For our GCSEs we are studying portraiture. Portraiture is the art of painting or taking portraits. We are studying portraiture because it shows us the history of portraits, how we see different types of people. Portraiture also can show us a persons culture, religion or lifestyle. Portraiture is important because it shows us how a person is portrayed. Throughout this year we will be learning about different ways to create photographs.
The similarities in these two portraits is; they are both foggy/hazy, they were both created in the mid 1800's. The differences are; Cornelius is looking into the camera but Bayard has his eyes closed, Cornelius' portrait has a greenish tint to it but Bayard's is in black and white, Cornelius created his portrait by Setting up his camera then removing the lens cap and then running into frame where he sat for a minute before covering up the lens again but Bayard created his portrait by exposing silver chloride paper to light, which turned the paper completely black. These photographs are portraits. Cornelius ran into frame so he is a bit off centred but still in the frame, Bayard had time to get into frame and carefully frame himself into the centre and we can see more of the background and more of him. There is nothing noticeable in Cornelius' background but in Bayard's there is a hat, coat and a blanket. The portraits are different colours because they were taken in different ways. I think only Cornelius' head and shoulders are in the portrait because he is close to the camera. Bayard is laying down and has his eyes closed because he is recreating a dead body. Cornelius' portrait only shows his head and shoulders whereas Bayard's shows his whole upper-body. I prefer Robert Cornelius' portrait because it is close up on his face and you can actually see his face. If i could ask Bayard a question i would ask him 'what made you pose as a dead body?' Robert Cornelius Cornelius was a chemist from Philadelphia who liked photography, his family owned a shop and that was were he took the first ever self-portrait. He operated two of the earliest photography studios in the United States, his studio became popular with wealthy patrons and many of his portraits of famous people still exist. His dad, Christian Cornelius opened a lamp-manufacturing shop which is where Cornelius invented the "solar lamp".
My first portrait.
I remember a couple years ago, My nan got all of her grandchildren a photo-album of us since we were born. There was this one picture of my little cousin Jacob when he was about 4 years old, he was sitting on the carpet in my aunts living room, he has two pieces of lego stuck up his nose and one piece in his mouth. The carpet was beige and the floor was covered in legos it looked like confetti, Jacob is just sitting in the middle of the legos chewing on a piece of lego and two pieces up his nose I'm pretty sure it was a red and a blue piece. I would describe the image as: Funny, colourful, weird, happy, small, sweet, memories, cute, momento, constucted. I think portraits have changed a lot since the portrait of my cousin, the photo of my cousin was taken on an iphone 4 so the quality was really bad but now the technology has got better, Portraits are much clearer now.
- I found the task quite easy but struggled with coming up with ways to make it my own. - It was challenging at first to find something to replicate legos but as we walked past an art classroom i saw the coloured paper. - It looks quite similar to the original but my cousin was much smaller and he had actual legos whereas i had to use pieces of paper. - I mad it my own by changing the picture slightly by making a picture out of the paper and covering my legs with the paper. -
Homework
- I found the task pretty easily. - It was overall really easy. - I think it looks really similar to the original because they both have their heads in the same position, the only thing that isn't the same are; the background and the markings on Roxy (my dog) and Roxy has her Tounge out. - I don't think I made it my own because it is really similar to the original.
Nico Froehlich - Environmental Portraits
Nico Froehlich takes environmental portraits, he frames his images by positioning the subject in the centre of the image. The background is important because the background shows us the reality of South East London. Nico Froe photographs the environment mainly in Lewisham and Southwark. I've noticed in Nico's Portraits he looks for really bright colours, Red is quite a common colour in his photographs. He make South London look like a bright and cheerful place.
For this task we was asked to take portraits of people with their permission. I found the task really easy and fun, we was walking around the school looking for students/members of staff to take portraits of. I really liked asking teachers to pose for the photograph, My favourite photograph is the one of Ms ferrari-Jones because she has just came out of a lesson and she was playfully shouting at a student which was really funny. I found this task really easy to do in school because I knew all the teachers I took portraits of, if I had to do this outside of school I think it would be difficult because the people are strangers and I would not like to go up to them and ask if i could take a photograph of them but i would take photographs of everyday people such as people waiting at a bus stop, people coming out of the shop or people walking their dog.
I think this is the most successful because it shows the reality of lunch, we walk into the canteen grab a sandwich and pay. We never really think about just 10 minutes before hand the lovely lunch-lady puts out all the sandwiches all next to each other ready for us to eat. I'm really glad I could capture behind the scenes of lunch. I think the angle of this photograph went well because it shows the lunch lady putting the sandwiches on the shelf it would be even better if it was in better focus.
