Artist Statement

Artist statement

Everyday life, the shapes, lines and textures are the foundation of my portfolio. The simple things that are not so simple after all. In this portfolio of images I am exposing the simple things people would simply walk straight past, they are more complex then you may first think.

I decided to call my portfolio “Life’s simplest beauties” and it consists of a

mix of black and white and colour images.

All of my photos have been taken outdoors and they are all part of the themes of lines, shapes, objects and textures.

My original idea for the portfolio was to base it on black and white abstracted landscapes, but as I started taking photos it was hard to get the landscapes to come across as ‘abstracted’.  So then I moved towards the idea of shapes and lines, objects and textures both man-made and natural. This idea worked a lot better and photos started turning out more abstract. When I was taking the images I thought of the viewer and basically put myself in their shoes viewing my images and the aim was to have the viewers think ‘What is that’? I have done my job as an artist if this is what the viewers ask themselves.

I did very little editing to the images; I sharpened most of the photos and brightened or darkened them, cropped Number 4 8 and 10. I used the Vignette tool on some of my photos as well, Number 2 and 4.

My Abstract Portfolio - Life's simplest beauties

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Assignment Research - Ciro Totku

Ciro Totku

Totku was born in 1967 in Moscow. He is a Cambodia-based Russian photographer. There is really not very information on the Internet about Totku unfortunately.

Jihad

Phnom Penh, 2007

Latest Photos

This photo annoys me, because I cannot work out what it is. It looks like sand or mud and a sand dune, but the bottom part of the photo also looks like a blanket with a scary looking fish underneath it! I am not sure. I congratulate Ciro on this.

Since I don’t know what it is, it is hard to comment on what he might have used to create/manipulate this photo. It has no explanation of how he took any of his photos or what equipment he used to achieve the images he has.

Assignment Research - Mark Raymond Mason

Mark Raymond Mason

Mark Raymond’s pictures are quite abstracted. Pretty much all of his work is landscape. It’s all very vibrant and colourful, although I do love a nice black and white, I love colour in photographs, it makes me feel happy and I can more fully appreciate the scene they are capturing, it just feels more real to me. There is a lot of texture in his images, such as old peeling paint, burnt plaster and cracked soil. He has won two awards and had nine exhibitions, three of which have been solo exhibitions. Raymond’s work is very earthy, natural, it doesn’t look like there has been too much editing done to his images, except for maybe colour changes and the usual brightness/contrast, blur and sharpen.

 

Burnt Plaster, Paper

Calgary, AB

Urban Portfolio

This is a lot going on in this photo! Different colours and textures keeping you busy. This photo has quite a high level of abstraction. Raymond does not specify the brand or model of camera he uses but in the Q&A part of his website, he states that he has only recently started using digital cameras and up until 2010 most of his portfolios had been shot on film. I thought that was interesting. The lighting in the image is very natural and there are a lot of shapes and lines in the photo making it complex to view.

Assignment Research - Brett Weston

Brett Weston

Brett Weston’s photographs are also all black and white. Brett has 14 different portfolios and has had four exhibitions. Weston was born in 1911 in Los Angeles. His father was also a photographer, so it obviously runs in the family! At the age of thirteen his dad pulled him out of school and took him to Mexico and made him his apprentice. He died in 1993 in Hawaii. It does not say on the website, but I am quite sure that Weston used film camera’s to shoot his work.

Reeds

Japan, 1970

Japan Portfolio

This photo is awesome; it doesn’t look like real scenery at all! When I first saw this photo I thought, ‘what is that’?! And I believe if you ask that question when viewing a photo, it is most definitely abstract. The black lines look like shapes that have just been painted on. The light in the photo looks natural, but I think it may have been altered slightly to make it a bit brighter because the water is not transparent, so the sun is obviously reflecting off it. The picture looks quite soft. I do really like this photo, it’s very cool. As I said before, it looks like a painting or a drawing.

Assignment Research - Michael Kenna

Michael Kenna

One thing I noticed about Michael Kenna’s work is that all of his photographs are in black and white. He has also been to a lot of places in the world! Michael Kenna was born in England in 1953 and has won several awards throughout his photography life and held numerous exhibitions, both one- person and group exhibitions. I really like his style, it’s edgy and stunning. I am guessing he uses long shutter exposures to achieve his specific look. Since the photos are black and white, it makes the photo more dramatic and because of this, at first glance it is hard to determine what it in the picture.

