First Presentation

When I start mounting my images, I am going to present these series of images together on a black piece of card. Firstly, I will mount them using white foam board ensuring that none of it can be seen. I am going to do this because when I present them on the black piece of card I want the images to be slightly elevated instead of blending in with the card. I think this will be the most effective way to show these images because there is a lot of white in my images and I feel as though putting them on black card will make them stand out more due to the contrast of the background. I also feel as though this is the most effective way because the background is dark it will make the images stand out more and catch the viewers eye.

I used a knife tool, to cut around my images to ensure that they are all the same size and shape before using spray mount to stick them onto foam board. Once I had completed this, I cut around the white foam board so that it was the same size as my image and to ensure there was no foam board seen when looking at the image. I then used a pencil to sketch out where I wanted to place the three images and to ensure they were all equally spaced out. After this, I used double sided tape to stick the images onto the black piece of card. Once I had done this I measured the sides of the card and made sure that they were all even and the same length apart from each other and from the sides.

I really like how my first final presentation of my images turned out. This is because I like how the contrast of the back and white really makes the images stand out. I also like the order I have placed them in because the middle one is slightly more different to the other two which has a nice pattern to it. If I were to do this again, I would maybe print out the images A4 as I printed mine in A5 and they came out a bit small.

Second Presentation

When presenting my this series of images, I am going to present them on white foam board. I have chosen white foam board because I feel as though the contrast between the black colours in the images will stand out against white card. I think this will be the most effective way to present my images because the white background will make the images stand out and will allow the viewer to focus on the details of the images and notice the differences of each one.

I started by trimming down all the images to get rid of any unwanted areas around the image itself, after this I stuck the images down on a white piece of foam board. I then used the spray mount to stick the images down before using the knife tool to cut round the foam board right up to the image to ensure there is no foam board showing when looking at the image. I did this to allow the illusion of the images being raised and coming out of the background because it meant that they weren’t all the same level. After this, I used another big piece of foam board and laid out my images to see which way round would look best. After I had decided the order, I used a pencil and a ruler to measure out the sides and decide how much foam board I would be leaving out to be visible. I then used double sided tape on all the images to stick them down onto the big piece of foam board. After I had completed this, I used the knife tool to cut off any excess piece of foam board that weren’t within the measurements.

I really like how I presented my images because of the differences of each image coming together to make one canvas. For this presentation I like how I have left the foam board on display to contrast with the images.

Third Presentation

When presenting this image, I am going to use a black piece of card for the background as I feel it would be the most appropriate for this set of images. I think this will be the most effective way to present my images because there is black in my image and I feel as though it will go well with showing the different dimensions and illusions that are in this image. I am also going to mount the image up onto a bit of foam board to raise the image from the background to create the idea that the image is coming out of it. I think this will look good as the image is quite gory and the black background correlates to this idea.

For this image, I used the cutter to get a clean precise edge on the two images instead of using scissors. After this, I got a big piece of white foam board and used mount spray to stick them onto it. I then used the knife tool to cut around through the foam board around the image ensuring that no form board was left on show as I wanted the background to be purely black. After I had completed this, I used a pencil and a ruler to create markings on the black piece of card to ensure that both images were the same distance apart from the edges so that they were equal. After I was happy with the measurements, I used double sided tape to stick the images together. I chose to put my two images on top of each other, this is because I liked how this looked and I liked how it created a sense of symmetry as they are similar images edited the same way.

I really like how I presented my images because I like how the black background contrasts with the images to make them stand out and ensure that the illusions are the focus point of the image. If I were to present my images again, I would make the images brighter because in one point there is a dark area on one of the images that blends in with the background.

I am going to be looking at an photographer called Tommy Inberg.

