Cow/Man

 My next idea was to work with the animals closer to myself, which live on the farm I live on. My obvious choice to utilise was the cows since we have a large dairy herd. As I have already said, the idea of having animals as a subject is uncontrollable and unreliable when taking still photographs. Therefore I must take the animal shots first and work from there in order to incorporate the other body around this.

So next I took several images of the cows on the farm in the daylight in the hope that I may find some good shots from these, capturing interesting expressions I could mould the secondary subject around in a form where they are not necessarily motionless or posing for a conventional portrait. To the left are some of the photos I managed to capture.

The photos aren't the best examples of expression, however cows are notoriously timid and shy when up close, regardless of whether you have a camera. My favourite, and most expressive quite by chance the image above. It shows the cow to the left looking almost like it is pulling a funny childish tongue-in-cheek face. 

I decided I'd most like to adapt this one and decided that the second subject must be encorporated with the idea of this face, so I tried out a few different images with the subject's hands up continuing this expression. These can be seen below. 

The face of the cow I had chosen above I felt was very good, however I didn't think it was quite surreal enough to just combine the two in trying to portray a distinct expression. Therefore I used more of my gained PhotoShop skills to adapt this into a more cartoony, over exaggerated face. As you can see from the screen capture below, I carefully selected areas of the face such as the tongue and eyes and transformed them to a larger size, as well as adjusting various levels of colour shadow on certain parts of the head. Something else I did to ensure the cows head would fit in to the environment I had chosen was to remove the tag from the cows ear. I did this in a similar way to how I enlarged the ear. This was to select it, copy it, and to flip it over so that it covered the other ear, enlarging where necessary. Various areas of blemishes and farm dirt were also removed simply, using the clone tool. Next, I carefully cut around the head, using a light feathered edge so that it was not too sharp. Then I copied the head into the PSD containing the second subject. 

The most important part of combining these photos was to match the light levels as best I can within both the chosen photos. This was achieved using various PhotoShop tools, such as the levels tool, and the brightness/contrast tools. These helped to set the head into the picture without it looking too much of an abnormality. Another thing I did to help this, is that I created a layer mask over the top of a duplicate layer of the head, and made a gradient which got lighter the nearer to the window. This followed the direction of the sunlight. The final thing I needed to do was to copy and cut around the fingers of the background, and move them into the foreground on a new layer which created depth within the photograph. 

I think the final image (left) was a very efective experiment with capturing and adapting expressions. What I intended to create was a natural looking photo, but at the same time something that looked unnatural and surreal. I think I have achieved this very well and I want to develop this further, perhaps including multiple expressions, maybe people, and maybe even a series of photographs that work together. I feel at the moment this image is very good at portraying what I want to continue working toward, however this idea on it's own is not quite strong enough. Consequently, I want to develop this idea into something more substantial and experiment with the idea of story telling or a message like the work of Dalí or an ironic/comedic message, like Huet, within my photos.

Uelsmann-inspired Surrealism

I really like the idea of Uelsmann's house/tree root combination that he has achieved on film. I wanted to try out this idea of two images combined, but digitally. And instead of using the tree and house idea, I tried it out with different toys. The photos below show the selection of photographs I took of the toys which were simple front shots against two different areas of a room.

My idea was to try out a few combinations of the items, but always assure that the way in which they were combined was relatively seamless, joining in the middle of the photo along a horizontal line; similar to the images created by Uelsmann.

As you can see they have worked relatively well. I have met with the Uelsmann brief in making sure the centre is the combination point of the two photos. Something I have had to adjust within the images is the light levels to make sure they match and work together to make one image.

I tried my best to keep all other editing to a minimum because of course Uelsmann created these images on film so the only manipulation that would take place is that of double exposure in the dark room. However, I have in the photo with the gnome edited out the robots left arm because that was simply a composure error on my part. I didn't think to ensure the arms were going to be out of the way in the lower half.

I was able to combine these photos by using a gradient tool on a separate layer mask of the top photo. This created a very nice fading effect which was easily adjustable for a greater blend or a more of a stunted blend.

My favourite of these Uelsmann inspired photos is the robot and bear combination (top-left). I like it because it combines the two reasonably seamlessly, almost using parts of the robots body as a separate chunk of body. I also really like how the background seems to blend with the colours of the two being quite similar.

I have decided that the photo doesn't quite replicate the style of Jerry Uelsmann in quite the way in which I wanted to, so to improve this I have decided to do the simple technique of removing the colour from the photo to make it more black and white. I have also adjusted the contrast in order have darker and lighter areas, as well as employing the burn/dodge tools to further this.

The final image has worked quite effectively, and is a good replication of the style of Uelsmann's photography. The black and white tones work really well as copying the idea of film, and the dark room without actually using a film camera. The darker and lighter areas really seem to work well and compliment each other. Obviously it would have been more effective to use film to copy film photos, however throughout this unit I hope to continue and develop my ability to use photograph editing software, working on my skills. 

My Starting Point

My first idea was to experiment with part of my idea, which is the idea of animals and humans. To the left is the result of my ideas and my first photoshoot for this exam unit. I created this image using PhotoShop, carefully removing the head of the dog from the photo below left, and placing over the head of the girl, below right. I've tried carefully using my editing skills to combine the images seamlessly. To extract the head from the first image I used the selection tools, with a slight feathered edge to cut it out of the picture. Then, I took this in to the open window of the second photo and pasted it on a new layer. In order to make the image fit I had to rotate it to the correct position following the posture of the subject within the second image. One thing I had to adjust within the second picture was the hair of the main subject. I knew that when the dog's head was placed over the top, there would be hair sticking out, so I decided to use the clone tool to change this. 