Tyler Mitchell
Tyler Mitchell photographs people of colour because there’s not many photographs like these, Mitchell wanted to see himself in a photograph so he decided to photograph people who looked liked him. He wants his photographs to exist in public places so people can see the normality of the lives of the people shown. Tyler aims to subvert the notion of hierarchy using photography. He saw these photographs as an important act to correct the imbalance. Using these photographs Mitchell is telling his own story from his childhood, most of the photographs are recreated from his youth. His inspiration came to him while on a trip to Cuba, he saw the bright colours of the houses, shop, building, the bright vibrant colours of the environment. In his photographs he focuses on bright colours, he likes to match the subject colour to the background colour. He positions his subject in the middle of the frame, he mostly has the subject looking into the camera.
We went around the school taking photographs of our partners using colourful backgrounds. we walked around block 1 looking for bright colours to use, for the second photo we went downstairs to the art department and used these wooden boxes that were made last year. For the third photo we taped a piece of film to the side of the bookshelf creating a bright background. For the last photo we went to the art department again and used these freshly brightly painted items. My favourite is the fourth photo, where Aliya is standing on log in front of the bright green grass and the green trees, I think she stands out really well because the background is mainly green and her grey jacket stands out. I found it fairly easy but at the end we ran out og time and only managed to take 5 photos instead of 6.
Central London Gallery Visit
On the school trip we visited Tyler Mitchells Gallery. We walked to Kidbrooke Train station, got the train to London Bridge then got on the Jubilee line to Central London. we walked to the Tyler Mitchells Gallery, has a look at his wonderful photographs and the manager told us about him and his photographs. We then walked to the second gallery which was much bigger and had hundreds of photographs on each floor. We split into two groups, one group started from the top and the other started from the bottom. We spent quite a bit of time in this gallery. After both the groups had a look around we then went to McDonalds, got food and then sat in Soho park and enjoyed our food. Then we walked back to the train station and came back to school.
Reflective Self-Portrait
For this task we had to take self-portraits only using a window as our reflective service. We could only stay in the room or go outside to the corridor. I used the windows on the fire escape doors and the big windows on the doors leading to the outside stairs and link.
The element of a portrait.
We are looking at the elements of portraiture, we was asked to create a series of 4 photographs exploring the elements of portraiture. For this task we had to take 4 photographs of certain types of self-portraits; A police mugshot, an Identification photograph, a family snapshot, and a selfie. We was only allowed to work outside in the corridor. In the Mugshot and the Identification Aliya's facial expression had to be serious, no smile but in the family snapshot and the selfie her facial expression could be whatever she wanted to do. This task helps us understand when facial expressions are used in photography.
In the identification photograph, Only Aliya's face is visible, her facial expression is neutral. It is only head and the top part of her shoulders. The angle is straight ahead at eye level. I could improve the photograph by having Aliya in the centre of the frame. In the police mugshot he face is also neutral with her head, shoulders and hands. The angle is straight ahead and she is positioned in the middle of the frame. The photograph could be improved if Aliya had a angry expression on her face. In the family snapshot, they are smiling and happy. Their whole bodies are visible, the angle is to the side. This photograph could be better is i took the photo in front of them so i could get their whole faces. Lastly, in the self portrait Aliya's Face, shoulders, torso and arms are visible. The photograph is a reflection of her.
The relationship between portraits in art and photography.
For this task we recreated photographs using paintings. We had to pick one of the paintings to recreate. Our first one was David Hockney, My parents and myself, 1976. To recreate this photograph we used a grey board as the background, hung blue fabric over it, pinned a mirror onto the board, put more blue fabric over the chair to recreate the table, covered a cardboard cylinder in gold fabric to recreate the vase. As in the painting i had Simran looking into the camera, hands in her lap and no facial expression. For Alyia i had her facing Simran also with no facial expression. The second painting we recreated was Saint Jerome in meditation by Carravaggio, 1605.
We could improve the image by using the black background so we can get a full black background and we can use the window for light. We could also put an object next to Aliya to recreate the skull. We could also put a piece of beige fabric around Aliya to hid her bright blue top.
We reviewed the photograph we took last week and wondered how we could improve it to make it look more like the original photograph. We compared the two photographs and came up with ways we could improve it. We used the plain black background and set up two chairs where Aliya sat on one and rested her arm on the other. This time Aliya wrapped a piece of beige fabric around her to cover her bright blue polo and to make it look more like skin. We closed the blinds and used the studio light but we closed the flaps to make a really narrow stream of light. I am very pleased with the outcome i thought a lot more about light, background and colours which made the image a lot better. It would be even better if the light was a bit higher hitter Aliyas upper body and shoulder. Next time i would like to experiment with the manual settings on the camera.
Cyanotype research.
The cyanotype was first invented by John Herschel in the 1840s. The cyanotype process uses a mixture of iron compounds, which when exposed to UV light and washed in water oxidise to create Prussian Blue images.
Lighting workshop
Rankin Destroy
The Rankin destroy project was a charity fund raising project. Rankin asked 70 musicians and visual artists to destroy their own portraits originally taken by Rankin. Fashion and celebrity photography can be criticised for being shallow and throwaway so he started this project as it was a way for him to respond to his critics with characteristic wit. Rankin said the photographs were like a fantasy and he wanted to mess with this fantasy.