Installation

The meaning of Installation

The term installation has a hybrid quality that not only takes on different art forms such as painting, sculpture, theatre and performance, but also focuses on specific movements such as dada, constructivism, surrealism, pop art and surrealism. So, space for example was thought to be a physical material that could be turned into a form. In a lot of installation projects, artists put together objects that habit specific physical spaces which have the power to “transport the audiences out of there surroundings and into an imaginary place” where their mind takes them. Some people get confused and this in turn tends them to mistake installation with  installed work .In the artistic world of media art and photography, it’s the space that may be addressed as fictional constructs of certain projects. However with the act of embracing different art forms such as media, culture and histories, it can also represent  tangible experiences

Because artists can cross over into different media, it’s important to note that experiences whether tangible or aesthetic, are still the same, there still experiences. However the important thing to note down is that these experiences come with grand narratives that prefer to focus on the story of the everyday. A way for artists to do this is by focusing on personal recollections and anxieties and turning them into public displays at galleries. A number of artists such as Mike Nelson, Bob + Roberta Smith and French duo Loriot and Melia have produced work involving gathering objects that evoke personal feelings and ideas. French duo Loriot and Melia ‘s work on fragile reflections is a classic example as the arrangements are made from broken toys, glass and plastic shards. Its personal narratives like there work that can relate to people’s memories and dreams as each object can represent  personal experiences or traumatic incidents. However not all means of practice are based on objects put together. Video installations also have the power to evoke powerful emotions as they have ‘cinematographic and video graphic techniques’ such as dissolves, feedback, slow-motion, time lapses and zoom.

Example of installation art

Family Subcultures

Subculture as Family

Nicholas Nixon :

Nicholas Nixon, born in 1947, is known for the ease and intimacy of his black and white large format photography.  Nixon has photographed porch life in the rural south, schools in and around Boston, cityscapes, sick and dying people, the intimacy of couples, and the ongoing annual portrait of his wife, Bebe, and her three sisters (which he began in 1975).  Recording his subjects close and with meticulous detail facilitates the connection between the viewer and the subject.

It's obvious that this particular series documents and reveals the gradual changes within time. Every year Nixon would photograph his wife and her three sisters, and to me, this shows their strong bond as siblings. Over the 30 years he photographed them, there position and place are always the same. Perhaps this is done to show how their family line has been strong throughout their childhood. A change in position might suggest their connection is broken or their's been some sort of confliction.

Sally Mann:

Sally Mann was highly criticized for her work because families weren't usually photography the way she photographed them .Mann's photography touches on a more darker theme such as death and 'cultural perceptions of sexuality'. Upon the release of her third collection called the 'Immeadiate family' there was a controversy that spread all throughout America and abroad, accusing her work of being child pornography. Mann herself considered these photographs to be “natural through the eyes of a mother, since she has seen her children in every state: happy, sad, playful, sick, bloodied, angry and even naked.” Critics agreed, saying her “vision in large measure is accurate, and a welcome corrective to familiar notions of youth as a time of unalloyed sweetness and innocence,”

Virginia is shown with her eyes half-lidded, and her arm between her legs, modestly covering herself. She looks serene, and is transformed into a iconic Madonna like figure, her body free from blemish or scar of any kind. The toy horse is lying down in the dirt, its paint chipping. If the horse has been discarded, what does this say about Virginia's childhood and innocence? 

Documentary Photography

Analyzing a piece of text

The life essence of documentary photography has long been questioned ever since the birth of technology and the way people seem to socially construct the message of photographs. Because of this, the original formation of documentary photography has been over thrown by new methods of more modern practices. For example, now, colour is, in my opinion a global debate as to whether it should stick with the documentation of life. To some people, it “lacks  the technical control and aesthetic order of black and white photography”. Now to work in black and white would be a way to make a “deliberate statement” or a way to reference the past.

