My idea of union is a group of two or more people creating a type of group, team, organisation or relationship which work together or join each other to create a union.

Mind Map

Mood Board

Categorizing

I started by putting all of my images into a seperate folder called union photoshoot.

Within this I will put my images into there separate shoot photos, and label it unedited as to not get confused with the ones I will later pull in from lightroom.

After this I will go through my images and delete the ones I am unhappy with to not waste time editing photos that I will not use.

Lightroom Editing

Categorizing

I have used the (P) and (X) flags to categorize my images.

I then gave the images that needed to be touched up in photoshop one star, so that I can transport them easily into different folders.

Photoshop edits

I will take images like these to portray my theme of union.

As I finally decided what I wanted to do, in order to generate ideas and concepts, I grabbed two pieces of paper and started to write down ideas and things that I had caught inspiration. As seen above, I wrote many ideas, and even made a rough sketch of how I would present certain images and edits. This really helped because it allowed me to have a much more clear idea of what exactly I wanted to do, and how I wanted to do it. It also helped me think about what I was going to photoshoot, where and how. Also, as seen above, this is where I started to gather different artist and concepts into my idea, which allowed me to slowly build my idea and ensure that I knew what I was doing. This planning really helped me understand the concept I was going for and allowed me to have a good start on my project.

I am going to follow the theme of union by analyzing friendship, and the different aspects of this. I will take images of a group of friends, and how they work together to fix/build up there cars, and how this working together creates a bond.

I am going to do this through different approaches. I will be taking a documentary style approach to my photography, capturing real life events to tell a story. I will do this by taking candid images, where the subjects do not know that I am taking a photo, and also through staged situations.

Another approach will be through humanism. Where I will analyse the value and alliance of human being’s. Picturing a group together, analysing how there are some things that we cannot do alone so we create these bonds.

I am going to also create a short documentary style film, to take reinforce my ideas. By using the film to show the clear collaboration between the boys.

My main artist case studies will be Henri-Cartier Bresson, who was a humanist photographer and a master of candid photography, taking inspiration from him to portray how humans work together. My other main artist case study will be Robert Frank, who is famous for his ground-breaking documentary photography work.

I have also looked into Man Ray who had a surrealist approach to his work, and Alfred Stieglitz with helping to establish photography as a legitimate art form.

I want to portray my ideas by creating a short book on blurb, and some foam boards which will in a way act as a mood board.

I may take an approach of surrealism, by editing my photos in post production.

Union Definition

A union is an organization formed by workers who join together and use their strength to have a voice in their workplace. Through their union, workers have the ability to negotiate from a position of strength with employers over wages, benefits, workplace health and safety, job training and other work-related issues.

Unification Definition

Unification describes the bringing together of two or more things so they become a single unit. If your marriage turns your feuding families into one big happy group, you pulled off a unification that would make Romeo and Juliet jealous.

‘Unification based upon the generalisation of proper time is proposed as a comprehensive framework to account for the fundamental structure of matter, in a manner
contrasting with the more familiar approach based on extra dimensions of space. The
elementary properties of matter to be incorporated include the Standard Model of particle physics together with a source for the dark sector and a coherent formalism for
quantum gravity. We elaborate upon the manner in which all such material phenomena and empirical properties as distributed in an extended 4-dimensional spacetime
can be encompassed within, and derived from, the continuous flow of time alone via
a generalised arithmetic form for infinitesimal intervals of proper time. This approach
will also be compared and contrasted with the basic structure of causal set theory as a
means of demonstrating how it is possible to construct a full physical theory essentially
from elements of time alone, as explicitly developed from the most elementary level.
The conception of time as utilised and elucidated in this theory, with emphasis upon
the causal continuum properties and as the basis for unification, will be clarified.‘

The term that I think about when I am considering what I want to do, is UNION. The term union denotates the uniting or joining two or more things together. This term will really help me gather my ideas and inspire me. This will help me understand what I am doing and what I plan to do.  

Although my final decision was extremely hard, I am positive that I want to produce a project solely focused on the interconnectedness us humans have with nature. The union of humans and nature. This idea is an idea that I have never thought about. I never thought that us humans were somewhat connected to nature until I researched about it and was majorly surprised. Researching about this fascination really opened my mind to creativity and really caused a reaction within me. It made me start looking at nature in a different way. This new discovery caused me to search for similarities between us and nature and still continues to do so. With this new obsession, I plan to explore this with the term union in mind and plan to show this extraordinary concept in my work and search intently for different ways we are connected to nature.  

I want to show the union between humans and nature.  

I want my work to impact people; I want to start a reaction. I want people to be shocked and surprised when they find out just how similar we are to nature. I want to create images that show this concept perfectly. I want to actively show all types of examples, examples that are not as common, examples where you must think a little bit to truly understand. I want to also show a mixture of human and nature. Create a piece where nature is part of a human. To show our inner nature.  

I plan to produce three types of photoshoots and ideas. These photoshoots and ideas will start to be developed on the beginning of march. The first idea will consist of different photoshoots of different people in a studio with artificial lighting. I will produce portraits of all the different people and take pictures of them at different angles. This will allow me to have flexibility when I edit the images in photoshop. After these images are taken, they are edited and adjusted. I plan to produce multiple photoshoots outside, like the park and a forest, to capture nature, for this idea. I will take images of mostly leaves branches and trees. I plan to merge the portrait of the people whom I will photograph; with the images I will take of nature. I may show this by incorporating nature into the portrait, to make it look like the person is part nature. This will create blurred lines between humans and nature. I can also show a merge by cutting pieces from the photographed face and replacing it with nature. I plan to act on all of these ideas.  

