Experimental Photography Task 1: Case Studies

Bekki Asquith

• Historical: Older photography work which uses traditional methods. • Contemporary: More modern photography which may use non-traditional or

traditional methods. Contemporary photography means a current photographer. Normally, most photographers are said to be modern up to a particular degree. This photographer is known to provide modern services and uses modern equipment for their work.

• Traditional: This method of working uses older methods such as film photography, cyanotypes, dark room techniques and paper collage.

• Non-traditional: This method of working uses more modern techniques, in particular digital production, to achieve it’s aims. Traditional methods of working can still be employed but use digital methods of production.

• Fine Art: Fine art images are created as a piece in themselves. "Photography that is done as a fine art -- that is, done to express the artist's perceptions and emotions and to share them with others“ Gloria McDarrah. "A picture that is produced for sale or display rather than one that is produced in response to a commercial commission" Terry Hope. This work usually appears in galleries, exhibitions and fine art books and magazines.

• Commercial: Commercial work is often produced in response to a brief and then used for another purpose, rather than just being a piece of art in itself. It could be used for a wide variety of reasons including advertising and promotion. This sort of work appears in a wide variety of contexts. It can appear on adverts in a range of different media and also be used to promote bands and events.

Dara Scully

Antagonism – Experimental Photography by Dara Scully

Low exposure black area

How Scully constructed the image

Image 1

Image 2

Cloudy sky

Trees Image 1

Image 2

Finished image

• Scully has created this image by taking two separate photographs. He has taken two images with the black area in the middle, they were both at the bottom of the two photographs. He has used a low exposure so that the black area appears very dark so that they will certainly match when they are put together. Scully has then placed the two images together, (the bottom one, upside down) to imitate reflection. This image looks strange and unusual because it looks like a reflection technique has been used in a water source, however there are no trees to have been reflected. This adds an element of mystery and intrigue.

• This photograph is traditional. This is because the way that Scully took both of the photographs to place together was traditional; He used a low exposure in an outdoor environment, he did not use any special photographical effects in order to make the image look different to how it naturally looked in low light. I would also say that this image could be classed as a fine art image. This is because it is taken and composed with care by the photographer and it is made into a work of art of its own by the way that Scully has created it.

• Given that Scully is a current photographer and her photographs can be seen in places such as social networking sites like Tumblr makes him a contemporary photographer and makes his work contemporary photography. She is a contemporary photographer who uses traditional photography skills, or at least she does in this photograph in particular.

• Photographs such as this one could be displayed in galleries or exhibits for experimental photography. It could also be shown in an art photography book. Obviously the image could be seen on Dara Scully’s own personal website and social networking sites and anywhere else that she chooses to display them to the public. A photograph like this could also be used in an exhibit for landscape photography given the surroundings and subject of the photo.

David Hockney

Telephone Pole by David Hockney, 1982

• Hockney has used the photomontage technique here. He has found a scene/subject that he would like to photograph and taken lots of different close up shots of the different parts of it. He has covered each section and part of the image and then fit the photos together to recreate the scene that he originally saw and photographed. He took the photos with a conventional traditional camera then developed the film and had the photos as copies. He then fit all of them together in a scruffy fashion to create a collage style and recreated the original image.

• This kind of photography is traditional. This is because of the type of camera that Hockney uses and also how he develops the film. He doesn’t use a technical photo editing programme such as Photoshop for his work, he uses the print photographs and rearranged them by hand to create quite a large image. I would say that this image is also classed as fine art. This is because the image that Hockney has created is like a work of art all of its own and expresses Hockney’s perceptions and emotions for the scene.

• This photograph is historical. This is because it was taken and composed in 1982. This is a historical image which has been taken and composed using traditional and conventional methods which really shows the roots of traditional photography.

• Images like this one of Hockney’s could most likely be found in art galleries and art or photography exhibits. They can also be found on the internet and on David Hockey’s personal website http://www.hockneypictures.com/ amongst other pieces of his work.

Experimental Digital Photography - Bodies of Thought Series by Kristin Smith

Kristin Smith

• This image has used the movement technique. Kristin Smith has used a dull, lowly it room or studio and chosen to place someone in the middle, who looks to be a child. The figure in the middle of the image is very high key lit and the exposure allows a lot of light to be shone onto it. This has been achieved by the figure moving, there being a lot of light shone onto them, and a long shutter speed on the camera. It isn’t clear, but the photographer could have also used the out of focus technique to emphasise the idea of the figure moving.

• This photograph has been taken in a traditional way in a dark room with lighting like a conventional photograph. However I think that more non-traditional methods have been used on a technical computer programme such as Photoshop because the colours look emphasised. I also think this because the lighting looks like it has been changed on a way that could only be done on something like Photoshop. This photograph is an example of fine art photography because it is a work of art in itself rather than being a commercial piece of photography.

• This photograph is interesting and intriguing. It plays with exposure, movement and lighting. It is a more contemporary image rather than historical. The photographer, Kristin Smith is a current photographer and all of her work follows the same kind of theme of ‘blurred our bodies in motion.’ She is described as a contemporary photographer who expresses herself and her emotion through photographs such as this one.

• Images like this could be found in a fine art or contemporary photography art book, exhibit or gallery. These photographs can also be found on the internet in places such as Kristin Smith’s information and promotion pages.

Tatiana Antonuk

Theatre of the Imaginary – Self Portraits

• This photograph uses the movement technique. Antonuk has taken a self portrait here, most likely on a tripod so that the image remained stable and un-blurred during the exposure. She has used a long and slow exposure and shutter speed. There is a clear light being shone towards the face in the photograph which was probably to help with the exposure setting of the camera; so that enough light was let in to capture the movement. This image has been taken on a grey scale setting which is a conventional and traditional setting that most cameras have now.

• This image shows the use of traditional photography methods. There is no sign of any digital manipulation or more modern, non-traditional methods being used here. This photograph and others like it also by Tatiana Antonuk are described as contemporary commercial photography. These photographs could easily be used for commercial use such as advertising and promotion because they focus on one subject. This photograph in particular could be used to advertise some kind of make up or hair product.

• This photograph and others like it also by Tatiana Antonuk such as the others in her ‘Theatre of Imaginary’ collection are described as contemporary commercial photography. It is contemporary rather than historical because it it uses more modern photography methods and also because Antonuk is a modern, recent photographer.

• Images like this could be found in an art collection book, maybe of the ‘Theatre of Imaginary: Self Portraits’ collection that Antonuk created herself. These photographs can also be sen on Antonuk’s personal art website www.antonukart.narod.ru/