my evaluation
During the entire course I have explored many different artists and their work, the first people that I investigated was Anna Atkins and her cyanotypes which I think are very impressive as it is quite amazing how she found out about how to get images of objects with simply just some paper, chemicals, light and the object itself. I discovered Anna Atkins because my teacher introduced cyanotypes to our class and used Anna Atkins as an example of someone that has made a vast collection of them. This has helped me understand photography further than I ever had before as I never really realised that photography could be camera-less. Another artist I have explored is Steven Shore, I had never heard of him or seen any of his work until we went to the Barbican Gallery. I absolutely loved it there, I found the exhibition so interesting and the photo of the Chevron Gas Station has stayed with me, it is an image that I would hang on the wall in my house. Everytime I look at it, it makes me like it even more. I love the retro style of the image due to the time it was taken and the complete set out with the different poles and cars that are driving past which are brightly coloured. Another artist that has changed my view is Simon Norfolk, there was one particular image that I saw at the Barbican Gallery that I think I could probably stare at for hours. To explain in more detail, it was from a batch of images that were taken in Afghanistan. There were children playing football and having fun whilst you could see some soldiers and the worry that something could happen at anytime, there was also an extremely beautiful sunset in the background of the image which really made me think about how difficult their lives must be but they are still enjoying it and not letting it get them down. A photographer that I have researched myself is Mattia Bicchi who is a time-lapse and hyper-lapse photographer, I found his work online when I was looking for a time-lapse photographer for inspiration, I was quite amazed by his work which made me want to definitely do a timelapse.
During the course of photography, we have learnt a lot about a variety of different themes. To begin with, we learnt about camera-less photography, I think this was quite successful as it widened my horizons of what photography can be and that a camera is not needed for it to be photography. When I found out about camera-less photography I researched it to some extent and made my own cyanotypes, chemigrams and photograms. I decided that I would not expand further on camera-less photography, although I found it very interesting I was intrigued to see what other themes there were to investigate. It turned out that there were many themes that I prefered more than this one. The theme that I think I prefer the most is typologies, I think this is due to the fact that they are quite simple in technicality but quite difficult in thinking about what you are gonna do a typology of, where it is gonna be and how many images are gonna be taken. For these reasons, I think that my typology for my first final project was extremely successful as it was a panorama as well, this is quite similar to Nick Waplington in the sense of it being a panorama and also similar to Bernd and Hilla Becher’s as they are typologies.
I have used quite a lot of media during the course of this unit, I did some work on camera-less photography at the beginning which only involved paper and some chemicals. Cyanotypes are made with paper that has got a mix of two solutions painted over it, it works by putting object on the paper which is now blue and put it in the light and the parts that are covered go back to the colour of the actual paper (white) whilst the paper that is not covered is dark blue (the colour of the chemicals on the paper to begin with). Chemigrams and photograms are also made without a camera. Chemigrams are made using light sensitive paper, developer, stop and fix chemicals whilst photograms on the other hand have to be made in the dark room, they are made by placing objects onto the paper and then turning the light on for only a few seconds or less, once this is done you then have to use developer, stop and fix chemicals and then wash the paper so that the natural light does not turn the rest of the paper black. Out of all of the camera-less processes, I found producing Photograms the hardest as it was quite difficult to get the exposure correct so that the images were just right. I also did work on Focus and how the difference in the focus of an image can affect the entire outcome of the image.
My first outcome that I had for Unit 1 was a typology of panoramas, I was hoping to create a vast amount of images that would show a pattern in the light and repetition in the way they were taken, I also wanted them to show the difference in all of the different architecture and roads that exist in quite a small area. I think it worked quite well considering how difficult it was to take all of the different images of different roads. I think my ideas evolved quite a lot over the time of planning my project as I think I now take more time in the planning as the planning is the most important part- without properly planning, the outcome will not be as good as it could be with a lot of planning. I think the most important influences on my work were the artists that I researched when I was doing my projects however I also feel like I have been influenced by various different photographers that are landscape, timelapse and animal photographers. I think this work reflects my interests in quite a good way, I try to see the world in quite a simple way however I also like to try capture the best moments and set up a picture so that it is the best that it could be. I also think that I manage to get across what I am trying to say quite well as my first project was about observing your surroundings and thinking about how developed the area is whilst the second was about natural beauty and how something that happens everyday can be so beautiful.
During the course of photography, we have learnt a lot about a variety of different themes. To begin with, we learnt about camera-less photography, I think this was quite successful as it widened my horizons of what photography can be and that a camera is not needed for it to be photography. When I found out about camera-less photography I researched it to some extent and made my own cyanotypes, chemigrams and photograms. I decided that I would not expand further on camera-less photography, although I found it very interesting I was intrigued to see what other themes there were to investigate. It turned out that there were many themes that I prefered more than this one. The theme that I think I prefer the most is typologies, I think this is due to the fact that they are quite simple in technicality but quite difficult in thinking about what you are gonna do a typology of, where it is gonna be and how many images are gonna be taken. For these reasons, I think that my typology for my first final project was extremely successful as it was a panorama as well, this is quite similar to Nick Waplington in the sense of it being a panorama and also similar to Bernd and Hilla Becher’s as they are typologies.
I have used quite a lot of media during the course of this unit, I did some work on camera-less photography at the beginning which only involved paper and some chemicals. Cyanotypes are made with paper that has got a mix of two solutions painted over it, it works by putting object on the paper which is now blue and put it in the light and the parts that are covered go back to the colour of the actual paper (white) whilst the paper that is not covered is dark blue (the colour of the chemicals on the paper to begin with). Chemigrams and photograms are also made without a camera. Chemigrams are made using light sensitive paper, developer, stop and fix chemicals whilst photograms on the other hand have to be made in the dark room, they are made by placing objects onto the paper and then turning the light on for only a few seconds or less, once this is done you then have to use developer, stop and fix chemicals and then wash the paper so that the natural light does not turn the rest of the paper black. Out of all of the camera-less processes, I found producing Photograms the hardest as it was quite difficult to get the exposure correct so that the images were just right. I also did work on Focus and how the difference in the focus of an image can affect the entire outcome of the image.
My first outcome that I had for Unit 1 was a typology of panoramas, I was hoping to create a vast amount of images that would show a pattern in the light and repetition in the way they were taken, I also wanted them to show the difference in all of the different architecture and roads that exist in quite a small area. I think it worked quite well considering how difficult it was to take all of the different images of different roads. I think my ideas evolved quite a lot over the time of planning my project as I think I now take more time in the planning as the planning is the most important part- without properly planning, the outcome will not be as good as it could be with a lot of planning. I think the most important influences on my work were the artists that I researched when I was doing my projects however I also feel like I have been influenced by various different photographers that are landscape, timelapse and animal photographers. I think this work reflects my interests in quite a good way, I try to see the world in quite a simple way however I also like to try capture the best moments and set up a picture so that it is the best that it could be. I also think that I manage to get across what I am trying to say quite well as my first project was about observing your surroundings and thinking about how developed the area is whilst the second was about natural beauty and how something that happens everyday can be so beautiful.