Due to the current pandemic we have had to change the way we do things at school. Because of COVID, the ways we would normally take photos has had to change, the new restrictions has meant we are unable to roam the school building as there is a one-way system. However these restrictions have a silver lining.
Many artists use restrictions to better their art, sometimes much choice is to much and we spend most of our time choosing what to do rather than making art. So, these restrictions won't stop us from making photographs. Inspired by the war-time Government message 'Make do and mend', Make do and mend was a message from the government to help people during rationing.
Many artists use restrictions to better their art, sometimes much choice is to much and we spend most of our time choosing what to do rather than making art. So, these restrictions won't stop us from making photographs. Inspired by the war-time Government message 'Make do and mend', Make do and mend was a message from the government to help people during rationing.
Instructions for photographs
In order to make a photograph you have to make choices. What happens if these choices are made for you? When John Baldessari taught art in the 1970s he wrote instructions on paper and gave them to his students.
- The device used to create
- What you wear
- The angle the photo is taken
- The subject of the photo
Take a photo of a tree at dusk
Marcel Duchamp & the Readymade
The ‘Mona Lisa’ is famous for 4 main reasons. Firstly, it was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci and was highly regarded at the time. During the 1400s it was part of the French royal art collection and after the French revolution it was put on display at the Louvre. Thirdly, in 1911 the painting was stolen; the French people had the feeling it was their property and wanted it returned. After being found in Italy the painting went on a tour of the country before being returned to France.
Finally, in 1919 Marcel Duchamp drew a beard on a postcard featuring the painting.
Finally, in 1919 Marcel Duchamp drew a beard on a postcard featuring the painting.
Duchamp proved that in order to make art you don’t necessarily need it to be 100% your own creation and that you can add or change things about another to make art equally as good
Kensuke Koike's Readymades
This is Kensuke Koike, a Japanese visual artist who cuts and manipulates printed photographs to create odd images. Above is a video with some of his work.
This is my attempt at a Readymade. I cut the head and hands out of the image. I then overlapped the picture with another to create the final image. I think that I made decent cuts and a good use of layering.
I made these photographs using Photoshop, I took one photo and changed various aspects to the images colour; gradient graphs, colour balances, inverting colours etc.. The picture on the left is the original image and the one on the right the final image. I wanted to get key focus points of the image (the flower and the box with the Adidas logo) to really stand out, i did this by making them contrasting colours.
Hannah Höch's Beautiful Girl
In this collage I can see a body with a lightbulb for a head, surrounded by various pieces of machinery. It looks like the images have come from two sources, perhaps a fashion magazine, for the human images, and the machine images from a car advertisement or poster. The part of the image that strikes me as important is the woman with a lightbulb head given that the collage was made in 1920 – 2 years after the First World War - there would be many people scarred from battle, missing limbs, with facial injuries and mental trauma. Perhaps this represents those who had to live with prosthetic limbs and in wheelchairs. The returning soldiers might have look strange, possibly machine-like, in the eyes of Hannah Höch and wider society.
The title ‘Beautiful Girl’ could possibly be challenging or questioning beauty standards in a time where people’s appearances were changing, sped up by the war and the amount of people in need of prosthetic limbs. An adjective I would use to describe collage would be ‘absurd’, as the subject of the collage itself is quite abstract and has no clear meaning.
The title ‘Beautiful Girl’ could possibly be challenging or questioning beauty standards in a time where people’s appearances were changing, sped up by the war and the amount of people in need of prosthetic limbs. An adjective I would use to describe collage would be ‘absurd’, as the subject of the collage itself is quite abstract and has no clear meaning.
3D>2D>3D>2D
Matt Lipps
Born 1975 Matt Lipps is an American photographer who over the last decade has explored the link between sculpture and photography. His 2016 exhibition 'Looking Through Pictures' explores this idea with his collage style pictures combine traditional photography and statues.
Daniel Gordon
Daniel Gordon is an American artist, he is known for his large colour photographs. He photographs cut out paper, his art has been in many exhibitions. He has done both still life and portraits, both using the method of photographing cut out paper.
