JR Chronicles - Saatchi Gallery
JR is a French photographer who focuses on humanity, he intends to show different people across the world. JR originally started as graffiti artist, but when he was 17 years old he found a camera on the metro. He then began documenting his friends "adventures" and eventually he started printing out, the photos and displaying them in the city streets, creating "Expo de Rue" (Sidewalk exhibition).
We went to the Saatchi Gallery in central London, we saw his some of his exhibitions such as "Portraits of a Generation", and "Face 2 Face". One my favourite photographs from the exhibition was "Rafael Lorenzo and Obdulia Manzano, La Havana, Cuba, 2012". It reminded me of my family both those who are still alive and those that are dead.
We went to the Saatchi Gallery in central London, we saw his some of his exhibitions such as "Portraits of a Generation", and "Face 2 Face". One my favourite photographs from the exhibition was "Rafael Lorenzo and Obdulia Manzano, La Havana, Cuba, 2012". It reminded me of my family both those who are still alive and those that are dead.
Portraits of a generation
In 2005, Les Bosquets was wrought with riots over police brutality, After JR saw an old photo of him and his friends in the background of the media reports, he decided to try and challenge the media's representation of the young people involved in the riots, and attempted to show a different side of them. JR used a 28mm lense, meaning he had to be very close to the subject matter. It also meant he needed the people involved to trust him. JR asked them to pull faces so that they could play a caricature of themselves. The photos were then printed out and pasted in the more bourgeoisie areas of Paris so the wealthier people could see a different side of the people involved in the riots.
I'm not sure if this is an effective method of changing people's perceptions of the people involved in the riots. I believe it's good for drawing attention to the riots and the people involved in them but I also believe that getting the people to play a caricature of how the media represented them does not help show a different side of them. I do think that allowing the people to have some say in how they were portrayed, instead of how the media had portrayed them was a positive decision as it gave them control. For me personally it doesn't generate much interest in the people's stories, as I find it very difficult to connect with those involved riots that happened when I was a newborn, however I do think it has the potential to interest other people because it's a new way of capturing the people involved in the riots.
In 2005, Les Bosquets was wrought with riots over police brutality, After JR saw an old photo of him and his friends in the background of the media reports, he decided to try and challenge the media's representation of the young people involved in the riots, and attempted to show a different side of them. JR used a 28mm lense, meaning he had to be very close to the subject matter. It also meant he needed the people involved to trust him. JR asked them to pull faces so that they could play a caricature of themselves. The photos were then printed out and pasted in the more bourgeoisie areas of Paris so the wealthier people could see a different side of the people involved in the riots.
I'm not sure if this is an effective method of changing people's perceptions of the people involved in the riots. I believe it's good for drawing attention to the riots and the people involved in them but I also believe that getting the people to play a caricature of how the media represented them does not help show a different side of them. I do think that allowing the people to have some say in how they were portrayed, instead of how the media had portrayed them was a positive decision as it gave them control. For me personally it doesn't generate much interest in the people's stories, as I find it very difficult to connect with those involved riots that happened when I was a newborn, however I do think it has the potential to interest other people because it's a new way of capturing the people involved in the riots.
We were told to try and imitate JR style, we took photos in a similar close up style. We then printed the photos out after editing them and stuck them up around, both inside and outside. I took the photos in such a way to show a variety of perspectives and by extension to show the different ways people could view my model. The model chose this photograph as she thought it represented JR's intentions well and she preferred her appearance in the chosen photograph, above the others.
WWW: I managed to capture a different side to the subject's personality.
EBI: I should of shown more of the surroundings, to show where I pinned up the photograph.
EBI: I should of shown more of the surroundings, to show where I pinned up the photograph.
Image Transfer
WWW: I think I managed to suitably replicate the appearance of a distressed wall and aged poster.
EBI: I should of tried to make the picture clearer.
EBI: I should of tried to make the picture clearer.
Gordon Magnin
Gordon Magnin normally uses fashion photos, he then manipulates the photos creating a geometric pattern. He wants us to consider the way we view the world. Magnin suffers from depth perception issues, which means he sees the world in a different way from most people. To do this he creates an altered version of the original photograph, with the model still clearly recognisable.
Half term homework
My task was to try and take a photo in a style of an old painting. I chose to mimic the painting 'Lady Digby, on her Deathbed' by Antony van Dyck.
Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley is American painter, who tried to create paintings in style of old classic paintings. His intentions was to allow the audience to see the contrast between the original painting and his work. He uses this contrast to explore ideas of race, masculinity, representation, power, and agency. Wiley wants to show personal stories and prompt thoughts about stereotypes and questions.
