Project 3: Fictional Reality

Due Dates:

• White Screen production shoot: Monday 11/16 and Wednesday 11/18
• Preliminary critique Wednesday 12/2
• Final critique:  Exam Week, Monday 12/7. 11:30-2:00pm. 

©Loretta Lux

©Kelli Connell

Create something that is both possible and impossible, at the same time. Explore the line between fantasy and reality.

Create a character and place them in an environment or situation. Something might be weird, strange or surreal. How is the line between fantasy—reality blurred? Consider myths, fairy tales, other stories. Or make something up. Move beyond the simple and silly to something that works on many levels. What questions are raised? Beyond that, anything goes. There is plenty of room for creative interpretation. 

Think big for this one... costumes? styling? props?

Integrate the subject with the unlikely background/situation. Unify lighting direction, scale, point of view, shooting angle, etc., so that it truly appears that the subject is occupying the unlikely place.

There are just a few technical ground rules for this project.

1. At least one of the main subjects should be shot with white screen techniques
2. The white screen subject should be masked and appropriately integrated into the new background, with scale, perspective, point of view, light quality and direction convincingly matched.
3. The finished image should "read" realistically and convincingly as a single, genuine photo
4. At least 16" x 20" @300 dpi. All component pieces should be at adequate resolution

Gregory Crewdson
Grace Weston

Kahn and Selesnick

Bill Finger

Patrick Nagatani

Sarah Anne Johnson

Loretta Lux

Wendy McMurdo

Kelli Connell

Cornelia Hediger

Gillian Wearing

Student Work:

Project 2, Photo Extended

Reading: Chapter 7

Prelim critique: 11/9

Work Due: 11/18 (revised)
Prints or Print files due: 11/18* (revised)
Final Critique: Monday 11/30 (retro critique of work turned in)

* If you will be printing individual letter size, tabloid or Super B size prints, please do your own printing. If you will need oversized, large-format prints (say of grids or panorama), please speak to instructor well in advance about setting up your files correctly and arranging for large-formal printing.

Background

Cartier Bresson...example of  "The Decisive Moment"

As photographers, the frame is perhaps our most important tool. With the camera, we "frame" our subjects, including what we feel is important for the picture, and excluding what isn't. Essentially, we are editing from the visual world with our frame. A common goal in photography is to try and get it all in one frame—to create a singular image that conveys our full expression, sharp, clear, with a single point of view. 

Further, we capture single points in time,  often orphaned from the longer story. They float, untethered without revealing what came before or after, or for that matter, what else was going on at that time. 

There's value in all this—but it can also be limiting!

How can we extend the story of a photograph? What happened before our  decisive moment? What happened after? What did the other person see? What about the fly on the wall? Sometimes we need multiple images, multiple frames to convey the breadth and richness of our visual story.

For this phase of the course, we will explore the following modes.

Narrative Sequence
Typology/Series/Multiples
Joiner/Cluster/Panorama
Digital Collage

1. Narrative Sequence

The first assignment is to explore the use of narrative sequence, or visual narrative, to tell some kind of story through time. Think about change and movement...what changes? What moves? What stays the same? How does this change tell a story?

Duane Michals used extended sequences of images to convey complex and (often amusing) narratives. Some of these visual story lines went in a straight lines, sometimes they made bizarre circles and spirals.

Grandpa Goes to Heaven, Duane Michals

Chance Meeting, Duane Michals

Countless photographers have borrowed his approach to make narratives of their own.

E.Sariozkan

elodie fougère

The Personal Telling of Story

Jennifer Shaw

New Orleans photographer Jennifer Shaw illustrates the trials her family faced during and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The images are told through the use of toys and figurines.

http://jennifershaw.net/hurricane-story/

Metaphoric narrative

The photographer Masaru Goto created a compelling narrative documenting the difficult subject of his mother's sickness, decline and eventual death. He draws a comparison between the life-cycle of cherry trees passing through the four seasons from the blossom stage through the shedding of leaves as extended metaphor for the phases of a human life, from full glory to eventual decline. The result is sad, but poetic and contemplative.

Ideas to get started:

• Create a character and story...depict this visually, telling the story through a sequence of images. Shoot in a way that links the images together in a coherent way.
• Choose or stage a sequence of actions and consequences that are related...show us the before, during and after in a compelling way. Even better, throw in a twist or surprise.
• Illustrate a recent (or current) news event using a fictional or illustrative approach. Instead of photographing the actual events, recreate the event in a compelling or believable way through a sequence of images
• Take a photo every hour for a day...document what you are doing or seeing. Or what someone else is seeing or doing. What stays the same in every photo? What changes?
• Same place different time...photograph the same place, the same way, but at a different time...vary by minute, hour, day, week...decide one method and keep it constant
• Same person different time...photograph the same person, the same way, but at a different time...vary by minute, hour, day, week...decide one method and keep it constant.

