Chris Wood

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Chris Wood: Light Workshop July 2015 Cambridge

In July I attended a light workshop which featured some of the work of Chris Wood a Glass and Light artist. I had seen and admired Chris’s work previously and so was keen to go along to the workshop.
Chris studied furniture design at university before focusing on her interest in light.
“Glass is a material which allows me to exploit the aesthetic potential of Light. Minimal structures, support simple arrangements of glass, which interact with light to create complex patterns of light and shade, which change depending upon the position of the viewer and the angle of the light source”

Chris uses an optical dichroic coating on glass which reflects certain wavelengths of light. Different colours or transparency are seen depending on the angle of the light and the viewpoint. One of the pieces at the workshop was what appeared at first glance viewed straight on, was a black and white sketch of boats on water.  When views from the left or the right the light is directed through the glass strips and reflects coloured light onto the piece.

Other works include large outdoor pieces, and wall panels which are all aimed at reflecting light in different ways.

Chris also uses crystals and lenses to create optical light patterns

LW 3

 

Josef Albers

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Exhibition – Josef Albers: Minimal Means, Maximum Effect

Josef Albers: Minimal Means, Maximum Effect.

 

Having read about Albers work, I was very keen to learn more about the images that made up his most notable work  “Homage to the square” .

I wasn’t sure what, if anything the pieces were meant to represent, but as a spent more time looking at them and the other exhibits, I started to realise that for me they represented the interaction of colour and anything else that an individual feels or sees is all down to that interaction.

The optical effects created by the chromatic interactions between the squares are something that that anyone can enjoy. There is no need to know anything about art or colour to be amazed at how our eyes can deceive us.

Watching film footage of Albers creating the pieces and seeing the way in which he tested colors together to gauge the effect before starting on a piece was fascinating. Initially I saw the pieces as a study in colour, but the colours within individual pieces often made them more than just several different colored squares nesting within each other.  It became clear whilst looking at the colours on their own that although there may be only four colours in a piece, the piece itself had many more combinations than just the four colours because of the way in which they interacted. This brought to mind the phrase “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”.

Some of the mixes also conveyed different  ideas such as vibrant and hot or quiet and soothing.

Visiting the exhibition made me far more conscious of the interaction of colour and that I wasn’t always necesserily seeing the colours that I thought I was.

I was also fascinated by the fact that when creating the pieces he didn’t use a ruler!!!!

I took some time to sit and watch in interview of Albers that was filmed in the 60s. This was a great way to get an insight into his thoughts and feelings on art, colour and in particular the “squares”.

When asked in 1949 why he came to the development of the, Albers stated that he has always had a preference for the square over the circle as a shape. He believed that the square is more “honest” and sits on one line of the four possible lines. A circle looks the same regardless of whether it is moving or not. It is impossible to tell if a circle is moving as the outer edge stays the same.

I wonder if the same interactions would occur had his preference been for the circle and he had produced “Homage to circle” instead!

It would be impossible to discuss colour without considering the work of Albers and also Johannes Itten. Albers was a student of Itten in the 20s and although he may have been influenced by Itten it is clear in his interview that he argued with him about what courses he should progress with, forcing Albers to go and do his own work.

The exhibition was extremely insightful, both into the work of Albers but also into the man himself. He was a very forceful character and wanted very much to stick with his own ideas regardless of direction from Itten, Gropus and other influences coming out of the Bauhaus. “Homage to the square” shows a sense of disciplined, meticulous and rigorous research that allowed him to produce some of the most influential work on the interaction of colour.

Assignment one Square Mile

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The Brief

Make a series of six to twelve photographs in response to the concept of ‘The Square Mile’. Use this as an opportunity to take a fresh and experimental look at your surroundings. You may wish to re-trace places you know very well, examining how they might have changed; or, particularly if you’re in a new environment, you may wish to use photography to explore your new surroundings and meet some of the people around you.

You may wish to explore the concept of Y Filltir Sgwar further, or you may deviate from this. You may want to focus on architecture and landscape, or you may prefer to photograph the people who you think have an interesting connection to the square mile within which you currently find yourself.

