Statement Of Intent
This project is based around the idea of "Weird and Wonderful". In this project I am able to explore different aspects of photography by combining all the skills I have managed to learn over the time. I aspire to have accomplish a professional set of work to be able to achieve a high grade. For me the theme "Weird and Wonderful" is very broad. There is so much content that links to the idea. In my opinion it is something I would love to do more of and explore.
To obtain a good variety of ideas to help me, I will create a mind map of the different themes I discovered. For example, Optical Illusions, Fairy Tale, Nightmares. However in this case I decided to base my theme on Horror/Paranormal. In my opinion I think overall the scene of horror suits my personality as I love it so it will really stimulate my image. To help me find some inspiration, I hope to research a couple of photographers to improve my knowledge. A photographer which I have chosen is Christopher Mckenney. According to me his images are really appealing and strange. On behalf of my images, I hope to use photo shop to create a professional set of final outcomes. I want be able to use it to create a levitation trick or even make the setting look really eerey and spooky. My personal favourite type of genre is horror. I like the tension you get from looking at something and you don't know whats going to pop up. Before I had done any research input on what is Weird and Wonderful, My initial thoughts were generating a structured piece of work on the theme of Fairy Tales as I had no idea what other branches there were connected to this project. I had then thought of the supernatural concepts which builds up a range of recommendations to put together. For my project, I wish to experiment using a variety of techniques on my camera to show I have an understanding from previous knowledge. I will also include the use of photo shop to show off my skills when I have achieved the photographs I have completed successfully. I hope to use a tripod to capture pictures which at least 2/3 will be landscape to give an even look. For my backgrounds, I wish to situate my photos in a place like a church or in a graveyard. I want to be able to use a lot of tools on photo shop to express my ideas on the sinister side. |
Mind Map To Show My Ideas Of Weird And Wonderful
A Mood Board To Display My Ideas On My Chosen Themes.
Surrealism
"Surrealism aimed to revolutionise human experience, rejecting a rational vision in life in favour of one that asserted the value of the unconscious and dreams. The movement's poets and artists found magic and strange beauty in the unexpected and the uncanny, the disregarded and the unconventional"
In my opinion this means to view an image that is unusual when compared to reality. It is the idea of exploring different perspectives of the world and dreams through desires, paranormal and supernatural feelings.
In my opinion this means to view an image that is unusual when compared to reality. It is the idea of exploring different perspectives of the world and dreams through desires, paranormal and supernatural feelings.
Artist Research- Salvador Dali
The melting clocks symbolise that time is passing by whilst being in a dream. The distorted clock shows that thew time isn't working and has no ability to change so it shows why the clock is melting away as it has no power to be used in the world.
The clock which is slowly disintegrating shows a deep meaning of portraying that our time in this world is limited and in the end it will be our body decaying at the end of time. |
Salvador uses a variety of shapes in his artwork. He creates a realistic image that displays weird concepts. In this picture he has used a range of water colours to portray a a vibrant setting of a sky.
All his colours contrast in way to make the picture look calm and settling. For example, the big block is a solid dark colour which shows divergence from the soft sky colour. In my opinion, I think the mood is to create a world of loneliness and everything around is dying. The melting clock is to show that there is no time left and time is disappearing as its being washed away. I have gained that idea from witnessing a lake at the bottom on the picture and the light grey which bends in the clock. From my perspective this image is uncanny is it isn't normal to see clocks in this manner. The artist has formed quite sharp points which catches the viewers attention. |
The perspective of the moth in the corner is unusual and strange. Statistically, moths are attracted to light and to add on to my opinion of our body being decayed at the end of time. The light which shows the moths appearance could be to show that our soul is leaving. The light could represent our soul.
Christopher Mckenney
Christopher McKenney is a surrealism photographer who does photos based on horrors and nightmares. His pictures are mainly situated in places like forests and fields. His areas chosen are really effective as it creates a really gloomy and spooky atmosphere. Most of his images show a person with their faces covered by a veil or a mask. Christopher may want the viewer to feel ominous. His intention may want to be to show that he feels hidden and his identity doesn't want to be shown. This could be from feeling self-conscious about his feelings. It could also be the intention to show a sense of loneliness and disruption. He has used a deep depth of field quite a lot. |
I think the main purpose of Christopher Mckenneys images were to show a what nightmares are like. Linked to Kaveh, the ideas are quiet similar. You get the weird and unusual feeling whilst looking at them. The majority of his images were taken in a forest type of background. Maybe this was to enhance the idea of isolation.
Christopher explains briefly what his photos represents. he also explains how he likes the unknown idea. - Quoted Christopher McKenney: I wish I had an awesome story about how I got started, but honestly one day I bought a camera just to "play" with. I look at my relationship with photography to be like most people's relationships with their significant other. I started out not really knowing what I was getting into, then I started to really like it, and now I'm in love with it.
