A2 Photography Exam: Variation and Similarity
Variation and Similarity is the 2019 title for the A2 Photography exam project. 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 12 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.
Variation and Similarity is the 2019 title for the A2 Photography exam project. 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 12 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.
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, artists or techniques and 'pin' them. Here is the link to Ms Powell's board for the exam theme: Variation and Similarity
Use this to illustrate your initial responses to the theme (eg. mind map). We will come back to this once the set tasks are complete. Keep adding to your pin board over the course of the project. You will see more and more A level students and teacher boards on Pinterest as the project progresses. Click on the image below to access other student and teacher boards.
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, artists or techniques and 'pin' them. Here is the link to Ms Powell's board for the exam theme: Variation and Similarity
Use this to illustrate your initial responses to the theme (eg. mind map). We will come back to this once the set tasks are complete. Keep adding to your pin board over the course of the project. You will see more and more A level students and teacher boards on Pinterest as the project progresses. Click on the image below to access other student and teacher boards.
Half term tasks
1) Research Task: Exhibition Visit
Visit an exhibition that genuinely interests you. Do not be overly concerned about linking it to the exam theme- we can make a connection later.
Use the usual analysis framework and also consider how the exhibition has been curated.
Visit an exhibition that genuinely interests you. Do not be overly concerned about linking it to the exam theme- we can make a connection later.
Use the usual analysis framework and also consider how the exhibition has been curated.
2) Variation and Similarity: Typology
Typology Task
Create your own typology series documenting repeated forms . For example you might like to choose one of the following subjects.
Front doors on the street where you live
Cracks in the pavement
Fences and walls
The colours of cars in a local carparks
Telegraph poles viewed from below
TV aerials against the sky
Your friends hairstyles seen from behind
All the things you eat in a week
All of your clothes laid out in one place at a time
Create your own typology series documenting repeated forms . For example you might like to choose one of the following subjects.
Front doors on the street where you live
Cracks in the pavement
Fences and walls
The colours of cars in a local carparks
Telegraph poles viewed from below
TV aerials against the sky
Your friends hairstyles seen from behind
All the things you eat in a week
All of your clothes laid out in one place at a time
Boris Mikhailov - German Portraits Nearly a century after August Sander's portraits of German society, the Ukrainian photographer Boris Mikhailov created a series of pictures of the amateur actors in a German theatre company in the town of Braunschweig. Shot in profile against a black background, the photographer makes reference not only to Sander's typological study but also to Theodor Piderit's Principles of Mimic and Physiognomy, published in Braunschweig in 1858 and also to Hitler's interest in eugenics; Hitler became a German citizen in Braunschweig in 1932. The profile portrait also encourages the viewer to make formal comparisons between the sitters. Mikhailov's portraits and those of August Sander were exhibited together in 2012.
Zhao Xiaomeng - Bicycles in Beijing, NowThe fate of the bicycle can tell us a lot about the modern Chinese economy. As it thunders remorselessly towards ever greater industrialisation, the car has superseded the bicycle as the preferred mode of transport. In cities like Beijing, bikes have become relics of a bygone age, no longer a symbol of a unifying culture of cycling but rather emblems of social marginalisation. This moving typology by artist Zhao Xia0meng documents a radical change in people's living conditions and economic circumstances through portraits of their bikes, some of which still cling to the last remnants of a useful life. As the old Beijing saying goes, "a dog's life is better than no life."
Ed Ruscha is an American artist who combines an interest in photography and painting. His matter-of-fact images are often presented in book form:
"Ruscha's book projects of the sixties and seventies have come to be recognized as central to photography's development, encouraging both conceptual approaches and interest in analyzing the built landscape. Less well known is his continuing commitment to capturing the various thoroughfares of his adopted home city. At present, the Streets of Los Angeles project numbers more than forty separate shoots and well over a million exposures [...] Photography has always been central to his artistic practice, most notably for the slender, pocket-sized volumes that he began publishing in 1963 and his extensive documentation of Los Angeles streets, beginning with Sunset Boulevard in 1965."
The J. Paul Getty Museum
In the short film opposite, the artist discusses his interest in photography. He describes the "dead-ahead", "emotionless" approach to depicting the subject, whether it be a gas station, swimming pool or parking lot. The quantity of images he produces is an important consideration. America is a place where scale and number are features of the culture. Photographing from vehicles - cars and a helicopter - are also important in a place like California where very people walk anywhere. Our view of the surrounding landscape in places like Los Angeles is partly dictated by the mode of transport we choose. 'Every building on the Sunset Strip' captures this sense of an unfolding, largely homogenous, urban landscape, passing by through a car window.
"Ruscha's book projects of the sixties and seventies have come to be recognized as central to photography's development, encouraging both conceptual approaches and interest in analyzing the built landscape. Less well known is his continuing commitment to capturing the various thoroughfares of his adopted home city. At present, the Streets of Los Angeles project numbers more than forty separate shoots and well over a million exposures [...] Photography has always been central to his artistic practice, most notably for the slender, pocket-sized volumes that he began publishing in 1963 and his extensive documentation of Los Angeles streets, beginning with Sunset Boulevard in 1965."
