Introduction
Due to Covid-19, Component 2, the original topic I was planning on working through this year had to be removed from my course, therefore a new topic was added called 'Make do and Mend' to show the ways I work with new, unexpected boundaries...
In the midst of World War Two a pamphlet was issued called 'Make do and Mend' by a United Kingdom government department known as the Ministry of Information. The pamphlet encouraged people to make the most of what they already had around their households, giving useful tips on how to be stylish in times of harsh rationing. This resulted in having a huge impact on everybody in that time period as older clothes were transformed to more modern like styles for example, women would unpick old jumpers and use the material to turn it into something new. This allowed people to get more creative. I can already imagine how drastically fashion changed.
The 'Make do and Mend' pamphlets from World War Two can link to the current situation society is in now as Covid-19 has challenged creative thinking. In my own opinion I would say Covid-19 has also encouraged lots of photographers world wide (including me) to test yourself with what you've already got. Whilst it has restricted many aspects of photography, it has opened up new ideas. Even if most of us were stuck in a room with four walls facing us, the opportunities inside were endless. It has changed many of our perspectives on photography in the same way as how fashion trends were starting to be viewed in World War Two.
So the way I interpret the phrase 'Make do and Mend' is to make the most with the scraps you've got laying around. Searching for and discovering new techniques to work with.
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Marcel Duchamp and the 'Readymade'
Answer the questions below in as much detail as possible using the knowledge you gained last lesson and research online.
1. Marcel Duchamp's picture 'L.H.O.O.Q.' (1919) uses a postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' (1503- 1517). Describe Leonardo's painting and explain why it is so famous.
Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' painting is a highly valuable art piece. It is a portrait of a woman sat in front of a natural landscape painted in cool toned strokes. The Mona Lisa is said to be the most valuable painting in the world due to its special historic events. The reason why it is such a famous painting is because it was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia in 1911 from the Louvre in France. This massively increased the value of the painting therefore making it a highly desirable work of art.
2. Now describe Duchamp's 'L.H.O.O.Q.' What has he done to the reproduction of Leonardo's painting? What does the title mean? Why might he have added male facial hair to the female portrait?
Duchamp's 'L.H.O.O.Q.' is a reworked piece of Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', of which a moustache and the letters 'L.H.O.O.Q.' were added to the portrait. Duchamp's letters at the bottom of the work translated to a vulgar expression typically when referring to women. Adding more masculine like features devalued the original artwork and went against the traditional portraits.
3. What do you understand by the term 'readymade'? In what ways is 'L.H.O.O.Q.' a readymade?
The term 'readymade' suggests to me that an artist customises an already existing artwork with their own twist. In this occasion we can say that Duchamp adds an element of what we could call 'mockery' to Da Vinci's painting.
4. Why was Marcel Duchamp's idea of the 'readymade' such a revolutionary idea in art?
Duchamp's 'readymade' was a revolutionary idea in art because of how controversial it was, people saw it as cheating and it rebelled against everything that art was represented as. Over time the idea of 'readymade' became more popular as it was deemed as a form of originality and made people rethink the worth of the initial piece.
1. Marcel Duchamp's picture 'L.H.O.O.Q.' (1919) uses a postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' (1503- 1517). Describe Leonardo's painting and explain why it is so famous.
Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' painting is a highly valuable art piece. It is a portrait of a woman sat in front of a natural landscape painted in cool toned strokes. The Mona Lisa is said to be the most valuable painting in the world due to its special historic events. The reason why it is such a famous painting is because it was stolen by Vincenzo Peruggia in 1911 from the Louvre in France. This massively increased the value of the painting therefore making it a highly desirable work of art.
2. Now describe Duchamp's 'L.H.O.O.Q.' What has he done to the reproduction of Leonardo's painting? What does the title mean? Why might he have added male facial hair to the female portrait?
Duchamp's 'L.H.O.O.Q.' is a reworked piece of Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', of which a moustache and the letters 'L.H.O.O.Q.' were added to the portrait. Duchamp's letters at the bottom of the work translated to a vulgar expression typically when referring to women. Adding more masculine like features devalued the original artwork and went against the traditional portraits.
3. What do you understand by the term 'readymade'? In what ways is 'L.H.O.O.Q.' a readymade?
The term 'readymade' suggests to me that an artist customises an already existing artwork with their own twist. In this occasion we can say that Duchamp adds an element of what we could call 'mockery' to Da Vinci's painting.
