For the third year in a row, we were asked to produce a five-picture portfolio. First time round, we were given 5 different topics for 5 different pictures, allowing us to make an interpretation within certain limits. In our second year, we were given the choice between three different briefs, which the 5 different pictures had to correspond with; we had to create a piece of unity, within a certain field of thinking. This year, our last year, we were given no topics, no briefs; pure creative freedom. I wanted to make full use of this creative freedom, I wanted to push myself, out of my own comfort zones. Over summer, I've been greatly influenced by 'mixed-media artists', and drawing on our recent discussions about 'the photographer' and what that means in this day and age. Thus, I thought this would be an interesting 'art form' (if you'd like) to push myself technically and test notions of 'the contemporary photographer' studying my own work process and final work.
Combining photography with other forms of visual arts has the capacity to produce a very interesting and appealing final piece. Therefore blending mixed media and image transfer, two methods that are often done independently, is probably the ultimate union and can generate some exciting results. This phenomenon can be seen more and more in the (fashion) photography industry and one could argue 'photography' is not merely about the production process anymore; has post-production taken over?
Since everyone and their dog have a digital camera these days, many art and commercial photographers are toying with different ways to express their creativity. While still staying true to their photographic background, many have chosen to expand their art to other mediums as well. This may include digital manipulation using a tablet, collaging on top of images, or painting directly on printed photographs. Whatever the medium, these photographers are bridging the gap between photography and other forms of artistic expression. While many photographers have been using this form of expression for decades, many new and upcoming photographers are jumping on the bandwagon and using new forms of technology to manipulate their photographs in a way that sets them apart from the rest.
My biggest influences and artists who inspire me are Alex Wessely, Pierre Debusschere, Pierre Daras, Deborah Bloemen and Clement Louis. For my 5 picture project, I would like to test myself and push my boundaries to find a new way of expressing my ideas about photography and art.
For this project, I would like to focus on portraiture and test its limits. An artist that inspires me in terms of paintings/drawings is Clement Louis.
His SHOWstudio page reads:
"Clément Louis is a French multi-disciplinary art director, photographer and illustrator based between London and Paris. Discovering painting as a child led to a natural progression to photography upon purchasing his first reflex camera at age sixteen. Louis' elegant and dark aesthetic has generated interest from many such as the famed designer, Rick Owens who invited Louis to lend his vision and photograph his shows."
It are these dark hues and high key lighting he uses in his portraits that really inspire me. If one would draw a line through my body of work, it would most likely be a quite dark aesthetic. Clement Louis' drawings have a certain mystery and a certain set up, which immediately remind me of a photograph rather than a drawing. He often transcends these boundaries between photography and drawings/paintings, creating a whole new visual world. His work has to be looked at multiple times before one figures out what it is exactly that they can see. It draws attention, poses questions and at the same time is incredibly aesthetically interesting.
Pierre Debusschere is a Belgian director, photographer and curator. He utilizes innovative technologies to create high impact visuals. In 2009, he founded 254FOREST, a creative studio working in the realms of film, art, photography and music. His body of work often bridges the gaps between photography and art by combining two pieces of work, his photography and an already existing piece of work like a painting often taken from the Renaissance period. Continuing to warp, glitch and push the boundaries of digital fashion imagery, one could argue he is one of the leading forces within the movement.
Dazed interviewed Debusschere for their Readers' 100:
"How would you sum up what you do in a sentence?
Pierre Debusschere: Live.
What’s your favourite song and movie of 2014?
Pierre Debusschere: “Come Down to Us” by Burial, and Under the Skin by Jonathan Glazer.
How do you think style and pop culture will change in 2015?
Pierre Debusschere: For the better, I hope.
In 15 words, sum up what we can expect from you in 2015.
Pierre Debusschere: Images, colours, sounds, film, fashion, opera, music, surprises, interrogations, errors, sadness, happiness, tears, smiles, emotions.