The J. Paul Getty Museum
In the short film opposite, the artist discusses his interest in photography. He describes the "dead-ahead", "emotionless" approach to depicting the subject, whether it be a gas station, swimming pool or parking lot. The quantity of images he produces is an important consideration. America is a place where scale and number are features of the culture. Photographing from vehicles - cars and a helicopter - are also important in a place like California where very people walk anywhere. Our view of the surrounding landscape in places like Los Angeles is partly dictated by the mode of transport we choose. 'Every building on the Sunset Strip' captures this sense of an unfolding, largely homogenous, urban landscape, passing by through a car window.
3) Variations and Similarities within the City
Antony Cairns is an artist stretching the boundaries of the photographic medium. City scapes, from London to Tokyo, feature as a backdrop for his investigation into the tool of photography. Fascinated by its reproductive nature, Cairns explores never-seen-before processes and formats to create his work.
A traditionally trained photographer who learnt his trade at the London College of Printing towards the end of the 1990s, his photographic practice has remained rooted in chemical-based techniques. Shooting almost exclusively on black & white film, he prints all his own work, often experimenting with forgotten or discarded methods, and frequently becoming engrossed with the process, its imperfections and oddities.
A traditionally trained photographer who learnt his trade at the London College of Printing towards the end of the 1990s, his photographic practice has remained rooted in chemical-based techniques. Shooting almost exclusively on black & white film, he prints all his own work, often experimenting with forgotten or discarded methods, and frequently becoming engrossed with the process, its imperfections and oddities.
City Task
Photograph the city in different ways with the aim of producing different variations of photographic processes.
Look for ways in which the locations are similar but at the same time are different. is there a material shape or building that connects the locations.
Try using your phone as well as the camera to capture the environment night vision app
Photograph the city in different ways with the aim of producing different variations of photographic processes.
Look for ways in which the locations are similar but at the same time are different. is there a material shape or building that connects the locations.
Try using your phone as well as the camera to capture the environment night vision app
4) Variations and similarity in Focus
We expect images to be in focus. However, how do we respond to an image or a place when it is out of focus? Does it suggest something else other than the object/subject being photographed does the variation in focus take away the similarities of a location or add to it.
We expect images to be in focus. However, how do we respond to an image or a place when it is out of focus? Does it suggest something else other than the object/subject being photographed does the variation in focus take away the similarities of a location or add to it.
Focus Task
Look at the photographers above and use the focus on your camera and your understanding of depth of field to push your images to the limit. Can an image become too blurred? Photograph both natural and man made structures. When do they become unrecognisable?
Look at the photographers above and use the focus on your camera and your understanding of depth of field to push your images to the limit. Can an image become too blurred? Photograph both natural and man made structures. When do they become unrecognisable?
Exhibition Visit Prep
Watch these clips to gain an understanding of some of the issues that concern Don McCullin.
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Click here to read a recent interview with Don McCullin. Here are some excerpts. "When I was living back in London I grew up with gangsters, and even a couple of murderers. My father died at a time when I needed him the most. He was only 40 and I was 13." "I was running around with the bullets flying all over the place in the old Turkish quarter of Limassol, where we were coming under fire from the Greek side. It seems appalling to say it when there was a war going on and people were being killed, but I found it all rather exhilarating." "These human beings were standing in front of me, thinking I was the great bringer of aid, and what did I show up with? Two Nikon cameras round my neck. It was a gut-wrenching, guilt-ridden experience to put that camera to my eye." "I used to get letters from people saying they wanted to be a war photographer, and it annoyed me intensely. If you want to be a war photographer, go around the cities of England where you will find all the social wars." "We don’t live in a black and white world, but once you see a black and white photograph, it haunts you. I have done a few pictures of wars in colour, but they don’t work – they feel too cosy – while black and white photographs will penetrate your memory." |
Variation and Similarity in Landscapes
Arena is a short film by Ireland-based artist Páraic McGloughlin which explores the similarities of international roadways, farming infrastructure, and urban design. In the minute and a half work, McGloughlin presents thousands of aerial images collected from Google Maps to create a series of winding pathways and geometric shapes that snake across the screen.
In EPOCH, the new short film by Irish director and animator Kevin McGloughlin, aerial images of the Earth are pieced together to compare the structural similarities of various suburbs, highways, and fields. When flashed one after the next, buildings and roads form circles and squares, while dozens of cul-de-sacs appear to elongate and morph as they flash on screen. The film bears many similarities in form and editing to his twin brother and collaborator Páraic McGloughlin’s short film from last April Arena, which also utilized Google Earth-sourced images to created fast-paced animated sequences.
Task
Consider different areas in the city, country, world that you have been to and consider the variations and similarities that these different location have. Using google earth take screen shots of your chosen locations photographed from above. When you have a collection of images start to create a series of different giffs in the style of the McGloughlin brothers.
