AS Photography Blog

CONSTRUCTED REALITIES

Constructed Realities Brief -

As part of a move to promote up and coming young photographers, The Tate Modern is hosting an exhibition titled Constructed Realities.  The exhibition is open to photographers aged between 16 and 21 years who have a passion for the subject and are open to both traditional and digital techniques.

First artist analysis - Gavin Hoey When looking at Hoey’s photograph, I was instantly attracted to the way he was able to make his ordinary image look like a beautiful hand-painted piece of art. The strokes created in his image give the photograph as sense of even flow which also enable certain aspects of the image to have a more natural feel to them such as the waves rushing by and the clouds being swept along by the wind. I also really liked the sense of simplicity that this image portrays with the flow and even the soft white & blue colours, which could perhaps symbolize purity and even innocence. The most visually pleasing aspect of this photograph was the overall use of flow and colours. I feel that these really help give the photos a natural and even almost a dream like effect, and are the main focal points of the image. When creating my own set of images in this style, I want to create the same sense of flow and try to include the same simplicty of colours as I feel this will give the photographs an overall better look.  

First artist analysis - Gavin Hoey

When looking at Hoey’s photograph, I was instantly attracted to the way he was able to make his ordinary image look like a beautiful hand-painted piece of art. The strokes created in his image give the photograph as sense of even flow which also enable certain aspects of the image to have a more natural feel to them such as the waves rushing by and the clouds being swept along by the wind. I also really liked the sense of simplicity that this image portrays with the flow and even the soft white & blue colours, which could perhaps symbolize purity and even innocence.

The most visually pleasing aspect of this photograph was the overall use of flow and colours. I feel that these really help give the photos a natural and even almost a dream like effect, and are the main focal points of the image. When creating my own set of images in this style, I want to create the same sense of flow and try to include the same simplicty of colours as I feel this will give the photographs an overall better look.  

Evaluation of 1st Set of Developmental Photographs

I feel that my set of photographs really capture the same aspects and possibly even emotions as Hoey’s does. When digitally manipulating my photographs, I paid particular attention to the flow I was creating and the use of colours I had in there too. After completing my photographs, I experimented a bit more with the overall flow and contrast of the colours. This helped me come to the conclusion that my photographs look better with more flow than Hoey originally used, and also more contrast added to the colours. Even though this slightly detracted away from the sense of innocence and peace that Hoey’s created, I still feel that this was the better choice as it created an overall better look. 

When creating this set, I wanted to try and take my set a little further than Hoey’s. So, in order to do this, I edited each of my photographs through Photoshop making sure to create strong definitions between colours and bring out the blacks and clarity of the images. After realising my set would look better with more swirls, I used various tools such as the smudge tool, the blur tool, dodge and burn. This gave me a good base for my set, I then went further by using the liquify tool to distort particular sections of the photographs. After finding something that looked aesthetically pleasing to me, I then used a photoshop filter to add a paint overlay to the photographs, adjusting settings accordingly to my liking. 

Vincent Van Gogh When creating my initial set, I was aware of how strong the link was between my set and some of Vincent Van Gogh’s art. Upon looking at his work, I was very inspired by the use of strokes he had, and how well the overall image flowed, but most of all I was intrigued on how some of his images were beautiful, yet had a dark and somewhat mysterious look to them. Also, it made me question myself whether he tried to symbolise something behind this or if it was just purely because he preferred it that way. When developing my first set, I want to try and create a sense of mystery one way or another within mine, and possibly even make the audience question if it symbolised a hidden meaning like Van Gogh’s piece did for me.

Vincent Van Gogh

When creating my initial set, I was aware of how strong the link was between my set and some of Vincent Van Gogh’s art. Upon looking at his work, I was very inspired by the use of strokes he had, and how well the overall image flowed, but most of all I was intrigued on how some of his images were beautiful, yet had a dark and somewhat mysterious look to them. Also, it made me question myself whether he tried to symbolise something behind this or if it was just purely because he preferred it that way. When developing my first set, I want to try and create a sense of mystery one way or another within mine, and possibly even make the audience question if it symbolised a hidden meaning like Van Gogh’s piece did for me.

Second artist analysis - David Carson I was instantly attracted to Carson’s ‘Ray Gun’ set because I felt it had a really mysterious and strange feel to it. The way he has certain parts of his photograph out of focus gives it that edgy feel and could also potentially symbolise a hidden meaning/hiding something. His use of colours here are very broad, which help make the photograph very prominent.  In this particular photograph, I really like the use of having different depths of field combined with the strong, bold colours. These two techniques help the photo have more of an impact on the audience as it could be seen as being more visually pleasing. Also, the use of these two techniques combined help break up the negative and positive space slightly. This is because the blurred section could be seen as the negative space, but he has also added the bold colours to this section so at this same time it draws you in. The same technique was used with the little photos in focus at the front, they are in focus but at the same time are quite faint in comparison to the rest so it breaks it up a little. When looking further into this image, it became evident that Carson had used a projector to create this effect. The projector is something that I feel could enhance my photographs quite a bit so I will experiment with using it and see what outcomes I can achieve.  When creating my set in the style of this, I want to use the same techniques he has used by using blurred sections of my photos and also by adding some colours to them. I feel that this will help make the images not only look more visually pleasing, but will also help draw the audience in more so by doing this. 

Second artist analysis - David Carson

I was instantly attracted to Carson’s ‘Ray Gun’ set because I felt it had a really mysterious and strange feel to it. The way he has certain parts of his photograph out of focus gives it that edgy feel and could also potentially symbolise a hidden meaning/hiding something. His use of colours here are very broad, which help make the photograph very prominent. 

In this particular photograph, I really like the use of having different depths of field combined with the strong, bold colours. These two techniques help the photo have more of an impact on the audience as it could be seen as being more visually pleasing. Also, the use of these two techniques combined help break up the negative and positive space slightly. This is because the blurred section could be seen as the negative space, but he has also added the bold colours to this section so at this same time it draws you in. The same technique was used with the little photos in focus at the front, they are in focus but at the same time are quite faint in comparison to the rest so it breaks it up a little. When looking further into this image, it became evident that Carson had used a projector to create this effect. The projector is something that I feel could enhance my photographs quite a bit so I will experiment with using it and see what outcomes I can achieve. 

When creating my set in the style of this, I want to use the same techniques he has used by using blurred sections of my photos and also by adding some colours to them. I feel that this will help make the images not only look more visually pleasing, but will also help draw the audience in more so by doing this.