Abstraction
Introduction
This project is about abstraction. Abstraction is how the camera can draw attention to the formal elements which are lines, shape, tone and colour, in an image in order to create images in which the subject isn't the most interesting element. Some people would argue that all works of art are abstractions because they are representations of life rather than real life. |
Project Proposal
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The fromal elements
Focus: Where in the image appear the sharpest or clearest?
Light: Where in the image has the most light? Are there any shadows?
Line: Are there any objects in the image that acts as lines? Are they thick, thin, curvy? Do the lines create a direction in the image?
Repetition: Are there any shapes, objects or lines that repeat and create a pattern?
Space: Is there depth to the image or does it seem shallow? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces?
Texture: If you could touch the surface of the image how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they will feel?
Value/Tone: Is there a range of tones from light to dark? Where is the darkest to lightest value?
Light: Where in the image has the most light? Are there any shadows?
Line: Are there any objects in the image that acts as lines? Are they thick, thin, curvy? Do the lines create a direction in the image?
Repetition: Are there any shapes, objects or lines that repeat and create a pattern?
Space: Is there depth to the image or does it seem shallow? Are there important negative (empty) spaces in addition to positive (solid) spaces?
Texture: If you could touch the surface of the image how would it feel? How do the objects in the picture look like they will feel?
Value/Tone: Is there a range of tones from light to dark? Where is the darkest to lightest value?
Marc Yankus
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Born in New York in 1957 Marc Yankus has spent a life time creating art. Originally a collage artist he studied painting at the School of Visual Arts and then he found a passion for photography. As a photographer now, he explores abstract cityscapes and portraits. His has been creating art and publishing for over 30 years. His work has been included in exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum, The George Eastman House and the South Street Seaport Museum. His artwork has also been featured on the cover of books by Salman Rushdie, Phillip Roth, Alan Hollinghurst and many more. His images have also been used fro theatrical posters for such as poster for Broadway shows as Jane Eyre and many more .
My work reveals, before all else, a particular appreciation of urban history and, more specifically, a recognition that the passing of time is relative, and mutable, in big cities. |
Focus: This whole image is out of focus
Light: The lightest part of this image is the top half of the image. The darkest part of this image is the right and left sides of the image Line: In the image the only line in this image would be on the left hand side where the lamp post is. This line stand out the most in this image as it is thick, straight and darkly coloured. Repetition: In this image the lights and trees are repeated Space: In this image there is a lot of space in the foreground however in the background the space is filled up with trees and cars, making it look busy Texture: In this image Value/Tone: |
Flickr: marc yankus themed images
Bill jacobson
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Bill Jacobson is widely known for his out of focus photographs of both the figure and the landscape. His work is in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and many others. |
Homework 2/12/14
In this set of images I used the fairy lights that were around my room. I chose to use these lights as I found them really interesting and I thought that they would be great as abstract images, especially is the lights were put of focus, like I have done in my set if images. Overall I think that this set of images are good. All of these images are based on the light being blurred out. Most of these images have been taken in a dark room, therefore meaning the fairy lights standing out more. Too blur out the images, when I took them I made sure to take them out of focus so the whole image would be blurred. These images were inspired by Marc Yankus
My theme: focus
My theme for my images is going to be 'focus', as I think I can be very creative with this theme. All of the images that I have taken have either been in focus or completely out of focus. In the first image the lights are out of focus and the background is slightly in focus. However in the other two images the whole image is out of focus.
Experiments in school
These are the images that I took in school around my abstraction theme, Focus. All of these images are either in or out of focus. I think my best image would be the 2nd image. I think that this image would be my best image as one part of the image is slightly in focus and the other part of the image is not in focus. Even though both parts if the image is blurry, one part is slightly more blurrier than the other part of the image. I prefer this image, than the 1st image, which is the same place and same idea but the background is the part of the image that is in focus and the wall is out of focus. I prefer this image because the wall is slightly in focus and you can clearly see the texture on the wall, which makes this image more interesting as stands out the most in the image, as the rest of the image looks smooth, therefore there is a contrast in the image. To improve and develop these images I could add more formal elements in to them. For example I could add lines or shadows into them, so it creates an more interesting image. Another way to improve and develop these images is to add an affect , black and white, to a separate set of images.