According to David Bate the growth of digital photography has “transferred power away from the photographer” as software’s of manipulation such as Photoshop and light room now have the power to change the reality of what the photographer has originally captured in the first place. It no doubt that these software’s can create new and certainly fascinating images, however it is breaking the tradition of documentary photography. Back in the day documentary photography was a way to capture realism, but today the question of whether anything in documentary photography is real or not, is constantly on everyone’s minds

 Now, some documentary photographers are taking in the conditions of artists, who post their work in open spaced galleries in hopes to get their message across. This allusive way of work however, has led to the abandonment “of the well-worn tropes” of photojournalism as their work can’t be interpreted the way they originally want it to be. The argument is that people are now commenting on the images artistic qualities rather than interpreting what the photograph is trying to say.  Not only does this show that it has been dislocated from its former political project but it also shows that the way of distributing documented photographs has drastically changed over the years.  Now it’s a lot about Capitalism as photographs that have no necessary context can be used sell and advertise product. So the question is, what has documentary photography become, and can we really call it documentary photography? Our perception of this is shaped around what other people say which goes to show that there are limitations in documentary photography. This fact was outlined by feminist Angela Kelly while she was making her 1979 selection of feminist photographs.

Future of Documentary Photography

Famous Black and White Documentary Photographer: Dorothea Lange

With the onset of the Great Depression, Lange turned her camera lens from the studio to the street. Her studies of unemployed and homeless people captured the attention of local photographers and led to her employment with the federal Resettlement Administration (RA), later called the Farm Security Administration (FSA).

In December 1935, she divorced Dixon and married economist Paul Schuster Taylor, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley.^[5] Taylor educated Lange in social and political matters, and together they documented rural poverty and the exploitation of sharecroppers and migrant laborers for the next five years — Taylor interviewing and gathering economic data, Lange taking photos.

From 1935 to 1939, Dorothea Lange's work for the RA and FSA brought the plight of the poor and forgotten — particularly sharecroppers, displaced farm families, and migrant workers — to public attention. Distributed free to newspapers across the country, her poignant images became icons of the era.

Lange's best-known picture is titled "Migrant Mother." The woman in the photo is Florence Owens Thompson. The original photo featured Florence's thumb and index finger on the tent pole, but the image was later retouched to hide Florence's thumb. Her index finger was left untouched (lower right in photo).

In 1960, Lange spoke about her experience taking the photograph:

I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange 

The Body as a Political site

The Body as a political site (from web sources)

For many years now the body has always been a political site that's shaped around politics and culture. This is because today's generation is obsessed with the body and anything they say effects the way the media views this topic. . According to 'Elizabeth Ettore' this is because "There is an unspoken and sometime spoken push for us to be normalised. Any kind of bodies  that are seen as not normal are really excluded from society"

The use of advanced technology, particularly has a large influence on body politics as it is where a lot of the people get there source of information from. Things like video games, movies, Tv's, laptops and mobile phones are all different forms of media consumption. If you look around, a lot of teenagers today are slouched over there phones or hovered over there laptops. All different forms of technology have a hold of our body posture, and this is evident in the way that they also have partial control of our minds.

Women today, are especially being criticized by their appearance because of the 'male gaze', which is a man's point of view on how a women should look. A mans perception of what a 'perfect body' should like has always been taken to account and because of this a lot of women in the media and around the world are seen as sexual objects. Every fashion magazine we come across for example, either have models on the front cover or gorgeous looking celebrities. This just goes to show that Fashion photography delivers content about 'body image' like no other, as it not only shapes our society but also shapes our politics. The whole political economy is now all about or mostly about "Capitalism" as the exploitation of women and men's bodies sell products, magazines, photographs etc...

