Show how each person is different, expressed through their behavior, characteristics and features. This could be how they dress, their style, presentation compared to their social interactions with one another.
Explore the features or moments that make people unique. How they express themselves through their emotions shown through bold make up and expressions being captured by a camera. This will reveal this unfiltered, imperfect look that people express showing you their true reality. Then how people are brought together again socially.
Create Montages of of people, posing in different ways then merging them together which will create this montage of emotions that reflect their reality.
People and their Place:
Capture two photos then edit them together- placing on top of each other. This shows the unique relationship someone has with their environment as two sides of their life is revealed. This shows union as they unite and connect together through different sides of their life for example; a hobby, memory, particular place, or a relationship with another person.
Streets alone to nights out:
Looking at the environment within the streets and people social interactions their behaviours – perhaps expressed through their emotions and feelings to the streets for example graffiti / street art. Looking at street wear, styles of people, how they dress to then their behaviours and characteristics. Documenting the process / leading up to the streets at night, like getting ready, makeup, to the night out – social interactions and how people are united.
The word ‘union’ signifies the act of joining together, forming a cohesive whole from different elements. It can refer to relationships, communities, politics and more. A union represents strength in togetherness, emphasising the idea that combined efforts can lead to greater impact.
Union in photography can be captured in many ways. For example, you could capture physical things intertwined or connected, reflections, symmetry. Oppositely, you can record the contrast and tension within unity and division.
For my project exploring the theme of union, I will research and explore the different ways I could capture this within photography.
David Hockney was born on the 9th of July 1937 in Bradford, England. He is an English painter, draughtsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer who became well known for his involvement in the Pop-art artist movement. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. His early worked focusses on landscapes, portraiture and still life but as technology evolved so did his techniques where he was able to implement new methods and technologies to his artwork which moved him to also take in interest in photography and not just the artist side.
The artist’s style ranges from collaged photography and opera posters to Cubist-inspired abstractions and paintings of the English countryside. Hockney has many art pieces of swimming pools where he makes them abstract and more unique to his own artistic style. he is renowned for his own takes on perspective and use of colour which make his work noticeable and very obviously belonging to him. David Hockney uses the artist movement of Cubism in his artwork and photography. Cubism is a movement that was originated by artists such as Pablo Picasso. It presents photos in unique and abstract ways by breaking objects down into geometric shapes. Cubism is able to show multiple perspectives where it is able to give many viewpoints to the photo giving the viewer an opportunity to interpret the images in the way they think is correct for them. The movement steers away from realistic views and creates images you wouldn’t be able to capture without further disfigurement and so it mostly focusses on shape and structure. Though Hockney may not fully link all of his work to cubism he definitely manages to create artwork with the fragmented and abstract affects. he is able to deconstruct his photographs to make them more complex and interesting to the viewer. He created these fragmented images by taking many individual photographs and turning it into one piece.
Hockney has been inspired by many artists. Pablo Picasso has one of the biggest influences in Hockney’s life and oeuvre. This profound admiration is eloquently expressed in two significant works from this series: The Student and Artist And Model. These prints, produced during a time when Hockney resided in Paris following Picasso’s death, offer a visual dialogue that explores the depth of Hockney’s sense of indebtedness to one of the 20th century’s most revolutionary artists. Hockney found himself in a city with a rich artistic heritage that had been the subject of countless artworks. Hockney chose to honour the individuals who contributed to its vibrant art scene. Man Ray, an American who had made Paris his home for much of his life, became a natural subject for Hockney’s work. Richard Wagner, Known for his complex operas and innovative compositions, has been a lifelong influence on Hockney, influencing his professional endeavours such as the stage designs for Wagner’s Tristan Und Isolde in 1987 and inspiring his personal ‘Wagner drive’ initiative.
Hockney is well known for his work that were labelled ‘Joiners’. This was his closest link with the cubism approach. The joiners series was created by Hockney using multiple snapshots from one picture and creating it into one image altogether. He took simple photos and turned them into disfigured art pieces which created the cubism affect and they became fragmented and unusual. Many people would describe his type of work like this as collages which is where pieces of the image can be seen to be set out in little pieces. this can be done in a usual art way where cut up paper is replaced onto another piece in the same layout but usually with some sort of overlapping affect. Hockney changed this norm and changed certain perspectives of his image where he might increase the size of a part of an and keep the rest at different sizes to create the collage affect but not in its usual way.
