ITAP 2 : Genius of Photography- Pt 1

1. What is photography's 'true genius'?

Photography has intrigued us by showing the secret strangeness that lies beneath the world of appearances; it has showed images in different forms using various processes that made photography possible today. It has pleased, outraged, and often disappointed its viewers which is the reason why it makes it photography’s true genius.

2. Name a proto- photographer.

A proto- photographer that experimented with photographic processes was Henry Fox Talbot, the inventor of calotype process associated in the 19^th century, who made major contributions to photography as an artistic medium before the well-known Louis Degaurre the inventor of the degaurretype process which is also associated with the term ‘Mirror with a Memory’, or referred as ‘Mirror of Nature’ that signifies how one sees oneself in a mirror.

3. In the 19th century what term was associated with the daguerreotype?

French photographer Andre Disderi inventor of small photographs usually eight on one large photographic plate, given the term of ‘Carte De Visite’. An albumen print or photograph mounted in a stiff piece of card that frequently revealed portraits of celebrities of that time.

4. What is the vernacular?

The Vernacular contains some of photography’s greatest naturally occurring riches, merely as a gift of the medium itself rather than a product of the genius of the individual photographer. It was associated with any type such as keepsakes, advertising, forensics, documentation for records, passport photo’s, postcards etc every kind of photography that wasn’t intended as art or a piece of art form.

5.How do you 'Fix the Shadows'?
Fixing the shadows was a high purpose, in the 1830's it was found that certain chemcials were light sensitive, chemicals for e.g. silver salts, silver chloride and silver nitrate. To fix the shadows you had to be able to stop carrying the exposure which was troublsome. Henry Fox Talbot's use of fixing the shadows was through camera obscurer, with a mouse-trap camera that held the negative and carrying the paper but to be only exposed for a certain amount of time. Louis Deguerre attempted this also, but started in the early 1800's whose method was the creation of the deguerreotype to fix the shadows using a mirrored metal plate to fix his images.
6. What is the 'Carte de visite'?
The 'Carte de Visite' was a photograph mounted on a stiff piece of card measuring 11.4x 6.3cm, It was introduced in the mid- 1850's by Andre Disderi. These cards frequently  portrayed portraits of celebrities of the day for collection into home albums also known as albumen prints.

7. Who was Nadar and why was he so successful?
Another photographer of the 18^th-19^th century was Gaspard Felix Tournachon also referred to as Nadar who photographed up and coming stars in a style that rewrote the rules of photography which made his style unique and original. Photographing celebrities as equals, his portraits of artists unrivaled by the character of the person with them just standing in his studio as themselves. His photography presented a likeness and authenticity about them.

8. What is pictorialism?
Pictorialism an international style and aesthetic movement that dominated photography during the 19^th century, it was photography at its most po-faced, as it merely created an image rather than simply recording it. Imitating printmaking and drawings the mean, moody and occasionally magnificent Pictorialism. 

Image and Text!

A Brief History of Production and The Experts!

The key to becoming an expert is merely through practice, most experts can consider themselves because of specific qualifications and hard work, sometimes its not only the case except for hard work, hard work is expected as it helps a practitioner become an expert, but most importantly it has to do with skill and technique with that the practice can be perfect. Experts are considered to have an intense ongoing experience in what they do in order to push the boundaries of obvious mindsets a creative must work hard and expect challenges along the way. In some cases perfection isn’t the most important factor to be considered most experts are best at their profession because of skill and technique this helps an expert create their own style and own techniques and methods within that particular profession whether it is photography, graphics, or illustration. As a photography student it is natural to get inspiration and ideas from other photographers and visual communicators in the field in order to create my own style of work.

Being a photography student I have come across various photographers but one in particular that inspired me the most for his spectacular and marvelous black and white photography is Ansel Adams, best known for his black and white photographs, Adams had developed the zone system as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting image and depth characterized his photographs. From childhood Adams had appreciation for nature, which would become his primary source of photographic inspiration. He was a visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation. He Inspires me as he produced images of nature which some people take for granted and don’t’ appreciate as much as they should. Adams primarily used large format camera’s despite their size, weight, setup time and film cost, because of the high resolution helped ensue sharpness in his images. Adams photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters and in books making his photographs widely distributed, this skill and preservation is unique in this world of photography today which demonstrates how his skills and techniques is what made him an expert.

From doing research on the history of production I found it interesting at how the first book in Europe was printed , During the 1300’s printing was first printed on cloth, it was in the 1400’s that Johannes Guttenberg a German printer and publisher had designed the Guttenberg Bible also known as the 42-line Bible. It was the first book printed with movable type in the west and the first major book produced on a printing press anywhere in the world. He had used oil ink and a wooden printing press similar to the screw press and production of movable type to produce the printed version of the bible. It is said Guttenberg had created the bible traditionally using metal alloy and hand mould for casting type.

