Unit 3 - Personal Investigation
Unit 3 is my Personal Investigation, it is based on Surrealism, chance and searching for the miraculous.
CHANCE ARRANGEMENTS: PHOTOMONTAGE
I have been inspired by surreal photomontages techniques to take my first pictures. I have started with using my old pictures to look for different techniques I could use in the process of making collages. I learnt that I can do anything to create photomontages and claim it as my own as far as I can re-create it and change it for example; rip the picture, cut it, scratch it, rearrange it etc.
Photomontages create strong connection towards Dadaism and Surrealism, first ever photomontages were made in 1920s and 1930s, they were mainly used to promote propaganda. 'The appropriation of the mass media provided endless fodder for the dadaists scathing critiques, and the disjunctive cuts of photomontage effectively captured the fissures and shocks of modernity'. Raoul Husmann, Jhon Heartfield, Hannah Hock were the main influences and still are.
I have created more photomontages created by chance, it have allowed me to use my creativity in rec recreating new pictures. To make those I have used random art catalogues and with my randomly chosen pictures I combined it with materials like poster notes and cardboard.
Photomontages create strong connection towards Dadaism and Surrealism, first ever photomontages were made in 1920s and 1930s, they were mainly used to promote propaganda. 'The appropriation of the mass media provided endless fodder for the dadaists scathing critiques, and the disjunctive cuts of photomontage effectively captured the fissures and shocks of modernity'. Raoul Husmann, Jhon Heartfield, Hannah Hock were the main influences and still are.
I have created more photomontages created by chance, it have allowed me to use my creativity in rec recreating new pictures. To make those I have used random art catalogues and with my randomly chosen pictures I combined it with materials like poster notes and cardboard.
CHANCE ARRANGEMENTS: Lomography Experiments
Darkroom experiments
CHANCE ARRANGEMENTS: Duchamp inspired self portrait
Marcel Duchamp was born in Blainville, Normandy in 1911 he created a personal brand of Cubism, combining earthy colours, mechanical and visceral forms and a depiction of movement which owes as much to Futurism as to Cubism. One of his best-known pieces is a urinal, titled Fountain and signed 'R. Mutt', which he submitted to an exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York in 1917. In the ensuing controversy, the concept of the readymade became associated with an assault on the conventional understanding of the nature and status of art. 'Network of stoppages' is a perfect example of chance in Surrealism as he have changed the view of 1 meter instead of being it normal like a straight long ruler. Duchamp said that 3 Standard Stoppages opened the way "to escape from those traditional methods of expression long associated with art," 'A straight horizontal thread one meter long falls from a height of one meter onto a horizontal plane twisting as it pleases and creates a new image of the unit of length'.
His work taught me that we can be anything, and anything can be everything because we should break the laws of something. Instead of having something 'normal', the way it should be, we can change and present it as multiply new things and objects. That is why I was inspired to do the 'Self portrait' made of thread. Each round part of my body was measured with a thread, then dropped down from the height of that body's part. It was really interesting and fun making it because at the same time I could call it a crime scene, parts of my body being left on a piece of paper, it was my identity.
His work taught me that we can be anything, and anything can be everything because we should break the laws of something. Instead of having something 'normal', the way it should be, we can change and present it as multiply new things and objects. That is why I was inspired to do the 'Self portrait' made of thread. Each round part of my body was measured with a thread, then dropped down from the height of that body's part. It was really interesting and fun making it because at the same time I could call it a crime scene, parts of my body being left on a piece of paper, it was my identity.
This is my self portrait, I have created it by measuring my round parts of body, for example; waist, head, arm. I have cut the tape with the measurements to present my parts of body. Then I have drop each individually from different body position, the height depended on what part of 'body' I was using. I have decided to name is a 'Crime scene' because it looks like a dramatic as the wire doll lays down around it all.
