Connecting Essay - David Hockney

David Hockney's Work
David Hockney is best known for his work with Joiners. This piece of art is a combination of photographs taken of a single person. The photographs are of different body parts that have been combined to create one image of that said person. This particular image is of an old lady.








My Work
This image was created during the Joiner project. To create this image I used the same method and followed Hockney's work. I took a lot of pictures of the different body parts of one person and then compiled them all together into one image. The image wasn't perfect as Hockney's work was also not perfect.










How They Link
Both of the images were created in the same style - A bunch of images were taken and connected through overlapping images to create one large image. Both images are not connected perfectly.

Connecting Essay - Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff's Work
This first image of Thomas Ruff's work is from his Portraiture projects. He wanted to take people's portraits in the style of passport images. This shows the models in their natural state, no editing on their faces and they are also not posed. There is a bright coloured background and a female within frame. The model has been shot from the chest up and her facial expression is blank - she is staring into the camera's lens. These images were taken in a studio.






My Work
My version of this image has many similarities. The image was a part of the portraiture project where we had to take portraits in different environments. This image has a vibrant coral coloured background and has a female model in frame. She has been shot from the chest up and she has a blank facial expression looking into the camera's lens. This image was taken in a studio with lights surrounding the subject.






How They Link
Both of these images link in a verity of different ways - both the visual aspects and the way the image was taken are very similar. The backgrounds are both vibrant which allows the model to stand out to the audience. The models both have blank facial expressions and are looking straight into the camera. The angle at which they were shot at is very similar and the fact that a studio was used to take the images. There is also a female model within both images.

Connecting Essay - Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams' Work
Ansel Adams work is based upon landscapes. All of his work is taken with a very wide depth of field so that all of the image is in focus. This particular image is of a large forest area that has a river running through and mountains in the distance. All of this image can be seen clearly: there is no blur within the image.




My Work
My image was taken with Ansel Adams' work in mind. This image is of a large housing estate with a tower of flats placed in the far right of the image. Furthermore, the sky in this image is dominant over the ground landscape. The majority of the image is in focus therefore there is minimal blur.



How They Link
There are not many ways that these two particular images link. However the way that they were taken are almost the same. Both of the cameras used to take these images were at a wide depth of field. I took my image at a F/stop of 22. Ansel Adams' work was taken at a similar F/Stop. This allowed us both to put almost all of the image in focus with minimal blurring. Both of the images were also taken from a high point of view. I took my image whilst standing on top of a large building looking down upon the landscape. Ansel Adams also took his image from a high point of view. This allowed us to put a large majority of the landscape into focus. Despite the similarities, there is also a few differences. Adams' image is in black and white and mine is in colour. You can also see more of the ground in Adams' work where as you can see more of the sky in mine.

Connecting Essay - Barbra Kruger

Barbra Kruger's Work

This image is one of Kruger's most popular images. It shows a simply a woman's face. One half is black and white and the other half also black and white but the colours have been reversed. The image is captioned with "Your body is a battleground". This was a poster created to fight for women's rights to choose in the late 1980's. The image itself is very powerful as it shows a woman with two different appearances which emphasizes the connotation of having the right to choose.

My Work

This image is from the physical images project. The image shows half of a woman's face and neck. There is a tape measure around her neck. My image is also captioned with the quote "Your body is a battleground" However, I used the quote differently. It was not intended to express women's right to choose but instead, their representation within the media. 

How They Link

Both of these images link in a multitude of ways. The first clear link is the caption used; even though they have been used to represent different things, the caption is the same. Another way that these images link is the way that they were created. They were both made with physical materials and  both bare a similar visual element. There is a red strip with white text on them; the font is also the same. Finally, they both link with their connotations as they are used to represent a feminist view. These connotations are about how women are treated within society: Unequally. I believe that I've created a successful image in the form of Kruger's work because of all of these similarities that the images have.