Thematic Conceptual Series

Bill Finger creates cinematic stories from photographs of constructed, miniature dioramas. Walkng the line between reality and fiction, these stories convey ideas about the process of memory, our trust in photography, and collective social fictions.

Andrew Moore captures how time and economic forces, seemingly beyond our control, can change a city. He depicts decaying structures related to the auto industry in Detroit, to tell a sad story of a city that was once a vibrant and thriving place. Each photograph carries an echo of the past, and is operates very tightly around the central idea. While each image is strong, the work should be considered the whole series, rather than the individual photos. 

Denis Darzacq creates images of individuals in ordinary settings that appear to defy gravity. The project gains strength through repetition and variation within this theme.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HonzF8LbLE

Multiples (diptych, triptych, etc.)

The synonym/antonym exercise is a good example of this kind of work.

On more of a documentary, story-telling mode, Lucia Ganieva, creates rich biographical portraits of people relating their persona to their vocation, past, workplace, etc. using diptychs and triptychs. Notice how the frames work together to build meaning.

Uta Barth is a photographer of place. Instead of creating visual descriptions of places, like a traditional landscape photographer would do, she is more interested in evoking or suggesting how we experience places. Often working with multiple frames, she changes the scale, plane of focus (in some she focuses on the "space between" foreground and background), in an attempt to more closely mimic the process of human perception, as well as the passage of time.

Typology

Jeffrey Milstein creates a typology of aircraft.

Bernd and Hilla Becher are particularly associated with this mode of art

Jeff Brouws

Artists like these are concerned with cataloging and "collecting" with their camera. For instance, Brouws isn't interested in singular train cars, but the almost endless variations between numerous cars. Working with a mode called typology, he creates grids that simultaneously show similarity and contrast.

Idis Khan quite literally quotes Bernd and Hilla Becher's work with industrial architecture, but layers the multiple variations of structures within a single frame instead of a grid.

There is a long history in photography of objectification based on race, gender, stereotypes and notions of the "other". African Americans have been notably objectified in this way. Photographer Myra Greene turns the tables on this history with her clever and effective series: "My White Friends".

Grids

Keith Johnson now works almost exclusively with grids, exploring the hidden language of forms found in the natural and human landscape.

Joiners, many-make-one, panoramas

Susan Bowen implies what we might see over the course of a long walk...the visual wanderings of our curious eye. She uses plastic cameras, only partially advancing the film between exposures to create one long, continuous flow of visual stimulation.

Robert Richfield has an interesting take on the panorama. Instead of stitching together a seamless expanse, he presents it with the frame divisions. How does this affect the meaning of his work and how we "read" it?

For examples of Contact Sheet Sequences, look at Thomas Kellner.

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6RxES1iJxg

Essentially these are a form of what the book author terms joiners, or many-make-one, extended images that functions like fragmented panoramas both vertically and horizontally. David Hockney is well known for working this way. The following images, by Hockney, show some variations of this approach. How do they differ?

This last Hockney image begins to imply the passage of time—in particular, the time it takes to shift one's gaze, looking around a room, or having a conversation. Uta Barth, mentioned above, also references the time we take to experience and perceive reality, often working with diptychs that reveal a few minutes' difference in time.

Atta Kim compresses different moments of time within a singular frame, using extended exposures. Something similar can be accomplished with multiple exposures and layers.

Margaret Hiden is explores how family histories can be told through narratives that blend the past and present to form richer tapestry of telling. Here, images function much like memory... where our present is continually colored by the echos of the past.

Michael Taylor explores how light and time relate, creatine some very interesting abstracted imagery.

Directorial Mode

Kelly c. Tate and Kelli Connell are both artists that explore the dynamics of human relationships and interpersonal communication. In Tate's work, the artist plays the roles of the subjects depicted, while Connell uses a friend. The final images are staged digital composites that suggest narrative while engaging social questions. When images are staged for the camera, this is referred to as directorial mode... the photographer directs the scene like a director would do on a movie set. This of course all began with Cindy Sherman...

Project Description

For this project, create imagery in an extended format that engages a strong concept.

Possible formats may include digital books, sequences, series, grids, diptychs, triptychs, etc. Choose one format for the whole project to best explore your subject and what else you are trying to convey about the subject. Use examples presented above as well as ideas from the book, or even use the class exercise exploring congruency/incongruency to help you get started. This is a fun one—the more adventurous you can be with your subject matter, the more exciting it will be.

Turn in:

Now remember that when you are assembling your multiples (grids, diptychs or otherwise), save out flattened versions of your work files just to keep things manageable. But make sure you are not losing your layers; after flattening, always "Save As," rather than "Save"

• For series and sequence, a digital book can be a nice format. Digital books from blurb or Apple would represent your final prints

• For grids and multiple images, generate large file that includes all the supporting images. If you are doing a grid, this would mean one file depicting the grid. For diptychs, this would mean building one file that contains two images, like the class exercise. 