This image is an example of one of David Hockney’s joiners. In the image, it depicts a scene of an older woman asleep on a chair in where may be her own house. Hockney has taken this image in different sections as you can see some colour difference in certain fragments of the image. For example the fragment showing her arm looks more purple that the top of the woman’s clothing where her head is. Hockney has made the woman the focus of this image but hasn’t failed to represent the woman’s surroundings as has extended the image so that we can see out of the door behind her and get abetter understanding of her environment. Hockney’s joiners are usually seen as visual representation of time as a sequence of fragmented moments. the idea of fragmented time is prominent in this image as it could be representing the time the woman has left and how fragmented that time may be. as well as this is could be representing the woman’s age and possible fragments of her memory she has left as she could possibly slowly be losing it. the fragments of time could also represent being forgotten and how when the lady passes only fragments of her will be remembered as time passes on. The colour in this image isn’t focussed on the woman and only surrounds her. Hockney has made sure to add in the pop colours such as the blanket on the woman or the painting leaning against the wall. however the dark clothes of the woman and lack of colour that is actually on her could also represent how time is catching up to her and how it begins to fade away and all the colour is only just left behind.
“The action of joining together or the fact of being joined together, especially in a political context”
or
“A society or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose”
Mind map:
Mood board:
When I think about the word ‘union’, the initial idea that comes into my head would be the human connection, yet I feel this idea would be too stereotypical and original. Instead, I will be exploring ‘union’ through surrealism. Here are some examples:
Within my ideas for my photoshoots, Union makes me think about how things work together in order to function. For example, nature, body parts, and human relationships and connections. My idea is to present union through the combination of intangible and physical objects or body parts. I chose to do this as I feel it is interesting and unique from other types of union photography.
Cubism is an artistic movement lead by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Cubism focuses on geometric shapes being used to depict humans and other forms. Overtime the geometric aspects became so intense that they sometimes overtook the represented forms, creating a more pure level of visual abstraction. Though the movements prime era was in the early 20th century, the ideas and techniques have continued to grow and are used to inspire works created today.
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor, and is well known for his involvement in the Cubism movement. Picasso is seen as one of the most influential artists in the 20th century, with his ability to produce works in a wide-range of styles made him well respected within his lifetime. After his death his value as an artist and inspiration to other artists has only grown. Picasso is without a doubt going to be referred to as one of the greatest artists of all time.
Picasso’s most famous painting is Guernica, a large 1937 oil painting. It is regarded as one of his best-known works. Art critics have described it as the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history.
Georges Braque
Georges Braque (1882-1963) was a major French painter. He is mainly known for working alongside Picasso to create the cubist movement. Braque was not only a painter but he also created collages. Braque’s cubism pieces were based off of landscapes, These paintings were scenes which were distilled into basic shapes and colours and they inspired the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles to coin the term cubism, by describing Braque’s work as “Bizarreries cubiques”.
Houses at l’Estaque is an oil-on-canvas painting by Braque executed in 1908. It is though to be a highly important Photo-cubist landscape, it may even be the first one.
The First Era Of Cubism
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque first met in 1905, but it wasn’t until 1907 that Picasso showed Braque what is considered the first Cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. This portrait depicts five women and draws heavy influence from African tribal art, which Picasso had recently been exposed to at the Palais du Trocadéro, a Paris ethnographic museum.
This piece went against every rule of tradition Western painting and was a huge leap from his previous blue and pin periods, which were far more representational and emotional. Due to this Picasso was hesitant to display this work to the public and it went unseen until 1916.
Braque, who painted in the Fauvist movement, was both repelled and intrigued by the painting. Picasso worked with him privately on the implications of the piece, developing together the Cubist form. Braque is the only artist to ever collaborate with Picasso, and over a period of two years, they spent every evening together, with neither artist pronouncing a finished work until agreed on by the other.
