what represents me?
A collection of images that represent some of the things and places that I like to see and interact with.
Many of these photographs were taken in France as this is somewhere I often visit with my friends and my family, so I believe it represents quite an important aspect of my life. Other photos include the photo of the Turkish eye because I am Turkish, a photo of my bed because I sleep a lot and some Stephen King/horror books.
Many of these photographs were taken in France as this is somewhere I often visit with my friends and my family, so I believe it represents quite an important aspect of my life. Other photos include the photo of the Turkish eye because I am Turkish, a photo of my bed because I sleep a lot and some Stephen King/horror books.
THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF PHOTOGRAPHY
During the Renaissance in the 16th century (1500s) many artists, famously Leonardo Da Vinci, strived to create pieces of art which were as realistic as possible. Leonardo Da Vinci is famous for his detailed anatomical drawings and his interest in trying to advance science as much as he possibly could. This was around the time when the desire to freeze a perfect image in time, to keep forever, began to develop.
The camera Obscura was used by realist artists to create the most realistic looking painting as was possible; a very small hole in a wall or screen of a dark room would have objects on one side of it and the light would shine through the hole and a reversed image would be projected inside of the dark room. The camera Lucida is similar to this but much smaller and more portable. It uses a glass prism to superimpose a picture onto a piece of paper or a canvas so that an artist can trace it; therefore creating more realistic images. Devices like this were useful to artists as when you look at an object and try to draw it, you draw what you think you should be drawing, but with the projection of the image the artist can draw it exactly how it is.
The industrial revolution in the 1800s pushed for more advanced technology and for images to be fixed in place so that a moment in time could last forever. There was competition between the French and English to create preserved images. The first photograph was created by Joseph Niepce, of the view from his window, working together with Louis Jaques Daguerre. Daguerre often painted sets for The Diorama, a from of visual entertainment which projected scenery from outside onto the stage. In 1839 he invented the Daguerreotype, a photograph taken by employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapour. Competition from the English came from William Henry Fox Talbot when he created the Calotype at the same time as the Daguerreotype, which was better as it could be reproduced as a negative which would allow it to be printed more than once. Although Calotypes were better for this reason, they were considered worse at the time because the image was less clear than that of a Daguerreotype and so were often disregarded. Over time, more clear images were produced using Calotypes so they became rightly popular.
Early photography clearly reflects regular oil paintings of the time, mainly single or family portraits as well as arrangements of objects and landscapes, but as time progressed photographers developed styles and became far more creative and individual.
The camera Obscura was used by realist artists to create the most realistic looking painting as was possible; a very small hole in a wall or screen of a dark room would have objects on one side of it and the light would shine through the hole and a reversed image would be projected inside of the dark room. The camera Lucida is similar to this but much smaller and more portable. It uses a glass prism to superimpose a picture onto a piece of paper or a canvas so that an artist can trace it; therefore creating more realistic images. Devices like this were useful to artists as when you look at an object and try to draw it, you draw what you think you should be drawing, but with the projection of the image the artist can draw it exactly how it is.
The industrial revolution in the 1800s pushed for more advanced technology and for images to be fixed in place so that a moment in time could last forever. There was competition between the French and English to create preserved images. The first photograph was created by Joseph Niepce, of the view from his window, working together with Louis Jaques Daguerre. Daguerre often painted sets for The Diorama, a from of visual entertainment which projected scenery from outside onto the stage. In 1839 he invented the Daguerreotype, a photograph taken by employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapour. Competition from the English came from William Henry Fox Talbot when he created the Calotype at the same time as the Daguerreotype, which was better as it could be reproduced as a negative which would allow it to be printed more than once. Although Calotypes were better for this reason, they were considered worse at the time because the image was less clear than that of a Daguerreotype and so were often disregarded. Over time, more clear images were produced using Calotypes so they became rightly popular.
Early photography clearly reflects regular oil paintings of the time, mainly single or family portraits as well as arrangements of objects and landscapes, but as time progressed photographers developed styles and became far more creative and individual.
photograms
A photogram is produced in a dark room by exposing light-sensitive paper to light on an enlarger. The paper isn't as sensitive to red lights so the light in the dark room is red and there is a red coloured filter on enlargers so that you can adjust light settings before beginning. When items are placed on the paper and it is exposed to light, shapes of the objects are left behind. A series of chemicals is used to set the photogram.
