Colour Photographs continued...

Continuing developing my colour photographs, I feel I have progressed in my skills on the exposure times, aperture and colour filter settings. It took me quite a while to figure it out but I feel I understand it now!

However, when I have been experimenting, I do like the different contrast in colours of the photographs. There are lots of different shades of reds, blues and greens. I want to use these photographs as I feel they look very effective, perhaps make a collage or some sort of patchwork? The shades of the photographs remind me of paint swatches or colour charts.

Colour photographs

Progressing on from black and White, I have been working in the colour dark room developing my colour negatives. It is a harder process than black and White, however there is a machine that soaks the photographs in the developer, stop bath, fixer and drier therefore it is a lot faster than doing it manually.

I have struggled getting the filters right, as my photographs are coming out red or green. However, through experimentation, I have found out that if the photograph is one colour then more of that colour needs to be added and the exposure needs to be lengthened.

I tested the double exposures and although some photographs were not what I wanted, they look very effective. I intend to keep practising in the colour dark room and improve on my skills and technique.

I am really happy with the result of this photograph. I have double exposed a photo of scaffolding in Manchester and graffiti. The colours have worked well and it looks very effective with the face from the graffiti. The scaffolding makes it look like the face is caged. I like how the photograph is black and White on the left and gradually moves in to colour.

Table top session

*look at the exhibition in the link now, uses nature in the artwork and projection
*develop photographic colour skills and layering of opposites
*look at practitioners to influence your conceptual ideas and reasoning behind the idea
*look into developing your concept and meaning behind the use of projection
*consider layering projection? Similar effects to photography
*read into artists statements to help you with the concepts behind their artwork

processing colour film

I processed my first colour film today! It worked perfectly, now onto developing the film.

The colour machine dark room was a faster and simpler process. Pushing the film out of the canister and cutting the end of the film to make it straight, you then clipped the film onto a hanger and put it in the machine. The machine then soaked the film in the developer, stop bath and fixer and dried it.

Camille Utterback

Camille Utterback
Abundance
2007

Abundance is a temporary public installation commissioned for the city of San Jose, California by the Art and Technology network, ZERo1. The city hall plaza is transformed into an interactive social space. A video camera captures the movements of people in the plaza and an animation generated in response to this movement is projected onto the cylindrical rotunda. The colourful, fluid like and delicate imagery contrasts with the bold geometry of the architect, Richard Meier's building.

As participants walk through the plaza they locate their brightly coloured silhouette in the projection on the building. Movements and paths through the plaza become part of a collective visual record, and transform the building into a playful and dynamic canvas.

I love Abundance and how Utterback has changed the City Hall Plaza into a piece of Art, giving it life, character and a colourful appearance. The area has become a place of interaction and play. Participants are engaged in a dynamic process of kinaesthetic discovery and play.

video installation

Introduced in the 1970s, Video installation is a contemporary art method combining video technology with installation art. It is an art form that uses all aspects of its surrounding environment as a vehicle of affecting the audience. It has increased in popularity due to digital video production becoming more readily available. Today, video installation can be displayed in a range of environments, for example, galleries and museums or in a larger area such as site-specific work in urban or industrial landscapes. Popular formats include monitor work, projection, and performance. The only requirements are electricity and darkness.

Camille Utterback
Abundance
2007

Ross Eccles

Ross Eccles sent me two sketches!! I feel very honoured that he took the time to make them and am very happy! I especially love the flamingos and have framed them, giving them pride of place in my room. I am very lucky and will hopefully be meeting up with Ross to thank him personally.

double exposure images

Using an application on my phone I have taken some photographs and double exposed them.

Jenny Holzer projections on buildings

Poetry is cast onto well known landmarks allowing light and text to flow over the cityscape creating an extraordinary visual experience.
"I show what I can with words in light and motion in a chosen place and when I envelop the time needed, the space around, the noise, smells, the people looking at one another and everything before them, I have given what I know." Jenny Holzer

Projector

Over christmas, my Dad and I were cleaning out the attic and we found his old projector. I set it up and we had a slide show of his slides. I was fascinated by the old way of how families would sit together and view holiday snaps on a large screen lit up from the projector. How it has changed so much from a slide projecter, to photographs and now, digitally on computers. The slides my dad showed me were of his holiday in Egypt thirty years ago. I imagined all my family sitting around the projector, thirty years ago, eagerly awaiting the slide show to begin and my Dad enthusiastically describing all his adventures.

After the slide show, I began thinking how I would like to use projection in my art work and how I could incorporate it into my project. I researched artists who also use projection, my favourite artists being Camille Utterback and Jenny Holzer.

Next, I would like to produce my own slides. However, I am unsure as to whether there still are slide films available and how they are processed. Will I be able to process the film myself, similar to the black and white films, or will I have to send it off to be processed?