Evaluation
When taking these images I was focusing on focus and edges as I thought that these formal element go well together. I feel that I have successfully created 16 images that are focused on focus and edges. These images were taken of everyday objects taken from different angles and some in and out of focus. All of these images I have carefully thought and planned out before taking them, therefore making them carefully composed. While uploading these images I didn't edit or crop them as I thought that the images looked good/well without editing. I thought that the images would be better in colour because, I think that colour adds more emotion into the image as you can clearly see the colour contrasts and the tone, I also thought that colour would bring out more detail within the image. In my images I wither focused on the object in the foreground making the foreground become in focus and the background become out of focus or I focused on the objects in the background making the background in focus and the foreground out of focus. I think that my images are quite simple because they are taken of everyday objects at from straight forward or taken form a lower angle and are focused on a certain area making that area stand out. Another formal element in my images is edges as I thought that if I focused on edges it would make it sharper and bolder. Overall I feel that I have successfully taken 16 images with both formal elements , focus and edges. To improve my next set of images I could edit all my images and change them to black and white to see if it is better or if colour is better. I could also add effects to the image or take the images with effects to change the style so the images don't all look that same and so they look different and unique.
Evaluation
This set of images were taken outside of school, some were taken at home and some were taken on car journey. All these images were taken with my Canon EOS 100D SLR camera. I find that taking images focused on focus with a DSLR is very easy as you can pit it on manual focus , meaning that you can easily un-focus and focus on anything, creating an image focused on focus. All of these images were uploaded plain meaning I didn't edit them, as I feel that these images looked good/well without editing. I have decided to keep these images in colour as I think that it gives out more emotion and that it brings out the objects in the image. I think that I have successfully taken 36 images that followed my theme of focus and light. I chose to focus on focus and light because I feel that the combination of the two formal elements go well together. One way to improve my images is to edit them, for example I could Photoshop them and turn my images in to black and white, to compare them with the coloured images and see which one is better.
Francesca woodman
Francesca Woodman was an American photographer best known for her black and white images featuring herself and female models.The image to the right is one of my favorite images from Francesca Woodman's series 'Zig Zag'. In this image, you can clearly see the contrast in colors, the floor and parts of the wall is darkly colored and the woman legs are white, creating a contrast in colors. On the floor where the woman legs are you can see the indents, which match the position of the woman, creating a mirrored effect. It also creates the effect of shadowing as it looks like the legs shadows even though you can clearly see there are indents on the floor. I think that this image is better in black and white as then you can clearly see the contrast in the colors. The legs in this image are slightly out of focus causing the foreground and the walls behind her becoming very focused, which make them stand out more catching the viewers attention. The blurriness of the woman legs also stands out against the focused back and foreground as it is the only blurry object in the image.
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Planning and Development
Here I have grouped images that look similar to each other and could be used in final pieces or as individual series. I am happy with the groups they are in because I think they compliment each other well. These images are grouped based on the colours in them, the objects and the themes.
What I plan to do next
What I plan to do next is to do more artist research which I find interesting and have images similar to my own work. By looking at other artists images I can gain more knowledge and create even better images. This means that I can experience with other formal elements as well as focus and edges, so that I can see which one works better and can allow me to create a final piece. As my images so far have been taken with a digital SLR camera, I would want to continue to use a digital SLR because I am very familiar with it. One way to change my images is to maybe edit it to change it into black or white. Another way to change my images is to edit my images on photoshop, for example I could lighten or darken my images.