Consider how dense urban environments may look in comparison to vast unpopulated areas place the giffs alongside each other so they can be compared and viewed at the same time.
paraicmcgloughlin
Consider different areas in the city, country, world that you have been to and consider the variations and similarities that these different location have. Using google earth take screen shots of your chosen locations photographed from above. When you have a collection of images start to create a series of different giffs in the style of the McGloughlin brothers.
Consider how dense urban environments may look in comparison to vast unpopulated areas place the giffs alongside each other so they can be compared and viewed at the same time.
paraicmcgloughlin
Variations in layout and part
Noémie Goudal’s practice is an investigation into photographs and films as dialectical images, wherein close proximities of truth and fiction, real and imagined offer new perspectives into the photographic canvas. The artist questions the potential of the image as a whole and looks at variation of meaning, by reconstructing its layers and possibilities of extension, through landscapes’ installations.
In her Soulevement series, she creates images of rock formations which turn out to be photographs of sets of mirrors installed in the landscape.
Noémie Goudal’s practice is an investigation into photographs and films as dialectical images, wherein close proximities of truth and fiction, real and imagined offer new perspectives into the photographic canvas. The artist questions the potential of the image as a whole and looks at variation of meaning, by reconstructing its layers and possibilities of extension, through landscapes’ installations.
In her Soulevement series, she creates images of rock formations which turn out to be photographs of sets of mirrors installed in the landscape.
Task
Using the work of Goudals as inspiration look for interesting landscapes in the woods and using the mirrors provided place them into the scene and take a series of photographs that depict the landscapes in different points of views. Focus on capturing both Variety and similarity in your photographs
Using the work of Goudals as inspiration look for interesting landscapes in the woods and using the mirrors provided place them into the scene and take a series of photographs that depict the landscapes in different points of views. Focus on capturing both Variety and similarity in your photographs
Adam Jeppesen - Folded
The glaciers of the “Folded” series (2014- ) are divided into A4-sized grids through subtle folding patterns. The artist printed the images on rice paper and folded them multiple times, as with a map
Adam Jeppesen - Parts
The series “XCopy” (2011-12) and “Parts” (201-14) consist of A4-sized photocopies that are stitched together and can be (dis)assembled like a jigsaw. Jeppesen experimented with this technique on his studio wall, initially with no other intention than to find the ideal print size. He soon realised that the process of creation was as important to him as the final print.
The series “XCopy” (2011-12) and “Parts” (201-14) consist of A4-sized photocopies that are stitched together and can be (dis)assembled like a jigsaw. Jeppesen experimented with this technique on his studio wall, initially with no other intention than to find the ideal print size. He soon realised that the process of creation was as important to him as the final print.
Shadow and light portrait variation
Valerie Kabis - Is interested where shape is created by the restriction of light. By experimenting with light and shadow and experimenting with variations in lighting Kabis creates a series of dark and thought provoking images.
Task
Using the the work of Kabis for inspiration create a series of portraits in the studio. Experiment with different lighting backgrounds. Use different light direction and camera exposures to create imaginative and experimental portraits.
Load the old film cameras with B/W paper and then take portraits of your chosen model in the studio when you have the portrait create a positive and negative print.
Compare both your digital portrait and your analogue images and upload all images to your weebly.
Using the the work of Kabis for inspiration create a series of portraits in the studio. Experiment with different lighting backgrounds. Use different light direction and camera exposures to create imaginative and experimental portraits.
Load the old film cameras with B/W paper and then take portraits of your chosen model in the studio when you have the portrait create a positive and negative print.
Compare both your digital portrait and your analogue images and upload all images to your weebly.
https://kioskderdemokratie.blogspot.com/2018/10/contrasted-gallery-valerie-kabis.html
What's next?
When all the set tasks are complete you need to explore three strands. When you present these on your weebly you must include a rationale linking your idea to the theme, a photographer and a set of observations. Use the resources below to inspire you but don't forget your own pinterest board from the beginning of the project.
Project Expectations
AO1 - DEVELOP
Make sure all set tasks are completed. By the end of the project, we would like you to have analysed three images by artists relevant to your ideas using the Form, Process, Content structure. A good response does not mean an exact copy.
AO2 - EXPERIMENT
In order to show a good range of experimentation, start by taking 3 sets of different observations in response to 3 ideas based on your research. It is important to show refinement of ideas and techniques throughout the project. Make sure annotation considers subject, concept, approach, technique, formal elements etc as appropriate.
AO3 - RECORD
Remember that we are looking for a good technical and compositional understanding in your work, along with a clear explanation of ideas. This is where you can gain marks for your control of media. You can also gain marks for research and collecting of resources however, only collect what you need to move on practically.
AO4 - REALISE
Develop and refine your best ideas further working towards an exhibition outcome, which will be completed during your exam (15-hours) at the beginning of the Summer Term.