Stephen McNally is a photographer from North West England. He has a passion for landscapes and seascapes. The areas of his work which I have an interest in is his Cubism pieces. By looking at his images, I can see that they have mainly all been taken in Liverpool as I have been there many times. I have selected to study Stephen McNally’s work as I like how his images appear to be a more compelling, visually striking adaptation to photographic cubism. This is due to his use of an optic lens for a blurred effect and his editing techniques. No two fragments of his images appear the same. This adds more depth to the image, providing the viewer with lots of different aspects to engage in.
Interview with Lensbaby
In an interview with Lensbaby, a camera lens company, Stephen McNally stated that his work is inspired by David Hockney and another English artist, L.S. Lowry. He discovered David Hockney’s work when he visited a gallery displaying his joiners and decided to try the technique himself. L.S. Lowry on the other hand, is known for painting urban landscapes of streets with people presented as “matchstick men”. Here is a painting by L.S. Lowry:
McNally attempts to combine these styles in his images. He uses the Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass Optic which is a lens that distorts images and gives them a blurred effect. He stated that he likes to use this lens as it allows him to get a different image from the same shot by moving the lens around. When shooting images to create a joiner, he will stand in the same spot for a few hours, taking over a hundred different shots. He mainly focuses on the things which don’t move such as the buildings and then he photographs the people he wants to include as they pass by. After getting all the images he needs, he will return to his computer to assemble his joiner in photoshop. Altogether, Stephen McNally enjoys creating joiners as he likes to produce images that can’t typically be seen by the human eye.
Image Analysis
This is a joiner by Stephen McNally. This joiner consists of a variety of images which, together, form an abstract image. At first glance, it’s hard to work out what you’re looking at until you look closer and see that all of the images match up to create a street photograph. Each of the fragments of this joiner are all different, some more exposed than others and some blurred. This joiner looks like it was taken after the sun has set on a cold day, potentially due to the combination of cold tones for the sky and street and the warm tones of the lighting and red brick. The texture in this image has been muted by the blur-effect of the camera lens he used. It almost looks as if, from left to right, the intensity of the blur gradually increases, making the forms and lines harder to distinguish. I would say there is no clear focal point in this image as my eyes tend to look at each separate fragment, rather than focus in on one specific subject.
David Hockey
David Hockney’s Joiners
I have chosen to study David Hockney’s work as he is the creator of the term “Joiner” to describe photo collages of a cubist style. I have written about him previously in my Cubism blog post.
Comparison of Photographers
The key difference between Stephen McNally’s and David Hockney’s work is that Stephen McNally has a more abstract approach to photography. He uses a range of exposures and a special effect camera lens to create a distorted image. The subject of his photographs are mostly of street scenes whereas Hockney would photograph personal interactions such as playing a game of scrabble or of his mother sleeping. David Hockney’s approach to cubist photography is much more realistic than Stephen McNally’s as he aimed to mirror the human experience and sense of space in his joiners. Hockney’s joiners also consist of a lot more smaller images which are physical prints that have been glued down together, in comparison to Stephen McNally, who has larger images which have been combined using Photoshop. Although there are many differences in their work, there are a few similarities. The key similarities are such that they both focus on photographic Cubism and they use similar colours and tones in their images, mostly browns, beiges and greys. David Hockney has also produced some street scenes which is Stephen McNally’s focus in his joiners. Finally, when taking a closer look at David Hockney’s joiners, you can see that he also used a range of exposures but it is more subtle than Stephen McNally.
When I create my own joiners, I would like to combine the styles of each of these photographers by creating joiners which look realistic but have an abstract approach to them. I will do this by using a range of images from different perspectives and combining them, presenting each fragment differently, whether it be different exposures or a blur, so that there is a clear indication that my final outcome is more than just one image.
Cubism is a revolutionary art movement which originated in the early 20th century. It challenged the norms of representation in art by displaying the subject as fragmented forms with multiple viewpoints. Cubist painters present a new reality in paintings where traditional perspective is replaced with abstract, layered compositions.
Mood Board
History of Cubism
Cubism was created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914.
Photograph of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque
Picasso was a Spanish artist who lived most of his adult life in France. He experimented with many different artistic styles and techniques, making him renowned for consistently reinventing himself. Art critics and historians typically split Picasso’s career into distinct periods.
The first period of Picasso’s career, lasting from 1901 to 1904, was his ‘Blue Period’. During this period, Picasso’s art pieces were primarily shades of blue with touches of accent colour. The subdued tones of these paintings are considered as a reflection of Picasso’s depression following a close friend’s passing.
