LANDSCAPES
Artist Analysis
Darren Almond
In this composition, many bare trees can be found growing in a snowy landscape. The tall dark trees are very sharp in the image so they immediately draw your attention to them. The black trees also contrast with the white snow. The image looks quite bare so an eerie, sinister mood is created. The photographer has used a short exposure time so that the image is in focus. The photographer has used the viewpoint of a person. Darren Almond has also used a high aperture, so that the whole image is in focus. |
In this picture a curved, hilly desert landscape and road can be seen, behind a set of windows, with a blue sky. The image is presumably taken in Nevada or Arizona. The main focal point of the image is the centre window. The image draws your attention to the blue sky due to how sharp and clear it is. It seems as though it may have been saturated. The background beyond the window is almost like layers, with the road at the bottom, then the desert landscape and finally the sky. Darren Almond has again used a short exposure time to bring the landscape into focus. The photographer has positioned the camera upright and in the centre behind the windows. Presumably, Darren Almond has used a tripod to achieve this.
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In this image Darren Almond has captured a rocky, mountainous landscape which can hardly be seen due to the dense fog covering it. The main focal point of the image is the cluster of rocks at the front of the image. The main contrast of the image is the grey sky and the dark fog. Due to the dark, grey colours a sinister mood is created.
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Berenice Abbot
In this image a tall building can be seen, also surrounded by other tall buildings. However, the main focal point is the building straight ahead. The image is black and white, which immediately creates an unhappy mood. Due to the viewpoint being at the base of the building, the buildings look overwhelming and intimidating. There is also a limited amount of light in the area. This contributes to the darkness of the picture.
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In this image, a butchers can be seen, with the prices of the different types of meat in the shop window. The main focal point of the image, is the cluster of the placards. This could suggest how repetitive the world is. It could also try to be displaying how money orientated the people of the 20th century are. The food on display could also be representative of greed.
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In this image, a piece of large steel infrastructure can be seen. The struts criss-cross each other in an intricate way. The image is also effective due to the light shining through the structure. It is a simplistic image different to a lot of Abbot's work but the nevertheless, the building still conveys a sense of imposing.
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Brassai
In this picture a man can be seen looking at an advertisement post. Again the image is black and white. Blotches of white light can be seen across the image. Due to the subject of the image being alone, looking like a silhouette and it being late at night, an eerie mood is created. Additionally, the grey fog in the background conveys a sense of unknown.
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In this picture, a bridge across a river can be seen, with bright street lamps on it. The image is black and white and seems to be a scene at night. The image is effective because the bridge and street lamps are reflected in the water below. The reflected light in the water almost looks like sailboats about to pass under the bridge.
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In this image, Grand Central Station can be seen in New York. Rays of sunshine can be seen shining through the glass windows towards the people down below. The photo could have a biblical reference to rays of light shining from God. Brassai has most likely used a slow shutter speed to capture the rays of light.
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My School Environment
For this unit I went to the abandoned swimming pool in my school. The area hasn't been in used for over 20 years, so there were lots of old objects and aspects to capture images of. The photos I took were of multiple objects that were abandoned and rotting.
The images that I took here were interesting, but I felt that I was unable to edit them in an interesting way. The ISO value on my camera was too high and the majority of the photos that I took were highly out of focus. Additionally, the colours in the photos were surprisingly dull and I could not find any contrasting colours within the area that the photos were taken.
Second Response
For this response I returned to the area in Winter, trying to capture more composed images. At this stage I knew more photoshop techniques so I was able to edit my photos more sophisticatedly.
I edited these images by increasing the saturation, hue and using a colour splash effect. I felt that this second response was a much more successful endeavour.
Framing the environment
John Divola
John Divola is a contemporary visual artist. He currently lives and works in Riverside, California. Divola works in photography, describing himself as exploring the landscape by looking for the edge between the abstract and the specific.
The subject of this photograph seems to be an abandoned room in a house by the beach. Presumably in California. The focal point of the image is the view through the window to the orange tinted sunset.
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The subject of this photograph is a recently abandoned room. There are objects such as a dirty sofa, torn curtains and broken, glass windows. There is also a book flying through the room. The photographer has achieved this by using a very fast shutter speed. On the exterior there is a serene beach setting. The image is effective.
