Time and The Image.

Time and the image.

I chose this as my final image for this image lab. This was for many reasons, for example I thought the composition was eye catching, not having the main focal point in the centre but slightly off set unlike in the other shot. Looking at the image also gave me think of connotations of wildness and rawness. I visualised a Lion roaring and the streaks of light coming from the side were its whiskers and the faint shadows of light on the top its ears.

This image is meant to symbolise movement and the rigidness of the choices we make which determine these movements.

I enjoyed this project as I like working digitally and work which is colourful, to me is more inviting and appeals to me more as an artist.

Time and the Image.

I've always liked the idea of long exposures in images especially those which are full of colour. I think they create a kind of abstractness that instantly appeals to an audience as they are made to look for details within the image trying to work out what things are by their lines and colours.

At first I attempted to take a few photos that were inspired by Alexey Titarenko's work I had seen.

30 second exposure.

I went to the christmas markets with the narrative of getting ready for christmas as that is what the buzz of this time of year is for.

Although I like this idea it just wasn't as appealing to me as I had expected so chose to move to a new idea.

I used 6 glow sticks and a torch to create abstract eye catching images on the basis of long exposures.

My favourite glow stick image.

My favourite torch image.

Duane Michals

The House I Once Called Home.

Some of the series' and singular images within this book I feel reflects time; past and present.

The image above reflects what I mean by this. The faded double negative used in this image creates a sense of a memory or of time that has past. I like this idea of being able to see how a certain place was before and after. 

Alexey Titarenko

Taken from "City of Shadows" series.

This photo shows another concept of time. The idea of photos with long exposures are appealing to me and this is the route I want to go down for my own 'time' image.

I like the way this photo shows the sheer scale of what is going on at time. I feel that it is a better representation of the business of the moment that Titarenko is trying to capture.

Image Process continued..

The finished product.

Once all of our pieces were complete we printed them onto A3 lustre paper in order for them to be hung and displayed in the gallery.

We moved away from hanging with nails and bulldog clips. I think this was a good choice as I feel they were too big and overpowering for the size and delicacy of the work.

Hanging with glass headed pins.

We hung the pieces at eye level with 10cm around each piece in order for the different concepts not to interfere with each other.

In context.

It was interesting to see different artists and photographs that have different influence on people within the group as the majority were different and allowed us to be introduced to new projects we may have never seen before.

Second wall.

I think this project was the most successful so far in terms of hanging and worked well together in the space provided.

Image Processes

For this image lab topic we were told that we had to choose a photographer who's work we had seen in an exhibition that was appealing to us and we liked for certain reasons and write about this photo.

We were told to write about the Image itself such as Name, Author and size. The process of the image, how it was created (what camera, paper etc.) and the context of the image.

Image process template.

I chose an image that I had seen at the Brighton Photo Biennial 2012. It was by photographer Tony Bowen.

5952: East Sussex - Regret.

I had to email him to find out the details I needed about this particular series of work as there was little to no information on the internet as he is only a local Brighton photographer.

Copy of the email to Tony.

I felt the questions in the email above were relevant to the piece of work that I wanted to create and in understanding the reasons behind the way he did things for this project.

Tony Bowen's Website.

Doing this image lab enabled me to find out new process that photographers go through in order to get their desired effect. It also allowed me to see the thought process into not only the process of the production of the photos but also what went on afterwards. 

Layering continued...

Re-arranging the prints.

We took our images and put them into photoshop where we were aiming to create 2-3 large scale prints consisting of a collage of all our prints.
We had problems creating a perfect collage as some of the pieces weren't originally made A2 size.

Printing our large scale prints.

Once the pieces were printed we had to carefully role them to hang them in our exhibition area.

Improving our Hanging skills.

This mean't improving our skills from the previous hangings. I think we managed to work better as a group when hanging this collection and felt it was the best we had done. Although there were still a few mistakes made they weren't as noticeable and were nothing compared to those we had made in the past. 

The Final Product.

Layering images.

This weeks image lab continued on from the copying lab a couple of weeks previous. We were told to use our images in order to create an A2 sized images in photoshop that defined ourselves in any way we liked

Layering two different images.

Changing opacities to create desired affects. 

I chose to create my image with low opacities to give it a different affect to that of bold images and so that everything blends in together seeing as they all represent me as a person. I also think this helped separate my personality from everyone elses. 

Hanging continued...

Our task for this week was to finish off hanging our exhibition from last week making sure all pinhole prints and collodion images were composed in a way we thought appropriate. 

Putting nails into the wall to hang the clips off of. 

We had to measure out equal distances along the wall making sure each image had four equal places to be hung off. 

The finished hangings.

The Wet collodion images were hung using the same composition as the Pinholes which I think worked well and allowed for a symmetry within the exhibition. 

Wet Collodion Hangings.

Front on.

Looking back on the hanging process I feel the way in which the images are hung reflect the process in which they were made successfully. The way the Pinholes are hung allow you to see they were made in a large round object like the bins they were created in. 

Seeing the work coming together after weeks of work allowed me to see all that went into just one collection of work.

Hanging.

This week we've gone back to continue progressing on with our first 3 weeks work. We learnt how we should hang work. The best positions, heights and the reasoning that goes with it.

Measuring the height of photos in relation
to wall space to work out distancing.

Using a LED spirit level to make sure the
work is hung in a straight line.

We spent time deciding how high to hang the images and the best heights for audience viewing to do with eye level etc. We then decided in terms of light that lights each wall which images should be positioned where and what goes next to each other in terms as narrative and tones.

