Final Assignment: Conceptual Photography

The final assignment for this module is to come up with a series of conceptual photos.

Having a rather keen interest in our domestic politics, i decided to do a series of shots revolving around certain issues which i feel quite strongly for.

References to certain alternative views/ideologies will be employed in the mise-en-scene of the shots.

Shall let the photos do most of the talking then.

"Blinded"


"Deaf"


"Alternative Media"


"Mute"


"Chained"



"Break Free"

Would like to end of my series with a quote,

"absolute power corrupts absolutely."

sometimes, we need an alternative voice to keep things in check. and i really hope our people will learn to accept differing views and give these alternative "voices" a chance to speak and express themselves.

Blog Assignment: Photography Ethics

I would like to share this video which i find really apt as we discuss about photography ethics.



I belive in this time and age, we have to practice some critical skills as we view photos that we come across in our daily lives. We have to learn not to take photos at face value, but ponder into its sources and credibilty.

In order to make a more informed judgement of whatever photos we see in the media, as viewers, i believe we have to take a more pro-active approach in looking at various alternative media or sources. By gaining a wider perspectives and a spectrum of information, we can then aggregate our exposure and ultimately passing a more balanced judgement.

Should i ever be a news reporter, i believe that reporting news objectively is of utmost importance. If a picture of a car wreck has received feedback on being too horrifying, it however, does not warrant an immediate take down. There are many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, to what extent has the image caused discomfort to my viewers? one? tens? hundreds or thousands?

Secondly, what is the proximity of the accident to my target audience? It is a local accident? If it is, all the more i should not retract it as it will serve a message to remind my audience to take extra caution while on the road.

Lastly, does the photo reflect the actual state of the accident in a fair and just manner? if it is not, which mean to say the photo could be have been blown out of proportion, then i suppose it deserves to be taken down. If not, it should stay.

Thus, ethics, as usual as it is, does not have a definite answer to it. It all boils down to sound evaluation of the situation and also, considering values and meanings attached to our cultures and society at large.

Blog Assignment: Biennale 2008

Visited the Biennale recently and was indeed pleasantly surprised by the works which were exhibited.

I would say it is a real life reflection of some stuffs which we learnt in sch, both previously and presently.

The "Good" work

I'm Not Expensive (2008) by Lee Yong Deck.

This piece of work by the Korean artist is extremely clever, in my opinion. By making use of the various ways the human eye perceives things, this piece of work engages the audience to take a step back, think about what we had just seen and then decide on making a comment/decision.

From an angle, it may seem that the figures are moving closer. But when u simply take another step forward and look at it again, it may suggest otherwise.

In essence, this piece of work prompted an internal question within me, "is everything we see right before our eyes as apparent as it is?"

It may, or it may not be.

Interesting. :)

The "Bad" work

Swing (2007) by Tse Su-Mei

Somehow, this piece of work did not come across as strong as i felt it will when i was reading the guidebook before seeing it in real life.

Indeed, it gave the uncanny feeling of an empty swing moving without anyone on it, but that is just as far as it goes.

I couldnt establish a link between the usage of neon tubes and the attached connotation of "untouchable" and "unused" as i don't see a reason why we cant touch a neon tube?

But i guess the physical installation of this work plays a part too. It was sited in an open room, with a lot of demarcated space between the viewers and the actual artwork. Somehow, i felt that i was not able to make a closer examination of the artwork, and thus, may lead my unfair judgement of this piece of work.

Nevertheless, this visit has broaden my view in the respect of conceptual art forms.

Looking forward to the next Biennale.

Assignment 5: Still-life Expressionism

For this assignment, we are to take photos which denotes human expressions, but without human elements.

Here are my takes:

1. The Solitary Tree

A serene and tranquil scene, yet with a tint of sadness and desolute.

2. Unknown Soldier

Died without an identification, this soldier lies among many who similarly gave their lives for a worldly cause.

3. Bitten

Unwanted, rotting away..