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In this image, A window can be seen, with a sunset on the exterior. The window has broken red glass. There are also grey dots of paint on the window frame. There is also a contrast with the dark room and light exterior.
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First Response
For this response I captured images of windows and scenes outside of them. Some of these images were considerably successful.
The first image was easily the most successful. There is a stark contrast between the dark background of the room and the bright light entering through the window. The second image also shows a slightly strange contrast between the blue window frame and the yellow steps. However, I feel that I could have slightly improved this image by using a tripod to make image straighter. Additionally, you can see my reflected Silhouette through the window. The final image is effective due to the multiple, slightly opaque glass windows. The ground beyond the windows is obscured. I feel that this image could have been made better by again, using a tripod or editing the image by straightening it in photoshop.
Second Response
In this response I developed the idea of framing the environment. I took photos with better composition and I experimented with different angles. I found it very difficult to take straight photos, however some of them were upright. Others, I was able to tilt in Photoshop.
I edited these images in different ways. The predominant way was altering the hue to change the colour of the images. For the centre image, I used the idea of symmetrical order to create a sense of perspective within the image.
Panography
David Hockney
Panography, or Joiners, is a photographic technique in which one picture is assembled from several overlapping photographs. This can be done manually with prints or by using digital image editing software.Artist David Hockney is an early and important contributor to this technique. He called his photographs "joiners". His group were called the hockney joiners and he still paints and photographs joiners today.
In this photo a desk can be seen with various objects on the desk. The image is made up of smaller images of the parts of the desk. Certain smaller images of certain places of the desk have been taken from different angles. This is to create a 3D image.
This is a photomontage of a European street. David Hockney has created the image by taking pictures of the street at different angles, cutting up the images and placing them together, correspondingly. The perspective view of the street is effective due to its symmetry between two trees.
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This is another photomontage, but this time of a chair. In this collage, photos of parts of a chair have been captured before merging together to create a somewhat clear image of a chair. This panography is slightly simpler, as it uses less photos and has an easier subject.
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This is a photomontage of a desert road. This joiner, is also effective due to its straight perspective. This panography is extremely complex, due to the fact that there are so many photos to merge. The picture has a nice aesthetic touch due to the blue, sea-like sky in the background,
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The first stage to creating a panography is to go out into the environment and take a series of photographs from one location at several different angles. For this technique the Auto mode should be selected on the DSLR. For all of the photos the camera is zoomed out so a full frame is captured. The second stage is to use Photoshop to create the photographic panography.
This has been achieved following these steps: File > Automate > Photo merge > Select collage mode.
This has been achieved following these steps: File > Automate > Photo merge > Select collage mode.
The Resulting Image
This image was the result of taking photos from many different angles and them joining them in photoshop. In many ways it is considerably similar to the 'joiner' photos that Hockney has made but I must be said that this image has several flaws. There are several white patches that photoshop was unable to cover. Furthermore, the image has merged some of the smaller layers too well, almost making a full image.
The Formal Elements
The Formal elements are elements of photography and can be seen in images. Such as perspective, focus, texture and contrast.
As a first response I took pictures of the formal elements I could find within my School environment. Due to the fact that my school is considerably large, there were a wide range of places for me to take photos of these 'formal elements'.
Perspective
Pattern
Negative Space
My London : Transport
For my Formal Elements project, I decided to choose the Formal Element, 'perspective'. This is because London is such a wide expanse. Therefore, there are many architectual and other mediums of representing the different aspects of perspective. The interest I chose for the project was transport. This is because of the different ways I could represent perspective through transport. For example, infrastructure, vehicles, stations and so on. I took photos in many places, such as bridges and train stations. I explored several environments trying to find areas in which I could capture images of perspective.
I feel that some of the pictures that I took when photographing various aspects of transport were extremely effective. Due to the large stations and interesting architecture that I found, I was able to find the formal element of perspective in many different forms. Furthermore, different there were different levels of light throughout the day which contributed to an almost developing series of photos.
Final Piece
These final pieces use the main theme of perspective. I have used photos that I had taken of the areas relating to transport, I have put them in photoshop and then used symmetrical order to create more effect within the photo. I have then used a red hue in both photos and have increased the saturation slightly.