You’ll need to shoot many more than 12 photographs from which to make your final edit. You should try to make your final set of photographs ‘sit’ together as a series. Don’t necessarily think about making a number of individual pictures, but rather a set of photographs that complement one another and collectively communicate your idea. You may wish to title your photographs or write short captions if you feel this is appropriate and would benefit the viewer.

However you choose to approach this assignment, it should communicate something about you: your interests, motivations, and your ambitions for your photography. Think of it as a way to introduce yourself to your tutor. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to respond to this brief, as long as you try to push yourself out of your comfort zone in terms of subject matter. Try out new approaches rather than sticking to what you think you’re most successful at.

Research

Final Images

 

Contact sheet

Reflection and Feedback

Assignment five Photography is simple

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Brief

The final assignment is an open brief. Take a series of 10 photographs of any subject exploring the theme ‘Photography is Simple’. Each photograph should be a unique view; in other words, it should contain some new information, rather than repeat the information of the previous image.

Introduction
My first action on reading the brief for this assignment was to look up the meaning of word “simple” to see if any of the words could, in any way relate to my current experience of photography!

“easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty”
“a simple solution”
“straightforward, easy, uncomplicated, uninvolved plain, basic, or uncomplicated in form, nature, or design; without much decoration or ornamentation”

After some thought and having determined that none of the words describe photography to me, I wondered if they might to other people or perhaps to me before I became interested in photography. Without doubt it can be a simple process to take a photograph, but does that mean photography is easy?

Taking it further and looking at the meaning of the word “photography”, which was given as “the art or practice of taking and processing photographs”  If I use these words in place of the words “simple” and “photography” the brief becomes something like:
“The art or practice of taking and processing photographs is easily understood or done; presenting no difficulty”
Not withstanding the fact that as technology has moved on, it has opened up photography to anyone and the ability to take a “good” photograph can indeed be simple.

In my own experience of taking photographs, I regularly see “things” that I want to photograph  in order to create images. It could be an object or part of an object, something man made or natural. This for me is the “simple part of photography” although it’s not always that simple when there is an exercise or assignment and pressure to fulfil a brief. The hardest and least simple part of the process for me is taking the picture in the right way in order to create an image that matches what I see or feel. In looking at it this way my initial response to the brief is that Photography is not simple.

I started working on this assignment at the beginning of March when restrictions relating to Covid – 19 virus came into force.
These restrictions, rather than hold me back actually made me re think and use what had learned through the previous assignments, exercises and online meetings/tutorials.
Details of this “epiphany” can be found in:
Assignment five Photography is simple: Research and Planning

For my final 10, each image has been shot with a minimum of one layer of glass between the camera and the outside world, with a maximum of three layers for some shots. There is also an additional “layer” in the form of a reflection(s) or physical layer on, or in front of the glass.

Final 10

Image 1 taken from inside through a window that has blinds on the outside (2 Layers)

jlm1432.jpg

Img.1 jlm1432.jpg

Image 2 taken from the inside through an internal round window and glass doors (2 Layers)

jlm1381.jpg

Img.2 _JLM1381

Image 3 Taken through a window which had a layer of dust left after rain and wind. (2 Layers)

Img.3 _JLM1335L

Image 4 Taken from inside through a window with the refection being from a round glass window (2 Layers)

Img.4 _JLM1389

Image 5 Taken from inside through an internal glass door reflecting back through the windows to the outside (2 Layers)

Img5 _JLM1409

Image 6 Taken from inside through a window with blinds on the outside (2 Layers)

Img.6 _JLM1382

Image 7 Taken from inside through a window with a photoshop layer (2 Layers). The layer image came from the images taken at the start of the panning process.

Img.7 _JLM1370L

Image 8 Taken from inside through a window with a distorted reflection (1 Layer)

Img.8 _JLM1411

Image 9 Taken from inside through internal glass window with 2 further reflections from further internal and external windows (3 Layers)

Img.9 _JLM1377

Image 10 Taken from inside through a window with shutters catching the reflection of an open glass door (2 Layers)

Img.10 _JLM1429

Conclusion
Completing this assignment has made me realise how far I have come in my journey and how far I still have to go. In response the the statement “Photography is simple” I would suggest that yes Photography is simple, unless you decide to take a course such as this or delve past taking snaps onyour phone, whereby you discover very quickly that it isn’t!