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman was one of the most influential photographers between mid 1970's-1980 as she challenged and raised important questions on how women were represented in society, media and art . Her photographs were inspired by female roles in movies, as she knew that this had a massive impact on the way people in society shaped their identities. At the young age of 23 she chose to photograph herself, experimenting with the idea of shooting 'magazine glimpse  in the life of an "Imaginary blond actress", that she created. The series of photographs were shot, in my opinion to get a visual of what the average women's life at home would be. Because of this, it created a massive stereotypes for women as the message being sent out, was women were "house wives".  Wanting this further,  Sherman then went on to photograph other characters such as, the chic scarlet at her seaside hideaway, the luscious librarian and a domesticated sex kittens. Although her photographs were stereotypical in the sense that they portray women as underdogs, they were interesting and eye capturing because they created scenes that are now considered to be cliches.

Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft's work is a fusion of conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns, focusing on large-scale performance art, usually involving live female models (often nude). At her performances, video recordings and photographs are made, to be exhibited as documentation of the performances, but also as separate works of art. The work and her conceptual approach is neither performance nor documentary, but something in between, and closer to Renaissance painting. She sets up a structure for the participants in her live events to create their own ephemeral composition. The performances are existential encounters between models and audience, their shame and their expectations. Each performance is made for a specific location and often references the political, historical, or social associations of the place where it is held. Beecroft’s work is deceptively simple in its execution, provoking questions around identity politics and voyeurism in the complex relationship between viewer, model and context.

Beecroft's performances have been described as art, fashion, brilliant, terrible, evocative, provocative, disturbing, sexist, and empowering. The primary material in her work is the live female figure, which remains ephemeral, and separate. These women, mainly unclothed, similar, unified through details like hair color, or identical shoes, stand motionless, unapproachable and regimented in the space while viewers watch them.

Sources:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ap2xnMcvpw 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHo3EViZrDY&playnext=1&list=PL7061ED2F44E5DD21&feature=results_video 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanessa_Beecroft 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman 

http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6016/Body-Politics.html 

http://www.fead.org.uk/video354/Elizabeth-Ettorre-on-the-Body-as-a-Political-Site.html 

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5K_y-8qS5LAC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67&dq=the+body+as+a+political+site&source=bl&ots=7TS6ny8YmL&sig=moOmIRdLtivZZOteHy6Jrztit2Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7lMFUY6GB4LU0QWJ3YDAAg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAjgU 

A portal to a different world

7 deadly sins

Ever since I was doing A-level Photography, I could remember myself wanting to try and take photographs of the 7 deadly sins. However, I never got the chance to work on it as it was difficult to to think of Ideas. But now that I've researched photographers I've managed to come up with the idea of using a mirror to reflect the 7 deadly sins. The idea was that the mirror was to be placed in the studio, but after running into some difficulties, I decided to try it outside. The result was fantastic as I got a dream like affect to it that I didn't know I'd get. For me it was the perfect Idea for the "People Project" as I find it fascinating.  Diving into more research I remembered a particular photographer's work when I went to visit "The Metropolitan museum" in New York. His name was Jerry Uelsman, and as I viewed more of his work I began to like it more and more because there was something about the way he pulled people into a different reality that caught my attention. His photographs were look dreams from someone's imagination, and that's what drew me in. A few days later, I ended up ordering his book online called "Other Realities" which showed me some of his other photographs. Like his work, the book itself was fantastic.

I began to experimenting first, by taking the mirror into the woods near my house and placing the mirror in a setting I thought would be perfect. By taking a different shots from different angles, and positions. I found it fun and exciting to take something simple and turn it into something completely different and slightly out of the ordinary.  The two above were taken for the sin envy. The reflection in the mirror is stuck, and is envious that it can't get out while it's other half is free to roam around. I tried showing this to the best of my ability by using the Photoshop tools to make it look as realistic as possible.

