Laszol Maholy-Nagy was a significant painter, graphic artist, teacher and photographer at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau. The photogram you can see to the side demonstrates an interesting overlapping and layering of objects, creating a really successful use of tones. The piece was created in 1926 and is a gelatin silver print. Creating pieces using light-sensitive paper, allows there to be a depiction of different shapes and tones of the objects. Through Manholy-Nagy's use of photograms, he was able to explore "the optical and expressive properties of light." I feel that the organic lines of the hand really juxtapose the artificial objects that overlap the hand.
(quote from https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/265197) |
Man Ray was a remarkable American visual artist who spent most of his life in Paris. The photogram that Ray has created has had to be exposed several times so that he could create this layered effect and use several different subjects. I really like how the use of the slightly blurred hands, creates this sense of movement compared to the stillness of the first piece by Moholy-Nagy. The composition of the two faces creates this sense of intimacy and closeness between the two. I also feel that, due to the lack of detail in the faces and people ( due to the close composition and method ), there is no evidence of what the two people's genders are so I feel that this could demonstrate ( from a modern perspective ) the freedom of love and the way it doesn't need to be explicitly clear to everyone who you love it only matters that you love the person.
(some infomation about the piece from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/46405) |
Christian Schad is a well-known German painter and photographer. In this piece, Schad used light-sensitive paper and covered it with different objects such as random pieces of paper and just left it to develop in the window. I think that the use of this method is really interesting as it takes random objects that have been discard and have been seen as to no longer have use and combined it with other random things to give them all a new meaning and purpose. Through Schad's use of removing the background, leaving an irregular shape and placing in it in the centre of this larger white board, creates this effect of unusualness and isolation ( emphasised by all the negative space).
(Some information from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/50006) |
Floris Neusüss is a German photographer who dedicated the majority of his career to mastering and teaching the process of photograms. What drew me to this photographer is the way he has been able to create colour in his photograms ( as they are usually seen as being in black and white tones ). The artists most iconic work was his nudograms which were made by exposing the human body straight onto photographic paper and as you can see in the image to the side, this allowed for interesting and natural curves and lines to be created. Also the use of movement creates this really interesting effects of something both human and something very abstract/ hybrid creature. Information from http://www.vonlintel.com/Floris-Neususs.html |
I first wanted to test that the aperture and the time I exposed the light sensitive paper to see if it would come out successful so I created these two tester pieces. Testing, also helped me to test how I wanted to lay out my transparent objects as well as how I wanted to overlay items that would create interesting textures, tones and shapes.
I found that using an aperture of 5.6 was the most successful and out of the different times I found that 3 secs work best in this situation with 5.6. |
I first took photographs of branches and man made lines and picked my two best images. I then opened photoshop and changed the image to black and white and then inverted them to create a negative photographs. After I had created the negative versions of the photographs I printed them out and then photocopied it onto acetate. This will allow me when making a cyanotype to create an image that have all the details and aspects of the original photographs. |
To create my lumen print I first had to get a range of flowers and leaves that would be able to make and interesting marks. I then used some light sensitive paper and arranged the flowers and leaves quickly on the paper as it was exposed to the light as soon as I had arranged the flowers and leaves I put it in a frame so that the flowers wouldn't move. I then left the frame in the window for a week to allow it to full be exposed and create the best outcome.
I'm really happy with how my lumen print came out, especially the way the pink flowers created really beautiful textures and tones where the different layers of petals have overlayed on each other. The smaller flowers didn't really come out very well so next time i would layer more of the smaller flowers on top of each other to create a more vibrant and textured print. |
To make my pin hole camera I first got a container that wouldn't allow any light into which also had a tight lid. I ended up using a coffee tin. I then cut a small square into the side of the tin and and then sanded down the edges to ensure it wasn't sharp, after sanding I painted the inside of the tin with black acrylic paint. I then got a piece of aluminium from a can and put a small pin hole into it ,making sure that only the tip of the pin goes through. I then stuck the aluminium over the hole with black tape , making sure there is no way for light to escape into the tin. After , I used black tape to make a shutter to make sure I only let light in through the hole when I wanted to. The in order to create my images I put light sensitive paper in my pin hole camera in the dark room and took the camera outside where I opened the shutter for 7 seconds and then shut the shutter and brought my camera back into the darkroom to develop.
I found that on my first attempt the outcomes didn't come out very successfully and I found that the paper wasn't positioned right and therefore didn't capture or only captured a part of the landscape as well as exposing it for too long. So I ended up changing the exposer time to 6 seconds and cutting the paper to the size of the camera. By changing these settings it allowed me to create more successful outcomes. |
"Pinhole photography, the art of lens-less photography is an intuitive process which can consistently produce surprising results. This most unique and wonderful gift is the reason this medium holds such power over me. These images, produced by cameras made from the simplest of materials, hold qualities and characteristics unique only to pinhole imagery. As I un-wrap my cameras in the dark room, a childlike wonder emerges in me. Through the Pinhole I can view the world not as I see it, but as I hope to see it; a curious, imaginative, and somewhat strange world." Sharon Harris - https://sharonharrisphotography.com/artist-statement
Sharon Harris is a photographer who focuses on pinhole cameras and creates surreal photographs using the method of pinhole cameras. She mainly focuses on female figures in her photos surrounded by surrealist backgrounds. I feel that the use of a pinhole camera she is able to create this surrealist effect really successfully, especially with the way the images are warped. I also like how she embraces the unknown and unpredictability of the pinhole camera. |