Exercise 5.3 Looking at photography

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Brief

‘When somebody sees something and experiences it – that’s when art happens’
(Hans-Peter Feldman)

If photography is an event then looking at photography should also be an event.
Look again at Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photograph Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare in Part Three. (If you can get to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London you can see an original print
on permanent display in the Photography Gallery.) Is there a single element in the image that you could say is the pivotal ‘point’ to which the eye returns again and again? What information does this ‘point’ contain? Remember that a point is not a shape. It may be a place, or even a ‘discontinuity’ – a gap. The most important thing though is not to try to guess the ‘right answer’ but to make a creative response, to articulate your ‘personal voice’.

Include a short response to Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare in your learning log. You can be as imaginative as you like. In order to contextualise your discussion, you might want to include one or two of your own shots, and you may wish to refer to Rinko Kawauchi’s photograph mentioned above or the Theatres series by Hiroshi Sugimoto discussed in Part Three. Write about 300 words.

Fig.1 Henri Cartier-Bresson. Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (1932)

For me the man in the background is the place that my eye first goes, then to the man jumping, and back again to the man in the background. I am more intrigued by him than the one in the foreground.

The original image has been cropped, something that Cartier-Bresson rarely did but because there were planks around the area he didn’t have a clear view (Fig.2). It appears to have been cropped top, bottom and left.

Fig.2 Henri Cartier-Bresson. Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare (1932)

There are so many things to look at in the image (cropped or otherwise) from the man about to land in the water, the ladder being synonymous with railway tracks, the items in the water making interesting shapes, areas of dark and light, the poster on the wall mirroring the figure jumping and man in the background, the poster advertising a circus called Railowsky, a clue to the location (railway station). From what I can discover, in 1932 this part of the bridge was being worked on, and it was sectioned off in order to complete the work. Does this mean that both men were workers? I had always assumed the man jumping was a commuter rushing for a train! The man in the background looks like a worker but I’m only basing this on what he looks like. There is what looks like a shovel lying at his feet. The photo isn’t clear enough to really see detail so I may be completely wrong. Did he ever know that he features in one of Cartier-Bressons most iconic images? Did either of them know? The man in the background appears to be watching a train going under the bridge but again I am assuming that the light area on the right is smoke coming from a steam engine. I bit of research using Google Earth uncovered the location of the photograph and in fact it is indeed a bridge with trains going under it. The location itself seems to have changed very little (Fig.5)

Fig.5 Google earth

Cartier-Bresson’s image is without doubt intriguing and taking into consideration he took it in 1932 it is not surprising that it has become such an iconic image.
No matter what else I look at within the frame my eyes still bounce between the two men, always coming back to the man in the background and wanting to know more. I think even when images are created to illicit a particular feeling or emotion, or to lead the eye, for some people, their own personality, interests or feelings will outweigh the intent of the artist and and become centred on a part of the image that perhaps wasn’t the intent in the first place. Without context or narration an image can become the visual representation of the viewer’s current emotions. This perhaps is all part of the idea of photographs, and context an additional element?

The front cover of Rinko Kawauchi’s book Illuminance, there is a photograph of an overexposed flower (Fig.3). This square image has no movement as such. Without doubt the  pivotal point is the very brightly lit flower, and how often in nature we see things in such a away and not how they are portrayed in their perfectly exposed detail. In the Theatres series by Hiroshi Sugimoto (Fig.4) the pivotal point is the bright white screen along with perhaps the curiosity brought about by wondering what the movie was! The shutter was opened at the start of the movie and closed at the end. There is a complete event hidden within in the bright space. Whilst researching Sugimoto’s theatre images it struck me that when a person sits in a cinema and watches a movie, they come away with thoughts, memories and pictures in their head. Perhaps there was a particular shot or words that stuck with them. In Sugimoto’s images, even though every part of the movies has reached the camera lens as it would with the human eye there is effectively nothing left. After the lens there is nothing, until the human eye sees it again in print or screen.