Research Note - Lee Friedlander

Lee Friedlander
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY - (https://fraenkelgallery.com/artists/lee-friedlander)
Lee Friedlander, born in 1934, began photographing the American social landscape in
1948. With an ability to organize a vast amount of visual information in dynamic compositions,

Friedlander has made humorous and poignant images among the chaos of city life, dense landscape

and countless other subjects. Friedlander is also recognized for a group of self-portraits he began in

the 1960s, reproduced in Self Portrait, an exploration that he turned to again in the late 1990s, and

published in a monograph by Fraenkel Gallery in 2000. Friedlander’s work was included in the

highly influential 1967 New Documents exhibition, curated by John Szarkowski at the Museum of

Modern Art. Included among the many monographs designed and published by Friedlander himself

are: "Sticks and Stones, Lee Friedlander: Photographs, Letters From the People, Apples and Olives,

Cherry Blossom Time in Japan, Family, and At Work." In 2005, Friedlander was the recipient of the

prestigious Hasselblad Award as well as the subject of a major traveling retrospective and catalog

organized by the Museum of Modern Art. In 2010, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

exhibited the entirety of his body of work,

Friedlander's Work

Friedlander's work consisted of a large range of photographs that featured random, everyday people living their domestic lives. He documented everyday life. Within all of the images he featured himself physically in one way. His images were a form of self portraiture because of this.

This first image shows a woman walking out of a building with reflective walls. Through the reflections you can see Friedlander
taking the photo. Within this image, you can see everyday life occurring and also the photographer within. The photographer's face however is hidden by the camera.

         This next image is simply of a glass wall and a set of doors. Again you can see the reflections of Lee Friedlander within the glass. This is how he featured himself within this image. His face is covered by a white rectangle however. I think this is a poster that has been placed on the glass. Even though Friedlander is in all of his images in some way, his face is not featured in any of them. 

         This final image shows a man looking out of frame. His shadow is on the wall and the reflection of the camera is also. Even though Lee isn't in the image physically, the camera is. The camera represents Friedlander and is a metaphor for him being in the image.

Research Note - Corinne Day

Corinne Day - http://www.corinneday.co.uk
HISTORY - She was born Feb 19, 1962 and Died in 2010 on August 27th from a drug overdose. Corinne Day grew up in Ickenham with her younger brother and her grandparents. She left school aged sixteen and worked as an assistant in a local bank. After a year at the bank she became an international mail courier. It was during this period that someone suggested she try modelling – she worked consistently as a catalogue model for several years. In 1985 she met Mark Szaszy on a train in Tokyo – Szaszy was a male model and had a keen interest in film and photography. During an extended trip to Hong Kong and Thailand, Szaszy taught Day how to use a camera and in 1987 they moved to Milan. It was in Milan that Day's career as a fashion photographer started. Having produced photographs of Szaszy and her friends for their modelling portfolios, Day began approaching magazines for work.

BIOGRAPHY (Found on her Website) - Corinne Day is a British photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s has been immense. As a self taught photographer, Day brought a more hard edged documentary look to fashion image making, in which she often included biographical elements. Day is known for forming long and close relationships with many of her sitters (most famously Kate Moss), which have resulted in candid and intimate portraits. The most notable of these being the photographs of Moss in the 3rd Summer of Love editorial for the FACE magazine in 1990. Days approach as illustrated within the lifestyle and fashion magazines of the 1990s, came to be known as grunge and grew into an international style.
In 1993 Day photographed Kate Moss in her own flat for British Vogue. In the context of a fashion magazine the images appear to have a documentary feel about them and when published caused a certain frisson of discomfort. 
For the following seven years Day spent much of her personal time taking photographs for her first book, Diary (Kruse Verlag, 2000), an intensely personal visual record of her life and friends. It is by turns both bleak and dispearing but it is also a tender, poetic and honest chronicle of young lives. 
Corinne Day continues to take photographs for fashion magazines. She is regularly commissioned by British, Italian and Japanese Vogue. Days work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Modern, Saatchi Gallery, The Science Museum, The design Museum, Photographers Gallery, Gimpel Fils London and included in The Andy Warhol exhibition at the Whitney Museum NY.

