Life Cycle Mindmap:
Life Cycle Moodboard:
Bill Viola - The Nantes Triptych.
Bill Viola's work 'The Nantes Triptych' is 3 videos based on someone giving birth to a baby, the consionness represented as a person suspended/ floating in water and someone dyeing. This piece of work doesn't interest me because I wouldn't be one to sit around and watch someone giving birth and someone dyeing because it would either make me feel ill or just depress me. To watch something like this, I think you have to be either religious or someone who will want to get a meaning out of these clips.
This work, I would say, is quite modern but could also be seen has quite old-fashioned due to the fact that in the middle sequence he is suspended in water and could relate to something quite religious and have a cryptic message behind it.
6 Ideas for Life Cycle
1) Dead life that is next to life that is alive - Show the contrast in how different things survive in different conditions that other life cannot live in.
2) Different conditions that things are living in - Lichen living in the snow when everything else is dead/ dying.
3) Single stand-alone flowers
4) Grandparents holding a small baby or having a family line up to show the different generations
5) Ice melting into water but going through the process of melting to slush and then to water
6) Nature on it's own life cycle, with animals amongst dead trees
7) Graveyard headstones
Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy is a british sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural and urban settings. I think his work is quite modern and up-to date because he is taking photos of the surrounding area and things that are just around in nature that seem to creep up and natural occurrences. He lives and works in Scotland.
This picture above is really pretty because it looks like a big dandelion made out of smaller dandelions. The colours of the flowers themselves is really bright so it gives a feeling of it being hot/ Summery and also it stands out against the dark green of the grass so it is easily seen from a distance. Also, it can be seen as a small map with the centre being in the middle and as it grows out the dots are spread out.
Albert Goodman
Albert Goodman is a Dallas photographer and has been a professional photographer for over 6 years and a professional writer for thirty years. He has been a member of the Professional Photographers of America and an Emeritus Member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
He wants to create compelling imagery for us that will transcend time and become the treasure of your personal artefacts.
The picture above, in black and white, is a really nice and personal picture that could be of anyones children or children from different people put together in a photo shoot. It's a nice photo because it is black and white but it looks like it has been edited to only leave the colour of the red bow on that all the girls seem to be wearing on their heads. It shows life by the way that they all seem to be different ages but ranging from Baby to Infant to Toddler to Child and they all seem to be happy to be together.
Digital Images relating to Life Cycle
Here are a few of my favourite pictures that I felt fitted the category of Life cycle. The majority of my pictures are on my Flickr account
Final Prints for Life Cycle
The final prints that I have chosen to use for my life cycle are mainly to do with flowers because they are the ones that I felt were more in focus and clear in detail. Also, when editing these in photoshop I gave each of them a different tone to them to give them different atmospheres to what the original pictures were. For example, for the first picture that I will submit, I edited this one to give it a rather cold look because it was just end of winter and making this picture look and feel cold gave the foreground object a chance to stand out from the background with it's Colour of green. For the second picture that I will submit, I edited this one to give it a warm look because in the shot I have managed to get blue sky and the petals of a crocus plant. Adjusting the lightness/ contrast of this picture so it helped create this warm and light atmosphere with just a few adjustments. Finally, for the third picture that I will submit for Life Cycle I have chosen to dull down the lightness because it was too bright and toning it down gave the picture a more smooth look and in a way, it helped bring the snowdrops into the foreground more so we are able to sort out between the flowers and the street in the background.
Final Prints
Final evaluation for Life Cycle.
I feel that this mini-project has gone very well because I felt that I have found what sort of photography that I really enjoy and also enjoy experimenting with different parts of nature to photograph and gather different ideas to take photos and what different shots I could use because different shots could give different compositions and different effects come with the different scenes with compositions. I feel now to continue onto my exam project, I need to use a range of methods and a get a variety of pictures come out to deal with my project and also, I need to think about what things I want to do for my final piece to make sure that I achieve the best grade that I can possibly get. It links to my exam topic also because these flowers/ parts of nature are experiencing the death and life and growth of the nature around them and also are just going around in the circle of life but it will take more time for them to come back to the living world.