'I'My task was to forget all of the photographic skills, it was to not look directly into a viewfinder but to take a picture as if you was a kid. As if you have done your pictures without your conscious, so you don't think of what to take picture, you just take it because you like it, because it brings something in you. Beings emotion, it might not mean anything to others because it is about you, and your memory.
I have decided to make it more personal, to take a 'self portrait' not exactly of my face or my body. It is a self portrait because it represents me, everything around me, those pictures tell a little something about me. They feel like 'home' when I look at them, it is because those are all of the things you can find in my room. In a years time, those pictures would wake something in me, not to anyone else but me. |
The Rorschach testit is a psychological test in which subjects 'preceptions of inkblots are recorded and then realysed using psychological interpretation, complex altorithms, or both.
I have created these by dropping ink on a piece of paper and folded the paper in half to get the "butterfly" effect. Each image can be seen as something different in people's head. |
These are example of how I can experiment with my Rorschach outcomes. I have used random pictures that were taken by me and combined both in photoshop.
Glitch
I have decided to try the glitch effect on the rorschach test outcomes and randomise it. I did not know what I would get out of using glitch because each time can be different.
Photoshop: Bringing it together |
Screenshots of making process.
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Sol Lewitt was an American artist who was creating his and pieces =of art in such a strange way. He was giving instructions for several series of geometric shapes od detailed line drawings, that were made directly on the wall surface. Sol Lewitt wrote “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”
I must say I am very surprised and inspired by his work because he does not know what the outcome of his 'work' is going to look like, all he got is the creativity and the idea letting 'chance' create what he wants.
I must say I am very surprised and inspired by his work because he does not know what the outcome of his 'work' is going to look like, all he got is the creativity and the idea letting 'chance' create what he wants.
Post note 1Post note 3 |
My instructions - first attemptI wrote down on post notes my instructions of what pictures taken by 'people' should contain, for example objects or colours, because it is my first attempt I have decided to give the instructions to my mum and brother. The idea behind it was to see if there was going to be a connection between them two from the way they would take their pictures, plus because my brother is only 8 years old it was more interesting of what would come to his mind and how he would capture the things that catch his eye.
Post note 1:
Post note 2:
Post note 3:
Post note 2 |
My instructions - second attempt
For my second attempt I have decided to ask my friends and people that I know to choose 4 numbers from 1 to 6, they did not know that each number was a colour, after the moment they chose their numbers, I told them their next step which was to take a pic and send it to me. The colours were:
These are the results that I received.
- yellow
- blue
- black
- white
- red
- green
These are the results that I received.
Final Outcome
..... complete. Introduce the concept of Equivalence in photography with reference to Alfred Stieglitz and the essay by Minor White. Refer also to the work below by Francis Picabia. Why were artists and photographers in the 1920s interested in abstract forms created by chance? What did this have to do with experiments in psychoanalysis and the effects of the First World War? Add a gallery of Stieglitz's Equivalent pictures and explain the theory behind them. Analyse one of the photographs in detail. |
CHANCE ARRANGEMENTS: Response to John Baldessari
The context for this photo shoot was the idea of chance, you never know if u take out the same key or a new key. The link between mine and Johns work is that we both had a partner to play and take the pictures. Used same method, however we selected single keys.
JOHN BALDESSARICarrots 1972 - choosing a game for 2 players
John Baldessari was an american conceptual artist who was well known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. How he create these images: What he had done was pick out 3 carrots and asked the participant to select 1 carrot and replace it with a new one then snap a photo. |
Convulsive Beauty |
Beauty will be convulsive or not at all ... Convulsive beauty will be veiled-erotic, fixed-explosive, magic-circumstantial or not at all.
-- André Breton |
Convulsive Beauty - artists \searching for inspiration
Pinterest research
Tumblr research
Google research
Through out the whole research I feel like google is the most reliable website to look for artists and gain some inspirations.
The Beginning
Taking pictures of human body that the society would dislike and odd angels. Starting my journey with black and white pictures.
