarisation and combination printing. I had already tried solarisation before and therefore I almost improved on that. 

Overall I thought my outcome was quite successful in achieving what I set out to do which was to learn and apply these new techniques which I had learned through out the course and I would say my final outcome reflects this.   

REVIEW

FINAL FILM: PHOTOGRAPHS

These are the first few photographs which I have taken and developed as part of my final piece. My main inspiration has been Daido Moriyama with his high contrast photography and candid imagery.

For this photograph I first did a test strip, but then I thought it looked quite good as a test strip with the contrast of it going dark to light, so I figured out the time for it which was 10 seconds, and then covered each side for about a second. But whilst I was doing this I made sure I shook the piece of card I was using to cover the sections in order to get a smooth transition of colour, otherwise had I not shaken it, it would have block lines of colour. 

Whilst it was raining I took a photograph of a puddle which was reflecting a tree, I really like this photograph and how dark it is, I think it really reflects the mood at the time the photograph was taken.

I took this photograph from the back of the passenger seat in the car. I was looking in from the little space there is on the drivers seat. When I originally processed this photograph, the middle where you can see the lamp posts where completely white, and you couldn't just make out some details. So I burned the middle of the photograph for an extra 8 seconds from it's original time to get this final photograph.

This photograph, again I took when it had just stopped raining and this gives the ground a lot of light and an almost gloss like look which I think works really well with the contrast look I wanted. I like the really dark of the alleyway with the contrast of the white from the shutters in the shop.

I quickly took this photograph as I was crossing the street, so I didn't really have much time to figure all the settings. However I thought I ended up with a decent photograph.

These were a few posters which I saw whilst walking down a street. I didn't have any typography images so I reckoned this photograph would help fill that 'hole'. When I first processed the photograph the posters around the side weren't as dark as I wanted, therefore I burned all the corners to make them darker; revealing a lot more detail. I decided to burn the photograph rather than expose the whole image again but for longer time because the white in the middle was just becoming too dark,and the contrast between the writing and the background was beginning to get lost.

For my final image I took this one of a few fans which I saw in an alley way. I am not sure what appealed me to take the photograph, I guess it could've been the composition of the fans themselves which I thought looked really cool, but the end result I thought was quite successful.

ANALYSIS: DAIDO MORIYAMA

Daido Moriyama is a Japanese photographer who is known for his photographs depicting the breakdown of traditional values in post war Japan. This photograph is called 'Shinjuku'. I chose to analysis this piece as its strong contrasts and mysterious look attracted me to it. It's a little hard to make out what exactly it is and this just makes the photograph 'that' more intriguing. 

In my opinion I would say that Moriyama's style of photography is very gritty and almost careless in certain aspects. It can definitely be compared to the works done by William Klein, who happens to be one of Moriyama's most influential photographers. I think the theme of Moriyama's work is 'gritty' street life and capturing Shinkjuku street life. Moriyama describes his photography as gestures of his internal desire. As I believe his photographs aren't merely records of Shinkjuku they are far more personal than that. "There are many desires inside, and I don’t really care about social systems or the world’s view. My photography is rooted in my personal desires, so it is natural that it gets personal."

In an interview Moriyama says that he prefers to use small compact cameras as a pose to big bulky SLR's.“If you use a SLR, you see things like this [holds camera to eye]. And when you do this, you want to have perfect focus. The moment which you want to capture does not fit your feeling, if you do this. If you are using a compact camera, it is simple[While holding SLR to eye] Also furthermore, if you [use a SLR in front of your eyes] many people in Shinjuku, people turn their faces, or flee.” The benefits of shooting with a such a camera is that you wouldn't have to worry about focusing or things such as exposure since the camera would do all the work for you. What Daido says is that by doing it this way it allows the photographer to focus more on the nature of the photograph and all the feeling it carries, rather than the camera settings. Another benefit of Daido's method is that it is less 'threatening' to the public and therefore allows for more candid photography. 
A lot of his documentary work is in black and white and it is highly contrast. This really allows the photographer to captivate the viewer rather than distract them with a lot of colour. The use of black and white in his photographs give off a very mysterious and almost erotic mood to his photographs, some more than others. “The reason why I think black and white photography is erotic is completely due to my body’s instinctive response. Monochrome has stronger elements of abstraction or symbolism. This is perhaps an element of taking you to another place. Black and white has that physical effect on me. That’s just the way I respond to things.” We already see the world in colour, therefore capturing photographs in black and white is form of break from that, the photographs in turn become a lot more symbolic and meaningful. 

I choose to look at his work as I've always had a big interest in documentary photography and when I was told to look at Daido Moriyama's work, I instantly thought that I wanted to create a final piece inspired by his work. He is very unpretentious when it comes to his photography which is what I think makes his work unique. His approach to his work is very casual with the use of his simple compact camera. The thing which I find most inspiring about his work is that he doesn't simply snap a photograph, he always has some personal connection with each image; he wouldn't simply take a photograph just because it was appealing to the eyes. 
Moriyama's work has inspired me to slow down on the notion of trying to achieve the 'perfect' image, don't think about the camera settings too much as this will distract me from actually taking the photograph.

"The photos you take are a self-portrait of yourself, not others"

LAYER BLENDING

To achieve this effect I used the Layer blending tool in Photoshop and this link to create the effect. I simply combined a bunch of photographs which I took during the summer, I thought it would look quite cool if I combined black and white photographs with colour ones, this is in my opinion worked quite well and gave a really good contrast between the dark photographs with the more colourful ones.