4. Why was Marcel Duchamp's idea of the 'readymade' such a revolutionary idea in art?
Duchamp's 'readymade' was a revolutionary idea in art because of how controversial it was, people saw it as cheating and it rebelled against everything that art was represented as. Over time the idea of 'readymade' became more popular as it was deemed as a form of originality and made people rethink the worth of the initial piece.
Experimenting
To begin this new way of thinking, for my first photography lesson back I was challenged to keep on reusing the same scraps of old paper I was given and create collages out of them. Here are a few of my favourite pieces I made...
I turned exposure all the way up and brilliance down to make it look like they’ve been scanned by a printer, giving the photos more of a professional approach. I also edited my photographs like this to remove any discolouration that might’ve been in the background and give more focus to the main subject which in this case are collages.
I'd say I did an okay job at reusing resources to create new abstract pieces, one of the things I wish I had done was add more colours to work with since it does get a little repetitive with each collage including either greens or reds. I'll try to include that next time if I decide to redo it. I think one of my favourite collages was the one on the right... The huge splash of red really contrasts to the black and white images I have also added in the piece.
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Hannah Höch:
Hannah Höch was a German Dada artist, Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich, Switzerland. The movement rejected monarchy, conservatism and militarism as Dadaists felt that art should have no restrictions. Their work was often satirical and nonsensical in nature. Höch is best known for her work of the Weimar period which came after the First World War when she was one of the originators of photomontage. Photomontage is a type of collage in which you rearrange two or more images, usually pulled from the press and other widely produced media to create a new composite photograph / piece of work. Here are a few examples of Höch's work.
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My Response To Hannah Hoch...
In my collage I followed Hoch's colour pattern and stuck with really neutral, primary colours. I added a higher status woman holding an expensive purse in my piece, and distorted her by removing her torso along with adding a pair of eyes, mouth to the purse and words, making it look as if it was saying nonsense. I did this to add a bit of humour and to show people that having many materialistic possessions do not make you any better.
Handsworth Self Portrait - Derek Bishton, Brian Homer; John Reardon
The three artists, Bishton, Homer and Reardon created a pop up photography studio. Instead of taking the photographs themselves, passers were able to take their own photos using the shutter release which allowed them to be more free and expressive in the way they presented themselves in front of the camera. The project concentrated on issues of representation, reviewing how people who had been mispresented through mainstream visual imagery could literally put themselves in the frame. What I loved about the journal the most was the number and diversity of people taking part.
In response to this project, I decided to take a photograph from this series and rework it. I used a scalpel to cut out sections of the paper in circular motions around the two men to frame the image more as a whole instead of having a lot of negative space. Then I added a few splotches of pink using watercolour paints on a blank piece of paper which I added behind the original work making the cut out bits really vibrant and lively. I did this because I wanted to express the emotions the two men had on their faces onto the background as well.
WWW: |
EBI: |
The hint of hot pink in the background adds a really nice contrast to the black and white coloured figures standing in the middle. I also liked the circular sections I had cut out.
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If I were to add something else to this reworked piece, I would probably include a few more colours to compliment the hot pink. Maybe an ombre of pink, orange and yellow to make everything look more vibrant.
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Threshold Concepts
Threshold Concept Number 1, Photography has many genres, some old, some borrowed, some new.
- Artists and Photographers play with our perceptions of photography, and what we think it should look like. We usually expect photography to be art related however, it comes in different shapes and forms of everyday life. For example, documentary and photojournalism. It has many genres to explore.
Threshold Concept Number 3, Photography is hybrid kind of picture making, democratic and diverse.
- Photography is not just a simple two dimensional image, it comes with meanings and life lessons. With photography we record the most important things that will occur in our lives or others. For example Ultrasounds.
Threshold Concept Number 5, Photographs are abstractions, shaped by technology.
- Photographs can be very different to the way we perceive things with our naked eye. This is because photographs can be tampered with using modern day technology such as Photoshop, which can create a more distorted, dream like image. Photographers can also take images of objects up close which can also confuse the viewer.
Threshold Concept Number 10, Photographs warp our sense of time and they remind us of things lost.
- Photographs can really mess with people's minds and relationships with time, as you could be looking at a photograph in the present yet the people in the image were part of your past which can give you a really nostalgic feeling. They remind us of things or people that have gone.
