Statement of intent
I aim to produce a website of work demonstrating my ideas, creative work and reflection based around the theme of 'Weird and wonderful'. At the end of my product I will choose my best photographs and place them on my website so they can be viewed easily.
For my initial research I will start by looking into Surrealism photographers. At the moment I have only one photographer in mind that I want to look up. She is called Laura Williams. I choose Laura Williams because she's an amazing photographer that captures surrealism that I can gain a lot of inspiration from for my own work. I looked into one of Laura's powerful surrealism image which is all about magic. I choose this photographer because she displays different ways of looking at surrealism and the magic found within.
When I was given the theme, my initial thoughts were more strongly towards illusions and mirrors as I thought I could explore these better. After thinking about the project title more thoroughly I realise there are so many routes for my work to go down such as magic, dreams and fairy tales with surrealism.
To show progression through my work I will start by photographing the basic scenes of our school. I will then develop these images further by taking more ideas from them and editing them. I then hope to venture from within Stretford high school to larger places such as Manchester.I already have a lot of ideas running through my head for this project which will hopefully propel me in the right direction.
I would like to experiment with a wide range of techniques within my work. I would like to try use a fish eye lens to see the effects that I can create with it. I will also try to push myself to be more creative within Photoshop to touch up my images. I will also definitely experiment with using both colour and the tool where you crop the images photography.
I have a couple of months to produce my product of work towards a production of my final piece. I am to complete my initial research within the first week and start photographing by the second week in order to give me the time I need to show progression. I will then have an eight hour practical exam where I will print and mount my final photos.
As my project progresses I would use annotations throughout my product labeling my ideas and development clearly. This will also help me to reflect on the work I produce. I will mainly seek advice from my teachers and my peers on how to make my work better, as I’m always aiming to push myself to new levels and I believe these are the people to go to. After the creation of my final piece I will write a final evaluation on the project as a whole, reflecting on what went well and what I could do differently or change given the time.
For my initial research I will start by looking into Surrealism photographers. At the moment I have only one photographer in mind that I want to look up. She is called Laura Williams. I choose Laura Williams because she's an amazing photographer that captures surrealism that I can gain a lot of inspiration from for my own work. I looked into one of Laura's powerful surrealism image which is all about magic. I choose this photographer because she displays different ways of looking at surrealism and the magic found within.
When I was given the theme, my initial thoughts were more strongly towards illusions and mirrors as I thought I could explore these better. After thinking about the project title more thoroughly I realise there are so many routes for my work to go down such as magic, dreams and fairy tales with surrealism.
To show progression through my work I will start by photographing the basic scenes of our school. I will then develop these images further by taking more ideas from them and editing them. I then hope to venture from within Stretford high school to larger places such as Manchester.I already have a lot of ideas running through my head for this project which will hopefully propel me in the right direction.
I would like to experiment with a wide range of techniques within my work. I would like to try use a fish eye lens to see the effects that I can create with it. I will also try to push myself to be more creative within Photoshop to touch up my images. I will also definitely experiment with using both colour and the tool where you crop the images photography.
I have a couple of months to produce my product of work towards a production of my final piece. I am to complete my initial research within the first week and start photographing by the second week in order to give me the time I need to show progression. I will then have an eight hour practical exam where I will print and mount my final photos.
As my project progresses I would use annotations throughout my product labeling my ideas and development clearly. This will also help me to reflect on the work I produce. I will mainly seek advice from my teachers and my peers on how to make my work better, as I’m always aiming to push myself to new levels and I believe these are the people to go to. After the creation of my final piece I will write a final evaluation on the project as a whole, reflecting on what went well and what I could do differently or change given the time.
Mood board ideas to inspire me for my topic illusions and mirrors
Surrealism?
"Surrealism aimed to revolutionise human experience, rejecting a rational vision of life in favor of one that asserted the value of the unconscious and dreams. The movements's poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional."
In my opinion Dali is playing around with the picture to almost make it seem like a dream.
In my opinion Dali is playing around with the picture to almost make it seem like a dream.
Salvador dali
In this photo Dali has used a range of different colours such as soft blue, gold and white which makes the photo catch the eyes of the audience and grabs your attention, it also gives us an idea of movement and animation.
In this photo Dali has also used an outside atmosphere and has placed a clock in the foreground, he has took this photo with some meaning behind it, this photo suggests that time is flying away because it shows clock numbers melting into the background, flying around and moving about. He has painted this image finely and painted every aspect with detail which suggests that he puts a mass amount of effort in his paintings and has meaning behind his pictures.