WWW: I was able to successfully mimic the style of old classical paintings.
EBI: I believe my editing was too crude and lacked detail.
EBI: I believe my editing was too crude and lacked detail.
Building Fragments
Patrick Cornillet
Patrick Cornillet is a painter who painted parts of buildings separated from their background to make as more aware of the material of the building is constructed from, it creates quite an eerie effect. He did this to make us more aware of specific architectural elements in buildings.
Editing process
Best edits
WWW: The photos were taken in the style of Cornillet's composition
EBI: I feel my editing should more detailed.
EBI: I feel my editing should more detailed.
Mauren Brodbeck
Mauren Brodbeck is a photographer who looked for unnoticeable buildings and edited the buildings in a bright splash of colour so as to draw attention to them. Brodbeck did this to draw our attention to buildings that we might of previously ignored, because they were too old, too ugly or we had simply seen these buildings too many times before. By highlighting these buildings in a bright colour, these previously unnoticeable building became the centre of our attention.
Editing process
Best edits
WWW: I thought the editing went well.
EBI: I feel that my edits were insufficiently detailed
EBI: I feel that my edits were insufficiently detailed
Thomas Kellner
Thomas Kellner takes photos of buildings in different sections, he then puts the photos together reconstructing the architecture. This changes the way we view the building as we a forced to break up our view of the building rather then look at it as one whole building. To create this effect Kellner uses old film photography, using one roll of film he'll take photos of buildings in different sections only reassemble them on a contact sheet.
Editing process
Best edit
WWW: I successfully mimicked Thomas Kelloner's style.
EBI: I should ensure all the photos were taken at the same angle.
EBI: I should ensure all the photos were taken at the same angle.
Anastasia Savinova
Best Edits
WWW: I think that usage of red brick around the edit made it appear more unified.
EBI: I think that the differing quality of the photographs, makes the final appearance of the best edit less appealing.
EBI: I think that the differing quality of the photographs, makes the final appearance of the best edit less appealing.
3 Strands
Strand 1: Bene Rohlmann
Rohlmann is a German artist born in 1985, his work tends to be surrealist with a combination of different themes such as nature related themes, classic Disney movies, Mexican death cults and traditional art from native tribes. Rohlmann when asked what had inspired him said “A lot of my inspiration comes from the cartoons I used to watch and the comics I used to read as a kid, but also the toys I played with during my childhood... where I would totally dive into these cartoon worlds or the ones that I created on my own". Rohlmann's work can sometimes be reminiscent of an 'Alice in Wonderland' style world where laws of reality are bent and twisted.
Rohlmann is a German artist born in 1985, his work tends to be surrealist with a combination of different themes such as nature related themes, classic Disney movies, Mexican death cults and traditional art from native tribes. Rohlmann when asked what had inspired him said “A lot of my inspiration comes from the cartoons I used to watch and the comics I used to read as a kid, but also the toys I played with during my childhood... where I would totally dive into these cartoon worlds or the ones that I created on my own". Rohlmann's work can sometimes be reminiscent of an 'Alice in Wonderland' style world where laws of reality are bent and twisted.
My Response
I decided to use photoshop to add in different pieces from different photographs to create a surreal scene. I decided to focus on the conflict between animals and humans, to form the idea that humans and nature would never be properly at peace.
Editing process
Best edits
WWW: I believe I managed to create a distorted and twisted world similar to Rohlmann's work, I also believe I managed to successfully produce the impression of conflict between nature and humanity.
EBI: I would of like to form a more layered effect more similar to Rohlmann's photographs.
EBI: I would of like to form a more layered effect more similar to Rohlmann's photographs.
Strand 2: Bill Viola
Bill Viola is a artist and photographer focused on certain themes such as death, love, emotion and birth, Viola has drawn inspiration from various religions and time periods such as Zen Buddhism, the Renaissance, Islamic Sufism, the medieval time period and Christian mysticism. Viola also appears interested in the concept of duality a lot of his works possess contrasts such as dark and light, life and death. His work is often very eye catching with bright lights and a sharp contrast between dark and light.
My Response
I could not properly replicate the water photographs of Viola, so I opted to focus on the fire photographs. As I experimented with my candle it occurred to me that there was no reason I had to be limited just to fire and I could experiment with other sharp bright lights like a plasma ball, as long as | could still create the contrast between a silhouetted human like figure and a bright light. I also tried to make each edit to posses a magical and fantastical air.