Story Development: Film and a Hero's Journey!

The Hero’s Journey relies on some variation of the three act structure. There are a number of ways to recognise this particular narrative structure the three act structure can help construct the story into three acts that the audience can familiarize with as initial beginning middle and end in some cases it doesn’t have to be in that particular order argues Jean-Luc –Godard.

" Every movie needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order."

Jean- Luc- Godard.

Demonstrating the three act structure from a most recent film such as Twilight: Breaking Dawn seems rather easy but explains the hero’s quest to freedom, the story consists of the three act structure to be useful in terms of describing the protagonists story, for example most narratives consists of an exposition or in other words an equilibrium of the story this suggests the normality of the beginning, for e.g. The wedding of Bella and Edward and following the journey to the honeymoon, at this point in the narrative the equilibrium is established and act 1 has occurred and the protagonist makes a commitment which leads to the main action of the movie. Enter Act 2 which suggests how the equilibrium changes due to some sort of conflict or complication which disturbs the equilibrium and this happens to create a sequence of events, for instance Bella finds out that she is pregnant with Edward the vampire’s baby this immediately changes the path of the protagonist and it results in conflict with Edward who doesn’t want to keep the baby if it means losing Bella.

The protagonists journey gradually changes through many obstacles such as romance, pain and conflict which results in the protagonist in danger of this creates a new equilibrium and follows through to act 3 which is the resolution and to amend the disturbance in hope to find a better and new equilibrium such as the protagonist character Bella gives birth to the half-vampire half-human child and dies and overcome the threats and the danger that followed which ends in a new equilibrium where Bella turns into a vampire and this helps create a cliff-hanger that makes the audience to want to watch more, and have pleasure in finding out what happens in the end.

The Hero’s journey is about someone in this case the protagonist sheltered in some way, who receives a call to adventure- Bella and Edwards’s magical wedding. This protagonist must leave the comfort of her world she has always known and set forth on a dangerous quest. Gaining allies and learning new things along the way, the protagonist faces many challenges and barely escapes death all to gain insight or freedom. Joseph Campbell demonstrates the different stages of the hero’s journey that are familiar to the audience. This helps the audience identify the situation or dilemma and ultimately engage within the story and follow the hero’s journey till the end. The three act structure helps dominate the narrative in a structured plan that enlightens the audience on the journey and taps into an archetypal pattern.

Production and Outcomes: Interpretation and Delivery!

It is considered important when looking at a creative consisting on its zeitgeist of their time, and how it has value over its messages, the content and the interpretations of the piece, researching the content of a piece can have its influence on you as a practitioner. Many designers interpret zeitgeist with many communication whether it is in photographic format or illustrative format, both formats have a similar interpretation, for example Alice in Wonderland is demonstrated in many shapes and forms over the years each era demonstrated the character of Alice in a different way but interpreted similar elements of Alice whether it is photography or a film or illustration. Time and place has a massive effect on the production whether it is on the content or the making of the piece.

 For instance the interpretation of Cinderella has been demonstrated in many ways in time, each era shows the character blossom from a servant to a princess but the interpretation of the character in its time shows a great deal of inspiration from the story, To demonstrate the poster of the 1950’S Cinderella is shown in an animated content which shows the illustration of the character’s appearance the poster shows the posture and the style of the character to be less complex and illustrative to suit the time it was originally created. Whereas the poster of the 1997’s Rodger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella is somewhat different in race and color, but also interprets the similarities and likability of the Cinderella character for example the costume and posture of the appearance is somewhat similar to how the character of Cinderella is portrayed giving a sense of archetypal value and also fits in with the zeitgeist of its era.

Furthermore through the years and the time and place in which Cinderella was initially created shows how the story and character has improved and inspired other creative’s to interpret its message. For example looking at photographer Annie Lebovitz reminisce in Disney dreams,  has captured that spirit in time and interpreted it to create a sense of inspiration as well as merely a use for fashion photography such as the beautiful blue gown, which is a stereotypical view of the characters appearance and costume.  Cinderella has been inspiring to different creative’s during their time, portrayed in platforms such as movies and books etc. It also comes to show that most inspirations come from other creative’s but the interpretation points out that the initial piece lives on throughout time and place of its production, reminding the audience of its key marketing ploys behind the making of the piece and the use of platforms that help deliver the message to the audience.

Lebigiblity and Tone of Voice!

