VISIT REPORT (ONE) - Carravaggio, The supper at Emmaus 

Here caravaggio displays, As he always does, A very fluent and distinctive style, The compositional choices the artist has made are yet breath taking but simular to the kinds of choices a photographer when composing an image with figures would even in modern day respect and take note of.It is through his precise choices in composition that the painting enhances light values. The use of light light in his paintings holds very close to reality but at the same time when looking upon this scene for a very long time it then becomes quite difficult to work out where the lighting is actually coming from. This produces certain elements and parts of the picture to be very focussed and dramatic and hold a powerful emotion through the tool of lighting. The light source however it being very dominent and important to the picture is from an unknown source this kind of style known as chiaroscuro is  a very major effect on all of carravaggio's work. It is from painters such as carravaggio that we thank even today in modern film and photography. Light and shadows on a painting, A film and also photography are one of the most powerful tools to be used and can change the mood and also the character who is being lit up and what you think of them.

For example if your shooting a dark and mysterious character would this character come of as dark and mysterious with fluorescent lighting and a yellowy bright light as he enters the room or would his character have more of the mysterious and dark feel if as he enters a room the room is very dark and lit from behind him with little light. Yes the script and the actors mannerism's ect. do obviously play a key role as well but with lighting and respects to chiaroscuro do help i feel significantly in films, paintings and photographs also. 

The image which carravaggio has portrayed is that from a scene from the bible where the resurrected but unidentifiable Jesus reveals himself to two of his disciples only to soon vanish from there sight very soon. The picture itself is made up of many oddity's for example on the right hand side one of the diciples has his arm stretched in a perspectively challenging extension which almost seems to reach form out of the frame also the bowl of food seems to almost be out of the painting too almost as if it is being held by the viewer. The illusions if they were meant would almost seem to point at the idea of the painting is not only to be viewed but for the viewer to almost be a witness in the vision from the bible. 

POISON

Contextual studies Assessment task III: MAJOR ESSAY

1. Choose one work by each of two modern artists. Describe each work and explain why they are modern. Discuss the content of the images and how they are made.

In 1937  Picasso painted one of his arguably most famous paintings ‘Guernica’ The painting was in fact Ironically the centerpiece for the Spanish pavilion of the worlds fair in Paris.  The theme of the Paris exposition was the celebration of modern technology. Although this seems to show the horrors of modern technology rather than any real benefits.

The painting is based on the events of April 27, 1937, When the German air force in support of the Fascist forces  carried out a bombing raid on the Basque village Guernica in Northern Spain, The village was bombed constantly for three hours, Women and children were cut down as they fled crumbling buildings . The town burned for three days leaving a total of sixteen hundred civilians killed or wounded.

Guernica depicts suffering people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos of war, the relevance of the piece is still even relevant today with places such as Afghanistan, Zimbabwe and for me it shows the barbaric nature of suffering that happens from any war. The overall message is Timeless as we only see a few people and no airplanes or bombs. The viewer must interpret much of the painting as it is not a realistic expression but instead is a form of cubism being that  the painting is not a gruesome painting of realism, It forces the viewer to think about the meaning instead.

Picasso is one of the most famous artist to have ever lived his work is timeless throughout his career and shows a path from personal matters with his earlier paintings which show his love and infatuation with different women to deep and personal world matters such as what the Guernica shows. His work will always be relevant and modern and will continue to inspire and influence new and upcoming artist always.

 

Here is one of Rene Magritte’s most profound and one of his most well known pieces ‘The Son of Man’. Magritte intentionally painted it as a self-portrait. The painting consists of a man in a suit and a hat standing in front of a small wall, beyond this is the sea and a cloudy sky. The man's face is pretty much totally obscured by a hovering green apple. it could be seen as obvious that it is the apple which is of debate here and there have been many explanations for the apple and what it represents, some have said the apple obscuring the face is simply just to show a loss of identity, others have come up with more complicated reasons such as the name of the piece is the son of man which can be said son of Adam, which corresponds to the creation story meaning the apple is there in front of his face as a representative of temptation as the apple was the temptation in the story showing even in the modern world there is still risk of temptation and it being the modern world because of what he is wearing and what he is, a business man.

