Maps & Networks - Research

The next logical step is research. As I have created a photo series in this style before I already have a lot of research on this style of photography, the main example is Gem Fletcher, she was the main inspiration for my previous photo series, my research on her in relation to my last series is here. 

For this project I'm looking into her project STEAM, a photo series created in collaboration with David Ryle. she describes the shoot as simply a personal project where she wanted to experiment with steam in photography. I really like the simplicity of this project as it was just a bit of fun but she created some really aesthetically simple but visually interesting images. I find photography where there is something in front of the camera that is being use to augment the subject as they can completely change the meaning of the photograph. For example, a portrait with no obscurities is just a portrait and the meaning would come from what the subject is doing or the contextual meaning of the photograph, but, as soon as you and something in front like a bowl of water or something it warps the subject and then a 3rd meaning could be taken from the portrait. I feel this is what happens in this project of Gem's. 

Steam - Gem Fletcher

Steam - Gem Fletcher

Steam - Gem Fletcher

I think the photos are really interesting and I'd love to make something similar to it in the future. Personally I think the project has a lot of feelings towards the sensation of loss. It also remind me of the phenomenon Presque Vu, the feeling of something being on the tip of your tongue. Or, something being just out of reach and unattainable. I resonate these themes from these images as the glass used in the image fulfils the role of a physical barrier between the subject and the audience. This walled relationship between subject, object, and on looker has the above mentioned connotations as the glass is obscuring vision of the subject and and the viewer's vision of the subject. This makes the series, for me, more personal and almost as if the models are of relations I had but don't any longer, the pictures almost act as a representation of memory and as time passes the sight of that memory is obscured and lost.  All of this is supported by the simple style making the audience focus on the subject and the steamed glass. The colours used also help as the background is an off white leaning into orange making the choice of the subjects in blue make them separate further from the background, and  stand closer to the meaning of the images. These colour choices are slightly contradicted at first glance as the background matches the skin, drawing the subject back to the background, Stumped at first I realised that this was on purpose to support the feeling of loss. I think this because the model is not only standing out but blending in to reflect the memory theme, in how as you loose some aspects of a memory it makes others stand out. The project I looked at for my last photo series (this post) could also be read in a similar way. From looking back at this research I saw that in Fletcher's project 'The Eureka Effect', gem collaborated with the photographer Alma Haser. So I decided to look into her work and it actually is a good source.

Alma Haser

The main project of Alma's that took my interest was her extensive photo series 'Cosmic Surgery'. The series is a portrait sequence she has been creating for a few years where she uses her fine art background and sculpture to create intricate origami forms for the subjects faces to transform the portrait. 

Cosmic Surgery - Alma Haser

Cosmic Surgery - Alma Haser

Cosmic Surgery - Alma Haser

I find the series so interesting in many ways, the main one being the projects length and almost pointless and playfulness. I read the series this way as the method of just taking portraits of people over a number of years and then simply adding to the series every once and a while makes it feel like almost a practicing of skills to perfect her origami technique. I enjoy the relaxed continuous nature of this overall project as it contrasts the abrupt and striking look of the images. This idea of finding fun in a project once looking deeper into the process of making it interests me as a lot of the time I'm trying to find new ways to create more interesting and detailed portraits and new ways to create meaning in my images. I also love her subtle use of a more physical form in the post production of this series as it could easily be seen as photoshop but the fact these images are 3-D gives them a new depth. And a better sense of reality, this realness is fought against but the whole nature of the origami faces as they are so un natural, so alien. I find this use of post production editing so fascinating as the act of physically editing the piece with your hands, especially, a portrait. This act of edit gives the images a sense that the creator is almost as if a divine creator, an unnerving feeling of the viewer. I feel this isn't the intention of the artist, just an interesting take. I feel the more accurate look at these images is one of 'Othering' in any sense. 

Jacques Derrida stated that the alterity of The Other is around because The Other is not of the group or of one self. The problem of Othering is technically a natural and 'logical' problem arising from the immense image of self that humans have due to the knowledge capability of the brain, but this problem can have serious consequences in regards to human geography and when The Other has their ethical priority taken away from them in geopolitical circumstances. This is so greatly shown in the interaction of western cultures and their view of the dominator-dominated relationship with other cultures and the misrepresentation of the feminine in The Other, leading to white male privilege over The Other. 