Experiences, Encounters and Meetings
Moodboard
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| Ideas of Encounters, Experiences and Meetings |
Then there is the experience of being in hospital. For many people, it can be a good experience as they go in to get cured or fixed up, but you encounter all sorts of people in hospitals, Doctors, nurses and the visitors who come to visit at your bedside. But, also, it's not a good experience for those who go to visit because they can visit sick/ dyeing loved ones or just to say farewell. It's mainly a sad experience for all gender, race and ages.
Being in a choir is a Huge Experience because you are performing in a team and generally being in a team is a good thing because you share out responsibilities or you take the mistakes as a whole. Also, you get a good feeling about being in a group and achieving something so big as a performance.
Lastly, just walking into a Coffee shop and sitting down with colleagues for a drink and a chat or you can even, meet someone totally new or find someone that you lost contact with a while ago. All good.
Mindmap
The work of Geraldine Georges above is interesting because it reminds me of something that the film producer Tim Burton did for his version of Alice In Wonderland (The Red Queen). The look reminds me of that because it's unusual and also, the colours aren't bright. However, the use of the simple lines around the face, that come down from the edge of the hair/hat and comes down to the fingertips is like a line puzzle.
A personal experience: An educational trip to the South Of France - Nice
Recently, I have been on an educational trip to the South Of France where I experienced the French Culture and the lovely views that you can get when you go up to one of the tall buildings to look over the edge. Nice is just by the sea and at the time that I went, it was sunny and very hot so it was nice to just sit by the sea on one of the many beaches they have and relax.
Also, there was many different views to get, from being on top by the site of an Old Church. And in these views I could see many different places and houses because it being higher up then the rest of the town.
Also, my French Teacher took us all on small trips in the afternoon and one afternoon we went to Monaco and visited Monte-Carlo Casino, where all the rich cars and people get in and out from the Casino or the Hotel that was next door.
A personal experience: A trip to Chalk Farm/ Camden Market
Also recently, A friend and me traveled by tube on the Northern Line up to Chalk Farm from Morden. It was the first time up to Chalk Farm but I enjoyed it because I didn't realize that it was close to Camden Market and also it was sunny so it was a nice day to go out and just browse around Camden Market and take some pictures of the place. There are a few pictures of the decorative pieces above the many different shops like: Shoe Shops, Tattoo and piercing shops and clothing shops.
These artworks are amazing to look at because people don't generally see them above the shops in places such as Croydon and it makes a change because it attracts people such as tourists who come from all over the world to shop.
While walking around Camden Market, we saw many different types of shops but I wasn't able to take photographs because it was forbidden to take photos. I got many different phones that I took, for example, I took pictures of the Horse Statues by The Stables Market and where all the food stalls mainly are, there are many female figurines standing, acting as the posts. These seem to be wood or metal made.
Photography Trip: to The Imperial War Museum
This trip to the Imperial War Museum was not so interesting for myself to go to because it was about History and I didn't find learning about different types of photographic history. Some of the information was fun to read about, for example about the old photographic camera that was left over but as we couldn't take photos in the exhibit I have none to illustrate what I saw.
I did take photos, but as they were all on my SLR camera, I developed the negatives but they never came out properly and I then managed, myself, to lose the strip of negatives that I had. I didn't think about, on the day, to take digital pictures as well as SLR pictures. As a small side trip, we also went to the Tate Modern just to look at some of the photographic exhibits that they had going on. It was slightly better than the Imperial War Museum, but not something that I would go to in the end. Here, I also didn't take many photos because I was trying to find one that I really liked to look at.
Overall, I thought this trip could have been more interesting like going somewhere were everyone would have enjoyed going to and enjoyed taking pictures inside of all the interesting and fun things to see.
Photoshop Experiments
These Photoshop experiments are ones that I did. The first two, I got the idea for when I was looking through the photography lessons blog and I used the style to create my own version, trying to select the bright redness of one set of flowers and also try to include the sky. As the first photo is the best out of both, I prefer this one, but I still used the same style for the second photo as I wanted to see how it looked.I would like to use this sort of design for my final outcomes because then I can highlight different parts of a photo in colour and make the rest black and white.
The 3rd photo is a Collage type of image, using two photos, one being the base photo and the other being the one I wanted to overlay over the top. I chose these two, because I thought that because I was in Monaco, the flowers with the fountain in the background went well with the pond picture. They are both calm photos and they work well, emphasizing the person who is roughly in the middle/ slightly to the right of the picture.