Braque’s response to Picasso’s initial work was his 1908 painting Large Nude, noted for incorporating the techniques of Paul Cézanne as an influence. This painting kickstarted the first era of Cubism, known as Analytical Cubism, which was defined by depictions of a subject from multiple points of view at once, creating a fractured, multi-dimensional effect expressed through a limited palette of colors.
The term Cubism was first used by French critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908 to describe Braque’s landscape paintings. Painter Henri Matisse had previously described them to Vauxcelles as looking comprised of cubes. The term wasn’t widely used until the press adopted it to describe the style in 1911.
In 1909, Picasso and Braque decided to move their focus from humans to objects to keep Cubism fresh, starting with Braque’s Violin and Palette.
Others Join the Cubist Movement
As the movement grew wider in popularity others joined in. Polish artist Louis Marcossis discovered Braque’s work during 1910, and his Cubist paintings are considered to have more of a human quality and lighter touch compared to other cubist painters work.
Spanish artist Juan Gris remained on the fringes of the movement until 1911. He distinguished himself by refusing to make the abstraction of the object more essential than the object itself. Cubism represents a significant proportion of his life’s work as he died during 1927.
The second era of Cubism
By 1912, Picasso and Braque had begun to incorporate words in their paintings, this evolved into collage which dominated the second era of cubism, this era was known as Synthetic Cubism. This phase also included flattening the subjects and brightening the colours.
Braque further experimented with collage, this led to his creation of the papier colle technique. This technique can be seen in Braques 1912 Fruit dish and Glass, a concoction of wallpaper placed within te gouache. The introduction of collage broadened the form’s colour palette further.
Sculptors also explored Cubist forms. For example the Russian artist Alexander Archipenko first publicly showed his pieces during 1910.
Orphic Cubism
Orphic cubism was an offshoot movement formed in 1913 by French painter Jacques Villon and his brother, sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon, this branch embraced even brighter hues and augmented abstraction.
Robert Delaunay is considered a primary representation of this wing, sharing similar architectural interests as Leger, which can be seen multiple times in his cubist depiction of the Eiffel Tower along with other notable Parisian structures.
Cubism: World war I and beyond
Cubism was effectively halted by world war I as a number of artists including Braque, Lhote, de la Fresnaye and Legar, got called up for duty. De la Fresnaye was discharged during 1917 due to tuberculosis however he never fully recovered, he attempted to continue making art but died during 1925.
By 1917, Picasso returned to his practice of injecting more realism into his paintings, though his refusal to be pinned down to one type of art meant that Cubism reappeared in some works over the years, such as The Three Musicians (1921) and The Weeping Woman (1937), a response to the Spanish civil war.
Cubist Influence
Although Cubism never regained its place as an organised force within the art world, it influenced future art movements such as Futurism and Abstract Expressionism. Cubism also influenced other forms such as literature, music, photography, film, and graphic design.
How will cubism influence my project?
I will be studying the photographer Mandy Barker, who creates collages by combining photos of litter which she has found from beaches across the world. This links to cubism as it is the idea of combining different things to create a new thing, a collage.
‘Joined together politically, for a common purpose, or by common feelings.’
Cubism
Cubism is an early 20th century art movement, particularly expressed in paintings and was the starting point for many abstract styles. Perspective was key, from starting with a single viewpoint to then experimenting with simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes and collage. Invented by Pablo Picasso and George Braque’s, they brought different views of a subject together which resulted in paintings to appear fragmented and abstract. This idea of breaking photos apart to creating different fragmented pieces, then re-joining them together was aimed to show different viewpoints which gives a sense of three-dimensional from. The different viewpoints shown through the fragmented yet abstract art creates a type of union. Each section is joined together in geometric forms, with little use of colour. This alters reality as your expressed with new emotions and feelings found within the new format of the image.
Inspirations & Mood-Board
Pablo Picasso: Focus on portraits, broken up image to create fragmented, new reality.
George Braques: Scenario or moments captured, distorted – we don’t know straight away what is being shown, makes you look closer showing you a different reality.