I have chosen to look at surrealism for my project with a specific focus on Tommy Inberg as I feel as though I am able to create lots of different images using photoshop to create the idea of union. Tommy Inberg is a photographer and visual artist born in 1980 in Sweden. He does a lot of digital editing with his images to create minimalistic and self–reflecting surreal photo montages while taking into consideration the thoughts and feelings behind the images he presents. I am inspired by this artist because I feel as though the meaning behind his images of human nature link in perfectly with the idea of union. This is because human – nature correlates with the idea of communities and society’s coming together as a group which is a force of habit through the way we are raised through our primary observations and learning. Tommy Inberg often leaves the interpretation of his artwork up to the viewer for them to create their own narrative on his work. Inberg uses his own feelings and thoughts through the vision of his work and makes it personal about his life trying to portray this through his abstract work. When I create my own images, I am going to use Tommy Inberg as my inspiration for the surrealism part of it, this is because I like that two opposing images can be created into one by merging them together to create a union image. I am going to aim to take pictures of hands, eyes and portraits of people to put them together to create a narrative that is down to the viewer to relate their own thoughts and feelings to.  

The first artist I am going to be looking at is Man Ray. He was an American visual artist who spent most of his time in Paris. He contributed to the dada and surrealist movements.

For this photoshoot, we went into the studio to take photos. I used artificial lighting with the studio light to create an even light in the images. When taking my images, I made sure that the light was behind the camera to prevent there being any unwanted shadows. I also used a plain white background to contrast with the people in the photos. I also used a white background as I felt that it would work best when I proceeded to edit my photos in photoshop. When I was in the studio, I took pictures of predominantly portrait photos, however I also took pictures of hands and backs to allow me to edit them together to create a union image. I like how my images turned out because I feel as though they will be effective when I start editing them together to create a photoshopped image. I also like the lighting of my images because they are bright to bring out the details in the peoples faces to enable me to merge them together. My aim was to take pictures that correlate with Tommy Inberg because I want to create surreal images to portray a sense of union between the different pictures coming together.

1st Photoshop Edit

For this photoshopped image I used these images:

Firstly, I opened these two images on photoshop on a separate page. After this, I cropped the portrait image to get rid of the empty space around the face to enable the viewer to see the detailing of the image. After this I made both images black and white and levelled them to make them the same tone and texture.

Once I had completed this, I used the Quick Selection Tool to select the hands and making sure that there were no areas that were selected incorrectly. I did this by zooming in and carefully selecting all of the areas I wanted to be selected. After I had done this, I “Layer Via Cut” the hands to enable me to move them onto the face.

I then proceeded to place the hands over the face where I wanted them to go ensuring that the whole face was covered to allow me to change the opacity of the hands to create a surreal image.

I really like how these images turned out because I like how they correlate with the word “union”. The reason as to why I think they fit in with the idea of union is because I have taken two images and merged them together to create one image. I also think this because I have created three of the same images with a slight difference. I have done this to unite the images together and when I display them I am going to stick them all together to create a final image like this :

This photoshop edit was inspired by Tommy Inberg and his surrealist artwork. He uses his thoughts and feelings within his imagination to create personal images and leaves the narrative up to the viewer. My interpretation of my images is that I have tired to portray a sense of union by using the face covered by the hands. I have tried to portray the feeling of isolation within people and the idea of someone trying to hide behind something, the idea of having three images correlates because it can be inferred with lots of people having the same feelings of feeling lonely or isolated but yet all unite together as one. despite still having our own differences within the same feeling. These images correlate to the idea of union because of the way that all the images are edited very similarly and look the same however have a slight difference. This has allowed me to present them together as one and I feel as though this is a good way to represent a union set of images.

2nd Photoshop Edit

For these images, I transferred them onto photoshop. For the first image I used these two images:

Firstly, I made both images black and white and levelled them to get the desired lighting that I wanted. After this, I started with a blank template and made it portrait. After this, I went onto my image of the girl looking down and used the Quick Selection Tool to select her. I ensured to zoom in when doing this so that I didn’t miss any areas. Once I had completed this, I clicked “Layer Via Copy” and transferred it onto the blank template. I repeated this with the other image of the girl looking up. Once I had them both onto the blank template, I moved the images around experimenting on what looked the best. I decided that the two images facing away from each other looked the best so I ensured to make one big and one small. I put the big image behind the small one to ensure that both of them were the main focus point of the image. After I had done this, I proceeded to use the opacity tool to decide what type of opacity I wanted for each one. I decided on “Pin Light” and “Hard Light” because I wanted the opacity of the large image to be much less than the smaller image to create the sense of a shadow or a thought of the small image.

