What is “Art Movements”?

Art movement is a style of art with a specified objective and philosophy that is followed by a group of artists during a specific period that may last from a few months to years or maybe even decades. It also refers to when a large number of artists that are alive at the same time mutually accepts a certain, recognizable form or style of art that can be held apart from current styles and methods. This method then becomes extremely popular and goes on to define an entire generation of artists.

How did Art Movements start?

Art Movements started in the 19th century in France. The 1840s and the industrial revolution quickly changed the established art style and methods. The changing political landscapes of Europe and the advent and subsequent boom of the anti-romantic movement in Germany were all at a high. These cultural forces built up into the first known art movement, dubbed realism. As cities grew more artists migrated to different capitals and began to socialize and influence each other. This gathering of artists in the 19th century was steadily focused on Europe and concentrated particularly on Paris. However, artists also grouped in German, Italian, Spanish and Russian cities. This led to the rise of artistic schools of thought, some of which, such as cubism, would turn into well-known art movements. Over time the focus of art movements has moved from France and become less Europe-centric. Many artistic movements in the 20th century started in American cities, Britain, Japan, or other parts of the world.

Some Art Movements and styles:

• Impressionism
• Cubism
• Abstract expressionism
• Baroque
• Surrealism
• Pop art
• Realism
• Romanticism
• Italian Renaissance
• Colour field etc.

mood board:

I will be analysing individualism, socialism and realism.

INDIVIDUALISM

What is “Individualism”?

Individualism is all about taking care of yourself; it is the hope and practice that every person is unique and self-reliant.

How does Individualism link to art movements?

Individualism in art movements is linked towards personal expression, where artists focus their attention on their unique perspectives, emotions, and experiences. From Leonardo da Vinci Renaissance’s celebration of the artist’s genius to the emotional depth of Romanticism, individualism has allowed artists to challenge agreements, explore new techniques, and express personal identity.

How does Individualism link to the theme Union?

Individualism and the theme of union are linked through the idea that a strong combination can be built alongside the knowledge and respect of individual identities. While individualism focuses attention on personal freedom, and self-expression, it also suggests that when people come together with shared values or goals, their allowance can strengthen the collective. In movements such as social movements, individualism etc, guides people to state their rights, and union provides a structure for individuals to come together, working together toward joint benefits while taking care of personal characteristics. So, individualism and union are connected, where personal freedom and identity builds up to a stronger, more joint effort.

SOCIALISM

What is “Socialism”?

Socialism is a political and economic system which supports public or community ownership of the means of production and seeks to improve inequality by sharing resources and wealth more fairly among people.

How does Socialism link to art movements?

Socialism links to art movements by inspiring the depiction of social struggles, workers’ rights, and economic inequality. Movements like Realism and Socialist Realism using art as a tool to show the lives of ordinary people, while also serving as a means of political expression in socialist policy.

How does Socialism link to the theme Union?

Socialism links to the theme of union by focusing on unity and joint action with workers, to achieve social and economic equality, protect workers’ rights, and challenge the exploitation inherent in capitalist systems.

REALISM

What is “Realism”?

A tendency to face facts and be practical rather than imaginative or visionary.

How does Realism link to art movements?

Realism links to art movements by challenging the idealized a illustration of the past and focusing on everyday life, ordinary people, and social issues. It rejected the romanticized and dramatic themes of Romanticism, instead capturing scenes of poverty, and the struggles of the working class with honesty and detail. Realism influenced later movements like Impressionism which shows a more atmospheric approach if everyday life, and it also influenced Socialist Realism, where art was used to represent the struggles of the working class. Realism’s focus on truth, observation, and the human condition, which helped artists on how to view a picture life and society in subsequent movement.

How does Realism link to the theme Union?

Realism links to the theme of union by focusing on the struggles of everyday people and the importance of social agreement. Artists who explore realism often focus on issues of variations and collective action. These artist paintings contributed to a sense of union and social consciousness, encouraging viewers to share human experiences and the need for social change.

Constructed reality –

Also known as staged reality, photographers often use constructed reality as a way of capturing a false reality, where the photos look candid and real but are artificially staged using studio lighting and propped sitters. In other variations of constructed reality in photography, artists usually use editing through photoshop or other editing tools to merge photos together and almost enter the idea and theme of surrealism.