 

Ferro de Gondola

Venice, Italy, 2006

Italy portfolio

When I first looked at this on the website, I was like ‘what the heck’! But it wasn’t until I opened it and saw that it was a gondola that I actually knew what it was. This is one of the few slightly abstracted photos on Michael Kenna’s website. All of Michael Kenna’s photos have incredible lighting, this one is no exception; it looks like he has used the vignette tool in Photoshop to create the darkened effect on the edges of the photo. This photo makes me want to just drop out of school, move to Italy and live a simple life. It is nor happy, nor sad photo.  It doesn’t state what brand or model of camera or any equipment he uses on the website.

Pictures/websites/Canberra photographers I admire

Allura Maison of Amorosa Dezignz

http://www.amorosadezignz.net/

This is a picture of me taken by Allura Maison of Amorosa Dezignz. Allura is a very creative person and she is awesome to work with. I like her style of photography and editing. There is a lot of colour used in her photos and they are always beautiful and happy! She has a lot of cool concepts!


Matt Maguire of Matt Maguire Photography


http://www.mattmaguirephotography.com/index.htm

Of course i was going to put my dad in there, after all, he was the one that got me into photography in the first place! Matt Maguire is a landscape photographer who has been almost everywhere, taking his camera with him! What i admire about his photos are that they are hardly photoshopped, only to brighten, darken or sharpen.



Emily of ESH Photography


http://www.eshphotography.com.au/ 




I really like her portrait style, they are simple, but so effective. I didn't want to copy her photos because i don't really know her personally and cant ask her permission, but check out her website and see for yourself. They are just naturally nice photos!

My Self-Portrait & Artist Statement

Artist statement

I am a relatively creative person but I find it difficult expressing myself in words and also defining my artwork. But this is sometimes a good thing, as I have a chance to really think about why I created the pieces I did.

I would like to think that the pieces I am creating are a little bit random. This is because I am little bit random and out there! Photography is my way of expressing myself and finding out more about current issues and the world around me, and with a better understanding it helps me to work with different people and people I would not normally work with. I never set out to take photos, it’s always unplanned or spur of the moment, it’s just the way I roll.

I am going to create a self-portrait, taking just a few things out of my life and putting them into a picture. I have such a passion for dance and have made life long friends from it. Friends will be in my self-portrait because they are part of me. I also adore fashion (Such a surprise I know), in particular, dresses. I just love the detail and fabrics. I know I am probably boring you with the things I like but its necessary!

I take a lot of photos and sometimes they don’t turn out the way I wanted them to, that’s why I love Photoshop. I can brighten a photo that was before, too dark and I can sharpen photos that would have previously been blurry. Although, I try not to use it too much, as I prefer natural, just as they were taken kind of photos.

I read quite a few fashion magazines and I feel that I get inspirations from their pages. Joon Brandt is also one, I love high-end fashion shoots! Allura Maison, She is a local Canberra based photographer with a lot of style and she has a lot of awesome concepts. The last, being my dad, Matt Maguire, he is a photographer and he was the one that told me to pick up a camera and start snapping in the first place. He is one cool guy and knows how to take a good photo.

Marco Palmero Analysis

'Superhero Portrait'

Marco Palmero is the name of the artist who created this digital self-portrait. Marco is a Sydney photographer who specialises in executive portraiture.

I don’t really know much about this artist but I saw the photo and I though ‘wouldn’t we all like to be superman’! I just though it was just a really cool photo. I know it has been done before, but in a business suit? I think not!

In this photo the man (late 20’s early 30’s) seems to be looking up into the sky as if he were superman. He is wearing glasses (maybe to look more like a business man) and he is wearing a black suit with a white shirt and striped tie. He looks like just your average guy in a suit by day, and just your average superhero by night! He is also wearing a superman outfit under his clothes (Photoshopped in) and he is ripping the suit open to expose his superhero-ness! He may be showing a message here…are we all superheroes? Is everyone a superhero?

Marco is in the centre of the photo, which has a black background (in a studio) as to not take away any attention from the subject.