Jerry Uelsman: Meditation Mystery 2001

"I am involved with a kind of reality that transcends surface reality. More than physical reality, it is emotional irrational, intelectual, and psychological. Because of thses other forms of reality don't exist as specific, tangible, objects, I can honestly say that the subject matter is only one consideration that proceeds after the fact and not before. We don't select a handsome group of words and then try to say something; but rather we begin speaking and words come out as the result of our efforts to say
  something meaningful"

The piece above was one of my favourite that Jerry Uelsman took as his combination of the clouds and the way he made it look so dreamlike drew me in. It's beautiful how he manages to create a whole world of his own, psychologically and emotionally effecting the people that come across it. it certainly has affected me as I was always interested in the human mind and how dreams worked. His work really captured my attention, and to reflect his work methods, I began to use clouds in at least two photographs from my first set.
                                                     

Jerry Uelsman: Untitled 1989

"It is important that we maintain an open dialogue with our materials and process. I believe that this kind of questioning interaction, in both photography and life, is a prerequisite for growth and understanding, in terms of my own development, I have found the recognition of questions more provocative than the provision of answers"

Romantics, Pictorialists and the Photo secession

Reverend Charles Dodgson 1870, Alice Liddel on her 18th Brithday

As mentioned in the previous blog entry, Alice Liddel was the girl that Alice was based on from the famous children's novel "Alice in Wonderland". Some people thought that Dodgson and Alice may have had a more friendly relationship than just friends. It was said that Dodgson didn't just take pictures of Alice but also her sisters while their mother was out of the house.
With a little more research I discovered that Reverend Dodgon told Alice and a group of friends a story that featured a bored girl called Alice looking for an adventure. Everyone, including Alice Liddell loved the story and she eventually told him to write his ideas down.

        Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was the wife of  british Diplomat. This photograph wasa titled "The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty" taken in 1866. Nymph was a mythological term which suggested that (in this photograph) the female gender attracted attention. "Sweet" would suggest innocence or purity which brings us to greek mythology as the greeks were interested in ethics and morality like the Victorians.

The photograph was inspired John Miltons poem called L'Allgerow (1632) Cameron purposely chose a youthful model as she wanted to portray John Milton's poem the way he wrote it. She used the Wet Collodion to produce her photographs but had to be quick as the plates had to stay damp for a period of time

Roselti suggested otherwise as a particual painting by him was seductive and displayed suggestive  features of a women's body.

                                                                 Paintings by Gabriel Roselti     

Sir John Everett Millais: Ophelia/Shakespearean Painting

Sir John Everett Millais was a painter who drew this Painting of Hamlet's love interest in Shakespeare's famous play Hamlet. The painting was of Ophelia after she commited suicide from finding out that her father had been bruttally murdered.

Words to describe her death by Queen Gertrude (From Hamlet)

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:

Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.



Environment project so far

For our first project we were told to take pictures of the environment. It didn't have to be specifically plants or trees, but it could be something like Abandoned Buildings, Forests, Empty cities etc.  The Theme was Isolation and the idea was to show the lost and the forgotten.It was easy for the people in our society to just move on and forget the place like it was never there.......making it seem almost lost and invisible.   I chose to do this because I wanted show how they were once overrun by people, but were now being overrun by nature. This would  have been perfect If I got in because I would have been able to show just how harsh and quick nature is to take over take buildings which are no longer looked after.

London Road Fire Station                                                                                Mayfield Train Station                                                                                                                                                                          

I tried getting into London Road Fire Station and Mayfield train Station, however It was difficult finding a way to sneak in as it was being watched by security camera's. The task was indeed, a difficult one, and I spent a while trying to find a way in without being caught, however it was no use so I had to think up of a new idea and leave this one alone.

The idea that I'm currently focusing on now is street Photography. What fascinated me to do this was how it was so natural, and how things would not be set up, staged or altered in anyway. I wanted to take people in there natural state of environment, because it shows them going about there everyday lives. Not getting ahead of myself, I decided to look at a Photographer called Joel Meyerorwitz before going out and taking photographs for myself. Doing this helped me to gain more insight on what street photography was and showed me how he managed to capture interesting photographs. Once I researched his work and looked at some of his photographs I then went out to capture some for myself, however there was a piece of the puzzle missing. The next day I had an Individual session with Paul Proctor for 20-30 mins and found out that I was so focused on the people in there natural environment that I didn't look hard enough to see I could combine and play around with the text in the image to make them have a connection with each other.

