Amy Friend Analysis

Amy Friend is a photographer that alters vintage images by piercing small holes in them allowing light to pass through. On her website she exclaimed " I aimed to give the photographs back the light, as photographs are only made possible with light" She named this series of dotted light photos  Dare alla Luce, a phrase used to describe this idea.

I like the way shes pinned around the figures to kind of bring them out from the dull dark background .You can tell this image is vintage because of the kind of brownish stain it has which actually works with this experimentation well. Although her pinning is a nice idea with a good explaination for it. Some might say shes ruined this picture because by pinning this picture she has obscured the identity of the figures we are no longer able to make out who these people are.

This is another one from the collection but i like this one better the way she has chosen to pin holes in the ladies jumper ois effective because she already has polka dots in her jumper so this effect helps them stand out more.

Also this picture differs from the previous as it is shot in daylight and although the dots are more effective in dark light somehow it works in this print. Her placeage of the dots also kind of hints magic or friendship between the horse and the ladies almost like those disney movies when two characters connect and there is sparks, these dots kind of relate to this.

I would imagine that the method for this is quite straightforward,  She would need to first get hold of some old photographs or print or phphotocopy them from a old photoalbum or something, then pierce a couple holes in them where she wants and place the photograph ona light box and take a picture of the final result Alternatively she could use a torch.

Overall, I do like these series of images i think the fact that shes used  vintage photographs helps this piece look more effective as the light holes realate more to old fashioned photos, even though like she stated light is responsable for producing all photographs i think it makes more sense cooperating it into these vintage prints.

However if i was to cooperate this into my own work i would choose a dark photograph instead of a light one as i think the dots will show up better and also kind of look like small stars.

Florian Imgrund Analysis

Florian Imgrund is a Photographer that specialises in making creative double exposure prints. He was fascinated by the ‘unique charm’ of early photography and when he got his first analog camera in summer 2010 he began experimenting and taking pictures ever since.

He currently works as an assistant professor in Germany but he is still passionate about his hobby, pursuing it as he writes his doctoral thesis's.

This is one of Florian's Pictures which i admire the most Its a double exposure print and for this one he has clearly used a girl facing the side and to overlap her hes used what looks like a field of flowers. I really like this combination he has chosen its really effective to combine portraiture with still life as they are both so different so contrast each other nicely.

The fact the girl is faced to the side really works for this piece as well  because its like shes scaring out into the distant, daydreaming of some sort, which kind of relates to a Field of daisies, maybe shes sitting on the daisies daydreaming about her aspirations and Florian has combined the both to give a sense of location in his photography.

The black and white from using the analog camera also adds to the effectiveness because of the contrast of the black and white flowers in the background and the figure with all her personal qualities such as her hair strands and other facial features, I don't think this print would have worked as well in colour because there would be too much happening because I would think the flowers colour would overpower everything.

To make this print i think it required a lot of skill to make since he was using a analog camera he would have to take on set of his prints first so this could be figures or still life then he would have to rewind the film inside the camera and begin taking more pictures on either still life or figures depending which one he took first. The process also doesn't always work out because the print you take on top could not work well with the one that's on bottom and its also hard to tell if your printing on the image or directly after it.

This is another image manipulated by Florian. I really like how hes combined rocks with his hand, This picture looks like its also been combined with the dodging and burning technique in the darkroom because the hand appears really dark whilst the background is very light but you can still makeup the rocks in both the foreground and background.

Nina Chakrabarti Analyisis

Nina Chakrabarti is a London based illustrator, She was born in 1970 in Calcutta,India.She achieved a Bachelors degree in Central Saint Martins and a MA in the Royal College Of Art. Although she grew up in Calcutta in the 1970s her mother was English so she was exposed to lots of western books, music and art as well.

Nina Chakrabarti's illustrations are quite simple. With just a few pen strokes she finds a way to put a sense of joy and wonder into her drawings. She is highly inspired by fashion and this lead to the creation of her 'My Wonderful World Of Fashion' books.The books are aimed at children but after being published they found fans of all ages interested in them all around the world. Nina's drawings always seem personal whether they are  for commercial purposes which include Marks & Spencer, Vogue and The New York Times or not.

