Straight Images - Contrast Studio

Connecting Essay 3

In this image we see that Mapplethorpe has got someone in a leather jacket to hold a knife and make them look very menacing and look like they are about to stab someone. For this image we see he has taken it on black background to make the image look even more darker and evil. The person in the image looks rather threatening because they are looking at the camera and look like they are about to assault the person taking the photo. This makes the image look rather interesting because they are look rather interesting. As we can see the above photo the person is leaning into the attack more and is holding the knife in his more dominant hand.

Here we see I have tried to replicate the image above, due to limitations I did not mange to get a knife as large or the same type of leather jacket. Apart from that I decided on my own to use a white background to also get some contrast in the image between the black leather jacket and the white background. My model doesn't look nearly as threatening as Mapplethorpe but I still think it works out quite well because they are both looking at the camera while holding a knife. The other difference in my image and Mapplethorpe is that in his he is holding the knife in his right hand and is leaning into the attack more then in my photo. 

The connection between the two images are that they are both meant to look threatening and both have leather jackets and a knife. Both of the images were done in black and white to add to the affect of the image. They were both done against a background. Both of them are aiming the knife in front of them as if they were about to stab a person in front of them. Also in both images we see that the models are looking at the camera instead of their original target which makes it look like they are about to change their target to the person taking the photo.

Work Dairy - Mapplethorpe

Evaluation:

In this Mapplethorpe inspired shoot I enjoyed going out and taking interesting outdoor photos that I felt replicated some of Mapplethorp's work. It was not that easy as most of Mapplethorp's work was done in a studio but I did find some backdrops which I felt worked. Mapplethorpe nearly always used models so my friend helped me here. Her serious look was to try and match many of the models Mapplethorpe used as not many were ever smiling in his work. 

In this photo I like the use of shadow and the attitude of the model. It all added up to the kind of  posed but slightly surreal feeling in some of his shots. Mapplethorpe very often used plain backgrounds which helped to through the subject forward.

In this one I like how I have part of the face that is slightly off and the background is out of focus.

Progression:

If I were to continue this I would like to try some more shoots but in some more interesting possessions and backgrounds. I would also like to make some more controversial images because that is what Mapplethorpe does. Mapplethorpe is an interesting photographer because he only really gets controversial images and doesn't really care what people think of them because it is his style of photography.

  

Here is another type of photo I would like of a white and black guy over each other. This photo shows a contrast between the two colours black and white in two ways. Th first being the black man in on a light background and the white man is on a dark background. The next section of contrast is the two men themself being so close gives a contrast because of the colour of their skin.

Another image I would like is to add props to an image to make it more interesting. In this image we can see that Mapplethorpe has decided to show the evil within him by adding horns on to him.

Straight Images - Mapplethorpe

My Top 40 Photos

Print Technique - Soft Focus

Work Diary - Multi Imagery

Evaluation:
In this section I took a range of images of foliage and then using a checkerboard layout, I gave what was a very simple series of images the illusion of one large image that had sections removed. This give a kind of trick of the eye and turns a dull image to an intriguing image, as the eye fills in missing section.

Again a similar subject matter of some foliage. But by increasing the amount of squares the image becomes much more abstract to the point where you need to look very hard to see what the image is made up from. Both the texture of the foliage and the repetition of squares appear to become more equally important as the frequency of repetition increases. Where as in the first image the foliage is the most important factor.

By taking the multiple imagery to more extreme lengths and overlaying in photoshop the patterns created become ever more textural and repetitious and the focal point of the image and the fact that each square is foliage is almost of no importance as below.

Progression:
If I were to continue this I would like to add different layers of photos to create a more complex image which would be more interesting. I would need to take multiple images from the same point of view and by moving the elements around such as a persons limbs and by combining these in photoshop the image could become very surreal. The repetition of the ladies becomes the intriguing part of the images.

This is a good example of what I could achieve in photoshop. But it would take a lot of retouching and a lot of layers work to achieve. Here the photographer has used a dark dress so making it easy to blend the image seamlessly.

This is the type of image I would like to do because it is made of lots of layers and has a duplicated person in it. The repetition of the person and the fact the in each pose she is dressed differently ads a new element to the shot.In this way a timeline is presented in a single shot as each images add a further activities and dimension to the character. The brain starts interpreting and creating a story of contexts of the events.

Pre-completion Evaluation

As we reach the end of this project I feel fairly confident in my work because as far as I can tell I have been on target and my work is up to a high standard which will give me a good mark. Even though we haven't reached the end i have more work to do because I am missing the last 3 lessons of this project which means I have some work to catch up on or to do before the end of the project hand in. I still enjoy the work and am finding it even easier then I did before we started the newer section.

Mapplethorpe Notes

Bellow are some facts and information about Robert Mapplethorpe:

Facts from the internet:

• Born in 1946 November 4th in Floral Park, Queens, New York, USA.
• Died March 9th 1989 at the age of 42 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, of aids.
• Known for his sometimes controversial large-scale, highly stylized black and white photography.
• His main work was celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits and still-life images of flowers.
• Most controversial work is that of the underground bondage and sadomasochistic BDSM scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s of New York.
• The homoeroticism of this work fuelled a national debate over the public funding of controversial artwork.