Photograph  by : Joel Meyeorwitz

When I went back after that session I re-thought what Paul said and immeadiately began to take more Photographs that made a connection between the people and the text. I also looked for things that stood out of the Photograph, as Joel Meyeorwitz also did this himself. If you look at the Photograph on the right, you would see that it's not the people that interest him but rather the statue of the tiger that looks like it's about to pounce on someone. 

This was a wake up call for me as I knew that in order to take these sort of Photographs I had to go to a certain location and wait for some interesting to happen. It could be a matter of minutes or even hours, but I was willing to do that to improve my idea.                


Examples of my Photographs :                                

Foreign Travelers and English Naturalists

Frederick Scott Archer (1851) Invented the wet Collodium Process

Wet Collodium Process:

1. To a solution of Collodium (cellulose nitrate dissolved in Ether (discovered 1730) and containing a soluble Iodide

2. Pour Suffiecient Collodium onto a glass plate to form a thin layer

3. In the darkroom Immerse the wet plate in silver Nitrate solution to sensitize the plate (AgNo3 amd AgIt)

4. Expose while wet in NB. Dry Collodium becomes waterproof

5. Decelop in Pyrogallic Acid solution  (derived from oak galls)

6. Fix the developed image with a strong Solution of Thiosulphate or Pottasium cynaide

Frederick Scott Archer developed the Collodium process which became widely noticed in the years after he died. Whilst all this was happening, William Henry Fox Talbot, had heard of Archer's process and began to accuse that Archer's process was similar to his Calotype Process. Talbot became agressive and began to issue public warning to photographs who use the Collodium Process. The photographers that were caught using it would be sued unless they obtained a license from him. In a court hearing Talbot was declared the inventor of the Calotype Process, however he was unsuccesful in getting people to believe that the Collodium process was almost the same. In the end Archer was said to be the inventor of the Collodium process as he published a forumula that many photographers would be able to follow. The process became popular after it was invented and Talbot never bothered trying to renew the Calotype Process he knows it wouldn't get him any money.

Advantages of the Collodium Process:

1. It Produces a negative image on a Transparent support glass

2. It was an imporvement of the Calotype Process which relied on paper negatives and the Daguerroetypes process.

3. The Collodium Process combined qualities of the calotype process (which allows the photographer to make prints  from a single negative) and the Daguerreotype (which sharpens and creates clarity that could not be done with paper negatives)
4. Collodium printing was done on Albumen Paper
5. The glass which supported the images weren't as expensive as silver plate copper
6.  It only required seconds for Exposure

The collodion process had other advantages, especially in comparison with the daguerreotype. It was a relatively inexpensive process. The polishing equipment and fuming equipment needed for the daguerreotype could be dispensed with entirely. The support for the images was glass, which was far less expensive than silver-plated copper, and was more durable than paper negatives. It was also fast for the time, requiring only seconds for exposure.

Disadvantage of the Collodium Process:

1. The entire process had to be done before the wet plates dried
2. This was a major disadvantage for photographers as they only had 10 minutes to complete the entire process
3. It required a portable darkroom, which in those days wasn't possible
4. It dripped silver Nitrate soloution which caused stains
5. Part of the process would sometimes cause the images to lose effectiveness, thus failing to produce an image at all

6. It was sensitive to blue light. Warm and colors appear dark and and cool colors appear really light

Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carrol) Alice Liddel 1859

Alice Liddel was said to have inspired the famous childrens classic "Alice in Wanderland" by Lewis Carrol, whose main character in the book (Alice) was said to be name solely after her.

Alice Liddel- By Charles Dodgson

The hole that Alice jumped into after seeing the rabbit has been interpreted to be the Aperture of the Camera. It's almost as if Alice herself is going inside the camera, into a fantasy world where some things don't make sense. Alice jumped into Wanderland not knowing what was going to be on the other side. And Camera's tend to freeze and capture moments, however all the photographs are different as not all of them end up the same, there are things in the Photographs that the Photographer might not expect to see. It was the same with Alice when she first stepped into Wanderland, she wasn't expecting to be in this whole new world that she's never seen before.

