Alternative Process THREE, Gel Medium

I chose to do a Gel Medium for my third Alternative process. It's a quick process that generates beautiful results. The picture I transferred to the gel medium is a picture I took while in Italy of the Trevy Fountain. I wanted to do a gel medium of something that I liked a lot, and that trip to Europe has to be on of my favorite trips that I have ever taken. It was kind of nostalgic to make this one. 

Avedon, Richard

     

     When asked who we view as inspirational, great, some one we view as a mentor, my mind nearly immediately jumped to one person. Richard Avedon. His photos are brilliant, beautiful, thought provoking and sometimes controversial, but always at the same time. He was the photographer who brought movement and life into the world of fashion, and quickly made his way from I.D. Photographer to selling pictures to Vogue & Life Magazine in a matter of 5 years. People everywhere craved to have their photo taken by this artistic genius, many of these people being high profile socialites and celebrities of the time. His work is beautiful. I cannot think of a better way to describe it. The only way to truly understand Richard's work is to see it for yourself. 

      Born in New York to a Jewish-Russian family, Avedon went to school and always had an interest in photography. His talent was quickly recognized at the start of his career, and never went unappreciated. Although Richard has many other bodies of work available to view, my favorite pictures from him are all portraits. I so admire the way he was able to not only capture an image of a person, but embody the entire essence of his subject with the simple click of a button. He had a very keen sense for who people truly were, and it was this almost sixth sense that helped him bring out whatever it was that he saw in people, and lay it out there in black and white (no pun intended). It's easy for me to convey who I know my friends are in a picture, which is what I strived to do during the studio lighting unit. I know the people I was photographing very well, as I am with them all day, 5 - 7 days a week. Avedon however, did not always know his subject. Infact, he rarely new many of his subjects on a very personal level. What astonishes me most, is what we see in the famous Marilyn Monroe photo (left). Despite her Hollywood image of being a total happy-go-lucky, flawless blonde bombshell Richard saw more than that in her. He recognized the inner turmoil Marilyn was experiencing and managed to capture that on film - far from the usual when photographers photographed Ms. Monroe. It was almost as if he could see into her soul.. FREAKY! (BUT GREAT!)

     The photo I took (top right) us of my friend Theo. I once more dragged him into the studio as I attempted to "Avedon" it up. This included me trying ridiculous things, such as trying to distract Theo, grilling him with questions and requiring him to have conversations with me all while trying to capture that "moment" that would embody something more. Clearly, none of that worked. The way I got this picture was by stepping back and letting Theo be natural. The second I just "Just do whatever you would like!" this is what he gave me. Theo has to be one of the sweetest humans I know, and I very much admire how informatively blissful he can stay. By that I mean, he always has such a positive, yet realistic outlook on things. Never ignorant, never (overly) pessimistic. Just logical and happy - and not to mention a little goofy. I believe this photo captures this of Theo. 

Breaking ALL The Rules.. Well, Maybe Just 1...

Here is a picture I have taken of my darling dachshund Ruby. I have broken the photography rule of "thirds". While taking this picture I ditched the ol' theory that dividing your viewfinder into an imaginary three equal sections and centering your subject along one of those three lines (i.e. off center) will make for a more interesting and satisfying picture and went straight for the dead center approach. I believe by doing so I allowed the entire picture to become about Ruby. You see her face, first thing, and then your eye is drawn down to look at her scruffy little chest and other adorable attributes that may have been overlooked by using the rule of thirds approach. Also, by choosing to center my subject in the middle of the frame it allowed me to get much closer to it without making the scene look awkward and imbalanced in a bad way. 

Painting.. With LIGHT

    Painting with light had to beone of my favorite techniques. It allowed you to create something so unusual and spectacular without even knowing what the end result was going to be. I experimented with different exposure times, aperture sizes and light sources until I found what I liked best. What my favorite time ended up being was 15 seconds, and I "painted" using a large flashlight that we usually use when the power goes out. I painted a number of things including my dog, some old pictures and a candle. The pictures came out really neat, and I chose to use the first picture, which is the more basic of my photos that just shows a jumble of these glowing light-lines. So cool. The second picture shows my baby dog Ruby as my model and I painted all around her. How cute?