GUISEPPE PENONE 'TO UNROLL ONE'S SKIN' 1990-71
"Penone was a member of the Italian group Arte Povera. These artists attempted to reclaim the individual and celebrate "the free self-projection of human activity." In this piece, the artist photographed a glass slide pressed against parts of his body creating over 100 fragments which were then reassembled into a grid mapping his personal landscape. The artist also created versions of this piece as a book and as printed images on photosensitised windows in an exhibition hall."
Distortion, dreams, combining, unconventional beauty
Distortion - is a change, twist, something unwanted and destroyed that appears different from the way it really is
Dreams - thoughts, images and sensation that appear in persons mind while sleeping or bing awake, daydreaming and imaginary, often unreal people and objects
Combining - bringing/ joining different things together, mixing
Unconventional - ot based on or conforming to what is generally done or believed, unusual ,irregular ,unfamiliar, something you haven't seen before ,distinctive
Unconventional beauty - disturbed, destroyed beauty, something that people are often disgusted with
I put a string around my friends arms, tight to make their arms distort and look abnormal and fat. My next step is to use these pictures and my other black and white pictures and create photomontages.
Layering my pictures
Slides with texture
Creating slides of texture. My teacher after looking at my photo shopped pictures she has given me this idea to create and look at texture from food. Before I wanted to photograph rotten food, fruits and vegetables so this links to my previous idea. For my first trial I have decided to create only 6 slides. To create the texture I have used the kfc essentials: salt and ketchup, but also Vaseline, sand and pva glue to glue it together. It was like creating a sandwich as I had two pieces of plastic for each slide and between that I put my materials. I am happy with my first outcomes, as they got texture and each one looks different. My only concern is that you can see the glue too much however I think it gives it a look. I would like to use this technique and for my photographs.
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Examples
Taking my slides to the Dark room
Putting on filters
Layering my slide phphotograms with my other pictures
Using micro lens
The Connection
The connection between body, texture, distortion and shape. Is the skin and everybody's unique shape, face features.
Bubble bubble wrap our bodiesI have decided to go further with my idea of deformation so I have decided to put one layer od bubble wrap on naked body. I have used flash to show how contrast and brightness work well in black and white photographs. Also to create image of our body being as beautiful as fish scale, fishes might be disgusting, might smell, they can be different sizes and humans just like humans. We should shine and see beauty in everything.
I have decided to make my pictures unclear to see what body part is on the pictures, making it confusing for others. The only knowledge is that its humans body which should feel exciting. |
Changing the view of 'our' bodyBlack and white pictures been taken with iphone 5s camera. Flash on, edited on vsco app, B5 , either +1 or +2 contrast and exposure and grain on +12 in every picture.
I am continuing my journey with creating black and white pictures in convulsive beauty using the idea of distortion, disgust, human body and deformation. On left, I have used huge bubble wraps from Ikea, wrapped them around my body and then took them off to see the 'inside' and 'outside' of my body being deformed with huge bubble wraps. It was an idea of deforming my body by putting on more weight as in fat, with texture as if each food that I eat is inside of each bubble. Then I took it off to see the difference between my actual body and how I would look if I had more fat in me. |
Food experimenting - you are what you eat
Mixture - poison
http://www.lomography.com/magazine/186270-destroying-film-to-play-with-color
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/ajay-malghan-bleached/
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/ajay-malghan-bleached/
I have decided to use the method of Film destroyer. I have squeezed lemon inside a long cup and dropped my negative roll inside, left it there for an hour. Almost every 15 minutes I was shaking it up to get the lemon juice create more effect. I have send my roll to snappy snap, hopefully my outcome will be successful.
Process making:
Outcome:
I have developed my pictures at Snappy Snap, paid £10.99 for 36 exposures. I have picked my favourite pictures, which is only 8 of them as they contain the most evidence of the 'film destroyer', lemon juice. I think they are successful however, next time I will soak the roll for a week and sue more acids.
Plastic bag portraits -&chance
Hendrik Krestens.
