Finalised Idea

From looking at Bill Brandt's work, it enforced one of my ideas; that being that sometimes simpler is better. So, for my final outcome, I will produced images from the recent film I took and mount them onto black card. I will also edit a selection of the images using various darkroom techniques and mount them on black card too. I have decided to use black card instead of white card as I think that it will focus the attention on the photographs, whereas white card has a tendency, under the wrong light to seem quite bright.

Bill Brandt Analysis

Bill Brandt

Link to image.

Bill Brandt was the fist 20th century, British photographer to be commemorated with a coveted blue plaque (a scheme that brings attention to where distinguished men or women had lived). By looking at his work as a whole, it was seen as the most varied and vivid documents of Great Britain.

When first looking at this photograph, it is clear it is of a naked person in a pose which covers all of what is seen as 'inappropriate areas'. It is hard to determine whether this model is a woman or a man as the face is covered and the hair not easily seen. The setting of the photograph was taken inside, perhaps in a house, flat or even a hotel. After looking at the image for a while, it becomes clear that this photograph was taken at an angle looking slightly upwards. The body itself looks straight yet the background looks as if it is on a slant.

I could not find a meaning for this photographer. However, as the sex of the model is undetermined, I can't help but feel that Brandt wanted to portray a meaning through this. What is usually seen as beauty is covered e.g. the face, hair, torso and even the hands. A meaning could be put to this image that too much attention and judgement is given to the outside beauty opposed to inner beauty and personality of a person.

I personally really like this photograph as it captures the beauty of the human body without making it sexual. The fact that you can see every goose bump on the model's legs at to the 'realness' of the whole image.

Processed Black And White Film

Silhouette Cut Out - Sandwich Negatives In Dark Room

Sandwich Negatives In Dark Room

In-Depth Review Of Experimental Work

The first experiment I did was on Adobe Photoshop, which involved dragging one of my photographs I had taken into Photoshop and then editing the colours and adding text. I enjoyed creating this effect on my images as it added a story / background to the image from some words that stuck out. However, I do not think this is a good way of showing off the photograph as it is hard to see the detail of the image due to the colour changes and especially the writing over the image.

I really enjoyed the experiment involving painting on leaves and pinecones. It was inspired by Norm’s Magnusson’s work. After the paint had dried, I placed the painted leaves amongst other plants and took photographs of them.

Although it was quite time consuming, the experiment inspired by Abigail Reynolds’s was very interesting to do. It gave me more ideas about my work as she used two different contrasting images or two images of the same thing but one being a different colour. This helped me to think that I can take photographs of contrasting things and both can still link to my theme.

Geraldine Georges’s collage and illustration experiment was quiet enjoying to do as I experimented with loads of various Adobe Photoshop tools that I possibly might have not used otherwise. There were no limits on what I was able to do; it was quite frankly an experimentation.

When looking at Jamie Beck’s animated gifs, I really wanted to try to create some myself. I took photographs of some of my friends pulling various faces and then uploaded the images onto Photoshop to create a gif.

After completing some experimental work inspired by William Hatch Crosby, I felt that painting patterns on plants didn’t really have the same impact as what Crosby’s work. Painting patterns on people’s faces seem to work better visually as they look like they are wearing masks. I think that it is easier to read into the meaning in the photograph when the paint is on an image of a face rather than a leaf.

Amy Friend poked holes through her photographs which made them almost seem to glow. When I did this on one of my photographs, I felt a bit disappointed as it did not have the same glowing and sense of ‘magic’ to the image. However, it does inspire me to do this on Adobe Photoshop in the future as I would hopefully be able to achieve the glow around the hole.

I enjoyed the weaving experiment although it was aggravating at times when the strips fell away from where I had placed them. This experiment was inspired by looking at Greg Sand’s work. I prefer his work to my own as he weaved images of people’s faces which are a lot more easily recognisable than the reflection of trees.

I loved making a 3D image. After looking at Rebecca Chew’s work I decided to print out one of my photographs bigger using the photocopying machine. I then folded the paper to turn it into an origami flower. I thought this was very fitting as the photograph itself was of bunches of flowers growing from a plant. In the future, I will definitely keep this way of working in mind.

I also looked at Stacey Page who sows onto her images which gives the image a texture other than that of photographic paper. She mainly sewed onto people’s faces which looked as if they were wearing masks or headdresses. After I did this to one of my photographs, I definitely think that it can only work on certain images.

Mood Board

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Mind Map Of Final Outcome

Handmade Negatives

Bleaching Photographs