Fig.3 Rinko Kawauchi Illuminance

Fig.4 Hiroshi Sugimoto. Cinerama Dome, Hollywood. 1993

Bibliography

Figure 1. Cartier-Bresson, Henri (1932) Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris
At: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/98333
[Accessed 15/09/2019]

Figure 2. Cartier-Bresson, Henri (1932) Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris
At: https://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/derriere-la-gare-saint-lazare/
[Accessed 20/02/2020]

Figure 3. Rinko Kawauchi Illuminance
At:https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2012/06/14/arts/in-the-light-of-rinko-kawauchi/#.Xk6syC2cbMI
[Accessed 20/02/2020]

Figure 4. Hiroshi Sugimoto. Cinerama Dome, Hollywood. 1993
At:https://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/new-page-7
[Accessed 20/02/2020]

Figure 5. Google earth
Copyright Google earth 2020
[Accessed 21/02/2020]

 

Exercise 5.2 Homage

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Brief

Select an image by any photographer of your choice and take a photograph in response
to it. You can respond in any way you like to the whole image or to just a part of it, but you must make explicit in your notes what it is that you’re responding to. Is it a stylistic device such as John Davies’ high viewpoint, or Chris Steele Perkins’ juxtapositions? Is it an idea, such as the decisive moment? Is it an approach, such as intention – creating a fully authored image rather than discovering the world through the viewfinder?

Add the original photograph together with your response to your learning log. Which of the three types of information discussed by Barrett provides the context in this case? 

A photograph inspired by another is called ‘homage’ (pronounced the French or English way). This is not the same as Picasso’s famous statement that ‘good artists borrow, great artists steal’; the point of the homage must be apparent within the photograph. It’s also not the same as ‘appropriation’ which re-contextualises its subject to create something new, often in an ironic or humorous way. Instead, the homage should share some deep empathy or kinship with the original work. An example is Victor Burgin’s series The Office at Night (1986), based on Edward Hopper’s famous painting of the same name:

‘The hackneyed idea of ‘influence’ is not at issue here. I am not interested in the question of what one artist may or may not have taken from another. I am referring to the universally familiar phenomenon of looking at one image and having another image spontaneously come to mind.’

http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/separateness-things-victor-burgin
[accessed 25/01/18]

You may already have taken some homage photography where you’ve not tried to hide the original inspiration but rather celebrated it. Refer back to your personal archive and add one or two to your learning log together with a short caption to provide a context for the shot.

I have never taken the time to look closely at landscape photography, and although I can appreciate a “beautiful view” I rarely get my camera out and attempt to capture it.
I think this this is very much down to the fact that whenever I have tried, my attempts have in no way captured the beauty, the atmosphere, the power of the sky or mountains, the colours of a sunset and other amazing natural phenomena.

It is impossible to be interested in photography and not have seen images taken by Ansel Adams. His landscapes are extraordinary and on the rare occasions I do take these kinds of shots, I am often frustrated at how unimpressive they are.
“he was able to transform geographic reality into transcendent emotional experience” AG Stillman, New York. (2006)

He discovered what was to become his trademark style in 1927
“In 1927 while composing a photograph of Half Dome, for the first time he was able to imagine what he wanted the final print to express before he clicked the shutter. He later called the process visualisation”
AG Stillman

He used various techniques to get his clean black and white images including a tilt shift lens which allowed him to create images which were sharp from foreground to background with no distortion. He used darkroom techniques to create high contrast and a system called the Zone method to create strong whites, greys and blacks.

The photograph I selected for this exercise is Oak Tree (Fig.1) taken in 1948 by Ansel Adams. I am drawn by the shape and the fragility.  The contrast of the white snow and dark, almost black branches, makes for a striking image and the framing gives us a sense of it’s size. I am often reminded of this image when I see trees in the snow.

Fig. 1 Adams, A. Oak Tree, Snowstorm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1948.

It took me a bit of time to find the right tree to photograph and I wasn’t able to get a close to it as I would have liked because of deep snow. I did some processing in photoshop to bring out the highlights and darken the branches.

Img.1

Image 2 and Image 3 are not based on a particular Adams photograph but perhaps just a homage to his mountains. Once again some post processing in photoshop to add contrast and drama.

Img.2

Img.3

Response
For all three images I would say I am responding in a stylistic way. I am also responding to his images in an emotional sense, in trying to create and capture images that provoke an emotional response, as his do for me.
I kept the ISO low and using as small an aperture as possible, to get a clean image where everything was sharp. I used photoshop to add contrast, depth and drama.