Editing process
Best Edits
WWW: I managed to create a sharp striking silhouette against a fiery backdrop similar to Viola's work.
EBI: I feel like I should of tried to create a photograph with water motif like Viola's photographs.
EBI: I feel like I should of tried to create a photograph with water motif like Viola's photographs.
Strand 3: Bing Wright
Bing Wright was a photographer who was always interested in the links between mirrors in photographs. Wright was born in Seattle in 1958 and his work was greatly impacted by John Szarkowski’s exhibition Mirror and Windows in 1978. John Szarkowski’s exhibition is said to have impacted the way people saw the framework of photography. Wright himself focused on the depth field, scale, and surface. This allowed Wright to focus the viewer's attention on the smaller, less noticeable details of the scene. Wright wanted to expand the way viewers experienced the medium of photography.
My Response
Originally as I lacked a mirror I tried to mimic the effect of Wright's photographs through water reflections on the surface of a pond/stream. However these photographs lacked the bright pop of Wright's work. I then acquired a broken mirror and began experimenting with artificial light, as I could not afford to be dependent on the possibility of a sunset. I then photographed the fractured reflection of a plasma ball to produce the bright colours closer to Wright's original work. When I was able to capture a sunset, I tried blurring the photograph like in Wright's work but came to the conclusion it would be better if it was sharply in focus.
Editing process
Best edits
WWW: I managed to capture a sunset and a plasma ball in the mirror to ape Wright's style of bright colour.
EBI: My photos do not have such a wide range of colours as Wright's do.
EBI: My photos do not have such a wide range of colours as Wright's do.
Development 1
I am planning on creating a combination of all three strands, to create the impression of a fragmented and twisted world. I took the element of fire from Viola's work, I used the broken mirror fractures from Wright's work and I combined both elements through Rohlmann style of creating a surreal world of different objects which would never interact in such away in real life. So I began to take more photos of fractured mirrors, candles and small objects to create a Rohlmann effect. I then created a combination of each element from each artist.
Editing process
WWW: I believe I managed to create a sharp fragmented image with Rohlmann like style.
EBI: I would of liked to incorporate more of Viola style with sharp contrasting silhouettes.
EBI: I would of liked to incorporate more of Viola style with sharp contrasting silhouettes.
The 2nd development
This development was completely different from my last, I thought that idea of combining all 3 strands was nice it didn't create quite the effect I was hoping for. So I decided to create the idea of fragments, through the idea of miniature worlds. I used moss and stones to make it seem like a small world, this required a wider aperture so the background would be blurred and out of focus. I experimented with mainly two different types of background. A hard stony type of background to make the world appear as barren lifeless landscape, and a mossy and grassy type background to give the impression of a fresh green woody landscape.
Best edits
WWW: I managed to create a image of a miniature world.
EBI: I would of like to create a more fragmented impression.
EBI: I would of like to create a more fragmented impression.
3rd development
In this development I opted to keep the idea of miniature worlds, but focusing more on light and shadow. I decided to take photos with sunlight patches in it. I also decided to play up the fragmented image of these minuscule worlds by using photoshop to increase the contrast between the parts of the photo in the sunshine and the bits in shadow.
Best edits
WWW: I managed to give the impression of a miniscule place with a almost macro style of photography.
EBI: I would've of liked to make the real world more separate from the miniature world.
EBI: I would've of liked to make the real world more separate from the miniature world.
4th development
In this final development I decided to focus the miniature world, but this time focus it within something and create a sharp contrast between this miniature worlds. To achieve this I placed moss and a flower into a small porcelain bowl to create the impression of a tiny world separated quite sharply and distinctly from the concrete surrounding it.
Fantasy edits
These photos were made to posses an unreal fantastical appearance.
These photos were made to posses an unreal fantastical appearance.
Editing process
Final Piece
These photos kept the realistic look of the originals, unlike the fantasy edits. But in this first part of my final pieces I wanted to create a groomed, organised images. Whilst still a natural miniature world look, I wanted more to resemble a garden then a jungle appearance I also created later on.
This is the second part of my final development, here instead of arranging plants around to suit the photograph, I opted to keep the the more natural appearance, of a tiny miniscule world. It was more jungle-like.
WWW: I believe I managed to capture the essence of miniscule world, clearly separated from the real world. Additionally in the second part of my final pieces I managed to create the wild jungle image I wanted.
EBI: I would of liked to more clearly show the separation of the miniature world and the real world, by use of lighting or photoshop perhaps.
EBI: I would of liked to more clearly show the separation of the miniature world and the real world, by use of lighting or photoshop perhaps.