Paul Gonella
Paul Gonella first started taking pictures on a school trip to Russia in 1987 because he wanted to document his experiences there, He is also a keen skateboarder and so photographed his friends skateboarding back home, this is something that is still a theme in some of his photography today as skateboarding takes him to areas of London that are abandoned: 'quiet corners' as he calls them. He likes to shoot on film as he likes the control it gives him.
My responses to Paul Gonella
I took these photos in the style of Paul Gonella, I thought about the angles he used ant the sort of things he took photos of and attempted to emulate his style. I did not use film to take these pictures due to time constraints, however if I were to do this again I would, because it would be more true to the artist's style.
For this picture I used Photoshop to make it black and white, and then used quick mask mode to make a rough selection of the edges and made them darker to add extra interest and make the photo appear more as if it was taken using and analogue camera. I like that the picture is simple, with the lines giving it visual interest. |
For this photo in the slideshow is of a passage underneath a block of flats. I took this picture because Paul Gonella likes to take pictures of abandoned buildings and places and this picture looked abandoned and lonely, but also the lines were interesting and create interesting angles. The picture has a high level of shadow because I under exposed the picture deliberately, in order to give the picture more atmosphere. |
Giovanni Tisocco
Giovanni Tisocco is an Italian photographer who likes to experiment with colour and shape, his pictures are often completely abstract, his form of photography is all about expressing one's self and he uses a lot of block colours. He likes to photograph Thiene (the town where he lives in Italy) in a way that you wouldn't see it normally. his pictures are minimalist and explore the shapes and colours of the city. He makes use of shadows very effectively, using them to create lots of interesting angles and give the pictures depth.
My Urban Photography
Abstract in response to Tisocco
Recording my Ideas- Capturing the moment
Recording My Ideas- Words and art
I took this picture in the Lake District of a man taking a picture of a swan, but I thought is was amusing because the swan looks as if it's being camera shy because of the way it's turning it's head away. I thought that black and white would help bring out the subject of the picture better and that it would make it look more focused and sharp. |
I took this picture outside West Quay, I cropped the picture to get the effect I wanted with the straight lines created by the beam and the wires in the foreground, and the building in the background. I thought black and white suited the picture because it takes the focus away from the colours and gives the picture a more serious mood. |
My Analogue Photography
For some of my pictures I decided to use film cameras, as I think they give a much more unpredictable and also an entertaining appearance to the pictures that you take, they also have a much deeper feel than didgital photos, as if there is more to them than meets the eye. It is harder to predict what they will look like and the cameras themselves are much easier to find your way around and more fun to use, as all the settings are manual, so you have to set everything up yourself. They make me feel like I have more control over the pictures I take. I also experimented with double exposures, which has produced some rather entertaining results.
I took this photo in London of a building behind southbank, the decorations were still up after London Pride and I saw some streamers haning from the underside of this roof, I particularly like the lines formed by the balconies and think the streamers add extra texture and interest to the picture. When I scanned the picture in I thought that a slightly washd out look with contrasting shadows suted the picture, so I used photoshop to enhance those aspects of the picture, I also turned the saturation up to enhance the colours of the streemers. |
I took this picture looking up at St. Bart's Hospital in London. This is where Sherlock jumped in The Reichenbach Fall in the final episode of the second series. I like the way the film develops and gives the photograph a lot more depth, I don't think digital photography has quite the same effect as analogue.. |
This picture was also taken on the Southbank, where they had set up a starecase with coloured plastic strips haning from the framework, I thought the colours were exiting and that they would make an otherwise uniteresting picture worth taking, the gaps between the strips give you a glimpse of the what the light is like on the other side of the plastic strips. |
The Impossible Project
The impossible project is a company that manufacture instant film for polaroid cameras, they also refurbish used polaroid cameras, and are the only people who manufacture 600 SX70 and spectra/image cameras. They develop unique instant film with exiting effects and promote artists who use their products. The Impossible Project and Third Man Records both believe in the power of analogue technology in the digital age. They decided to do a collaboration to develop a special type of instant film which develops in yellow and black, which is Third Man's colour scheme. I thought the colours were striking and unique, however, I sadly didn't have a spare £40 lying around which I would need to buy a camera which takes this film, so I decided to attempt to recreate the look of the pictures using Photoshop and the pictures I had taken. I also decided to create some blue and black ones as they are the colours Jack White uses for his solo work.