Carte-de-Visite / Early Victorian: Carte-De-Visite was creates by a Photographer called Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi (1854) and first used by Louis Dodero. It was made from albumen print the size of small cards, almost like business card size. These type of Photographs quickly became popular amongst friends and family and was spread throughout Europe and then America. it became quite common for these sort of Photographs to be in Victorian Parlors

Carte-De-Visite : Victoria          The Picture above is a Carte-De-Visite of Queen Victoria wearing a Black Mourning dress to respect the death of her late Husband Albert. These Mourning dresses were usually worn by the family of the deceased for. This was shown In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, however, not every memeber was wearing it and instead wore Lavish party Clothes. This was very inconsiderate and disrespectful as it doesn't show the people grieving for someone that's highly respected

Quote from Hamlet:
Gertrude. Why seems it so particular with thee?
Hamlet. "Seems," madam? Nay, it is; I know not "seems."
'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black,
Nor windy suspiration of forced breath,

No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,

Nor the dejected 'havior of the visage,
Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,
That can denote me truly: these indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play:

                                                     But I have that within which passeth show;

                                                     These but the trappings and the suits of woe. (75-90)

Nadar's Sarah Bernhandt 1865: Photography began tomove on from Portrair Painting and began Exploring different Alternatives. It was starting to approach the romantic period where Photographers were interested in capturing the emotions of the people in there photographs. For example Sarah Bernhandt was Photographed by Gaspard Felix Tournachon (also known as Nadar) . This photograph was slightly more bold and daring as it wasn't done in the early 1800's. It's more seductive and there's a look of longing on the girls face as if it's meant to be for a lover or someone very important to her.  From the Photograph you can see that the woman isn't looking directly at the camera, which makes it easier for the Photograph to take the photograph as it's almost as if she's giving permission for people to look at her. If someone were to look directly at the camera the photographer might be unsure wether or not the person is comfortable as not everyone likes having a camera in there face.

Nadar's: Sarah Bernhandt (1865)

Early operation under Anaesthetic

An an exercise we all got put into groups of 3 or 4 and got given a specific photograph which we had to analyse  It was an interesting exercise as it each helped us to develop are observation skills, therefore making it a little bit easier to analyse a photograph. I find that by looking at the photograph longer helps us to spot things which we couldn't before, and this was true as the first time we looked at the photograph we didn't really know what to say, but as we began to take notice of all the things in the photograph, like the person lying on the bed and the people around him, we began to slowly realise that it looked like a bunch of scientists doing an experiment or doctors about to operate on someone. The answer was close enough as we eventually got told it was an operation taking place at an operation theatre. An operation theatre was a place where an operation would be performed in front of medical students. The photograph was not something people would take all the time, so in my opinion it was taken for the purpose of documenting the operation. 

Things our group noticed:

1. Person on the operating table in white-Could suggest an Autopsy of a body as the person was not awake and the body was being covered

2. Medical supplies on the table- Suggests an operation as back in the day not many medicines had been created. Doctors tended to clean the wounds themselves (this is suggested by the dark coloured water in the bowls which look like blood)

3. The people- People look like scientists as they have a serious expression on there face almost as if they were trying to figure out there next  move. 





The beauty of capturing things we cannot see

Photographer: Matthew Pillsbury

When I first started doing this, I was already entranced by the beauty of capturing something that we cannot see with our own eyes. I love photographs that depict a sense of mystery as it gets us the human mind to tap into that part of our brain that helps us to analyze and think on a more deeper level. We are so used to seeing solid things, that we don't have the time to appreciate looking at the beauty of capturing images that we can not see ourselves.  Matthew Pillsbury was, and is till this day a Photographer that highly motivates me. For my A-level coursework in Year 12 I experimented capturing these sort of Photographs as I was not only interested in the mystery of it, but also the supernatural side of it as it captures ghost like images through our movements.