Unlike most artists in a Interview Nina expressed how she moved to England from India in her teens with literally not much at all but a couple of books.She spoke about how strange it was to leave everything she knew behind and start again with virtually nothing. She then went on to say how in that time in her life she became fascinated with how people collect things as they travel through life and how in England at that time one of the popular things to do was to go to jumble sales and car boot sales to rummage for books,clothes and other bits and bobs. She was looking for things herself there when she became drawn to the way people present their personal belongings some presenting them neatly and others would have them thrown about in heaps of piles. Then much later when she began art school, she started to photograph stalls at car boot sales when she saw an arrangement that caught her eye. She stated that she believes this is the stem for the composition of disparate objects.

Nina's influences come from all over most of her detail and decoration is influenced most by Indian arts and crafts. Her biggest influence is a Russian Illustrator called Ivan Bilibin who was working in the early 1900's her fascination with his work started when  she was very small growing up she had a book he had produced called The Firebird which she described to have incredible skill and beautifully vivid colours.

For this information I looked at her website which was really brief so I research on and found a interview she had with the societeperrier website which is mainly for art and artist reviews the full interview is accessible here.

This image is one over many that features in this project for i want you magazine called 'Voodoo Queens'. I want you magazine is a art and design magazine designed and published by dumb eyes studio it features artworks by upcoming talents & overlooked artists from around the world. Each photograph in this series features a different illustration design on the faces of the models inspired by the art and culture of voodoo.

Voodoo is a spirited experience of mystery and revelation. It arrived from Africa on the shores of the Jamaica as a healing tradition. Soon enough though a darker version of Voodoo was born, inflicting pain and suffering to the enemies. This is the Voodoo  that was smuggled to the island of Haiti and later to New Orleans. Voodoo was also very women-centred and graphically rich, and an everlasting source of inspiration for musicians, writers, painters, tattoo artists, graphic designers and illustrators.In this series of photography's there are only images of women this could relate to the tradition of voodoo and how it was very women centred.

 The style in which the models hair is seems to me like Nina was also trying to link it into a traditional African mask with orange hair coming out of it.I think her design on the face of the model relates more to a Indian art and crafts design rather than a 'Voodoo' inspired design as in the mask below here the pattern on the mask is relatively simple compared to the detailed Nina version.

The artist has used a variety of formal elements to design this outcome on the face of the model we have a selection of different lines such as curved and wavy, The smaller circles at the base of the face portray a bumpy texture as I'm assuming this illustration is an R enactment of a 3D mask.

There isn't any extra ordinary colour that Nina has added to this photograph she has kept the original colours of the photograph and just added her black pattern on the face.

Their are lots of different patterns on this piece as well on the face it is almost divided into a line of symmetry where both sides of the face have the exact same pattern as each other which I think is effective because again it looks like she was trying to produce a 2D illustration of what a 3D mask would look like.

The model in this piece is quite plain as in her expression is very blank maybe this is a scare tactic as her eyes are coloured black so maybe she is possessed and ready to pounce. I think all Nina was trying to do here was sort of modernise the traditional opinions of voodoo, So what it would be like if witch doctors were walking around as casual people.

There wasn't much information about the meaning of this piece and the concept just who it was made for and the company name.To make this piece however I think it was relatively easy I think Nina set up a photo-shoot of some women and then printed the images and worked on them individually using pens such as a fine liner or a Biro pen.

When I first saw this piece it reminded me of Geraldine Georges another illustrator who produces drawings on images and also I found this selection of photos to be quite scary and disturbing mainly because of the negative stereotype of violent or aggressive that face tattoos give out also because her eyes were pure black which usually suggests evil.

Overall I Like the piece mainly because of the amount of detail in the facial pattern and because of the composition of the entire piece.

Victora and Albert Museum - A history of photography

In the Summer holiday I visited the V&A museum which had a little exhibition going on called The history of photography. Within this exhibition they gave a incite into what photography was like at different years in the past such as Modernism and After the war personal vision these are just a few of the headings in the exhibition. The exhibition actually included some artists id researched previously for example some works of Man ray, which was actually very different to the works I've seen of his before. I overall thought this exhibition was very interesting as it showed me how photography has evolved over the years and how it is still evolving now with new technology and some old methods.

 
 
 

This is a work by Benjamin Brecknell Turnell the piece is called 'Three Fishermen' and was produced around 1850.