Christopher explains briefly what his photos represents. he also explains how he likes the unknown idea. - Quoted Christopher McKenney: I wish I had an awesome story about how I got started, but honestly one day I bought a camera just to "play" with. I look at my relationship with photography to be like most people's relationships with their significant other. I started out not really knowing what I was getting into, then I started to really like it, and now I'm in love with it.
Kaveh Hosseini (Steppenwolf)
Kaveh Hosseini is an Iranian photographer who creates images surrounded by areas where death takes place. The horror of his pictures is influenced by how it is photo shopped to look weird and unique. He uses elements from reality and brings them together to make them unrealistic. His main purpose to produce these sorts of pictures are to evoke deep feelings and thoughts. His images are very abstract and portray alot of feelings. It seems as if you its a nightmare and she shows them through her photos. He includes shadows, reflections and black, white themes into it. |
His uncanny images may be to represent a sense of fear or terror. They are really unusual to the public and show a sign of worried-ness to the viewer. It gives the creepy chills which may be the intention of Kaveh. Most of her images have a specific point that the hints in the photo lead you to. It questions the viewer to thinking what was the main focal point or is there more to it.
Rene Magritte
Rene Magritte is known to be a surrealist artist. He was born in Belgium. He became an artist in the mid 1920's and created peculiar and bizarre paintings based on surrealism. His simplicity conveyed through his paintings became more meaningful as time went on. He got his inspiration from the "primary influence on pop art movement" and Pablo Picasso; a famous artist in the 20th century.
Despite being diagnosed with cancer in 1965, his determination made him be able to travel to New York for a presentation of his work in the Museum of Modern Art. To be honest, Magritte's images are really fascinating however its not something I would choose not to use his ideas on my work. |
His paintings are made to look different and quite strange. He used to create multiple copies of his paintings which led him to being castigated. Magritte was fascinated by the interactions of textual and visual signs, and some of his most famous pictures portray both words and images. His paintings give you an unsettling thought as this could be due to his shock on his mothers suicide. From that point he found solace in tragedy films.
In this picture he uses a range of tertiary colours such as blue and green. They show a good contrast which makes the picture stand out. The person is unknown with a neutral background. The figure is behind an image,which looks like a newspaper from the soft edges, which blends in with the background. This could be to show that there is still negativity and loss hidden in the beautiful world.
In this picture he uses a range of tertiary colours such as blue and green. They show a good contrast which makes the picture stand out. The person is unknown with a neutral background. The figure is behind an image,which looks like a newspaper from the soft edges, which blends in with the background. This could be to show that there is still negativity and loss hidden in the beautiful world.
The image is quite straight forward as it is in the eye leveled point of the image. The artist has produced this picture using the Rule Of Thirds technique. Top 1/3 is the sky and the hat, Middle 1/3 is the trees and the shadowed area and finally the bottom 1/3 is is the green scenery with the bottom half of the body. The colour, which attracts the attention of the viewer, is the strangers black clothes. The colour black symbolises: Hardship, Sorrow, Sadness and overall negativity. The meaning of this could be to reinforce the fact that misery is what distracts you from the wonderful sources of life.
Analysing my favourite image using the 5c's
Content |
Connection |
Comment |
In this photo Christopher Mckenney displays a spooky atmosphere which makes the viewer feel agitated. The surroundings of the image is quite dull to give a desolate appearance with the top being a clear sky. This brings out the realistic aspects for an impression. Considering that the model is in the middle of the image brings out the uncanny mien.
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Due to the look and theme of this photo, I think that the photographer is trying to show its feelings. The eerie body figure is his way of showing he is lost and is being haunted by a specific nightmare and it won't go. I got this idea as the girl in this photo is stood in the middle of this image and is the main view point. This connects to my theme as I want to be able to do the same thrilling images.
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In my opinion, This image shows a realistic figure of a scary figure standing beyond the corn field. It's daunting features are read from the body language. Its slouched torso shows it is stood there for the purpose of letting out a nerve-racking vibe. It makes the reader feel uncomfortable. The colour of the strangers hair, Black, symbolises death and mourning.
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Context
"Christopher’s first concept involved going in the woods and taking photos of a sheet blanket, chair, and a frame. Eventually, he took his concept one step further by using Photoshop to remove parts of his subjects out of the picture — leaving you with floating heads, among other things. His photos will inspire you, especially those photographers who also into horror films. The colors and concepts are rich in creepiness; leaving you with a feeling that will scare the hell out of you" (researched)
Composition
The photographer has used a fast shutter speed to capture the stillness accurately. The model is the main view point of this picture as she is in the middle of the image. Everything in this image is focused so it keeps the viewer intrigued by its bizarre semblance. The white balance which is used is direct sunlight. It exerts a bewildered mood. The colours in this picture are dull. There is a strong colour contrast from the background to the model. The focus point is the scary model as its in the main viewpoint. The image shows a little snippet of the clear sky whilst the rest is all a dead landscape. The picture is made to be eye level for the audience.