                                                                       Example of his work: 

                      Examples of my own work:

This took a while more me to do as I had to find the right location and set the right Shutter Speed on my Camera. Before I started to do my final Images, I asked my Cousin, who has very grateful to be my model at the time, to do some test shots. I ended up getting a large variety of shots much like the ones above, however the result was only final when I found the correct exposure and shutter speed through a series of tests. Because I couldn't obviously take some of the Photographs myself I had to set my Camera up on a tripod and put it on a 10 second time. In that 10 seconds I can work exactly where I should go and what I want to capture on the camera. After getting the images I wanted I printed them of and layed them on top of my table looking at which ones where the best. I viewed a lot of his photographs on the interenet, in order for me to be more inspired and take more photographs.

On the International Centre of Photography website, I also watched his video about how he did this and what he thought about his own work. The video boosted gave me some more knowledge on his work and kept me motivated long enough to do even more. I had the chance to view his pictures In the International Centre of Photography Studio ( New York ) whilst on a College trip in 2010 and 2011, however, I didn't get there in time and his work was already removed from the display. But despite that, I still enjoyed viewing all the photographs inside the studio as I got to analyze some of the pieces with the rest of my group.

http://lectures.icp.edu/videos/Pillsbury2008.html (Link to his video/lecture)

http://www.icp.org/ (ICP site- The International Centre of Photography is a small studio in New York)

Photography and How it all Began

Facts leading up to the Birth of Photography:

Joseph Wright of Derby "A philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrey, in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun" (1766)

Enlightenment-Age of reason
Catholic Religion- Enlightenment challeneged superstition  and religious beliefs replcaing it with facts. This is the birth of Experimentation as People, especially artists begin to experiment with their ideas. Joseph Wright's paintings represent this as it shows people experimentinig with science.  This can be seen in his painting called " An experimented bird in an air pump" where you see a bird placed in an air pump, and people around it obviously seeing the result of what would happen if all the oxygen has been sucked out.

When I first viewed his painting, at first I was confused as to what it was trying to depict, but as the lesson went on, we learnt more about enlightenment. Through research I found out that this painting "was an early experiment into the nature of air and it's ability to support life". What interests me about this photograph is the light source. In our case the light can be seen as a sign for hope or peace as it gives of an illuminating glow, which is also known as the Chiaroscuro effect. According to the Tate Gallery "Chiaroscuro is generally only remarked upon when it is a particularly prominent feature of the work, usually when the artist is using extreme contrasts of light and shade". The Chiaroscuro effect orginally orginated around the time of the Renaissance, and thie is evident in the painting as the Rennaisance was the "birth of experimentation"

As you can see the only light source is on the table with various people surrounding it all expressing different emotions. For example, the children in the Painting look worried, and fear for the birds life as it takes its last gasp for breath, whilst the the couple on the very left seem to be in love and only have eyes for each other.

Photography was born in an era of classicism which harked back to Roman sources and Ancient Greek. The Georgian House is a classic example as it had architectural designs which looked like it came from the Roman or Greek Era.

Joesph Hayden Symphany 'Le Matin'- Allegro Circa 1761 - Birth of Classical Music

The Birth of Classical music/ Birth of Enlightenment: This Particular piece represents hope as it's an awakening and an awareness for people. 'Le Matin' depicts sunrise, which again brings me back to light repsresnting Peace and Hope.

                                          George Brander- Table Camera Obsucura 1761

                                             Camera Obscura, Athanasius Kircher, 1646

 

Camera Obsucar was a word in Latin that Meant 'Vaulted dark chamber room'. This was bacially a camera with lenses and mirrors in a darkened box that permits artists to create a more realistic drawing or painting. The image above by  Anthanasius Kircher shows a camera outside the Netherlands in Holand where there are lenses in the centre of each wall that that lets light filter through , allowing the artist in the middle with transparent paper to trace the subject of interest, thus creating a very realistic artistic piece.

