Other Foods

Claudia suggested that I explore other food types other than eggs/eggshells. I've returned naturally though perhaps not permanently to the lighting studio to photograph these objects, including avocado, rock salt, fortune cookies, peaches and pickled onions etc. I chose these foods for their texture, sculptural form and organic aesthetic. I've continued with the close up crop composition which I felt was most successful in the egg photographs, and really pushed to abstract the objects themselves so that the images rely more on form, colour, shape etc than the subject matter.

Studio

Finally starting to develop a cohesive folio, I've found that printing images - regardless of how refined/relevant they are to my final concept, helps me get a grip on which stage of development my work is at, and in which direction I feel I should lean as I go. Note to future self: Stop thinking about it and just print it! Pin it up and move it around and tear it down in frustration if it helps... just get it out of your head and onto paper so you can hold something real in your hand!

Empty Egg Shells

Although I've been working (last year) on plain black or white studio backdrops, of these images (google) I am actually most drawn to the bottom two - with natural real-world settings which do not upstage the subject but add an aesthetic complexity which is quite beautiful. I think my natural tendency is to overcrowd an image/idea with too much subject matter/conflicting or confusing issues. To avoid this and help myself cut back this complexity I've been photographing on a plain background - but these images demonstrate the usefulness of a natural setting if it is chosen and photographed/framed intelligently.

Restart

After a very long break from creating I've experienced the grace period i needed to start afresh in 2012. Out third year studio is very open and flexible, with a lot more freedom to explore artistic (photographic or otherwise) paths naturally and without constant deadlines/set projects. I've loved working in the studio, a choice I may not have originally chosen to persue had I been left to my own devices, and hope to continue in this direction, perhaps leaving traditional portraiture (as in second semester's 'Generations' triology) behind me and picking up where I left off at the end of last year, photographing objects and looking at the importance of the material in our own ideas of self and identity. I've found that tight cropping, both with framing and lighting techniques (especially darkness), has been intrinsic to my practice so far and will certainly explore these artistic choices this year. I also hope to steer a little away from the idea of a series or sequence which has been a requirement in 2011... In high school I loved working on individual, singular artworks of a grand scale and I feel a pull to do so again now. A return to the sculptural side of photography could offer a possibility of really stretching myself aesthetically and emotionally. Although I have a high regard for 'candid' street photography, or staged photography within the realm of 'reality', I feel more control and freedom in myself and my subjects when I remove them from their context and consequently create a disjointed absurdity which leads the viewer to experience an image on an intellectual level, rather than the easier tendency to judge a photograph on how beautiful it is, or how real it looks (I have already established my reluctance to consider a photograph as a direct window into reality: impossible!).

Kenneth Anger

Puce Moment 1941

Anna Gaskell

Erasers

Replayground

Thomas Demand

Makes all these photographed installations out of coloured card and paper. Most are life sized and exact replicas of photographed spaces which actually existed at some point in time. Almost like sets to an audience, these paper sculptures appear to be real to the camera. This draws attention to photography's inadequacies in dealing with texture, space and reality. It also reveals the assumptions we make about the authority of the photograph, or in fact any for of representation.

I love the theatricality of these artworks, but also their simplicity - which is often lost in such detailed and intricate installations. Demand saves his extravagence for behind-the-scenes, and the final photograph is actually quite humble and believable.

Georges Rousse

Project 1 finals

I'm going to print these a little bigger than A3, at 12" x 18" on gloss. The reason for the gloss is to mimic the shine on the original photos held my the models, I want to replicate that original asthetic (without resorting to the nostalgia of 'retro' stylising), Irena Werning style.
The order will go from Grandma, to Mum, to Me. I considered displaying them vertically (like below) to imply a family tree format, but this symbolism would perhaps be a little obvious and I'm so pleased with the identical complosition of the three shots that I'd really like to bring this out by lining them up horizontally - when I do all the models heads, shou;lders and hands line up beautifully!

Project 1

looking at age, change, memory and generation. These are from a shoot with my Grandmother, aged 78, holding a photo of herself, aged 50. I should have reflected light onto her back to pop her forward a little: I will also be doing a similar shoot with my mum and a self-portrait, so I'll keep this in mind for those sessions. I was planning on shooting on a white background but it was a little too crisp, and lacked the nostalgia I was after. The black is much more dramatic and I like the way the subject emerges out of the darkness, like a memory from the past. I like both shots, and will know after photographing my other models (mum, myself) how they work within a series. I think the photo below has a lot of conceptual potential!

Gregory Crewdson

Jeff Wall

"I begin by not photographing"

Large scale light boxes for presentation are just beautiful and make a strong reference to advertising billboards/historical paintings.

Breakdown

Final video piece for digital audio/video project

An exploration of social pressures and expectation, freedom and self realisation.

Special thanks to Kate Haysom and my other helpers/support!

audio track by Frou Frou

Studio Portraits

Playing around with lighting in the uni studio - we were trying to really bring out bold colours and rembrandt lighting: however I think perhaps we went a little overboard on the shadows! an interesting effect but only if it's conceptually relavent! 

here, Hannah was trying to capture the inbetween, unco moments of speech - I was telling a story about my childhood and the nostalgia really opened up my face.