Subsequent to Picasso’s ‘Blue Period’ was his ‘Rose Period’. This period lasted from 1904 through to 1906 and it signified a shift in Picasso’s wellbeing due to the introduction of warmer colours. These colours included pinks, beiges and reds.
From 1907 to 1909, Picasso’s art was highly inspired by angular African art and masks. This period saw the creation of one of his most controversial pieces, ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’. After meeting Georges Braque in 1905, the artists worked closely together, agreeing on each other’s finished work. In 1907 Picasso showed Braque this painting which was considered as the first Cubist painting.
‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ depicts 5 nude prostitutes from Avignon Street in Barcelona. The features of each of these women are depicted with angular lines and geometric/cubic shapes, appearing almost too sharp to touch. The details of their faces were influenced by African masks and carvings, alike many other pieces by Picasso at the time. It wasn’t until 1916 that Picasso decided to display this painting to the public.
In 1908, Braque responded to Picasso’s work and created the ‘Large Nude’, establishing the birth of cubism.
This was an oil on canvas painting by Georges Braque, depicting a nude female whose body has been formed by layers of geometric fragments and sharp lines. This piece was the earliest type of Cubism, known as Analytical Cubism.
Analytical Cubism is characterised by the subject being split into multi-layered, angular surfaces rather than being depicted realistically. The colours in Analytical Cubism are often very dull, mostly brown, grey and yellow tones. Here are some other images of Analytical Cubism:
Georges Braque was the reason why Cubism became such a huge art movement. This is due to his canvas series named ‘Houses at L’Estaque‘. Braque was highly influenced by an artist named Paul Cezanne. This is evident in this series through Braque’s use of geometric shapes and colourful slanted surfaces. Paul Cezanne was best known for his Impressionist work, however, his approach to painting was what inspired Cubism as a whole. Picasso and Cezanne were both inspired by the way in which Cezanne would focus on the shapes and colours of objects in his paintings, rather than their details. He would also break objects into different perspectives to highlight their form and structure. Additionally, Picasso once stated that Cezanne was “the father of us all“. This was because Paul Cezanne was a very influential painter, especially with Cubism.
Below you can see images of artwork by both Georges Braque and Paul Cezanne:
Georges Braque ‘Houses at L’estaque’Painting by Paul Cezanne
By looking at these two paintings together, you can see Cezanne’s influence on Braque through his use of colour, yellow and green, and how the building’s in Braque’s painting are broken into geometric shapes with no details.
The term ‘Cubism’ was first used to describe this art form by French critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908. He used this term when describing Braque’s landscape paintings. In 1911, the press adopted this term and it became widely used to describe the art form.
The interest in Cubism continued to grow in popularity and a new style of Cubism developed. This was called Synthetic Cubism which consisted of simpler shapes and brighter colours than Analytical Cubism. It also often includes real-world materials such as news paper and patterned paper.
Here are some images of Synthetic Cubism:
Cubism in Art
Some other influential cubist artists included Jean Metzinger and Juan Gris.
Jean Metzinger
Jean Metzinger was a French painter who had lots of involvement with Cubism. He would write articles about contemporary painting and, in 1910, he wrote an article about the work of Braque and Picasso stating that they ‘had dismissed traditional perspective and merged multiple views of an object in a single image‘, according to Guggenheim.org. In 1912, Jean Metzinger collaborated with a writer named Albert Gleizes to publish a nook named ‘Du Cubisme’.
This book was the first major text to be written about Cubism. The publication of this book marked the formal introduction of Cubism to the world of art. It contained information about the movement and explains the principles and rules of Cubism, rejecting traditional perspective and breaking forms up into geometric shapes. The writers of this book, Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger, also spoke philosophically about the art movement and defended it against critics.
Jean Metzinger produced some great cubist artwork himself. These were some of his pieces:
Juan Gris
Juan Gris was a Spanish artist who produced many Synthetic Cubism pieces. He was best known for creating his own distinct style of Synthetic Cubism, making his artwork stick out amongst others. Juan Gris helped to develop the style of Synthetic Cubism by using vibrant colours and larger shapes so that objects are clearer. Gris believed that Cubism should do more than just breaking objects apart and, rather, reconstructing them in a purposeful way.
These are some pieces by Juan Gris:
Cubism in Photography
Following cubist painters, photographers began to experiment with the styles. They would do this by capturing photographs of an object from different perspectives and combining the fragments into a shattered perspective. David Hockney was known to thoroughly explore cubism.
