The first artist I researched was Guiseppe Mastromatteo and I was very impressed with his work portfolio. His pictures seemed to have a trademark quality to them in the way the tones and colours collided with one another. It's all very neutral and yet at the same time manages to surpass the label of 'boring'. In the photos I mainly focused on, he disguised the faces with the same body which was interesting, rather than bringing in an object that wasn't part of the person them self. Mastromatteo's photos were very simplistic in appearance but produced a great effect, I thought his work was really interesting and seemed to make a statement without trying too hard.
After looking at Guiseppe Mastromatteo, I looked briefly at Ashkan Honarvar. I didn't focus on the man himself or his background, rather a few of the photographs he had produced. The area of his portfolio I looked into were the photos which he had drawn onto digitally to create a more surreal image. The photo itself was simple and grainy which gave it the quality of an older photography but in reality it was probably just taken with a high ISO to create this effect. I liked how it was all black and white because there was no colour to distract from the ideas of the photo, I took this into my recreation of Honarvar's work which I created on Photoshop by simply using a tablet to draw onto the face with the paintbrush tool. If I were to re-do this recreation I would have varied the strength and thickness of the lines because I think it looks a little bit two dimensional as it is currently.
Another artist I researched was Amanda Clyne. Her work could be considered to fit into the 'fragment' brief better than the disguise one but I thought that overlapping one face in front of another and then cutting strips to remove the bottom was a disguise in itself, especially as both pictures often showed two different emotions.
After looking at Amanda Clyne, I looked at artists like Maria Aparicio Puentes, Aliza Razzell, Dirk Ercksen, and Maurizio Anzeri.They were all very creative in their approach to photography. Razzell and Anzeri especially used different forms of mixed media like thread and watercolour paints which added a whole new edge to their work and also inspired me to use mixed media in my final piece in the form of thread. Maria also used thread but in straighter, more delicate lines. I tried to incorporate both Maurizio Anzeri and Maria Aparicio Puentes' styles into my final piece which created a nice contrast between delicate and messy.
Other than looking into other artists, I researched the topic disguise by experimenting with various things and mediums like Photoshop, paint, clothing, masks, and face paint. I've used tights as a physical disguise and then edited the photos I took on Photoshop. I also experimented on photoshop in the style Ashkan Honarvar by drawing onto the faces. Researching various artists and forms of disguise helped me to develop my ideas for my final piece as well as inspiring me to include thread and other themes visible in my final outcome.
During this project I experimented with Watercolour paints, face paint, drawing, drawing on photoshop, photoshop edits, masks and clothing. My favourite thing to work with was Photoshop because I felt it offered the most freedom in editing but it also worked well with the other things I tried out. For example, I experimented with face paint and then used Photoshop to enhance and change the photos, and at one point create an Amanda Clyne recreation. I found Photoshop very easy to use and it was reliable in what it was producing. On the contrary, face paint was more luck of the draw as sometimes the designs we would paint on each others faces would look a little ropey, other times it would go as planned. Despite this some of the results we got from using face paint looked really cool and I'm pleased with the outcome.
The ideas I had for my final piece were based on the work by Maurizio Anzeri, Dirk Ercksen and The Son Of Man. My piece based on Anzeri was clearly linked to the disguise theme because I was going to sew thread onto the photo after it had been printed in order to disguise the face. My second idea was in the style of Dirck Ercksen and took the 'disguise' brief a lot less literally. It was supposed to represent a doll being pulled apart and slotted into different peoples parts, as in disguising yourself among others and other parts of yourself. At first first glance its difficult to see the link to the title but I think that it's nice to take one of them a little less literally. My final idea was inspired by The Son Of Man by Rene Magritte. I wanted to use the bowler hat idea and also the way that the apple was partially hiding the face, rather than the apple I wanted to use tinfoil to disguise parts of the face and the uncovered parts would be deleted so that the clouds were visible behind it. In the end I decided to use all three ideas because I felt that when put together they showed my abilities quite well as well as having mixed media.
In the end I printed off 3 photographs on satin paper, the two portrait ones in a4 and the landscape one in a3. I framed them all with mounts on simple brown frames which linked to the close to nature theme of my photos as they resembled wood. I was really happy with the quality of the photos, they were all very grainy which was intentional because I specifically set my ISO quite low to produce this effect as I felt the topic of the photos didn't fit a clean and crisp image. My favourite of the 3 images is the one in the style of Rene Magritte, the image quality is good and the colours are strong. I was pleased with how clearly you could see the mist in the photos and it almost acted as a divider between ground and sky.
If I were to improve any of my photos it would probably be the one I sewed into. I would have incorporated more tones and shades of red and blue and made them a little less bright because even though the picture itself was dark and the bright colours acted as a nice contrast, they were a little unsuitable for the photo. That's just my personal opinion, I would have also spent more time shaping the thread over the hair, it took me 4 hours to sew everything so I think I was a little bit rushed towards the end.
