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Looking at spaces, barriers and holes
Lee Friedlander
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Reflections in water and through windows
After going on a journey i wanted to take images related to theme of inside, outside and in-between. I focused on reflections and took pictures of rivers and ponds that had interesting shapes of reflections from the forest/park. I liked the dark tones and contrast in the lighting as it created a mysterious atmosphere in the images. I also wanted to explore looking out of windows and capturing reflections in glass. I took a journey on a train and looked for reflections from the inside and outside of the train on the glass window as well as reflections on other trains that passed by. The idea that the viewer can't tell where the photographer is or if its real or a reflection is interesting as it creates ambiguity, the blurred images and reflections of faces and bodies on the trains also adds to this uncertany of the composition.
Shizuka Yokomizo
After looking at the images by Jane & Louise Wilson of people walking through different doors and crowded spaces I want to try going on different journeys and create a video. It could be based on entrances and a journey of going in & out of various spaces. I also looked at the music video 'Her Morning Elegance' and thought it was interesting the way the video flowed together, so i could take a series of photographs to create a time-lapse instead of just a recording which will give it a staggered effect. |
Jane & Louise Wilson |
Elena Kalis
Experimentation with water and reflections
Elena Kalis takes photographs of her subjects underwater in swimming pools as well as in the sea, the images are graceful and majestic which is difficult to achieve especially if the subjects are not calm underwater, . After looking at Kalis's images and the images i took of reflections in water i want to experiment with glass/mirrors, people's reflection in water and water dripping on glass. I did this set and worked with strong lighting to create harsh contrasts in the lighting as well as dark shadows making the photographs mysterious and vague to the viewer. I thought the images of the face close to the glass worked well as only some areas of the face are visible, hiding behind the running water drops and dark shadows making it difficult to figure out wheather the person is behind or in front of the glass/mirror/window.
Antony Gormley - Blind Light
'Architecture is supposed to be the location of security and certainty about where you are. It is supposed to protect you from the weather, from darkness, from uncertainty. BLIND LIGHT undermines all of that. You enter this interior space that is the equivalent of being on top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea. It is very important for me that inside it you find the outside. Also you become the immersed figure in an endless ground, literally the subject of the work.'
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This video is an experimentation I did based on Antony Gormley's images. I placed a clear plastic material in front of the subject and filmed her as the smoke filled the room. The smoke created a nice effect as it started to fill up and create a grey cloudy atmosphere around the subject, once it reached a certain stage the smoke started to leave the room and it didn't start to build up even though it was a small room. As seen in the two images below the thick smoke is surrounding the woman's face and she is starting to disappear into it. I wanted to create this effect in my video where the subject is stood behind the clear plastic and as the smoke started to fill the room they are placed in between air and the smoke and also the plastic material creating ambiguity. In the video the light was placed in front of the subject, it could be improved by placing it behind the subject so that a silhouette is created similar to Gormley's images. I also want the smoke to build up in stages and by placing a material in front of the door so that the smoke doesn't escape this could have been seen clearly, the smoke machine could of also been moved closer to the individuals face. On imovie I increased the speed of the video and this showed the movement of the smoke however it also showed the subjects movements in a more obvious way, if this is repeated the subject would need to still stay still throughout.
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Bill Viola |
After experimenting with water and smoke i wanted to go back to looking at water and start to experiment with people looking through things like glass and water. The video by Bill Viola has harsh lighting and it's very atmospheric in the way the people are moving slowly while the water is splashing down around them. It has an eerie feel to it similar to the photographs of Antony Gormley's installation piece 'Blind light'. The images show individuals surrounded and trapped by smoke, some are behind glass and others are in between the smoke and air. Taking inspiration from this i want to photograph people in the bath emerging from the water - in between water & air, use harsh lighting to get a horror like atmosphere and a feel of people watching and looking into someones personal space. |
In this set I wanted to place the subject behind and in front of materials and substances. I used glass with rain drops and running water and experimented with the focus of the images and the water on glass to create some images that where blurred and more unclear to the viewer. I also had water running down on the subjects face while standing as well as in the bath. I wanted to create atmospheric photographs however the subject wasn't relaxed underwater and the photographs didn't technically work well. I want to improve this set and try photographing subjects underwater, focusing on the face in the water and also on the surface - looking at the space in between air and water. The subject could be wearing light clothing which can move around in the the water to add to the atmospheric and calm feel of the images.