This picture I really like and I could use this for my exam final piece by adding lettering. I like it because it adds different levels to the photo and gives some contrast with the different layers. Also, it gives the impression that the two birds are either kissing as they could be in love or they are whispering about something that we don't know. So there is two interpretations.
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| Mindmap of different ideas for Encounters, Experiences and Meetings |
Some of my ideas that came to me early on for this topic is that I could do something involving different people that are looking to one side of the camera and then make them look as if they are looking on in a line and also have some of them looking the opposite way as if they are looking back on who's behind them or just looking at the other person and making a facial expression.
An anniversary is a nice experience to do because it's about commenerating the time you have spent with someone and how much they've put you through and vice versa. It also helps to show other people that if one couple can spend time together or a group can stay together for a long time, then other people can do it too.
Rankin Destory
An anniversary is a nice experience to do because it's about commenerating the time you have spent with someone and how much they've put you through and vice versa. It also helps to show other people that if one couple can spend time together or a group can stay together for a long time, then other people can do it too.
Rankin Destory
Rankin is an artist who did a project called 'Destory', where a range of artists (Music) come together and took up the challenge of destroying a picture of theirs to express how they really see themselves and how other people will see them. Rankin says that photographs are a lie and that he tries to show the truth through the lie. They took part in this project for Youth Music.
Rankins real name is John Rankin Waddell and made his name in publishing, founding the seminal monthly magazine: Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in '92. Riding on the success of the Dazed wave, Rankin took his photography to the wider market, creating landmark editorial and advertising campaigns.
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| Kylie Minogue |
This destroy by Kylie Minogue is nothing special but it's different and looks like she has used nail varnish or ink to create the swirls and then let it drip down the page. I think that this is a very simple way of creating a pattern. I think that this could have been better by adding something more to the top right hand corner to add the design of it.
I have experimented and tried to use the style that the other artists have used and created my own version. I think it turned out really well but I wouldn't use this way for my final design because I wouldn't find one way of being able to express myself fully.
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| My picture in the style of Rankin |
Geraldine Georges
Georges is a young Belgian artist who uses a sophisticated and colourful blend of illustration and photography. Her work is often an abstract of the female form and it captures the eye and imagination of fashion and couture flow throughout her wonderful and various pieces that she does.
She held her first successful solo show recently in Brussels as well as her work recently being printed in many leading design and style magazines. She was recently spotlighted in the New York Post.
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| One of Georges' many works combining illustration and photography |
Also, the red on the black and white gives the women in the picture the look of one that she seems 'Evil' or the 'Queen' of something, just by her posture and facial features with the colour of red.
Johan Thornqvist
Johan Thornqvist is an illustrator who creates small city scenes on the top of real items, such as wall lamp and fire hydrants. These are particularly creative because they are interesting and fun to look at because not many people would take the 'risk' of drawing another city over the top of a real life version. He captures the beauty of a moment and the brightest sides of lives, bringing back delightful childhood memories and they are of an engaging fusion of emotional reflection, telling stories with humor.
He also works in advertising, making commercial stories look more humorous and stylish.
These two were taken with Johan's phone but the second picture has been edited so much you wouldn't recognize it for the original piece. It looks like the whole thing has been drawn from scratch and not just illustrated over the top of the page.
I like this one because it's like a small civilization surviving on a plant with miniature workhouses and a whole new life beginning to happen. So Johan brings to life not only the picture but also to the small people who are in the photo.
Recently, I have been on an educational trip to the South Of France where I experienced the French Culture and the lovely views that you can get when you go up to one of the tall buildings to look over the edge. Nice is just by the sea and at the time that I went, it was sunny and very hot so it was nice to just sit by the sea on one of the many beaches they have and relax.
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| Our group sitting by the edge of Bambou Plage (Beach) and just chatting |
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| View from Eze, by Fragonard (The Perfumery) |
Also, my French Teacher took us all on small trips in the afternoon and one afternoon we went to Monaco and visited Monte-Carlo Casino, where all the rich cars and people get in and out from the Casino or the Hotel that was next door.