4. Crushed

An expression of refute, unwanted and frustration.

Blog Exercise: Looking at photos, critically

Many a times, when we read newspapers, what captures our attention most are the images that comes with the stories.

It is therefore interesting to analyse these photos and see how effectively (or not) are they able to complement the article that comes along with it.

source: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

This photo was taken at the 2008 Asian Beach Games, Indonesia and its a gold medal match between Thailand and Indonesia in the Women's Beach Sepak Takraw.

Obviously, this photo falls into the photojournalism category but it cleverly made use of bodily contortions which gave it a little expressionisic feel.

I shall touch on a few formal elements which I observed through this photo:

Light quality - This was shot on a beach, and the sunlight was apparently strong and harsh. It may seem a little on the high side, but I think its fine as it lit up the faces of the players nicely, showing their intense facial expressions, which denotes the excitement of the game.

Angle of View - I believe the photographer shot it from an elevated angle and this approach seem to work as it places the viewers in the eye of the spectator who were actually on that venue itself.

Framing/Composition - It cleverly places the player in blue's face along the intersection of the thirds and it leads the viewer to see the Takraw ball. From there we then explores the other 2 players in red. The back of the red player's jersey shows "Thailand" and the one in blue shows the Indonesia's flag. This enable the viewer to further understand that it is a match between the 2 coountries.

Color: Interestingly, the red and blue jerseys appear to stand out against the yellow tinted beach and it made the players jut out into the foreground.

Being a person who is always amused by how fascinating a human body can be a source of insipration for ideas, this photo further reinterates this belief of mine. The contortions of the Takraw players gave an exciting feel to this photo, but at the same time, seemed a little surreal to the human eye.

Random surrealism.

Was flipping thru some books and was suddenly inspired by the idea of a "Cyborg" - a human-machine that has a life of its own. I suppose a cyborg is an offset that spun off the age of industrialization and machineries.

A human, deeply influenced by machines, who became a machine himself.

Then i thought, how abt an "Urban-borg"?



Remembered that i took a photo of this cute little girl quite sometime back. Decided to do some random effects to it.

Dun think its very nicely done tho.. oh well, all in the name of fun! =)

comments are definitely welcome!

Assignment 4: Urban Fantasy - Second prototype

The second version.

Personally, i felt that the previous version has too much information to send across. I guess going simple will actually make it less cluttered and eventually, a neater piece of work.

Thru this piece, i hope to send across the message of breaking free from this urban phenomena that we are all being slowly consumed into.

In the foreground is a myriad of buildings, structures and objects. A messy and cramped up environment.

Thus, the hand, symbolises the "human element" is reaching out and hopefully, escape from this clautrophobic situation.

Comments from the class included that the overlay of bricks seem a tad too heavy. Kind of shifted the overall balance of the work.

Will continue to touch up and for now its work-in-progress.. =)

Assignment 4: Urban Fantasy - First prototype

The first version.

Did not really think of a title because the concept was still rather vague and there are quite a number of messages embedded in this work.

As previously mentioned, i tried to juxtapose "human elements" and "urban structures" to fulfil the theme of "urban fantasy".. to fulfill the surrealistic approach, i decided to depict the "dancers", which are the silhouettes of a human body in a very unreal setting. in this case, one of the dancer is stepping on a supposed water surface and the other one emerges from the sky..

The stairway in the middle aims to provide a link between the "ground" and the "sky" and at the same time suggest the depth and perspective of the space.

somehow, this piece dun seem surreal enough. it is still rather "normal" in the sense.

Assignment 4: Urban Fantasy

This marks the initial stage of the entire development process for this assignmnent.

Did a brainstorm, jus to trash out whatever tat came thru my mind in relation to the surrealistic approach towards this assignment..



As i thought further into the assignment, "urban fantasy" brings to my mind a juxtaposition of buildings and architectures and human elements, as we fundamentally live in these "urban settings".

To further emphasize the "human element", i always thought that dancers are the best representatives of the human element, as the language used by dancers, which is their dance movements, depicts the human body beautifully..

here's a sketch of my initial artwork..



next up, my first prototype. =)

Assignment 4: Surrealism - Take One

Affectionately known as "orbs", this photoshop technique creates very interesting circular shapes by twisting and warping the image.

Still in the midst of finding out the actual name of this technique..

here are my takes:


Orb 1: The Face

It seems like a face with the clouds by the sides. The middle part which is supposedly an old chinese architecture, seems like the eyes of the face.




Orb 2: The Skull

Using the same original pic as above, i merely fliped the image the other way round and the results came out rather interestingly. If u take a closer look, the clouds formed the "eyes" of the skull and depicted this menacing look.

Assignment 4: Surrealism - an interactive artform?

Was introduced to this art form, or rather an art movement recently.

In fact, it was closely linked to something which i learnt 2 semesters ago when i did a module in interactive media.

I was particularly interested in historical aspect of the art, how it originated and how it came abt.

We learnt abt artist like Marcel Duchamps and his "readymades" and also more contemporary artists like Yoko Ono, who did the infamous "Cut Piece", where she displayed herself as an art piece, and invited her audience to "interact" with her by cutting pieces off her clothing.

As i pondered further, surrealism is somewhat like an interactive art form.
Because of the fact that surrealistic art pieces go beyond the rationality of the human mind, it intriguingly invites its viewers to take a deeper look, look and relook, to decipher or appreciate its meaning (if any).

Therefore, in a large way, interactivity between the art piece and the viewer can be considered dynamic and engaging.

Having seen a few surrealistic art pieces, I would say that I am most deeply impressed by the works of Philippe Halsman. Most of his art works are made on the photographic medium.

source:http://www.kunsthausgraz.steiermark.at/

Titled "Dali Atomicus", it featured Salvador Dali and 2 of Dali's paintings.
Many had analysed the photograph and much had been attributed to the fact that when this picture was shot back then, the world had just been introduced the concept of "nature and atom."

Objects, which are made up of atoms and particles, would "float" and suspend in the air. We see this very interesting and surreal juxtaposition of real objects placed in a very unreal moment.

Interestingly, Philippe Halsman also did a series of similar shots which the subjects jumped and froze in the frame.

In my opinion, these images have captured the essence of photography, which is to capture "the moment". I believe too, that many photographers have since subscribed to this school of thought. Indeed, if we take a closer look at photographs around us, those that stand out usually have this wow factor which captures the very moment that flashed across the photographers' eyes.

Thus, i feel that developments in modern photography can be attributed to surrealism. Being students/learners in this field, it is definitely beneficial to explore and appreciate this particular artform as I believe it will enhance and trigger our brain cells into better crafting or conceptualising ideas and expressions.

Assignment 3: perspective

learning to go wide and up close is the main objective of this assignment..

here are my takes..

macro shots:



perspective shot:

taken on film. used a 50mm prime as i wish to retain the original "feel" of the scene, not wanting to distort it using a wide angle lens..realised that singapore does have a lot of interesting places to shoot.. =)

some low key shots:



note to self: the droplet could have been clearer. also, spot metering could be used to further darken the background to make it more appealing as a lowkey image.

Assignment 2A - Shutter speed and Aperture

As we progress into the course, we get to learn the 2 most important variable in photography - shutter speed and aperture.

These 2 concepts is something mandatory tat we all must learn as photography simply revolves around them.

Here are some of my takes:

Freezing motion

The Dancer
taken atop the roof of AS7.. Jus nice that the sun was setting and my friend, who is a proficient dancer, agreed to pose!

Its a pity tat we do not have a full view of the horizon.. but it was a fun shot! =)=)

Cool Dip
Inspired by the Olympics which jus ended, decided to do a "dive shot" of a strawberry into a pool of water.. At the same time, trying to capture the splash and "freeze" it there..