Kate Moss
Day decided to photograph Kate Moss, a famous beauty model who work for a range of companies. She even has her own line of lipsticks with Rimmel London.
This image is very powerful with the connotations associated. We see a celebrity known as Kate Moss in minimal clothing surrounded by lights. The connotations of this image say that the celebrity is constantly in the spotlight and can't escape from it. This image brings to perspective how the celebrity may feel; Trapped and unable to escape from the fame. This image may bring a reality to the audience about fame and that it isn't all positive. 






This next image is again of younger Kate Moss. She is shirtless and has a happy facial expression. This image is a very strong and meaningful image as to the media, it could be classed as inappropriate because it features a shirtless woman. I believe that Day is trying to express the ideas os gender roles and stereotyping within this image. Usually a woman can't be seen shirtless in public is seen as morally wrong. However, men can be. Therefore this image is challenging this moral and promoting gender equality.





This final image is an image of nine different images that portray different facial expressions. Audience members could interpret these facial expressions in different ways. I believe that this image was created throughout a conversation with Kate moss. Her face was captured at nine different moments and this created a range of different facial expressions and emotions throughout a conversation. It's an image that simply tells a story.

Research Note - Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

BIOGRAPHY / HISTORY - (http://www.barbarakruger.com/biography.shtml) 
Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1945. After attending Syracuse University, the School of Visual Arts, and studying art and design with Diane Arbus at Parson’s School of Design in New York, Kruger obtained a design job at Condé Nast Publications. Working for Mademoiselle Magazine, she was quickly promoted to head designer. Later, she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at House and Garden, Aperture, and other publications. This background in design is evident in the work for which she is now internationally renowned. She layers found photographs from existing sources with pithy and aggressive text that involves the viewer in the struggle for power and control that her captions speak to. In their trademark black letters against a slash of red background, some of her instantly recognizable slogans read “I shop therefore I am,” and “Your body is a battleground." Much of her text questions the viewer about feminism, classicism, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire, although her black-and-white images are culled from the mainstream magazines that sell the very ideas she is disputing. As well as appearing in museums and galleries worldwide, Kruger’s work has appeared on billboards, buscards, posters, a public park, a train station platform in Strasbourg, France, and in other public commissions. She has taught at the California Institute of Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Advertising Image Manipulation

Barbra Kruger was a feminist who took images that already existed and manipulated them by adding quotes she made to portray a powerful message. This first image is of a powerful, evil leader with the text; "If you don't controll you mind someone else will" This message is very powerful to audience members who have a shared knowledge of the Nazi leader. He was believed to use mind control to have his way. He also manipulated many people. With this in mind, the message she portrayed holds more meaning and power when partnered with this leader. Kruger is telling people to be their own person and believe what you believe because you believe it, not because others who are famous do.

This second image is of a young, pretty girl looking into a mirror. The image is partnered with the quote "Who's the fairest of them all" which is from a well known fairy tale: Snow White. This phrase is all about beauty and how females in particular should look. The quote stemmed from the evil queen who wanted to be the fairest of them all but couldn't because someone else was prettier than her. This made her fill with envy and made her try to kill Snow White in order to be the prettiest. This shows the battle that women have with the media and how they are pressured to look a certain way that is acceptable for the media. The quote also shows how women are obsessed with beauty and will do anything to be beautiful and be accepted by the media. The quote also reminds us of the story which shows the audience how dangerous it is to envy over others and to not love yourself for who you are. The image itself doesn't say as much as the quote does and therefore the quote is the focal point of this art. 

This final image is another feminist view much like the previous image. Instead of focusing on women however, this branches over all genders. This image is very powerful compared to the previous image in my opinion. This image is telling the audience that everyone should be equal and that gender stereotypes are only there because the media is catagorising people. This image is encouraging everyone to be themselves with the male half natural and half made up in make up.