I choose this piece because I myself have been inspired by it mainly for its sheer daring simplicity and minimalism of what it is. At first one perceives it as not very much but then looking at it in such detail shows the sheer scale of the unknown of this piece which is fascinating. its amazing how Magritte always seems to do this by using such simple and weird scenes but the meaning is too be unknown and the tittles makes you really think about the meaning. Of course they mainly mean different things to different people but this is always an essence which is good in art or photography, When many people have such different outlooks on a piece it must be a truly amazing experience being the artist and your work causing so much debate.

The mood and atmosphere of this piece unlike many of Magritte’s other work as it doesn’t feel as dark but more uplifting compared to the others anyway, which shows verity of the pieces to create different moods and personal atmospheres.

Both pieces and works by the two different modern artists who have created historical pieces of art which remain as a statue of the there time of great ‘modern’ work of there time both depict turning points in the history of art. They are recognizable to even people not in the field of art yet are still known by them. Even essence’s of there ideas and work still feed into modern day art and also patterns and ideas in fashion. Without these key Artists art today could have been very different this is why I picked these two artists who are not just modern artist but key artists in how there ideas fed others around there time and inspire the children of tomorrow.

Youtube continues to ruin Quality. Moving image short film about memories and thoughts of a road kill victim.

conceptualising your own work

I have chosen to look at Francesca Woodman as her work continues to inspire and fascinate me with its dreamlike qualities and an almost melancholy feel. Answers of what her work is about often cause mayhem in my mind. Much of the time my opinions and answers change about certain photos and I can never quite put my finger on one exact idea of what its trying to express. This I love, The unnerving quality of what she’s trying to say which kind of feels quite personal to the viewer. As she is usually naked and bare. Woodman for me is definitely a Queen of self-portraits as she appears frequently in pretty much all her photo’s in some way or another, Sometimes with just a hand other times everything.

 All of the work I’ve seen seems to always be quite odd and unsettling; I’ve never seen any of her work not in black and white either. Most photos’ she seems to almost blur and camouflage herself into the surroundings purposely. Photographs techniques she uses are long exposures to create a slight blur and obviously some form of self timing the camera. The work she does using Long exposures are for me unmistakable when going through her work compared to the ones which are clearly not long exposures. The main feature with her unusual presence in the photo’s is also the presence she doesn’t have in the photos, she always seems to be not quite here, not quite there which is quite a personal feeling which I feel she actually had. With Her short life and never really seeming to reach any real recognition she did later go on commit suicide at the age of only 22. So I believe this feeling of her isolation and being here but not, Seen in her work, Is however I feel a real reference to herself. In other photographs she uses a variety of  strange and possibly symbolic props to create a dreamlike and bizarre feel to the images which remind me of people such as Man Ray and even Dali..The images also Follow similar ideas similar to the surrealist movement, Such as not explaining work and demonstrating a desire of appearances. Another similar artist I did find to Francesca was Duane Michals whose photos I also find very inspiring and do seem to do quite similar photo's and ideas, Yet I feel lack the personal feel to Francesca’s work which I do always feel about her work. The feeling of a very one to one viewing. Almost like its private.

Francesca’s style of photography seems to have this importance for the background being very simple, Yet keeping places to hide. I think this idea of hiding away from the camera is playful yet quite sad and adds emotion to some of her photos. Naturally being inspired by Francesca the work I created flowed very easily and the ideas to my image all came together very easily. For my idea behind this piece I needed to use two photo’s instead of one to perhaps show what I wanted to represent easier.I edited and put them together on Photoshop, (Not necessarily a tool Francesca would of used but for me personally I found it easier to recreate her style through this medium.) My piece looks at a very personal and general issue of life, I named the title of my piece ‘I used to be safe’ the piece covers themes of perceptions of ourselves, Birth and how we live in constant fear of time. I thought it would be an image which would be unusual and very open to interpretations. After asking a few people what they thought it was about. It was nice to know my idea was different and the image very open to different perceptions, as this is what I wanted. So I am quite pleased with the outcome.

PHOTOGRAPHY - SPACE & TIME

My theme for my photography project was based around space and time. The whole idea was to take a different approach of space and time. Not in an everyday sense, but more out of a time into a place with ‘surreal’ identity where it was possible to create a place that didn’t relate to a specific time. You could also say into a space and time which doesn’t seem real.