My second idea is comparing body parts and features with nature and juxtaposing them. This idea was inspired by Alicja Brodowicz work. Her project ‘visual exercises’ shows a series of body parts complying with nature. An example being the image she produced where she compares a potato with roots coming out of it with a human foot that is crooked. Her work explores the human impact on nature and her concern for the topic. Her aim, by combining nature and humans, is to show that we are interconnected and that our separate existence is impossible. This is something that I also believe in and want to act on, so I plan to produce images with the same structure and ideas as her.

I will produce images in the studio, where I will take pictures of body parts, like skin, stretch mark, hair and scars. I will produce these images in the studio because, with the artificial lighting and set up, it’s much easier to capture textures and patterns of the human body. Now for the images of nature, I will capture the images outside, like the beach, forest, parks and gardens. As they are taken outside, they will be taken in natural lighting which will enhance the beauty of the nature I will capture. After these images are produced, using photoshop, I will create the same format as Alicja Brodowicz did, edit my images in black and white, like she did. This format will most definitely help audiences understand my concept and inspirations.  

The idea behind taking images of  nature and romanticising it, comes from Edward weston. He often photographed nature and romanticized it by trying to find a deeper form of it which is exactly what I plan to do. Taking images of nature and comparing it to humans, is me trying to show this deeper form of nature.  

Moving on, my last idea was something that I thought of myself. Eyes are something that we look at when speaking to someone, without even realizing. We often ignore the beauty of them and forget how important they are; by comparing the eyes to nature and romanticizing human eyes by connecting them to nature will help understand just how linked we are to nature. I plan to do close ups of different coloured eyes. I will get friends who have different coloured eyes and closely photograph their eyes. This will be done in a studio, with artificial lighting so that it ensures that the intrinsic details in the eyes are captured as much as possible so that details aren’t lost. After taking images of the eyes, I will begin to look at different types of nature resources and explore which one is more suitable to each differently coloured eye. These images will be taken outside, like parks, forests, gardens and so much more, so that it captures the natural features of nature. After all the editing and cropping is done, I plan to compare the two. I want the structure to be exactly like the structure of the images I will make where I will compare human body parts with nature.  

All of the editing, cropping and enhancements will be done in photoshop and Lightroom. I plan to use photoshop to experiment with my images and create final products. I will also use Lightroom to crop and edit my images to produce final outcomes.  

Edward Weston:

Alicja Brodowicz:

My Response to Edward Weston’s work:

My response to Alicja Brodowicz’s work :

Evaluation:

I believe that the image’s that I have produced in response to my 2 Case Studies, Edwards Weston and Alicja Brodowicz, are very accurate to their work. For an example, Edwards work is in black and white which consists the humanization of things like fruits and vegetables. He manipulated his photographs in a way that he gave the things he was photographing, human like features. In this aspect, I think that I powerfully portrayed this in my images. For an example, I photographed trees that have human like feature and manipulated human hands to look like a world. The use of black and white in my images also shows an inspiration. Things I could’ve improved in my response is using fruits and vegetables like Weston does. This would allow me to portray the full inspiration I had through his work.

Now when it comes to my response to Alicja Brodowicz work, I can strongly say that there is clear inspiration. The use of comparison of two images, shows that inspiration I got from Brodowicz. The use of black and white also shows this. Alicja Brodowicz creates images where she compares nature to humans and shows how similar the human species are to nature. Her whole project show a diverse set of human features and compares it to the beauty of nature. It shows that we are imperfectly perfect, like nature. However, I could improve my response by showing a more diverse set of human features to ensure inclusivity and variation just like Brodowicz work.

Alicja Brodowicz, born in Krakow, Poland, is a growing photographer, who is renowned for her fine art and subjective documentary photography. She studied at Universiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands where he pursued studies in English literature and then she would later graduate from the institute of creative photography at the Silesian university in Opava, Czech Republic. She was extremely talented and continues to be. This is proven because we can look throughout her career and notice that she has been finalist and laureate in several photography competitions, including the photo annual awards in the Czech Republic, The IRIS award in Australia and the international photography awards in USA. In the Portrait category of the black and white child photo competition, she secured first place.  

Her incredible photographic work has a repetition of exploring the connection between the human body and nature. One of her most fascinating projects, was her project called ‘Visual elements’ where she hunts for the similarities between humans and nature. In this project she combines images of human features or body parts with nature which illustrates the linkage of humanity and environment. It is said that she believes that the imperfections of natural elements and human forms add to their unique beauty. Her work highlights the evident juxtaposition in form and textures, which emphasize the interconnectedness of nature and humans. She states, ‘I photograph the human body’ the microcosm’, she says ‘its fragments, hair, scars, textures of skin, wrinkles. I am interested in individual particularities; I look for distinguishing features and irregularities. Imperfections are my favourites’.  

Although her work might not look like it brings awareness to the human impact on nature, it most certainly does. She comments ‘The older I grow, the more intense this desire is. It is also the expression of my growing concern for the environment and the human impact on it. By combining images of the human body and elements of nature I am trying to show that we are interconnected, and our separate existence is impossible’. This clearly show how her work isn’t showing the fascination between the connection of humans and nature, It’s so much more.  

Another project which she is famously known for is her project called ‘self-portrait Diary’. In this project she captures everyday objects which hold personal significance which creates a visual diary where she reflects her personal life experiences.  

Although it does not look like it, her work relates to romanticism through its emotional depth and intimate connection to nature. The pairing of human and nature reflects the romantic idea of humans and nature being deeply connected. Her images, highlight vulnerability, texture and the quiet beauty which foreshadows the romantic search for the sublime in the ordinary.

More of her work below,

References:

https://petapixel.com/2018/07/18/photos-that-show-similarities-between-the-human-body-and-nature

https://independent-photo.com/stories/visual-exercises-a-series-of-diptychs

From Chatgpt: https://chatgpt.com