 This Photograph is actually an early example of a technique we now call solarisation, but back then they did the method a slightly different way, Benjamin actually had to take out a license before he could do this technique by its inventor William Henry Fox.

 This back in the 1850s was called Paper negative or calotype and they were actually made by waxing a negative to make it translucent and then placing it in contact with a second sheet of sensitized paper and leaving it in the sun. This differs from Solarisation in the 21st Century as we now use a enlarger to expose the image on a piece of photography paper and once exposed for a limited amount of time we dip it into the developer wait till a faint version of the photograph to appear then, we place it back on the enlarger completely exposed to the light for the magic to happen and before the image gets too dark it goes back into the developer for a short amount of time, then the fix and so forth.

 I like the way the method of Solarisation has evolved amongst time but I'm sure there will be a few people that still prefer to do this the old fashioned way. Regardless I thought this piece was very interesting and if I might say kind of sinister in a way as you reverse the black and whites in the photograph the fishermen's eyes go pure white which is quite scary looking almost like they are some sort of a ghost . Also the way the men are all standing together with similar clothing which probably would have been the normality in those days but to me they again fit into this sinister horror movie snapshot they actually to me look like three scary crows with there basket hats and stiff stances.

 

This Photo was done by a man named Henry Peach Robinson, It was named 'When the Days work is done' this was created in 1877.

I was stunned when I read the info on this photograph it was actually made by using 6 different negatives I honesty think that, that's amazing for something so old to be so clever and creative and they don't even have the technology yet to make that process easier, What also impressed me is that this photograph looks genuine I was standing directing in front of it and if I didn't read the info I would of easily believed this was a ordinary print I congratulate it on being so well put together.

This is a Photograph created by a photographer named Paul Tanqueray, the photo is named 'Gertrude Lawrence' and was produced around 1930.Tanqueray is most famous for producing what were said to be the most stylish society photographs of the 1920s to 1930s.

The woman featured in this photograph was actually named Gertrude Lawrence she was a famous English actress, singer, dancer and Musical comedy performer known for her stage performances at London's west end and a New York's Broadway.

I like the way he has captured her pose in this photograph it really portrays her profession in acting and dancing.

This photo is by a woman named Eve Arnold made around 1965 it is called "The meeting of the brides of Christ on their wedding day to their lord at the nunnery in god aiming. surrey".

I like this piece because it was quite sinister also with the brides all gathered like this in a circle almost looks like they are planning a evil deed, I think its also because all the dresses look very much similar so that for me adds to the creep.

I found the title of this piece very peculiar as I haven't seen a title so long so far I think it emphasizes god and religion a lot in it which is quite concerning because is Arnold actually trying to tell us its not very godly at all.

Although this don't respond to my chosen pathway I felt motivated to showcase these aswell as for my first AS assignment I did something soo similar to this and I actually like the concept of capturing writing in black and white film. I think this is something I would definitely do again but with a creative twist. 

Nether the lest these photographs were produced by Robert Johnbrown he claimed that these photographs were taken on one trip around London as inspiration for his typography he also mentioned that these signs show weather, wit, bad spelling , necessity  and good loud repetition that can put a sort of music into the streets when we walk.

 

These are the last two photographs I particularly liked. These were taken by a man named Robert Doisneau these photographs were named 'Café noir et blanc' which I think translates to black and white coffee then there's the second one which was named 'Le petit Balcon' which is again French for the small balcony.

Doisneau is said to produce images that reveal moments of human nature and they are filled with warmth, feeling and wit. As far as I can tell this speculation is quite accurate both these images capture human nature within location one of which is in a coffee shop the other which is in a crowded room noted as a small balcony. What I particularly like about these pieces is that they both look like stills from a movie i can see action in both of them awaiting to happen in the coffee shop its a interesting conversation between two gentlemen or a rather large spillage of coffee due to the waitresses clumsiness in the photo below I see either a dace off about to start or a bet in which everyone sits and waits in awe for the designated player to take there turn.

Overall I really enjoyed this exhibition there was so much to look at and read, But to conclude this Exhibition has kind of informed me that darkroom photography hasn't really changed significantly our new technologies over time have allowed us to perfect already discovered techniques', but in a way I think that is a good thing its like passing on a great grand mothers special cookie recipe along the family line each person perfecting it to meet their specific standards or to perfect it to make I better which is the exact explanation of the pathway of Darkroom Photography.