Blakeny 2012

Blakeny means boats, fishermen, wellingtons, seagulls, crabs, rotten planks, rain, woodland walks, a house on the horizon, a warm fire, bread, cheese and wine, friends, and many games of scrabble.

Summer Self Portrait Project

 Our photography project for the summer holidays was to take a self portrait photograph everyday...

 

Jumping for joy at Aldeborough beach.

 

These are my favourites; I took about ten photographs, each with an object (from around my house) obstructing by face, in response to Helen Sear's Sightlines.

These are just a few of my favourite pictures, I have many more waiting to be cut out and glued into my sketchbook. These photographs have not been edited in any way on photoshop.

Snap

I was scrolling through my reading list when this caught my eye:

 Noah Kalina takes a self portrait every day, and has been doing so for the last 12 and a half years! He has compiled all of them together in a video that you can see here on Colossal, or here on youtube. You can't really tell from the picture above, but it shows all of his pictures so far (4,500 in total!) I hope the links work!





 

Photoshop Experiments

At the photoshop workshop we attended as part of the City College trip, we looked at Magritte's Surreal Room, and came up with our own responses.

And here is mine! The background layer is a picture of an attic (all images used are from google images) and on top of this I have layerd other images adjusting the opacity and scale. My different layers have contrasting levels of opacity as I wanted my image to be dreamlike. 

I am quite pleased with it really, considering that before the workshop I had no idea how to use photoshop at all! Since then I've played around with it at home, and come up with these...

                                                         The Aristocats! :)

My cat Strudel sitting on a paper chair.

City College Trip

Many Wednesdays ago, I trundled along with the rest of the fastrack photography group to Norwich City College. Here we looked around the exhibitions and took part in a photoshop workshop!

I enjoyed looking around the exhibitions very much and went home feeling inspired. Although the main focus of the trip was of course the photography, I also got a lot of ideas when looking at the art and textiles work, which I will write about soon on my brand new art blog.

Here is some photography that I particularly liked. Be warned - the quality of some of my own photographs is not great.

         Can't wait to try this with my own little man!

 I really like the swirly effect. At first I thought it was created by very carefully turning the camera around , but I've since found out that it has been done using photoshop.

The image has been somehow printed onto material and then sewn over.

The photography by Kerry Heaney was definately one of my favourites. These photographs are of disused buildings, with ghostly figures flitting about, like a memory showing the previous use and life within the space. As well as finding these pictures beautiful, I also like the meaning behind them.

Cally Whitham Tree Photography

       

When I first saw this photograph, I thought it was an illustration! I couldn't beleive it had been taken by a camera. I like this very much, and want learn how to achieve the effect in my own photographs.

Fashion

During half term, I spent a lot of time sorting out the countless boxes, bags, envelopes, and jars that make up my bedroom. One of these was my art box, where I came across my photography folder! In this folder lies any photography that really interests and inspires me. Most of it is sourced from my collection of fashion magazines, but I am hoping to change this, and start looking in less obvious locations when adding to my collection, as inspiration is everywhere, and comes in many forms. 

  

Here, I have brought together my favourite fashion photography that I have in my folder, and tried to justify what it is that I find interesting about it. Enjoy!

A Marc Jacobs advertising campaign by Juergen Teller. I have had a look at some of his other work and found it interesting. I am particularly fascinated by the way his photographs feel instant, like a surge of energy has gone through you, or the flash of the camera has gone off right in front of your eyes.

I feel the same kind of sensation when I look at this, only the effect is more subtle. Another advertising campaign, this time by Steven Meisel for Balenciaga. This picture, like the one above has a fresh, instant feel to it. Infact, I don't immediately recognise it as a picture. I feel like I'm in the room, watching a real person, frozen in time, soon to spring back to life. I also like the way it seems to be just a quick snapshot, that could have been taken by anyone, when in reality it has been taken by an experienced fashion photographer. With one click of the shutter, the photographer has created something quite personal within the picture, giving an insight to the person's life through their surroundings.

Elaine Constantine's work also makes me feel that instant/frozen in time/camera flash feeling (you know the one I mean by now). I think her photographs have a lot of energy, making them powerful, exiting and uplifting.
           

                                        

Javier Vallhornrat - And God Created Woman, for September Vogue 2010. I remember my Grandma buying me my first issue of Vogue on the way to Devon. We stayed in a travel lodge, and my sisters and I needed a little something to keep us entertained. Well, it certainly served it's purpose! Two years on and it is practically falling apart, with more pictures stuck into my scrapbook and on my door than in the magazine, but it is very special. These photographs were always my favourite, and have now made their way into my folder.

They remind my of fairytales and Alice in Wonderland, but also of eras like 30s, 40s, maybe even 50s for the full skirts. Wonderful, beautiful, and glamerous vintage ladies, with an air of mystery that surrounds them. An air that only women could posess, which is exactly the point the photographer wanted to get across though these pictures, leading us back to the title: And God Created Woman.

Paolo Roversi - Wild Roman, also for September Vogue 2010. My favourite thing about these photographs is the beautiful setting, and how the photographer has enhanced its beauty.

There is a great sense of mystery in this photograph. It seems as if the women has approached the cracked window, then apon noticing that she is not alone tries to recline her head and return to the shadows before she is seen.

Another of my most beloved magazines is Love, Spring/Summer issue 7. I love every picture inside, so it was hard to choose my favourites. It also felt wrong to rip pages out to store in my folder - it's such a special magazine, I felt guilty when I did so and put them back! Some photographs I particularly like are the ones taken by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggot, titled The Misfits. Beauty and emotion emanate from every page. The soft light creates mysterious shadows, with the movement of the camera causing a slightly blurred effect.

 

Another collection of photographs from this issue that I like is Cold Summer, by Solve Sundsbo. My favourite being the girl on the white horse - I love the way her hair and the silver mane of the horse entwine.