Hendrick Krestens is a dutch photographer that since 1995 has been photographing his own daughter, Paula. His pictures been collected by wold museums and have inspired taste-makers as diverse as Elton John and Alexander McQueen. His initial idea was to capture something of the fleeting moments that fade of childhood.
I have decided to use him as my response because, as I was looking deeper into the plastic bag, it gave me this idea that in the world there is different types of skin, we are all made out of skin and the creased plastic bag looked like micro picture of humans skin. I wanted the model to put it on his head to present the 'identity' of him, no face, no case. |
Taking my ideas further...
These pictures were created by putting 4 mandarines inside 4 plastic bags for sandwiches. One bag contains mandarine with small cut on the surface which makes all the juice come out. Second bag got just the peeled of skin, third got the inside and peeled off skin. Last one just got the inside of the mandarine which makes a lot a juice come out. I have combined my bags with bubble wrap and some negatives to create these pictures.
Trypophobia
An idea. It could relate to the bubble wrap and the disgust.
Nature outside covered in winters skin
Personal Investigate
began my Personal Investigation with the phrase ‘Searching for the Miraculous’. I was interested in the way that photographers associated with Surrealism in the 1920s and 30s through to artists like Bas Jan Ader have used photography to seek out and document hidden beauty and new experiences as part of everyday life. I would describe surrealism as a cultural movement that attempted to give people the ability to make something out of nothing, expressing yourself and opening your mind in a very unusual way. The way I see it is that an artwork has the power to alter our perception of reality, liberating us from conventional rules.
I first decided to create a game that would teach the player(s) about Surrealism and Photography and its artists and icons. It was a good start to become more familiar with the movement, however I did not enjoy creating it. To do it, I decided to create a folder with a book and dices, scissors and glue for people to create surreal images (photomontages) out of well famous surreal images.
Then I decided to cut and create photomontages by playing a Surreal game based on chance.Photomontages create strong connection towards Dadaism and Surrealism, first ever photomontages were made in 1920s and 1930s, they were mainly used to promote propaganda. 'The appropriation of the mass media provided endless fodder for the dadaists scathing critiques, and the disjunctive cuts of photomontage effectively captured the fissures and shocks of modernity'. Raoul Husmann, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch were the main influences and still are. To create my photomontages I used my phone number, date of birth and address to find pages/photographs that I would rip out the art catalogue or book based on the actual number. Example: 078373…. page 7. It helped me create really exciting and effective photomontages that I am really pleased with. The chance let me discover and re-make (create my own images) pictures of well known photographers, like: Andy Green, Robert Walker, Jim Naughten, Peter Beavis. I was also surprised as I have created one photomontage without much conscious decision-making. I realised that this kind of chance process can help me create work that is outside my comfort zone, challenging my usual practices and habits. This was a very liberating experience. When I was finished with one of my pieces, I looked at the back and realised that I had created 2 simultaneously.
I was keen to further explore ideas of chance and the miraculous, and found extracts from Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, a 1949 book by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky. Inside that book you would be looking at the miraculous as it all connects to Surrealism and early ideas and techniques. Bas Jan Ader was a conceptual artist from the 1970s. His practice was influenced by some surrealist notions about ‘the miraculous’ in everyday life. He did not complete the project that he started as he disappeared at sea in 1975 while attempting to sail from the east coast of the USA to Europe. Bas Jan Ader’s work influenced me to look at surrealism in a different way and his story to me is very interesting. I have tried to create some surreal sentences myself that might have a meaning or might not. For Example:
His identity was locked after Williams silly habits, yes habits.
That is the sentence that I have created by using this technique.
his - page 11
identity - page 25
locked - page 44
william - last word
habits - 3rd word on a random page
yes - first word that u said that day
The only words that i have added were; was, after , silly. It was because I wanted to make the whole sentence make sense.
Also as part of my research of chance and using the miraculous I have played the Exquisite Corpse, a drawing challenge allowing multiple players to create collaborative surrealistic drawings by chance.