The only real problems I encountered in mounting my final piece in a frame was that the photos were a bit too small for the card mounts that came with my frame, I just taped the pictures in place as evenly as I could and it din't look too bad. Working on this project I have developed my sewing skills because I'd never sewed before actually doing it straight onto my final piece which was quite risky but it was fun to experiment.
If I were to re-do this project I think I would definitely try to build a stronger idea which would continue through the project for my final piece as the outcome seems quite sudden. I might have also have lightened the photos because they printed a bit dark. Altogether I was really inspired by the work of every artist I researched but specifically the three I'd stated for my inspiration for each photo. All of their works were so abstract and surreal but at the same time looked so sharp and well created that they could be real. The composition of each of the artists I researched I tried to bring into my photos in some what which I think turned out quite well.
After looking at Amanda Clyne, I looked at artists like Maria Aparicio Puentes, Aliza Razzell, Dirk Ercksen, and Maurizio Anzeri.They were all very creative in their approach to photography. Razzell and Anzeri especially used different forms of mixed media like thread and watercolour paints which added a whole new edge to their work and also inspired me to use mixed media in my final piece in the form of thread. Maria also used thread but in straighter, more delicate lines. I tried to incorporate both Maurizio Anzeri and Maria Aparicio Puentes' styles into my final piece which created a nice contrast between delicate and messy.
Other than looking into other artists, I researched the topic disguise by experimenting with various things and mediums like Photoshop, paint, clothing, masks, and face paint. I've used tights as a physical disguise and then edited the photos I took on Photoshop. I also experimented on photoshop in the style Ashkan Honarvar by drawing onto the faces. Researching various artists and forms of disguise helped me to develop my ideas for my final piece as well as inspiring me to include thread and other themes visible in my final outcome.
During this project I experimented with Watercolour paints, face paint, drawing, drawing on photoshop, photoshop edits, masks and clothing. My favourite thing to work with was Photoshop because I felt it offered the most freedom in editing but it also worked well with the other things I tried out. For example, I experimented with face paint and then used Photoshop to enhance and change the photos, and at one point create an Amanda Clyne recreation. I found Photoshop very easy to use and it was reliable in what it was producing. On the contrary, face paint was more luck of the draw as sometimes the designs we would paint on each others faces would look a little ropey, other times it would go as planned. Despite this some of the results we got from using face paint looked really cool and I'm pleased with the outcome.
The ideas I had for my final piece were based on the work by Maurizio Anzeri, Dirk Ercksen and The Son Of Man. My piece based on Anzeri was clearly linked to the disguise theme because I was going to sew thread onto the photo after it had been printed in order to disguise the face. My second idea was in the style of Dirck Ercksen and took the 'disguise' brief a lot less literally. It was supposed to represent a doll being pulled apart and slotted into different peoples parts, as in disguising yourself among others and other parts of yourself. At first first glance its difficult to see the link to the title but I think that it's nice to take one of them a little less literally. My final idea was inspired by The Son Of Man by Rene Magritte. I wanted to use the bowler hat idea and also the way that the apple was partially hiding the face, rather than the apple I wanted to use tinfoil to disguise parts of the face and the uncovered parts would be deleted so that the clouds were visible behind it. In the end I decided to use all three ideas because I felt that when put together they showed my abilities quite well as well as having mixed media.
In the end I printed off 3 photographs on satin paper, the two portrait ones in a4 and the landscape one in a3. I framed them all with mounts on simple brown frames which linked to the close to nature theme of my photos as they resembled wood. I was really happy with the quality of the photos, they were all very grainy which was intentional because I specifically set my ISO quite low to produce this effect as I felt the topic of the photos didn't fit a clean and crisp image. My favourite of the 3 images is the one in the style of Rene Magritte, the image quality is good and the colours are strong. I was pleased with how clearly you could see the mist in the photos and it almost acted as a divider between ground and sky.
If I were to improve any of my photos it would probably be the one I sewed into. I would have incorporated more tones and shades of red and blue and made them a little less bright because even though the picture itself was dark and the bright colours acted as a nice contrast, they were a little unsuitable for the photo. That's just my personal opinion, I would have also spent more time shaping the thread over the hair, it took me 4 hours to sew everything so I think I was a little bit rushed towards the end.
The only real problems I encountered in mounting my final piece in a frame was that the photos were a bit too small for the card mounts that came with my frame, I just taped the pictures in place as evenly as I could and it din't look too bad. Working on this project I have developed my sewing skills because I'd never sewed before actually doing it straight onto my final piece which was quite risky but it was fun to experiment.
If I were to re-do this project I think I would definitely try to build a stronger idea which would continue through the project for my final piece as the outcome seems quite sudden. I might have also have lightened the photos because they printed a bit dark. Altogether I was really inspired by the work of every artist I researched but specifically the three I'd stated for my inspiration for each photo. All of their works were so abstract and surreal but at the same time looked so sharp and well created that they could be real. The composition of each of the artists I researched I tried to bring into my photos in some what which I think turned out quite well.
