Death of Coltelli by Tom Hunter
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What can you see in this photograph?
Two objects very close to one another, they look like walls or the sides of boats/trucks. The light looks as if it has come from camera flash, bouncing off the blue walls creating the blue tinge of the image. What type of photography is this? It's hard to put a name on his style of photography, but I would ho with abstract or observational. How is space described? You can see that the image is slightly off centre of the frame, and everything is slightly rotated, this gives the impression that the photo wasn't too thought about, like the photographer walked past and took the photo on a whim. How has the photographer dealt with light and colour? Much like Eileen Quinlan's work, the photography focuses on colour, however like I said in the third question, the photo looks like it was taken as a spur of the moment photograph, the colour and light there for being used unintentionally. |
Fraser is a British photographer, born in 1953 and first got a camera at the age of 7. He studied Photography at Manchester Polytechnic between 1972 and 1976. He as a photographer seems to work a lot with the idea of artificial light but does also branch out into natural. Objects over people, he ins't usually one to photograph a face, you can see in the photographs below, his photos seem to be him viewing his surroundings, taking photos of things as they are, only using light to change how they look. I personally have a hate love relationship with his work, some of his photographs standing out to me so much, and others I will find boring and mundane. One aspect of his photography I do like is that he seems to add pops of colour to his photographs, for example the first three images below are all photos that consist of brown/beige background colours, and then an object that has a bright vibrant colour, like the blue buckets or red berries.
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This is a film that Peter Fraser is inspired by, the main premise of the video being that everything is made up of very small things. We start at a couple in Chicago having a picnic, and move away from them 10x the distance we were originally, and the same again and agin, until we are at the furthest reaches of our own universe, then we even go 10x closer towards the couple, getting all the way inside a nucleus. Peter Fraser said himself that "Everything in the universe is made up of small things, so small things are critical to why and how the universe actually exists. I think small things are the key, they're the absolute key to everything."
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This image by Fraser is one that, though I am not a huge fan of, I admire the skill of and find very interesting. First off the colours of the image seem very subtly complimentary, for example the off-white of the table works well with the colour of the wall, as well as the nest and the golden frame working together, even though all the colours are being slightly washed out by the flash, they still working together very well. Then you see the egg in the nest, right in the centre of the image that is a bright blue colour, drawing us in. Secondly you can see that the lines of the image all follow the same direction, the frame and the stick , as well as the table all following the same direction, all these details, even being as small as the leafs on the frame being similar to the theme of the nest with natural forms, but the lines of the twigs working in conjunction with the geometric nature of the other objects. All of this almost impossible to see without giving the image some thought.
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Serpentine Galleries
The Grayson Perry exhibition in the Serpentine was incredibly inspiring, his unique style matching his mad personality. One piece of art that I very much enjoyed was the KateBoard Skateboard, a skateboard with Kate Winslet on the base, with a pink and gold colour scheme, the design being captivating. As well as this there were many tapestries on the walls that you could stare at for hours, all political based, with jokes and anecdotes, always something new to see. |
The Saatchi Gallery
The selfie exhibition at the Saatchi galley was probably my favourite exhibition, based on such a simple idea some of the collections of photographs were incredibly interesting. One piece 'miss fotojapon' by Juan Pablo Echeverri, he took a passport style photograph of himself everyday, however what caught my eye was the incredible bright colours and the fashion in the photographs. As well as this there were intractable pieces of art, some of which you can see in the photographs to the left, all of these creating a more memorable experience. |
Tate Modern
The Tate Modern was the last gallery I visited over the summer, and whilst walking around passing through different exhibitions, I stumbled across a piece of Stephen Shore called American Surfaces. Even from a distance it caught my eye, the layout of the photographs on the wall, all symmetrical in white frames, with photographs you had to get up close and personal with to properly view. I also noticed the more I views them that my style of photography was very similar, the style of capturing moments, traveling round, and a very key element of my love of vibrant colours in photography. |
The two photos above are two I took that I like a lot, the mist in the first one makes it very mysterious, enticing, whats beyond the fog, as well as the colour scheme being cold, harsh, giving a very dramatic look. The photograph next to that I also like, it being warm, and creating a sense of wanderlust, the sky being almost gold, but the valley covered in darkness.
However the photograph to the right, isn't one I like at all, the lighting wasn't what I thought it would be, as well as the image coming out incredibly grainy, Adding on to this, the colour is almost sickly, non-consistent, and I find that annoying. |
Wolfgang Tillmans
An artist of which whom I have been looking into more recently is Wolfgang Tillmans. The German photographer is somebody who's work I admire, not only his photography but his activism also, however I cannot put my finger on what his style is, none the less I am in awe of it. down below you can see what I mean by his style,I love the fact he doesn't have one defined style, or if he does, that I can't see it, I'm constantly exploring, |
You can see to the left a group of images, these are a group of images of his that really catch my eye, two of which a portraits. I love the fact that they aren't just photographs of people, there is something different about them. For example in one of the images there is a photo of a boy that has an image of some lights and water droplets on a window on top of it in a lower opacity.
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These are some more experiments of putting words and pictures together, different colours of text, different sizes and their competition, where the letters go on the photo and whether they are on and off the picture (like the example of the left). I would have to say that the photos down below with the white text are the ones I prefer, they also look more like a Wolfgangs Tillman piece. The white text stands out on the photograph more, the only downside being that if I print the pictures on a white t-shirt, it means that I won't be able to push the words half off the image as the white text won't show on a white t-shirt. But the photographs below are my favourite, and not only that but I believe that those there work very well as a series, all on film, all with similar warm yellows (one of my favourite colours).
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The layout of the images was obviously thought about, I think that have pints in the centre all compact and then dispersing more as they move from the centre, like the right hand side has three prints in a row on their own, showing to the density going down. with the sizing of the prints, it looks as if they are a rage from A4 or a bit smaller to A2, and they go all the way to the ground, so I would guess the size of the collage in height goes quite high up, really making you stand back to take it all in as one piece.
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I went to the Tate Modern to try and get some inspiration for large prints displayed, and I found this Daidō Moriyama exhibition. First off the large prints were amazing, the size of them somehow made them very daunting, the provoking style working with the size to seem threatening with some images and yet others feel very intimate. Secondly I loved seeing the diverse range of sizes of prints, which is something that I would like to incorporate into my installation, having very large photos and then some that you have to get close up to to see, creating a more intimate experience. But the thing I found the most interesting is the projection of his photos on one of the walls, and I had this idea before with old family videos but to add in photos to the installation with the projector is anther idea of displaying photos.
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I then tried to expand my photographs to make the piece bigger, adding some more prints that were a3, and moving them off the large a0 photo, to make this taller looking piece. Much like showing prints together like WolfGang Tillmans does, I
I feel as though mine has a different element to it, with the scale of it, the hight rather then the width, and though it was done without though, now that I do stand back and think about it, its almost as though it was made to be a piece that you had to get up close and personal with, stand right up against it and look up at the work, be intimate with it to make sure you can see all of what is going on. |