GCSE Photography Exam 2017: Beginning and / or End
Beginning and / or End is the 2017 title for the GCSE Photography exam project (Unit 2). You will have a period of 8-10 weeks (plus the Spring half term and Easter holiday) to develop your ideas through preparatory studies before spending two days in the studio realising your final outcome as part of the 10 hour, controlled assessment. You should aim to be ambitious in your final outcome and presentation.
The exam paper is full of ideas to help you get started. Your photography teachers will also set class and home work tasks that will enable you to have the best start possible for your exam project. Make sure everything is documented clearly on your weebly.
Task 1: Exhibition Visit
The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection focuses on the first half of the twentieth century, often referred to as photography’s ‘coming of age’. Artists at this time were transforming how photography was used and their experiments and innovations still impact how we see the world today.
"Each of these photographs serves as inspiration for me in my life; they line the walls of my home
and I consider them precious gems. I want people to think, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before,
never knew this kind of thing existed’ – just as I did when I first saw these photographs."
— Sir Elton John
"Each of these photographs serves as inspiration for me in my life; they line the walls of my home
and I consider them precious gems. I want people to think, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before,
never knew this kind of thing existed’ – just as I did when I first saw these photographs."
— Sir Elton John
|
|
Document your visit
Either scan each page of your booklet and upload the pages to your weebly or, for the very top grade band, expand your research and analysis of individual photographers or the work that you saw.
|
|
Starter Homework
Create an account on Pinterest (https://uk.pinterest.com). This is a brilliant way to search for inspiration. You simply search for different, related themes, photographers or techniques and 'pin' them. Here is the link to Fortismere board for the exam theme: Beginning and/or End
Zoom out, screen shot your collection of images and present on your weebly as an image and embed as a link (you will have to make the 'board' public to do this). We will come back to this once the set tasks are complete. Keep adding to this board over the course of the project. You will see more and more GCSE students and teacher boards on Pinterest as the project progresses.
Create an account on Pinterest (https://uk.pinterest.com). This is a brilliant way to search for inspiration. You simply search for different, related themes, photographers or techniques and 'pin' them. Here is the link to Fortismere board for the exam theme: Beginning and/or End
Zoom out, screen shot your collection of images and present on your weebly as an image and embed as a link (you will have to make the 'board' public to do this). We will come back to this once the set tasks are complete. Keep adding to this board over the course of the project. You will see more and more GCSE students and teacher boards on Pinterest as the project progresses.
Half Term Homework
Task 1 - A journey People and Places
Photograph a journey. It could be a short journey or it could travel some distance. Document small details that you pass, photograph people and buildings that you encounter on your journey. Take a minimum of 30 photos and then place them alongside each other in a photographic grid in the style of Richard Clark and Japanese photographer Daido.
Task 1 - A journey People and Places
Photograph a journey. It could be a short journey or it could travel some distance. Document small details that you pass, photograph people and buildings that you encounter on your journey. Take a minimum of 30 photos and then place them alongside each other in a photographic grid in the style of Richard Clark and Japanese photographer Daido.
Task 2 - Objects and memories
While you are out on your journey pick up things you find in the street and keep them in a bag to bring home. This could be litter in the street or objects your find that have been thrown away or it could be pieces of junk you are going to throw away. You may have a newspaper you find on a bus, a receipt from a shop, a ticket from a train or concert or gallery etc. Collect everything you can on your journey. At the end of your journey Photograph each piece you have collected on a white piece of paper photograph it and write where and what time you found it.
At the waters edge
Former student Beatrice Piesold focused her project on the Thames and as she photographed its banks she collected items that were washed up on the shore. She collected these items and then photographed and scanned them. By doing this she gave the items new meaning and created an interesting juxtaposition of meaning.
While you are out on your journey pick up things you find in the street and keep them in a bag to bring home. This could be litter in the street or objects your find that have been thrown away or it could be pieces of junk you are going to throw away. You may have a newspaper you find on a bus, a receipt from a shop, a ticket from a train or concert or gallery etc. Collect everything you can on your journey. At the end of your journey Photograph each piece you have collected on a white piece of paper photograph it and write where and what time you found it.