William Fox Talbot is famous for making photograms of plants (photogenic drawings) by laying plants directly onto a photosensitised plate and exposing them to light without a camera. He invented the calotype process (also known as talbotype), which involved a piece of paper being coated in silver chloride and exposed to light in a camera obscura, creating a negative image.
William Fox Talbot is famous for making photograms of plants (photogenic drawings) by laying plants directly onto a photosensitised plate and exposing them to light without a camera. He invented the calotype process (also known as talbotype), which involved a piece of paper being coated in silver chloride and exposed to light in a camera obscura, creating a negative image.
In my first attempts at creating photograms I experimented with exposure time and using a few different types of objects. I am not happy with how these turned out because I didn't use many different interestingly shaped objects so they look plain and uninteresting. I also didn't think the composition of the photograms through fully before exposing the paper to the light so the composition of the photographs is uninspiring . Despite this I think that i managed to get a good exposure so that you can clearly see the edges of the objects. I did this by doing tests strips to check the right exposure that I needed. To improve I will use objects with more interesting edges and textures and I will think more carefully about the arrangement of the objects I am using and think about how they will look once they are developed.
Double exposure photography allows you to create the illusion of the same item in two different places or different objects in the same place, by exposing the paper for half of the time, moving the objects or adding new ones and then exposing the paper for the rest of the time. By painting on the developer instead of submerging the photogram in it, patterns can be created over the photo. In the second example below I double exposed the photo and also painted on developer. I like how these photos turned out because I considered the composition more thoroughly before taking the photos because I wanted to make sure that the objects would look good layered on top of each other. I like the one where I double exposed it and also painted on the developer because I feel that it adds extra layers and possibly a deeper meaning to the photograph.
PINHOLE PHOTOGRPAHY
Patrick Caloz
I created these photos using a pinhole camera (a small version of a camera obscura). I exposed the paper to the light for two seconds. When developed the photographs turn out as negatives, so to transfer the image to a positive I placed the negative on top of a new piece of photographic paper and i exposed it for three seconds. Light travelled through the white parts of the negative, leaving a reversed image.
solarising
To solarize a photogram I expose the photographic paper to light as you would normally, and place it in the developer. As soon as the image begins to develop I take it out of the developer and expose it to light once again for a very short amount of time (e.g 1 or half of a second) and place the photogram back into the developer. This created a white line around the edges of the object due to the light sensitive chemicals becoming 'confused' and not being allowed to fully carry out their task.
SLR CAMERAS
An SLR camera is a Single Lens Reflex camera.
It uses a mirror and prism system that allows the photographer to view through the lens and see exactly what will be captured. With Twin lens reflex and rangefinder cameras the viewed image could be significantly different from the final image. When the shutter button is pressed on a mechanical SLR the mirror flips out of the light path, allowing light to pass through to the light receptor, permitting the image to be captured. Regular SLR cameras use films which can be developed and blown up into large photographs but digital SLR cameras allow you to print photos digitally and in better quality. Canon, Nikon and Pentax have all developed digital SLR cameras (DSLRs) using the same lens mounts as on their respective film SLR cameras. |
aperture and shutter speed
The aperture is the space through which light passes through in a camera. By increasing the aperture, more light is allowed into the lens. Combined with the shutter speed (how long the shutter is open for) this can impact how bright the photograph is. If too much light is allowed in for too long, the photo can be overexposed, and vice versa.
contact sheets
Film is used in regular (not digital) SLR cameras. They are thin flexible strips of plastic coated with light-sensitive emulsion for exposure in a camera.
A contact sheet is a piece of photographic paper on to which several or all of the negatives on a film have been contact-printed. It allows the photographer to present and show how there is a cohesive theme to the set of photographs. It also allows them to choose the best one or two photographs that is well composed and represents the theme well. Some photographers are known for keeping the contact sheet as the final product and blowing them up to huge sizes.