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| The mirror that is situated in the middle of a hill in front of Monte-Carlo Casino |
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| Guards standing outside the doors to the Casino |
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| The lettering above the doorway to the Casino. |
A personal experience: A trip to Chalk Farm/ Camden Market
Also recently, A friend and me traveled by tube on the Northern Line up to Chalk Farm from Morden. It was the first time up to Chalk Farm but I enjoyed it because I didn't realize that it was close to Camden Market and also it was sunny so it was a nice day to go out and just browse around Camden Market and take some pictures of the place. There are a few pictures of the decorative pieces above the many different shops like: Shoe Shops, Tattoo and piercing shops and clothing shops.
These artworks are amazing to look at because people don't generally see them above the shops in places such as Croydon and it makes a change because it attracts people such as tourists who come from all over the world to shop.
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| Chalk Farm Underground Station |
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| The road we walked up: Chalk Farm Road |
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| The Roundhouse Theatre |
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| My friend outside the Dress Up Shop. |
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| Stables/ Camden Market. |
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| The Emblem of The Stables : Since 1854 |
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| The horse statues inside the walkway entrance to The Stables |
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| A 'walkway' between benches and the statuettes |
Photography Trip: to The Imperial War Museum
This trip to the Imperial War Museum was not so interesting for myself to go to because it was about History and I didn't find learning about different types of photographic history. Some of the information was fun to read about, for example about the old photographic camera that was left over but as we couldn't take photos in the exhibit I have none to illustrate what I saw.
I did take photos, but as they were all on my SLR camera, I developed the negatives but they never came out properly and I then managed, myself, to lose the strip of negatives that I had. I didn't think about, on the day, to take digital pictures as well as SLR pictures. As a small side trip, we also went to the Tate Modern just to look at some of the photographic exhibits that they had going on. It was slightly better than the Imperial War Museum, but not something that I would go to in the end. Here, I also didn't take many photos because I was trying to find one that I really liked to look at.
Overall, I thought this trip could have been more interesting like going somewhere were everyone would have enjoyed going to and enjoyed taking pictures inside of all the interesting and fun things to see.
Photoshop Experiments
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| Flowers by the pond in Monaco |
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| Flowers on the other side of the pond in Monaco |
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| Monaco - By the fish pond with flowers. |
The 3rd photo is a Collage type of image, using two photos, one being the base photo and the other being the one I wanted to overlay over the top. I chose these two, because I thought that because I was in Monaco, the flowers with the fountain in the background went well with the pond picture. They are both calm photos and they work well, emphasizing the person who is roughly in the middle/ slightly to the right of the picture.
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| Two birds that look like they are kissing/ whispering |
I generally do my own way of editing in Photoshop because sometimes when I follow a tutorial I tend to get different results to the one on screen so sometimes I just go about using different techniques over the top of other techniques so that, that way, I original results with what I do and I then can use that piece in my own work.
Exam Project Idea
For my exam project, I was thinking of doing a book that took the exam theme apart. So, for example, For Meetings I could do the word literally and have the first part of different people. The photos would be of a Medium shot of their head and shoulders so it would be like a Profile picture and shows of the different types of people that I have photographed. The second bit of the 'book' would showcase different 'experiences' people have had. So, being in hospital whether they are just visiting or they are staying inside themselves or being at a concert/ gig listening to their favourite band of all time sing live to a massive crowd of their fans. For encounters, I could mix encounters in with the overall idea of this 'book' because the person who looks at my final project is encountering different things like people and different ideas of experiences that people have had so they are encountering all different walks of life from just looking at my final project.
Also, with my prints, I could scan them in to the computer and then use them on photoshop to experiment with different types of layering and styles to get different variations of the photo. I enjoy this way of creating different styles of work and I would use this way to my advantage for my final exam project.
My 5 Inital Ideas for my final outcome -
1) A book of the exam theme split up into different sections
2) Different pictures of different items and make a collage out of the prints that I do make one giant picture.
3) A poster of different words with photos next to them or a range of photos. Like a scale. Going from one end to the next
4) Drawings on photos for the final piece to give different small pictures to show different experiences.
5) Using digital photos, edit them on photoshop to make a digitalised collage and then mount it onto Foam board.
Bill Wittliff - A book of Photography
Bill Wittliff is formally known as William D. Wittliff and he is an award winning American Screenwriter, author and photographer who wrote the screenplays for The Perfect Storm, Barbarosa, Raggedy Man and many other screenplays.