Portrait of David Hockney
David Hockney was an artist from England who was a big contributor to the pop art movement and to Cubism. It wasn’t until 1980 that David Hockney began to experiment with photo collages. He referred to these as “joiners“. He would create these joiners using 35mm Polaroid prints which he would lay out on a surface to create a composite image. Hockney had originally created his first joiner by accident. This was a joiner of a living room and terrace in Los Angeles which he was painting. He created this joiner as experimentation as he didn’t like how wide angle lenses would distort images so he used polaroid prints and glued them together to see how it would look.
Below is the image which he created.
Hockney became fascinated by this concept so he, for some time, began to work more with photography than painting to develop more joiners. He was intrigued by the possibility of being able to showcase the essence of movement and space in a photograph, similar to how we perceive the world around us. A quote by David Hockney to suggest this is “The camera can’t see space. It sees surfaces. People see space, which is much more interesting.” This suggests that, by taking photographs from a variety of perspectives and combining them, it mirrors what we see as humans. Ultimately, it provides a sense of space in an image, and sometimes even movement. This relates to the principles of Cubism, breaking down the subject into multiple perspectives and then reassembling them to create a single result.
One of Hockney’s most influential joiners was “My Mother Sleeping, Los Angeles, 1982“.
My Mother Sleeping, Los Angeles, 1982
This is a joiner by David Hockney of his mother sleeping. Many of Hockney’s joiners had a personal essence to them, displaying his most intimate relationships, his mother being one of the most significant figures in his work. This joiner looks as if it was shot using a combination of both artificial and natural lighting. From what I know about polaroid’s, I can determine that David Hockney most likely just had to adjust the exposure of his camera. It looks to me like he would have had it on a middle-to-low exposure. The fragments of images in this joiner go together to form his mother, with each of the images lining up perfectly. The colours in this image are mainly an orange/brown colour, however the blanket on his mother’s lap adds a pop of colour, bringing your attention to her. David Hockney has formed this joiner so that his mother’s face is in the middle, making her the clear subject. Furthermore, the arrangement of the polaroid prints create an abstract shape which is intriguing for the viewer and reflects his interest in form and space.
For my exam project, I would like to explore Cubism. My main inspiration for this project is Stephen McNally. These are some images by him:
I am particularly interested by his work as I admire how he uses different camera and editing techniques. I would like to do this myself by using a range of shutter speeds and exposures. Some locations I am planning on going to are various places in St Helier, St Aubin and in St Brelade. I will also be going to London during this time so I would like to take some images there. When forming my final outcomes, I will firstly do this in photoshop as it will allow me to play around with different layouts and designs and then I would like to recreate them by hand. I will do this by printing and cutting out each of the segments I will be using and stick them together on to some card.
Cubism relates to the theme of Union as it is an Art Movement which has brought together many photographers over the years. Photographers who have explored cubism each share common styles and interests. Being part of this art movement creates a sense of belonging and proposes a collective influence in art and photography. Cubism also relates to the theme of Union as each fragment of the image join together to form the subject as a whole.
I am interested in exploring Cubism as I really enjoy taking landscape photos and think that it will be amusing to form my own joiners. I also think it would be a good opportunity for me to be able to experiment with different techniques and ideas.
‘Union’ originates from the Latin word ‘unus’ which means ‘one’ and it refers to “the action of joining or uniting more than one thing together”.
Mindmap
Moodboard
Here is a mood board I created which shows some examples of the theme ‘Union’ presented in art and photography.
Art Movements/…isms
I decided to start off exploring the theme of ‘Union’ by looking at different art movements and isms.
What are …isms?
…Isms are Art Movements which are created to represent a particular style, technique or philosophy. I am referring to them as …isms as they typically end in “ism”. These art movements can be linked to the theme ‘Union’ as they are often created in response to different political and societal shifts. Additionally, artists will focus on specific art movements and form a connection with other artists.
Here are some which interested me most:
Surrealism
Surrealism is when images are sought to challenge the norms of photography by presenting elements in bizarre ways through the use of techniques such as photo. montage, blur, colour manipulation, double exposure and perspective. These images often appear as dream-like.
Cubism
Cubism is when images are broken down into various geometric shapes and fragments, often at different perspectives, to represent the subject as a whole.
Expressionism
Expressionism is when images are subjective and have the use of distortion, exaggeration and intense colours to represent emotion and inner turmoil.
Impressionism
Impressionist photography is when photographers create dream-like images which look as if they have been painted and are blurred so that the features have little detail.