All my images are based on the Internal Context and I think, the Original Context as described by Terry Barrett in his essay “Photographs and Concepts”
Internal Content because of the specific subject matter and Original Content because of the emotional aspect and the way in which I tried to visualise the finished image before taking the shot.

During a previous exercise (2.1) I was inspired by a painting (Fig.2) to create an image (Img4).

Fig.2 Paul Cézanne“Mont Saite-Victoire,” c. 1887

Bibliography

Adams, A. (n.d.). Ansel adams 400 photographs. Little, Brown and Company, p.12.

Adams, A. (n.d.). Ansel adams 400 photographs. Little, Brown and Company, p.414.

Figure 1
At: http://www.artnet.com/artists/ansel-adams/oak-tree-snowstorm-yosemite-national-park-h7OkuH5ELe1gvtTrRwrf5Q2
[Accessed 13/02/2020]

Figure 2
At: https://www.pbagalleries.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/361/lot/111654/Unicorn-Peak-and-Thunderclouds-Photograph-from-Yosemite-National-Park
[Accessed 14/02/2020]

Kelly Richman (2018) Available from: https://mymodernmet.com/paul-cezanne-paintings/ [Accessed 15/02/2019]

 

Exercise 5.1 The distance between us

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Brief

Use your camera as a measuring device. This doesn’t refer to the distance scale on the focus ring. Rather, find a subject that you have an empathy with and take a sequence of shots to ‘explore the distance between you’. Add the sequence to your learning log, indicating which is your ‘select’ – your best shot.

When you review the set to decide upon a ‘select’, don’t evaluate the shots just according to the idea you had when you took the photographs; instead evaluate it by what you discover within the frame (you’ve already done this in Exercise 1.4). In other words, be open to the unexpected. In conversation with the author, the photographer Alexia Clorinda expressed this idea in the following way:

“Look critically at the work you did by including what you didn’t mean to do. Include the mistake, or your unconscious, or whatever you want to call it, and analyse it not from the point of view of your intention, but because it is there”.

21/03/2020 Covid 19 pandemic
Can’t miss the irony of the title of this exercise in relation to the current situation around the world!

To start this exercise I decided to go back and have a look at exercise 1.4 as mentioned in the brief. It is all too easy to forget previous exercises in this journey, as most of us want to move forward, and once we have achieved something; particularly if that something was challenging, to put it out of our minds and move on.
Intention! There is always an intention, or at least I think there is. I suspect however my current intention for any photograph included in exercises or assessments is to meet the brief. Is there a deeper intention, another layer, perhaps a more important layer in my understanding of photography and the emergence of a personal voice?

I have only recently begun to spend time around horses and ponies. Like most people I often put human emotions onto animals and interpret their behaviour in human ways. For example when my cats wink at me I wonder what the secret is! When I hear my pony has escaped from the field he is often described as naughty. Over the past couple of years I have learned that horses and ponies have a language all of their very own and that I needed to learn some if it in order to have a good relationship with not only my pony but all horses and ponies I come into contact with. For sure they are not going to learn my language. In doing so I have started to developed an empathy with them.

On a couple of trips to a livery yard, I spent some time just watching the horses and ponies. The paddocks were re seeded in the Autumn so in the main all of them have been inside, either in stables and being exercised every day or in round pens where they can stretch their legs. I did wonder if I should wait until they go back out into the fields in a month or so, but decided that it was actually quite a different viewpoint and that most people don’t think of horses in round pens. They normally think of them as being in paddocks or stables.

I didn’t really have too much of an intent when I started taking the shots. I wasn’t sure how strongly I wanted the wire of the round pen fencing to show or whether I wanted individual animals, groups, static or movement, so just took a variety of shots.

Contact Sheet

The first thing that struck me was that for most of the images it is difficult to work out whether I am fenced in or the horses are fenced in! That was a real surprise to me! and something that was not apparent at all when I was standing there. It only becomes a conundrum when viewing the images.

Whilst reading the brief I was unsure if it meant analyse the images looking for physical things that have been included that were not intended, or how the images could be viewed that was not intended, or indeed both. I did intend to include the fence in whole or part but didn’t expect it to confuse the viewer.

