Jan Von Holleben Inspired Photoshoot

 In today's lesson my class and I created our own Jan Von Holleben inspired experiments. We thought of some ideas to stick to theme of Jan Von Holleben's 'Dreams of Flying'. In the previous lesson we thought of basing our experimentation on one of our class members birthday (Shaniece). We all liked the idea of having a large cake as the main focus with all of us popping out of it, whilst Sheniece was floating above it holding birthday balloons. (The section with the balloons was inspired by the image below created by Jan Von Holleben).

Once we tried to think of materials to use to make the cake, we realised that it would be too difficult to make a cake out of materials, e.g:sugar paper, large enough to be visible when taking the picture from a birds eye view angle. We then decided to change the idea and have four different characters in one photo. The four characters we thought of were: one person with rocket shoes; another with angel wings; a third inside a balloon and the fourth person would be holding balloons. Throughout the proccess of creating these images we ensured that each person looked as if they were flying in the sky, so that it relates to the theme of: 'Dreams of Flying'.

These are images of some the students in our class preparing the props for the photoshoot:

The photo on the right shows Sheniece making the angel wings and me cutting out fire flames from card.










The photo on the left shows Dee-Kay tying balloons together.


















Overall, the props that we used were:            - balloons
                                                                 - string to tie the balloons together
                                                                 - orange and yellow card for the fire
                                                                 - large sheets of clear plastic for the bubble
                                                                 - white card for the angel wings 
                                                                 - a large blue sheet for the sky
                                                                 - white cotton wool for the clouds 

To begin with, we spread the blue sheet out, as the sky.

We then placed the objects for the first photo onto the sheet in the composition we thought looked the best.

Three of us; Dee-Kay, Toni and I instructed our two models; Ben and Shaniece on where would like them to lie down and what positions they should be in. This picture was unsuccessfull because it is visually unclear that Ben, on the right is in a bubble, however the way that Shaniece is holding the bubble is obvious that she is supposedly flying in the sky with balloons. Another aspect to this picture that made it fail is the layout of the cotton wool; it doesn't look like clouds.

As a result of the unsuccessful image above, we decided to change the model inside the balloon to Dee-Kay as he would embrace the role more, we also changed the character that Shaniece was; instead of holding the balloons she was an angel. We decided that Shaniece should be an angel because we thought about the aesthetics of the picture; rather than using pink balloons we decided to create a colour theme using; blue, white and a semi-transparent piece of plastic. This theme creates a calm mood which ties in with the other theme involved; flying which is also 'calm'. 

This picture was created using guidance and instructions from Ben and Shaniece.

This picture is the development of the picture. In this photo we have three characters; a boy flying with rocket shoes (Dee-Kay), me as an angel flying with wings, and lastly, Toni flying with balloons. Also, in this picture Shaniece is fixing the props in a way she thought looked best.

This is the final photo of Dee-Kay, Toni and I, which I believe turned out to be very successful as our characters are visually clear & I think we actually look as if we are flying in the sky. The only negative side to  this photo is the layout of the clouds; as the balloons have been placed ontop of some of the clouds, it is hard to realise what the cotton wool is supposed to be.

Jan Von Holleben In-depth Analysis

This image was created by Jan Von Holleben, a man who was born in 1997, Cologne and spent her childhood in the southern German countryside and is currently a cinematographer and child therapist. When he was 13 years old, he went in his father's career in photography and begun experimentation with 'magical tricks'. After teaching children with disabilities at a school in Freiburg, he moved to London and achieved a degree in the Theory and History of Photography at Surrey Institute of Art and Design and became well known in the photographic scene within London. Throughout his recognition in London, he worked as an art and photographic director as well as a picture editor.

In a previous interview Jan Von Holleben spoke about what he most likes about photography, and said that he likes the fact that he has 'total freedom to switch between vision and reality or to combine both to whatever levels'. He also mentioned that 'people are so dramatically receptive to photography' which links to the photo above of a boy laying on the floor holding balloons pretending to fly in the sky. I believe that the phrase and the photo relate because the model in the picture is clearly being 'receptive' to the idea presented by Jan; the way he is lying down is quite dramatic and makes it seem as if the balloons are pulling him across the sky (which is actually the floor) which is what I believe was Jan's intentions for the image.

I think that Jan Von Holleben has carefully thought about the aesthetics of the image as all of the colours blend together well; he has focused on using red/orange/brown/cream and yellow mostly. This is my favourite picture from his collection of 'Dreams of Flying' because the positioning of the model and the balloons makes it very effective.

Meaning:

In an interview Jan Von Holleben said: 

'One has to take into consideration that I am a critical child of my own generation.
I saw bits of the 80s, the 90s and the change of the century. Visual culture has done ANYTHING possible within those years. Everything has been retro-ed or emerged from its own potential. Digital photography got invented and created full democracy amongst the medium. For myself and my photography, I try not to fall into any styles or trendy features. I am a purist and probably rather a visual communicator or illustrator than a professional photographer in the common sense.
Most of the work I do is based on text or theory which I translate into images. I try to use a neutral and timeless style and my grammar is based on a fun and easy approach to the subject matter.