In the background I have covered over any visible hair using the clone tool with the cabinet behind. The same has been done with the front of the subject, and her chest. I have extended the neck of the t-shirt that she was wearing, and have also used the clone tool to select colours from the first image of the dog to replace the bare chest area, and create the idea that the neck continues down further.
The levels of light within both the images were slightly different so I have tried my best to adjust these accordingly too to make the head fit in better with the background surroundings. 


I think the message I have aimed and have achieved portraying within this image is that of animals being a very focal part of our everyday lives, that pets are almost more than that, they are more like family members. Maybe we groom and look after them too much, they have become more like accessories in modern society.

This has proved a really effective starting point and a way to express and show my ideas that I have. There isn't a great range of examples here, however it does create a good starting example from which to further my ideas. I will now go on to develop further with more combinations of animals and humans, and will develop this idea. I am going to try out double exposures with film, combining images in the dark room through old fashioned methods, as well as more digital combinations. 

Artist Research: Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí is an example, and probably the leader in surrealist art. His works are bizarre but bold representations of the theme. As an artist he is a fantastic starting point for my research as he was somewhat at the forefront of the surrealist movement. 


The image on the right is one of his most famous paintings, which is composed of melting clocks in natural surroundings. The painting doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense, however it is a striking piece. Surrealism is all about mixing the real with the surreal which Dalí demonstrates perfectly. The surrealism demonstrated within Dalí's work is usually what he has adapted from his own dreams. 

The painting to the left is an expression of the body's collapse into the realm of sleep. This continues this dream theme within his works. The "body" within this painting is almost melting, but is still supported by the sticks. The environment in which it is in is open and vast like the world of dreams. Dalí has said the inspiration behind his work is the "cosmology of Dalí". Dalí says this encompasses 

Artist Research: Jerry Uelsmann

Jerry Uelsmann is an American born photographer who's work is incredibly majestic, and shows exactly what Surrealism is. The above image is a film photograph and was manipulated in the dark room environment. It is an outstanding peice of work and shows a large amount of skill in pre (in planning the photograph) and post (in manipulation) capture. The image above is so well put together that it is hard to tell that it has been manipulated at all, and that the impossibility of the tree is reality.

Ulesmann works with multiple negatives over one enlarger, and creates his images through experimentation. So in a sense combining two images to create one. This concept is very similar to what I would like to do, however mine will be created digitally using PhotoShop, as opposed to dark room techniques and I will be using different subjects.

 A key element of Uelsmann's photographs I have noticed is that they have a realistic look and everything within his photographs has been captured naturally and therefore looks natural. This is an important element within surrealism, I think, in order for the viewer to really believe what the photographer is trying to capture.

A further erray of images can be found in the gallery of his official website, here.

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Artist Research: Christophe Huet

Christophe Huet is another example of a fantastic surrealist photographer who uses "touching up" photographs as an artform. He "composites computer generated art and photography in order to melt the barrier between waking life and the dream world within his wonderfully surreal advertisements". (Creative Tempest, 2009) He uses a large amount of heavy digital manipulation in order to create his final images. There is a lot of planning however that goes into his ideas before capturing the required subjects. Below is a break down of step-by-step how he created the above image, taken from his website. It shows how the photo has been taken and developed on several layers and manipulated digitally using software. 

   


   


  

Obviously, when creating my images I am not nearly as skilled as Huet in using PhotoShop software, but I will push and develop my skills throughout this process. A lot of his photos tend to have a hidden meaning or comedic, slightly ironic angle behind them. For example, the photo below is Superman shown to be extremely vulnerable and weak. The hidden meaning behind this photograph then could be that not everybody is indestructable.

I want to create photos that don't necessarilly have hidden meanings, but where I'm using certain objects and people I could perhaps link the animals traits with that of the human. For example, maybe pigs and greediness.

Artist Research: David Chan

One of my ideas I want to try is that of combining animals and humans to create a hybrid. Below are images from Chan's recent exhibition "Hybrid Society -- Schizophrenia". Within this he has created works combining both animals and humans in various pieces. David Chan works to explore the "unpredictable nature" of human behaviour, and uses the animals as a sort of metaphor for this. This is an interesting message which can be interpreted in various ways. Chan himself says that he is inspired by well-composed stories from novels to films, to again this can be where the ideas of having a message can develop from. The idea of hybrids comes from the idea of genetic engineering, and the articles he would read. Chan says that it is "precisely this diverse combination of human personalities that make it an ideal form of representation." (David Chan, 2009, CNNGo.com)

 

The paintings here show the combination of the human and animal, but share characteristics with each other. The face of the eagle matches that of the position that it the human body is in, sort of annoyance. The same is to be said with the other images. 


The sculptures to the right are also part of his exhibition. They are quite large pieces that again merge the idea of hybrids together. The lions in these are reflective of a stereotypical family group. The man seems to be bringing back food, whilst the woman holds the baby. 


The idea of merging the positions and moods of the animals within the human posture or the expressions is something I would like to try and achieve within my photographs. Obviously, with painting and sculpture achieving something when you are in creation of the mood the face can have is easier than making an animal pose in a particular way. Therefore digital, or film, manipulation is necessary in order for the photos to look like one image as opposed to two combined. Also, there must be an order in which to take the separate images, with the unpredictable animal to be taken first, before working the human model around this. Taking into account the idea of double exposure employed by Uelsmann, I can experiment with the same shots as I have tried with digital on film, broadening the experimental level of my development, trying out new things I haven't tried in previous Photography ideas.