Plans for my photoshoot
Southern Cemetery Shots
Levitation
Church/Cathedral
Grave Digging
Trees and Graves
Experimenting with shutter speed
Different perspectives
Developing and refining my images further using Photoshop.
The process 1
The process 2
The process 3
The process 4
Final Outcomes
Evaluation
Over the course of Photography, I have enjoyed putting together this Weird and Wonderful topic. In this part of my course work I chose to create a portfolio based on my chosen theme of Horror in Weird and Wonderful.
I chose this theme from my own personal preferences. I love the idea of something being frightening and unsettling. For my images I had gained the inspiration from my choice of horror and thriller movies I watch and reading books. Its an exciting and stimulating topic to play around with. I had also received my idea from looking at artists such as Christopher Mckenney. His photos were very bizarre to view at first and quite disturbing. However as I attempted to re-create images using his ideas, I found them as very intriguing and I decided to stretch myself more to see what I am capable of.
Throughout this whole project, I have gained many new ideas and skills on how to improve my images. On my previous projects such as Conflict, I have completed, I believe I have learnt a variety of new techniques. On my theme of Horror I believe I have succeed the most on this. The reason for this is, for example, on Photoshop I was able to use the cloning tool confidently. I did encounter a few problems as It took a few attempts to get to the level I wanted. In my opinion, photography has allowed us to open our mind on the creative side. On the side of capturing my images, I was able to achieve the standard I wanted. I went out to take my images instead of staying in school as according to me, the background of an image raises your marks higher as it sets the scene. From the start of the course of not knowing how aperture is used, gradually I have learnt how to change the exposure to be able to apply it to my shoots. For my future projects, I hope to develop my techniques further to have an outcome of a higher grade.
For my photos I wanted to have an uncanny setting instead of using the school ground. I went to the cemetery and asked my friends to be my models. Being included in the set, where my photos would look more realistic, helped me think of more ideas to take photos of than what I had planned.
After going through each process of redefining my images on Photoshop, I discovered a wide range of techniques to improve my photos. For example, the use of patch and cloning tool came handy when experimenting to create the look of something floating and hovering. I also was able to use the lasso tool to crop an object from and image and move it to mine. With the result of that, I included them skills into my next set of images I was editing.
Overall I am very proud of how my images turned out to be. This topic has opened my mind up to the ability of showing that I am much more capable and talented than I think I am and if I continue to do so, I will be able to achieve this highest possible grade I can get.
I chose this theme from my own personal preferences. I love the idea of something being frightening and unsettling. For my images I had gained the inspiration from my choice of horror and thriller movies I watch and reading books. Its an exciting and stimulating topic to play around with. I had also received my idea from looking at artists such as Christopher Mckenney. His photos were very bizarre to view at first and quite disturbing. However as I attempted to re-create images using his ideas, I found them as very intriguing and I decided to stretch myself more to see what I am capable of.
Throughout this whole project, I have gained many new ideas and skills on how to improve my images. On my previous projects such as Conflict, I have completed, I believe I have learnt a variety of new techniques. On my theme of Horror I believe I have succeed the most on this. The reason for this is, for example, on Photoshop I was able to use the cloning tool confidently. I did encounter a few problems as It took a few attempts to get to the level I wanted. In my opinion, photography has allowed us to open our mind on the creative side. On the side of capturing my images, I was able to achieve the standard I wanted. I went out to take my images instead of staying in school as according to me, the background of an image raises your marks higher as it sets the scene. From the start of the course of not knowing how aperture is used, gradually I have learnt how to change the exposure to be able to apply it to my shoots. For my future projects, I hope to develop my techniques further to have an outcome of a higher grade.
For my photos I wanted to have an uncanny setting instead of using the school ground. I went to the cemetery and asked my friends to be my models. Being included in the set, where my photos would look more realistic, helped me think of more ideas to take photos of than what I had planned.
After going through each process of redefining my images on Photoshop, I discovered a wide range of techniques to improve my photos. For example, the use of patch and cloning tool came handy when experimenting to create the look of something floating and hovering. I also was able to use the lasso tool to crop an object from and image and move it to mine. With the result of that, I included them skills into my next set of images I was editing.
Overall I am very proud of how my images turned out to be. This topic has opened my mind up to the ability of showing that I am much more capable and talented than I think I am and if I continue to do so, I will be able to achieve this highest possible grade I can get.