Cactus Contact sheet

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After experimenting with the mouldy apple, I decided to photograph my cactus. I’m fascinated by cacti, their shapes and forms, and how all of this is natural. I also thought as my cactus was green and so was the apple, they’d look good as part of a triptych as they’re of a similar colour scheme. Although I was going to focus on mouldy food, I think this is also a good option for my found objects project. I’m going to try to find another object that has hints of green yellow and white that i could use as a final part. I think the object should be a natural object, potentially another food or plant. I used the contact sheet tool on photoshop to create the arrangement for my cactus pictures and then switched some of them around to create a more balanced and comfortable arrangement.

cactus contact sheet

Still Life Research

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Klaus Pichler

mouldy pineapple imagemouldy cookies

Pineapple                                           Chokolade Cookies

moudly strawberries

Strawberries

After completing my contact sheet I researched more into photography of mouldy food and saw these photographs on the National Geographic website. These photographs are very similar to the ones I plan on taking. Except with these ones they often use a prop with the photo, giving them an almost royal look. I really like the very dark black background and hope to achieve this with my photos as I think it remains the focus on the object and creates a photograph, rather than a object. The main difference between mine and Pichler’s work is that he waited 9months for his food to mould, with mine the maximum time would be a week. However with my intended objects, Apple, bread and a tomato, these mould pretty quickly in the right environment.

The lighting on these photos also makes the fruit and mould look neon, another element I wanted to look into. This is also seen in David Maisels work.

More of Pichler’s work on the National Geographic website:

National Geographic (2014) Visualising Waste: Klaus Pichlers gorgeous rotting food. National Geographic. Available from http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/16/visualizing-waste-klaus-pichlers-gorgeous-rotting-food/ [accessed 06 February 2016]

The meaning behind is work is to represent how much food goes to waste in the world and how it gets the chance to decay over time, yet there are still people in the world who are starving.

Alan Sailer

Screen Shot 2016-04-14 at 14.31.46

“A pellet shreds three lit cigarettes in one of Alan Sailer’s impressive photographs. He creates amazing images of everyday items being hit by projectiles. Using high-speed photography, he can capture in stunning detail the moment items such as marbles and air gun pellets pass through objects.” (The Telegraph)

I like the flat background Sailer has used and how the focus is completely on the object in frame. I like the effect of the marble going through the cigarettes and the high speed shot and how it has focused on them, however this wouldn’t be possible with the equipment I have.

The Telegraph (unknown) Alan Sailer’s photographs of objects exploding as they are hit at high speed. UK: The Telegraph. Available from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/8850580/Alan-Sailers-photographs-of-objects-exploding-as-they-are-hit-at-high-speed.html [accessed 14 April 2016]

Apple Contact sheet

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apples contact sheet2

For my second brief, found objects, I wanted to look into moulding food as I think the decay can create really interesting shapes and colours. Usually people either don’t get the chance to observe mouldy food to a close degree as they’re too disgusted or never actually see it.

To look at something that had naturally changed over time and become unusable could relate to the photographer, David Maisels, Library of Dust. His work was very inspirational to me as I think the use of repeat patterns, in a contact sheet style, is an effective way to display pictures of the same subject matter and image size. I also think the meaning behind his work and how the tin cans were filled with ashes of patients from a state run psychiatric hospital is a beautiful way to display the uniqueness of each of the patients. I also really like the way Maisel has used very black backgrounds so that the focus is completely on his subject matter. I tried to achieve this with my apple photographs by adjusting the position of my light, some were more successful than others.

maisel-library-of-dust

I intend on using mouldy foods for my found objects brief, I will either try other angles and lighting on this apple or try another apple to achieve a photo that would be suitable for a triptych of photographs.

Appropriation: first experiment

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mental illness appropriation photograph

 

This was my original appropriation idea. I’m very passionate about spreading awareness of mental illness as I have a personal connection to this. I used my brothers brain scan and blended this on top of a photo of a hot air balloon. I originally thought about combining it with a picture of a globe, which would show spreading awareness around the world. However this wasn’t successful as it wasn’t clear and it didn’t look like an appropriation piece. By using a hot air balloon in an existing environment this creates more of a finished photograph. As it is the only thing in the photograph it also represents the loneliness element of mental illness, the drifting and the isolation. However after our feedback session, unless I explained the photo people didn’t see what I meant by it. It didn’t convey a clear enough message so I didn’t think I would continue this throughout my appropriation project.

Appropriation

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marilyn and kim photography

The first photograph I decided to edit for my appropriation brief was Marilyn Monroes famous white dress photography. I knew I wanted to edit something that was very well known and would be recognisable to almost every viewer. I combined the body of Marilyn Monroe to with Kim Kardashians face. I did this because I thought both women were/are very influential and think that both can be considered icons, of different times. I also wanted to create something that could be viewed as a triptych as I think these can be very effective.

The original images:

kardasian original Monroe original

 

churchill and cameron

I then decided to look into politicians, and one of the most famous and iconic to British history being, Winston Churchill. I used a photograph of him doing his famous pose and combined this with David Camerons face. I thought combining an older, iconic politician with our present day one would be interesting in that viewers would be reminded of how times have change and combine what Britain would have been like during his power, and during Camerons.

The original images:

cameron original Churchill original

elvis and bieber

For my final appropriation piece I decided to combine Elvis Presleys body with Justin Biebers face. I think this was my least successful piece as during feedback it wasn’t completely obvious whose body it was. With photos of combinations like this, they need to be really obvious who they’re about and why it’s them. I think i achieved this for my first 2 photos, but this one seemed less successful. I wanted to combine 2 famous singers and during Elvis’s era the was the biggest one there was, and now during todays pop culture, Justin Bieber is one of, if not the most influential singer. If I were to change this I would use a more obvious picture of Elvis Presley, maybe when he’s wearing his iconic white trousers and jacket.

Original images:

bieber originalElvis original

In conclusion I enjoyed combining the old and the new celebrities together. My main goal was to show the viewer how the people we admire as an audience have changed. I purposefully picked iconic people from past eras who were, and are still, very admired and combined them with people who are constantly in the media for negative reasons. This could be described as combining the people who were loved, with the people who are hated and how our icons have changed into people who aren’t represented positively.