Experimental Photography - Tom

                                                              Experimental Photography

Experimenting in photography has gone on from the outset, with artists trying new means to expand their work and in turn creating difference. Nowadays you have experimenting but it is much more in line than what was then due to limitations.

                                                                      Juxtaposition 

Juxtaposition is putting images side by side to give a meaning.

            Text and Image

In this week, we had to go out and take photographs keeping in mind the relevance of text and how it informs the image. For my image and text i wanted to include it in the photograph upon taking it as opposed to adding it in after and on top of the photograph. So instead I looked around quite a bit to try to find the right shot for the purpose of the task and luckily it happened this man walked passed pedestrian road works sign.

                                                                      Montage

This week we had to produce 1 image, which combine a few of our own photographs or images we found to make one. The idea of this is to communicate an idea or set theme through imagery.

                                                            Photogram/Scan

Using a combination of chosen objects that relate to each other we had to make a photogram to send a message of a concept or an idea.

                                                        What I want to produce.

My intention for the experimental project is to use street photography as a means for my project. I want to either, keep the person in colour and blacken out the background, retaining some colours and features or the background in colour and darken the person.

My inspiration for doing this for my project was more the idea behind street photography than any influences from photographers. The idea is, to capture an essence of something going on or somebody in an artist way. In order to do this, the two main aspects of a street photography are the person/animal or the environment. With taking one of these away, I wanted to see if in fact it made a difference to the photo, giving it less meaning and interest compared to the original untouched version.

Another thing, I also wanted to incorporate is the idea that people judge people by their faces, but I wanted to try to show the backs of people, but have it so the people in the photo has some distinctive features that sum the front of the person up.

           

For this project, I have taken a look at a photographer called Steve Huff. Some of his photographs i thought would be good example of how I want the people to be in my photographs.

I think this photograph would be nice as there are two figures in the photograph which I would whiten out while darkening the background leaving them to as they are in the photo and hardly any colours in the background.

I think this photo represents, in a way, what I want my behind the person photograph to look like. I think this picture is a great example for myself outside of the project as there is an added person looking at the camera which gives the photograph more character, but also not necessarily good as I want just the one subject in my photographs for this project.

I have also gone back in my previous street photographs to look at them to see what style of photos, and in what way i feel would work well with my current theme of which i would've used should i have taken them in this project. 

Final edited photographs.



The first one was of a builder walking along while talking on his phone. I made the main subject white while the background is in black and white. I thought this one was ok, but not my favourite from the collection of ones I have done.

Editing.

With these photograph you have to get the right balance between the background and the white person. For instance the one above I had to make sure that the background was not overbearing, so i made the black and white darker so that the white person stuck out more.

The next photograph is of the side of a man standing at the traffic lights with a view also of down the road. I liked this photograph the best as the main subject had a more interesting character for myself than the others.

Editing.

This one was a little difficult to edit white based on the head of the man being in the sky which is equally bright. I think the white man with the background clouds have a nice contrast and the road which leads to a scene of a back of a taxi and bus.

The following is of a man standing over a bike stand. I liked this photo as he is a character in of himself and whiting him out made the photograph look good for this project.

Editing.

This one I thought wouldnt look right as the man was leaning over. I thought it may have look a little weird due to not being able to see what hes resting on well. Im not so keen on the background so edited it darker to make the person stand out. 

Evaluation

I think this project went well and enjoyed editing my photographs minimally but still creating something different. I think I will be continuing doing whiting out possibly in some future photographs I take.