My procedure would be:
Fully understanding the subject matter (research), then walking with the idea for some days, starting with some sketches on paper (for myself as memory of ideas but also to explain my team and possible models how my idea works), starting production (which can be a 10 minute shoot in the studio or a two week project or split into various individual shoots depending on project) I am extremely pragmatic about my time and efforts. No fuzz and most of the times my team and I look like some funny immature photo-students when doing projects (which gives us usually access to all areas as I am hardly ever taken serious by outsiders)

Question: Hidden meanings? Are there any?
If at all: Life is factual very easy and photography is a piece of cake (if you take it serious)!
The best feedback I get from people on a regular basis is, that I make them very happy. Maybe that is a hidden meaning? Maybe that I truly enjoy what I do as a job and see no boundaries. Photography has not many boundaries.

I can work on a book with Steidl one day, can shoot advertising the next, work with various magazines and make a fine art exhibition at the same time. All in one week. Freedom.
I can switch between studio, outside location, business center and shopping mall or black and white, snap shot style or colourful pseudo lifestyle photography. More freedom.'

United Colours Of Benetton

At the beginning of the lesson we looked at the picture above and briefly analysed it for approximately 10 seconds. Our thoughts of the picture were: it may have a multicultural subject; it has a very explicit context and the faces of the two models are obscured as we cannot see them. Also, due to the fact that we cannot see their faces it seems as if their identity is hidden. 

However, when we observed it again for approximately 5 minutes our views on the image changed as we were then able to thing in-depth the purpose for the composition, colours and  objects (models) used, as well as the clothing. We noticed that there was a high contrast in the two main colours used as a black woman was used and a white baby being breast-fed by her, which is unusual as they are clearly are different races. This concept of the picture made me feel quite confused as I didn't understand the subjective points of the image straight away. 

As we all spoke about the picture as a class I begun to understand that the colour of the woman's clothing was a main aspect of the image as it represents the united colours of Benetton. The use of the colour red symbolising united colours links to the composition of the models; representing support, and a strong connection between the woman and child, and two different races. 

AS-A2 Introduction

1. What goals can you set yourself for this project?
I intend to complete all set work by the deadline and research the variety of photographers to gain my knowledge on the subject. 

2. What are you going to do to meet the requirements of this project?
I will complete work by the deadline date set, and experiment with techniques and materials inspired by the artists shown in the brief.

Photograms

Man Ray and Moholy Nagy are both photographers that have inspired me to create photograms as a part of my final outcome.

I will create my photograms by placing objects onto the paper and exposing it to light on the enlarger. Once this is done I will place the paper into three different chemicals; developer; stop; fix. I intend on using jewellery to make photograms as I have now decided to focus on 'hands and jewellery' for my final outcome. Once I have made basic photograms I will experiment with different techniques and materials; placing a hand made negative into the enlarger, moving the objects, or moving my hand over the paper and objects during the exposure time.

Man Ray is a photographer who created this type of photography; photograms. When he first developed them he named them 'Rayographs'. He discovered this in 1921 in Paris whilst experimenting in the darkroom whilst developing images, and accidently left an object on a piece of paper whilst being exposed to the light.

A photogram made by Man Ray:

I believe that this picture was created using a role of film, aswell as a rubber band on the top left. The way that the film is coiled creates an amazing effect as it shows a contrast with the colours grey, black and white. 


Moholy Nagy is an artist who also experimented on photograms. He took on a large amount of design jobs and in 1927-1929 he became an editor of the art and photography department of a magazine made in Europe named International Revue. He was commonly known as one of the 'fathers' of light art as he worked on doing light sculptures and moving sculptures. As he was such a great artist, when he died of leukaemia in 1946, Budapest named a university after him in his honour; Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design.

A photogram made by Moholy Nagy:

This image by Moholy Nagy is very interesting in comparison to the picture above by Man Ray. This is due to the fact that Moholy has also used a role of film, but has captured the image differently. He has stretched out the role of film more which allows there to be more white and black rather than grey aswell. I also believe that he used a lower appeture to allow more light onto the object and paper, which helps the white colour show.

Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke was a German painter and photographer (13 February 1941 - 10 June 2010). He was an artist who experimented with a variety of styles, subjects and materials. In the 1970s he focused on photography and then concentrated on painting 10 years later. The New York Observer once said: 'Polke used his camera like a sketchbook; and he treated his photos like paintings, experimenting with, altering or deliberately bungling the development process to create unusual visual effects. Most of his prints are creased and stained. Everything seems unfinished - not in the sense of lacking anything, but in the sense of still being in play'.

I don't think that this experimentation has any meaning as it seems that Sigmar Polke has intentionally made it look abstract, which is the purpose of placing different materials onto the photo paper during exposure. Although the picture has no meaning, it clearly has been planned as there are different materials of different textures that has been placed certain places of the paper. 

This experiment has been done by using an SLR camera to take the photographs as well as a darkroom to experiment different techniques; materials and exposures. 

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