Jean Metzinger: Loose blocks of colour fitted together creating a loose effect. Similar effect to cubist style yet colours are arranged in an orderly way of a geometric pattern that aren’t loose strokes of colour.
‘Reducing everything to geometric outlines, to cubes’.
~Louis Vauxcelles commented on George Braque’s paintings.
Other Inspirations:
Cubists aim was to show you things for what they truly are , not what they look like. They did this by emphasising the flatness of the picture surface by breaking down pictures into geometric shapes resulting in this fragmented look. By placing things in multi dimensional forms alters your perspective, showing you things from different angles which ultimately reveals this inner-life of a subject as its different from what we are used to seeing. Exploring ‘form’ and ‘space’ further emphasises this concept of how things on a two-dimensional canvas were highlighted compared to the three-dimensional effect of the distorted image, which further creates a sense of reality as a perspective we are not used to is expressed.
‘Cubism is a revolutionary new approach to representing reality’
In response, by capturing people I know/ have a relation with in particular environments or scenarios/ moments, then capturing multiple diverse angles, which reveals different perspectives will reveal this new reality, shown through an abstract, direct approach. When capturing photographs; portraits, landscapes, people in environments or objects, instead of one singular snapshot, I would take lots from multiple angles (zooming in on areas to create depth) which will show you different perspectives of the subject. Further editing using Photoshop to collage/ fit the images together which will create this illusion of images as it isn’t a perfect or clear photograph, instead areas are fragmented and distorted in ways which alters you perspective on things and change your reality of what you are shown.
Initial Ideas:
Landscape – Merging two images together, experimenting with contrasting colour or black and white.
Final Photobook – Sections, broken up pages which lead up to the ‘final reality,’ This will create an interesting, engaging fragmented effect which will lead up to the main image, altering your perspective showing you new realities.
Fragmented, join effect – experiment with different layouts – overlapping, merging, perfectly aligned – David Hockney
David Hockney: Distorted images pieced back together
I like how the simple names perfectly describe the scene and environment.
David And Ann On The Subway, N.Y., Nov. 28
My Mother, Los Angeles, Dec
Christopher Isherwood Talking To Bob Holman
Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, or style of painting or poetry originating from Northern Europe in the beginning of the 20th century. The artist or writer seeks to express the inner world of emotion rather than external reality, creating a subjective perspective. Using loose strokes and expressive marks of colour fit together expressing a mix of emotions leading to evoking types of moods and ideas that the artist is feeling. The typical portraits and landscapes we see are transformed into an illusion of colour of dramatic expressions which imitate the artists inner feelings and emotions. This shows the artists own reality and how they percieve certain situations compared to how we look at them. Except their reality is expressed more clearly as their feelings are expressed through the expressive marks and layers of colour used. Compared to cubism different views are brought to the photograph as they are fragmented and distorted, then placed back together. This opens up our interpretation of the particular image as the artists reality is not obvious straight away, it is only evident when you look deeper and closer you see the full picture (reality).
We are straight away drawn to the colourful, exressive, loose marks of colour that are formed together creating a very picturesque, aesthetic image. This instantly lures you in, noticing texture which is a symbol of the artists feelings and mood which therefore evokes feelings and emotions within ourselves as viewers. For myself, the lines and curves of marks expressed by the individual strokes of colour, epxresses emotive feelings of being surprised and amused as new forms are constantly being revealed to us as we figure out the artists type of reality. Perhaps the the warmer tones of colour eg, yellow, orange, pink, red or pale colours signify happiness as they evoke positive emotions compared to the cooler tones of deep blue, navy, green and dark red. This also sets the type of scene the image is portraying whether it is a message or story and if it’s either positive or negative. Each feature is united, as they complement one another, expressing types of contrasting emotions expressed through the particular story of the image.
Photo shoot ideas:
Landscape, – seascape (different times), villages including people.
Portraits
People together in an environment – people I know mixing with strangers.
Unfiltered
Unusual perspectives of people where they are unaware of camera – eg, conversation, getting ready to go out
Artists:
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Expressionistic style, defines materialistic values with conventional attitudes of people. Shows unfiltered and filtered ways of how people are united.
