David Hockney

David Hockney is an English painter, draughtsmen, printmaker, stage designer and photographer born on the 9th July 1937. He is an important figure within the pop art movement of the 1960's and he is considered one of the most influential British artist of the 20th century. In the early 1980's, Hockney began prodding photo collages which we now call photo joiners. Using polaroid or photolab-prints of a single subject and then arranging them in a patchwork fashion to make a different composition. Because the separate images are taken from slightly different angles and different perspectives, his work  relates to cubism. 

I chose to look at Hockney's work because I think his photo joiners are very complex and they are put together very well.  

This is one of David Hockney's photo joiner, this photo joiner was taken of a street with two trees. This image is composed of many separate small images and Hockney has put them back together to recreate the street. I think this images very effective because although the smaller images do not match up perfectly they still fit together well to create a larger image.

This is another of Hockney's photo joiners, in this image he has taken images from a few different angles so this image does not look true to the object. I like this image because it is very abstract and different to the original object and I think Hockney has put the images together very well. 

This is one of Hockney's photo joiners of a road. This photo joiner is made of many small images however he has taken so many that he has been able to put them together to make this very true to how the road would look. Although we can see that this is a photo joiner, it is put together very well so that we can imagine exactly how the landscape looked from Hockney's point of view.

This is a photo joiner with Hockney created of an elderly woman's face, this photo joiner is very different because he has taken the images from different angles and also from different distanced so that  some of her facial features are different sizes in different areas of the image. I like this because it is taken of a face so we know exactly how it should look however because he has taken the images in such an abstract form that we cannot see her face very easily. 

Influence 

David Hockney's work influenced me because he was the biggest photo joiner photographer. He is also the only photo-joiner photographer I have looked at therefore his work was the best standard I had looked at. His work is also influential because he uses different styles within his photo-joiners, for example in some of his photo joiners he makes it very realistic however in some others he uses different angles which makes the, less realistic.

This is one example of my photo joiners, this image was influenced by David Hockney's photo joiner of the street. I would have liked to have replicated it more closely by photographing a street also however, I could not do this within college and I think my photo joiner of this building is quite similar. I have made mine slightly different to Hockney's due to using bigger images whereas Hockney's are very close up and detailed in comparison.

Summary

When I originally looked at Hockney's work I did not like it very much as I thought that they didn't fit together very well however once i'd learnt more about photo-joiners I understood his images slightly better. I also like how he uses different styles within his work. 

Work Diary

During this lesson we also went in the studio to photograph in Mapplethorpe’s style. I found this slightly easier than photographing on location as the background was plain and simple and also because Mapplethorpe tended to photograph in a studio so our studio photographs were closer to his style. I found this very interesting as we could use the different backgrounds however I found that my favourite background was the black because this was closer to his style. I also had the idea of using some props in the studio and the only reason we didn’t get around to this was because we ran out of time.

This is one of my Mapplethorpe studio images, I like this image because I think it shows lots of emotion and is also very similar to Mapplethorpes images. To produce this I photographed in the studio however I turnt off one light to create the shadow on his face. I think this is effective because it shows more form and also makes it more similar to Mapplethorpe's work. 

This is another of my studio Mapplethorpe images, I like this image because Ellie is looking off to the distance and this makes her look very dramatic, I also like how I have zoomed out slightly for this so that she fits directly in the middle of the composition. To improve this I think I could have changed the editing for the black and white effect as I think her face looks very dull where I could have made it slightly brighter as this would be closer to Mapplethorpe's style. 

Progress

If I was to photograph in Mapplethorpe’s style using the studio again I would like to have more time in there as I felt I had more ideas however ran out of time, more time would also mean that I could have experimented with different backdrops as I was only able to use the black backdrop however Mapplethorpe sometimes used a white backdrop. I would also like to use a few props as Mapplethorpe occasionally used props within his work such as weapons or chairs. 

Work Diary

During this session we were tasked to photograph in Mapplethorpes style whilst on location, at first I found this very difficult because I was unsure what Mapplethorpes style was however after looking through some of his images and making an image bank I found that I understood how he liked to photograph people. When we went out to photograph we were in small groups and this made it easy for us to complete this task as there was a few people I could use within my images. Towards the beginning I was struggling to focus on the face of the person so the background was blurred however after a few attempts we realised that the model must be standing away from the background and this would let the camera focus easier on the face of the model. I liked photographing in this style and found that I was able to produce quite a few images in Mapplethorpe’s style.

This is one of my Location Mapplethorpe images, I like this because I have captured similar emotions to what Mapplethorpe tends to photograph and the composition is also different to other images that I took. To improve this image I could have taken the photo against a different background as the lines are not straight however if i straighten them then George would not be straight.

This is another of my location Mapplethorpe images, I like this image because in my opinion, this background is much more suitable as it it simple however I do not like this image very much as Josh is not looking towards the camera and I prefer Mapplethorpe's images where the model is looking directly at the camera. I could have also taken this image slightly closer to Josh as I feel that I took this image too far away and included more of his body. 

Progress

If I was to go out and photograph Mapplethorpe’s style images on location again I would focus on the backgrounds a little more as I felt my backgrounds made it slightly difficult for me to edit as quite often I used a background with lines and sometimes these were not straight however if I straightened them, the model would then be slanted. Therefore if I was to repeat this lesson I would try and find some plainer background to photograph against as I felt the pink and orange backgrounds were very effective.

Work Diary

During this lesson we photographed studio contrast again, I found this slightly easier than last time as we photographed in a particular order which meant I knew which images were my own this time and we also had a better understanding on how we could show studio contrast. I felt like my ideas this time were much better than my ideas in the last shoot and I am much happier with the images. From this session however I do not have too many images as we ran out of time in the studio.

This is one of my studio contrast images, this image shows contrast because George (left) appears to be happy and Josh (right) appears to be sad. I like this image because I think the composition is good as there is very little wasted space and I also like the meaning under the contrast. To improve this image I could have used a different backdrop as Josh is wearing all black so it is difficult to see his clothes. 

This is another of my studio contrast images, this shows contrast because not only are they different sex's but Ellie is facing forward and George is facing backwards so they are looking in different directions, I like this image because all the tones within the image are very similar for example George and Ellie are both wearing Greys and Blacks, their hairs are both dark and the back drop is also black. 

Progress

I will need to photograph studio contrast again due to the fact that I have no straight images from the first time we photographed studio contrast however before I do this I would like to write a list of ways I can show contrast whilst in the studio as I find that once I am in the studio I have forgotten all of my ideas. I will also hope to have longer in the studio as I feel that I do not end up with a wide enough variety of images as I would like to use a few different coloured backdrops however this does not always happen as very often we run out of time.

Straight Images

Electronic Portfolio

Image Bank

These are some examples of multiple imagery, I like these images because within all of them the photographer has focused on one object and taken images from different angles and directions. I think these are very effective because they all focus on something and this makes the multiple imagery look very interesting however it is sometimes better to focus on something which is slightly similar but there is a difference for example they could focus on different types of leaves or plants. I think this would be very effective because it would include some variety into the image. 

This is a multiple imagery created of a young girl, the person who has photographed these images has taken photographs from different view points of this young girl for example he has taken three images which include the girls eye and has spaced them out within the multiple imagery to make it more interesting.

This is a multiple imagery photo of a bag, I did not think it would be possible to create a multiple imagery of an image as simple as this however the composition of these images is very different which means that the image works and it also means that by looking at the whole image, we can imaging what it looks like the whole way round.