Mark Raymond Mason
Mark Raymond Mason grew up close to nature, in the quiet interior of British Columbia, Canada.Naturally curious and creative, he was also immersed in the arts, but it was in high school that an open-minded art teacher gave him free reign with a real camera for the first time. He spends much of his free time making photographs, studying art, and showing his photography to others. Sometimes, when I see through my magic tunnel of brass and glass, I can feel myself becoming inverted and distorted, like the photographs that pass through my camera. My image resembles myself, but magnified, saturated, and provocatively rendered. Being in this state, this kind of enhanced awareness, is a starting point for my work. |
Rural
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All these images have been taken with and edited with the I Phone app Fragments. I wanted to edit these images as that is what I planned to do and because all my images were looking the same so editing them would make them different and unique. What went well in this set of images is that all these images have a focus point and are close ups of things.
1st final piece
For my first final piece I think that by displaying them simply on a foam board would do as, these images are so abstract by placing them on a foam board would contrast with the image, making the image really stand out. By placing these four images together, I feel that they would fit well with each other as they are of similar subject.
2nd final piece
For this second final piece I have also decided to simply display them by putting them on to a foam board to contrast with the abstract mirage.
Final Evaluation
During this project about Abstraction I have developed my research, experimental and development skills. As this project about abstraction is very open, there were many different artists I could of have chosen to do research on and to develop my images on. Nevertheless, I have remained focused on this project and have produced 3 final pieces that I am proud of.
To start off this project I began to write my project proposal, which is what I plan to do in this project, so I can always have a reminder of what I want to do. After writing my project proposal I went on to the Tallis Pinterest site to look at the images under the theme of Abstract, within this theme there were many interesting and different artists and images. After thoroughly looking through the Tallis Pinterest I researched 2 artists in detail and carefully analysed their images to find out what formal elements they were focusing on, that looked well together and to see what inspirations I have received from that artist and their work. Firstly I researched an artist called Marc Yankus. What I liked about his images is that, the whole image is out of focus creating a sense of mystery as the viewer doesn’t know what’s in the image as it is all out of focus. I was very interested in his work because I have never taken a whole image out of focus; usually I would take images with one part or object out of focus, so this challenged me to try something different. The second artist that I did detailed research on was Bill Jacobson. Bill Jacobson is another artist who is famous for his images on landscapes and figures that are out of focus. I chose to look at another artist that focused his images on out of focus because I wanted to see what the artists did different and what they did the same, so I could see what I was inspired by the most.
After the artist research, I then went on to take some images with a digital camera, I chose to take these images with a digital camera because I could un-focus and focus at any time I wanted to. In this set of images I have incorporated some elements of both researched artists. The whole image being unfocused from Bill Jacobson and the lights from Marc Yankus. I feel that these two elements go well together in one image. After my first set of images, I took another set of images which was within school, in that set of images I was focusing on edges and focus. I feel that these two elements go well together because you can focus on an edge to make that edge look sharper as well as un focus on an edge to make it look softer and less sharp. After taking that set of images I had come to a conclusion that I wanted to have focus and edges as my theme for the rest of my images. With my new theme in mind I went out and took another set of images which go well under my theme of focus and edges. The images were taken of everyday objects, that were made to look unusual due to the focus in the image. Further developing my images, I then went on to take another set of image that are also related to focus and edges.
After taking many sets of images related to focus and edges, I wanted to try something new and I wanted to develop my images more. So I did some more artist research. Carrying on with my artist research, I researched on an artist called Francesca Woodman, as I wanted to see some different elements in images, not just focus and edges. After researching her i found and images of hers that I was the most interested in and evaluated it to get some more inspiration and fresh ideas.
After the extra artist research to gain more ideas, I wrote up my planning and development, which is writing up what I planned to do from that point onwards.I also grouped my last set of images in to groups, which were categorised by the objects in the image and the colour. I found that by grouping the images it ws easire to see which group of images would be good as a final piece.I then wrote up a 'What I plan to do next', which was to research another artist that takes images wiht the simailr themes as my images. The artist that ihad chhoses to research was called Mark Raymond Mason, this ias an artist taht takes images of nature, close up, focused and un focused, which I find similar with my images instead of nature, everyday objects. After the research I had gained more inspiration and ideas. Whic lead me to do more experimenting. I took some images, again related to my theme, and edited them using an app called Fragments (mobile app). The reason why I wanted to edit my images was because, I wanted to see if channig my images up a little bit would make a difference, which I found out it did. However I found out that I had like the images plain rather than edited. This leads me to my final pieces being plain and unedited.