• Jpeg versions: jpeg, quality 10+, sRGB, no longer than 1500 pixels in one direction (use image processor to set this up)

• How much to do? If you are doing diptychs or triptychs, turn in at least 3 separate ones. If you are doing a large grid, one would be fine. It depends on your project—discuss with instructor. If you are doing a series, aim for 8-12 images.

• All of your individual photos that go into this project should be edited appropriately in photoshop. This includes the skills covered so far in class: WP/BP, global tone adjustments (brightness and contrast using curves and/or camera raw), color adjustments, local adjustments (dodge and burn, blending mode curves with masks), sharpening. All Raw conversions must be smart objects.

There are others. Check out those from the reading, this blog, and other sources:

Some Student Work:

Prelim critique: Wednesday 3/4

Reading

For Monday, 10/12

Read chapters 2, 5 and 6

Write up a summary of five main take-away points (for you) from each chapter.

Photoshop practicum

Please be able to accomplish the following:

RAW files, in camera RAW module:

• Workflow options to set as smart object
• Global adjustments (all appropriate adjustments in "basic" menu, plus tone curve)
• Local Adjustments

JPEG files, in Photoshop:

• White Point / Black Point
• Curve Adjustment Layer for brightness
• Curve Adjustment Layer for contrast
• Basic dodge and burn layer

Both RAW (smart object) and JPEG derived images in Photoshop

• Sharpen with High Pass layer
• Blending mode curve adjustment layers (multiply, overlay, screen, etc.)
• Local adjustments with blending mode curves (advanced dodge and burn, with initial lasso selection, layer mask, etc.)

All:

• File correctly saved as PSD files, with layers
• Layers clearly labelled

Project 1

Based on discussions about your assignment 6 images (meaningful subject matter), develop a group of images around a concise theme or idea. It can be within person/places/things (choose 1), but developed further into a more ambitious and sophisticated project. It will be helpful to be as specific as possible about your subject or idea. A collection of haphazard images does not make for a strong project. Intention is important, as well as follow-through.

Work will be evaluated on:

• Clarity of idea/main subject/theme/concept
• Strength of images (framing, composition, etc.)
• Technical camera skills (sharp focus, solid exposures)
• Photoshop /image editing skills
• Whether project is adequately realized (follow-through)
• Print quality

Due Dates:

Prelim critique: 9/30 (Wednesday)

Final critique: 10/7 (Wednesday)

Portfolio of 7-10 images, 5 of these should be printed.

Assignment 6: Approaching subject and meaning.

(Student: Craft)

Merely capturing a subject does not automatically convey meaning or content.

For example, a photographer who says "I like to photograph people," is saying very little about what they are really trying to communicate. Yes they may show the presence of someone, but what do they want to say about that person... who they are, what they represent or what they stand for?

Look at the image above. The subject(s) are clear enough... half of a woman's face, a blurry green background. But what else is going on?

• Why are we seeing just half the face...that's kind of mysterious.
• What expressions are being expressed through that single, penetrating, eye?
• Why do I keep looking back and forth between the green eye and the green background?
• Why does this picture make me feel a tad...uneasy, nervous?
• Who is this person anyway? 
• What the heck is going on?
• What is the photographer trying to communicate?

Very quickly, this picture leads to interesting questions. The best art is about interesting questions.

For this assignment, I invite you to ponder questions about the subject you choose. So, if you "like photographing people" please ask yourself the following questions before/during/after you shoot. Be as specific as you can.

• What people?
• Who are these people?
• What are they doing?
• Where are they?
• Why?
• What do they really look like...hair, eyes, nose, head, arm, body, posture, texture, color...
• What visual story do I want to share about them? 

Similar questions can be asked about objects or places. Answer the questions with your camera...share with us.

Assignment:

1. Select a subject that you are commonly drawn to. Person, place, thing. Choose one. No animals or pets, for now. 
2. Apply the above questions, adjusting them to person, place or thing.
3. Answer the questions with pictures, not words
4. Be prepared to discuss your driving questions in class and share the images that resulted

For Monday, 9/14. 

Purchase paper

Update: In class assignment (Wednesday 9/9)

Choose a single image that moves you, drawn from all the images you have made from the class so far. It should meet the following guidelines:

• Good overall exposure...no extremes of light and dark
• Not extensibly cropped. 
• Adjusted using best workflow practices
• Optimized for printing...sharpened using high pass layer, brightened slightly
• Copy of the file transferred to the server. Make sure you do not transfer your original.
• Proper printing workflow for your paper

Homework: Print two more for Monday 9/14

Please order your paper to have by 9/9

Choose one, two or all three...

Epson Premium Luster Photo paper

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?N=10219807&InitialSearch=yes&sts=pi

Epson Premium Glossy Photo paper

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?N=10254312&InitialSearch=yes&sts=pi

Epson Ultra Premium Presentation Matte paper

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/203721-REG/Epson_S041341_Ultra_Premium_Presentation_Paper.html