My fourth attempt to create photographs using chance was more like a treat to myself. It had to be a new camera. I decided to chose a film camera mostly because I have never worked with negatives before. I chose an action sampler camera with 4 lenses. I was struck by the phrase “Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of your life’’ that is used in the advertising for these plastic, toy cameras online. First of all, it is small, simple and you do not really need to know what you are going to capture. Even though in the book that I received from Lomography says “there's no rule” but yet they still have their “The 10 golden rules of Lomography” which are:
When I had the film processed only 6 images from 36 were exposed correctly.I must say that I was really surprised that my pictures turned out green and blue. I do not know if it is my fault or the cameras but I had to accept that I was unable to completely control the results of the experiment. I began to think about the unconventional beauty that resulted from my chance experiments.
I decided to enlarge my negatives in the darkroom. Since the images were already distorted I was interested to see what further transformations might take place. The resulting pictures looked gritty and grainy. Areas of the prints were obscured and mysterious. Although they were not good enough for a resolved outcome I enjoyed the process of manipulating the images and getting black and white prints from colour negatives.
For my project, I have decided that my strongest skill is with experimentations and also photomontages, but because I was very happy with my four shot camera, I have decided to use it but change the rules and instructions a little bit. That is why I have made a response to Sol Lewitt who does not create his designs. He gives his instructions to the technicians.That is why I have made two attempts. For my first attempt I gave my mum and brother post notes with my instructions, colours and shapes they should take pictures of with strict rules attached.
My second attempt was to tell my friends to take pictures for me. So, on Facebook I sent a message asking if they want to help me with my photography project. I asked them to choose 4 numbers from 1 to 6. Each number was a colour. Then I told them to take pictures of the colours; they all ended up taking only 4 pictures. I wanted to display their pictures in a square. I have cropped the pictures down, changed the contrast, brightness etc.
For my final piece, I have decided to use both of the attempts, however with my mum’s and brothers pictures I would leave them as they are, in squares next to each other. I would not alter their arrangement or make any additional edits. My second attempt, looks way much smaller and all together makes a huge rectangles with like more than 40 pictures. The reason I have done that is because I wanted to use chance completely to the point that I will not decide about how it is going to lay or about anything. Each picture, I have cut into 4 squares, that is where my photomontage skills come. Then, I have used the random number generator. From 1 to 24 - which picture. From 1 to 4 - which square. I have found out that the more you carry on putting them down together the more they will link together, with colours or shapes so you could end up with two the same picture in the same row or colours and it felt weird because i did not decide which picture was going to go next.
After creating my first final piece I decided to take my ideas further and use the idea of ‘convulsive’ beauty to create surreal images.
“Beauty will be convulsive or not at all ... Convulsive beauty will be veiled-erotic, fixed-explosive, magic-circumstantial or not at all. “
-- André Breton
I was interested in the work of a range of artist, for example: Dora Maar, Anne Biermann, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Kate Craig. To began my project I created a response to Giuseppe Penone who is my main inspiration. I was interested in our reactions to human skin, to photographs of the body and a mixture of emotions ranging from desire to disgust. I made a list of initial ideas:
Distortion - a change, twist, something unwanted and destroyed that appears different from the way it really is
Dreams - thoughts, images and sensation that appear in person’s mind while sleeping or awake, daydreaming and the imaginary, unreal people and objects
Combining - bringing/ joining different things together, mixing
Unconventional - not conforming to what is generally done or believed, unusual, irregular, unfamiliar, something you haven't seen before
Unconventional beauty - disturbed, destroyed beauty, something that people are often disgusted by
I began by putting a string around my friends’ arms, tight to make their arms distort and look abnormal and fat. I layered my pictures to create even more disturbed images. Most of my pictures are black and white because it makes the skin look even without giving the label. I decided to create images in slides so that I could further explore a range of textures. I wanted to photograph rotten food, fruits and vegetables so this links to my previous idea. For my first trial I have decided to create only 6 slides. To create the texture I have used the kfc essentials: salt and ketchup, but also Vaseline, sand and pva glue. It was like creating a sandwich as I had two pieces of plastic for each slide and between that I put my materials. I am happy with my first outcomes. I would like to use this technique and for my photographs. The connection between body, texture, distortion and shape. Is the skin and everybody's unique shape, face features.