Silk Screening

     Silkscreening is an alternative process that I have had some experience with during my middle school art program. The only difference being that I used drawings and different techniques to create those silk screens, and this was the first time that I used emulsion and one of my own pictures to make a screen. This project wants us to say something with our work, and so I chose to use a photo that is close to my heart. I chose a picture of me and my two favorite girls in the world; my mom and sister. I lost my mom at a young age and my sister and I have been best friends since day one of my existance. I always keep them close to my heart and so I figured a t-shirt would be a good way to do, literally, just that. I gave the t-shirt to my sister as a gift after it was done because I knew she would love to have something like that as we both miss our mom very much every day, and I know we miss each other like crazy whenever she is at school. It's also kind of cool that the shirt I used is a mint green colour and my mom's favorite icecream was mint chocolate chip (just sayin'!).

Renaissance Movement

     The Renaissance was a defining time period across all aspects of modern existence. Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Michaelangelo and countless others all put forward contributions that would eventually change the way humans were able to live and develop. And while all of that is great, this is an art-based blog and therefore I am going to address specific innovations that effected specifically the art and art-related world. SO.. here are some amazing contributions that we have solely the Renaissance to thank for. Oil painting. The art of painting with oil paints. Throughout the Renaissance period the art of oil painting was manipulated and changed as different artists tested out different types of oils, different pigmentation and different techniques. It was the renaissance period that truly displayed the wonders of an oil painting through such brilliant artists such as Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Donatello and countless others. Oil painting is now a widely used and highly acclaimed medium of painting. Without the development and growth it went during the Renaissance period, it is undeniable that it would not be the incredible area of art that it is today. 

One- Point Perspective

     A specific technique the Renaissance introduced was the idea of "one point perspective" (illustrated to the right). One point perspective is define as A way to show three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface. Lines appear to go away from the viewer and meet at a single point on the horizon known as the vanishing point. This technique is very often seen in paintings depicting large scenes. Famous artworks from the Renaissance such as "The Last Supper" be Leonardo Da Vinci and the Arnolfini Wedding portrait both display use of this concept. It is one that is still widely used today and is something that can make a painting strikingly realistic. 

     The printing press is an invention of art coming from the Renaissance which we can possibly credit to the further success of mankind. Many people would say the written word is what has made humans such a successful species. The printing press was made by Gutenberg in 1445. It was simple, but allowed many copies of a single book to be made much faster than traditional handwritten methods. The most greatly reproduced book being the Bible. The now available "mass" printing of the religious book allowed it to become much more widely available to the population and even converted some adversary's into believers. As a lover of books, the internet, school, and mostly all modern media I would like to thank Mr. Gutenberg for creating something that started the mass availability of the written word. Just fantastic. 

Seeing Double

         While doing the alternative processes unit I was trying to figure out a way I could incorporate my love for film photography into a successful and creative piece of work. The double exposure method seemed to fit that description to a T. And so after countless frustrating, ugly and just plain awful attempts I was able to create two images from my negatives that I am very happy with. The top picture is of my two good friends Nicole and Elizabeth. This photo was taken in grade 10 and I chose to expose them on to a picture of tulips because to me, flowers represent new growth and development which is exactly what these friends went through. Tulip bulbs survive tough winters and rebloom every season. Nicole and Elizabeth have stuck together through any problems our group of friends may have endured and so that is why I decided to use the adorablly happy picture of them together. They represent the new growth and development of their friendship no matter how harsh the winter.

     The second picture shows a double exposure of the same picture of flowers paired with my favorite little barn cat named Captain. Captain was my pal all through last spring and summer whenever I was teaching or visiting at my friend's stable out near London, Ontario. She was always peppy, loved to cuddle and was just my best little friend. I was absolutely devestated when I learned that Captain had been struck and killed by a truck out on the dirt road the farm was on. Flowers are always given to those who have lost a sign of mourning, and it just so happens that Captain was buried in a flower bed on their property. While this image may just seem like a double exposure of a cat and flowers, to me it is comforting to think that she will always be with the flowers.

     To make these two themes a little more definite, I chose to make the main subject in the top picture to be my friends, as the picture is mostly about them. The bottom picture of Captain is meant to be mroe of a memorial and that is why I chose to make her a little more faded into the background of the flowers.