Legibility consists on how a visual communication is portrayed whether it is clear or unclear. However the most prevalent uses of visual imagery can be shown in many types of forms using numerous elements and sometimes half of those images are often seen as illegible, on the other hand it is not often the case that a visual piece is completely illegible as there are always two sides to each story. A piece can be artistically illegible intentionally, for example a photograph that is shown out of focus can be seen as a blurry image but also can have a concept behind it. Tone of voice can also be often used in this particular practice, for example looking closely at Steve McCurry’s photography which consists on documentary photography can often have an intentional illegibility towards it but can also portray its message that it sends across, This Steve McCurry image initially portrayed an image of an Afghanistan girl but can also encode many messages including the ideologies behind the photograph, the typography in the image is encrypted over the poster to have a blurry effect but also demonstrates what the content illustrates.

Tone of Voice can be very effective when illustrated in a visual communication it becomes of great importance when delivering a message to a particular audience by the use of color, layout and style of typography which all contribute to the overall tone of a piece.  Typography tells a lot about the tone of voice of a creative as it demonstrates how the message is put across and has suitable factor about it for example when seeing a the word shout written you initially think of it being portrayed in a big bold type to specify the word and bring the meaning of the word in motion for example SHOUT, this shows the density of the typography to have tone of voice on the type.

Typography is shown in many different formats and various colors the layout structure of a type is highly recognized in specifying a tone of voice as it can suggest a meaning to the audience, For example my personal interest in all things 60’s helps me to recognize its style from either creative practices for example this illustration of a concert/gig poster is designed in a 60’s style this is recognizable by its use of bright colors such as green, purple and orange these three colors are used for different purposes within the layout for instance the purple color is used for the background of the poster and the to highlight the key elements within the image such as the key image and the artists name this suggests the layout structure is portrayed in a 60’s style for either signifying the identity of artist/event or to create a sense of a retro style of a psychedelic concert poster. Alternatively this suggests that legibility and tone of voice of a creative piece is highly valued when inspiring or informing an audience.

Practice discovered through Research and Inspiration!

Practice is commenced through gathering research from different forms of elements and media that are found inspiring to you as a creative practitioner. Through the use of taking advantage of the tools and things that surround you influence you to broaden your minds as to finding raw materials to generate a creative outcome. Looking at the technical and conceptual side of things helps you to respond to the emotional and the appreciative sides from these influential materials that inspire your constant creative thinking, and the work you produce. Research is a fundamental aspect of design practice and an essential part of problem solving, research can be carried out through many forms of materials and media, collecting, drawing and images. By surrounding yourself with things that inspire you is the key to basic primary research and brings you one step closer to being a creative practitioner.

Secondary research is a method of which I tend to use when coming up with an initial idea, through this preference I choose to explore, examine and digest numerous things, people and different forms of media that surround me this supports my way of creative thinking and analyzing. Exploring and analyzing these interests and themes makes me capable of contributing to a deeper and in-depth understanding of the subject. By demonstrating this particular way of practicing is by recording these ideas in your own personal reflective journal.  Taking pictures, scanning, and Photoshop them is what helps me to imitate my idea’s and inspirations through experimenting and manipulating with images, my preferences and interests are what describes my own personal visual vocabulary and this helps me to generate new and fresh idea’s and use it as a source material, and helps me to challenge myself to create an ongoing creative process of enquiry.

Many creative designers find inspiration and idea’s from collecting, observation, drawing and other forms of techniques, by relating and understanding how visual communicators work and produce one is capable to progress and advance one’s own practice. The significance of a person’s practice is to be knowledgeable of other people’s practices and question how they come up with idea’s and generate a creative outcome through various resources and preferences. Assess other artists and how they challenge their mindsets to follow through their creative process. Inspiration is around us collecting helps stimulate things and reignite our thinking of fresher ideas and help us to work hard to gain the role of a practitioner.

“The ability to think visually and the development of a personal visual language comes from learning the basics, being open-minded, hard work, sustained practice and taking risks”

Mark Wigan - Thinking Visually 2006

Through the research and observing your surroundings and finding inspiration echo’s your practice and your fundamental thinking. Fundamental practice is seen through inspirational materials that are recorded and manipulated in your own style. Don’t recycle but invent in stuff and interpret your own designs and ideas. Being aware of your surroundings support the process of fresh new ideas. Recording in your RVJ that are relevant to your work represents your practice and understanding of where your inspiration and ideas come from. .. For instance i have used Andy Warhol as my inspiration as he produced the visual Movement through Pop Art which has influenced me over the years. His influence of bright printmaking skills has inspired my magazine work and helped me develop new ideas and learn new skills along the way.