Composite Image Making

Ways in which conventional photographic techniques are used to manipulate images:

• Blending images together
• Airbrushing - Spot healing tool
• Patch Tool - Changes texture 
• Colour contrast  
• Burn and dodge tool

Research

Hannah Höch was not only a rare female practicing prominently in the arts in the early part of the twentieth century - near unique as a female active in the Dada movement that coalesced in her time - she also consciously promoted the idea of women working creatively more generally in society. She explicitly addressed in her pioneering artwork in the form of photomontage the issue of gender and the figure of woman in modern society. Her transformation of the visual elements of others by integrating them into her own larger creative projects evidenced a well-developed early example of "appropriation" as an artistic technique.

Höch was a key progenitor of the self-conscious practice of collaging diverse photographic elements from different sources to make art. This strategy of combining formerly unrelated images to make sometimes startling, sometimes insightful connections was one that came to be adopted by many Dada and Surrealist artists of her era, and also by later generations of "post-modern" conceptual artists in other media, including sculptural installations, mixed media and moving images, as well as in still photography.

Höch also helped expand the notion of what could be considered art by incorporating found elements of popular culture into "higher" art. She was one of many Dadaists to take advantage of such means, but she was both among the first, and one of the most self-consciously explicit in describing the goals and effects of doing so.

A political iconoclast, she actively critiqued prevailing society in her work, and, implicitly, through many of her life choices. Her active interest in challenging the status of women in the social world of her times motivated a long series of works that promoted the idea of the "New Woman" in the era.

Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. The art, poetry and performance produced by dada artists is often satirical and nonsensical in nature. Dada artists felt the war called into question every aspect of a society capable of starting and then prolonging it – including its art. Their aim was to destroy traditional values in art and to create a new art to replace the old. Dada was not so much a style of art like Cubism or Fauvism; it was more a protest movement with an anti-establishment manifesto.

Hannah Hoch, 1992

This image is a self portrait. She is seen to be holding scissors because she is a collage artist, but her face is not in proportion and her body is much smaller than her head. This is linked with  how women are objectified and constantly expected to act and look a certain way, usually never feeling enough to meet society's expectations. This could suggest that the scissors have a deeper meaning, referring to how she has cut her face apart and altered it in order to create the art, the same way that women often wear make up or get surgery to change their facial features and fit societies standards of beauty. She has also included an envelope behind her head with a postage stamp which seems to have no straight forward meaning but is up for interpretation by the viewer. She often used this strategy of combining formerly unrelated images to make sometimes startling, sometimes insightful connections.

1. I used the quick selection took to select the outside of the duck
2. Then I selected the invert selection to cut out the background
3. I clicked 'cmd' and 'c' to copy the duck 
4. Once on the image of the river Thames I clicked 'cmd' and 'v' to paste the duck into this image
5. Then I select 'cmd' and 'T' and the shift key so that I am able to resize the duck
6. Then I select the 'mask' option to rub out the bottom of the duck so it appears to be floating in the water

Form

Definition

•Form is a three dimensional shape, such as a cube, sphere or cone.

•Sculpture and 3D design are about creating forms.

•In 2D artworks, tone and perspective can be used to create an illusion of form.

An Example by Edward Weston

This black and white pepper nicely represents 3D photography. 

It looks similar to two naked bodies with it's muscular and sculptural form.

An Example by Jonathan Knowles

Jonathan has taken a different approach to shooting form within photography with his brighter image including analogues colours, with a background reflecting the subject. He has used flowers to create pyramid shape nicely representing 3 dimensional photography.

Jonathan Knowles is the photographer I have chosen to inspire my own work. Specialising in drinks, liquids and still life, Jonathan’s unique photographic style has earned him award-winning advertising commissions worldwide. However I am looking at his simpler images where he explores form in a calmer way. 

Image bank: 

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Contact Sheet:

Best Images:

I feel like my first image captured form really well as I used a three dimensional glass ball as my subject. I used clear and  bright lighting for images as inspired by my research. I also avoided using a lot of shadow for the same reason. I feel like this gives the image a clearer and sharper image to illustrate form the best way possible. Additionally, I like the reflection from the window on to the ball

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I like my second image as it has lots of parts to it

Movement and Aperture blur

Definition: 

Motion blur is the apparent streaking of rapidly moving objects in a still image or a sequence of images such as a movie or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, either due to rapid movement or long exposure.

Freeze Frame is an optical effect or technique in which a single frame of film is reprinted in a continuous series, which when shown gives the effect of a still photograph.   

Ernst Haas:

Ernst Haas was a photojournalist and a pioneering colour photographer. During his 40-year career, the Austrian-born artist bridged the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a medium for expression and creativity: Ernst Haas (1921–1986) is acclaimed as one of the most celebrated and influential photographers of the 20th century and considered one of the pioneers of color photography. Haas was born in Vienna in 1921, and took up photography after the war. 

His early work on Austrian returning prisoners of war brought him to the attention of LIFE magazine. He declined a job offer as staff photographer in order to keep his independence. At the invitation of Robert Capa, Haas joined Magnum in 1949, developing close associations with Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Werner Bishof.

Haas moved to the United States in 1951 and soon after, began experimenting with Kodachrome color film. He went on to become the premier color photographer of the 1950s. In 1953 LIFE magazine published his groundbreaking 24-page color photo essay on New York City. This was the first time such a large color photo feature was published by LIFE. In 1962 a retrospective of his work was the first color photography exhibition held at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Motion Blur Images:

Freeze Frames:

Contact Sheet:

After my previous research I looked at some images focused on portrait:

After looking at these it inspired my to shift the focus of my own photography. 

I proceeded to shoot these 3 images: 

I selected the following as my best images:

Landscape

Definition: Landscape photography shows spaces within the world, sometimes vast and unending, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs typically capture the presence of nature but can also focus on man-made features or disturbances of landscapes. Derived from The Dutch word landschap meaning "region, tract of land”. The first recorded use of landscape was in 1598, as a painters' term when Dutch artists were pioneering the landscape genre. It was used in the artistic sense by the English to describe "a picture depicting scenery on land." 

A photographer I have looked at is Stephen Shore. Most of his famous photography is based in Los Angeles, US. However he has travelled quite a bit and has photography from various places like Ukraine, Italy and other areas in the US. I have looked at some of his landscape photography and the following images are ones I will use to influence my own work.