After this we spent a considerable amount of time choosing pairs of images to be hung together. We decided upon this by looking at tonal qualities within images, comparisons of depths of fields and narratives and so on.

I'd never hung my own work before so didn't really know what was expected of me and the best way to go about the process so in this respect I found this lab very helpful.
It opened my eyes to not only the different ways of hanging, for example, using bull dog clips and nails or using glass headed pins. It also showed me all the different elements that need to be considered such as lengths of images and average eye height for people.

Copying.

This week we learnt about the process of Copying and the reasons behind it. We brought in items that meant something to us or related to our identity to copy.

We had to test the lighting with a light metre in order to make that the light was the same strength from both lights and flashes.

Adjusting the shutter speed to
match the light metre. 

Once we had done this we placed our items on on a board on the floor in order to keep the background the same. 

Arranging objects to be
photographed.

We photographed all of our objects but as we didn't have a macro lens they weren't as precise as they could have been and as were wanted. This however could be changed in the editing process.

I think this process is a useful one to learn about and will be helpful to know about for potential future experiences. 

Inspirations for Alice in Wonderland shoot.

Tim Walker.

Tim Walker's work has had an impact on me since I've started studying photography. I find his work innovative and expressive. He thinks about things in a way others fail to. 

The image below I feel has connotations towards Alice in Wonderland. The table connotes the Mad Hatters tea party and the items in the tree when Alice falls down the rabbit hole and is surrounded by falling objects.

INSIDE/OUT, Tim Walker 2008

More recent work I've seen of Tim Walker's also leads my mind towards thinking about Alice in Wonderland.

Lindsey Wixon, Northumberland, 2011 Italian Vogue

Lindsey Wixon, Northumberland, 2011 Italian Vogue

The 2 images above make me think of the part of in the story where Alice drinks a formula and becomes larger than life, stuck inside a house.

There are also deeper meanings behind the narrative that aren't visible to the eye. These include the idea of time, imagination/fantasy and the difference between reality and make believe. 

Pinhole Photography continued.

For our second Pinhole workshop we were told to construct an image around a narrative e.g. a book, film or a song. Our first idea was Snow white. This would have been a good idea as we could have all taken part, but then realised there wouldn't been enough of us for the seven dwarfs. So our idea changed to Alice in Wonderland. I thought this was a good narrative to try and represent as it is a well known story and there are lots of things that would make it easy to represent, for example:

• The White Rabbit
• Alice
• Playing cards/the queen of hearts
• Cheshire Cat
• Mad Hatter's tea party/tea cups

These were some of the things that we would use in our photo of Alice in Wonderland. Our shoot was more influenced by the recent film remake.

I was pleased with the outcome we achieved from only one photo. The weather was changeable so it was luck to get it right at the right time. 

In the end we only chose to have 3 people in the shot as we didn't want to overcomplicate the shot, sometimes simple is better. 

After we had set up the light was quite bright so it needed a shorter exposure than we originally thought. 

1 minute 40 second exposure.

The photo above shows our final image as a negative. 

Justin Quinnell

capercaille and fag. 

3 months in the death of Blance, Grace and Dorcus.

http://www.pinholephotography.org/

Pinhole Photography.

For the second week of image lab pinhole photographer Justin Quinnell came in to give us a pinhole workshop.

I had previously done a workshop with Justin. The last time I worked with him I made smaller scale cameras using beer can.

   

Large pinhole,
30 second exposure.

Small pinhole,
13 minute exposure. 

360° pinhole,  
short exposure.

The photos above are our first 3 pinhole photos as a group. They were mainly experiments due to the weather and the fact they were all different sized and kinds of pinhole cameras so their exposures were all different.  From these test photos we were able to adjust the exposure times to go out and create our own images. 

My group got given the long exposure pinhole camera to take our own photo with and got told to expose it for 7 minutes. 

Subject for photo.

We thought it would be quite an interesting subject to photograph, as there are so many different pieces that make up a bike. We decided to expose our pinhole for 8 minutes as we didn't think 7 would be enough. 

Final image.

When we processed the photo it turned out that it was still under exposed in places even though we added an extra minute of exposure. This was because the longer we left it the poorer the lighting conditions became meaning that a longer exposure time would be needed. However, I am pleased with the image that we produced seeing as it was our first attempt at this kind of photography. I also think that the trees and building in the skyline (which you can't see very clearly from the image above) were exposed perfectly and came out very detailed. 

Breakfast, Justin Quinnell.

Wet Collodion Photography.

Our first day of image lab was spent learning how to create photographs using the 1851 wet collodion process. 

I had never attempted to use this process before, nor had i ever been shown how it worked which meant it was a completely new process of photography for me. 

I found the process to be very delicate which required a lot of time and concentration. If one of the stages wasn't done properly or if it took too long to complete then your image may not work correctly. 

I think the way the process produces such clear and detailed photos is what adds beauty to this process. Personally I think it looks as if the person in the portrait is almost jumping out of the glass and I get that feeling even though our image wasn't perfectly clear. 

To finish off the process and to make the image more presentable we will at a later date paint the back of the glass black so that the photo becomes clearer to view.

Sisters, Robert J Szabo

http://www.robertszabo.com/

The wet collodion process is also taken into account by some writers when assessing the affects of new digital technologies on photography and the photographs produced.

I found this small insight into the Wet Collodion process an interesting one and would in the future like to try it out again with more time and better subjects as I feel it is an art that is worth learning how to do successfully.