Photos of the Week (No. 2) - Hands/Feet/Body Parts

Small drops of energy,

A tiny lifeline for

a living thing

So fragile

That one mistake in its 

care could make it 

c

 r

  u

    m

     b

      l

       e

Surrealism and Maggie Taylor

Surrealism began as a literary movement that spread to art. The visuals take subjects and juxtapose them in uncommon landscapes. In addition to that, the subjects are twisted and exaggerated into something they aren’t to make a point or evoke an emotion. With the rise of photoshop, many artists have been able to manipulate photos and create digital paintings in the surreal style. Surreal paintings tend to look a bit hallucinatory and dreamlike.
Maggie Taylor is an American artist who, after earning an MFA in photography from the University of Florida, was primarily a still-life photographer until 1996. The creative director of Adobe, Russell Brown, had approached her husband, Jerry Uelsmann about using the newly created image program, Photoshop. Uelsmann had turned down the offer since he loved doing his manipulations in the darkroom. Maggie, on the other hand, was intrigued. In an interview with the New York Times, she said: “ At first I wasn’t overly serious about it. . . I thought this would just be a fun thing but not for my artwork at all”. She scans 3D items as well as old photos to create her pieces. Many of her pieces contain more than 100 layers.

Down Down Down.

   I find her color choices interesting. How the slightly different values of blue and grey work with each other and draw your eye to each section of the piece is strong. The colors affect the mood of the piece too. The blues in the foreground and the purple/blueish books in the background compliment each other and create a dreamlike and whimsical feeling. The negative space is also used very well. I like how she spread out the subjects helped to create the feeling of suspension and falling within the painting.

Wonderful.

   I love the simplicity of this piece. The clothes line with paper instead of clothes really makes the piece surreal. The similar colors, other than the crown, help to make the crown pop. I love the ground because it looks like grass, water, and a field were layer on top of one another, but to the point were it's so difficult to tell for certain. the trees in the background help with not only the negative space, but with the context. They [the trees] make the subject look as though it's in an uninhabited place.


Sources

Estrin, James. "In Her Garden of Digital Delights." Lens In Her Garden of Digital Delights Comments. The New York Times Company, 13 Dec. 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

"Guggenheim." Collection Online. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (SRGF), n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

"Spotlight." Photoshop.com. Adobe Systems Incorporated, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.

Taylor, Maggie. "Maggie Taylor: Biography." :: Maggie Taylor ::. Maggie Taylor, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

Voorhies, James. "Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." Surrealism. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

Abstract Photography || Black & White Film

I was able to take the subjects out of context and create abstract images by tilting different mirrors into each other and by creating structures out of the mirrors. I used pieces of glass to both hold the mirrors in their place and to distort the images even more. The glass also offered an opportunity to capture more shades of lights and darks from the reflection of the sun. Glass also bent the rays a bit which balanced the hard lines of the mirror reflections. The perspectives I shot the photos from add to the abstractism of scene. It forces the viewer to really look hard to figure out exactly what he/she is looking at. 

From my first film assignment to this, I feel like my compositional skills grew. Now I feel like I pay more attention to not only the subject’s placement, but how the light plays into it. I feel like I subconsciously look for a motley of values. In the dark room, I felt less confused and I think that my focussing skills grew. I used a different camera than I was used to and I believe that alone required that my technical work grew. I think it did and now I would be able to use a few different cameras if I needed to.

Through this assignment and the film assignment before, I learned more about manual settings on both SLRs and DSLRs. I think the different cameras I used in both the assignments was a great introduction to the world of film. Before this class, I had never used a film SLR and had no clue what the importance of shutter speed and aperture was on a photo. I feel very comfortable in the dark room and almost completely comfortable with manual settings. Compositionally, on both assignments, I learned how to shoot in black and white in an appropriate way. Paying attention to light and shades and not colors and shadows was a challenge that I feel I conquered in a good way.

Hands || Black & White Film

My compositional skills are pretty good, specifically with how the wire is wrapped around the hand and how the hands stand out at the fair. I feel like my attention to light is growing stronger as we work more with manual settings, I feel like the second photo has the strongest light. If the first one had been more in focus, the photo would have been awesome in terms of both lighting and composition.

I need to pay attention to how focused my photos are. The second is fine, but the first one needed to be more in focus. I may have hit the lens slightly before capturing the scene. I need to turn my energy more towards taking the time and being completely sure that it’s perfect. I think I also need to be careful with my film so it doesn’t have any dust or scratches on it. I think in the second photo, there’s a small scratch on the bottom of it, though it may be the plastic sleeve.

Photos of the Week - Free Choice

This week, I wanted to explore the relationship between fabric and light. How different patterns play with it and the texture of the fabric itself. At first, I was focused totally on silhouette and texture, this evolved into capturing the model and the light source with it. I put my focus into more context and feel like I improved the photo because of it. I would love to reshoot this idea because I wasn't able to use natural light and it's too cold to capture the fabric I would like to.