More facts leading up to the birth of Photography:

•  The Tarnishing of Silver had been observed since Ancient times and Arabian Alchemists
• In 1727 the German Scientist Johannes Heinrich Schulze observed that silver salts darken when exposed to the sun
• In 1777 Scheele, a swedish Chemist discovered that silver nitrate  darken quickest with blue light
• 1802- Josiah Wedgewood repots success at Producing images on leather which had been impregnated with Silver Salts
• Joeseph Nicephore Niepce (1765-1833) First man to fix the Photographic Image
• The First Photograph ever taken that survied was the "View from the window at Le Gras" which was later sold to Louis Jacques Daguerre  (1787-1851)
• Birth of Photography- 1839!

                                                    "View from the window at Le Gras"

Dauguerreotype  Method:

The Dauguerreotype Method was the first Photographic process to be developed and created by Louis Dauguerre. At first Dauguerre formed a partnership with Josepth Niepce, using a camera Obscura to aid him with painting in Perspective. Through this process, it led him to think of ways to keep the image still. When Niepce passed away in 1833 he began to experiment using various types of Chemicals. The first break through was when he put an exposed plate in his chemical cupboard. According to Robert Leggat, this is what led Dauguerre to discover the Dauguerreotype method, as Dauguerre himself only discovered this when he found his that an image had formed after opening his chemical cupboard. To conclude his break through Dauguerre stated that this happened due to the fact that mercury vapour became present from a broken thermometer. Because of this incident it was possible "to reduce the exposure of time from some eight hours to thirty minutes." Shortly after he discovered this he ended up selling the Daguerreotype method to the French government.

Producing a Daugerreotype:

Step 1. Start with a silver-plated piece of copper and polish it to as close to a mirror finish as possible. Most daguerreotypists use a bench grinder outfitted with a polishing wheel to prepare their plates.

Step 2. The next step is to "sensitize" the plate. Place the plate into a sealed box containing a shallow tub filled with iodine crystals. After a few minutes of exposure to the iodine vapors, your silver plate should take on a purplish hue. Most "dag artists" use specially-constructed coating boxes with a sliding element at the top, allowing them to slide a plate into the vapor-filled box, then slide it out without touching the plate or exposing themselves to the vapors. Iodine vapors are extremely harmful and dangerous to work with, so precautions such as ventilators and respirators are a must.

Step 3. Mount the sensitized plate onto your camera's film holder and seal the camera.

Step 4. Pick a well-lit, stationary subject to capture. Choose something as close to totally stationary as possible, as exposure can take between 1 and 7 minutes depending on the light. Obviously, bright sunlight works best. Instructables.com member duckarrowtypes has created an exposure cheatsheet for daguerreotypes PDF link.

Step 5. In a darkroom, remove your exposed plate and tape a sheet of Amberlith film on top of it. Seal the edges with light-proof tape (both can be purchased at an art supply or photo supply store) and place it in the sun for two hours. This will develop your image, and you should start seeing results within the first 30 minutes or so. This is actually different than Louis Daguerre's original method -- he used mercury vapors to develop the image. This method is much easier, safer and less expensive.

Step 6. Now it's time to wash your plate. Mix up a Hypo clearing agent in a developing tray place the plate into the solution-filled tray. Don't let any bubbles form on the surface of the plate when you're getting it wet, otherwise your image will be ruined. Once the plate is fully submerged, gently stir the solution until your image shows on the plate as clear black and white. Follow with a water bath (using the same care in immersion) to wash away any remaining silver halide particles.

Step 7. At this point, your image is just dust on a silver plate. Touching it, brushing against it, or dropping water directly onto it will ruin it. Quickly preserve it by mounting it behind a piece of glass in a specially-constructed daguerreotype holder. You can buy an antique holder, make your own, or have one constructed by a frame shop.

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Make_a_Daguerreotype (Info from this site)