Analysing them in more detail there were a few images that stood out:

I am quite close physically to the horse in image 1 but there is a fence between us. This is one of the images that doesn’t make it perfectly clear which one of us is fenced in. You would have to look very closely to see the fence on the other side. I know the brief was not neccessarily talking about physical distance and although I am close to the horse in physical distance the fence completely changes that.
He looks isolated and lonely in the image, and as they are strong herd animals if he was on his own, out of sight or sound of other horses he would not be happy. It is clear from the other images that this is not the case. It wasn’t my intent to make him look isolated and of course at the time of taking the image I was surrounded by the other horses too so it didn’t occur to me that this would be the effect.
This is my “select” image. It surprised me more than any of the others in it’s ability to say things that were not my intention or expected.
I often wonder what is going on in their heads and this image really emphasises that.

Img. 1 _JLM1263

In image 2 it’s difficult to determine if both horses are fenced in or if one is fenced in and the other one free to roam. There are no clues in the image to allow the viewer to determine the situation. The black horse seems to be trying to get the other ones attention but he has spotted something far more interesting. Again I know the physical distance wasn’t the brief, but these horses are so close and so far apart at the same time because of the fence. I was concentrating on the black horse when I took this image so was surprised to see the alert pose of the other one and my intent at the time bares no resemblance to the final image. The black one seems to be looking for comfort or attention.

Img.2 _JLM1274

Image 3 seems to give the impression initially that there are three horses together and one on its own. The three in the background seem to be interacting happily while the one in the foreground is trying to join in. Looking closer you can see there is a fence between the two black horses and the bay (brown one). There is a strip of grass behind them which I hadn’t noticed when I took the shot. It now reminds me that in a few months they will be out in the open fields happily eating grass and no longer having to stretch their legs behind a wire fence.

Img.3 _JLM1296

 

 

 

 

Exercise 4.4 Personal Voice

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Brief

Make a Google Images search for ‘landscape’, ‘portrait’, or any ordinary subject such as ‘apple’ or ‘sunset’. Add a screengrab of a representative page to your learning log and note down the similarities you find between the images.
Now take a number of your own photographs of the same subject, paying special attention to the ‘Creativity’ criteria at the end of Part One. You might like to make the subject appear ‘incidental’, for instance by using focus or framing. Or you might begin with the observation of Ernst Haas, or the ‘camera vision’ of Bill Brandt. Or if you’re feeling bold you might forget about your camera completely and think about the tricky question of originality in a different way – http://penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/suns/
Add a final image to your learning log, together with a selection of preparatory shots. In your notes describe how your photograph or representation differs from your Google Images source images of the same subject.

This part of the course explores creativity and a personal response to a popular or familiar subject and the development of a personal voice. The exercise asks that students be willing to experiment.
The course handbook (p.94) gives some examples of this and includes the British landscape photographer John Davies, who produced an image of an industrial landscape with Mount Fuji in the background, (Fig. 2) going against the normal framing of Mount Fuji in the foreground, often with water and cherry blossom; the quintessential image (Fig. 4).
It also includes the international Magnum photographer Chris Steele Perkins, who shot Mount Fuji as part of a backdrop rather than the main subject in his images of everyday life (Fig. 3).

Fig.2 John Davies

Fig.3 JAPAN. Fuji City. Rice harvest.1998.

Fig.4

Some other examples from the course handout (p96) included:
Victor Burgin:
“There can never be any question of “just looking”: vision is structured in such a way that the look will always -already entrain a history of the subject”.
Bill Brandt:
“Instead of photographing what I saw, I photographed what the camera was seeing. I interfered very little, and the lens produced anatomical images and shapes which my eyes had never observed”.
David Bailey:
“In photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary”.