Pictures by Angelina Castillo were taken for an exhibition of the film developed in collaboration with Third Man Records. She said that "as a photographer [it was], the most exciting thing we have ever done". She grew up in Texas and started taking photos at a young age so she didn't have to pay to get into concerts. In 2012 she moved to Nashville and started shooting photos for TMR, taking pictures for album covers and also promotional photos for artists when they preform at TMR. She was chosen by the Impossible Project to experiment with the black and yellow instant film, with witch she created some very stylised and interesting photos. When asked how music photographers have had to adapt since when she was younger: "when shooting live music, if you want to stick out from the crowd you have to produce shots that make people feel that their very mortal soul is mid-rapture."
Oher photos by Angelina Castillo
My Edits
To create this edit I used a picture I had already taken of a reflection of trees in a pond and used levels to increase the level of blue in the picture until all the other colours (apart from black and white) were removed. I then put a black boarder around it to mimic the look of a polaroid with a black frame. I decided to use blue in this edit as it is the inspired by the colour scheme that jack white uses for his solo work. I like this picture because of the collision of the land plants and water plants, because it's not entirely clear what you are looking at. I also like it because you can see the stems of the water plants just bellow the surface, which gives the picture depth.
For this one I used one of the analogue pictures I had taken because I thought it would look more authentic. For this one I replaces all the white in the picture with yellow using the selective colour tool, this gave a much more accurate effect than the last picture, which had, which had white elements, in this picture areas that would be white are yellow, like in the actual pictures taken on the film. I also like the texture of the picture, which I cropped so it would be square like a polaroid photo.
I used a similar technique for this edit, however this one turned out much greyer than the others as there wasn't much white in the picture. I think that it ended up looking quite atmospheric though. I like the industrial feel that it has, with he PowerStation and the multi-story car park in the background, it looks quite desolate. The black frame brings out the black in the picture and makes it look darker.
László Moholy–Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian born abstract painter, designer, typographer, photographer, film maker and theorist. He was highly influenced by constructivism and an advocate of the use of technology in the arts. He began to paint abstract pictures in 1920 under the influence of Malevich and Lissitzky, and had his first one-man exhibition at the Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, 1922. Works by him are currently on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.
My responces to László Moholy–Nagy
Teselation Edits using Photoshop
I used this picture to tessellate because I like the angles that are created by the telephone wires. I also like the merging effect that it has on the house that makes it look like the view down a kaleidoscope. The gradient of the sky also has interesting effect, making the colours fade from light to dark in patterns around the picture.
This picture also has interesting angles created by the telephone wires, which make it look almost rounded because of the way they curve outwards. I decided to make this picture black and white because I thought the colours in the picture clashed too much with each other and took away the focus from the shape of the pattern. The shape of the pattern is very interesting in this picture as it looks like everything is shrinking to a single point in the middle.
I used Photoshop to create these tessellated pictures. By doubling the canvas size I was able to create space for another layer, which is duplicated from the first layer. I then flipped that layer upside down and flipped it horizontally, I then merged the two images so they were both one layer, I then duplicated the layer again and made the canvas twice as wide and flipped it to create the affect of everything revolving around the telegraph pole in the middle. To create the X shape in the middle I made the canvas twice as high and duplicated the (merged) layer, flipping it upside down to create the X shape with the telegraph pole.
Ghosting: initial photos
Ghosting
For these edits I took two pictures for each edit I did, one with the person in and one without. I then layered the picture with the person in over the top of the other picture, I then adjusted the opacity of the picture on top to make it appear as if the person was fading away and ghost-like. I took the pictures in the park because I thought that it would make an interesting setting as there are climbing frames and other things that can add different levels to my pictures.
I used a tripod to steady the camera and took two pictures, one with the subject in and one without, I then used Photoshop to combine the two images and made the top layer (with the subject in) more transparent using the opacity tool. I like this picture because it looks quite lonely with the way she is sat all by herself. I think the camera angle is interesting as it is very low to the ground, making everything else appear taller. |
I used the same Photoshop technique for this image, making her look like a ghost using the opacity tool. I like that this one has an element of discovery, as if she is peering down the tunnel to see what is there. It's interesting because you only get a vague idea about what she looks like, as if she is just a suggestion of a person. |
When I took this image the two pictures didn't quite line up, giving the picture a blurry effect around the edges. I quite like this effect as it gives the impression of the picture being not quite real. It makes it more interesting than if the whole thing were in focus, like perhaps you're looking through a distorted lens. |