Taken at a party focusing on people and low lighting – Trying to create blurry portraits.

I attempted to colour grade the images towards blue to better match with both my project and Kawauchi’s style.

I originally started with multiple short videos which I then converted into singles images used as ‘frames’ at about 3 frames per second.

I printed the ‘frames’ 9×3 on A4 paper to make it easier to collage and paint over top of them.

I for the collage i found fashion magazines – filled with models that would represent the current beauty standard and what we are meant to find attractive and deem as beautiful. Mickalene Thomas’ approach to image making is my inspiration for this section of my project.

Throughout the frames I tried to make both the collage and paint move along with the figure – creating smoother movement whilst still adding interest.

When editing this set of images I want to emulate the quality of Rinko Kawauchi’s images.

Photoshoot one focused on the natural world and small details within it, Taking pictures of the coastline and my friends in nature.

These photos were all taken on a disposable film camera whilst on a trip to Paris.

Animation is the process of making still models, pictures, and drawings appear to be moving by showing images in close succession to create the illusion of movement. Video collage animation is a form of animation created by splicing together real photos, illustration, magazine cut-outs and various animation techniques. I intend to use this to create a short video/gif – I will do this buy taking video and breaking it down into images which can then be printed. I will collage and use various photomanipulation techniques, paints ect, over these images. When put back together in sequence it should create the illusion of movement.

Inspiration + Examples:

Mixed Media Animation (Collection) (youtube.com)

From a Man Mixed Media Animation (Young Thug) (youtube.com)

Mixed media animation (Law of Averages) (youtube.com)

Contact Sheet

Selection

I choose the images that i think best represented Rinko Kawauchi’s style and approach to image making.

Rinko Kawauchi born 1972 is a Japanese photographer best known for her, images of the of the mundane and everyday life. Her photographs often have a bright radiant effect using a shallow depth of field with flash creating an over exposed image giving a dream like quality. The soft pastel colours of her work also give a serene feeling helping to present the ordinary as something sublime. Her work is rooted in the ideals of Shinto philosophy – Shinto is the ethnic religion of the people of Japan. According to Shinto all things have a spirit or a ‘kami’ so therefore nothing is ‘too mundane’ to be photographed and appreciated; There are four affirmations in Shinto: tradition and family, love of nature, physical cleanliness, and matsuri (festivals in which worship and honour is given to the kami). Kawauchi tries to capture “small events glimpsed in passing,” – she never goes out with an idea of what to photograph only taking pictures of that which interests her – her work is spontaneous and a reaction to the world around her.

Her work stretches over a large number of subjects – from flowers and the ocean, to streets and walls. She gained success in her field very quickly after the release of her first 3 photobooks in 2001: UTATANE, HANABI, and HANOKO. Her 2011 photobook ‘Illuminance’ explores the ideas of dreams, temporality and the divine.

Kawauchi puts a lot of thought into how she sequences her photobooks with images paralleling each other in composition over multiple page spreads – these juxtapositions creating a natural flow between her images. Much of Kawauchi’s is taken on a medium format Rolleiflex film camera meaning that instead of taking multiple images and choosing from the best she instead must use single takes – she describes this as a form of daily visual journaling she often writes poetry alongside her images often being nonsensical outside of the context of her work ‘the drinks of color beautiful delicious in his hand’. Her work as a particular focus on light with her images having a shallow depth of field and frequently being over exposed with lens flares, this helps to create the almost ethereal feeling of Kawauchi’s images.

I chose to use Rinko Kawauchi as inspiration for this project as I think her work fits my theme of finding beauty in the mundane and small things I also like both her aesthetic and practical approach to photography trying to take unstaged images in the moment.

Observe, Seek, Challenge

Mindmap

Initial ideas:

• Habits
• Environment
• Gender roles
• Rules of observation
• Body and perceptions – Beauty standards
• Opposites
• Family dynamics
• Street photography – people interacting
• Analog photomanipulation
• Movement – Animation? – mixed media

Possible artists:

• Mickalene Thomas – Collage stuff
• Rinko Kawauchi – ideas of finding beauty in the mundane
• Luke Fowler – video – Movement

Ideas:

My initial idea was to make a Zine based of Rinko Kawauchi, observing the natural world and beauty – I enjoy analog photomanipulation and feel that collage would work well with the theme of body perceptions. I also want to explore the technique of mixed media animation – making frames that flow out of photographs to create video.

Observe– How do we as a society classify something as being ‘beautiful’? Seek– What do I find an aesthetic value in that is unconventional? Challenge– Create images based off this.