Sharon Walters:
Sharon Walters, a London-based artist, creates hand-assembled collages celebrating black women. In her series 'Seeing Ourselves' Walters explores identity, race and beauty standards through her collages. Walters uses photographs she takes herself or others. She gets inspired from women's magazines and uses the material to carefully construct her own collages.
Some of Sharon Walters work..
Photography evaluation
One of my favourite pieces from Sharon Walters work has to be this collage. It consists of two simple photographs that have been merged together creating a more abstract piece. You can see a woman's side profile stuck in front of a natural, green background. The shading of the leaves frame the face making the collage stand out and more 3D like. For example, under the eye the leaves are more light which creates an illusion of cheekbones being there.
My favourite part of the collage is the woman, Walters has removed most of her face but left the key features, making it simple to figure out what we're looking out. The thin lines connecting all the features together Walters has left reminds me of minimalistic face drawings where you draw a continuous line without lifting the pen up from the paper until it forms a face. |
My response to Sharon Walters:
Process:
I gathered some photographs of people and interesting backgrounds from magazines, I then used a razor to cut out fine details from the faces creating cool patterns. I then stuck the background behind the subject and photographed it.
WWW:I did a good job at following Sharon Walters' process and made some interesting marks on the faces.
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EBI:If I were to do this again I would use different colourful backgrounds on the subjects.
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Kensuke Koike
Kensuke Koike, a Japanese artist, works on manipulating existing images to create new, deformed like pieces. In one of his art works Koike achieves this by starting with a single image and turning it into four new pieces by cutting, sticking, tearing and disassembling.
Some of Kensuke Koike's work...
Some of Kensuke Koike's work...
Assessment; Photography Making Day..
For photography making day I researched two artists which had an impact on me as a photographer, I then created pieces of my own work in response to theirs. The artists I picked were Daniel Gordon and Hannah Hughes. I picked out Gordon and Hughes because I wanted to experiment with more colour as I usually stick to black and white when it comes to creating something.
Daniel Gordon:I am definitely interested in the 2-dimensional to the 3-dimensional and back to 2-dimensional translation shifts within my photographs, or in other words, flat to sculpture and then back to flat, but I am also interested in a further transformation to a more deeply flattened space after the final photograph has been produced. Gordon's approach to image making is playful and experimental as he uses a wide range of colours and resources to create the best looking sculptures he can. On the right you can see an example of his work named the "Crescent Eyed Portrait.
The "Crescent Eyed Portrait" from his series Still Lifes, Portraits and Parts, is a three dimensional sculpture made from printed digital imagery borrowed from magazines and the internet. The resulting images are great examples of appropriation art in that the materials and images were gathered from other sources and re-used. |
My Response:After spending a little more time analysing Gordon's work, I decided to create my own piece of work mimicking his art style. I began by gathering loads of colourful photographs I found in old magazines, specifically with bright vibrant colours. Afterwards, I grouped these images in similar colours and started collaging the images together on my desk. I didn't really have a clear end point, I was just going with what matched what. Slowly it started to come together and that's when I started turning it into a three dimensional sculpture.
I ended up with two colourful fishes that contrasted against the two patterned walls I had picked out. I photographed them at a lower right angle to give the illusion that they were floating in mid air. If I were to do this sort of project again, I would definitely add more images to the sculpture making the scene look more busy, having more focus points. |
Process:
I began by going through magazines picking out colourful images that caught my eyes then stuck them onto black card, I did this so went I mounted the images they wouldn't be flimsy and could stay balanced. I picked out images that complimented one another, the hot pinks went well with the bright yellows.
Hannah Hughes:Cut from the overlooked corners, edges and in-between places surrounding photographed bodies or objects, the image fragments are transfigured into radically altered forms and liminal inner spaces. Their shapes, which are continually repeated but never identical, resemble building blocks, with an abstracted vocabulary of irregular geometries Hannah Hughes gathers her found images from books, magazines and catalogues. They are then selected and recombined to create what appear to look like imaginary modernist abstract sculptures. Hughes carefully arranges shadow areas to create the illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface.
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My Response:In response to Hughes work I decided to create my own abstract sculpture following her technique and style. Hughes follows the same colour pattern throughout her work so I decided to do the same. I used a variety of cool, blue tones and instead of creating curved edges I made sharp and ridged marks to contrast with her work.