Andy Warhol Analysis

'Shocked Hair'

This picture creeps me out a little bit, but at the same time it is pretty cool because it is so simple, yet so effective.

This self-portrait was created in 1986, part of the ‘Pop art’ collection by Warhol, a year before his death. I am not sure what inspired him to have his hair the way he did. He was obviously very out there. I guess it was just part of his abstract nature. He used the ‘Silk-screen process’ to mass-produce his artworks.

There is not too much detail to this self-portrait, what I mean to say is that they are just basic images that have been edited. In the first photo in the top left corner, Warhol has a blank expression on his face and is looking straight into the camera (as he does in all four). He is placed right smack-bang in the centre (As he does in all four) and his hair is not as visible.

In the second, he looks almost scary, but I think it is the hair that gives that impression. In this on, his mouth is slightly open and his hair is more visible.

The third is similar to the first, very little expression. Although, his mouth is open slightly, his right eyebrow is raised ever so slightly and his hair is less visible.

In the forth one, Warhol looks sad or a little bit disappointed, his eyes are not as defined and the hair is more visible.

I think the first image and the third image are slightly the same and the second image and the forth image are the same, which is weird because the top two photos are connected and it is the same with the bottom two…

In this image Warhol has used only two colours, pink and yellow. He has created a multi-image portrait.

Assignment - Cindy Sherman Photo Analysis

Cindy Sherman Self Portrait

This photo is one of Sherman’s most famous pieces in the ‘Untitled film stills’ collection. It is number 14 in the collection and was created in 1978. So the 20^th century.

The inspiration to do this collection was from old B movies and she created over 100 images.

I really like this photo, it has a bit of an Audrey Hepburn feel to it, which is why I chose to analyse this photo, as I am a Hepburn fan.  

In this photo, there is a young woman, possibly in her 20’s, very pretty with lots of style and flair, wearing the style of that era, a white blouse and a dark patterned jacket or blazer. She is also wearing what looks to be a straw textured hat.

The photo has a very simple background of two building as to not take any focus away from the woman. She looks as though she is looking in the opposite directions of the sun because there is a shadow in the right side of her face and the other side of her face is illuminated by the sun.

The woman is just slightly off-centre but she is the obvious attention too the viewer. She is in a city, in America I presume.

List of Interests/Hobbies :)

I like a lot of things really, although im not to keen on brussel sprouts...

Some of the things i like/am interested in are:

• Dancing

• Spanish

• Photography (obviously..)

• Teaching Zumba!

• Assisting photographers on shoots

• SLR cameras

• Summer

• Fashion

I would like to say i am a pretty down to earth bubbly kinda girl. I love summer and the beach and would love to do some travelling after college :)

Assignment!

“So what does the ‘self’ in self-portrait actually mean?  Historically the self portrait (specifically the painted self portrait) has been understood as a representation of emotions, an outward expression of inner feelings penetrating self-analysis and self-contemplation that might bestow an immortality of sorts on the artist.”

Susan Bright, Uncanny Likeness: Photographers Photographing Themselves, 2010

In this project you are to explore the concept of self portraiture in digital art. Use the image capture and manipulation skills you have gained throughout the session to create a single self portrait that tells the viewer something about you.

You may use images from a number of sources: old photographs both digital and printed, drawings/artwork that you have created, stock photographs etc.  You may use your own cameras to capture new images also if you wish.

Process:         

1. Find out a little more about self portraiture in the digital realm. Find a minimum of three artists who have created digital self portraits.  Analyse at least one image from each using the guide given to you earlier in the session.

2. Think about your work.  What would you want a viewer to think when they see your self portrait?  What do you want them to find out about you?  Write a list of things about yourself if it helps- your interests, hobbies, words that you would use to describe yourself etc.

3. Begin capturing, processing, manipulating and laying out your work.  Be creative!  Make use of all the skills and techniques you have learned throughout the session to create your work.  Your final piece should be 8x10 inches in size and 300ppi- set this up first in Photoshop before you begin.

4. Complete an artist’s statement of one typed 12pt A4 page documenting your ideas, references, inspirations and the techniques you used.

5. Print your image on A4 paper using the laser printer.

6. Submit a full resolution digital copy of your piece, 8x10 inches at 300ppi, the printed piece and your artists’ statement by 4pm, Wednesday week 8.

