CUVPHI516A

Research the Role and Use of the Photo Image in Visual Communication

Assignment 2The Photographs

Sue McArthur

The context of this photo is one of beauty, glamour and trying to use the Chiaroscuro style, literally the Italian word which means light-dark, using subtle gradations of light and shade to create 3 dimensional form. I think it applies to this photo where I deliberately tried to get the dark divison of light right down the centre of her leg. This photograph was inspired by the photographer Horst, named “Round the Clock I”, 1987. I wanted to give the photograph a sensual finish so I purchased bleached beeswax and after mounting the photograph on to a pre-prepared wooden board, I then melted the beeswax, and poured it over the photograph to see the effect on the photograph. Whilst the photograph was level, the finished surface wax was un-even, so after it had hardened, I got a heat gun and melted the wax, letting it drip down the photograph. I experimented with different levels of finish-es, and in the end decided on a “cross hatch” brush stroke style of finish on the beeswax coating on the top of the photograph, to emulate an aged and worn finish effect on the photograph. The encaustic look is inviting with the warmth of its layers, it calls to be touched like soft skin. It is a mix old and new technologies, digitally mimicking the look of historical prints then applying the wax. My finished product wasn’t quite as I had hoped, but worth trying the old methods. The photo could be used for dec-orative purposes. My relation-ship to it is to perfect my art by following the masters in photog-raphy, to try to learn how they accomplished these shots.

The context of this shot is one that is surreal in natue to try to be eye-catching. You could also call it fash-ion. It is used in promo-tional work. It was in-spired by the p h o t o g r a -pher Cybele Malinowski, who is an A u s t r a l -ian pho-t o g r a p h e r who mainly shoors musi-cians. It is ac-tive framing. My relation-ship to the photograph was to try to make it as beautiful as possible. The use of the art-work would be framed and given to the client.

The context of this photo is one of beauty, glamour film star like and almost film noir except for the colour. The relation-ship to me was to try to perfect the lighting style used in old Hollywood model style of shots. We referred to Steven Shore’s definition of active and passive framing. Shore states that a photograph can be viewed on three levels:The Physical LevelThe Depictive LevelThe Mental Level “Flatness, Frame, Time and Focus define the photograph’s depictive content and structure. A photographer can use this to express their per-ceptions and meanings”. “The artist starts with a blank page and must fill it. The photographer starts with the clutter of the world and must simplify it.This active style of fram-ing is trying to intrigue the viewer with the light-ing. A Passive FrameThe photograph starts within the frame and works outward, imply-ing a world extending beyond the edges of the frameAn Active FrameThe structure starts with the frame and extends in-ward, implying that the photograph is a self con-tained world.

The context of this photo is one of beauty, glamour and fashion.This photograph was inspired by the pho-tographer P. Horst. I experimented with mounting this photo-graph, which was tray develop fibre based paper, onto a canvas, which I had blackened the sides of the canvas with black gesso to see the effect. The photo could be used for deco-rative purposes. My re-lationship to it is to try to produce a beautiful and sort after photo-graph. It is active fram-ing leading the eye to-wards your main focal point and intriguing the viewer.

The colours and geometric shapes appealed to me. My relationship to the photograph and subject matter entailed purchasing the supplies, drawing the geometric design on to paper, then laying out the eggs and trying to achieve a high key look with detail. It was difficult to achieve the white background without blowing out the detail on the main sub-ject.

The context of the photography is of product photography and the possible use of the photos are Easter in there nature, possibly used for a magazine spread, advertising an Easter theme. They are intended to by high key in nature to evoke a light hearted feeling, and are intended as part of an advertising campaign for home wares.

My relationship with this photograph and it’s subject matter, is one of a symbolic gesture to my family passed down through four gen-erations, coming firstly from my mother who was a seamstress, then through me, down to my daughter, then on to her daughter, in making this coat as a gift, for her small daughter when she is old enough to wear it.I was trying to create something to make you smile and would amuse with it brightly coloured yet simple style of fabric.I thought it would symbolise love towards my daughter and her child passed on through the skills learned from my mother. I knew my daughter would appre-ciate it. It is labelled on the inside with a tag named “made by grandma” just to arouse curiosity in her little daughter later on when she was old enough, perhaps even create an interest in producing wearable goods.The photo shows not only my unspoken ex-pression of thought but also shows the labours of my partner in the well worn saw stool.We are both manufac-turers of goods, which I wanted my granddaugh-ter to see as part of her history.The photograph symbol-ises the family relation-ships that bind people together and the pho-tograph is to document this as a memoir for my grandchild.

The theory from my work was gained from researching an artist by the name of Dietlind Woolf, whose style is pared back, colourful,modern, a simple clean style. She describes herself as a visual multidisciplinary de-signer, a prop stylist, photographer, living in Hamburg, and does colour concepts, styling for editorial food productions. She devises shoots and styling of still life and has a curiosity for ancient customs, art techniques and life itself. These are examples of her work

More product photography.

I was drawn to the subject mat-ter again by the geometry of the cross cut section of the fruit.

I have tried in each image to make the images as pared back as possible, and again high key. This image was taken at 1/30 sec. f4.5 iso 100 using a 35mm lens.

Trying to capture the detail, and present a photo in the same col-our palette as the other photos in this assignment.

Possibly this photo would be suitable for stock photography or editorial photographyor a wall print.

These images were inspired by the French artist Florent Tanent.

To see fruit through the eyes of French photographer Florent Tanet is special.

He takes ordinary fruits and gives and makes them interest-ing by capturing them in a dif-ferent fashion.

His half peeled and de con-structed fruits are rearranged in a whimsical manner.

He is a young photographer and fashion designer from Paris.

He graduated from the Higher School of Applied Arts Duperré in Paris, where he developed his work in photography, graphic design and visual arts.

After various experiments in several fashion houses, fashion design and art direction, he started a personal photographic work that mixes his obsessions in still life, minimal ism, colours and daily objects.

The work of Florent Tanet

CUVPHI516A

Research the Role and Use of the Photo

Image in Visual Commu-nication

Assignment 2The Photographs

Sue McArthur