Mixed Lighting

In my mixed lighting portrait I tried to harness the use of the most powerful light source we have access to: the sun. With the help of a bounce card I reflected the light coming through a small window by one of the school doors onto Emily's face. By doing this I hoped to create a dramatic lighting effect in combination with some of the florescent light coming from the ceiling. I thought creating a photo with different kinds of lighting elements would be easier than studio lighting because not only are you taking your pictures in a more less up-tight environment, but the lighting is also more relaxed. While I was taking pictures outside using the bounce card, the extreme light tended just to fade my model's face completely out. But, by random chance of coming inside though one of the side doors, I was hit with the idea to use the light from outside that was coming inside to light her face. The result was an intense stream of light in a precise place while the rest of the photo is lit by residual light. Even though her eyes are not what the light is hitting directly, the shadowing it creates under/around her eyes helps to make them look more intense. 

Studio Lighting

     Walking into this project I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'd seen plenty of pictures that displayed studio lighting in magazines, billboards etc.. but had never actually considered the process through which these pictures were captured I thought it would be simple. Set up a couple of lights, throw a friend in front of the lens and presto! Some beautiful pictures. That is not, in fact, the way this story goes. It took me countless days with numerous models to finally get into the groove of things. Moving around lights and models pro actively, and doing my best to not only follow the guide lines of the project and get an amazing studio lighting exemplar, but to also capture something more from my model - who were always someone dear to me.

     These pals of mine put up with quite a lot as I fiddled with the camera, lights and their positioning time after time. Then finally, I realized I had taken a few photos I was quite happy with. The bottom 2 photos show my friend Ben. I have known Ben for years now and even work at the same café together where we endure countless weekends together. He is funny and kind and I have never known a person to smile such a genuine smile as often as Ben does. I wanted to capture that smile in a photo. More than anything. But once you throw someone in front of a camera with blindingly bright lights shining 15 inches from their face and you're telling them to "act natural", you tend not to get the result you anticipated. The photo of Ben in colour is our attempt at loosening him up in front of the camera. (He's also a goof). The second photo is that smile I mentioned. I was finally able to get him to flash it when I mentioned a good friend of ours who we haven't seen in a while. It was an instant success. It was originally shot in colour but something about the B&W really made this one pop for me. 

     The top photo of the adorable human is of my friend Theo. He has to be one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life. He can seem like kind of a bamf with the tattoos and spacers and such, but he is a sweetie. This is the side of him that we see in this photo. I love the contrast between the heathered shirt, gauged spacers, dirty 'stache and the beautiful flower tucked behind his ear combined with the look pure innocence blooming from his eyes. Simply wonderful.

Overall this project taught me patience. It taught me that if what you had originally planned isn't working out, EXPLORE. Try something new and different and spontaneous! It's how I managed to capture some of my favourite photos from the past month. It also taught me the obvious:how to move around, plan and utilize a studio environment. I really loved it all. 

Naming Names

     Shooting this project forced me to approach everything as I see as normal, differently. I had to expand the view of my surroundings and search through anything and everything in order to find objects that represented a letter from my full name. 12 letters. That's all I needed. Simple enough, right? It was soon proven otherwise. I searched far and wide for the best letters I could find, and yet still caught myself struggling to see the handle of a pencil sharpener as an upper case "L" or shooting a light switch to be a lower case "r".  I became slightly obsessed with analysing the objects and settings around me, constantly searching for a sudden "ah-HA" moment that would hurdle my creativity into overdrive. What I did discover through this project is that it takes time to be able to effectively pick out the shadows, shapes, patterns and angles that cause every day objects to be pictured into something different. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson

      Henri Cartier-Bresson was a famous French photographer of the 1900's (1908 - 2004) who single handedly changed the way photography was viewed and captured through his stunningly strange and beautiful photographs. Describing his own family as "Socialist Catholics", Henri was from a well-to-do family who was able to support his passion for photography and the arts from an early age. He was sent to study at a conservative Catholic school and when it came to his art work, was constantly being told how and what he should paint and create. As countless schools of Photographic Realism were popping up all over Europe at this time, Henri was smack dab in the middle of Photographic revolution and began talking to many different surrealist photographers. These conversations sparked an intense interest within Henri. 

     

     What I love most about Henri's work is the way he captures such precise moments in time. He is able to tell riveting stories - despite the absence of colour - with his beautiful black and white images, which is what I believe all photographers should strive to do. His weird photos also captivate me. His framing, repetition and timing techniques all flow together to make beautiful, strange and interesting images that I will never tire of admiring. 

      

     Henri was influenced by political and social factors as well as things he just found intriguing. The way he was able to effortlessly capture so many diverse images from intense politically themed photos to funny, repetitious photos was incredible. I admire his diversity and the talent he continuously displayed.