At the waters edge
Former student Beatrice Piesold focused her project on the Thames and as she photographed its banks she collected items that were washed up on the shore. She collected these items and then photographed and scanned them. By doing this she gave the items new meaning and created an interesting juxtaposition of meaning.
Task 3 - A location different times of the day
Document a space that holds particular visual interest for you. When you have chosen your location photograph it at different times of the day. As the sun comes up in the middle of the day and as the sun sets and night begins. Focus on the changinf light and atmosphere that happens at different parts of the day
Tidelines photographer Marcus Lyon
The tidelines images chart lights journey across the waters edge each hour for the duration of a day. The works are created from 12 shots from identical locations during the daylight hours of a single day. Each typology observes the subtle transformation that time and light, working in unison,manifest across the triptych of sky,sea and shore. In comparison colour,reflection and tone constanly change to redraw our attention to the uniqueness of each moment in time and place.
Document a space that holds particular visual interest for you. When you have chosen your location photograph it at different times of the day. As the sun comes up in the middle of the day and as the sun sets and night begins. Focus on the changinf light and atmosphere that happens at different parts of the day
Tidelines photographer Marcus Lyon
The tidelines images chart lights journey across the waters edge each hour for the duration of a day. The works are created from 12 shots from identical locations during the daylight hours of a single day. Each typology observes the subtle transformation that time and light, working in unison,manifest across the triptych of sky,sea and shore. In comparison colour,reflection and tone constanly change to redraw our attention to the uniqueness of each moment in time and place.
Evans Bay | Day to Night from Mark Gee on Vimeo. |
Set Tasks 1 - Location
Space has always been a place of mystery and intrigue since the beginning of time the craters of the moon have looked down on the earth. Many artists have been fascinated by the landscape of space and have created visual representations of this unknown landscape that existed since the beginning of time.
In his series ‘Space Between’ (2007–09), Adrien Missaika presents photographs of places that exist on the fringes of human experience. While some were taken on his frequent travels, others are mocked up in the studio using polystyrene and paint – like his image of debris floating above the earth’s atmosphere in Asteroid (Space Between) (2007). At once stagey and strangely convincing, these photographs draw heavily on our television- and film-derived expectations of what such remote places might look like, and awake us to the part our own learned visual habits play in the formulation of photographic ‘truth’.
In his series ‘Space Between’ (2007–09), Adrien Missaika presents photographs of places that exist on the fringes of human experience. While some were taken on his frequent travels, others are mocked up in the studio using polystyrene and paint – like his image of debris floating above the earth’s atmosphere in Asteroid (Space Between) (2007). At once stagey and strangely convincing, these photographs draw heavily on our television- and film-derived expectations of what such remote places might look like, and awake us to the part our own learned visual habits play in the formulation of photographic ‘truth’.
In her series created landscapes past student Beatrice Piesold created a luna landscape using iceing sugar. Once cretaed she placed the set up in the studio and placed light on it to create shadow and depth in her creation. She then photoshoped an image of the earth in to the background to create a dramatic effect.
|
|
|
Task 1
Using the icing sugar create a landscape that can represent a location on the "edge of the human experience". photograph your creation in a close up abstract way to give the feel of isolation use light and shadow to give your creation depth.
Task 2
Find a second image that can be photo shopped into your picture to create a final complete image, this could be like the image shown by Beatrice Piesold or something else that you think makes an intriguing image.
Using the icing sugar create a landscape that can represent a location on the "edge of the human experience". photograph your creation in a close up abstract way to give the feel of isolation use light and shadow to give your creation depth.
Task 2
Find a second image that can be photo shopped into your picture to create a final complete image, this could be like the image shown by Beatrice Piesold or something else that you think makes an intriguing image.
Set task 2 - Objects
Packing and wrappers are designed to protect their content, at the beginning of their existence they are purely functional however by changing their context and visual form a whole new meaning is given to them. Using and finishing the contents of a flexible container might change its shape,size and appearance. For example a tube of toothpaste,sachet of sauce and sweet wrappers all change when their contents are used. Could investigating the appearance of flexible packaging provide you with a way to develop a response.
Shaqayeq Arabi
In his work melted plastic 1999 Arabi takes once functional plastic bottles and using heat fuses the plastics together to create interesting abstract sculptures. The bottles move beyond the original use that they had at the beginning of their life and become interesting abstract sculptures that focus on texture colour and shape.