In conclusion, I feel that this project has helped me improve my photographic skills and has taught me that even just a little editing makes a difference; it has also increased my confidence with experimentation and using editing apps. Overall I think that I have achieved what i intended to, and I am happy with my final pieces.
During this project about Abstraction I have developed my research, experimental and development skills. As this project about abstraction is very open, there were many different artists I could of have chosen to do research on and to develop my images on. Nevertheless, I have remained focused on this project and have produced 3 final pieces that I am proud of.
To start off this project I began to write my project proposal, which is what I plan to do in this project, so I can always have a reminder of what I want to do. After writing my project proposal I went on to the Tallis Pinterest site to look at the images under the theme of Abstract, within this theme there were many interesting and different artists and images. After thoroughly looking through the Tallis Pinterest I researched 2 artists in detail and carefully analysed their images to find out what formal elements they were focusing on, that looked well together and to see what inspirations I have received from that artist and their work. Firstly I researched an artist called Marc Yankus. What I liked about his images is that, the whole image is out of focus creating a sense of mystery as the viewer doesn’t know what’s in the image as it is all out of focus. I was very interested in his work because I have never taken a whole image out of focus; usually I would take images with one part or object out of focus, so this challenged me to try something different. The second artist that I did detailed research on was Bill Jacobson. Bill Jacobson is another artist who is famous for his images on landscapes and figures that are out of focus. I chose to look at another artist that focused his images on out of focus because I wanted to see what the artists did different and what they did the same, so I could see what I was inspired by the most.
After the artist research, I then went on to take some images with a digital camera, I chose to take these images with a digital camera because I could un-focus and focus at any time I wanted to. In this set of images I have incorporated some elements of both researched artists. The whole image being unfocused from Bill Jacobson and the lights from Marc Yankus. I feel that these two elements go well together in one image. After my first set of images, I took another set of images which was within school, in that set of images I was focusing on edges and focus. I feel that these two elements go well together because you can focus on an edge to make that edge look sharper as well as un focus on an edge to make it look softer and less sharp. After taking that set of images I had come to a conclusion that I wanted to have focus and edges as my theme for the rest of my images. With my new theme in mind I went out and took another set of images which go well under my theme of focus and edges. The images were taken of everyday objects, that were made to look unusual due to the focus in the image. Further developing my images, I then went on to take another set of image that are also related to focus and edges.
After taking many sets of images related to focus and edges, I wanted to try something new and I wanted to develop my images more. So I did some more artist research. Carrying on with my artist research, I researched on an artist called Francesca Woodman, as I wanted to see some different elements in images, not just focus and edges. After researching her i found and images of hers that I was the most interested in and evaluated it to get some more inspiration and fresh ideas.
After the extra artist research to gain more ideas, I wrote up my planning and development, which is writing up what I planned to do from that point onwards.I also grouped my last set of images in to groups, which were categorised by the objects in the image and the colour. I found that by grouping the images it ws easire to see which group of images would be good as a final piece.I then wrote up a 'What I plan to do next', which was to research another artist that takes images wiht the simailr themes as my images. The artist that ihad chhoses to research was called Mark Raymond Mason, this ias an artist taht takes images of nature, close up, focused and un focused, which I find similar with my images instead of nature, everyday objects. After the research I had gained more inspiration and ideas. Whic lead me to do more experimenting. I took some images, again related to my theme, and edited them using an app called Fragments (mobile app). The reason why I wanted to edit my images was because, I wanted to see if channig my images up a little bit would make a difference, which I found out it did. However I found out that I had like the images plain rather than edited. This leads me to my final pieces being plain and unedited.
In conclusion, I feel that this project has helped me improve my photographic skills and has taught me that even just a little editing makes a difference; it has also increased my confidence with experimentation and using editing apps. Overall I think that I have achieved what i intended to, and I am happy with my final pieces.