For submission:

You must submit the following for assessment by Wednesday week 8.

• A digital Photoshop file of your self portrait, 8x10 inches in size and 300ppi.
• A hard copy of your self portrait, printed on A4 paper on the laser printer.
• An artist’s statement of approximately one A4 page detailing your ideas and intent of your self portrait, printed.
• Research questions, further investigation and evaluations in your research workbook.

How to analyse a photo!

Observation	Knowledge	Interpretation
Describe exactly what you see in the photo What people and objects are shown? How are they arranged? What is the physical setting? What other details can you see?	Summarize what you already know about the situation and time period shown, and the people and objects that appear.	Say what you conclude from what you see. What's going on in the picture? Who are the people & what are they doing? What might be the function of the objects? What can we conclude about the time period?
Further Research What questions has the photo raised? What are some sources I can use to find answers?

Photo Restoration

Before

After

For this photo:

• I used the spot brush tool (quite a bit!)
• The patch tool (to get rid of lines through the image)
• The magnetic lasoo tool (to select the part of the image i wanted)
• Colour balance (to make the water/sky blue and trees and bushes green)
• The burn tool, to make the buildings look slightly darker
• Sharpening
• Brightened it

Before



After

For this photo:

• I used the spot healing brush tool (for blemishes, lines through the photo and dirt spots)
• I brightened it
• Sharpened it
• increased the contrast
• Blured the photo to try and reduce some of the grainy-ness
• Manetic lasoo tool to select the car and grass
• Then used the colour balence option to increase the colour of the car/grass

The rule of thirds

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is an imaginary tic-tac-toe board is drawn across an image to break it into nine equal squares. The four points where these lines intersect are strongest focal points. The lines themselves are the second strongest focal points. With the rule of thirds, it is best that you do not have the main point of focus inside any of the squares.

As you can see in this photo, the line is cutting through the sun and the horison is just under one of the lines.

Recent Photos

These are just some photo's i have taken/edited recently.

The first picture is the before picture (obviously) and the second photo is the after.

So for this picture, I:
Changed the 'Temperature' to -27
Changed the 'Tint' to +9
Changed the 'Exposure' to -0.90
Changed the 'Black clipping' to +45
'Sharpening' +112
'Luminance Smoothing' to +45

* I used Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for this edit.

Irina Werning's Back to the Future project

Food for thought!

"I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today... A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future".

South American photographer Irina Werning completed a personal project last year titled 'Back to the Future', in which she had her friends pose for recreations of photographs from her childhood. 

How do you think she managed to recreate not only the poses and settings, but the visual nature of the recreated photographs- the colour balance, softness, tone etc?

Irina is a very talented photographer indeed! It takes a lot of skill to recreate photos to the quality that she has achieved. I dont think it would have been to difficult to recreate poses, i mean, she had the photo to show the model and they could try their best interpretation of it, and if it was not exact, she could help them to achieve the look better. 

I really have no idea how she could have possibly taken the photos in the same spot, this really amazed me! What if there were totally random people living in the house?! I am really surprised at this.

Another thing that is hard to explain is the visual nature of the recreated photos. She must be a pro on photoshop! I mean, i know the tools to use,  but how she got it down perfectly is unbelievable. 

                                            LUCIA IN 1956 & 2010, Buenos Aires

                                                 MECHI IN 1990 & 2010, Buenos Aires





                                                             FLOR IN 1975 & 2010, Buenos Aires

Photoshop Research Task 2

Photoshop research

Search the internet and answer the following, and then copy your answers into your research workbook.

     What should your PPI be for printed media? Why?

300 PPI is a good standard, if you make it any lower, it would cause the image to look pixilated and blocky.

     What should your PPI be for the web or emailing? Why?

72 PPI, because that’s as high as it goes on a computer.

     What do RGB, CMYK and Grayscale refer to?

The RGB stands for the RED GREEN BLUE in a photo.

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and key, or black.

Grayscale is like all the colour tones in-between white and black. I.e. grays.

     How can you dodge and burn in Photoshop?

To you use the dodge tool, click on the dodge button, if you want to use the burn tool right click on the dodge button or using a mask on a brightness or exposure adjustment layer.