Examples –

In these photographs, you can see the unusual, the confusing, aspects that you wouldn’t see in types of photography like portrait or romanticism. Layering, texture and editing is very much a focal point of these types of photographs, and have a very good way of getting us to question ourselves and the artist.

Artist example –

James Casebere –

Born in 1953 in Michigan, Untied States, Casebere is a contemporary artist and photographer, he has devised complex models and photographed them in his studio. His early work has reflected the stereotypical ‘American suburban home.’ Casebere then followed that by some photographs and sculpture, occasionally tapping into the mythical American west.

Analyzation of his work –

Through James’ work, his use of dimension in his photos are very impactful. It gives an eerie sense of emptiness and also enticement in his photos. The shadows and highlights throughout these examples show a harsh light and dark contrast through his work which compliments his dark theme.

Casebere loves to include the image of water, usually through image editing, maybe photoshop. It really helps show dimension through his work and also gives the artist the sense of the unknown. As his images are meant to be strange and unusual, it compliments that a lot.

James’ use of architecture is very impactful, the easy line work, and geometrical shapes, compliment each other and allow the images to flow very comfortably. With the help of ‘windows’ in his photos, the inclusion of pinpointed bursts of light allow the focal point to change as your eyes move around the photographs.

Inspiration –

James’ use of texture is something I really want to include in my work. The difference in substance and view of each part of his photos I believe is very eye catching, and causes for a lot more thinking when someone were to come across his work.

That is something I want to include in my work because I don’t want my work to be simple, I want it to be cause for thinking, I want people to stop and wonder, think as deeply as I did while making them. Deep thought is a very large aspect of my life and I want that to be shown through my art and photography.

Mind map & Mood board:

Here I have mapped out some ideas of what I can do with some of my final print outs, I have added a lot of borders, mainly to be able to see them properly online, but I do believe that it could a special effect to some of the photos, as some of the photos don’t have much going on in them, then the add of a border can make it stand out a lot more than rest. For the first one. I’ve decided to put 3 final photos together, I put the simpler one in the middle to make sure it gets as much recognition as the other and the more detailed ones are on the outside, the 2 photos on the side consist of 3 characters on the models head or around it. I made sure to put a border on each of the photos and then a border on top of that, this makes the photo stand out a lot more and adds dimension to the final piece. For the second final piece I’ve decided to put 4 photos together, these photos will be in the smallest print size to make sure the final piece isn’t too big. I’ve put these 4 photos together as they create a good dimension, I really like how these turned out, I also made sure it was layered it in borders to make the photos look 3D. Next, these photos were in black and white therefore I didn’t think that it needed a strong border, so I only added one instead of 3 as the colours in the photo grab enough attention and don’t need to have a big border to divert the attention somewhere else. I also wanted to have some mounts that aren’t too basic, although all of my mounts consist of just simple borders I believe that my photos don’t need big and detailed borders as that can distract the whole concept of the photo. For the last mount that I have selected I made it have loads of boarders which increased the dimension of the photograph, since the photo is in black and white and almost looks quite sketchy I thought having some dimension might make it look cooler.

My best images:

To evaluate, I believe this last shoot was the perfect end to my planning and recording aspect of my project. It effectively links to Helmut Newton and his reinforcement of women empowerment, as well as displaying a creative and more personal side to it due to me carrying out this shoot as a female and being able to incorporate my own ideas based on experience. The costumes and props used in this shoot are very similar to the second shoot, where we played similar roles and wore similar clothes to exhibit a strong narrative of the expectations surrounding women behaviour. This is a powerful element to include because I am linking my work directly to historical contexts of the 1960s, when traditional gender roles and stereotypes occurred. I think overall, this shoot conducts a raw and sentimental approach through the camera angles used, forcing the viewer to focus on specific elements such as the heels or the stockings, as this is what women were expected to wear in order to fit into society’s patriarchy.

My third photoshoot was photographed in the photography studio, which is another factor that helps my shoots blend together better. The same lighting was also used: two flashlights, one either side of the camera. The brightness of these lights was very strong, which helps give my images a more staged approach. Although the message behind my work is very raw and honest, I like the idea of my images looking slightly staged, as this follows Newton’s approach, where they look very well put together and the idea presented to the viewer is very clear.

