Evaluation
For unit one I researched many different artists such as, Sally Mann, David Shrigley, Erwin Wurm and many more. With each photographer I looked at the different techniques and style used in their work, and used it to apply to my work. Overall, unit one was satisfying, as I was able to produce a final piece for each theme.
I investigated different themes such as; street photography, light painting, contrast, absurd and abstraction. My starting point for street photography was mobile photography, as I started off researching and looking at Misho Baranovic. I looked at Baranovic's work and thought about how I could take similar photographs using a phone as my only equipment. Also, the different apps within a phone. I only did one experiment on Baranovic's work, where I used an iPod which is similar to a phone, and to improve my images I used an app which allowed me to have an collage effect. After that experiment, I went into looking at street photography and at how I could apply my mobile photography knowledge onto street photography. In my opinion, street photography was one of my most successful projects, as I was able to go out and explore more when it came to taking images. As the whole concept was to explore as much as possible with the images, it was a really fun experience.
For contrast project, I started by making a Pinterest board that focused on contrast photography. This was really useful for me, as I was able to scroll through different photographers or images that were all to do with contrast. I started off looking at Sally Mann and Edward Weston. I did a response to both artists, however I wasn't so satisfied with the experiments. I figured that I did not have enough interest in the artists, so I later researched artists such as Elliot Erwitt, Francesca Woodman and Tom Hunter. I did a response specifically to Tom Hunter's work, which I later developed using ideas from Elliot Erwitt's work such as the black and white effect in his work. Despite, researching and looking at all these different artists I still wasn't so sure with my work, hence I went back to Pinterest to help refresh my mind. From there I found two very useful artists: Serge Najjar and Michael Penn. Looking at their work, I was really influenced to go out to explore the effect of lighting. With the experiments, I used my phone specifically because it already had the black and white effect that I needed. Both artists were also my main influences with my final piece.
Matthais Heidrich and his work, my previous experiments weren't so satisfying as I had taken a set of images at the beginning with not enough artist knowledge. However, after researching Heidrich and his work I felt more comfortable with experimenting, as I was aware of what kind of images I had to take. Continuing with Heidrich's work I had to really make sure that I was focusing on the formal element such as light.
Matthais Heidrich and his work, my previous experiments weren't so satisfying as I had taken a set of images at the beginning with not enough artist knowledge. However, after researching Heidrich and his work I felt more comfortable with experimenting, as I was aware of what kind of images I had to take. Continuing with Heidrich's work I had to really make sure that I was focusing on the formal element such as light.
For my final project, absurd. Which in my opinion was the least successful compared to the other projects that I had done. This is because I struggled to understand the theme at the beginning, which made me slightly confused through out the project. It took me a lot more time to understand the theme in a way that I was confident with. Which is why I ended up researching more artists than I really needed to, and felt as if I was jumping onto different techniques as each artist that I had researched was individual and unique.
My two personal most successful projects were street photography and contrast. With street photography, I was able to go out and explore meaning I was exploited to bigger areas where I had more space to take pictures. Although, the pictures were taken by an iPod, overall the images came out satisfying. What worked so well, was that I used an app called hipstomatic, which allowed me mess around with the effects and by focusing on the composition and angle of the image, I was able to take really good images. I didn't do much developing such as going on to photoshop and developing the experimentation images as I felt they were already up to a point where further developments wasn't so necessary. With contrast, what went well the most was that although I struggled at the begining of the project with what artists to look at and finding inspirations within the artists, because I continued experimenting and looking at Pinterest for help I was able to produce a set of final piece, which in my opinion are the best ones. This is because, I was open to a wide range of resources such as cameras, phones and online work. I took good advantage as I experimented with a DSLR camera and my phone, and to develop the experiments so that they are at an even better standard, I used photoshop. I used photoshop, to redefine things such as the contrast and lighting of the image, as light was one of the most important elements in my images.