This is the exam theme, it is fairly broad, however a main association for the word is something powerful. For my project I want to create a powerful, unique project, this till leaves my options open whether I focus on a person, a subject or a style I am not sure yet. I will create a mood board and mind map to start defining ideas before I then do further research into art, artists, photos, photographers and other useful research.
Mind Map
Having been given the theme of Union, after researching the term I created a mind map, one looking at different ideas, from photoshoots to subjects. This helped create a base for where I would start. Having this means I can then pick whichever things interest me and start to research them. I found I added colour and texture, this was from looking at photobooks I liked ones that had strong sensory elements, adding deeper feel to the flat photos.
Mood Board
Once I completed my mind map I had multiple ideas but one that stuck out was the farming industry in Jersey, the union between man and land. More so the more traditional farming in Jersey, creating a further union between old and new. It is an important topic not enough people understand the industry, many completely under estimating how much of a lifestyle over a job it is. Before I decide on my photoshoots, narrative etc I want to do some further research on photobooks, topic choice, other people similar projects. This will help influence where I take my project and how it will create the most impact.
Emma Hardy’s photography is known for taking a contemporary approach. she tends to try and create stories within her images using her children as the main subjects. Emma Hardy was raised by a family of actors so interest in a camera was bound to arise in her childhood. when she was young, taking photographs and making pictures was a strong interest she took apart in. She also realised that she was fascinated with appearance and how people organised and presented themselves to the world. twenty years later she focussed on her own family mostly of her children and was fascinated by the connection she felt with the images she created. She enjoys focussing on times of the day when the natural lighting is good to create an extra detail in her images. she said:
“I run towards beautiful light at any time of year, in any place in the world. It doesn’t always have to be sunlight; it can be a solemn cool light, a reflection, lamp light, dusty light filtering through a little window, green light under trees in a forest, firelight, snow light, moonlight even. It is some sort of painterly quality that pulls my attention, an emotional quality, something that jogs a memory deep inside me. I also believe I have an ability to ‘tune in’ to wherever I am, so that reflecting the nature of the people I meet, and capturing the tones of the local landscape or cityscape or internal “roomscape” becomes instinctive.”
She focusses on portraiture within her images but in environments the subject is exploring. her subjects a sometimes in unusual settings which creates a mix between reality and fantasy. She aims to bring across strong emotions in her images by getting her subject to express a certain emotion in the image of by the use of lighting (eg darker weather or time of day would create a different feel to a sunny day with bright light.
Hardy’s photograph series of her family also included their family struggles. Hardy had to sell her home, her marriage collapsed and her dad and dog had passed. Even though under the pressure of her life occurrences, Hardy still continued to produce photographs mostly of her family in the setting of nature, signifying the unpredictable nature of family life. This increased the power behind her project as it reflected deeply her life in that moment.
How does Emma Hardy link to the theme UNION?
Emma Hardy’s work relates to union in many different ways. One main way, which I am aiming to take inspiration from, is the use of exploring her family. The relationships between people would create a union between them. So each family is their own union, siblings are a union and partners are a union. Hardy takes images of her children and showing the relationships between them she captures happy moments in their lives liking playing together in fields or on family road trips. she also explores the union between the subject and their relation with the environment around them. She blends them with their surrounding where they seem like the fit in well with where they are. for example their expressions are matching to the golden hour in a field creating a warm and happy moment instead of them looking out of place and sad.
In this image, Hardy focuses on her three young children in the setting of a field. The closest girl subject start close to the image and take up most of the space and as you follow the line of girls you can see them getting smaller and less in view than the first girl. This could be signifying the age of the girls as it seems the girl in front if older than the others and Hardy could have done this to show how the oldest girl is drifting away quicker than the other too and she grows up. The girls take up the centre of the image showing that they are the main attraction to the photograph and the field just surrounds them. As mentioned before, Hardy’s intentions was to show the nature of family and in this image she has done that by using nature as the background/setting to the image showing the nature surrounding the family. The image doesn’t seem to have been taken with a tripod so it can be concluded that Hardy was taking snapshots while she walked behind the girls to capture the image in the moment rather than setting it up to be staged.
‘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.