What went well:

• I remembered to use a white backdrop only, the black is too harsh and takes away from the image itself
• Clothing – a successful recreation of what women were expected to wear in the 60s due to it being quite flashy and exposing
• Posing ideas – models look confident and powerful rather than weak, this emphasises the idea of women empowerment
• Range of camera angles – shows variety and differs images from one another

What could be improved:

• Subjects are to close to the backdrop, which allows for strong shadows. This would look more professional if there were no shadows
• Occasional blurry image – ensure camera settings are accurate and work effectively with the lighting in order to reach maximum potential

For my first photoshoot I want to focus on recreating old archived images of my family. In order to do this, I have been through my family photo albums and have taken photographs of the images I want to use in my photoshoots and recreate. I have chosen images including:

• My dad when he was younger
• My mum when she was younger
• Myself when I was younger
• My sister when she was younger
• My two uncles when they were younger
• My grandparents/ great-grandparents/ great great-grandparents

Examples of Archives

Plan

My plan for this photoshoot is to have my mum and dad recreate younger images of themselves, so I can present how they have changed and what has stayed the same/ similar during this time.

I also want to have my dad recreate photographs of his dad when he was younger and more recent images of him before he passed. I want to do this so i can present their similarities in characteristics, so I can present how family and DNA unify us together by giving us all these similarities. I also want my mum and her two brothers to recreate an image of their mum for the same reason and so I can present the similarities between my mum and her siblings as well. I also want to recreate images of my great-grandparents and great grandparents for the same reason. I also would like to recreate images of my uncles from when they were younger, myself and my sister. I also would like to recreate images of myself when I was younger, but using my sister.

Edits

For this photo I felt like the arcade game on the wall distracted too much from the subject, so I created a mask and lowered the exposure in that area. I also added another mask on the telephones, as I wanted them as a main focal point of the composition.

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b&w/slow shutter speed photos

before/after

Plan-

1. outdoors
2. daylight/sunset
3. surroundings
4. closeup
5. different angles

For this shoot I took my camera into my place of work, Love Wine, and got some pictures of the shop and some of the bottles we sell there.

Contact Sheet

I started out with 11 photos of which I liked 4.

editing

For this image I brightened it up, upping the exposure and making the rose colour stand out more by upping the vibrancy and adding a little bit of vignette.

For this image I wanted to make the bottle stand out from the background as the have similar hues of yellow, especially with in the label, I also wanted to make that red stand out and pop more. so to rectify this I singled out the bottle with a mask and removed to colour from the background.

Finals

The vibrant red of the foil around the neck and cork makes the black and white background feel cold. The negative space of the side of the table helps place a slight frame at the bottom and make it seem as though the bottle is floating.

Evaluation

I think this shoot turned out really well and I’m incredibly happy with the quality of the photos. however, if I could do it again, I would go in on a day that I am not working as it would give me more time to get images.

Below are the photos I took over the first photoshoot day with Tommy. I took a few photos with the intention of montaging them together with landscape photography, and some as there own photograph. I started the photoshoot with some portraits of Tommy, with a focus on the eye as its a common theme in surrealism, then I went to taking photos of hands and they are often associated with the conscious mind as the unconscious usually cannot process hands. Finally, I went to taking some Images of skulls as I may use them later to add to my landscape photos.

Here I took inspiration from one of Man Ray’s famous portraits called Noire et Blanche (1926). Bellow is an edited version try try replicate the same ‘brown’ that’s in Man Ray’s image:

I kept my subjects eyes open as it means I can create a montage of images with my subject later on, all with a similar theme of the eye being in focus.

Surrealist painters and photographers often use eyes into their works to create a sense of mystery, depth and phycological exploration. It can also be used to evoke emotions and provoke thoughts. “eyes are the windows to a soul”. This is very true as a lot of emotion of a subject can be depicted from there eyes.

Above I told my subject to act like he was flying, while his belly was resting on a box. I used the same edit as the image above, and I also took the image to photoshop to try and remove the box, adding a real flying allusion. However, I found it difficult to remove the box so I opted on using the remove tool in photoshop.

Here I added two images together with different opacities to create this transformation through time, when the subject has his hands down and his hands up. I also see this kind of image very often when I’m looking for inspiration for a surrealism photograph.

Above I used the same two sets of images as before, but cut out the eyes. This has created a very eerie looking image as the viewer cannot escape the eye.

Photoshoot 4

Here I Tried to use the same method as before, but with a different subject and using reflections, I will now try to edit is arm out so I confuses the viewer.

Here I tried replicating an Image I saw while looking for inspiration of Surrealism.