Research Note - George Logan

George Logan

BIOGRAPHY/ HISTORY

George Logan Images

George Logan is a surrealist artist who creates images that teaches the audience lessons and also shows us things that we may not realise on a day to day basis. This first image is very simple yet also very powerful. It is of a flower breaking through into a man made modern city. The connotations of this image are very powerful. It shows the power of nature and also brings the audience to realise what we, as a society, think is important. The beauty of nature is being hidden by ugly, industrial buildings. The image shows how society feels that having big cities and industrial buildings are more important than having nature visible. The flower is breaking through the man-made object which shows the power of nature and that no matter how hard we try to conceal it, it will grow back. The only bright colours within the image are the natural things that man hasn't created. This shows the photographer's feelings towards the battle of nature vs. industrial. The bright colours also bring joy to the image where as the dull grey colours bring despair. 

This next image is of a father and a son simply shopping. It seems like they are living their normal lives. However, the use of the phone adds an aspect of framing to the image and the frame shows a connotation to the image. This connotation shows the young boy in a race car. The connotation could be pointing out a dream of the young boy or even for the parent. The trolly is a metaphor for the race car. This whole image shows the two people living their normal lives but making fun of it. There could be a hidden meaning to the image. One that tells the audience to not take life too seriously and to have fun along the way. Or even that dreams are made possible through the simplest of things.

This final image shows a young lady photographing wildlife in the distance. The wildlife is very small however and this is where the connotations erupt from. The small size of the normally large animals and trees puts photography itself into perspective and how you can capture a large moment or area and make it such a small size that it can fit into your hand. I believe the artist is using surrealism to portray this image within his work.

Research Note - Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier Bresson - http://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/
HISTORY - Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and conceived of photography as capturing a decisive moment.

BIOGRAPHY (Found on his website) - To tell Henri Cartier-Bresson’s story and to unravel his work is essentially to tell the story of a look. Throughout the 20th century, this roaming, lucid eye has captured the fascination of Africa in the 1920’s, crossed the tragic fortunes of Spanish republicans, accompanied the liberation of Paris, caught a weary Gandhi just hours before his assassination, and witnessed the victory of the communists in China. Henri Cartier-Bresson was also Jean Renoir’s assistant on three major films, an artist who sees himself an artisan but who nevertheless established Magnum, the most prestigious of all photo agencies, and who immortalised his major contemporaries : Mauriac in a state of mystical levitation, Giacometti, Sartre, Faulkner or Camus, and as many more all taken at the decisive moment, all portraits for eternity.

The Decisive Moment - The decisive moment is a concept made popular by the street photographer, photojournalist, and Magnum co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson. The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.

"Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera"

Decisive Moment

Henri Cartier Bresson's Decisive Moment was a group of photographs that were taken within certain times to make the subject perfectly composed within a desired landscape. He would capture people doing certain things at a certain time within a very small time space to create a perfectly composed image without having to move the camera. For this first image he set the camera on top of the stairs and waited for the biker to ride past. At a specific point he decided to capture the image at a specific moment so that the biker was in one third of the frame and also within an empty space in the image. Hence the name of the movement being: "The Decisive Moment" As the rule of thirds is used, we know that the image is well composed. When looking at the image of a biker on a road, my eyes focus on the biker first and the travel to look at the rest of the image. The biker was the thing that caught my eye. I believe this is because of the rule of three as this is what it is designed to do; put a primary focus on a subject within one third of a frame. I don't particularly get any specific feelings or emotions when looking at this image. 

This second image follows the same process. The camera was set in a certain position to capture the moment before the person touched the ground. This image, like the previous image, uses the rule of three as a composition technique. The main focus of the image, being the man, is in the far right third of the image. This makes our eyes hone in on the man when first looking at the image. When looking at this image I get the feeling of joy and happiness. I asked a second party what they felt when looking at this image and they said that they felt like he was trying to escape or run away from something. This proves that there can be many connotations to an image. 

This third image is different to the previous two images as the rule of three is not used to make the focus of the image stand out. Instead the focus of the image is in the dead center of the image. This alone makes the image stand out compared to the others. This image is of a shadowed figure who seems to bee running up the stairs. When looking at this image, I get the sense of fear and also feel that the character is running away from something. I again asked somebody else how they felt about the image and they thought that the character was scheming something ans was up to no good. That they were trying to hide from being seen. All of these images rely on time and pick up moments that may not normally be captured, only seen. This therefore make's Bresson's work unique. I personally think that his work is very inspirational and teaches us how to capture memories through the art of photography. 