I decided to go further with my idea of deformation so put one layer of bubble wrap on a naked body. I used flash to reveal greater levels of contrast and brightness in the black and white photographs. Also to create image of our body being as beautiful as fish scale, fishes might be disgusting, might smell, they can be different sizes and humans just like humans. We should shine and see beauty in everything.
I decided to make my pictures unclear to see what body part is on the pictures, making it confusing for others. The only knowledge is that it’s human body which should feel exciting. I was influenced to create more pictures of disgust but this time more deeper, that is why I decided to experiment with food because you are what you eat. Layered my pictures which changed the colour in photoshop itself and create these images that look like they got a lot of layers and textures. I decided to use the method of Film destroyer. I have squeezed lemon inside a long cup and dropped my negative roll inside, left it there for an hour. Almost every 15 minutes I was shaking it up to get the lemon juice create more effect. I have send my roll to snappy snap, hopefully my outcome will be successful. I have developed my pictures at Snappy Snap, paid £10.99 for 36 exposures. I picked my favourite pictures, which is only 8 of them as they contain the most evidence of the 'film destroyer', lemon juice. I think they are successful however, next time I will soak the roll for a week and sue more acids.
I jumped from using food to looking more into skin and decided that the world is full layered, created of skin. I researched the work of Hendrik Krestens, a Dutch photographer, who since 1995 has been photographing his own daughter, Paula. His pictures. His initial idea was to capture something of the fleeting of childhood.
I was looking deeper into the plastic bag, it gave me this idea that in the world there is different types of skin, we are all made out of skin and the creased plastic bag looked like micro picture of humans skin. I wanted the model to put it on his head to present the 'identity' of him, no face, no case. One of the response that I have made is a poster on A2 matte paper.
I wanted to take my ideas even further and have created images by putting 4 mandarins inside 4 plastic bags for sandwiches. One bag contained mandarine with small cut on the surface which makes all the juice come out. Second bag had just the peeled of skin, third had the inside and peeled off skin. Last bag had the inside of the mandarin which makes a lot a juice come out. I have combined my bags with bubble wrap and some negatives to create these pictures. It think it went successful and I do like the pictures but I do not want to use it as my another final piece.
I first decided to create a game that would teach the player(s) about Surrealism and Photography and its artists and icons. It was a good start to become more familiar with the movement, however I did not enjoy creating it. To do it, I decided to create a folder with a book and dices, scissors and glue for people to create surreal images (photomontages) out of well famous surreal images.
Then I decided to cut and create photomontages by playing a Surreal game based on chance.Photomontages create strong connection towards Dadaism and Surrealism, first ever photomontages were made in 1920s and 1930s, they were mainly used to promote propaganda. 'The appropriation of the mass media provided endless fodder for the dadaists scathing critiques, and the disjunctive cuts of photomontage effectively captured the fissures and shocks of modernity'. Raoul Husmann, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch were the main influences and still are. To create my photomontages I used my phone number, date of birth and address to find pages/photographs that I would rip out the art catalogue or book based on the actual number. Example: 078373…. page 7. It helped me create really exciting and effective photomontages that I am really pleased with. The chance let me discover and re-make (create my own images) pictures of well known photographers, like: Andy Green, Robert Walker, Jim Naughten, Peter Beavis. I was also surprised as I have created one photomontage without much conscious decision-making. I realised that this kind of chance process can help me create work that is outside my comfort zone, challenging my usual practices and habits. This was a very liberating experience. When I was finished with one of my pieces, I looked at the back and realised that I had created 2 simultaneously.