German born Bill Brandt gained a fresh perspective on photography by using methods such as a wide-angled lens when photographing nudes, which allowed him to “see like a mouse, a fish or a fly” (Fig.5)

Fig.5

During my research into night time photography I came across an American photographer/cinematographer, Daniel Marker-Moore, who also works with animation, motion graphics and commercials.
He creates images using a method called “Time slice” which produces unique and creative works (Fig 11-13).
The images are created by combining slices of anywhere between 20 and 120 shots, all taken over a period of time.
” Time Slice is an image built from the photos of a timelapse. Each slice is a photograph taken at a different point in time, usually a few minutes after the previous slice. All the Time Slice images are unique, made from a different number of images, over a different amount of time. My process involves a great deal of exploration and experimentation by mixing time in various ways. When I can I visit a location numerous times until my vision is captured. The most recent addition to the series is Time Slice videos that blends the original time-lapse and sometimes animation inside the formed slice” (Daniel Marker-Moore)

A video explaining Daniels Time slice method is available at: https://www.danorst.com/time-slice-bts

Fig.11 Daniel Marker-Moore. London’s Elizabeth fig Tower (Big Ben)
Time Slice: 118 photos over 1 hour 36 minutes

Fig 12 Daniel Marker Moore. Downtown Chicago and the Chicago River
Time Slice: 52 photos over 12 hours 14 minutes

Fig.13 Daniel Marker Moore. LA from above Griffith Park Observatory
Time Slice: 52 photos over 2 hours 15 minutes

I liked the idea of slicing images together to create something unique but wanted to use this in a different way. I was fascinated by the colour variations when testing the white balance settings on my camera in a previous exercise, and wondered what I would produce if I used the same slice method but on images taken with different white balance settings rather than over time.

I tested it with the previous images and was quite surprised at the results (Img.1-2).
Using different sized slices gave varied results and comparing the two images, I preferred image 1 which has the stronger colour variations.

Gallery of the images used for the slices:

Img.1

Img.2

I decided to use an apple as my subject for this exercise and used one that had a red and yellow skin as I thought this might make a more interesting final image, once the slices have been combined.

A google search for Apple brought back quite a few different images (Fig.14) but they were mainly red apples against a plain background.

Fig.14

My camera has several WB settings:

  1. 3 Auto settings: Reduce warm colours, normal or keep warm colours
  2. Auto Natural Light
  3. Incandescent
  4. Fluorescent
  5. Direct Sunlight
  6. Flash
  7. Cloudy
  8. Shade

It has other customisable options but I wanted any colour manipulation to be default rather than something I had customised. It is easy to move between the settings, so I should be able to get 10 shots all with a different white balance. As with my test shots, I am expecting some of them to look similar.

I used a variety of lighting including natural daylight, halogen and incandescent lights.
In my first attempt I felt that the highlights and shadows were a little bit harsh.

Lighting set up

I placed a diffuser between the apple and the main light source coming from below, to even out and soften the light and thus produced a more appealing image.

I wanted to experiment a bit more and wondered what difference it would make if I used an item that was more opaque or translucent.

So I used a dried chestnut tree leaf and kept the lighting and camera settings the same.
There was more variation in both colour and texture when using the leaf as some of the light is being seen through it.

A google search for dried chestnut leaf (Fig.15) mainly produced images in which the shape of the leaf was prominent, with a mix of leaves still on the tree, green, red and brown.

Fig.15

I wasn’t completely happy with the effect I was getting so decided to wait till it was dark and I could eliminate all natural light. I also changed the position of the apple and the leaf slightly.

I applied the slice method on the final two sets of images (Img. 3-4).

Img.3

Img.4

Describe how your photograph or representation differs from your Google Images source images of the same subject

The apple image is quite like the Google images, but not, all at the same time.
The leaf image is very different from the Google images and looks more abstract.

Both images are of something natural that has been captured using technology without any intention of showing them in their natural state. They remind me a bit of Andy Warhol’s pop art posters (Fig.16) although this didn’t come to mind until I finished the exercise.

Fig.16 Andy Warhol

 

Bibliography

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/bill-brandt-working-methods

Figure 2
At: https://www.artimage.org.uk/17852/john-davies/mt–fuji–fuji-city-810–japan–2008
[Accessed 03/12/2019]

Figure 3
At: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?
[Accessed 03/12/2019]

Figure 4
At: https://matadornetwork.com/read/epic-views-mount-fuji/
[Accessed 03/12/2019]

Figure 5
At: https://www.houkgallery.com/exhibitions/bill-brandt-the-nude-a-centenary-exhibition
[Accessed 05/12/2019]

Figures 11-13
At: https://www.danorst.com/time-slice
[Accessed 09/12/2019]