5   Name the ways you can make selections in Photoshop?

Using the rectangular marquee tool, the elliptical marquee tool, single column marquee, single row marquee, lasso tool, polygonal lasso tool, magnetic lasso tool, quick selection tool and the magic wand tool.

6   How can you crop images in Photoshop? Write the procedure.

To crop an image, click on the crop button and select the area in which you would like to crop.

7   How can you make perspective changes in Photoshop? Write the procedure.

1.    Click the crop tool for the photo that contains a distorted rectangular object.

2.    Click clear in the options bar to remove any previous settings.

3.    Click and drag a cropping marquee in the photo. For your note, the selected area is light while the dimmed one is the area that you want to crop away.

4.    Deselect shield to remove the dimming effect.                                 

5.    Click every corner anchor in the cropping marquee and align it with a corner on the normal rectangular object. For your note, you can press click Ctrl + spacebar to zoom in with the crop marquee showing and click the photo. Then press Alt + spacebar to zoom out.

6.    Click and drag out every centre anchor points to fit the edges of the entire photo.

7.    If you are satisfied with the crop, you can simply click the commit button in the options bar to commit the crop.

8.    Photoshop already manipulated the photo and changed its perspective.

How should you sharpen your images in Photoshop?

Use the sharpen tool which comes under the blur tool category.

What are some of the ways you can make tone, colour and contrast adjustments?

By selecting the tabs below the layer palette and adjusting the tone colour and contrast to the users liking

10)  What does RAW, JPEG and TIFF stand for in file management?

RAW – Research and Analysis Wing

JPEG – Joint photographic experts group

TIFF – Tagged Image File Format

Photo Montage

For my photo montage:
I used the magnetic lassoo tool to go around the outline of the Lion, tiger, leopard, girl and butterfly to drag them into the background shot. Then i went into 'liquify' and made the animals look strange. Next i clicked on the layer with just the girl and made the 'opacity' around 40% insted of 100% so it kind of blended in with the background shot. Next thing i did was go into 'Filter' 'Artistic' and clicked the 'Coloured pencil' option.

Foundation Digital Photography – Research Exercise 1

Photoshop management

Complete the following tutorials, to be found in the ‘Tutorials’ folder on the NARC Intranet-

1. basic tone and colour correction tutorial
2. perspective control tutorial
3. lens blur tutorial

Answer the following questions-go to the readings located in the ‘readings’ folder.

1)    What is a megapixel?

A megapixel is a unit of measurement for the number of pixels in a photo. If there are not very many pixels and they are large, the photo will be bad quality. The more mega pixels, the better the photo is. If you blew a photo up and it has lots of mega pixels, the photo would not be as defined but would be still good quality.

2)    How can you compose better images?

Make sure you do your research! Buy a camera that is right for its purpose. For example, will it be for photo shoots or just holiday happy snaps?

The obvious answer for me would be to buy a camera with higher mega pixels, like 8-12, but it’s how the photographer uses the camera also, don’t expect it to produce amazing photos just because it’s a good camera.

3)    How do you avoid camera shake?

Keep the camera steady by resting it on an object. Or use a tripod if you have one.

Only squeeze the shutter button, nothing else. Use a high shutter speed to keep it stable.

4)    How do memory cards work?

A memory card is inserted into the camera and allows you go out anywhere and take numerous amounts of photos and the card will store them so then you can download them onto your computer. Having a few memory card is preferred so if you run out of room, you don’t have to plug it into the computer to download the images to make more room.

5)    Why do you need to be prepared when going on location?

When on location it is essential to be prepared! Make sure your camera is fully charged and you have spare batteries and make sure the camera is on the setting you want. Make sure you have all relevant equipment, i.e Tripod, Flash and memory cards. Otherwise you may make yourself look unprofessional and for example, if you don’t have enough battery, it will die right when you were about to get the perfect shot.

6)    How are images recorded?

Using memory cards and uploaded onto a computer or hard drive.

7)    What is Resolution and how is it recorded? What are the differences in recording for print and for web?

Resolution is the number of pixels that make up a final image. The camera's light sensitive CCD converts the scene into a grid of pixels that make up the end photo.

For print you can have more pixels but with print it is limited.

8)    What are some of the myths about cameras and resolution?

·         More the expensive the camera, the better the pictures

·         Higher pixel count  makes for better image quality

·         Auto mode takes really ordinary photos