I really liked the way my images turned out because of the idea of two different images merged together to create a sense of union. I like the images in black and white because it gives it a gory yet subtle look because of the lighting of the images are still bright instead of being dull. When presenting my images once they are printed, I am going to stick them down on a black piece of card to ensure that the whites in the image stand out instead of blending in if I were to use a white piece of card. I am going to lay them out in this order:

I have chosen this order because I like the way that the middle one is slightly different to the other two. Therefore I feel as though that they correlate with the idea of union because of the middle one being slightly out of place however still having similar properties to the other two.

3rd Photoshop Edit

For this photoshop edit, I used these images :

I started by transferring these images onto photoshop one by one, and making them black and white before levelling them to get the same lighting for all of the images.

When presenting these images, I am going to put them on top of one another, as I feel as though they have a slight symmetry which is powerful when they are put together. I like the way that the images are reflecting each other and represents a slight sense of togetherness and allows the viewer to create their own narrative to the image as there isn’t an exact story to follow with them. I have taken this idea from Tommy Inberg who stated that he leaves the narrative up to the viewer to create their own meaning behind the images.

Overview

I really like how all my photoshop edits turned out. This is because I feel as though they all present the idea of union. I made all my images black and white because all the images are different however having them with no colour make them interlinked and come together as a union. I like this idea of black and white images because they infer that all the people in the image have similar features however they differ from each other in a slight way.

For my project, I am going to create images on photoshop to correlate to the title of my project of union. the concept of my images is to create different ways to present union in my photos. I will use photoshop to merge images together or to resize images smaller and larger to create an illusion of union. I will use photoshop to make all my images black and white because I like the idea of all the images being the same colour to create a sense of union. I also like the idea of having my images black and white because I feel as though it creates a sense of mystery and leaves the viewer to create their own narrative to what they think the story of the images are about. I am also going to create series of images that go together so that I can present them together and create a sequencing story through them. I like the idea of union and I can infer that it is the idea of people coming together and being united. It shows togetherness and friendships and also the idea of peoples differences coming together to be as one. I would like to represent the idea of union through my photoshop edits:

For my first photoshoot edit, I am going to attempt to create four images to display them all together. I am going to use a portrait image and a picture of hands that I took purposely for this idea. I am going to edit the image of the hands onto the face and use the opacity tool to blend both of the images together to ensure that the face is still seen through the hands. To create four different images like this, I am going to use the same images but I am going to change the style of opacity and see which ones look the best. I am also going to put all these images black and white as I feel this makes the image more powerful and effective to the viewer because it will have a mysterious and gory feel to them. This way I can display the images all together and create a sequencing narrative to the images.

For the second photoshop edit, I am going to create two images that are the same but reflect each other to create a line of symmetry. I am going to do this by using the images I took in the studio of the person standing sideways looking down and slowly lifting her head up whilst still being photographed at each position her head moves in. I also took the same images of the girl facing the other way to enable me to create two images that are the same but facing the opposite way. I am going to transfer these images onto photoshop to enable me to edit them. Once I have them onto photoshop, I am going to layer each of the images on top of each other, after I have done this I am going to use the opacity tool again to create an image of mystery. I am also going to put these images into black and white to stick to the theme of my project. I think this will be really affective because the image will give the illusion that the girl is moving in slow motion or it could create the idea that its her imagination or thoughts exiting her mind.

For my third photoshop image I am going to create three images that all correlate to each other. I am going to use my studio portraits that I took for this project and transfer them onto photoshop. Once I have done this, I am going to use an image that shows a girl looking down and the same girl looking up. I am going to make one big and one small as though it is a duplicate of herself looking at one another. I am going to experiment with the images and decide if they should stay facing each other or if I should place it so it looks as though they are facing away from each other. Once I have done this, I am going to keep the smaller image full opacity and change the opacity of the large image slightly less to create an idea of thoughts and feelings being presented. I am going to do this on a white background to ensure that the images stand out to be the focus point of the image. I am going to do this two more times experimenting and trying different ways to create similar but different ways to show the idea of union.