My 3D > 2D > 3D > 2D response
My tabletop sculpture
Collaborative collage experiment:
These collages were prepared using a set of instructions given, these are the instructions;
- Cut or tear out 5 pages from your magazine. Choose pages with interesting images.
- Make a pile of these 5 pages on your desk.
- Take the top page and cut a hole in it (Note: it doesn't have to be perfect).
- Pass this cut out image to your neighbour (the person sitting nearest to you in class).
- Put the page with the hole in it at the bottom of your pile.
- Take the (new) top page and tear it in half. Pass one half to your neighbour (the same one as before) and put the other half at the bottom of your pile.
- Take the (new) top page and cut out a shape (Note: you could cut round an object or simply cut a random shape of your own choosing).
- Keep the cut-out shape, putting it at the bottom of your pile, and pass the page that remains to someone 3 places away (Note: make sure you don't end up with your own page).
- Take the (new) top page and tear a strip from the (top or bottom) edge. Keep the strip and pass the remaining page to someone else in the room.
- Place the A3 sheet of cartridge paper in front of you (portrait format).
- Without altering them, arrange the pieces of paper from your pile on the A3 sheet to create a pleasing collage. Carefully photograph your first arrangement.
- Again, without altering them, repeat this process, re-arranging the various elements on the A3 sheet until you are happy with the results. Photograph carefully.
- You may now swap 1 or 2 elements with your neighbour. Make a new arrangement and photograph carefully.
- You may now adapt the pieces in any way you like - cutting, tearing etc. Make a new collage, this time sticking them to the A3 sheet of cartridge paper.
- Photograph your finished collage carefully.
Using these instructions I was able to make the following collages.
Prison Photography
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Klavdij Sluban worked with young prisoners around the world. working in places such as central America, Ireland and post soviet countries,
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The Prison Photography of Nicoló Digiorgis
These are photos of prisoners and of prison life taken by prisoners.
Genre Photography Treasure Hunt
I decided to collect a series of photographs using a list of instructions:
- The view through a window
- Your reflection in a shiny surface
- The back of someone’s head
- A small object shot from a low angle against a plain background
- The palm of someone’s hand with the word ‘help’ written on it
- A smile
- A plant growing in the wrong place
- A cracked paving stone
- A pile of clothes
- The creases in a bed sheet shot from above (with nothing else included)
- A close-up photograph of a computer, phone or television screen
- A map
- The spine of a book
- The inside of a fridge
- The sky
- Part of a fork
- The sole of a shoe
- The ceiling of your bedroom as you are lying on the floor
- A photograph of a photograph
- A glass of water
New York Virtual Trip
To make these photos I used Google Earth, while on Google Earth I took screenshots of interesting buildings and buildings that stood out for example the matte black building top left. Through this task I learnt that a new way to make photos.
'Google Earth Bingo'
- Taipei - Fruit
- Rome - Graffiti
- Nairobi - Sport
- Athens - Yellow Car
- Kingston - Arrow
- Taipei - Tall Building
- Helsinki - Animal
- Asmara - Person Pointing
- Paris- Coca Cola sign
- Lima - Bridge
Make do and mend personal project.
COVID has impacted almost every aspect of life, one unavoidable noticeable impact and change is the way it has effected the landscape and the city of London. Items such as signs, closed doors that are normally open, shop shutters that are closed during the day and spaced out lengthy lines, have become common place and the idea of the so called new normal has become a reality.
Here are two images, they are of the same location however the image on the right was taken in 2019 and the photo on the left in December of 2020. My initial plan was to collect images and use software and different effects to blend them together, in doing so creating a original new image. However it took me a while to collect images in the exact way I wanted to, exact same frame however taken from different points in time, my final outcome was more like the Google Streetview photography that was done early this year in class.
Blindfolded collage.
In this task we used a mask as a blindfold and then made 2 collages. One made over 15 minutes and the other made over 5. We were inspired by this video. The main focus and idea behind this video was using our hands as eyes. Inspired by the restrictions that also inspired Make Do And Mend as a whole.
These are the collages made, on the left a collage made without a blindfold in 2 minutes, the middle photo was made in 5 blindfolded and the right made in 15 minutes blindfolded. I prefer the outcome of the left and middle photos, I think the major letdown with the photo on the right is that half the photos were the wrong way around.