In the process of making the piece I firstly, decided on a specific colour to use throughout my sculpture. I then looked through magazines and collected a good amount of pieces to work from. I stuck black card to the back of each image so I could then balance it properly when turning it into a three dimensional piece. Finally, I took photographs of the sculpture against a white background. If I were to do this project again, I would make more sculptures with a wider variety of colours and tones. |
Behind Bars
In Behind Bars I explore a variety of genres and learn about prison photography to overcome the creative constraints I have situated on myself. I decided to do further research on Prison Photography as I feel that it resonates with the current situation we are in regarding the national lockdown making us feel stuck just like prisoners. Photographers Nicolò Degiorgis and Kladjiv Sluban both carried out workshops in prisons and taught inmates to work with their boundaries instead of against them which has inspired me to do the same throughout this lockdown.
Klavdij Sluban, Prison Photography Project:
European photographer, Kladjiv Sluban began travelling the world in 1995, conducting photography workshops for adolescents in jails. Sluban is concerned about how prisons are completely isolated from the rest of society and shares his knowledge with young people who have had their liberty taken away from them. He believes that everybody is entitled to seeing the world from an artistic viewpoint, therefore works with young people in jails. Sluban gives these inmates single-use cameras and pushes them to take as many photographs as they can. However, he soon recognises that these adolescents have an extreme lack of inspiration saying that there is nothing to take pictures of. Nevertheless Sluban teaches them to embrace this nothingness by photographing it. This then leads to an immense flow of creativity allowing them to channel their violence and rage through art which is patently much more efficient. Nicolò Degiorgis then carried out a similar project a few years later.
Besides the extreme rules, warnings and constraints people experience in jail, I feel like this resonates with our current situation regarding the national lockdown and the restrictions that have been placed on us. Whilst we may feel like we are slipping into a void of nothingness and unimaginativeness Klavdij Sluban teaches us to embrace it.
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I think the reason why prison authorities want inmates to have access to art workshops is because many of them have unresolved emotions within them such as rage, confusion and hatred. With this intoxicating energy they can learn to channel it through art instead. The benefits of making and thinking about photographs for prisoners are vast. It allows them to question themselves and their surroundings and can also act as a form of escapism from their harsh reality, instead of perceiving prison as this small confined place they begin to see it as a place full of opportunities to experiment with. Even though we can see these amazing outcomes created by the inmates, I'm sure there were still some challenges the workshop leaders had to overcome during the process. It could have been hard to gain their trust in the beginning, prisoners may have interpreted this workshop as another way of being governed by 'higher' people, therefore making them more stubborn and less open to working with the authorities.
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The primary goal is photographic. To show the kids something constructive is possible in these conditions. It’s very important to have a precise goal, but it is also out of moral considerations. I do not question the fact they are in jail, but I give them the tool to question themselves, their confinement, and the space they are confined in.
- -Klavdij Sluban, Lensculture Article
Nicolò Degiorgis, Prison Photography Workshop:
Between 2013 and 2018 Nicolò Degiorgis ran a photography workshop for prisoners in Bolzano Bozen Penal Institution in Italy, Degiorgis allowed inmates to play around the limitations forced by the prison's own isolation. In result a book was published entitled 'Prison Photography' which was filled with work that his students had produced, it consisted of a range of photographic genres the inmates had explored and learned to catergorise.
What is a Genre?A genre is when different modes of a distinct subject area for example, music or literature, are grouped according to certain similarities they share. In photography the main genres consist of: Architecture, Fashion, Food, Landscape, Portrait, Street; Underwater photography. Out of all the photographic genres, I am most passionate about Portraiture. Portrait photography is where the face and the facial expressions are the most predominant features in the composition. It can be abstract or clinical. When referred to Landscape photography we usually think of the beautiful outdoors and its scenery, however looking at Degiorgis' inmates collection of photographs categorized under 'landscapes' we do not get much terrain in the photos, instead we get dull images of the prison itself.