When displaying my images, I am going to ensure that I have chosen the most appropriate colour for my images. I will likely use black card to display my third photoshop edits as they have a white background on the images, therefore using black card for the background will help the images stand out because of the contrast. This will allow them to have a main focus point for the image and allow then viewer to get a good view of the details of the images.

I am going to use surrealism when creating my images. This is because I feel as though this is the best way to create union by having dream-like images to capture a sense of union. I also like the idea that I can use my imagination to create images. I think surrealism is the best way to present my images as I feel as though I can create unusual and made up images that wouldn’t be possible in real life. I like this idea because it allows be to get creative and show the different ways I can display images using the initiative of union. I am inspired by Tommy Inberg and his creative mind and the way he presents photos using his imagination. I also like the way he makes his images meaningful to him yet allows the viewer to create their own narrative to what they think the meaning behind his images are. He has a broad imagination and creates images that could never be real in life which makes his images fascinating to look at and to think about the deeper meaning behind them.

I have decided to base my project on eyes. I feel as though eyes relates to the word “union” because of the different shapes, colour and expressions that eyes can have. I like the way that eyes can all be different but be classified as one type of thing and the way that eyes are viewed as a collective. I also feel that eyes relates because they come as a pair, in “union”.

For my project I would like to create different ways of expressing the different types of eyes and presenting them all on one frame or one image to create a sense of union. I will attempt to take pictures of different peoples eyes and use them to create a montage or a photoshopped image where they can be seen as the main subject of the photograph.

I am going to use surrealism when creating my project to express the different illusions and bizarre ways that eyes can be used in an image. I also feel as though eyes are a good way to view imagination and dream-like images to express certain emotions and feelings. I also feel as though surrealism can be viewed differently and have unique narratives seen through the eyes of people.

The definition of union is the act of joining together or the fact of being joined together. However, my interpretation of union is the idea of people being united as a society. I have used my photos to express this idea and used different techniques and editing skills to show this. I have based my project on surrealism by creating images that could only come from the imagination or dreams that seem bizarre or out of place. I like the idea of using surrealism to present my images because I feel as though it correlates to the word “union” by merging things together. This could also link to different cultures or ethnicities of people in the world that come together to empower their beliefs and to be united.  

There have been many unions through history that have led us where we are today. Labour unions have been a big part of the industrial revolution starting in the eighteenth century in Europe. Trade unions have played an important part in the role of independence. This links back to my project as it shows the different ways that unions can be interpreted, whether it is one person or a group of people coming together to support each other and to be there for one another.  

When creating my union images, my idea is to take pictures and edit them in photoshop together. I want to do this because I feel as though this will correlate to the word union because of the idea that two things joining or coming together as one. I also like this idea because I like the way that I am able to use my imagination to create surreal images that could not physically be possible to see or do in real life. I am going to create images which look like they’re from dreams as I feel as though this will turn out well.

Surrealism

Surrealism is a movement of art that allows artists to use their imagination to create something unusual. Surreal photography represents ideas, emotions and dreams that people have which influences them. It is the idea of creating the impossible and blending reality with the imagination.

The surrealism movement first began in 1924, founded by a French poet, Andre Breton. He explored the irrational mind and soon this was expressed through visual art to explore dream-like and bizarre thoughts and imaginations. surrealism started as art until photographers were son inspired by the principles of the movement and started to create their own work based on painters such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. In the 1920’s and the 1930’s, surrealist photographers started to experiment with different techniques to create these unusual images. Techniques such as:

Double exposure, where two or more images were used on the same frame which resulted in a blend of the two or more realities. The manipulation of a photograph was also used, where the photographer would play around with the final print of an image to create unusual effects and compositions. Montages were also an extremely popular technique where photographers would cut and stick different images in which had no correspondence together.#

In 1940’s to the 1960’s during world war 2, surrealism became more broad with different ways of it being viewed or portrayed. Artists also started using technology and different techniques to create their surrealism work which led to the movement being used in fashion and the production of commercials and films.