Alban Grosdidier
Grosdidier expresses life in the city through these underwater portraits, they express the feeling of living in a city, feeling disconnected from the world and people around you - overwhelmed by the intensity there is a drowning feeling, like there is no air. The photographs are powerful, I can feel their discomfort and want for air - they are pushing their hands up, blowing bubbles and squinting their faces, they look trapped and anxious. On the other hand some images are more peaceful as the subjects look relaxed and at ease under water, the women in the bottom image has her eyes open and she looks like she is dreaming, the circular rings of water around her face also add to this ethereal atmosphere.
Response to underwater photographs
Edits
In this set i used two subjects and focused on getting images of their faces underwater on the surface as well as the movement of getting out of the water - gasping for air. The subjects had white t-shirts on and i used a bath for the photographs and focused on doing close ups of the face. I wanted to capture different movements in the water and the subjects faces so that some images were more relaxed and the subjects at ease underwater. Every image was different depending on the way the water moved and how long the subject could stay underwater, the bubbles surrounding their faces created an interesting distortion, this was also visible when the subjects eyes where open making the face almost look fake. I edited some images on photoshop changing the contrast, brightness and saturation, I also cropped some images so that the closeness of the faces to the frame could add to the notion of being trapped between the water and surrounding air.
Ink/Water experiments
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I wanted to continue experimenting with water and here i tried using ink. I filled a tray with water and photographed the ink going into the water and expanding as it mixed into the water. I also wanted to try videoing the movement of the ink in the water and each drop spreading. I filmed it from above and then edited the video on iMovie, decreasing the speed so that the movement of the ink and water could easily be seen and work together with the music i put in the background. I thought it worked well and i want to continue working with film, experimenting with ink and paint dropping into water. I also want to try placing the camera in a different angle so that the ink can clearly be seen as it drops down and spread around the water.
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For the top two videos i used a glass jar filled with water and dropped in pink and yellow ink. The pink ink was more runny and the effect of this can be seen in the video as the ink travels down to the bottom faster taking longer to spread, the way the ink bubbles fall is also more defined with the runny ink.
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I mixed the yellow ink with paint therefore it was a thicker texture and fell with more weight than the pink ink. It looks like thick clouds when dropped in and as it spreads around the water the ink looks smokey and mixes in faster starting from the bottom.
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In these two videos, i wanted to use a different shaped contained so that i could capture different shapes and movements when the ink spread and moved around the water. I also used food dye instead of ink which made the process quicker because the dye was thinner and travelled faster in the water. I liked the way the ink moved in a circle around the bowl and the drops got bigger as they moved. By using a glass bowl i got a lot of reflections and when i put the ink into the water the movement can be seen, when i use this set up again I want to to technically refine the videos so that the lighting is better and there are less reflections.
Martin Klimas
'What does music look like?' Martin Klimas photographs of paint lifting up in the air is influenced by Hans Jenny, a scientist who looked at cymatics. Paint droplets are placed on speakers and once the volume is turned up the vibrations from the music lift the paint up. Klimas selects pieces of music by musicians such as Miles Davis, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Kraftwerk as the dynamic sounds from within create interesting shapes and colours making each photograph unique. Most of Klimas' work captures motion, the images of flowers in vases are interesting as the top half of the photographs are neat still life compositions while the rest are disfigured.The explosions are captured using a fast shutter speed (one seven-thousandth of a second) as the flower vases are shot by steel balls and the water pours out. The fruit and vegetable explosions are similar in the way the photograph captures the explosion with sections flying around the image as well as the natural state of the the fruit or vegetable. These images work really well and i find the contrast between the liquid and solid parts of the food types interesting as part of one composition. After looking at these images and the intricate detail of the objects I want to continue making videos mixing different components together to create different substances with different colours and textures.
Experimentation with the mixing of substances
1. After my experimentations with ink and water i wanted to try mixing different substances at home. In this video I poured coke into a glass container and dropped in mentos mint, they started to react and a bubbling effect was created. It was a fast reaction and i thought the results could of been better if the coke was in a bottle as it would of had more pressure however due to technicality of the video i needed it to be in a glass container.