What’s the most exciting thing about the music, film and fashion industries today?
Pierre Debusschere: To combine the three.
What new skill did you learn this year?
Pierre Debusschere: Love.
What’s the most surprising thing we’d find out if we looked at your phone?
Pierre Debusschere: My screengrabs.
Who should have been at number one on the Dazed 100?
Pierre Debusschere: Matthieu Blazy."
The artist goes beyond, in my opinion, dated notions of 'photography', 'art' and 'music' and combines them into a whole new concept of imagery. Debusschere doesn't test limits, he simply transcends them.
As for the actual production, I will be taking portraits of five different models. I have booked the photo studio and will (hopefully) be using the medium format camera to shoot. The portraits will be quite straightforward, altering between high-key and soft-focus lighting on both black and white backgrounds. I have asked five different models, both male and female. I wanted my models to be quite generic in a way, however with strong features as I will not be working with elaborate make-up or styling, as in my previous work. Whereas, most of my previous projects were very much focused on styling and make-up, and were quite reliant on them, this time round I want my images to solely about the face. No distractions, but simply the faces and facial features of the model so that these will inspire me in the post-production in terms of creative alteration. What do these faces tell me? Who are the people behind the portraits? What do their eyes tell me? The answers to these questions should then inspire me to add layers that correspond with what I feel it is that their portraits tell me.
The studio, special thanks to Andy Thorpe, is booked for half a day. The schedule is as follows:
11am: Nicole and Grace
12: Isabella
1pm: Lynton and Otto
I told the models that they are welcome to come whenever they would please from 11am onwards, but if they would definitely want to be there at the given times. This will give me some overlaps, which would allow me to maybe also shoot some of the models together. The more material the better!
In terms of lighting, I would like to try out two different types of lighting:
1. Very low-key. High contrast, with hard shadows and lines. Blacking out the background, creating silhouette type imagery.
2. Soft-lighting. Washing out the whites in the background, creating an 'angelic' and very clear look.
All the images will be B&W.
In terms of the photography, I've got quite a clear idea how I would like to approach the pictures. The question now is what techniques to apply to the taken pictures and how to produce the layers upon layers to create "mixed-media" photographs.
There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct visual art media. For example, a work on canvas that combines paint, ink, and collage could properly be called a "mixed media" work, but not a work of "multimedia art." The term multimedia art implies a broader scope than mixed media, combining visual art with non-visual elements (such as recorded sound, for example) or with elements of the other arts (such as literature, drama, dance, motion graphics, music, or interactivity).
I want to apply two different post-production techniques, or even three would one count the basic editing. The process, put very simply, would be as follows:
1. Production: take portraits of the 5 different models.
2. Post-Production (1): Basic editing of pictures (contrast, brightness, skintones, etc)
3. Post-Production (2): Get the images printed (preferably A3 size). Apply different techniques, such as burning, bleach, oil paint, etc. (Still to do proper research on different techniques). This is the most important and exciting part of the process. I will not plan this stage too much, as I feel the different materials will have their own curious way of altering the pictures. Not knowing what they are going to look like is part of the process!
4. Post-Production (3): Scan the pictures back onto the computer to add digital layers in Photoshop.
Krieg (2014) says that "when creating a painted or photographed work using mixed media it is important to choose the layers carefully and allow enough drying time between the layers to ensure the final work will have structural integrity. If many different media are used it is equally important to choose a sturdy foundation upon which the different layers are imposed. A phrase sometimes used in relationship to mixed media is, "Fat over lean." In other words: "don't start with oil paints. Plan to make them the final layer." However, I would like to take it a step further and bring the pictures back to add another digital dimension. The "final layer" will then be enhanced digitally to add yet another layer. In doing so, I have some concerns about the unity between the handmade edits and the digital edits. I will have to pay extra attention to the 'melting' of these different editing techniques, in order to actually 'bridge the gaps' rather than just putting one technique over the other, which would oppose the concept of the project. Artist Kate Zambrano is very subtle in her combing of photography and painting in her portraits. Even though, I would like to produce pictures a little bit less 'clean', her pictures are still a beautiful example of mixed-media photography.