I used a mixture of techniques with the model but mainly tried to keep the photos quite natural and flowing throughout the time spent there. Some were slightly composed as to me wanting certain shots but most of the photos keep an element of naturalness to them. The photos where the model (Catherine) is looking away our mainly the most natural, where as the others when she’s staring into the camera are more to show  a connection not just with me - the photographer - but to the viewer that she is aware of you looking into this surreal place. So this shows a mixture of curiosity, Natural and composed compositions.

After the shoot I experimented on editing all of my favorite pictures on Photoshop CS4. I have used Photoshop ever since starting photography and I find it a great program to work with my photos. Generally on most photos I have changed the levels increasing the blues on quite a few and even yellow on others. Even to the black and whites this was done first and added black and white on top. I also played around with exposure and gamma effects to add softer tones to certain pictures. I’m not one of the strongest people on Photoshop but I feel I’m at a confident level and very open to help. If I find myself stuck on how to do something I watch tutorials and learn that way. All in all with this shoot I did prefer the edited ones to the originals so I’m happy with the different effects and outcomes which I have produced using the program Photoshop.

The set for the photos is key to what I wanted to create. The place in which they were photographed is somewhere neither me nor the model knew. So the photos often show elements of curiosity and interest in the surroundings, and both of us work to explore them. The only difference is I had a camera. This personally gave me a great chance to do photos concentrating on one person as I have never done anything like this previously and has helped me have the confidence to do something like this again. Possibly in the future I’d like to explore a different place like I have done in this shoot, but maybe with another photographer and work side by side photographing each other exploring the place and use both our images as a combined set of photos. This would relate to some of the same ideas as this set with Catherine but with a very different outcome as this shoot mainly concentrated through only one person’s eye not both. 

For full size and better quality photo's visit my Flickr - set's - Catherine -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maxwellreynish

Contextual studies

1.                                                                                                   2.

The first image I am going to discuss is the black and white image on the left. This photograph was taken by sculpture/ photographer Hans Bellmer the image is from a series of his work called the ‘La poupee’ series which were used in the journal Minotaure (a surrealist puplication). His work is often quoted as being ‘surrealist photography’. Which I find myself coming to agreeing with as his work for me looks and feels very surreal and unnerving. The bodies he creates from doll parts and makes himself remind me   very much of work by dali .

For example in this Dali painting the way the human form is very twisted and miss shaped. To create instead of a romanticized image of a beautiful body it gives a more weirder and vulgar image, What Dali lacks where Bellmer succeeds is where as Dali uses lots of bright colour’s which although give a very real surreal affect, Bellmers are very real and taken by camera and give more of an unnerving, chilling feel to them which isn’t exactly an emotion I have felt when looking at a Dali piece. Although there is a different feel with Dali’s And Ballmer’s work the surreal elements are all to similar. For example Female beauty and the sexualization of the youthful form are two key elements key to both artists but more so with Ballmer as Dali is of course a lot broader.

The second image is by yet another photographer called Cindy Sherman. Her image uses a doll like the first one with a made up femine beauty, very similar to that which you see in the fashion industry with bright lips and neat eye make up. The model also has a large cut taken out of her chest where another female face lay, Almost looking as if were waiting. The model woman also has a back drop of a beautiful silk sheet which is a good balance of colour with the rest of the colours in the image but also shows some form of wealth, whether it being hers or the photographer or industry taking it’s wealth I do not know but would probably show the industries wealth not hers. The "model's" excessive makeup, hair in wild disarray, and bruised "flesh” are all related to controversy in the 70’s over the sex-and-violence– saturated fashion photography. The figure is also as I mentioned early complicated by a hollowed chest in which another vacant representation of the painted female face resides, Ready to destroy this body and create another person who will go on and destroy her body and so on. Almost as if the face inside the body is influenced by the person she is in, like a roll model and when she breaks out and becomes her own model she is yet to be battered and destroyed and another girl with high hopes and dreams will idolize her and go on to do the same as she did. Almost like a violent circle.

Qualities yet again with this image depict very surreal imagery yet again I feel, also the use of dolls is a very surreal object in itself as it creates this element of surrealism about it straight away, if both the pictures by bellmer and Sherman were people it would have a totally different feel. Both share very up in your face straight away unnerving feelings of death and mysteriousness. This in both wouldn’t be as strong without the fake yet almost life like forms created by dolls. Both images share views on the female body but what’s interesting with the two images I picked is we have both sexes representing the female body.