Research Note - Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams - The Zone System

Ansel Adams developed the zone system a method of ensuring he achieved the correct exposure.

The light from this image is coming into the frame from the top. We know this because of the shadows that are created onto the bottom of the image as there is no light in that part of the image. I believe that the use of Zones do create the different effects of masculinity and femininity. The darker Zones create a harsh vibe to the image and therefore makes the image more  masculine. The lighter Zones would be stereotypically feminine because of the lighter tones created by light. 

Pictorialism

Pictorialism is the name given to an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. It was used to create a soft style of photography that replicated paintings and drawings. Usually to in focus and would look grainy and old-fashioned.

Physical Images Work Diary

How I Made These Images
To make these images I used physical materials with printed versions of the top 5 images. I cut out the quotes that I made on Photoshop can glued them over the images. I then scanned the photos into the computer. This created the final images that are seen below.

Critical Evaluation
I decided to create an electronic version of one of the images to compare how they would look. I didn't like the look of the electronic version and felt that the physical images looked more effective because of the way that they were scanned into the computer.





Progress
All of these images were created physically. Before printing the original images I turned them black and white so that the only colour would be the red strips on the images. After physically altering the images (Putting the quotes on the pictures) I scanned them into the computer. The scanner seemed to have put a filter over all of the images which gave a noise-type effect on the image. This was a mistake however I feel like it makes the images look more dated and also effective. I like the scanned versions of the images better than the electronic copy that I created because of this filter.

Physical Images Contact Sheet

Physical Images Contact Sheet

Physical Images Straight Images

Physical Images
As Barbra Kruger used images that already existed and didn't take new ones, I have decided to use images that I didn't use from the documentary and portraiture photoshoot to stay true to Kruger's work as much as possible. No new images were taken.

Top 5 Images
These first four images are from the documentary photoshoots. This first image shows a female with red makeup markings over her cheek, mouth and eye. This is a very powerful image which shows a pain of some sort. For this image I have decided to use the quote: "Beauty is Pain, Pain is Beauty."

This image shows the same model as before laying on a bed. Her legs are crossed and her arms are covering her chest. As this image was taken to show how women are objectified, I have chose to create a quote around this. The quote I came up with is: "We are not objects" representing female objectification.

This next image is of a different model than before. There is a tape measure around her neck. This image was taken with the connotation of weight in mind and how women fight to get perfect bodies due to the media's representation. Because of this, I decided to use one of Kruger's quote which I felt fit perfectly to the meaning of the image. This quote is: "Your body is a battleground."

This next image shows a woman looking at herself in a mirror whilst holing a lipstick. She is looking into the mirror desperately for help. It appears that she is judging herself through the mirror. I decided to use a quote from Disney as I felt that "Mirror mirror on the wall..." fit perfectly to the connotations of the image. The quote isn't finished but as the quote is universally known, audience members will finish the quote themselves and then begin to realise the connotations. 

This final image is from the portraiture photoshoot. The image itself is of a girl looking into the camera smiling. I thought that by using a quote like; "Not Happy" would contrast the visuals and then deeper connotations could be made by audiences. For example: the smile is only a mask for the camera and the model is really not happy. This adds to the question of "Does the camera lie?"

Physical Images Image Bank

Physical Images Image Bank

Physical Images Definition

Physical Images
Gilliam's Animations link to Hannah Hoch's Photo Composites as both require the use of physical materials to be able to create them. Gilliam's typically use the entire body and other objects where as Hoch's images use mainly facial features. Gilliam's work also tends to be animated where as Hoch's are just stationary images. 

Images can be manipulated to say different things. Moving specific things within a picture to another area of the image may change the meaning. A range of techniques may also be used to manipulate photos to change the meaning or to change the image overall. 

Hoch is linked to The Modern Art and the Dada Art Movements.
Modern Art
Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era.

Dada
Dada or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland at the Cabaret Voltaire and in New York.