2. I then tried putting baking soda in the glass container and poured in vinegar, they started to react together creating a foamy liquid that rose up and the slowly came down again. I cropped the video on Imovie so that the bubbling effect could be seen more clearly as it moved up the container. I thought the mixing of the two substances worked well and i liked what they formed together however, i would like to improve it technically in the studio by setting up lights and creating a cover up around the bowl/container so that reflections of people and objects are not seen in the video. 1. In the video below I used clear vinegar so that it would blend in more with the white powder. By pouring in the vinegar all at once the reaction was quick and it spilled over the glass jar creating a waterfall and then fizzling back down until the clear liquid was left at the bottom.
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After setting up the experiment in the photography studio i tried the baking soda and vinegar experiment again,technically it was better and the jar was longer, this highlighted the foam rising and flowing out of the jar and slowing back down. I also cropped the frame of the video on Imovie so that the detail in the foam from the reaction could be seen clearly, as well as the movement of it as it came up, out and then deflated back inside.
2. I repeated this using a small jar to see if the intensity of the reaction would change. The substances reacted in the same way but the shape of the container was different and i liked the way the liquid fell over the small jar. I also thought the bubbles were more defined and clearer as it travelled back down in to the jar taking shape of the curve of the glass.
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Science Experiments
After the vinegar experimentation's I wanted to try using different chemicals so i spoke to the science department and made some videos using washing up liquid, food die as well as different science chemicals with fire. I put green washing up liquid in a beaker and then added water - the soap started bubbling as it moved up the beaker. I also tried it the other way round but it didn't work as the washing up liquid didn't mix into the water. I edited this video on Imovie cropping it so that the gradual foaming from the soap could be seen rising up the beaker as the water was added into it. I then used mixed up washing liquid with water and dropped the food colour into it with a pipette. This was different to the other experiments i did with water and ink because the foam from the soap created a barrier for the dye before it went into the water. The dye slowly travelled through the foam and then bled into the water. |
I edited this video and cropped it so that the ink dropping through could be seen clearly moving around with the music in the background.
< In this video instead of starting with clear water i dyed it with the food dye and then dropped in black food dye. I thought this experiment worked well because each drop formed a shape and could be seen better due to the contrast between the dark red and black. The liquid is thin so the dye dropped to the bottom of the beaker quickly, as more dye went into the beaker it built up more and the texture of the water started to get thicker as it started to travel up the beaker mixing in with the red. |
Flame test
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The above images are photos i took while videoing the flame tests. The variation of colored flames were created by spraying chemicals (Copper, Potassium, Sodium, and Barium) on a lit Bunsen burner. It was interesting to see the colour change in the flames but due to safety reasons i couldnt set up the experiment in the studio therefore the background of the fume container can be seen as well reflections due to the glass around it. I edited the videos of the different flame tests on Imovie together and cropped the frames so that there was more focus on the flames. I thought that this experiment was interesting and it worked well however, I want to develop my videos using ink and water. |
When i created videos using water and washing up liquid i thought that the food dye went through the foamy water really well and i liked the way it gradually bled through the foam at the top of the beaker and then lightly travelled through the water as it spread, mixing in. The photographs below are images i took while doing the videos, the first image shows the set up in the photography studio i was using to do the videos. Black card was placed around the centre and in the background so that reflections couldn't be seen in the glass jars. The lights in the room were turned off and a studio light was placed above the jar using stools as a support. I put the camera on a stand and while it recorded I added the ink/paint in the jar. These photographs show the ink/paint going into the jars and also at the end of video, once they had mixid into the water. I wanted to show how the different colours went through the foam at the top of the jars with out mixing into each other until they reached water so the photographs also show the jars from the top giving a different perspective to the experiment.
I wanted to try using different amounts of washing up liquid to create different levels of foam at the top of the jars. In this video there wasn't that much making it quicker for the paint and ink to go through. I used thick orange paint first and then mixed in yellow ink. It was thinner so it travelled through the orange nicely and created circular shapes as it travelled against the glass. I repeated this but i only put in the yellow ink once in the second video, letting it expand and mix into the orange liquid at a slower pace, the cloudy effect in-front of the glass jar when it enterers is atmospheric and i thought the shapes the ink created were attractive.
I changed the speed of all the videos on Imovie so that the movement of the liquids can be seen with more clarity, in this video the gradual change from the orange to yellow is seen which was my aim and i like how the orange paint is still visible at the bottom of the jar while the rest is bright yellow at the end of the video. ^ Going back to the science experiments i did with food dye, I tried putting blue ink in the water as a base and then adding in a mixture of white ink and paint to create a thicker liquid so that i could get a cloudy effect when they mixed in together. I then put in orange paint which was thinner but this didn't mix in with the blue, instead it dropped to the bottom of the jar and this is seen at the end of the video. I like that the the initial colour, the substance put inside in the middle and then the end is seen and that it hasn't all combined into one.