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This gives us an idea of how cut off the prisoners are from the rest of the world and how strenuous it is to create conventional landscape photographs for them. Nonetheless, this makes their responses more creative. The pictures in Degiorgis' book have all been printed to practically fill the right hand pages and in all of the genres besides 'landscape' are in a portrait format. This was definitely intentional, seeing as the inmates could not produce conventional landscape photographs, they tried to make their work relate to the topic as much as they could, therefore taking their landscape photographs in a landscape format. Under the genre 'fashion' in Degiorgis' book the subjects faces have been pixelated/blurred out, I think the inmates have taken this approach to make their images more abstract, switching the focus to the outfits and surroundings. The anonymous faces stops the composition being based around the individual and instead makes the viewer more aware of the environment and admire the fashion.
Portraiture Experiment
In response to Degiorgis' Prison Photography workshop, I picked a genre I was most ardent with and took eight photographs following a set of rules.
- You must be sitting when you make the photograph
- The photograph must be black and white
- You can only photograph another photograph
- Your photograph must be square
WWW:I followed all the rules correctly and used many different subjects to take photographs of.
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EBI:Many of these photographs I took were from using google maps, if I were to do this again the images would consist of only my pictures.
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Genre Photography Treasure Hunt
RULES
- You only have 60 minutes to gather as many photographs as you can
- You must take pictures of the subjects listed above
- You must take your pictures in this order beginning with number 1
- If you don’t have access to any of these subjects, you may use your imagination to make substitutions e.g. No pasta? Photograph a picture of pasta or make some paper spaghetti!
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My Images: |
My Favourite Image: |
WWW:In response to my artist researches of Kladjiv Sluban and Nicolò Degiorgis I did a photography treasure hunt following a set of specific rules. I think that I did a good job at following each order and thinking of creative ways to approach the images. For example, to the right instead of photographing an image of an actual glass of water I decided to draw it on a piece of paper, label it and then photograph it.
EBI:If I were to do this again, I'd take the photographs differently. In most of my pictures I have zoomed into the subject up close, next time I would take the pictures from further away.
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Developing & Refining
I decided to merge all my favourite outcomes from the 20 images I photographed using the Treasure Hunt sheet all together creating a new surreal picture. I used the app Picsart to do this.
Harry Callahan
Harry Morey Callahan (October 22, 1912 – March 15, 1999) was an American photographer, deemed as one of the most authoritative and influential figures in post war photography. Callahan experimented with a wide variety of different subject matters including nature, buildings and people, working in both color and black-and-white. Callahan's wife, Eleanor served as a primary subject in many of his works
Response to Harry Callahan
In response to Harry Callahan's photography work I decided to go onto Google Maps and take photographs similar to his compositions. I travelled around the world to different countries and took screenshots of places and people I liked.
WWW:I really enjoyed this task because I didn't need to physically travel from places to places. I think I did a good job of taking interesting compositional photographs. My favourite image is this one to the right as I like the shadow of the pine tree contrasting with the rural graffiti background.
EBI:If I were to do this again I would find more people to photograph as Callahan's work is based around photographing portraits and having a specific subject to focus on.
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My Favourite Image: |
A Personal Project
In this section I worked independently to create my final piece using brainstorms and researching artists to take inspiration from. Underneath this you will see a mind map I created to help me branch out my ideas for what I want my finished product to be.
Personal Project Mind map
I sectioned off five main ideas from my mind map including: Film, Abstraction, Gallery, Collaging; 'Who are You?'. The main sub heading that stuck out to me was Collaging as it has so many possibilities and outcomes to choose from.
Final Piece
In my final piece I have created a collage full of different faces, these faces symbolise society, the world around us in which we experience. The person I use to capture my final piece is used as a metaphor to present all of us as individuals being pressured and feeling stuck in society's norms and beliefs. The string acts as our own individual mental barriers, fear and uncertainty, stopping us from breaking free from all the pressure that is forced onto us. The hands reaching out to the ceiling is used to present us individuals trying to reach out and stop the unrealistic pressures from society however no one listens and it all carries on.
Process
I gathered interesting images from a range of different photography magazines and cropped them to a suitable size, I then took two A3 cards and stuck them together creating a big blank canvas to collage on. I kept experimenting with different outcomes until I found my favourite collage layout. I then stuck the pages onto the card and mounted the board onto a wall creating a sort of exhibition, I got a ball of yarn and tied it around two chairs so it could create a cobweb scenery then used a projector to project some colourful images onto the wall. I got a subject to model for me and I took videos in different compositions, using IMovie I added all the videos together creating my finishing piece.