I was keen to further explore ideas of chance and the miraculous, and found extracts from Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, a 1949 book by Russian philosopher P. D. Ouspensky. Inside that book you would be looking at the miraculous as it all connects to Surrealism and early ideas and techniques. Bas Jan Ader was a conceptual artist from the 1970s. His practice was influenced by some surrealist notions about ‘the miraculous’ in everyday life. He did not complete the project that he started as he disappeared at sea in 1975 while attempting to sail from the east coast of the USA to Europe. Bas Jan Ader’s work influenced me to look at surrealism in a different way and his story to me is very interesting. I have tried to create some surreal sentences myself that might have a meaning or might not. For Example:
His identity was locked after Williams silly habits, yes habits.
That is the sentence that I have created by using this technique.
his - page 11
identity - page 25
locked - page 44
william - last word
habits - 3rd word on a random page
yes - first word that u said that day
The only words that i have added were; was, after , silly. It was because I wanted to make the whole sentence make sense.
Also as part of my research of chance and using the miraculous I have played the Exquisite Corpse, a drawing challenge allowing multiple players to create collaborative surrealistic drawings by chance.
My fourth attempt to create photographs using chance was more like a treat to myself. It had to be a new camera. I decided to chose a film camera mostly because I have never worked with negatives before. I chose an action sampler camera with 4 lenses. I was struck by the phrase “Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of your life’’ that is used in the advertising for these plastic, toy cameras online. First of all, it is small, simple and you do not really need to know what you are going to capture. Even though in the book that I received from Lomography says “there's no rule” but yet they still have their “The 10 golden rules of Lomography” which are:
- Take your camera everywhere you go
- Use it any time – day and night
- Lomography is not an interference in your life, but part of it
- Try the shot from the hip
- Approach the objects of your Lomographic desire as close as possible
- Don’t Think (William Firebrace)
- Be fast
- You don’t have to know beforehand what you captured on film
- Afterwards either
- Don’t worry about any rules
When I had the film processed only 6 images from 36 were exposed correctly.I must say that I was really surprised that my pictures turned out green and blue. I do not know if it is my fault or the cameras but I had to accept that I was unable to completely control the results of the experiment. I began to think about the unconventional beauty that resulted from my chance experiments.
I decided to enlarge my negatives in the darkroom. Since the images were already distorted I was interested to see what further transformations might take place. The resulting pictures looked gritty and grainy. Areas of the prints were obscured and mysterious. Although they were not good enough for a resolved outcome I enjoyed the process of manipulating the images and getting black and white prints from colour negatives.
For my project, I have decided that my strongest skill is with experimentations and also photomontages, but because I was very happy with my four shot camera, I have decided to use it but change the rules and instructions a little bit. That is why I have made a response to Sol Lewitt who does not create his designs. He gives his instructions to the technicians.That is why I have made two attempts. For my first attempt I gave my mum and brother post notes with my instructions, colours and shapes they should take pictures of with strict rules attached.
My second attempt was to tell my friends to take pictures for me. So, on Facebook I sent a message asking if they want to help me with my photography project. I asked them to choose 4 numbers from 1 to 6. Each number was a colour. Then I told them to take pictures of the colours; they all ended up taking only 4 pictures. I wanted to display their pictures in a square. I have cropped the pictures down, changed the contrast, brightness etc.
For my final piece, I have decided to use both of the attempts, however with my mum’s and brothers pictures I would leave them as they are, in squares next to each other. I would not alter their arrangement or make any additional edits. My second attempt, looks way much smaller and all together makes a huge rectangles with like more than 40 pictures. The reason I have done that is because I wanted to use chance completely to the point that I will not decide about how it is going to lay or about anything. Each picture, I have cut into 4 squares, that is where my photomontage skills come. Then, I have used the random number generator. From 1 to 24 - which picture. From 1 to 4 - which square. I have found out that the more you carry on putting them down together the more they will link together, with colours or shapes so you could end up with two the same picture in the same row or colours and it felt weird because i did not decide which picture was going to go next.