Facts from the Mapplethorpe video:

• Mapplethorpe is one of Americas most controversial photographers.
• At the age of 16 Mapplethorpe trained at an art school.
• Mapplethorpe used his friends as models for his work.
• Most of his photography was in black and white.
• Mapplethorpe would normally take photos of his own life that he lived, that being of a gay sexual nature.
• His first portrait was of Patti Smith they use to live together and were friends. 
• Lots of Mapplethorpe's controversial photography was of gay couples and often contained nudity.   
• Some of Mapplethorpe's prints went for $15,000 and a shoot with him cost about $10,000.
• Some of his work was used for album covers.
• Lots of Mapplethorpe's work contained and made people aware of sex, violence, race discrimination and other such things.
• He would normally use soft lighting.

Work Diary - Walk 2

Evaluation:
I had to get up very early to take these pictures and was hoping to get the morning mist that I see so often hanging over Harlow Flood Plain. Unfortunately today there was no mist but as it had rained so hard that night a lot of the fields were flooded so I used this to get some reflection photos as the sun rose over the town. These images are my retouched images. Mostly just a boost in saturation, recrop and addition of contrast.

In this image I decided to take a photo of a flooded field. I like the way the reflection looks almost like a painting effect (although its was not.) I increased the contrast and saturation a bit and re-cropped the image using the rule of thirds. 

In this image I captured all the cobwebs highlighted by the early morning light reflecting off the due that clung to them. This makes an interesting photo because there was a previous blue tint to the whole field which I then increased in the tint section of Lightroom. What made this image special was the fact that the whole field was covered so by using a low vantage point and selective depth of field I was able to emphasise this.

Progression:

I would like to go back on some more days to try and capture the mist over the fields in both colour and black and white. I would also like to try and achieve an image with a light bright sky and a darker floor. This section of work was mainly inspired by the research I did on Ansel Adams. This is because he takes photos in black and white of wonderful landscape images which I have tried to recreate in these photos to some degree but more with colour.

Here we see that the photographer has taken a photo of a field in the mist which is something I would like to do. This image works well as a black and white which emphasises the light and dark tones on the image. The reflected light hitting the mist only appears to light the middle of the shot giving an unusual and mysterious feel.

This image like the one above has light hitting the early morning mist. Although a colour shot the high contrast areas appear to be more black and white than colour. I like the focal point of the large tree on the right hand side. The dark clouds on the left merging into the hills compared to the bright clouds on the right and the flatness of the light all add to the magical qualityof this shot.

Work Dairy - Walk 1

Evaluation:
During this section we went on a walk though Harlow and took photos of autumn colours. This was an enjoyable session because I got loads of very good photos in this section that I think are very good and work very well was a photo.

Here is one photo that I think shows autumn colours really well because I got the brown colour of the leaves reflected in the pond and that makes the colour for the whole image more autumn like which worked even better after i started editing it in photoshop.

Here we see some light breaking though the remaining green leafs on the trees. I think this image works really well because I literally managed to capture the light as it came into the forest.

Progression:
If I were to continue this I would like to get more images that represent autumn in England because most of the images I got can represent autumn in any country. The way I would do this is by somehow including rain of the remounts of rain within my photos. I think this would make a great photo because it would have more character and make the image look better.

Here we see an image of a flooded road with autumn colours while it is raining. We can tell that it is in the UK because of the type of street light used in the road.

In this we see the colours of autumn on a lake somewhere up north in the UK. This image shows how the colours of autumn spears over the trees in the UK.

Image Bank - Multi Image

Here are some images of multi image by other photographers that I found on the internet. Multiple images are when you have a repeating unit in the same image. They can be used to make very interesting images with the same people repeated though out the image.

Here we see a multiple image of someone pointing and a still image movement from point to point. They also used a black and white tone which eliminates the background and causes the viewer to only pay attention to the man pointing and not to anything else which makes the image more interesting. The reason I chose to include this image is because it is a good example of multiple imagery and also uses the formal element of tone as well.

Here there are multiple images of waves on top of each other to make a wavy affect. This makes it seem like because there are loads of waves stacked on top of each other it makes it look larger and more violent and dangerous. This also makes the wave look fake and unrealistic.

Here we see lots of layers of the same woman around a man. This image was probably made by a person to make it look like he is worshiped by women. This technique can be applied to lots of things and also can makes some interesting images which duplicate a certain object or person multiple times.

Here we see the photographer has taken a photo of someone and has used their outline and put an image of a forest within it. This is a rather interesting image because it takes all the detail out of the person and has been replaced with an image of a path in a forest. The only detail left in the person is their own basic outline.

Here we see that a guy has taken an image of the same area with him in deferent positions.  This is interesting because if it wasn't the same person then it looks like a normal bus stop and actually has people doing stuff they do at a bus stop while waiting for the bus.

Here we see the same women in her room doing lots of different things.

Straight Images - Walk 2

Straight Images - Multi Image

Straight Images - Walk 1