On Wednesday 2/12/15 I went into the photo studio to do my 5 portraits. I brought in five different mood boards for the five different models to show Andy what I was thinking in terms of lighting. I tried to create a slightly different type of lighting for each model, whilst trying to remain cohesive. Working with the models was great, after a short briefing they all seemed more than confident in front of the camera. And with some direction, I managed to finish the shoot in the planned time.
I got to use the Pentax Medium Format, which was absolutely brilliant. The resolution was extremely high, making every detail visible. We connected the camera to a LV on screen, which made it possible to see every image after it was taken, evaluate it and make alterations for the next image. It was both a great help to me in terms of composition, lighting, etc. as it was for the models.
After thoroughly having gone through all the pictures (I took approximately 500), I decided on one portrait per model, which I will be using for my final project. I tried to pick pictures that were all slightly different in terms of composition/posing/lighting to achieve a wide range of editing options. I did decide to keep them all in a classic portraiture format. Having done so, I edited each of them as if these could be published as the final images. I will edit more or less three pictures per model more for my own and the models' portfolios.
Extremely happy with how they turned out!
To give me a fuller understanding of the relationship between Photography and Art (if one would say these are not the same things, however I beg to differ), I tried to find some useful readings to see what these boundaries maybe once were and understand how the medium now crosses these boundaries. A very useful reading was "Photography as Fine Art" (1982), Thames and Hudson Llt; London. The introduction, written by Douglas Davis, opens with an interesting passage:
"Yes, photography is widely, universally beloved, in all countries. Yes, the camera is the simplest of tools, comparable - in its ease of execution- to the pencil. Yes, the photograph is direct in its appeal as a sunset, or a young mother. But beneath this charming facade, photography is a medium that swarms with contradictions, ambiguities, and provocations, rather like Janus, the two-faced Roman god who ruled because he could look forward and backward at once."
Photography has both repelled and attracted the finest minds in arts. Many thought of it as "the death of painting" and in contemporary times, photography and paintings seem to be sectioned off in two completely different worlds. But my question is, why not combine the two? I don't believe this breaks the laws of either painting or photography, and feel that such segregated notions are dated and out-of-time. The artists I have mentioned before, like Debusschere or Wessely, have made me very aware of the possibilities of combing the two without having to give the image a specific label.
What all the participants in this controversy forgot - and continue to forget- is that in its origins, photography was linked as closely to art as industry, or science. Speaking of the "death of the painting in the 1800s" or today of the "death of the photograph" seem too one-side, too simplistic to me. Why does one always have to speak of the elimination or diminishing of one, when something new or revolutionary pops up? Photography is evolving, not dead.
Little alteration in the 5 picture selection:
Flying home on the 12/12, I found myself at Leeds Bradford Airport, delayed as per usual. Luckily, I had my laptop with me and I decided to do edit a couple more pictures. Even though, I had already edited the pictures I planned on using for the portfolio, I thought it would be nice for the models to have a couple more portraits. I thus edited one or two more pictures and found that one of the male models' was stronger than the picture I had already chosen.
I thus replaced Jack's original picture (Image 1) with this one (Image 2). The non edited picture looked like this (Image 3).
Now that the first two steps have been completed, namely the production (photoshoot) and the first part of the post-production (basic editing), time has come to start the core of this project: applying the 'other media'.
I've had all the pictures printed three times 20x30cm. However, before attacking the actual images, I decided to print the images off on paper and run some tests.
I've bought quite some different materials, including black oil paint, white oil paint, paint bleach, glass and metal pens (white/silver/black), gel pens (white/silver/black), silver crepe paper, black/white/silver cardboards, marble printed letter paper and some appliance tools.
The test images looked like this:
