Materials
I have selected the theme called ‘Materials’ as my starting point because I want to present my work in different ways using different properties and types of materials, I believe that this way of showing off pictures will make it much more creative and interesting. Throughout my project I’ll research and inspire myself from the Lee McKenna’s work, her pieces of art are looking very intriguing and creative, I’m definitely sure that her ideas and techniques will inspire me to make something even better which will boost up quality of my photography project. As part of my project I’m going to investigate use of different materials and substances, as well as how they work together to create different patterns, colours, tones or contrasts. I’ll also try to link my work to other project which I’m currently doing, which is architecture. My aim is to produce the best possible, creative and interesting outcome.
Cloth
Colours/Tones
Different properties
Contrast
Temperature
Pattern
Lee McKenna
Texture
Materials
Plastic
Bricks
Textile
Substances
Concrete
Wood
Lee McKenna
Lee McKenna is an excellent artists with a variety of art-based interests; mixed media, painting or print making. However her specialism and thing which made her popular for is collaging. McKenna’s techniques are ‘simple and old-fashioned’ which is probably one of the reasons why her work is attracting so many people. Nowadays art mostly includes computer graphic editing and spending hours on new ideas which are often difficult to understand by people who haven’t invented them.
All what Lee needs is the glue -which is present in most of the houses- and old, destroyed by time materials, which we’re often throwing to the bin or storing in the attic. She is making a piece of art which reminds people of the time and how it changes by showing off old pictures as well as an ancient materials placed all around it. In my opinion, one of the reasons why McKenna’s work is very peculiar is using random, sometimes completely opposite tones and themes on her pieces of art; for example, the picture of two girls standing in front of the house is glued on some kind of formal (perhaps bank) documents which are right by the side of book or diary. Personally I think that Lee McKenna wants to show us as much aspects of the normal, everyday life as she can on a single piece of work and she is definitely good at it.
Primary thing you can definitely notice after first time looking at this piece of art is that it includes a lot of different information; whether it's written on paper sheets, drawing of some pattern or on the old photograph. Picture is almost fully black and white, the only other colour easy to spot is a light yellow, I think that's it's an significant thing because it's the colour which appeared by influence of time passing, combine of black, white and yellow proves even more that the materials as well as photo on this piece of art are extremely old and damaged by time. Moreover, bits of yellow are coming from a sides of a photo and paper sheets which shows that the time is slowly 'eating' it. Tones on this photo are different in each of the parts, but mostly they are balanced. However, tones along with colours are used to 'highlight' the picture placed in a middle by black sheets of paper all around it. This may imply that picture is different kind of information than text and that it's more valuable; this may be the reason of placing the picture in the middle (special place) and purely separating it from the texts by black sheets of paper. There's many lines used on this picture, most of them are boundary between each of the sheets, lines are playing a clear and significant role on this picture because they are splitting different pieces of information one from another. Next important thing is pattern drawing placed on the sheet on the right side. Personally, I think that all of the papers with text written on this photo are meaning the formal part of the life which is paying bills, sending letters, newspapers etc and the pattern which is on the right means 'hobby' side of the life which is doing something enjoyable. However, the picture in the middle has to show all of the things around it combined without use of any words or drawings.
In my opinion, that is one of the best pieces of art which I've ever seen, mainly because Lee McKenna without any explanation included a huge meaning in this outcome, she used different tones, colours and even patterns to mark that materials used are very old and that each piece of them was part of human's life at some point in time.
Sally Mankus
Sally Mankus is the well known artist, outcomes of her work have seen many catalogues, newspapers articles and publications, many of them are up to today among the popular art collections in different museums, universities and private collections. She has focused on painting and drawing at the University of Colorado in 1987-89, this combined with the fact that she travels a lot around the world is probably one of the reason why her work is excellent and that each outcome carries the bigger meaning with it. I noticed that Mankus' pictures are often presenting the old materials which are destroyed and spoiled by the time, Sally Mankus is also projecting humans' faces onto them which may mean that once young people were using these materials in everyday life. Moreover, I like that Mankus is often adding different textures onto the material or projecting the subject in front of a white background so that the spectator may focus on everything which has a dark tones.
Comparison
First Photoshoot
I used a terrible perspective and focus, my aim was to take a picture of two different materials and show a clear contrast between them
Close-up picture with symmetry and shapes (triangle in the middle and 4 trapeziums on the sides. Moreover the details of the surface are clearly seen.
I like the contrast of tones and colours between the dark wall and white pattern which is looking like the sketch of stairs.
I really like the contrast of colours and tones on this picture, black- as the dominating colour- together with white and yellow lines crossing through left up corner can relate to someone that draw a two lines along the black sand paper.
I like this picture because it has a pattern on both sides which are symmetric, I also like the break in the tone by the crumpled white holes in the fence, however I could use a bigger zoom and centralise the middle of the break in the fence.
Second Photoshoot
I don't like a random arrangement of the lines all over the picture and also the upper perspective (first person view) makes the image even worse.
The composition between the hard-blue wood plank and the light-brown-grey fence creates a good effect which can be related to the bit of the positive, extraordinary tone and line to the almost depressing pattern on the fence. However I could use a bigger magnification and perspective looking straight at the fence.
I like the contrast between the old and rusty metal bars and the broken window which indicates that this place is old and abandoned.
This is one of my favourite pictures because, in my opinion there's an incredible lighting which makes a pattern of shadows of each step level on the wall on the left side. Moreover there also is a separate pattern on the front balustrade.
There's a lot of different shapes and colours on this picture made out of different materials. I like the way that the steel bars are broken altogether with the glass with graffiti on it, and there's a black wheel almost like in the background.
Picture isn't implying anything, perspective and the subject is random
Composition of the broken glass bottle with the ground makes nice concrast of colours, the only negative thing is the reflection of camera in the glass and I also think that the picture is too faded and bright.
Symmetry of two halves of the old wall and opposition of tones looks really good.
It's in my opinion one of the best pictures, I think that the composition and the old state of the wood and paint is looking amazing and shows how the time affects materials. Moreover, hole in the fence also implies how old and destroyed is the material.
I don't like this picture, there's no pattern or some kind of composition. All the tones and colours are also mixed, which I don't like.
I like the picture and I would describe it exactly the same as the picture on the right. However the perspective of the photo is too close to the wall and angle is too sharp.
Arrangement of different sized triangles on this picture is excellent, and also there's a really good contrast of black and white. Picture looks surreal and almost hypnotizing.
Sally Mankus' work
Picture on the left was taken by myself and montage presented on the right is Sally Mankus' work. They both were taken from the close distance to the surface of the object photographed, therefore lots of details are seen which clearly shows that both objects are old and that they are decaying. Tones as well as colours of the both pictures are very similar except for the corners on my picture; graffiti is bringing a bright tones onto it. Brown and dark yellow are definitely dominating on both of the works, which is implying the negative feelings about the objects; time is slowly destroying each of them which is also seen in the way colours are changing.
In my opinion, the biggest and the most import similarity about both of the pictures are the different layers of patterns and shapes; each of the pictures is including horizontal and vertical patterns of rectangles, this is also making a connection between each of the lines making the parts of the picture perfectly connected together also because the lines are mostly parallel and perpendicular.
The two differences which I've spotted is that Sally Mankus' photomontaged 4 different pictures into one and also material used in the object which I've photographed is wood, on the Mankus' picture, the material is cloth.
Overall I really like both pieces of work because they both are showing how the time is affecting different materials and it's clearly shown that as they are decaying, the tones, shapes and colours are changing.
Final Outcomes
This experiment was inspired by Sally Mankus' work and mainly by the picture which I've taken in one of my photoshoots, my aim was to create a layers of wood and put all of the parts perpendicularly to each other (line pattern), between all of them I wanted to frame a printed picture of a window behind the metal bars which I've also taken several weeks back. The only two issues which I faced was small amount of wood available and background- this is why I edited picture of it in a such way; low exposure and brightness allowed me to hide the concrete background. Moreover I used high gamma in order to add a bit more of bright tones to the wood. Last thing which I had to do was decreasing brightness of the picture in the middle- it was standing out from the rest too much. Overall I'm happy with the effect but I'certain that I'll try to repeat the experiment with the brick wall as a background.
In this experiment my aim was to experiment with tones of wood and also cover up the hole in the middle by any other picture- I used the picture of old painted wall. I've been adjusting exposure as well as the darkness levels to each of the pictures separately. One of the bigger problems was fitting in another picture in the place of the hole.
I like this picture, chain makes a nice contrast with the picture and the pattern of lines.
I experimented with the picture of the photo placed in the middle of all mess looking at it from the distance, and I'm happy with the effect, mainly because the photo is black and white, looks out of place.
In my opinion, there's a really good effect of mix between the old and present times because the black and white picture is nailed to the wall, however all the bricks are coloured.
Disordered wooden frame looks excellent, however I think that the wood should be darker and also there should be more wood planks on the right and left.
I accidentally took this picture when the wind moved the photo in the middle and I'm proud of the effect. Right side of the photo looks ghost-like.
I like the idea of the contrast between the rusty saw and the good looking brick wall. However I'm not satisfied with the effect, maybe because the tones are too dark and there's not enough colours.
I like that upper and lower part of the picture is 'cut' through by the lines of the two wood planks. Moreover, fact that the photo is placed between the tools and clothes used for work may imply the idea that this photo is part of someone's memories and it's a contrast between the everyday life.
I took this picture when the photo on the wall fell down. Unfortunately this time it isn't a successful accident.
I don't like that the photo is undulated and also a red pin doesn't fit. However I like the idea of the arrangement of the wood plank with the photo.
Similar picture to the one before. However, in this case I've used a bigger close up to the photo which shows off more details of the bricks as well as the photo itself.
I used the higher view point than before to take this picture and I like the effect because there's more dark tones below the photo.
I experimented by taking a picture of the wood plank by itself, with the brick wall background but there's not enough colours and different tones.
Picture of steel chain looks better than the wood plank because it takes more space on the picture and there's a clear contrast with the wall. However, I think that this picture is too pale.
Dark tones are nicely blurring away as it gets brighter in the middle. However I think that there's a too small angle with the wall.
On this photo, picture doesn't compose well with the pipes, there's very little contrast because the colours and tones are similar.
I like the contrast between the photo and the brick wall, I also like how the tones on the left and right are juxtaposing with brighter parts in the middle.
I like idea of the wood plank cutting through the corners of the photo and that there's a picture in the centre. However, I don't like the red pin below the picture and also, I think that the tones at the bottom of the wall are too bright.
There's a really good composition of the black and white picture with the wall and the red spot on the right which may be related to blood. I like the view on the details of the picture as well as the brick wall.