I wanted to get the cloudy movements in the water so i used the larger jar and tried it with yellow and orange paint mixed in with ink so that it was thin enough. As soon as the yellow was dropped in it moved around the jar and created beautiful thick circular clouds and this is seen in the first 20 seconds. |
I also tried using more washing up liquid in some videos to create more foam at the top of the jars as well as using more than one colour.
< Due to the foam at the top the paint and ink would take longer to travel down, i mixed ink with a variety of coloured paint so that i could get the right texture and colours. In this video, different sections of the foam show the ink/paint going through and its travel through it and into the water is seen in the video. The movement of the substances and how they mix together varies depending on how thin the liquids are. As the video progressed the ink/paint formed a thick cloud at the bottom of the jar and began to spread up, mixing in with the ink/paint that was still falling through from the top of the jar. This made the foam shrink down into the jar and create holes between the different colours. The video below shows one of my experimentations with the ink and paint flowing through thick foam at the top of the jars. The yellow and orange colours worked well and it was the right texture creating a nice flow into the water. I only dropped in the colour once and then left it to go through, I thought the way it travelled on one side of the jar was different to the others as well as the thin streaks the colours created as they went into the water getting thinner and more spread out as time passed. < same video ^ Using Imovie i edited this video making it black and white and adjusting the brightness and contrast. I wanted to see if the mixture between the paint and water would look better when it creates the clouds at the bottom of the jar. I thought that the contrast between the white and dark background made the paint stand out making the initial part of the video look better. However as soon as the paint had mixed in with the water the different colours can't be seen, If i decide to use the black and white effect in my outcome i could experiment with white ink and paint and then adding in thinner substances like black ink.
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After developing my idea of combining different elements in a confined space and watching various substances with different colours and textures integrate together I started to think about what i wanted to do for a final outcome in the exam. The last two videos i did with blue, orange and yellow paint/ink worked really well and i would like to develop the outcome and create something similar but more refined in the exam. I will use the same substances i have been using in my developments with a larger jar, creating interesting movements and shapes in the water using different levels of viscosity in the liquids. Previously i filmed my videos from one angle and the whole jar was always in the frame, for my outcome i would like to film different angles of the jar with more than one camera so that i can get close up and full shots of the water in the jar, the ink going in, mixing with the water and moving around the jar. When I put the video together i would like to include the different angles, colours, shapes and substances and piece them together with music. Dan Tobin Smith's video - Letter T Explosion showcases the elements i want to include in my video, I thought the way the video starts of slowly showing the substance falling down and then moving on to different sections and close ups of the fumes finally showing the whole explosion on a full frame works really well. I did some research and found the video below on You Tube of ink going into water, similarly to Smith's video it has a combination of different angles - when the ink is going in at the beginning, in the middle and towards the end when the ink and water start to create a mixture together. I will use these ideas and editing techniques when making my video, as well as editing it together on Imovie. |
Dan Tobin Smith |
Exam Piece
Over the two day period I structured my time so that i finished filming on the fist day and then did my editing the day after. I used two cameras when filming and set them up in the studio so that one would focus on the close ups of the jar and the other on the whole set up. I used yellow ink throughout the video but also experimented with black and yellow ink as well as filming the water going into the jar, the bubbles formed and dropping ink into the foam created at the top of the jar. I used thick and thin ink as well as various objects to drop the ink into the jars so that i could get different effects, the large jar was mainly used but i also filmed the close up shots using a smaller jar so that i could refined detail. When I put the different footage together I started by using close ups and various angles of the ink/paint going in black and white, this led to a full image of the large jar which turned to it's original colour. This climax was enhanced by the music (Phoenix- Love Like A Sunset) in which a progressive beat led to a dramatic drop in the music. Overall I thought that the video worked well and the clips flowed together in the right way with the music. I had problems with the quality of some of the clips as two different cameras were used, most of them were close up shots and the blurred effected created a different type of footage in contrast with the highly focused clips and this together resulted in a dynamic video.
These two videos are experiments i did with ink and foam as well as water flowing into the jar when filming the videos for my piece however they didn't fit in well with my video so i left them out.
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