Packing and wrappers are designed to protect their content, at the beginning of their existence they are purely functional however by changing their context and visual form a whole new meaning is given to them. Using and finishing the contents of a flexible container might change its shape,size and appearance. For example a tube of toothpaste,sachet of sauce and sweet wrappers all change when their contents are used. Could investigating the appearance of flexible packaging provide you with a way to develop a response.
Shaqayeq Arabi
In his work melted plastic 1999 Arabi takes once functional plastic bottles and using heat fuses the plastics together to create interesting abstract sculptures. The bottles move beyond the original use that they had at the beginning of their life and become interesting abstract sculptures that focus on texture colour and shape.
Past student George Egan responded to the work of Arabi and melted topgether plastic cups that he had in his home. The cups were then brought intot the studio and photographed in a beautifull abstract way.
create a Task 1
Using the wrappers and packing provided photograph the items with content still in and then empty out the insides and photograph the now empty packaging. Twist it, fold it, go close up, try many different technique to create interesting visual images. Then upload both sets of images showing the item at the beginning of its life and then at the end once you have changed it.
Using the wrappers and packing provided photograph the items with content still in and then empty out the insides and photograph the now empty packaging. Twist it, fold it, go close up, try many different technique to create interesting visual images. Then upload both sets of images showing the item at the beginning of its life and then at the end once you have changed it.
In his series Everything is Melting Will Nolan, photographs melting iceblocks, the block evokes memories of childhood but remains as a quiet reminder of the inescapable future of decay and death. The work explores the essence of transformation, and of death and rebirth…”
Ext H/W
Consider the work of Will Nolan and his work Everything is melting create a response to his work using ice lollies or capture the ice cream as it melts and moves one one state to another
Ext H/W
Consider the work of Will Nolan and his work Everything is melting create a response to his work using ice lollies or capture the ice cream as it melts and moves one one state to another
|
Click to set custom HTML
|
Set task 3 - Movement
In 1872, the former governor of California, Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner, hired Muybridge for some photographic studies. He had taken a position on a popularly debated question of the day — whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at the same time while trotting. In 1872, Muybridge began experimenting with an array of 12 cameras photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots.
In 1872, the former governor of California, Leland Stanford, a businessman and race-horse owner, hired Muybridge for some photographic studies. He had taken a position on a popularly debated question of the day — whether all four feet of a horse were off the ground at the same time while trotting. In 1872, Muybridge began experimenting with an array of 12 cameras photographing a galloping horse in a sequence of shots.
Task 1
In groups of four line up three cameras in a row making sure each has the same shutter speed and appeture set. Then get the fourth member of the group to run from the beginning of the line to the end. As the model runs past the camera take their photograph. You could also ask the model to jump past the cameras in a long jump motion.
Once you are happy with the images upload the shots into photoshop and paste the images together into one image showing the motion of the person.
Create a movement giff that also shows the motion of the model across the screen
Below are the examples of past student Myriam dean http://myriamdeangcsephotography.weebly.com/force.html
H/W
Experiment at home with different set ups using this techniques learnt in class try to come up with three more examples that you can then turn into both stills and giffs. Below are examples of skating image that past students have captured to show the beginning and end of a trick.
Experiment at home with different set ups using this techniques learnt in class try to come up with three more examples that you can then turn into both stills and giffs. Below are examples of skating image that past students have captured to show the beginning and end of a trick.
What's next...?
Once you have completed the tasks set by your teacher you need to consider three starting points for your own response to the theme. Each idea must be supported by a rationale, link to an artist and your own images. Look through the power point, the exam paper and also the links below to help you.
Having said this, you can choose to build on any of the processes and themes visited during the set tasks above.
Once you have completed the tasks set by your teacher you need to consider three starting points for your own response to the theme. Each idea must be supported by a rationale, link to an artist and your own images. Look through the power point, the exam paper and also the links below to help you.
Having said this, you can choose to build on any of the processes and themes visited during the set tasks above.
Click to set custom HTML
Cool Girls Shoot Film is a really useful blog if you want to explore the potential of film and other chemical processes.
|