Florian Imgrund, Stephen J Shanabrook and Amy Friend

This photography was created by a German Photographer named Florian Imgrund, a man who developed his first film camera in 2010. In his photography he plays on human nature by creating double exposures.

The photo above shows a pair of hands in a 'gripping' position' against an image of the forest. You can see the composition has been well thought of and makes the photographs more effective. Florian Imgrund has said that the shot was an 'anologue double exposure'. This means that the effect was simply created with the camera, rather than editing it digitally using photoshop. The use of black and white images adds to the effectiveness of the image, making it look highly captivating due to the dramatic gripping position of the hands with the the tall long trees, creating the impression that every aspect in this is 'reaching out'. This theme creates a connection between the hands and trees which I believe is that the person that these hands belong to needs the trees to live, as the trees are what provide oxygen for us to breathe. The position the hands are in gives a clear meaning, portraying the fact that the person 'needs' the oxygen rather than 'wants' it. Therefore I believe that the photographer (Imgrund) has cleverly composed the hands with the photo of the trees creating a double exposure. Double exposure is a technique that uses a piece of film which is exposed twice to two different images. The result shows the second image placed on top of the other.

After observing this photo and understanding the technique used to create this photo, I have been inspired by Florian Imgrund to create my own double exposure. This is because I am following the pathway of 'landscape photography' for my A2 project. I will use this technique to try and combine two themes together to go beyond the landscape theme. An example of what I could do is photographing portraits of people to place ontop of a landscape photo to create the theme of 'making the world your own' or 'human nature'.

 This photo was taken by and 'edited' by an artist named Stephen J Shanabrook. He was born in Cleveland, USA. He is an American conceptual artist who lives and works in New York City as well as Moscow and Russia, and has graduated from a university in Usa called Syracuse University, The Skowhegan School of Art. 

In 1995, Stephen Shanabrook begun his career by making different kinds of chocolate pralinés after being inspired by his fathers career, as he (Stephen) had to work in the family buisness' chocolate factory as a child, in a town in Ohio. Using this influence, he begun making chocolate sculptures surrounding and combining the themes: pain, death and disaster. Using this technique, as well as with the photo above of the crushed up portrait (known as photo surgery), his experiments give objects/pictures a new meaning. 

The photo above is a part of the collection of photos from the project Stephen did with another artist named Veronika Georgiva; 'Photo Surgery Project', which was selected for a Comme des Garçons ad campaign. 

I think that Shanabrook particularly used a female model in this photo to emphasise the fact that we are able to change the appearance of our face, which is something people believe is a way of ruining your face. Shanabrook has conveyed this idea using a handmade technique. 

This photo was taken and edited by a photographer named Amy Friend. She grew up on the outskirts of Windsor, Ontario, Canada and has previously studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design, which was after she travelled around Europe, Morocco, Cuba and the USA. After she went travelling, Amy returned to her studies and gained a BFA Honours degree, as well as a BEd degree from a university in York. She also managed to achieve an MFA from the University of Windsor, and a Social Sciences & Humanities Grant. 

Amy has had her work featured in a range of publications such as: the Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photography Competition, EnRoute Magazine, LENS Magazine in China, and lastly The Walrus Magazine. Amy Friend has also had her work exhibited nationally and internationally. 

In the photo above Amy Friend has almost made an image look 'magical' by adding her own perception of the view using a handmade experiment technique. This technique is to simply make holes in the photo with a pin, and then shine a light towards the back of the photo. The 'spots of light' almost look like fire flies which is another part of nature, and relates to the naturalistic landscape in the photo. This has inspired me to use this technique in my work this year as I am focusing on landscape photography. I also believe that because she has used such a simple technique to alter a photo, it allows everyone to have their own thoughts/perception of what she was trying to portray, rather than having such an obvious subject matter. 

I think that Amy Friend has carefully thought about composition within this photo. This is because she has created the main focus of the landscape (using a particular camera angle which is 'portrait'), the boat with the two people in it. I think that the use of this was to focus our attention on this aspect to give the impression of movement and motion. She has cleverly highlighted this idea by adding light spots around the picture in particular areas such as the boat and the sea. The use of light it conveys a calm mood, which connects to the theme of the picture that I have identified; the movement of the rippling sea, allowing us to possibly feel the emotion that Amy Friend was feeling at the time this picture was taken. This creates a link/connection between the viewers and the artist herself.

Anna Atkins - In depth Analysis

 

This cyanotype was created by an English photographer and botanist named Anna Atkins who was born on 16th March 1799 and died on 9th June 1871. She is well known as the first person to publish a book with photographic illustrations as well as the first woman to create a picture. She learned from a photographer named William Henry Fox Talbot about and how to use two of his photographic inventions; photogenic drawing and calotypes. Photogenic drawing is a technique that uses an object placed on light-sensitized paper and is exposed to the sun.

The cyantopye process was invented by Sir John Herschel (who was a friend of Anna's) in 1842. The following year, Anna Atkins produced her own cyanotype using seaweed and placing it on the cyanotype paper to be exposed by the sun for a number of minutes. In October 1843 she self-published in her book called Photographs of British Algae : Cyanotype impressions, which was her first published book. Although she is known to be the first person to publish a book with photographic illustrations, in June 1844 Fox Talbot's book: The Pencil of Nature was the first book illustrated with photographs to be commercially published. 

The cyanotype presented at the top of the page is my favourite cyanotype by Anna Atkins. This is because the great amount of detail of the different sections of the seaweed that we can sea. I think Anna Atkins carefully thought about the aesthetics of the putcome of her cyantope and specifically chose vegetation with a large amount of stems to make the cyanotype interesting and well detailed. 

My cyanotype experiments inspired by Anna Atkins:

 

These are my cyanotypes that I made using leaves. For the first one I used a piece of paper (with the chemicals on) to place plants on and leave out in the sun for exposure for 15 minutes. Evidently the cyanotype didn't come out that good as we are unable to see the detail and shapes of the plants. I think that this was due to the fact that the plants did not have direct contact with the paper. As a result of this, I did another experiment with a different material (cloth) and placed glass over the leaves during the  exposure time. This was very successful as you can clearly see the shape of the leaves. 

Free Range Exhibition

This picture was taken by photography student named Pavla Ondrova who has achieved a BA in photography. She quoted: 'Decommissioned is a body of work, which explores the relationship between humans and their natural environment and it emphasises the fragility and transience of the landscape. It is a visual exploration of Burkean notion of the sublime combined with contemporary understanding of the concept'.

This is my favourite piece of photography from the Free Range photography exhibition. This is because I like the way the photographer has taken the picture at a specific angle to almost allow us to appreciate the patter the grass creates that fades off into the distance. The angle the photographer has taken this in has made the ground look like a landscape photo, and has inspired me to use this technique for my landscape photography project. The different colours and tones of the grass (bright colours to dull from left to right) also create a pattern which makes the photo look more effective.