In the landscape we can see there is a cube that the clock is on which is good because it shows a clear contrast. The scale of the cube makes the clock look very big. The picture is uncanny because there is some weird elements Dali has added such as a moth and a wasp which I think is unusual and also you wouldn't see clocks melting so it is like a dream state.
In this photo Dali has also used an outside atmosphere and has placed a clock in the foreground, he has took this photo with some meaning behind it, this photo suggests that time is flying away because it shows clock numbers melting into the background, flying around and moving about. He has painted this image finely and painted every aspect with detail which suggests that he puts a mass amount of effort in his paintings and has meaning behind his pictures.
In the landscape we can see there is a cube that the clock is on which is good because it shows a clear contrast. The scale of the cube makes the clock look very big. The picture is uncanny because there is some weird elements Dali has added such as a moth and a wasp which I think is unusual and also you wouldn't see clocks melting so it is like a dream state.
Rene Magritte
Form - In the picture I can see his use of colors, he has used green, black, white and blue. He has cleverly organised them to go from the bottom which is dark into the top where it is bright. Two thirds of the top of the picture is blue and the other third is green. I like how he has used black which gives a good contrast with the blue and also makes the image seem further away. The main focus is when he has used black on the man to allow the audience to focus there attention in the middle of the picture and he has outlined the newspaper as white which makes it stand out and filled in the rest with the background which is what is so surreal about the image. I can imagine the surface of the painting to be very smooth.
Context- "His full name was Rene Francois Ghislain Magritte and he was a belgain surrealist artist who became well known for creating a number of witty and disturbing images. He was born on the twenty first of November 1898 in Lessines Belgium until he unfortunately died on the 15th of August 1967 in Schaerbeek, Belgium. He said: "If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream". (This was researched)
Content - It is a painting of a man holding a newspaper but it has been edited out so you can see the background through it. It is about surrealism. The picture is not an abstract as you can see the man however it is unreal. The picture we can see is portrait which makes it a bit smaller than it could be but it means it allowed him to fit more of the sky in however if we were to see the image in real life it may be landscape. The work represents weird and wonderful. The image has been distorted to make the image weird, they have done this by taking out the newspaper the man is holding and replanting it with the background of the image. The work communicates a weird feeling as you can see right through the man however it is also wonderful as it is not something you would see everyday. As the man in the picture is wearing a bowler hat it makes me imagine that the painting was made in the 1800's because bowler hats were introduced around 1849.
Process - The props that Rene Magritte used were a newspaper and a model and also a bowler hat. The evidence for this is in the picture as he seems to be holding a newspaper or some kind of paper and you can see that there is a man or a woman holding the picture up.
Mood - The work makes me feel uneasy as you can see right through the mans body. The colors that have been used make me feel calm as they are not really hard hitting. I think the work creates a weird atmosphere. I like how the image makes peoples thoughts come to life.
I like the image as it is funny and it has inspired me to make a manipulated photo.
Context- "His full name was Rene Francois Ghislain Magritte and he was a belgain surrealist artist who became well known for creating a number of witty and disturbing images. He was born on the twenty first of November 1898 in Lessines Belgium until he unfortunately died on the 15th of August 1967 in Schaerbeek, Belgium. He said: "If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream". (This was researched)
Content - It is a painting of a man holding a newspaper but it has been edited out so you can see the background through it. It is about surrealism. The picture is not an abstract as you can see the man however it is unreal. The picture we can see is portrait which makes it a bit smaller than it could be but it means it allowed him to fit more of the sky in however if we were to see the image in real life it may be landscape. The work represents weird and wonderful. The image has been distorted to make the image weird, they have done this by taking out the newspaper the man is holding and replanting it with the background of the image. The work communicates a weird feeling as you can see right through the man however it is also wonderful as it is not something you would see everyday. As the man in the picture is wearing a bowler hat it makes me imagine that the painting was made in the 1800's because bowler hats were introduced around 1849.
Process - The props that Rene Magritte used were a newspaper and a model and also a bowler hat. The evidence for this is in the picture as he seems to be holding a newspaper or some kind of paper and you can see that there is a man or a woman holding the picture up.
Mood - The work makes me feel uneasy as you can see right through the mans body. The colors that have been used make me feel calm as they are not really hard hitting. I think the work creates a weird atmosphere. I like how the image makes peoples thoughts come to life.
I like the image as it is funny and it has inspired me to make a manipulated photo.