After creating my first final piece I decided to take my ideas further and use the idea of ‘convulsive’ beauty to create surreal images.
“Beauty will be convulsive or not at all ... Convulsive beauty will be veiled-erotic, fixed-explosive, magic-circumstantial or not at all. “
-- André Breton
I was interested in the work of a range of artist, for example: Dora Maar, Anne Biermann, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Kate Craig. To began my project I created a response to Giuseppe Penone who is my main inspiration. I was interested in our reactions to human skin, to photographs of the body and a mixture of emotions ranging from desire to disgust. I made a list of initial ideas:
Distortion - a change, twist, something unwanted and destroyed that appears different from the way it really is
Dreams - thoughts, images and sensation that appear in person’s mind while sleeping or awake, daydreaming and the imaginary, unreal people and objects
Combining - bringing/ joining different things together, mixing
Unconventional - not conforming to what is generally done or believed, unusual, irregular, unfamiliar, something you haven't seen before
Unconventional beauty - disturbed, destroyed beauty, something that people are often disgusted by
I began by putting a string around my friends’ arms, tight to make their arms distort and look abnormal and fat. I layered my pictures to create even more disturbed images. Most of my pictures are black and white because it makes the skin look even without giving the label. I decided to create images in slides so that I could further explore a range of textures. I wanted to photograph rotten food, fruits and vegetables so this links to my previous idea. For my first trial I have decided to create only 6 slides. To create the texture I have used the kfc essentials: salt and ketchup, but also Vaseline, sand and pva glue. It was like creating a sandwich as I had two pieces of plastic for each slide and between that I put my materials. I am happy with my first outcomes. I would like to use this technique and for my photographs. The connection between body, texture, distortion and shape. Is the skin and everybody's unique shape, face features.
I decided to go further with my idea of deformation so put one layer of bubble wrap on a naked body. I used flash to reveal greater levels of contrast and brightness in the black and white photographs. Also to create image of our body being as beautiful as fish scale, fishes might be disgusting, might smell, they can be different sizes and humans just like humans. We should shine and see beauty in everything.
I decided to make my pictures unclear to see what body part is on the pictures, making it confusing for others. The only knowledge is that it’s human body which should feel exciting. I was influenced to create more pictures of disgust but this time more deeper, that is why I decided to experiment with food because you are what you eat. Layered my pictures which changed the colour in photoshop itself and create these images that look like they got a lot of layers and textures. I decided to use the method of Film destroyer. I have squeezed lemon inside a long cup and dropped my negative roll inside, left it there for an hour. Almost every 15 minutes I was shaking it up to get the lemon juice create more effect. I have send my roll to snappy snap, hopefully my outcome will be successful. I have developed my pictures at Snappy Snap, paid £10.99 for 36 exposures. I picked my favourite pictures, which is only 8 of them as they contain the most evidence of the 'film destroyer', lemon juice. I think they are successful however, next time I will soak the roll for a week and sue more acids.
I jumped from using food to looking more into skin and decided that the world is full layered, created of skin. I researched the work of Hendrik Krestens, a Dutch photographer, who since 1995 has been photographing his own daughter, Paula. His pictures. His initial idea was to capture something of the fleeting of childhood.
I was looking deeper into the plastic bag, it gave me this idea that in the world there is different types of skin, we are all made out of skin and the creased plastic bag looked like micro picture of humans skin. I wanted the model to put it on his head to present the 'identity' of him, no face, no case. One of the response that I have made is a poster on A2 matte paper.
I wanted to take my ideas even further and have created images by putting 4 mandarins inside 4 plastic bags for sandwiches. One bag contained mandarine with small cut on the surface which makes all the juice come out. Second bag had just the peeled of skin, third had the inside and peeled off skin. Last bag had the inside of the mandarin which makes a lot a juice come out. I have combined my bags with bubble wrap and some negatives to create these pictures. It think it went successful and I do like the pictures but I do not want to use it as my another final piece.