After a around 50 shots and a wet room, got this shot finally.. haha..

Assignment 1 - lines, shapes, textures and the whole works

Our first assignment took us out on an adventure of capturing the basic subject elements of photography. Of course, within the school compound.

Here are some of my shots..

Of Lines:

Shadowy lines that intersect at interesting angles along AS6

Silhouette of a tree set against the grim looking sky

For Color:

Slippers!

R.G.B

too much white space tho.. could have been better if its a tighter crop on the 3 markers..

For Textures:

Egg trays.

This was shot on 50mm 1.8. Made use of the widest aperture cuz of the bad lighting available.

Looked ok on the screen but when i uploaded on the computer screen i realised tat the depth of field was way too shallow. Did not capture much of the texture as i want it to be.

should've used a smaller aperture to achieve a deeper DOF with the help of some external flash...

but i guess the egg trays are now lying somewhere in Seneko incineration plant.. oh well.. :(

Tree bark

Very normal shot i feel.. could've been better if a macro lens is used..

For Shapes:

the Fire hose.

the Door.

lastly.. for Form!

the "Worm"!

the Masking Tape.

yup. tats abt all for the first assignment.

i think the greatest takeaway for me is that the assignment really makes me look at very mundane objects in a different way.

i think having this quality of turning seemingly mundane objects into interesting subjects of photography will really make u stand out among so many photographers nowadays..

Appreciating photos.

We were given a 3 online resources and out of this 3, the World Press Photo of the Year is the one that seemed the least unfamiliar to me.

World Press Photo of the Year

I first heard about the WPP in late 2004 when I was briefly into photography.

I was simply amazed by these shots taken by journalists all over the world and every shot seems to tell a story.

I remember very clearly that of one the winning shot in 2004 (which was also used as the cover picture for the print edition) was taken during the tsunami that hit South Asia.

It simply showed an Indian lady in prayer position, with both palms facing up and her face on the floor, obviously praying in grief. However, on the extreme side of the photo was a bloated, grim-looking hand that seem lifeless and gory.

The hand was from a body that was washed upshore of someone who was drowned.

Upon further reading, i realised tat the lady is actually a relative of the drowned person whose hands are captured in the picture.

A simple photo with simple framing, nothing too flowery nor complicated, yet sending across such a strong message is what makes press photos ever, ever so special.

For the 2008 edition, i'm particularly interested in the category of "photo stories".

These photos, which are usually displayed in a series, brings the viewers deeper into what was going on "right there" at the moment when these shots were taken.

You can feel as though u were seeing it all through the photographers' eyes.

Ultimately, I believe that the heavy emphasis placed on human interest is what makes me more engaged in appreciating the press photos.

International Photographic Art Prize “Arte Laguna”
Digital Camera Photographer of the Year

For the above 2 resources, they portray a lesser mainstream genre of photography as compared to WPP.

For Arte Laguna, the winning shots were more "boundary spanning" in the sense, more artistically done and it requires a deeper understanding of the subject before one can gain better understanding of the photographer's intention.

Another thing is that these photos are largely manipulated via digital means and that is why they are known as photographic art. No doubt, it has opened my eyes to a new genre of alternative photography.

Lastly for the Digital Camera Magazine Award, a larger range of genre is covered.

I can see interesting macro shots of insects, at the same time, beautiful sunsets and modern landscapes.

For this particular Award, I feel that it is a generally a blend of WPP and Arte Laguna as it showcases photos bit of photos from each of these 2 other resources.

Finally, from these 3 resources, it goes to show that photography is something which is very broad and can cover a whole range of genres and subjects.

It is a medium which, when used creatively and effectively, can evoke strong emotions and feelings to those to view it.

An introduction.

The first lesson for NM3223 is over and I can see that this will indeed be a module that will open up my eyes to even more photography that I had ever seen.

This blog will also serve as a outlet for me to share my photos, thought processes and anything photography. Pls feel free to drop a comment and critic! =)

Hello world.