His photography work is included in books such as: Vaquera: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy (2004) and A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove (2007) This idea of doing a Book of photography is a interesting one because that way you can showcase different photographs that could link to the same theme but they are different in compositions.
I could do something like this for my final piece because that way I could take apart the exam theme topic and then use the separate themes to do different photographs for. Also, for one of the themes such as Experiences/ Encounters, it would be an overall topic because the examiner is 'Experiencing'/'Encountering' different ways of life and different scenarios.
Final Piece Evaluation
For this final piece of practical work, I feel that I have done a nice way of incorporating Colour and Black & White film into the work and that I feel that it's a nice way of displaying. Using a book for my final piece helped me to show that you can meet different people who live totally different lifestyles in one place. I mainly did the shots of people at college because they all came from college and they were my friends who said they wouldn't mind helping. There is also my teacher in there who helped me to develop my idea further.
I feel that, for me, I could have explored the theme more throughly and maybe searched around for more different ways of looking for different photographers but I think that who I have found and analysed are quite interesting in the way they do their work. I especially liked Johan Thornqvist because of the tiny little civilisations that were portrayed on real life photos and I tried to incorporate this way of illustration into my own work. Also, Bill Wittliff inspired me to do a book of photographs because I could show my work as a book and that way people are interacting with the book instead of just plain looking at it.
Exam Project Idea
For my exam project, I was thinking of doing a book that took the exam theme apart. So, for example, For Meetings I could do the word literally and have the first part of different people. The photos would be of a Medium shot of their head and shoulders so it would be like a Profile picture and shows of the different types of people that I have photographed. The second bit of the 'book' would showcase different 'experiences' people have had. So, being in hospital whether they are just visiting or they are staying inside themselves or being at a concert/ gig listening to their favourite band of all time sing live to a massive crowd of their fans. For encounters, I could mix encounters in with the overall idea of this 'book' because the person who looks at my final project is encountering different things like people and different ideas of experiences that people have had so they are encountering all different walks of life from just looking at my final project.
Also, with my prints, I could scan them in to the computer and then use them on photoshop to experiment with different types of layering and styles to get different variations of the photo. I enjoy this way of creating different styles of work and I would use this way to my advantage for my final exam project.
My 5 Inital Ideas for my final outcome -
1) A book of the exam theme split up into different sections
2) Different pictures of different items and make a collage out of the prints that I do make one giant picture.
3) A poster of different words with photos next to them or a range of photos. Like a scale. Going from one end to the next
4) Drawings on photos for the final piece to give different small pictures to show different experiences.
5) Using digital photos, edit them on photoshop to make a digitalised collage and then mount it onto Foam board.
Bill Wittliff - A book of Photography
Bill Wittliff is formally known as William D. Wittliff and he is an award winning American Screenwriter, author and photographer who wrote the screenplays for The Perfect Storm, Barbarosa, Raggedy Man and many other screenplays.
His photography work is included in books such as: Vaquera: Genesis of the Texas Cowboy (2004) and A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove (2007) This idea of doing a Book of photography is a interesting one because that way you can showcase different photographs that could link to the same theme but they are different in compositions.
I could do something like this for my final piece because that way I could take apart the exam theme topic and then use the separate themes to do different photographs for. Also, for one of the themes such as Experiences/ Encounters, it would be an overall topic because the examiner is 'Experiencing'/'Encountering' different ways of life and different scenarios.
Final Piece Evaluation
For this final piece of practical work, I feel that I have done a nice way of incorporating Colour and Black & White film into the work and that I feel that it's a nice way of displaying. Using a book for my final piece helped me to show that you can meet different people who live totally different lifestyles in one place. I mainly did the shots of people at college because they all came from college and they were my friends who said they wouldn't mind helping. There is also my teacher in there who helped me to develop my idea further.
I feel that, for me, I could have explored the theme more throughly and maybe searched around for more different ways of looking for different photographers but I think that who I have found and analysed are quite interesting in the way they do their work. I especially liked Johan Thornqvist because of the tiny little civilisations that were portrayed on real life photos and I tried to incorporate this way of illustration into my own work. Also, Bill Wittliff inspired me to do a book of photographs because I could show my work as a book and that way people are interacting with the book instead of just plain looking at it.
