Mystery & Imagination -
The Brief
For this project we have been given the theme "Mystery and Imagination". We can interpret this theme however we want as long as it can link back to the initial theme.
My Ideas
I have come across a number of ideas that I thought would be good staring points for this project. Because the theme is so broad, it was difficult to come up with anything but I thought it would be good if my first ideas were completely different from each other giving me a wider range of ideas to choose from.
Shadows
At first I just thought of the patterned shadows different objects can create that make it interesting to look at however I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this kind of landscape photography because I wasn't sure if there was much more I could do with it. i then went on to find some other images with the patterned shadow on the a models skin which i was quite interested in.
I also really liked the idea of shadows just suggesting the presence of someone or someone else whether its playfully or slightly more unsettling. I would like to try out the idea of editing someone out but leaving their shadow or making the models shadow completely different to what they are doing in the photograph. I think this gives an air of mystery and even suspense to many of these photos.
Horror & Suspense
I wanted to maybe try out taking some photography that would give a chilling feeling. This could easily tie in with my first idea of shadows as some of the images above can be seen as quite unsettling. However if I go down this route then I'd like the photos to suggest more of a ghostly presense, bring to question whether the viewer could ever believe in that sort of thing.
Stop Frame
I'm really interested in maybe making a sort of film out of a series of photographs. I can either do this by manually taking the photos. This would be good if I wanted tell more of a story to the viewer. If I went with this idea I could shows stories of pure fantasy and maybe even dreamlike. On the other hand I could use a intervalometer, which would be better the take a series of photographs of a landscape over a longer period of time. If I went with this idea I would be aboule to see the changes in the environment. For example shadows moving and the patternes the clouds make as they move.
The Whitechapel Gallery - John Stazaker
We recently took a trip to the Whitechapel Gallery in London to see an exibition that is currently showcasing the work of the artist John Stezaker.
Stezaker is a British photogapher born 1949. Instead of creating new images from scratch, his technique is to use fragments of existing materials such as classic movie stills, postcards and book illustrations.
He is often refered to as the king of cut and paste as his work generally consisted of constructing images by adjusting, inverting, slicing and cuting seperate images together to create new works of art. he removes the image from its original context and gives it a whole new meaning and presants. by doing this Stezaker is emphaising his fascination with the visual.
"I am dedicated to fascination - to image fascination, a fascination for the point at which the image becomes self enclosed and autonomous. it does this through a series of processes and disjucntion."
Stezaker is a British photogapher born 1949. Instead of creating new images from scratch, his technique is to use fragments of existing materials such as classic movie stills, postcards and book illustrations.
He is often refered to as the king of cut and paste as his work generally consisted of constructing images by adjusting, inverting, slicing and cuting seperate images together to create new works of art. he removes the image from its original context and gives it a whole new meaning and presants. by doing this Stezaker is emphaising his fascination with the visual.
"I am dedicated to fascination - to image fascination, a fascination for the point at which the image becomes self enclosed and autonomous. it does this through a series of processes and disjucntion."
Film Noir
Fantasy
I had the idea that I could try and capture slightly more playful things with the themes faries of fairytales. The idea of fantasies falls nicely under the category of mystery and imagination and i thought the use of bright colours and extravagant dress could portray that well. Some of these pictures would take a lot of process work with photoshop to be able to create that magical feel.
Carl Warner - Foodscapes
I came across this photographer in a book i was reading and although his work doesn't have much to do with my project, I thought it was really eye-catching interesting as he landscapes he photographs have been constructed by him and are made entirely of food. I think this idea is really creative and playful and if i decide to focus my project on landscape then i would want to make try and maybe make it more playful rather than traditional.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard - Masks
One of Meatyards most famous set of photographs were t
Uta Barth - Blur
I found Uta Barth's photography really interesting and thought that this blur effect really does bring out a sort of mystery in her photos. I found that Barth's photography isn't about what is seen in the photograph; it is instead about the act of seeing itself. She does this by getting rid of the subject and getting the viewer to focus on what they would usually regard as the background of a photo and therefore the lest important aspect of the photograph. This gives it an anonymous and unfamiliar feel.