I find her work so fascinating with the many interpretations of the portraits and focus on post production process. As the original image is generally rather underwhelming as its simple and soft lighting creating a great beauty shot of the subjects which I do love but the meaning of the images comes from her use of physical manipulation, an area of photography that I've yet to look into and hope that with this project I can find a way to experiment with it. 

Rosanna Jones

From this we decided to look into other artist that use non-digital post production methods with their work and from that we found the artist Rosanna Jones. She is a London based fashion photographer and mixed media image maker, her work leans more into the experimental end of fashion photography due to her blend of illustration and paint work into her photography. Almost all her work uses mixed media weather its paint, or even ripping the image and cutting it up. I find her work very interesting as a lot of her photo series look like normal fashion photography shoots (which I do love), but then there will be the odd piece within that will have her recognisable mixed media style. 

Girls - Rosanna Jones

Sliced - Rosanna Jones

Skin - Rosanna Jones

The last photo shown is from her series Skin, (which she does have a second series where she revisits the subject, "Skin Revisited") I find this series of projects very interesting as they follow the theme of close up shots of contorted skin, wether through intensive body manipulation or physical distortion of the skin. At base level I love this project, this idea of the fascination behind a certain thing being the entire basis of a project is something all artists understand. Her exploration of skin itself i find interesting enough of a project but the experimentation of paint on top of image really changes the image. For example the above image without paint would be interesting but the action of pulling lips apart draw he eye to the teeth and would cause the viewer to look at the mouth area first before reading the rest of the image. by painting over the areas that cause to you focus on the teeth she has created an interesting effect where your eyes don't recognise the painted areas as recognisably human making you look first at the eyes, then the mouth, the same way you'd read a face when first looking at a person in real life. I find it very interesting how the paint blocking keeps the original silhouette the same, and at a distance the the face looks "normal" but close up its covered, masking the open areas of skin and making you look at only the uncovered areas. An aspect of mixed media I had never thought of, a focus pulling technique. 

I find the other two images that I've shown above very similar as they're both images of broken faces. Even if through different methods of breaking. The first is of a girls face with the same image cut and pasted on top but askew giving a shattered mirror effect. I think this is an effective technique to show an obscured image of somebody, wether its because of opinion on said person or through a forgotten memory or the person hiding their true self. I think this is a very interesting technique for creating these themes while not being too on the nose with it. The second image of the two is defiantly more aggressive with the post production manipulation technique, this is reenforced through the models expression This image is also a lot more raw and real I like this as I feel a greater responce from the image in how the moment you look at it you understand whats being portrayed, and with the nature of an extreme close up this initial feeling is the whole feeling with this picture. I like how punchy this technique has made this image and is one I'd like to experiment with, even if the unpredictability of ripping is very unlike my usual editing style. 

Sam Kweskin

Finally, I moved onto an artist not normally dealing in traditional portraits. Sam Kweskin most often looks into photographs of the human body and geometric landscapes. Unfortunately, I was totally unable to find much on Kweskin other then his work online as there are basically no resources on him as a person, and his website doesnt offer much either. But, never the less, I can still analyse his work.

DANCE I - Sam Kweskin

DANCE I - Sam Kweskin

DANCE II - Sam Kweskin

The above pieces I've shown are from 2 different series of Kweskins, DANCE I and DANCE II, two of five projects that Kweskin has undertaken where he focuses on the human body in the context of dance.Through this he has created a multitude of different themed dance pieces that have been photographed creating series that all follow set conventions like, extreme angles, closeups, focus, minimalist style, and negative space. Mainly from these pieces I'm taking the composition and the display of the images. The middle image shown is a screenshot from how those 3 images are presented on Kweskin's website and I find the imaginative placement of the images making almost look like one whole image that have been obscured with the white bars on top of it. I think this could be a useful aspect of his work to look further into when deciding how Myself and Nina want to install our work as this is a project where we have the freedom to install our work however we want. Overall I think his work is very interesting in how he think of shots, and composition, and is something i will have to practice with the images me and nina take and plan well if we go with this direction of installation.