AS Photography Exam: Relationships
Relationships is the 2015 title for the AS 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 a day in the studio realising your final outcome as part of the 8 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.
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
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Need Inspiration?
Christian Marclay is an expert at piecing together clips from old films into montages related to an everyday object.
Christian Marclay is an expert at piecing together clips from old films into montages related to an everyday object.
He currently has an exhibition at the Whitecube Gallery in Bermondsey.
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Class Task 1:
Altering the context
By changing elements of an image you can immediately alter the viewer's relationship with the photograph, their interpretation and reaction to the initial, intended meaning.
Guy Catling is a graphic designer from Essex. Focusing mostly on collage work, he takes old photos and makes them new again. Drawing inspiration from his surroundings and using old war photos, Catling creates bright contrasting works that challenge our relationship with images that have no connection to us in their original state.
One of Amir Ali Ghassemi's most famous series of work, The Party Scenes Series, has been described as "intimate, real-life" depiction of party culture and social life in private lives of Iranian youth. However, you may also feel that with the features removed we are left on the outside.
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In her series, 'Everything is Beautiful', Hayley Warnham collages flat colour shapes and silhouettes into vintage photographs. The bright colours contrast with the quality of the original prints presenting an interesting perspective in regards to the difference in time and also the emotions the present and past evoke respectively.
Practical TaskChoose one of the files below to adapt. They are all well known photographs.
You now need to digitally edit parts of these images out. You can either remove all colour (Ghassemi), paint a vibrant colour (Warnham) or insert a pattern (Catling). It may be interesting to go through all three processes with the same image and comment upon how your relationship differs each time. Think carefully about your choice of colour or pattern. Does it refer to a related context, create a juxtaposition between past and present or bring the image into the 21st century?
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On your weebly.....
- Screen shot the process you go through to alter your image.
- Comment on the work you have created bearing in mind the suggestions above.
- Link the intention of the tasks and / or your response to the work of at least one of the photographers.
Class Task 2:
Memory: Childhood
Personal experiences from our past shape our present and future. Memories link us to the past. Explore the relationship with your former self.
Crossing the desert on the back of a dog or searching for lost treasures on the bottom of the ocean, Jan von Holleben’s photographs make nostalgic dreams come true. |
These two music videos use a similar viewpoint to create some imaginary scenarios:
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On your weebly
Homework: Memory
Create Photographs that explore memories of your past. These can further develop the idea of play....
Paul Smith acts as the unnamed hero for these dramatics, in a die-hard, James Bond style character. Although independently coherent, the images are deliberately montaged to create an overtly fabricated scene. In doing so avoiding any documentary overtones and producing an entirely fantastical environment in which to place the unassailable hero.
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Alice in Wonderland- This classic story has inspired many photographers:
Alternatively you can photograph objects that remind you of a particular moment or period of time in your past:
David Levinthal uses small toys and props with dramatic lighting to construct mini environments of subject matter varying from war scenes to voyeurism, racial and political references to American pop culture.
Class Task 3:
Film Noir
Film noir is a cinematic, Hollywood genre that was popular during the 1940s and 1950s. It is associated with a low key black and white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography.
Features of film noir photography:
In this task, we would like you to use the studio and local area to recreate a series of photographs that suggest a brief encounter between two people in the mood of a film noir. What is the relationship between these two people? How can the lighting and composition help the 'viewer' understand the dynamic of the relationship? Tips
Success Criteria
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Look at contemporary film noir films such as 'TheVirgin Suicides' and 'The Brick'. How does the cinematographer / director use lighting and composition to emphasise the narrative and develop the audience's relationship with the characters?
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On your weebly
- Outline the intentions of the task linking it to the theme.
- Present an initial contact sheet selection of 16 general images (4x4 grid), followed by a final edit of 5 of your best shots that have been edited.
Homework / Extension task: Film Noir
Present a sequence of images to convey a narrative. You could also edit the images so that they look like graphic novel illustrations.
Class Task 4:
Objects
The following three photographers challenge our relationship with everyday objects, combining and presenting them in a way that is unexpected. Explore the two different approaches.
Peter Fischli & David Weiß were a duo that collaborated from 1979 until Weiß's death in 2012. Some of their most famous pieces feature household objects and studio detritus arranged to form tenuously-balanced assemblages.
Experiment 1
Create a temporary sculpture, balancing at least three objects.
Create a temporary sculpture, balancing at least three objects.
Laura Letinsky has developed her practice since the late 1990s through meticulously composed still life photographs influenced by 17th Century Renaissance painting. Using a large format camera in a controlled studio environment, her work resembles the aftermath of a meal, where stained tablecloths, spilled wine and squashed, misshapen fruit allude to mortality, frustrated desire and melancholy. In these images from 2011, Letinsky has started combining paper cut outs from lifestyle magazines and art reproductions with real objects. These are then combined with her disconcerting compositions where objects seem to teeter on the edge of tables and shelves.
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Experiment 2
Combine no more than three 2D images with one other real object to create a composition similar to Letinsky's.
Click here for print outs of Letinsky type objects. Consider using shapes cut from white paper laying on another sheet of white paper to create subtle variations of tone.
Homework: Everyday Objects
Richard Wentworth's work centres on the idea of transformation, of subtly altering and juxtaposing everyday objects which, in turn, fundamentally changes the way we perceive the world around us. He and Barry Lewis also observe how this occurs in the everyday life.
Take a 30 minute walk in your local area. Photograph the discarded and lost objects you come across. You could choose to present these in pairs like the photographer, David Zilber (on the right)
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What's next...?
Once you have completed all the set tasks you need to consider three starting points for your own response to the theme. Each idea must be supported by a link to a photographer 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.
Project Expectations
Ensure that you have satisfied the following Assessment Objectives tasks by the end of the project:
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 photographers relevant to your ideas using the Form, Process, Content structure we followed during the Nadav Kander analysis task within the last project. Use your research to inform your development. 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. You MUST include your contact sheets for each set, selects and edits.
AO3 - RECORD
We expect to see a minimum of 8 sets of observations / recordings over the duration of the project. 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 technical control so remember to consider composition, white balance, depth of field, exposure etc whilst taking your photographs and during post-production editing.
AO4 - REALISE
Develop and refine your best ideas further working towards an exhibition outcome, which will be completed during your examination period (8-hours) at the beginning of the Summer Term.
Ensure that you have satisfied the following Assessment Objectives tasks by the end of the project:
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 photographers relevant to your ideas using the Form, Process, Content structure we followed during the Nadav Kander analysis task within the last project. Use your research to inform your development. 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. You MUST include your contact sheets for each set, selects and edits.
AO3 - RECORD
We expect to see a minimum of 8 sets of observations / recordings over the duration of the project. 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 technical control so remember to consider composition, white balance, depth of field, exposure etc whilst taking your photographs and during post-production editing.
AO4 - REALISE
Develop and refine your best ideas further working towards an exhibition outcome, which will be completed during your examination period (8-hours) at the beginning of the Summer Term.