I have attempted to analyse one of Laura Williams pictures using the 5 C's
Content- In the image I can see a girl who is hiding part of her body behind a mirror. The contrast between the background and then onto the ground goes from dark to light which is effective as it makes me think this girl is shy as she is behind a mirror but as she is peaking is seems she is trying to come out. The background is plain which gives a dull effect.
Composition- The focus point is girl in the center of the picture which is good because it attracts the viewers attention straight away. A medium depth of field has been used to blur the background a bit so our focus is on the girl. The photographer has used rule of thirds in the image. The girl is in the center and on third is grass and another third is trees. My eye is drawn straight to the mirror as I Laura has made it so part of the women's body is missing.
Context- "Laura Williams is 22 years old shes been photographing for 10 years. She's always been interested in art. She grew up in a small village surrounded by fields and trees so she's strongly inspired by nature and this helps her a lot in her work. She has spent 3 years in Brighton studying graphic design by the sea". (This was researched)
Connection- The theme is weird and wonderful and she uses mirrors which nicely fits into my theme as I am focusing on using mirrors. I like the way in which the picture is took because it has a mysterous effect which I want to try and capture in some of my pictures.
Comment- I think the meaning behind this picture is that people in the world hide in the background and they shouldn't. A big strength in this image is what she has done in photosop to make so you can see through the mirrror which gives a gloomy effect. However the only bad thing I can say about this image is that she could have choosen a better location. I really like the image beacause it looks very creepy due to what the Laura has done in Photoshop.
Composition- The focus point is girl in the center of the picture which is good because it attracts the viewers attention straight away. A medium depth of field has been used to blur the background a bit so our focus is on the girl. The photographer has used rule of thirds in the image. The girl is in the center and on third is grass and another third is trees. My eye is drawn straight to the mirror as I Laura has made it so part of the women's body is missing.
Context- "Laura Williams is 22 years old shes been photographing for 10 years. She's always been interested in art. She grew up in a small village surrounded by fields and trees so she's strongly inspired by nature and this helps her a lot in her work. She has spent 3 years in Brighton studying graphic design by the sea". (This was researched)
Connection- The theme is weird and wonderful and she uses mirrors which nicely fits into my theme as I am focusing on using mirrors. I like the way in which the picture is took because it has a mysterous effect which I want to try and capture in some of my pictures.
Comment- I think the meaning behind this picture is that people in the world hide in the background and they shouldn't. A big strength in this image is what she has done in photosop to make so you can see through the mirrror which gives a gloomy effect. However the only bad thing I can say about this image is that she could have choosen a better location. I really like the image beacause it looks very creepy due to what the Laura has done in Photoshop.
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Plan for 1st shoot
Apples
Rope
Banana
Lego man
Tea cup
longford park
Mirror pictures of people
Picture of the ghost models |
Mirror pictures of ghosts |
Mirror pictures of the background reflection
Mirror pictures of lower part of the body
Process includes 2nd and third outcome
Final image
Other outcomes
Trees
Newspaper
feet
Process includes 2nd and third outcome
Final image
Other outcomes
Picture 2 process includes 2nd and 3rd outcome process
First outcome |
Second outcome |
Third outcome
Process includes 2nd and third outcome
Final outcome
All of my final outcomes
Other tools I used include:
- Slice Tool, where it specifically cuts out what you don't want.
- Blur, as it blurs out something in the foreground.
- Saturation, Makes it go black and white.
- Crop, as it crops out what you don't want.
- Slice Tool, where it specifically cuts out what you don't want.
- Blur, as it blurs out something in the foreground.
- Saturation, Makes it go black and white.
- Crop, as it crops out what you don't want.
Final evaluation
We started our project mid March - July which was weird and wonderful. I think it was great as we explored some photographers who took pictures that were weird and wonderful which freaked me out and made me feel uneasy. These photographers include Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali. From research I found an artist called Laura Williams who used mirrors to get weird photos which inspired me to implement this idea into my work which is why I decided to mainly focus on illusions and mirrors to create a sense of anxiety through being uncomfortable. At the start I made a mood board with images which were suitable to what I wanted to achieve and help me reach a final outcome. To get my final outcome I used Photoshop to refine my ideas which at the beginning was hard to use but as I used it more it became more easier as I kept trying new things and I developed my skills in the process of learning how to use it. I was very pleased with my final outcome, so I asked my peer to have a look and he said that it made him shiver which made me know I had achieved my personal goal of making people feel the way I did at the start of the project.
In my opinion the part of the project I enjoyed the most was using Photoshop as it incredibly helped make my images look as bazaar as they possibly could have been. I learnt how to use a tool called 'clone' which was amazing as I could make someones body disappear and replace it with the background which made them look creepy.